Camden, N.J.

Police, relatives search for three missing boys

Police searched block by block Thursday in a neighborhood where three boys have not been seen since playing outside the night before, and fire officials planned to use boats to search the nearby Delaware River.

Officials said they think the boys, ages 5 to 11, are too young to have wandered very far since last being seen Wednesday evening. The river is about three blocks from the home where they were playing.

Police have used helicopters and search dogs to scour the neighborhood, and volunteers handed out fliers to passing cars displaying photos of Jesstin Pagan, 5; Daniel Agosto, 6; and Anibal Cruz, 11.

“We’ve done everything we can. The only thing we can do now is hope and pray we’ll turn around and they’ll be walking down the sidewalk and saying, ‘We’re here,”‘ said Jennifer Calo, an aunt of Cruz.

The boys were playing in the side yard of Cruz’s home at about 5 p.m. when they were last seen by relatives.

Madison, Wis.

Assembly passes ban on cloning of embryos

The Wisconsin Assembly approved one of the nation’s toughest bans on human cloning Thursday despite concerns the bill would cripple embryonic stem cell research in the state where it was discovered.

The bill not only bans cloning to create a baby but also outlaws so-called therapeutic cloning that researchers say could advance the understanding of genetic diseases. It also would prohibit Wisconsin scientists from using embryos cloned in research labs in other states.

The Assembly passed the measure 59-38. It now goes to the Senate, which could debate it next week. Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle has promised a veto.

“My real concern is that this bill is really an attempt to : stop stem cell research. I’ve said over and over that’s not going to happen,” he said.

Mississippi

Ex-Klansman gets 60 years for manslaughter

Former Ku Klux Klansman Edgar Ray Killen will spend the rest of his life in prison for his part in the murders of three civil rights workers here in 1964.

Circuit Court Judge Marcus Gordon sentenced the 80-year-old Killen to 60 years – 20 years on each of three counts of manslaughter.

On Tuesday, Killen was convicted of orchestrating the June 21, 1964, murders of Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner.

Gordon spoke of the slain men and said each life had equal value and the three “should absolutely be respected.” Atty. Gen. Jim Hood said Killen, who showed no remorse during the trial, would have the rest of his life to reflect on his actions.

“I hope at some point he’ll get to that realization that you don’t get to heaven unless you admit what you’ve done and ask for forgiveness,” Hood said.

Washington, D.C.

Privacy groups protest recruiting database

Privacy advocates are objecting to the Pentagon’s use of a database with files on millions of young people that the military says it needs for recruiting to help fill its ranks.

The data could be abused by the government or the private company that keeps it, the advocates contend. And they say there’s no need for the information to include Social Security numbers, which could be used to steal someone’s identity.

Privacy advocates learned of the database only recently after the military, as required by law, put a notice in the Federal Register, a federal government publication, that it keeps the information. The delay in public notification was blamed on a lengthy internal review process.

Florida

Men in ski caps break into home, steal monkey

The armed robbers who invaded the home of a conservationist took cash, a cell phone, a wallet – and a feisty eight-month-old owl monkey named Tulip.

Robbery victim Sian Evans, who works at a zoological park called Monkey Jungle, told Miami-Dade police investigators that three men wearing white ski caps and black robes stormed into her Redlands, Fla., home early Thursday and grabbed Tulip from her cage on their way out the door.

“If they don’t know what they’re doing, I am sure they’ve been bitten quite a few times,” said Lt. Pat Reynolds, of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

The tiny primate was being hand nurtured at the house because her mother rejected her at birth, said Evans, director of the DuMond Conservancy for Primates and Tropical Forests located at Monkey Jungle.

“The real tragedy is that Tulip is missing, not that they robbed us,” Evans said. “These guys probably don’t know how to take care of her.”