IN BRIEF

Tattoo typo

NEWARK, N.J. Ÿ Dan O'Connor is fighing mad. Not ''fighting.'' ''Fighing.''

The Notre Dame fan went to a tattoo parlor in August for a permanent symbol of his allegiance to the Fighting Irish Ÿ a $125 drawing of the school's leprechaun mascot.

But when O'Connor took the bandages off his upper arm, his girlfriend began laughing.

The inscription read: ''Fighing Irish.''

''I was irate, and for a minute or two after I cooled down I kind of giggled,'' he said. ''But I can't just live with this. You're not talking about a dented car where you can get another one . you're talking about flesh.''

Conn. teen linked to racist message beaten

GREENWICH, Conn. Ÿ One of five white teenagers who inserted a racist message in their high school yearbook last spring was beaten during a party over the weekend.

The newspaper Greenwich Time cited unidentified police sources yesterday as saying Robert Texiere, 17, was punched and hit with a wooden plank Saturday night by at least three black men who mentioned the yearbook.

He and four Greenwich High School classmates were accused of stringing together the message ''Kill all niggers'' in the captions under their yearbook photos this past year.

Statutory rape

SALEM, Ore. Ÿ A 29-year-old man has been convicted of having sex with a 14-year-old girl he met on the Internet.

James Heigh, 29, was sentenced Tuesday to 30 days in jail and five years probation for third-degree rape after he admitted having sex with the girl.

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