California

Probe launched on course to Saturn moon

A probe once attached to the international Cassini spacecraft was on its own Saturday for the first time, headed on a slow, tumbling course into the hazy atmosphere of Saturn’s planet-size moon Titan.

The European Space Agency’s Huygens probe carried instruments that may reveal more about the moon’s chemistry and whether Titan actually has lakes or seas of liquid methane and ethane that have been theorized by scientists.

Cassini used springs to gently push the 705-pound probe away late Friday at a rate of 1 foot per second, sending it on a three-week free fall toward Titan. Cassini will make a course change next week to avoid following the probe into the moon’s atmosphere.

The probe’s successful launch from Cassini put smiles on the faces of scientists in the control room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

Washington, D.C.

President issues Christmas message

President Bush on Saturday urged Americans to help the neediest among them by volunteering to care for the sick, the elderly and the poor in a Christmas Day call for compassion.

“Many of our fellow Americans still suffer from the effects of illness or poverty, others fight cruel addictions, or cope with division in their families, or grieve the loss of a loved one,” he said in his radio address.

“Christmastime reminds each of us that we have a duty to our fellow citizens, that we are called to love our neighbor just as we would like to be loved ourselves,” Bush added.

Baltimore

Today’s shoppers face not-so-happy returns

Estimates are that one in five shoppers will crowd malls and discount stores today to begin cashing in gift cards or to return or exchange that too-big sweater or other gift that just didn’t meet their tastes. They’ll be met with more scrutiny than ever as retailers crack down on returns, The Baltimore Sun reports.

Faced with a rise in fraud that cost retailers $16 billion last year, and trying to increase profit margins as a saturated industry has made it harder to keep loyal customers, retailers are becoming less forgiving of the merchandise customers return and tightening their refund policies.

Merchants including clothiers Express and Guess? Inc., office supplier Staples Inc., The Sports Authority Inc., KB Toys Inc. and Best Buy Co. Inc. are asking for photo identification, refusing returns without receipts or requiring customers to contact company headquarters for approval. They’re charging restock fees as high as 15 percent and using new technology to track so-called “serial returners,” people who have a pattern of bringing back merchandise.

Denver

Stranger gives $35,000 to shelter residents

Residents of Samaritan House didn’t know what to expect when the bearded, middle-aged man parked his sport utility vehicle in front of the downtown homeless shelter Christmas Eve.

The man walked into the building, pulled out a thick roll of $100 bills and began passing them out to each of the approximately 300 residents.

When he was finished, he had given out $35,000.

As a crowd gathered, the man said he had once been homeless and knew what it was like to be in need. He did not identify himself and said only that he lived in Denver and had also distributed money at a Las Vegas shelter.

Washington, D.C.

College Republican fund raising criticized

The College Republican National Committee is under fire for using front organizations to collect millions of dollars in contributions, including money from elderly people with dementia.

During the 2004 campaign, the group sent out direct mail solicitations under such letterheads as “Republican Headquarters 2004” and “Republican Election Committee.”

In small print at the bottom of one page, the letter notes: “A project of and paid for by College Republican National Committee.”

Many donors complained that they thought the money was going directly to the Republican Party, and not to the college group, which no longer is affiliated with the GOP. The controversy about the letters has produced angry responses from leaders of state College Republican chapters, including in North Carolina and New York.

California

D-Day chaplain dies

George Russell Barber, one of the last surviving chaplains from the U.S. landing at Omaha Beach on D-Day in Europe during World War II, has died. He was 90.

Barber died Dec. 17 at Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital in Whittier, Calif., of causes associated with old age, according to his son, Don Barber.

On June 6, 1944, Allied forces landed in Normandy, and Barber was one of four chaplains at Omaha Beach with the Army’s 1st Infantry Division.

U.S. forces encountered the fiercest resistance of any Allied force on D-Day from German gun emplacements on the cliffs overlooking Omaha Beach. According to his son, Barber spent a bloody and chaotic day ministering to the wounded and dying. Then he dug a foxhole near the cliffs and bedded down for the night.

More than 1,500 soldiers had been killed. Barber spent much of next few days on European soil readying the dead for burial and helping to select the site for the U.S. cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach, his son said.

Barber continued on with his combat ministry through much of the fiercest fighting in Europe, including the Battle of the Bulge.

Suriname

Former dictator faces trial in 15 killings

Former dictator Desi Bouterse and 25 other suspects will face trial for one of Suriname’s most notorious crimes, the 1982 killings of 15 government critics, a lawyer said Saturday.

Prosecutors notified Bouterse and the others of the decision last week, said Irwin Kanhai, a lawyer who represents the former dictator.

Six other suspects in the case won’t face trial for lack of evidence, according to an official in the prosecutor’s office who spoke on condition of anonymity. The trials could begin as soon as March, officials said.

The decision comes after a four-year investigation into the Dec. 8, 1982, killings. The victims — journalists, politicians, lawyers and union officials — were allegedly taken by soldiers to Paramaribo’s Fort Zeelandia and shot one by one.