National briefs

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 18, 2001

Teenagers sought in murders of professors

HANOVER, N.H. -- Police around the country were asked to be on the lookout Saturday for two teenagers charged in the murders of two Dartmouth College professors who were stabbed to death in their home.

Robert Tulloch, 17, and James Parker, 16, both of Chelsea, Vt., should be considered dangerous, authorities said at a news conference.

Both were charged as adults with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Half and Susanne Zantop, whose bloody bodies were found in their home Jan. 27.

The two stabbed the popular professors "multiple times in the head and chest," Senior Assistant Attorney General Kelly Ayotte said at a news conference.

Authorities refused to discuss how they identified the suspects, a motive or any connection between the boys and the victims.

Veteran diplomat is Bush's pick for U.N., report says

WASHINGTON -- President Bush has selected John D. Negroponte -- a three-time ambassador who has served in some of America's most sensitive diplomatic posts -- to become the next ambassador to the United Nations, the New York Times reports in today's edition.

Negroponte, 62, who served as ambassador to Mexico in the previous Bush administration, is a skilled bureaucratic infighter who speaks five languages and is close to Secretary of State Colin Powell, under whom he served as a deputy on the White House National Security Council in the late 1980s.

He also once served as a deputy to Richard C. Holbrooke, the current ambassador, who called him "a superb professional diplomat" and eminently qualified for the job.

Astronauts pack up for landing today

CAPE CANAVERAL -- Space shuttle Atlantis' astronauts packed Saturday to return home after their successful pickup and installation of a billion-dollar laboratory to the international space station.

Atlantis is scheduled to land at 12:53 p.m. today at Kennedy Space Center. NASA expects the weather to cooperate for the landing.

Leader of NAACP to renew contract

BALTIMORE -- Under the five-year leadership of Kweisi Mfume, the NAACP has increased turnout by black voters in the South, put more black faces on television and removed the last Confederate flag to fly above a statehouse.

This weekend in Washington, the board of directors of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is to offer Mfume a new contract, which he has said he would accept. His first term as president ended Friday.

"I'd like to stay because my job isn't finished," said Mfume, 52. "I believe this organization must do more to bring this nation together, to help define the issues of the day."

San Francisco to approve sex-change benefits

SAN FRANCISCO -- The city that symbolizes liberalism and sexual openness is about to extend its health insurance to cover sex-change operations for municipal employees.

The Board of Supervisors and Mayor Willie Brown are expected to sign the measure within the next couple of weeks. It will extend up to $50,000 in benefits to city workers who want to switch their gender.

San Francisco apparently would be the only governmental body in the nation to make sex-change benefits available.

The benefit, available starting July 1, would cover male-to-female surgery, which costs about $37,000, and female-to-male surgery, which runs about $77,000.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright