Gang leader gets 80 years for attacking resister’s home
Baltimore – A gang leader was sentenced Tuesday to 80 years in federal prison for trying to intimidate a neighborhood anti-drug activist by firebombing her home.
Terrence Smith was the leader of the Bloods gang that planned the January 2005 attack on Harwood Community Association president Edna McAbier, who had repeatedly told police about neighborhood drug deals.
“This kind of violence can’t be tolerated,” U.S. District Judge Frederick Motz said at the sentencing.
McAbier was not hurt, and the fire started by the beer bottle-and-gasoline Molotov cocktails caused only minor damage.
The crime evoked memories of a 2002 case in which seven members of a Baltimore family were killed by a fire started by a drug dealer angry because the family had complained to police about drug activity.
Smith, 24, of Baltimore, was convicted in December along with two co-defendants of conspiracy to commit witness tampering, witness tampering by attempted murder, use of firearms in a crime of violence, using fire and explosives in a felony, and making firearms. The co-defendants were sentenced earlier to 60 years in prison each.
Four other men have pleaded guilty to various crimes in the case. Their sentencing hearings have not been scheduled.
ALBANY, N.Y.
Governor undergoes another operation
Gov. George Pataki, showing no improvement five days after surgeons removed his appendix, was transferred Tuesday to a New York City hospital and underwent another operation.
Doctors operated to alleviate a blockage in Pataki’s digestive system.
Pataki, 60, checked himself into Hudson Valley Medical Center on Thursday complaining of severe abdominal pain. His appendix, which had begun to rupture, was removed during emergency surgery.
A blockage following abdominal surgery is relatively rare.
ROLLA, Kan.
3 illegal immigrants die in truck rollover
A pickup truck carrying 19 illegal immigrants from Mexico crashed on a rural highway after a rear wheel came off, killing three people and injuring 16.
The pickup flipped over and landed in a ditch, said Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper Ron Knoefel.
Nine people were riding in the truck’s extended cab – four on the front seat, four in the back seat, and one on the floor between the seats, Knoefel said. He said the 10 others were in the truck’s bed, which was covered with a camper shell.
At least one of the injured was in critical condition.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla.
NAACP wants probe into firehouse nooses
The NAACP is calling for a federal investigation of the city’s fire department after two black firefighters reported finding hangman’s nooses on their gear.
The local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People will ask the Justice Department to investigate an alleged culture of racism in the department.
Two firefighters reported finding the nooses clipped to their coats in a downtown firehouse Friday. Nooses have in the past been used by racists to intimidate blacks because of the connection to lynching.
PRETORIA, South Africa
Aristide willing to end two-year exile
Haitian ex-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide said Tuesday he was willing to return home after two years in exile.
Aristide stopped short of setting a date, saying he would decide on his return after consulting with Haitian President-elect Rene Preval, the South African government, the United Nations and other countries.
Aristide has been a “guest” of the South African government since he was ousted amid an armed uprising in 2004.
MEXICO CITY
U.S.-owned hotel wins right to stay open
A U.S.-owned hotel that sparked an international outcry by expelling a Cuban delegation has won the right to stay open while Mexico City officials pursue charges it violated local ordinances.
On Monday, federal Judge Luz Maria Diaz ruled that officials in Mexico’s capital cannot shut down the upscale Sheraton Maria Isabel at least until she decides on the hotel’s request for an injunction to block charges it violated city building, liquor and other codes.
City officials descended on the hotel looking for violations in response to the Feb. 2 expulsion of the Cubans, an act that outraged many Mexicans who saw it as an attempt to force a foreign law – the U.S. embargo of Cuba – on Mexican soil.
KAMPALA, Uganda
Human-rights groups decry leader’s tactics
President Yoweri Museveni warned Ugandans on Tuesday not to be influenced by foreign meddlers, in a speech that ended an election campaign criticized by human-rights groups for government harassment of the opposition.
ap polls suggest Museveni, who has ruled Uganda for 20 years and changed the constitution so that he could run for a third term, could have difficulty capturing a majority in Thursday’s vote, Uganda’s first multiparty election in 26 years.
