Myanmar seizes UN aid supplies, Junta 'not ready' to let in US

Associated Press

YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar's military leaders seized aid shipments headed for cyclone survivors and told the top U.S. diplomat there Friday that they're not ready to let in American aid workers despite warnings the country is on the verge of a medical catastrophe.

Another 4 inches of rain was forecast to fall next week as more than 1 million people waited for food, clean water, shelter and medicine to reach them. Diplomats and aid groups warned the number of dead could eventually exceed 100,000 because of illnesses and said thousands of children may have been orphaned.

The U.N. World Food Program said two planeloads of supplies containing enough high-energy biscuits to feed 95,000 people were seized Friday, prompting the world body to say it was suspending aid flights.

Later, WFP chief spokeswoman Nancy Roman said the flights would resume on Saturday while negotiations continued for the release of the supplies.

Myanmar's government acknowledged taking control of the shipments and said it plans to distribute the aid itself to the affected areas.

In a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press, government spokesman Ye Htut said the junta had clearly stated what it would do and denied the action amounted to a seizure.

"I would like to know which person or organization (made these) these baseless accusations," he said.

The WFP's regional director, Tony Banbury, directly appealed to Myanmar's military leaders in an interview with Associated Press Television News.

"Please, this food is going to people who need it very much. You and I, we have the same interests," Banbury said. "Those victims — those 1 million or more people — who need this assistance are not part of a political dialogue. They need this humanitarian assistance. Please release it."

Shari Villarosa, the U.S. charge d'affairs in Yangon, said she met with Myanmar Deputy Foreign Minister Kyaw Thu on Friday to discuss American relief operations.

Myanmar says it will accept aid from all countries, but prohibits the entry of foreign workers who would deliver and manage the operations. The junta is not ready to change that position, Villarosa said she was told.

But Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, has agreed to allow a single U.S. cargo aircraft to bring in relief supplies for victims of a cyclone, Pentagon spokesman Maj. Stuart Upton said Friday.

"We hope that this is the beginning of broader support between the United States and Burma to help the Burmese people," he said.

The U.S. has an enormous ability to deliver aid quickly, evident during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen nations.

More than 60,000 people are dead or missing and entire villages are submerged in the Irrawaddy delta after Saturday's cyclone. Many of the survivors waiting for food, clean water and medicine were crammed into Buddhist monasteries or camped outdoors.

The U.N. estimates 1.5 million people have been severely affected and has voiced concern about the disposal of dead bodies.

"Many are not buried and lie in the water. They have started rotting and the stench is beyond words," Anders Ladekarl, head of the Danish Red Cross.

About 20,000 body bags were being sent so volunteers from the Myanmar chapter of the Red Cross can start collecting bodies, he said.

The U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization said its models forecast three days of strong rain next week that could dump 4 inches in Myanmar beginning Thursday or Friday.

Heavy rain could worsen the situation in the storm-affected coastal region, the meteorological agency said, though it cautioned that forecasts beyond five days could change.

In the village of Kongyangon, someone had written in Burmese, "We are all in trouble. Please come help us" on black asphalt, a video from the Norway-based opposition news network, the Democratic Voice of Burma, showed. A few feet away was another plea: "We're hungry."

In Yangon, the price of increasingly scarce water has shot up by more than 500 percent, and rice and oil jumped by 60 percent over the last three days, the Danish Red Cross said.

The U.N. has grown increasingly critical of Myanmar's refusal to let in foreign aid workers who could assess the extent of the disaster with the junta apparently overwhelmed. None of the 10 visa applications submitted by the WFP has been approved.

"The frustration caused by what appears to be a paperwork delay is unprecedented in modern humanitarian relief efforts," Risley said. "It's astonishing."

The junta said in a statement Friday it was grateful to the international community for its assistance — which has included 11 chartered planes loaded with aid supplies — but the best way to help was just to send in material rather than personnel.

Andrew Brookes, an aerospace specialist at the IISS, an independent think tank, said Myanmar has about 15 transport planes but most are small jets not adequate to carry hundreds of tons of supplies. The country has fewer than 40 helicopters and only a fraction may be operational, he said.

