Elko Daily Free Press from Elko, Nevada • 9

1 Thursday, July 23, 1908 ELKO DAILY FREE PRESS, Elko, Nevada 'A9 News Capsules or how them intended to walk there with nothing but the clothes on their backs and no water or food. "The decided to take the most direct route, which was through the foothills," Floyd said. "These are two people who didn't really have the capacity to judge the danger, so they embarked upon an activity that was inherently dangerous. Investigators believe Ms. Mack collapsed on the hiking trail and died from exhaustion or dehydration.

An autopsy didn't reveal the cause of death and toxicological and tissue tests were planned. Bombing plot NEW YORK (AP) A federal jury convicted a Palestinian immigrant today of plotting to explode a bomb in a crowded Brooklyn subway station. A second man was acquitted of the plot charges but convicted on a minor count The jury found Gazi Ibrahim Abu Mezer, 24, guilty of conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction, threatening to do so and carrying the actual device. Prosecutors said he planned the attack last July 31 to "burn the Jews" and win freedom for six Arab militants imprisoned in the United States and Israel. Lafi Khalil, 23, was acquitted of the conspiracy and threat' charges, but was convicted of carrying an illegal green card.

The jury of four men and eight women deliberated nine hours over two days. Abu Mezer could face life imprisonment on the main charge of intent to explode a "weapon of mass destruction," a pipe bomb. said he might have suffocated, overdosed or been dead before being placed in the bin. Results from toxicology tests for alcohol and drugs were pending Wednesday. Smith was last seen early Saturday, Sheriffs Sgt Randy Wilkinson said.

Robbery suspects SAN DIEGO (AP) Two men who belonged to a militant doomsday cult may have financed part of their operation with armed robberies as they traveled down the West Coast from Seattle to California, authorities said. The men, sought in a Seattle-area killing and arrested last week in a local holdup, moved to San Diego County last year, police said Wednesday. "Proceeds from the crimes may have been used to finance a paramilitary-style organization," said San Diego police robbery division Lt Ray Sigwalt. "I suspect they were active from Washington down through California." Police from Seattle, San Diego and Riverside County served a search warrant Monday on the group's fenced compound in Pala. Guns and ammunition were recovered, as well as items taken in a robbery of a Lake Elsinore machine shop earlier this month, officials said.

No arrests were made. Blaine Applin, 27, and the cult's alleged leader, Christopher Turgeon, 34, already were in custody. They were arrested last week after a holdup at a San Diego lingerie store. They were accused of shooting at officers during a pursuit following the robbery. The men, facing charges of robbery and attempted murder of a police officer, were 'being held Wednesday at a San Diego County jail on $1 million bail each.

Hiking death LOS ANGELES (AP) A develop-mentally disabled woman and her boyfriend decided they wanted to go to Las Vegas so they began hiking through the Sylmar foothills with dreams of bright lights and fun 300 miles away. Less than two miles into the trek, Janet Marlene Mack, 36, collapsed and died of exposure, police said Tuesday. Ms. Mack set off with her boyfriend, whose name wasn't released, on Saturday, Capt. Donald Floyd said.

Her boyfriend didn't explain why they wanted to visit Las Vegas waa trip PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) A high school charter flight to Mexico turned into "Animal House" at 25,000 feet when a crew member and howling boys staged a wet T-shirt contest, with girls dancing in the aisle and parading into the cockpit. "Contestant No. 5, please. Some water for contestant No.

5. She's dry!" the flight attendant is heard saying on a shaky video taken by one of the boys who rushed forward to take a peek and drench the girls. "We're not going to land this plane until you girls get wet!" students also heard the attendant say. "We've only got so much fuel." About 150 high school students from across the Northwest booked the Falcon Air flight out of Portland, on June 11 to celebrate graduation, without teachers or chaperones. Many on board said the revelry escalated after the plane touched down in Mazatlan, with a weeklong binge of fake orgasm contests, booze cruises and co-ed swimsuit-switching races.

