Lead Stories
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Earlier this month leaders of the right-wing paramilitary group the United Self Defence Forces of Colombia publicized an E-mail address for reporting complaints about its mistreatment of civilians; Carlos Castano, a founder of the group, admitted that he himself had killed many people but said he was concerned about “excesses.” . . . And last month in Nepal, American citizen Raymond Coughron told reporters that his mountain-climbing party had been robbed by Maoist revolutionaries who negotiated with the victims over what property they would take, settled on hard cash, and wrote out a crude receipt for the stolen money.
Last month in Valparaiso, Indiana, jail inmate Charles H. Hankerd was arrested on contraband charges after authorities discovered that he was selling cigarettes to his cell mates for $2 a smoke. To secure his inventory, Hankerd had allegedly swallowed several plastic bags of tobacco before turning himself in and waited for nature to take its course.
Earlier this month 31-year-old Trenton Veches resigned from his job at an after-school recreation program in Newport Beach, California, after police arrested him for sucking the toes of boys ages six through ten. Any touching of a child for sexual gratification is a crime in California. . . . And in January a man standing trial for several bank robberies in Southport, England, told the court that his girlfriend had never seen TV news reports about him because whenever one came on he would dance around in front of the TV set to distract her.