"Even if they were all serviceable it's not even a drop in the ocean. The task is so awesome it would phase even a sophisticated force like the British, French or Germans," Brookes said.

It is not clear how much aid has been delivered to the victims in the Irrawaddy delta.

"Believe me, the government will not allow outsiders to go into the devastated area," said Yangon food shop owner Joseph Kyaw.

"The government only cares about its own stability. They don't care about the plight of the people," he said.

Three Red Cross aid flights loaded with shelter kits and other emergency supplies landed in Myanmar Friday without incident.

"We are not experiencing any problems getting in (unlike) the United Nations," Danish Red Cross spokesman Hans Beck Gregersen said.

One relief flight was sent back after landing in Yangon on Thursday because it carried a search-and-rescue team and media representatives who had not received permission to enter the country, the junta said. It did not give details, but said the plane had flown in from Qatar.

According to state media, 23,335 people died and 37,019 are missing from Cyclone Nargis.

Grim assessments were made about what lies ahead. The aid group Action Against Hunger noted that the delta region is known as the country's granary, and the cyclone hit before the harvest.

"If the harvest has been destroyed this will have a devastating impact on food security in Myanmar," the group said.

Zimbabwe announces poll run-off

By Nelson Banya

HARARE - Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai beat President Robert Mugabe in the presidential election but faces a run-off vote after failing to win an outright majority, the electoral body said on Friday.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change called the announcement of the long-delayed result "scandalous daylight robbery". It says Tsvangirai won more than 50 percent at the March 29 election and Mugabe's 28-year rule is over.

But the MDC has few options. If Tsvangirai refuses to take part in a second round of votes, then Mugabe would automatically keep his hold on power according to electoral law.

An aide to Mugabe said the president accepted the result of the first round and would contest the run-off.

MDC Secretary General Tendai Biti told a news conference in neighbouring South Africa that the results clearly showed that Tsvangirai should be declared president. He said the party would decide at the weekend whether to contest a run-off.

"According to the law, the person receiving the highest number of votes is the president of the republic of Zimbabwe with effect from the day of such declaration," he said.

"Even on their own announcement, we have won this election and therefore Morgan Tsvangirai is to be declared the president of the republic of Zimbabwe."

Chief Elections Officer Lovemore Sekeramayi said Tsvangirai won 47.9 percent with Mugabe, who has ruled since independence from Britain, on 43.2 percent. Independent Simba Makoni, a ruling party defector, took 8.3 percent.

"Since no candidate has received the majority of the total votes cast ... a second election shall be held on a date to be announced by the commission," Sekeramayi said.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) will set the date of the runoff. By law, a second round should be held within 21 days of the result, but the ZEC has the power to extend it. Political observers say it is likely to extend the period to within about 40 days.

The United States and former colonial power Britain questioned the credibility of the official results more than one month after the election and voiced concern over how fair a run-off could be.

The European Commission also called on Friday for Zimbabwe to allow international monitors to ensure a free and fair presidential run-off after the electoral body there said no clear winner emerged from the first round.

Opposition spokesman Nelson Chamisa said the verification of the votes had not been done properly.

"This whole thing is a scandal, scandalous daylight robbery and everyone knows that," he told Reuters. "We won this election outright, and yet what we are being given here as the outcome are some fudged figures meant to save Mugabe and ZANU-PF."

He said the party executive would decide the next move. Initial MDC estimates had given Tsvangirai 50.3 percent of the vote although independent and ruling ZANU-PF party projections had suggested he was unlikely to win an outright majority.

NYPD acquittals in groom shooting spark anger, outrage

By TOM HAYS, Associated Press Writer

Three detectives were acquitted Friday in the 50-shot killing of an unarmed groom-to-be on his wedding day, a case that put the NYPD at the center of another dispute involving allegations of excessive firepower.

Scores of police officers surrounded the courthouse to guard against potential chaos, and as news of the verdict spread, many in the crowd began weeping. Others were enraged, swearing and screaming "Murderers! Murderers!" or "KKK!"

