Briefs

LOCAL & VCU

One injured in late-night Richmond shooting

One person was injured late Tuesday night in a shooting that witnesses said occurred when someone forced his way into an apartment just south of Richmond’s Fan District.

The victim, a 31-year-old man who was shot in the upper right side of his back, was taken to VCU Medical Center with injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening, Richmond police Capt. Linda Samuel said.

Samuel said the shooting occurred at 11:34 p.m. in the 2300 block of Parkwood Avenue, where a man, his wife and a friend were in an apartment when someone knocked at the back door.

When the friend went to answer the door, a gunman forced his way inside and a struggled followed between the friend and the gunman, Samuel said. The husband was shot when he tried to help his friend disarm the gunman, Samuel said.

No suspect information was available, and police are continuing to investigate the shooting.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Kaine urges federal recognition of Virginia tribes

Gov. Tim Kaine Wednesday testified in Washington before a House Committee seeking support for legislation to federally recognize Virginia’s American Indian tribes.

Kaine told the House Committee on Natural Resources that the Jamestown settlers who arrived from England more than 400 years ago would have perished were it not for “the forbearance and assistance” of Native Americans such as Pocahontas and Chief Powhatan.

The governor argued that two reasons have kept Virginia’s tribes from being federally recognized like the 562 others already acknowledged by the U.S. government.

Virginia’s Indians, he said, signed treaties with the English and the settlers before the nation was formed.

“They laid down arms and made peace with us too soon,” Kaine said.

Perhaps more significantly, Kaine said that between 1924 and 1967, the commonwealth, operating under the Racial Integrity Act, systematically altered or destroyed records of Virginia’s tribes, reclassifying native Indian populations as “colored.”

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Ex-state police captain faces 22 new sex charges

Former Virginia State Police Capt. Edward L. Hope Jr. was jailed without bond Tuesday after being served with 22 new indictments that allege he sexually abused a young girl in Chesterfield and Brunswick counties.

The former commander of the state police’s Information Technology Division surrendered to state police investigators at about 10 a.m. at the Chesterfield Jail.

Hope, 52, was indicted March 16, 2009 in Chesterfield on four counts each of rape, sodomy and object sexual penetration. He is accused of “almost daily molestation” of the girl, now 12, when she was 8, 9 and 10 years old, Chesterfield prosecutors allege.

In addition, Hope was charged with 10 sex counts involving the same girl for offenses that allegedly occurred in Brunswick. Those charges include aggravated sexual battery and sexual intercourse with a child under 13, according to Chesterfield jail records.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL

AIG employees starting to return bonuses, CEO says

The head of battered insurance giant AIG told Congress on Wednesday that “we’ve heard the American people loudly and clearly” in their rage over executive bonuses, and he appealed to employees to return at least half the money.

Testifying under oath at a congressional hearing as intense as any in recent memory, Edward Liddy said some workers already have stepped forward to give money back.

The company became the target of a political firestorm after the disclosure over the weekend that it had paid $165 million in “retention bonuses” to its employees at the same time it was accepting bailout funds from U.S. taxpayers. Some of the payments were made to the same traders and executives whose risky financial behavior caused the company’s near collapse.

Brief by The Associated Press

Incest father pleads guilty to charges, faces life

In a stunning turn of events, an Austrian on trial for imprisoning his daughter for 24 years and fathering her seven children pleaded guilty Wednesday to all charges against him-including homicide.

Surprising even his lawyer, Josef Fritzl calmly acknowledged his guilt on the third day of a trial that has drawn worldwide media attention for its shocking allegations.

“I declare myself guilty to the charges in the indictment,” Fritzl, 73, told a panel of judges, referring to what he called “my sick behavior.”

Fritzl had been charged with homicide, enslavement, rape, incest, forced imprisonment and coercion. Initially he had only pleaded guilty to incest and forced imprisonment. The change of plea means he could face up to life in prison for the negligent homicide charge – literally “murder by neglect” in German.

Brief by The Associated Press

Sudan leader: No international court can touch me

A defiant Sudanese president rallied Arab supporters in Darfur Wednesday by saying no war crimes court or the U.N. Security Council can touch even “an eyelash” on him despite an international order for his arrest.

Speaking to thousands at a rally near the southern Darfur town of Nyala, Omar al-Bashir denounced the West for allegedly seeking to “create chaos in Sudan” and trying to split Darfur from the rest of the country.

“No ICC or Security Council or any other party will change our path or touch an eyelash in our eye,” al-Bashir shouted at the rally in Nyala’s nomad Sabadou area. “The president of Sudan is not elected by Britain or America. Sudan is an independent country.”

Brief by The Associated Press