Rescuer hears cries, snags man in lake; victim in critical condition

HALLOWELL, Maine - A man who was drowning in a Maine river recovered Friday after getting reeled in with a fishing rod.

Bob Greene of Hallowell said he was having his morning coffee and heard what he thought was a bird early Thursday. He then realized there was a man bobbing in the Kennebec River.

Greene said a 911 dispatcher told him to throw something out to the man. He snagged the man's shirt with a fishing lure and reeled him in.

The rescued man remained in critical condition at a Portland hospital.

Hallowell Police Chief Eric Nason said Greene did the right thing by calling police first and not jumping into the water.

Israel buries soldiers after swap with Hezbollah

Somber mood contrasts with celebrations in Lebanon for freed guerrillas

NAHARIYA, Israel - Israel held funerals for two slain soldiers on Thursday returned in a prisoner swap with Hezbollah, highlighting a somber mood that contrasted with celebrations in Lebanon for guerrillas freed in the deal.

Thousands attended a funeral in the northern Israeli town of Nahariya, broadcast live on television, for Ehud Goldwasser, 31, whose capture two years ago along with Eldad Regev sparked a 34-day war in which 1,200 Lebanese and 159 Israelis died.

Regev will be buried later on Thursday.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said at Goldwasser's gravesite Israel was "heartbroken" and had "paid a heavy price" by freeing five guerrillas involved in lethal attacks against Israelis in exchange for the bodies, which were returned in black coffins.

He vowed Israel would "make every effort" to retrieve other captive soldiers, including Gilat Shalit, who was abducted by militants from the Gaza Strip in a 2006 cross-border raid.

Beirut celebrations criticized
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Wednesday singled out for criticism the honors that went to Samir Qantar, reviled by Israel for a 1979 attack that killed four, in Beirut.

"Woe betide the people who celebrate the release of a beastly man who bludgeoned the skull of a 4-year-old toddler," Olmert said in a statement, referring to the girl Qantar killed with her father.

Qantar has said Israeli soldiers shot the father and also wounded him and that he does not remember what happened to the girl.

Hezbollah leader Sayed Hassan Nasrallah made a rare public appearance to welcome the prisoners on Wednesday. More celebrations were held on Thursday to honor the remains of 197 Lebanese, including guerrillas and other Arab fighters, handed over by Israel.

Most news headlines in Israel reflected a bitterness that has shaken the Jewish state since Hezbollah handed over the soldiers' remains in black coffins at a northern border crossing on Wednesday. Radio stations played melancholy music.

"A more undignified and morally offensive spectacle is hard to imagine," English-language newspaper the Jerusalem Post wrote in an editorial of the festivities in Lebanon.

The Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, quoting a senior Israeli source, said Israel now regarded Qantar as "worthy of death."

"Israel will find him and kill him," the source said.

Hopes quashed
Despite Israeli military assessments that both soldiers had been seriously wounded in the cross-border Hezbollah raid, the Shiite group's silence on their condition had spurred some hope they may have survived.

"I just can't believe it. Udi, we thought it would be otherwise, we hoped you would return home," Daniella Avni, mother of Goldwasser's widow, Karnit, said before his burial in his home town of Nahariya.

Some Israeli commentators renewed criticism of the 2006 war.

"What a tragic end," correspondent Amir Rappaport wrote in the Maariv daily newspaper. "A lesson has been learned: Battles with the enemy should be waged through negotiation."

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  Who has the respect for rule of law? Bludgeoning a four year girl and not even remembering it? Killing her father in front of her?

  This is Norm's view.

4 Great Short Stories

THESE ARE FOUR EXCELLENT STORIES. PEOPLE ALWAYS REMEMBER THE BAD THINGS ABOUT AMERICA BUT SELDOM THE VERY GOOD DEEDS WE HAVE DONE. TOO BAD SO MANY PEOPLE HAVE SUCH SHORT MEMORIES.


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When in England at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of empire building by George Bush.

Powell answered by saying, "Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those who did not return."

It became very quiet in the room.


