Ex-Bush adviser accused in thefts hopes to avoid trial
Rockville, Md. – Former White House adviser Claude Allen is negotiating with prosecutors in hopes of avoiding a trial on theft charges, according to his attorney.
Allen was to go on trial today for allegedly trying to make fraudulent returns worth at least $5,000 at Target and other stores.
But Montgomery County prosecutors and Allen’s attorneys have agreed to postpone the trial while negotiations continue, according to Allen lawyer Gregory Craig. He would not elaborate on the talks.
Prosecutor Douglas Gansler would not comment.
Allen, 45, was one of President Bush’s top domestic policy advisers in a $161,000-a-year job until he resigned in February, a month after he was arrested at a Target store in Gaithersburg.
He cited personal reasons at the time, and reportedly told the White House that the arrest was the result of a mix-up with his credit cards.
According to police, Allen would buy items, take them to his car, then return to the store and choose identical items from the shelves. Using the receipt from his first purchase, he would then return the second items and receive a refund.
He is accused of using the scheme at least 25 times, on purchases ranging from a $525 theater system to items that cost just $2.50.
CARACAS, Venezuela
Chavez vows nation will win U.N. seat
President Hugo Chavez vowed Thursday that Venezuela would win a seat on the U.N. Security Council despite U.S. opposition.
Washington officials have encouraged Latin American and Caribbean nations to vote instead for Guatemala’s bid to hold the region’s rotating seat on the 15-member council.
If Latin American and Caribbean nations cannot reach consensus on a regional representative, the U.N. General Assembly will select one in October, a vote Venezuela might win given the body’s large number of nonaligned nations.
BELFAST, Northern Ireland
Britain sets deadline for power sharing
Britain will shut down Northern Ireland’s legislature and forge a stronger partnership with the Irish government if the province’s Catholic and Protestant politicians fail to reach a power-sharing deal by Nov. 24, Prime Minister Tony Blair said Thursday.
Blair, speaking alongside Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, issued his ultimatum after several hours of talks with five local parties at Stormont Parliamentary Building, the would-be center of a Catholic-Protestant administration at the heart of Northern Ireland’s Good Friday accord.
If the deadlock cannot be broken by the deadline, Blair said, both governments would abandon their eight-year effort to promote power-sharing and instead would jointly develop policies in Northern Ireland over the heads of local politicians – an approach designed to increase pressure on Protestants, who oppose Irish involvement in Northern Ireland affairs.
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla.
Boy, 12, dies after riding roller coaster
A 12-year-old boy died after riding a roller coaster Thursday at the Disney MGM theme park, the latest in a string of tragedies that have stung Walt Disney World in recent years.
Michael Russell of Fort Campbell, Ky., had ridden the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster with his parents and 7-year-old brother. When the minute-long ride was finished, Byron Russell noticed his son was limp, pulled him off the ride and performed CPR until paramedics arrived, Orange County sheriff’s spokeswoman Barbara Miller said.
The boy was pronounced dead after he was taken to Celebration Hospital about 11:30 a.m., Disney said. The cause of death had not been determined.
BELGRADE, Serbia
Plan in works to find war-crimes suspect
Serbia said Thursday that it is drafting a plan to locate and arrest a top war-crimes suspect, Gen. Ratko Mladic, whose capture has become the key condition for the Balkan nation to move closer to the European Union and NATO.
The Bosnian Serb wartime military commander has been indicted by the U.N. war-crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, on charges of genocide in the 1995 slaughter of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica. It was Europe’s worst massacre since World War II.
Mladic is thought to be hiding in Serbia, but authorities in Belgrade have repeatedly said they are unable to locate him.
WASHINGTON
House OKs bill; would speed Rockies drilling
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday to end a 25-year-ban on offshore drilling that would also speed up drilling permits on federal land in the Rocky Mountains and reduce royalties for oil shale.
The bill passed 232-187, but it faces an uncertain future in the Senate, which has shown little interest in lifting the moratorium on offshore gas drilling, instead concentrating on opening up one area off Florida.
The bill has alarmed Western environmentalists who say that speeding up drilling permits could damage the environment.
Some Colorado officials have said that reducing royalties – what producers pay for the federal shale – would shortchange state and local governments who need the money to pay for the effects of energy production.
