DUBLIN, Ireland
Voters narrowly reject amendment to clarify Ireland's strict but confused abortion laws
Associated Press
Voters narrowly rejected a proposed amendment to Ireland's strict anti-abortion laws, official results showed yesterday, in a significant defeat for the government and Catholic Church leaders.
The proposals would have amended the constitution's ban to allow abortions if a woman's life was at risk - but would have barred using threats of suicide by a pregnant woman as grounds for abortion.
Prime Minister Bertie Ahern's conservative government backed the measure, and the Roman Catholic Church campaigned heavily in its favor, saying that despite the new exception the proposal would strengthen the prohibition on abortion.
With the defeat, lawmakers will be under new pressure to pass legislation called for by the Supreme Court to allow abortions in all cases when the mother's life is endangered - including by suicide.
The Protection of Human Life in Pregnancy Bill was rejected by a 50.43 to 49.5 percent margin - about 10,000 votes, with 629,041 "no" votes and 618,485 "yes" ballots, Referendum Chief Officer Peter Green announced to cheers from abortion-rights activists crowded inside Dublin's riverside Custom House.
Ahern, who faces re-election in a few months, conceded defeat, saying, "I'm disappointed, but I'm a democrat." He told reporters that the measure had been an "honest and genuine attempt" to strengthen abortion laws.
Opposition was heavy in urban areas, particularly the cosmopolitan capital, Dublin, where a third of Ireland's population lives. There was strong support for the measure in conservative rural areas, where the Catholic Church retains considerable influence.
Overall about 42 percent of nearly 3 million registered voters cast a ballot in Wednesday's vote, but turnout was considerably higher in most urban areas.
ATLANTA
CDC: First year of life carries highest risk for homicide
Associated Press
The risk of getting killed by someone is greater during the first year of life than at any other time before age 17, the government reported yesterday.
Infant homicide victims were most likely to be killed during their first week, with 82 percent of those slayings committed on the day of birth, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
The sixth through the eighth week - when babies cry more persistently - was the second peak period for infant homicides, the CDC said.
The agency studied more than 3,300 death certificates from 1989 to 1998. Homicide is the 15th-leading cause of infant deaths in the United States.
Of the babies killed on their first day, 95 percent were not born in a hospital, the CDC said, citing earlier studies. About 89 percent of the known killers were female, typically the mother, researchers said.
Dr. Len Paulozzi, the report's author and a researcher in the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, said the study demonstrates that prevention measures must be targeted at the earliest stages of a child's life.
"You need to be involved really before the delivery of the child in order to really head off infant homicides," he said.
Dr. Frederick Rivara, a pediatrics professor at the University of Washington, said he believes the findings reflect the many pregnant teen-agers unsure of how to cope with being a parent.
"It's obviously a tragedy given that there are a lot of people in the United States who would love to adopt a baby," said Rivara, former director of the Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center in Seattle.
"We need to have these teen-agers know that there's help out there for them and there's an alternative to concealing the pregnancy and not allowing the baby to live."
Researchers noted the report was subject to faulty homicide counts.
Some deaths were probably not recorded as homicides because of unintentional injuries and deaths attributed to sudden infant death syndrome, the CDC said. Others might have been wrongly classified as homicides when they were stillbirths.
PHOENIX
Nearly 30 guns taken from gun shop burglaries in Phoenix, Tempe
Associated Press
Police in Phoenix and Tempe were investigating two break-ins at gun stores yesterday.
Someone drove a pickup through the front of the Arizona Sportsman store in northeast Phoenix around 2 a.m. and made off with about 14 guns.
The suspects fled in a car, which was later found abandoned, authorities said.
Around 3 a.m. yesterday, police said someone broke into the Shooting Star gun shop in Tempe and stole 15 guns.
Police said the Arizona Sportsman store was hit by a similar break-in last summer.