The trip has triggered a Federal Aviation Administration investigation and a state probe of the company that organized the trip. Reey cling death BOONSBORO, Md. (AP) Joshua Smith's strength amazed his friends. His death has mystified police. The body of the 17-year-old high school athlete was found amid a load of compacted cardboard at a recycling yard in Rockvillej 45 miles from his home.

Sheriffs investigators were exploring the possibility that Smith was inside a recycling bin at the Red Byrd restaurant and motel, where he cooked part-time, when it was emptied by a compactor truck early Saturday. A Georgetown Paper Stock Co. worker found Smith's clothed, 5-foot-9, 125-pound body Monday morning. How he might have entered the bin wasn't clear. The cause of death wasn't known, but authorities said there wasn't evidence of foul play.

'Police spokeswoman Joyce Barrow in Montgomery County, where the body was found, said Smith didn't appear to have been crushed. She Sen. Charles Robb, right, talks with Clay Tyeryar, director of Legislative Affairs for the North American Natural Casing Association, during the annual hot dog lunch sponsored by the American Meat Institute on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers and their aides lined up for autographed baseballs, hot dogs and soda in a sweltering courtyard to enjoy the annual feast. American Meat Institute hot do A.

(Associated Press) ward off new government regulations. "It's hard to get visibility," said the group's chief lobbyist Sara Lilygren, who greeted lawmakers as they arrived. "We have the ability to put on a social event that puts us on the map. This is a wonderful opportunity to touch base." To boost the industry's lobbying efforts, scientists from the National Food Processors Association's research lab frequently visit Capitol Hill to hold classroom-style briefings for lawmakers and their aides. Food processors also invite congressional staff to tour their facilities.

The processors' chief lobbyist, Kelly Johnston, is well connected on the Hill he's a former secretary of the Senate. Consumer groups and other food safety lobbyists counter these efforts by trying to generate grassroots support in the form of letters, phone calls and e-mails. Members of the New York City-based STOP, or Safe Tables Our Priority, have visited congressional offices to tell their stories of loved ones who died after eating contaminated food. "We have found food safety to be an uphill battle in this Congress," said Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest. "It is an issue which affects every single voter in a way that even the highway transportation bill doesn't.

Some voters drive but everyone eats." She admitted some members of the group were drinking and smoking and that she had once spent a night in a hotel with one of them. However, she repeatedly denied she had been struck by anyone but her father. In binding Kingston over for trial, the judge rejected Carl Kingston's claim that the offense did not qualify as second-degree felony child abuse. Hadfield cited a portion of the state's child-abuse statute that refers to torture, which he defined as "methodically inflicting continuous pain and suffering." Wednesday's hearing offered a rare glimpse into the secretive Kingston sect which operates numerous businesses, the total value of which has been estimated at up to $150 million. They worship at the Latter-day Church of Christ, said Rowena Erickson.

luncheon sponsors WASHINGTON (AP) As lawmakers lined up for free hot dogs and autographed baseballs, a lobbyist for a group that makes skins for wieners handed a sample sausage to a congressman who oversees agriculture spending. Rep. James T. Walsh, liked the Italian sausage so much that he went back for seconds after chatting with the lobbyist's boss, Barbara Negron. The encounter was typical of schmoozing Wednesday at the annual Capitol cookout sponsored by packers and processors who belong to the American Meat Institute.

The event came at an opportune time: The industry is battling a Clinton administration proposal to give the government more power to ensure the nation's food is safe. Following tradition, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Bob Smith, and the committee's ranking Democrat Rep. Charles Stenholm of Texas, lent their names as co-sponsors of the lunch. Stenholm showed up for the cook-out in the courtyard of a House office building as did a Democratic colleague from West Virginia, Rep. Nick J.

