MANILA, Philippines
U.S. couple pleads for freedom from guerillas on videotape
Associated Press
Wearing handcuffs, American Martin Burnham and his wife appeared yesterday for the first time on videotape, looking terrified and surrounded by members of the Muslim guerrilla group that has held the Kansas missionaries hostage since May.
"It takes me days to recover every time I hear even a twig snap," said Gracia Burnham, wearing a Muslim-style head covering as she tried to suppress her sobs during the brief tape, which aired on a local cable channel. "I wake up hearing gunshots in the middle of the night."
More than 7,000 soldiers, backed by U.S. equipment and training, have been deployed on the southern island of Basilan to rescue the Americans and wipe out the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas, who have been linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network.
The United States has stepped up its military help since the Sept. 11 terror attacks to help its longtime ally try to crush the small movement in the southern Philippines, a desperately poor home for about 5 million Muslims in the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country.
The videotape was the first shown of the Wichita, Kan., couple since they were abducted May 27 while celebrating their 18th wedding anniversary at a tourist resort.
The couple, who are in their early 40s, said they have developed mouth sores from lack of nutrients, relying on scarce supplies of cassava and bananas. They displayed a jar of Skippy peanut butter sent by friends.
"My parents, I know, and my brothers and sisters ... they're surrounding my children with love, but there's no substitute for parents, and we would like to be there," he said.
The Americans were interviewed by free-lance journalist Arlyn de la Cruz as a crew from local cable television channel Net 25 filmed. She said she did the interview on Sunday somewhere in Basilan.
NEW BEDFORD, Mass.
High school reopens after alleged massacre plot is uncovered by Janitor
Associated Press
A high school where three teen-agers allegedly plotted a Columbine-style bloodbath reopened yesterday after a sweep by officers and bomb-sniffing dogs, but many students stayed home.
While those students who did go to school listened to counselors and school officials describe what had happened, Eric McKeehan, 17, pleaded innocent and was ordered held without bail. Two 15-year-olds arrested in the case also pleaded innocent in closed juvenile court hearings.
The students allegedly modeled themselves after the two teen-agers who carried out the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Littleton, Colo.
They were arrested at their homes Saturday after a New Bedford High School janitor found a letter outlining their plans to detonate explosives in the school and then shoot fleeing students. Police said the students then planned to kill themselves when authorities arrived.
A search of the students' homes yielded bomb-making instructions, knives, shotgun shells and pictures of the teen-agers holding what appeared to be handguns, police said. The guns were not recovered.
Two more students were being questioned.
FACTORYVILLE, Pa.
Hillary Clinton's brother testifies in assault, burglary case
Associated Press
Tony Rodham, the brother of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, testified yesterday that he may have smoked marijuana with a man who allegedly assaulted him hours later.
"I might have, but I don't recall," Rodham said.
He testified at a hearing for Daniel Coyne, 45, who is charged with assault, burglary and trespassing for an Aug. 19 incident at the Rodham family's cottage in Lake Winola, about 115 miles north of Philadelphia. He was ordered to stand trial after the hearing.
Coyne has told police he climbed onto the porch of the cottage around 3 a.m. and saw Rodham having sex with a woman Coyne said was his girlfriend. Authorities said Coyne then broke into the cottage and kicked Rodham, 47, in the face, head and body.
Defense attorney Gerard Karam did not deny his client assaulted Rodham, but he argued for dismissal of the burglary charge on the grounds that Coyne was drunk and was not capable of forming a specific intent.
The attorney asked Rodham about drug use, and Rodham said he might have smoked marijuana with Coyne and the woman at a barbecue earlier that night.
Rodham made news earlier this year after aides to former President Clinton said he had pushed for last year's pardons of Edgar and Vonna Jo Gregory, who were convicted of bank fraud in 1982.