Inside the courtroom, spectators gasped. Sean Bell's fiancee immediately walked out of the room; his mother cried.

Bell, a 23-year-old black man, was killed in a hail of gunfire outside a seedy strip club in Queens on Nov. 25, 2006 as he was leaving his bachelor party with two friends. The case ignited the emotions of people across the city and led to widespread protests among those who felt the officers used unnecessary force.

Officers Michael Oliver, 36, and Gescard Isnora, 29, stood trial for manslaughter while Officer Marc Cooper, 40, was charged with reckless endangerment. Two other shooters weren't charged. Oliver squeezed off 31 shots; Isnora fired 11 rounds; and Cooper shot four times.

The case brought back painful memories of other NYPD shootings, such as the 1999 shooting of Amadou Diallo — an African immigrant who was gunned down in a hail of 41 bullets by police officers who mistook his wallet for a gun. The acquittal of the officers in that case created a storm of protest, with hundreds arrested after taking to the streets in demonstration.

Though emotions ran high, there were no immediate problems outside the courthouse Friday, where many wore buttons with Bell's picture or held signs saying "Justice for Sean Bell." Some people approached police after the verdict was read, but they were held back and the jostling died down quickly.

William Hardgraves, 48, an electrician from Harlem, brought his 12-year-old son and 23-year-old daughter to hear the verdict. "I hoped it would be different this time. They shot him 50 times," Hardgraves said. "But of course, it wasn't."

The officers, complaining that pretrial publicity had unfairly painted them as cold-blooded killers, opted to have the judge decide the case rather than a jury.

The judge, Justice Arthur Cooperman, indicated when he delivered the verdict that the officers' version of events was more credible than the victims' version. "The people have not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that each defendant was not justified" in firing, he said.

Hours later, the officers appeared at a news conference.

"I'd like to say sorry to the Bell family for the tragedy," Cooper said, thanking God, his lawyers and the police officers who supported him.

The U.S. attorney's office said after the verdict that it had been monitoring the state's prosecution and would conduct an independent review of the case. The Rev. Al Sharpton, who represents Bell's family, called for a federal investigation.

"This verdict is one round down, but the fight is far from over," Sharpton said on his radio show. "What we saw in court today was not a miscarriage of justice. Justice didn't miscarry. This was an abortion of justice."

Michael Palladino, president of the Detectives Endowment Association, responded angrily to Sharpton's suggestion that the verdicts were unfair.

"That's despicable for him to say that because we have the greatest criminal justice system on earth," he said.

The nearly two-month trial was marked by deeply divergent accounts of the night.

The defense painted the victims as drunken thugs who the officers believed were armed and dangerous. Prosecutors sought to convince the judge that the victims had been minding their own business, and that the officers were inept, trigger-happy aggressors.

Both sides were consistent on one point: The utter chaos surrounding the last moments of Bell's life.

"It happened so quick," Isnora said in grand jury testimony. "It was like the last thing I ever wanted to do."

Bell's companions — Trent Benefield and Joseph Guzman — offered dramatic testimony. Both were wounded in the shooting; Guzman still has four bullets lodged in his body.

Referring to Isnora, Guzman said, "This dude is shooting like he's crazy, like he's out of his mind."

The victims and shooters were set on a fateful collision course by a pair of innocuous decisions: Bell's to have a last-minute bachelor party at Kalua Cabaret, and the undercover detectives' to investigate reports of prostitution at the club.

As the club closed around 4 a.m., Sanchez and Isnora claimed they overheard Bell and his friends first flirt with women, then taunt a stranger who responded by putting his right hand in his pocket as if he had a gun. Guzman, they testified, said, "Yo, go get my gun" — something Bell's friends denied.

Isnora said he decided to arm himself, call for backup — "It's getting hot," he told his supervisor — and tail Bell, Guzman and Benefield as they went around the corner and got into Bell's car. He claimed that after warning the men to halt, Bell pulled away, bumped him and rammed an unmarked police van that converged on the scene with Oliver at the wheel. The detective also alleged that Guzman made a sudden move as if he were reaching for a gun.