Rahall II, and dozens of others. "Members will recall this event" Rahall said, "but certainly, the message of the legislation that is being pushed has to be looked at from a perspective of what's in their constituents' best interests." Lobbyists say they don't bring up issues like food safety while eating hot dogs with members of Congress. That comes later. But it's clearly on the industry's mind. Last year, 25 million pounds of ground beef were recalled because of possible E.

coli bacteria contaminationAnd imported strawberries carrying the hepatitis virus, salmonella in a breakfast cereal and other food contamination have made people sick recently. To protect against illness, President Clinton has proposed spending $101 million to improve food inspection, research and education. The House has agreed to spend just $16.8 million. The Senate wants to spend $68 million. Another Clinton proposal to allow the Agriculture Department to recall tainted meat or poultry and fine companies for food safety violations has gone nowhere in Congress in the face of strong opposition from food companies.

Food industry lobbyists argue that there is no need for more federal government intrusion because it is in companies' best interest to voluntarily recall tainted food. For the meat institute, underwriting an event where lawmakers can collect free hot dogs and autographs from former pro baseball stars such as Carl Yastrzemski, Goose Gossage, Graig Nettles and Steve Garvey was a small cost in the high-stakes battle to consciousness?" he asked. "I don't recall." The girl suffered a swollen nose, cut lip and deep bruises on her arms, buttocks and legs, according to testimonyPhotographs of the injuries were introduced at the hearing. The girl said she did not remember leaving the barn, but woke up the next morning on a couch in the living room of a woman who former members say is one of John Daniel Kingston's 20-plus wives. The girl said she walked seven miles to a service station and called police.

She since has been placed in foster care. Defense attorney Carl Kingston, described by a former clan member as a cousin of the defendant focused his cross-examination on the fact the girl had been with several young men after running away from her husband. UiUL rr O. 'A Polygamist ordered to trail Car bomb GROZNY, Russia (AP) Chechnya's president narrowly survived a car bomb attack that badly damaged cars in his motorcade and killed his top bodyguard today in the capital of the rebel republic. President Asian Maskhadov was traveling through the streets of Grozny when the bomb exploded, damaging his four-wheel-drive vehicle and completely burning two other cars traveling with it Maskhadov suffered a minor knee wound, but one bodyguard was killed and six were wounded, the president said shortly after the attack.

"It is the fourth attempt on my life, and the first since I was elected president" last year, said Maskhadov, who appeared well. "To my great regret, my best bodyguard was killed." (Avtociulrd I'resst elections," said Kor Bun Heng, the former senior spokesman for the Khmer Rouge. "Ballot is better than bullet" The Khmer Rouge agreed to, then boycotted, U.N.-sponsored elections five years ago. Kor Bun Heng, one of the group's representatives in the capital at the time, said the decision was made by Pol Pot "There was a historic mistake from the leaders of the resistance movement" Chan Youran said. "We, intellectuals, regret that The leaders have betrayed the movement" When asked why it took so long to come around, Chan Youran asked the age of his Cambodian interviewer.

"I am 35," answered the journalist "I am 65. See the difference?" Chan Youran said, with laughter. The defectors who had medical and legal degrees from European universities clearly see a future for themselves in Cambodian political life. They strongly hint that someday, they'll be back in Phnom Penh at the center of things. "We are ordinary citizens.

But I cannot rule out any political activities in the future," Kor Bun Heng said. "I still believe in my patriotic ideals. I havent abandoned them yet But we have to be in the mainstream like the Cambodian people in the whole country." Former leader of the Khmer Rouge, Chan Youran, left, talks as dissident Khmer Rouge leader Ieng Sary, right, scratches his ear during a press conference at the Royal Phnom Penh Hotel in Phnom Penh. The five former leaders of the Khmer Rouge refused to answer questions about the guerrilla group's bloody past the policies that led to the deaths of as many as two million Cambodians from 1975-79 or decades of civil war that followed. Former Khmer Rouge officials back free Cambodian elections BRIGHAM CITY, Utah (AP) A 16-year-old girl wept as she told a judge how her polygamist father took her to a remote family ranch near the Utah-Idaho border and whipped her with a belt because she rebelled against a marriage to his brother.

