Bloomfield man arrested 14th time on DWI charge
FARMINGTON, N.M. (AP) - A Bloomfield man on parole for a drunken driving conviction has been arrested on his 14th driving-while-intoxicated charge over a period of about 20 years, police said.
Ernest G. Armenta, 48, was arrested Sunday in Farmington after nearly hitting a vehicle and weaving as he drove, arresting officer K. Toward said.
He was unable to blow into a Breathalyzer and officers had to get a warrant to draw blood for a blood-alcohol test, said police spokesman Lt. Robert Miller. The results could take weeks, he said.
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Drug tests for elected officials proposed
SANTA FE (AP) - Elected officials from school boards to Congress would be subject to random drug tests under a proposal by an Albuquerque-area lawmaker.
Republican Sen. Steve Komadina said he came up with the idea after a state judge was busted for cocaine possession and drunken driving last year.
The airport arrest a few months later of a Public Regulation Commission member accused of having marijuana in her luggage was "just more evidence that we need this bill," Komadina said.
"Unfortunately, we've found our elected officials are not trustworthy," the Corrales lawmaker said.
Prosecutor: Priest told victim, 'No one will believe'
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) - A former priest who was one of the most notorious figures from the Boston Archdiocese sex scandal went on trial Tuesday on charges that he raped a boy in the 1980s, with a prosecutor telling jurors the clergyman once warned the accuser: "If you tell, no one will believe you."
The lawyer for defrocked priest Paul Shanley responded by saying the accuser made up the allegations to get in on multimillion-dollar settlements for victims in the scandal. Frank Mondano called the case "a vilification" orchestrated by "personal injury lawyers."
The accuser was expected to testify Wednesday.
Senate Democrats charge Rice lied about Iraq war
WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Democrats said Tuesday that Condoleezza Rice lied to them, misled Americans about the Iraq war and served as an apologist for Bush administration failures in Iraq, but she remained on track for confirmation as secretary of state.
Rice, who has been President Bush's national security adviser for four years, was one of the loudest voices urging war, Democrats said.
She repeatedly deceived members of Congress and Americans at large about justifications for the war, said Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minn.
National Guard proposes bonuses to boost ranks
WASHINGTON (AP) - Looking for new ways to bolster its thinning ranks, the Army National Guard is seeking legal authority to offer $15,000 bonuses to active-duty soldiers willing to join the guard - up from $50 now.
Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, told reporters Tuesday the Guard is 15,000 soldiers below its normal strength of 350,000, and he expects further short-term declines despite recent gains from tripling re-enlistment bonuses for guardsmen deployed abroad.
More than 200 die after fires start stampede
WAI, India (AP) - An accident that crushed several people inside a Hindu temple grew into a bigger tragedy Tuesday when angry pilgrims outside learned of the deaths and set fire to shops along a crowded walkway, triggering a stampede that killed more than 200 people, police said.
An estimated 300,000 people had gathered for a festival in and around the hilltop Mandra Devi temple in western India near the small town of Wai, about 150 miles south of Bombay.
Report: Inmates tried suicide protest in '03
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - The U.S. military said 23 Guantanamo Bay terror suspects carried out a coordinated effort to hang or strangle themselves in 2003 during a weeklong protest in the secretive camp in Cuba.
The military, which had not previously reported the protest, called the actions "self-injurious behavior" aimed at getting attention rather than serious suicide attempts.
The coordinated attempts were among 350 "self-harm" incidents that year, including 120 so-called "hanging gestures," Lt. Col. Leon Sumpter, a spokesman for the detention mission, said Monday.
