California: Abduction, discovery of body may be linked

Detectives investigating the kidnapping of a 5-year-old Stanton girl were dispatched Tuesday to nearby Riverside County, where the body of a child about the same age as the missing girl was found.

Authorities said the body is of a girl age 4 to 6 and has similarities to Samantha Runnion, who was abducted kicking and screaming Tuesday outside her Orange County apartment by a man who drove up and asked for help finding his dog.

Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona told reporters Tuesday night that he would not have an identification of the body until today.

New York City: Jurors split in police retrial

A federal jury convicted a former policeman of perjury Tuesday but deadlocked on more serious civil rights charges stemming from the 1997 police torture of Haitian immigrant Abner Louima in a stationhouse bathroom.

Charles Schwarz, 36, was found guilty of lying under oath by denying that he escorted Louima toward the bathroom after the man’s arrest in a street brawl. He faces up to five years in prison at sentencing Sept. 20.

Jurors deliberated for six days before telling U.S. District Judge Reena Raggi they were deadlocked on the two civil rights charges and a second perjury count.

California: Pledge challenger takes on inaugurations

The man who challenged the phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance is also pushing to end references to God at presidential inaugurations.

Michael Newdow of Sacramento is appealing the dismissal in May of a lawsuit in which he claims it was wrong for President Bush’s 2001 inauguration to include a prayer.

In his Pledge of Allegiance lawsuit, he claimed the phrase “one nation under God” violates the Constitution’s separation of church and state. On June 26, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed and ruled the pledge unconstitutional.

New York City: Memorial dedicated to Irish potato famine

A memorial to the Great Famine in 19th century Ireland was dedicated Tuesday amid admonitions that the lessons of that disaster should be a reminder that starvation remains a global concern.

“We will not forget the tragedy that brought so many Irish immigrants to these shores,” Irish President Mary McAleese told several hundred people gathered in lower Manhattan. “Nor will we forget the great embrace of this wonderful country.”

But she cautioned that areas of the world are still “regrettably too much like 19th century Ireland. She said “clouds of hunger hang over 1.2 billion people who live on less than $1 a day.”

The Great Famine began in 1845 when a blight destroyed the Irish potato crop. In the following years, an estimated 1 million people died from starvation and disease, and hundreds of thousands immigrated to New York.

Mississippi : Governor refuses to halt execution

Gov. Ronnie Musgrove denied a death row inmate’s request for clemency Tuesday, moving the state a step closer to its first execution in 13 years.

Tracy Hansen is scheduled to be given a lethal injection this evening at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman for killing a state trooper in 1987.

“The sentence of death is just, and it is justified,” Musgrove said Tuesday evening.

Hansen, now 39, shot Trooper Bruce Ladner to death after he pulled him over for speeding. Hansen’s female companion was sentenced to life in prison.