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'Dirty bomb' lawyer: charge or release him

RICHMOND, Va. - A lawyer for Jose Padilla, an American accused of plotting to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb," went before a federal appeals court Tuesday and demanded the U.S. government either charge his client with a crime or set him free.

But a Bush administration lawyer told the court that the president must have authority to indefinitely detain suspected terrorists who come to the United States intent on killing civilians.

Padilla, a former Chicago gang member and Muslim convert suspected of being an al-Qaida operative, was seized in 2002 after flying from Pakistan to Chicago on what authorities said was a scouting mission for a plot to set off a conventional bomb laced with radioactive material. Padilla also is suspected of planning to blow up apartment buildings in several cities by filling them with natural gas.

President Bush declared Padilla an "enemy combatant," a designation that allows the military to hold someone indefinitely without charges. Padilla is in the Navy brig in Charleston, S.C., and has been held for the past three years.

At issue before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is whether Padilla - an American seized on U.S. soil - should have been designated an enemy combatant.

"I may be the first lawyer to stand here and say I'm asking for my client to be indicted by a federal grand jury," Padilla's lawyer, Andrew Patel, told a three-judge panel of the court, widely regarded as the most conservative in the nation.

DETROIT - If you think your Acura Integra is fast and gorgeous, you aren't alone. The car model was one of the most-stolen last year - likely the target of street racers.

According to a report released Tuesday, the 1999 Acura Integra coupe was the single most swiped vehicle in 2004, while Integras from other model years weren't far behind.

The list was released by Chicago-based CCC Information Services Inc., an insurance industry tracker of theft and vehicle damage. It compares loss claims to the total number of registered vehicles.

The 2002 BMW M Roadster was No. 2 on the list and the 1998 Acura Integra was third. Other vehicles in the top 10 include the 1991 GMC V2500, the 2002 Audi S4 and the 2004 Mercury Marauder.

Jeanene O'Brien, CCC's director of marketing services, said an upsurge in street racing may be responsible for the appearance of the Integra and other fast cars on the list.

"We can never say for sure why a car's stolen, but we can look at the data and make some interesting assumptions," O'Brien said.

PHILADELPHIA MAYOR: Philadelphia's former treasurer was sentenced to 10 years in prison on corruption charges Tuesday in a federal investigation that came to light when an FBI bug was discovered in the mayor's office. Corey Kemp, 36, was found guilty in May of taking part in a scheme to trade city contracts for gifts, favors and cash.

OKLAHOMA EXECUTION: A former U.S. soldier who said steroids turned him into a killer was executed Tuesday evening for the 1991 murder of a convenience store clerk during a botched robbery attempt. Michael L. Pennington, 37, who changed his name to Sharieff Sallahdin after converting to Islam at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, was given a lethal injection and pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m., corrections officials said.

U.S. BEEF: Chile is lifting a mad cow disease-related ban on U.S. beef, the Agriculture Department said Tuesday. Chile was among dozens of countries that banned U.S. beef in December 2003 after the discovery of a cow infected with mad cow disease in Washington state.