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Nation in brief

Mothers trusted Jackson

By wire services
Published May 7, 2005

SANTA MARIA, Calif.- The mothers of two Australian-born men testified Friday that they saw nothing wrong with their young sons spending many nights in Michael Jackson's bed and that they found nothing untoward in the boys' relationships with the pop star.

In the second day of defense witnesses, Jackson's lawyers continued to try to deflect potentially damaging testimony about the singer's past, which prosecutors say supports the allegation that Jackson molested a cancer survivor at his Santa Ynez Valley ranch in 2003.

Joy Robson said she had no qualms about her son, Wade, sleeping with Jackson as a child. Marie Lisbeth Barnes testified that her son, Brett Barnes, spent dozens of nights in bed with Jackson, even accompanying the pop star on concert tours to South America and Europe.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - A New York University student was charged with bank fraud after depositing $43-million in bogus cashier's checks into Swiss and American accounts and trying to withdraw the money, prosecutors said Friday.

Hakan Yalincak, 21, also faces civil charges that he convinced two investors to sink $2.8-million into a nonexistent hedge fund and spent the money on luxury items and university donations.

He wept in court as U.S. Magistrate Judge Joan Margolis ordered him jailed until a detention hearing Thursday. "I have a graduation on Wednesday," Yalincak said.

Yalincak, a senior mathematics student whose parents donated $21-million to NYU last year, deposited millions of dollars in fake certified checks, then shuffled the money around to avoid getting caught, according to an indictment unsealed Friday.

MIAMI - A federal judge Friday ruled against awarding damages to 13 people who were tear-gassed by immigration agents during the raid to seize 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez in April 2000.

U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore issued a 19-page decision saying that the demonstrators and bystanders failed to show enough credible evidence that federal officers' use of force during the raid was "unreasonable under the circumstances."

WASHINGTON - President Bush on Friday nominated Edmund "Kip" Hawley to be the fourth head of the Transportation Security Administration in as many years.

Hawley, a supply chain technology consultant, was one of the private businesspeople who helped the Bush administration start up the TSA after Congress created the agency in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Hawley is based in California and a member of the Federal Aviation Administration's Air Traffic Services Committee. He previously was vice president of transportation services for the Union Pacific Railroad.

WASHINGTON - Zacarias Moussaoui will face the penalty phase of his terrorism case starting Jan. 9 when jury selection will begin, a federal judge decided Friday.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema also approved Feb. 6 as the starting date for testimony in the trial that will determine whether the admitted terrorist lives or dies.

RALEIGH, N.C. - Clarence Stowers refused to turn over the severed fingertip he found in a pint of frozen custard so it could be reattached to 23-year-old Brandon Fizer, who accidentally cut it off while working at Kohl's Frozen Custard in Wilmington. Kohl's Web site said Stowers "declared that he would be calling the TV stations and an attorney as he exited the store" with the finger.

[Last modified May 7, 2005, 01:03:04]