Guzman said Isnora "appeared out of nowhere" with a gun drawn and shot him in the shoulder — the first of 16 shots to enter his body.

"That's all there was — gunfire," he said. "There wasn't nothing else."

With tires screeching, glass breaking and bullets flying, the officers claimed that they believed they were the ones under fire. Oliver responded by emptying his semiautomatic pistol, reloading, and emptying it again, as the supervisor sought cover.

The truth emerged when the smoke cleared: There was no weapon inside Bell's blood-splattered car.

Saving Secrets From Extreme Savers

By Elaine Appleman Grant

Lynn Tostado is almost embarrassed about her hobby: "Saving money is, well, a passion of mine," she says. "I've always kept my eyes out for creative ways to stretch a dollar."

The Dover, N.H., accounting manager had a compelling reason to practice thrift. She spent a decade at home raising her four kids. Then she and her husband put three of them through college simultaneously.

"I really had to watch our pennies," she says.

These days, as the cost of food and gas skyrockets, credit becomes more difficult to get and consumer confidence reaches an all-time low, saving has become a must. Tostado's years of experience as a passionate saver stand her in good stead. She's hardly alone. There's a whole group of people who are passionate about saving without living a Spartan life.

Call them "uber savers."

Finding Ways to Save

1. Saving on Retail
2. Groceries
3. Automobiles
4. Giving
5. Commuting & housing
6. Phone services & other necessities
7. Travel

1. Saving on Retail

Michele Carter, a CPA and mother of two in Barrington, N.H., is a hawk about tracking sales prices on her purchases and asking retailers for the savings. For example, Carter keeps her Christmas gift receipts and, after the holiday, checks to see if retailers have slashed prices on any of the gifts she's already plunked under the tree.

Then she calls the merchant and, without returning the item, asks the store to refund the difference between her cost and the new sales price. She then gives the difference to the gift recipient.

"I once got my mother-in-law $60 back on a gift we purchased for her," she says.

Carter also claims the price guarantees offered by stores like Lowe's and Home Depot: If you find the same product for less elsewhere, you get the item for 10 percent off the lowest price.

"I have seen an ad for something I purchased, after the purchase, and I have been given the lower price," she says.

Keeping an eye on these promotions paid off recently when Carter bought a new refrigerator. After she saw an ad for the same refrigerator at a competitor's store, she netted close to $100 in savings with a single phone call. Her advice: Call, don't visit the store. In Carter's experience, a local store manager will always find a reason to say no.

Carter, an inveterate comparison shopper, also shops on home repairs. Recently, she bought a new Pella front door at Lowe's, spending $1,000 less than Pella's asking price. Then, rather than paying Lowe's $800 installation fee, she hired a local carpenter for $400 -- and paid that tab with the $400 tax credit she'll receive for installing the energy-saving door.

Stay-at-home mom Martha Andersen is an avid reader, as are her husband and her two children. Last year, Andersen, who lives in Durham, N.H., decided to spend only $4 per person on Christmas gifts.

She acquired most of her gifts through Paperbackswap.com, a site on which members can trade paperback and hardcover books for the cost of postage, and Daedalus, a discount book catalog that Andersen says offered "really nice gifts for less than $4." You can also swap CDs on SwapaCD.com and DVDs at recently launched SwapaDVD.com.
Melissa Ragan, a teacher in an inner-city public school in Lawrence, Mass., also loves Paperbackswap.com. She uses the site to get books for her special-needs classroom.

Ragan is also a Freecycle devotee. Freecycle.org, a membership organization with thousands of local chapters, helps people give away unwanted goods, such as brand-new baby clothes, computers and furniture, to other "freecyclers" so that it won't end up in landfills.

Most of the time, it's not worn-out Salvation Army merchandise. Not long ago, the Boston chapter featured an entire Ethan Allen living room set free for the taking. You can "ask" for something specific, and often, you'll get it. People frequently ask for exercise equipment, like treadmills, and find treasures within a day.

Not surprisingly, uber savers are also crazy about Craigslist.org. Chris Grande, a financial planner and managing partner of Heritage Financial Group in Medford, Mass. bought a $5,000 leather living room set for only $200 when he noticed the classified ad on his local Craigslist site.

