In the News

WORLD

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran’s hard-line president challenged the United Nations and proposed a televised debate with President Bush on Tuesday, two days before a Security Council ultimatum demanding his country roll back its suspect nuclear program.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said no one can prevent Iran from pursuing what he called a peaceful nuclear program, not even U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who was expected in Iran on Saturday.

The White House immediately rejected the Iranian president’s debate proposal as a “diversion” from serious concerns over the country’s nuclear program.

The U.N. Security Council has set today as a deadline for Iran to suspend uranium enrichment, a process that can produce either fuel for a reactor or material for weapons. Iran has refused any immediate suspension, calling the deadline illegal.

PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico – Hurricane John lashed tourist resorts with heavy winds and rain Wednesday as the dangerous storm marched up Mexico’s Pacific coast, and forecasters predicted its center would brush close to land before nicking the tip of Baja California and heading out to sea.

The Category 4 hurricane could dump up to a foot of rain along parts of Mexico’s southern coast, causing landslides or flooding, meteorologists warned. The hurricane had maximum sustained winds of 135 mph and stronger gusts capable of ripping roofs off buildings and causing storm surges of up to 18 feet above normal.

NATIONAL

DENVER – Though John Mark Karr provided a detailed confession to killing JonBenet Ramsey, it was all a lie, authorities said.

Prosecutors abruptly dropped their case against Karr Monday after DNA tests failed to put him at the crime scene, despite his insistence he sexually assaulted and strangled the 6-year-old beauty queen.

Karr remained in custody until he can be sent to Sonoma County, Calif., to face misdemeanor child pornography charges dating to 2001. If convicted in Sonoma County, Karr could face a maximum of one year in prison and $2,500 on each count, said Don Steier, a California defense attorney who has been involved in high-profile sex crimes cases.

In Boulder, District Attorney Mary Lacy has been sharply criticized by the governor and others for arresting Karr. She acknowledged that and told reporters she has received calls from people calling for her to be “tarred and feathered” and “run out of town.” Republican Gov. Bill Owens said Lacy, a Democrat, “should be held accountable for the most extravagant and expensive DNA test in Colorado history.”

LOCAL

GOOCHLAND – A man identified as the primary suspect in the abduction and slaying of a 21-year-old Goochland County woman apparently committed suicide earlier this week, police said Wednesday.

John M. Snyder, 37, was found dead Monday, the same day police discovered the remains of Emily “Kate” Robertson in a creek about 3 miles west of the Goochland courthouse, Sheriff James Agnew said.

Snyder’s wife found him dead of a single gunshot wound to the head in their Henrico County apartment, but it appears he died before Monday, Agnew said without elaborating.

Robertson had been missing since Friday, when a Short Pump Town Center security-camera video showed her getting into a burgundy Pontiac Firebird 10 minutes before her shift was scheduled to begin at the mall’s Nordstrom store.

Although police were unable to see the license plate number of the car in the security-camera video, Agnew said Snyder owned a Firebird “identical to the one in the photos.” Evidence was found in Snyder’s car and has been submitted to the crime lab for tests, Agnew said, but he wouldn’t say what was found.

There were no obvious signs of trauma to Robertson’s body, so more tests were needed to determine a cause of death, the state medical examiner’s office said. It could take several weeks for those tests to be concluded.