TOPEKA, Kan. – The Kansas attorney general said Tuesday night his office has received the records of 90 patients from two abortion clinics and is reviewing them for possible crimes, the culmination of an effort that prompted concerns over patient privacy.
Attorney General Phill Kline, one of the nation’s foremost abortion opponents, said the targets of his investigation are rapists, sex offenders with child victims, and doctors involved in illegal abortions. Those could include doctors performing illegal late-term abortions or those failing to report abuse of a child.
The clinics had argued that giving the attorney general access to the records would invade patients’ privacy.
Under guidelines imposed by the state Supreme Court, Shawnee County District Judge Richard Anderson subpoenaed the records at Kline’s request in September 2004.
MORE BRIEFS
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia
Flooding kills dozens
as crocodiles feast
Four days of devastating floods along Ethiopia’s eastern border killed dozens of people, and prowling crocodiles hampered rescue efforts as rain continued to fall, officials said Tuesday.
The deadly floods began Friday when the Shebelle River overflowed its banks in the Ogaden region, more than 600 miles from the capital, Addis Ababa.
“Sixty-seven people have died since the worst flooding hit Friday, and the crocodiles in the area are eating some of the bodies,” said Muktar Mohammed, flood coordinator for the government-run Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Bureau.
Four survivors have been injured by crocodile attacks, he added.
Muktar said more than 2,500 acres of crops were washed away in the floods, along with thousands of cattle, camels, donkeys and other livestock.
BATESVILLE, Ark.
Counterfeiting 101:
How not to do it
Police instantly knew this Bill wasn’t authentic.
A man has been arrested for trying to use a $100 bill with no president’s portrait and the name of former President Clinton.
The man, who has not been identified, was arrested Friday after trying to use the bill to buy cigarettes at a Batesville gas station.
“The bill was unmistakably fake due to the fact that the ink was running on the bill, the president’s face was missing and for the president’s name, it had the name Clinton on it,” said Deputy Nathan Stephens.
The sheriff’s office said it expects to file counterfeiting charges against the suspect.
“Of all the cases I’ve worked with phony money, this is the sorriest bill I’ve ever seen,” Lt. Brenda Bittle said.
TEL AVIV
Israeli official weighs
Saudi peace plan
Israel’s defense minister said Tuesday that a dormant Saudi initiative for Mideast peace could be a “basis for negotiation,” indicating a new possibility for talks with the Palestinians after years of stalemate.
The Saudi plan calls for a comprehensive peace between Israel and the Arab world, based on a complete Israeli withdrawal from lands it captured in the 1967 Mideast war – the West Bank, Gaza Strip, east Jerusalem and Golan Heights.
Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said he was not endorsing the plan. But he was the most senior Israeli official even to publicly consider it.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla.
Mom charged with
duct-taping her 2 kids
A woman accused of duct-taping her two children together and leaving them home alone has been charged with child abuse, the sheriff’s office said.
Agla Nadia Vincent, 25, was arrested Monday following a seven-month investigation into whether she left her two boys, then ages 2 and 3, taped to each other while she went to work, said Lt. Annie Smith of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
Vincent was a four-year naval officer at the time and worked at the Jacksonville Naval Air Station. She completed her service and was discharged in August, naval base spokesman Rick Cruz said.
Vincent was being held Tuesday on $5,000 bail, the Florida Times-Union reported for today’s editions.