2. Groceries

What does the high price of food mean to the average frugal grocery shopper? Eat locally. Produce, meat, poultry and eggs grown nearby have always been better for the environment. Now, because of high fuel prices, buying local is also the smartest way to shop.

Purchase produce in season and frequent farmer's markets, where you'll find the best deals on the freshest fruits and vegetables. Invest in a freezer, if you have the space, and buy your meat locally as well.

Uber saver Mike Hegarty, a CPA in Des Moines, Iowa, says he saves $500 a year on meat by purchasing whole animals from local farms.

In case you've never done it and you're having a hard time visualizing it in your garage, when you buy a quarter of a cow from a local farm, a butcher cuts it into the familiar hamburger, flank and sirloin steaks and packages it for you. An extra bonus: Local farms often raise all-natural or even organic beef, pork and chicken.

If you're really devoted to cutting your grocery bill, try buying through a co-op. To do this, you'll need to form a "buying club" with friends and neighbors; forming a group will allow you to order food at wholesale prices from co-op distributors like Associated Buyers in Barrington, N.H., or Rainbow Natural Foods in Aurora, Colo.

You'll need to put in some effort, says Erin Fallon, a Strafford, N.H., housewife who's been purchasing organic groceries through a co-op for years. One group member gathers orders and collects money; then the women meet at another member's home to divvy up food once a month. The effort is well worth it, though. Fallon says she saves $300 to $500 a month.

3. Automobiles

Need a new car? The good news is that with demand down, automakers are unlikely to raise their prices this year, says economist Gus Faucher with Economy.com.

When buying, take a tip from master saver Carter. Michele Carter and her husband, Richard, negotiate with dealers for each other's cars.

"Dealers have to get on the phone and actually negotiate with someone who is not emotionally invested in the purchase. So far, this has helped us not get taken," she says.
When Michele Carter fell in love with a 2006 Saab last year, she could see that the dealer wouldn't reduce the price for her "because they could see that I was sold on the vehicle." So she turned to Richard for help. He talked the dealer into reducing the price of the extended warranty by $1,000 and persuaded him to throw in Bluetooth for free. Carter was thrilled with her new car -- and the price.

A ream of information exists on how to get the best price on a new car. But what's the cheapest way to finance it?

Wellesley, Mass., financial planner Steve Doucette advises that you figure out which car you want and wait for the manufacturer's year-end zero percent financing deals.

Or consider buying a car at an auto auction. There are two kinds -- government-run auctions open to the public and dealer auctions, where used-car dealers get many of the cars they sell on the lot.

Financial planner Chris Grande admires a friend who bought a used Mercedes at a dealer auction, saving at least $4,000 in the process. In order to get access to dealer auctions, you'll need to go with a friend who has a dealer license and is willing to do a favor for you.

In addition to actual car dealers, tow-truck companies, auto body shops and others also have dealer licenses, Grande says.

4. Giving

Sarah Auerbach, a stay-at-home mother in Acton, Mass., and her husband, programmer Laird Nelson, like to donate to charities. But they're saving to buy a larger home.

Tired of reactively contributing in response to mailed solicitations, they visited their accountant for advice on how much to give annually. Then they listed several favorite causes and assigned weights to each -- for instance, 15 percent for women's rights, 10 percent each to several local hunger-fighting organizations, and so on. Then they did the math and figured out how much money they'd be giving to each of eight or 10 nonprofits.

To spread out the expense, they designated payments to one or two charities monthly.

5. Commuting and Housing

Hegarty, the Des Moines CPA, saves money in a variety of ways. He and his family clip coupons and turn off lights. But a self-proclaimed cheapskate, Hegarty believes the "small stuff" doesn't really pay off. It's the big stuff, like making wise choices about where to live, that really counts.

Hegarty and his wife, who have four children, chose to buy a $150,000 farmhouse some miles outside of the suburbs rather than living in "$250,000 to $350,000 yuppie neighborhoods with my friends," Hegarty says. "That saves us $1,500 a year in (property) taxes and $6,500 a year in mortgage interest."