Twenty-eight times her father, John Daniel Kingston, whipped, her, she testified, before she apparently passed out. On Wednesday, 1st District Judge Ben Hadfield ordered Kingston, 43, a prominent member of a Utah polygamist group, to stand trial for the May 24 assault on the girl. Kingston faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted. The girl's voice cracked throughout her testimony and she cried openly when Box Elder County Attorney Jon Bunderson asked her to identify the man who hit her. She pointed to Kingston.

"Are you related to him?" Bunderson asked. "Yes," the weeping girl replied. "And how is that?" the prosecutor asked. "He's my dad," she said. The girl said she had been married the previous October to her uncle, David O.

Kingston, 32, a union arranged by her father. She told police she was David Kingston's 15th wife. During the two-hour preliminary hearing, the girl said she had run away twice, most recently two days before the alleged beating. The next night she returned to her mother's Murray home and the mother called her husband. The girl said her father ordered her into his truck and they drove north.

At one point she said, he reached over, pulled her to him by her hair and slugged her in the face. "I could taste the blood from my nose," she said. "He said, You can leave, but you can never come After driving some 80 miles to the ranch near Plymouth, her father ordered her into a barn. "He told me to take off my jacket He was taking off his belt He said he was going to give me 10 licks for every wrongdoing. He said there were three," the girl testified.

"How many times did he strike you," Bunderson asked. "I counted 28," she said. "Did you ultimately faint or lose Thiounn Thieounn, In Sopheap, Mak Ben and Kor Bun Heng defected last month from the last hardline Khmer Rouge faction still fighting. Their defections came after the Khmer Rouge stronghold in Anlong Veng was overrun by government troops in April. The defeat was accompanied by the death of Pol Pot infamous leader of the Khmer Rouge regime, of a purported heart attack, Rafter he was ousted in a bloody purge last year by Tak Mok, known as "the butcher." The defectors were greeted with open arms by the government of strongman Hun Sen, who has spent years denouncing the Khmer Rouge but found that the best way of beating them was to let them join him.

They were invited to Phnom Penh and received hugs and dinner at his home. At a news conference, Chan Youran quoted Hun Sen as saying, "Let bygones be bygones." While many Cambodians may have been dismayed by the welcome, the defectors appear to be living a peaceful life, as does Pol Pot's foreign minister, Ieng Sary. They live at the heavily guarded home of Ee Chhean, Pailin's governor. They are registered to vote and ready to enjoy the fruits of citizenship; they've already applied for passports. "We are happy to take part in the PAILIN, Cambodia (AP) Chan Youran isn't running for office in Cambodia's parliamentary vote Sunday, but he intends to cast a ballot The irony is that he was a leading member of the ousted Khmer Rouge, which didn't permit free elections during its five-year reign of terror.

"I'd like to say I am not a communist not at all," Chan Youran said in a pre-election interview. "I am 100 percent nationalist" Chan Youran served as the Khmer Rouge ambassador to many countries, including China, where the creed of cultural revolution originated. As many as 2 million Cambodians were executed or died from starvation, forced labor and illness before a Vietnamese invasion toppled the Khmer Rouge in 1979. Chan Youran disavows any responsibility for one of this century's worst genocides. He portrays himself as a human-rights advocate who "never condoned the class struggle and violation of human rights" after the Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975.

He and other so-called revolutionaries will avail themselves of the vote in Pailin, the Khmer Rouge bastion that became one of the first major outposts to end years of guerrilla warfare and make peace with the Cambodian government in 1996. With no other choice, they're trying on the clothing of moderates. Chan Youran and four colleagues ELKO DAILY mm PRESS.