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Briefs

British Columbia poultry banned

By wire services
Published November 22, 2005

WASHINGTON - The United States banned poultry from mainland British Columbia on Monday because of a case of bird flu, though Canadian officials said it wasn't the virulent form in Southeast Asia blamed for more than 60 human deaths.

The governments of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan indicated they would take similar action.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Sunday that a duck at a commercial poultry farm in British Columbia had tested positive for bird flu. The virus was a low-pathogenic North American form that doesn't kill poultry and is not a threat to people, officials said.

"We're waiting to get more information from Canada, at which point we could be able to scale back" the ban, said U.S. Agriculture Department spokesman Jim Rogers. "We just need that information."

Prosecutors: Girl went willingly after parents shot

LANCASTER, Pa. - A 14-year-old girl whose 18-year-old boyfriend is accused of killing her parents left with him willingly after the slayings, prosecutors said in court papers filed Monday.

David Ludwig told detectives Kara Borden ran from her home and into his car after he shot her parents Nov. 13, and Borden said she went with him of her own free will, according to documents filed by Lancaster County prosecutors. They said kidnapping charges against Ludwig would be dropped.

Ludwig confessed to the killings, saying he shot the parents after the father told him to stop seeing his daughter, according to the filing.

Cuban exile's spokesman faces weapons charges

FORT LAUDERDALE - Federal officials have charged Santiago Alvarez, a friend and spokesman for Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles, with possessing high-powered weapons, firearms with serial numbers removed and a silencer not registered to him and attempting to use a false passport.

U.S. Magistrate Andrea M. Simonton on Monday ordered that Alvarez, 64, and a co-defendant, Osvaldo Mitat, 63, be detained without bail, citing potential danger to the community.

Federal agents searched a Lauderhill apartment complex owned by Alvarez, his Hialeah office and a cooler on Mitat's truck and say they found machine guns, automatic and semiautomatic weapons, thousands of rounds of ammunition and blasting caps. They also found what appeared to be a grenade launcher and grenades, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Randy Hummel.

Deputies punished for allowing inmate's escape

HOUSTON - One deputy has been fired and eight others disciplined for allowing a death row inmate to stroll out the front door of a jail in downtown Houston this month, an official said Monday.

Harris County Sheriff Tommy Thomas said Monday he doesn't think Charles V. Thompson had any outside help and blames employee error for allowing the 35-year-old murderer to escape Nov. 3. He was caught three days later in Shreveport, La.

One deputy retired rather than face discipline, Thomas said. Punishment for the others ranged from a letter of reprimand to 10 days suspension without pay.

[Last modified November 22, 2005, 12:22:04]