Hegarty acknowledges, however, that living some distance away from town costs him an additional $800 a year in gasoline and additional wear on his car. The Hegarty family plans trips to town in order to run several errands at once. He figures this careful planning saves them $500 a year in gasoline.

Their choice to live in a modest house allows Hegarty's wife to stay home with their kids, rather than working full time for a $50,000 salary.
On the other hand, living close to town also can save you money. Uber saver Martha Andersen spends next to nothing on gasoline. She and her husband Peter chose to live in downtown Durham, a small New Hampshire college town, rather than buying a house in the suburbs.

"We can walk to restaurants and grocery stores, the library, the bank, the car service, church, friends and to my father-in-law's," she says.

Since oil hit $100 a barrel, saving on gas has become as important as getting a cheap mortgage.

Living in Exeter, N.H., Melissa Ragan and her husband, Alex, sold Melissa's 2006 Toyota Camry in January 2008 and became a one-car couple. They carpool together to work and Alex takes the train home. They're saving $725 a month -- a $400 car payment, $75 in insurance and $250 in gas and tolls.

Rochester, N.Y., scientist Wilton Alston also forgoes four wheels whenever he can. He bikes the 15 miles to and from work whenever the weather is good, saving money -- and burning calories -- along the way.

By far the most ingenious strategy for saving on gas and auto costs comes from Dean Frisoli, who "slugs" to work. Slugging is a form of legal hitchhiking available to commuters outside of Washington, D.C., where the traffic is notorious.

In order to take the faster high-occupancy vehicle, or HOV, lane to work, a car must carry two passengers. At designated parking lots, so-called "sluggers" like Frisoli, a transportation policy analyst, line up to catch free rides from drivers eager to use the HOV lane. In the year since he started slugging, reports Frisoli, the former train commuter has saved more than $2,000.

"Other than the ice storm the day of the Virginia primary, where it took me five hours to get home, it has been a completely painless experience," he says.

Chetan Shah, a vice president at Bank of America in Charlotte, N.C., advocates paying for parking with pretax dollars. Tax law does permit this.

"Most of us ... have to pay either for parking or a monthly bus or train pass," he writes. "You can pay it pretax by asking the company you work for to deduct it directly from your paycheck."

6. Phone Service and Other Necessities

Financial planner Grande starts his conversation on saving money this way: "I'm talking to you on Skype right now."

Skype is an Internet-based phone system that lets computer users make calls for free or for only a few dollars a month. You don't need an actual phone -- just a computer and, if you wish, a headset, which costs about $20 at Radio Shack or Best Buy.

Download Skype for free, and you can "call" other Skype users for nothing. Pay $3 a month and you can make unlimited calls to land line and cell phone users.

Grande started using it last year and says now his office pays only the minimum local charge for having a land line -- less than $30 a month.
He uses Skype when he travels, making phone calls from WiFi hotspots in other states and even in other countries. When he traveled to Singapore last year, he called friends in the U.S. for only two cents a minute.

To save on utilities, conserve energy. Get an energy audit, says Larry Chretien, executive director of Mass Energy Consumers Alliance, a nonprofit home heating company with offices in Jamaica Plain, Mass., and Providence, R.I.

When it comes to energy efficiency, Chretien says, "We honestly think every home is different."

In many states, electric and gas utilities offer energy audits at no charge, and some will even help homeowners pay for their recommended changes. When this reporter had her home audited, Public Service of New Hampshire paid $2,000, or more than two-thirds of the total cost of energy-saving improvements, like insulating and installing programmable thermostats.

Call your electric or gas company or search their Web sites for energy auditing programs.

7. Travel

Tostado, the uber saver from Dover, N.H., hoards credit card rewards points. When she turned 50 three years ago, she and her husband set a goal of running road races in all 50 states within 10 years. So far, they've managed 19 states. Those plane tickets could add up -- but not for them.

Their strategy? Never, ever use cash when you can use a credit card. They win multiple free flights a year by paying virtually all of their bills -- including groceries, utilities and their mortgage -- with a Southwest Airlines card.