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Then there was a conference in France where a number of international engineers were taking part, including French and American. During a break one of the French engineers came back into the room saying. "Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done?

He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he intended to do, bomb them?"

A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly: "Our aircraft carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear powered and can supply emergency electrical power to shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a day, they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and from their flight deck. We have eleven such ships; how many does France have?"

Once again, dead silence.


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A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included Admirals from the U.S. , English, Canadian, Australian and French Navies. At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large group of Officers that included personnel from most of those countries. Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks, but a French admiral suddenly complained that, ". . . whereas Europeans learn many languages, Americans learn only
English." He then asked, "Why is it that we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than speaking French?"

Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied, "Maybe it's because the Brits, Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't have to speak German."

You could have heard a pin drop


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AND THIS STORY FITS RIGHT IN WITH THE ABOVE . . .

A group of Americans, retired teachers, recently went to France on a tour. Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane. At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his pass port in his carry on. "You have been to France before, monsieur?" the customs officer asked sarcastically.

Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously.

"Then you should know enough to have your passport ready."

The American said, "The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it."
"Impossible. Americans always have to show your passports on arrival in France !"

The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly explained. "Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn't find any damn Frenchmen to show it to."

Ex-Manson follower dying, seeks release from prison

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Former Manson family member Susan Atkins has requested a "compassionate release" from prison because she has less than six months to live, a California prisons spokeswoman said Friday.

Susan Atkins, Califorina's longest-serving female inmate, is shown in her most recent mug shot.

 

Atkins, 60, was convicted in the 1969 slayings of actress Sharon Tate and four others. She had been incarcerated at the California Institution for Women in Corona, California.

But Atkins, the state's longest- serving female inmate, has been hospitalized since March 18 and is listed in serious condition, state corrections department spokeswoman Terry Thornton said. Because of privacy laws, Thornton would not disclose the nature of Atkins' illness.

Atkins' husband and attorney, James Whitehouse, was quoted as saying she has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, according to a blog called Manson Family Today. She also has had a leg amputated, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday, citing sources close to the case.

The compassionate release request has been approved by the prison, which conducted an evaluation, and is under corrections department review, Thornton said.

If the department approves, the Board of Parole Hearings and the sentencing court in Los Angeles also must sign off on the request. There is no timeline for a decision to be made, Thornton said.

Atkins, known within the Manson family as "Sadie Mae Glutz," has been in prison since 1971 and has been denied parole 11 times.

According to historical accounts of the murders, Atkins stabbed Tate, who was 8½ months pregnant, and scawled the word "pig" in blood on the door of the home the actress shared with director Roman Polanski.

"I don't want to seem like a heartless creature, but in all my years, I never considered this could happen," Debra Tate, the actress' sister, told the Riverside Press-Enterprise.

"She showed no compassion. She told my sister as she slit her throat that she didn't (care) for her or her unborn baby," Tate added.

Sharon Tate and three houseguests were slain in August 1969 by killers who burst into her Benedict Canyon home. A teenager who was visiting the home's caretaker in his cottage on the property also was killed.

The following night, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca were slain in their home in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles. The two-day crime spree sent shock waves throughout Los Angeles.

All of the killers remain behind bars. Atkins also was convicted in the earlier murder of music teacher Gary Hinman.

Atkins, like Manson, received a death sentence, and the punishment was changed to life in prison when the California Supreme Court ruled the state's death penalty unconsitutional in 1972.

Vincent Bugliosi, who prosecuted Atkins, told the Los Angeles Times that she "has paid substantially, though not completely, for her horrendous crimes. Paying completely would mean imposing the death penalty." But, he told the paper, given her terminal illness, "I don't have an objection to her being released."

According to her Web site, Atkins is a born-again Christian who during her incarceration has worked to aid at-risk youth, victims of violent crimes and homeless children.

Last month, authorities dug for buried bodies at the Inyo County, California, ranch where Manson and his followers once lived, after police became aware that testing had indicated humans might be buried there. Nothing was found, police said.