News Briefs

Kerry enters race

Sen. John Kerry officially entered the 2004 presidential race Tuesday. Kerry, who announced his bid in South Carolina while speaking in front of the USS Yorktown, criticized President George W. Bush and American military action in Iraq. Additionally, he advocated gun control and tax cuts while mentioning his political experience as a U.S. senator.

Court overturns more than 100 death sentences

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 8-3 Tuesday to retroactively apply a 2002 Supreme Court decision mandating that only juries, not judges, can sentence criminals to death. The ruling, which would change some inmates’ death sentences to life sentences, applies only to Arizona, Idaho and Montana, the three states in the 9th circuit that had allowed judges to sentence prisoners to death.

Jessica Lynch accepts $1 million book deal

Jessica Lynch, the former prisoner of war who gained international fame from the story of her rescue and escape from Iraq, has agreed to split a $1 million advance for the upcoming book “I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story.” Lynch will write the book with Pulitzer Prize-winner Rick Bragg and will receive all royalties from the book. Publisher Alfred A. Knopf is scheduled to print 500,000 copies in November.

U.S. child molester caught in Haiti

Haitian police captured Mario Leyva, 57, Saturday after the convicted child molestor violated his parole by entering the country using fake documents. Leyva is an American who was arrested in Roanoke, Va., in 1988 and plead guilty to molesting more than 100 boys in nine states including Virginia. He traveled the eastern United States and Haiti as a self-ordained evangelist minister in the 1980s and convinced parents to allow their young sons, some of whom he sexually assaulted or sold as prostitutes, to travel with him. He had been released from Virginia state prison on parole after serving 11 years of a 20-year term.

Asteroid could hit Earth in 2014

British astronomers said Tuesday there is a small chance an asteroid could hit Earth on March 21, 2014. The 2.6-billion-ton rock is nearly two-thirds of a mile wide and has been dubbed 2003 QQ47.

Singaporeans: don’t text-message and drive

Sending text messages by mobile phone while driving could now cost Singaporeans six months in jail and a fine of up to 1,000 Singapore Dollars, the equivalent of $750 U.S. Text messages are popular in Singapore as nearly 80 percent of the country’s 4 million inhabitants use mobile phones.

Wedding in the dumps

Dave Graham and Rockie Hart exchanged wedding vows Monday amid piles of garbage. The two were married at Bethel Transfer Station, where Hart Graham works as a manager and Graham as a part-time recycler. “Inside Edition” was so interested in the couple’s unusual wedding story that the show outfitted the two in fancy attire and filmed them for an episode of the news show.

Woman lethally attacks man’s testicles

A Cambodian woman gave herself up to authorities last week after she apparently squeezed a mans testicles until he passed out, tied his neck to a bed with a scarf and accidentally killed him. Saut Chin said she was sick of her husband Ouch Yan’s physical abuse and only intended to teach him a lesson. She turned herself in after realizing her husband was dead.

Spoon Boy sets world record

Jonathan Friedman, 10, set the Guinness World Record for “Most Spoons Balanced on the Face” with an impressive count of seven spoons. Friedman, nicknamed Jono the Spoon Boy, hung one spoon on each ear and cheek, two on his chin and one on his nose for five seconds last year to set the record and will be included in the 2004 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records.