They even buy Dunkin' Donuts gift cards on credit and use them to buy their morning coffee rather than "wasting" a couple of dollars' worth of points every day. The couple sets aside an hour a week to pay bills together and always pays the full credit card balance so that they never pay interest.

Doucette and his family can afford posh vacations, but sometimes the tab is just too high. When their traditional vacation choice, a Beaches resort, priced out at $8,000 to $12,000, the Doucettes decided to share their vacation. They and some friends rented a beachfront Jamaican villa, complete with chef and bartender, and spent less than $5,000 for the week.

If you're going to travel overseas, consider vacationing in Mexico, the Caribbean or even in Africa or Asia, where the dollar is stronger than it is in Europe.

To get the cheapest fares, use a service like FareCompare.com, which sends e-mails the instant a cheap fare becomes available for your destination of choice. Don't procrastinate buying that ticket -- the cheapest fares go to only about 10 percent of travelers.

Zimbabwe observers point to runoff vote, suspect possible rigging

(CNN)

Zimbabwe's government Monday began releasing the results of the weekend parliamentary vote, but offered no data on the hotly contested presidential race.

President Robert Mugabe is facing the most formidable challenge to his 28-year rule from two opponents, including his former finance minister, Simba Makoni, who is running as an independent.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change, led by presidential contender Morgan Tsvangirai, announced Sunday that it had won enough votes in Saturday's presidential and parliamentary election to end the 84-year-old incumbent's reign.

But a group of non-governmental organizations monitoring the election released exit polling data Monday that indicated the race possibly headed for a runoff vote.

Noel Kututwa, chairman of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, said that his group's polling data gave Tsvangirai 49.4 percent of the vote -- short of the 51 percent needed to win. Mugabe was second with 41.8 percent, and Makoni third with 8.2 percent.

Election authorities have released no data on the presidential race. Government officials said it takes time to verify and "harmonize" the counts.

The United States, which has raised concerns about election fraud in the southern African country, called on Zimbabwe's government to make sure "the counting of the votes ... ensures the will of the people is heard," State Department spokesman Tom Casey said Monday.

While election observers have urged prompt reporting of the results to avoid political unrest, government officials said it would take time to verify and "harmonize" the counts.

It is unlikely that Mugabe will receive any congratulations from the U.S. if he emerges as the victor.

Speaking to reporters during her trip to the Middle East, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called the long-time president and his government "a disgrace to the people of Zimbabwe and a disgrace to southern Africa and to the continent of Africa as a whole."

Kututwa said the delay in announcing all the results was "fueling speculation" that Mugabe's government was tampering with the ballot count. His group was monitoring the election.

"This is very worrying," Kututwa said.

Despite the lack of official results, the MDC insisted it had won enough votes to end Mugabe's rule, which has seen the nation slide into economic meltdown.

Defying a government order, the Movement for Democratic Change said it tallied the results posted outside each polling station -- and based on one-third of the returns, that count shows Tsvangirai won 67 percent of the votes, journalists inside Zimbabwe told CNN.

The Zimbabwean government has denied CNN and other international news organizations permission to enter the country to report on the elections.

MDC also claimed it had won the majority of parliamentary seats in Zimbabwe's urban centers, including Harare and Bulawayo. It enjoys widespread support in the cities, while Mugabe's Zanu-PF party has its base in Zimbabwe's rural areas, where white farmers have been driven out.

By Monday evening, just 67 of 210 parliamentary races were released -- ZANU-PF won 31; MDC won 30; and six won by a party that split from the MDC.

Two members of President Robert Mugabe's cabinet -- Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa and Interactive Affairs Minister Chen Chimutengwende -- lost their seats to the MDC. But Mugabe's nephew, Patrick Zhuwao, won a seat in his uncle's home district.

MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa held onto his seat in a district of Harare.

Kututwa said some MDC members had been arrested for celebrating in the streets.

MDC leaders began declaring victory just hours into Saturday's vote. But there are concerns that if each side claims victory, tensions could ignite and violence could erupt -- as happened this year in Kenya.

Observers from the South African Democratic Alliance opposition party also said its sources had said the opposition had won a majority in most areas.

