Houston: Large organization believed behind smuggling immigrants

Investigators believe a smuggling operation in which 19 illegal immigrants died after being packed into a sweltering trailer with dozens of other people is part of a larger organization, a federal prosecutor said.

Only one person has been arrested, a truck driver from Schenectady, N.Y.

Authorities believe the “transportation cell” at the heart of the smuggling case is part of a conspiracy to bring illegal immigrants across the border with promises of jobs, U.S. Atty. Michael Shelby said.

“We are continuing to try to identify all of the different conspirators that are involved in both gathering the individuals from Central America and Mexico and then smuggling them across the border,” Shelby said.

California: Ford released from hospital

Former President Ford was released Saturday from a hospital where he had spent the night after suffering a dizzy spell while playing golf in hot weather.

Ford, 89, was released from Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, hospital spokeswoman Mary Kay Plock said Saturday evening. She declined to say when he was sent home or his condition.

Before his release, however, doctors said he was doing well.

The nation’s 38th president had experienced episodes of lightheadedness associated with changes in his blood pressure for several days before he came to Eisenhower Medical Center, Kiselstein said.

Vatican City: Pope’s Parkinson’s disease confirmed for first time

A top Vatican official acknowledged Saturday what many observers have long suspected — that Pope John Paul II suffers from Parkinson’s disease. He said the pontiff’s prayers helped him cope with the degenerative neurological disorder.

Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, head of the Congregation of Bishops, made the comments in an interview with the Milan daily newspaper Corriere della Sera on the eve of the pope’s 83rd birthday. It was the first time a top Vatican official had publicly acknowledged the pontiff suffers from Parkinson’s.

“If we want to look for the secret weapon that has allowed him to beat the years and Parkinson’s, we must look to prayer: He puts himself in the hands of God and feels God and the Madonna by his side in the path of life,” Re was quoted as saying.

Vatican officials have cited the pope’s need for privacy as the reason they have not described his condition.