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$25.5-million settles WWII 'Gold Train' looting case

By wire services
Published September 27, 2005

MIAMI - A federal judge Monday approved a $25.5-million settlement between the U.S. government and Hungarian Jews who lost jewelry, art and other treasures when a Nazi "Gold Train" was commandeered by the U.S. Army during World War II.

U.S. District Judge Patricia Seitz said the agreement is a "historic" chance to put right a 60-year-old wrong committed by some U.S. troops and never adequately addressed by the federal government. She called it "an example of a real effort to achieve justice with mercy."

The settlement came in a lawsuit filed by Hungarian Holocaust survivors over the Army's capture and pilfering in 1945 of a train loaded with gold, jewels, silver, china, 3,000 Oriental rugs and 1,200 paintings that were stolen from Hungarian Jews by the Nazis. There are about 62,000 Hungarian Holocaust survivors worldwide.

Rather than attempting to directly compensate people whose items were stolen, the agreement will give money through Jewish social service agencies to needy Hungarian survivors around the world. More than 40 percent will go to those in Israel, 22 percent to Hungary, 21 percent to the United States and 7 percent to Canada.

Pilot who died avoiding schoolyard crash honored

PANAMA CITY, Fla. - An Air Force pilot credited with avoiding a school full of children before he died in his exploding plane was honored 52 years later with a monument unveiled Monday.

Second Lt. Edwin Gorbet, 22, of Escondido, Calif., died when his F-86D Sabre caught fire and exploded in the air near Jinks Junior High School on Sept. 28, 1953. No one on the ground was injured.

"The canopy was off the cockpit and I could see the pilot," recalled Mike Welch, then a Jinks student who was outside for a gym class. "There were flames shooting out the rear of the plane and the plane was vibrating badly. About the time I could say "Holy Smo...' the plane exploded."

The monument was dedicated at Panama City's War Memorial.

Former Jinks students, inspired by a recent article about the crash in Yesterday in Florida magazine, raised $1,800 for the monument. The Historical Society of Bay County organized the ceremony. Faculty and students of what now is Jinks Middle School attended and a color guard from nearby Tyndall Air Force Base, where Gorbet was stationed, participated.

Runaway teen turns self in after 10-day search

PORT ST. LUCIE - A 15-year-old girl who was the subject of an intense search after she apparently ran away after chatting with sexual predators over the Internet turned herself in Monday to authorities in Miami-Dade County.

Erin Nembhard crawled out of her bedroom window late on Sept. 16 and drove off with Eduardo Narvaez, 21, whom she had met in an Internet chat room.

Narvaez drove her to his Miami residence, then to the Opa-locka home of a convicted sex offender, Corey Witty, authorities said. Witty, 35, insisted she left his home two days later, unharmed.

Narvaez was arrested on charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and harboring a runaway and Witty on unrelated charges of failing to register as a sex offender.

Detectives were interviewing Nembhard in Opa-locka Monday.

Puppy gulps down 13-inch knife, survives

PLANTATION - Jane Scarola's veterinarian thought the X-ray was a joke.

He has seen kitchen items get into dogs' stomachs before - things like kebab skewers and small utensils. But a 13-inch serrated knife, swallowed by a 6-month-old puppy? "I was just flabbergasted," said Dr. Jon-Paul Carew of Fort Lauderdale.

Elsie, a Saint Bernard, apparently had the blade between her esophagus and stomach for about four days before it was removed in a 2-hour operation last week.

The puppy has an 8-inch scar, but is fine and back home.

Scarola used the knife to carve a turkey and placed it on the counter. She thinks one of her six other dogs - four Saint Bernards, a German shepherd and a Labrador - somehow got the knife, which eventually made its way to Elsie.

[Last modified September 27, 2005, 02:45:31]