"If this is not reflected in the results, this will be yet another indication that the election was rigged," they added.

Critics of the government had predicted voting would be rigged. The United States warned of a possible unfair election, and New York-based Human Rights Watch said the elections were likely to be "deeply flawed."

Makoni, who was expelled from the Zanu-PF after announcing his own bid to unseat Mugabe, said it was "premature to judge that the environment before the balloting has had some impediment."

Makoni said: "We know our people are clear about what they want... We will wait and see the results."

The announcement of results appeared to have been delayed despite election observers saying some results were known on Saturday night, four hours after polls closed. In previous elections, partial results were announced hours after voting ended.

Criticism of Mugabe has grown across Zimbabwe, with unemployment running at 80 percent. Most Zimbabweans survive on less than $1 a day and inflation is the highest in the world at more than 100,000 percent.

People also suffer from chronic shortages of food, water, electricity, fuel and medicine, and thousands of Zimbabweans flood into neighboring countries looking for jobs.

Part of the economic freefall is traced to Mugabe's land redistribution policies, including his controversial seizure of commercially white-owned farms in 2000.

Mugabe gave the land to black Zimbabweans he said were cheated under colonialist rule, and white farmers who resisted were jailed.

In 2005, Mugabe launched Operation Clean Out the Trash, in which he razed slum areas across the country. Mugabe denies mismanagement and blames his country's woes on the West, saying sanctions have harmed the economy.

Curious details discovered on J.F. Kennedy's assasination

Associated Press

A curious transcript purportedly about President John F. Kennedy's assassination has been discovered among boxes of memorabilia that were long forgotten in an old safe at the Dallas County district attorney's office.

While the transcript reads like a conspiracy theorist's dream — Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby plotting to kill Kennedy — the DA's top assistant said it's likely material for a proposed movie.

Other items found in an old safe on the 10th floor of the county courthouse include letters to and from former DA Henry Wade, the now-dead prosecutor in the Ruby trial, The Dallas Morning News reported in Sunday's editions. Ruby shot and killed Kennedy assassin Oswald two days after the president's death.

There are also letters to Ruby, records from his trial, a gun holster and clothing that probably belonged to Ruby and Oswald, said District Attorney Craig Watkins, who planned to discuss the find at a news conference Monday.

Much of the attention is bound to focus on the transcript purporting that Ruby and Oswald met at Ruby's nightclub on Oct. 4, 1963, less than two months before the Nov. 22 assassination. In it, they talked of killing the president because the Mafia wanted to "get rid of" his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy.

Says Oswald in the transcript, "I can still do it, all I need is my rifle and a tall building; but it will take time, maybe six months to find the right place; but I'll have to have some money to live on while I do the planning."

Gary Mack, curator of the Sixth Floor Museum near where the president was shot, hasn't seen the transcript but doubts it's real. It is well-documented that Oswald was in Irving the evening of Oct. 4, at a home where his wife was staying, Mack said.

"The fact that it's sitting in Henry Wade's file, and he didn't do anything, indicates he thought it wasn't worth anything," Mack said. "He probably kept it because it was funny. It's hilarious. It's like a bad B movie."

Terri Moore, Watkins' top assistant, said she believes the latest transcript is part of a movie Wade was working on with producers. The former prosecutor wrote about the proposed movie, "Countdown in Dallas," in letters found in the safe.

"It's not real. Crooks don't talk like that," Moore said. "If that transcript is true, then history is changed because Oswald and Ruby were talking about assassinating the president."

The transcript resembles one published in a report by the Warren Commission, which investigated Kennedy's assassination and determined that Oswald was the lone gunman. The FBI determined that conversation between Oswald and Ruby about killing the governor was definitely fake.

The account in the commission report was "re-created" for authorities by a now-deceased Dallas attorney who claimed he recognized Oswald in a newspaper photo as the man he saw talking to Ruby.

It's unknown whether the boxes Watkins and others found in the courthouse about a year ago have information previously undisclosed to the public or the Warren Commission.

The search began after Watkins was told the gun used to kill Oswald was somewhere in the courthouse. They didn't find the gun, which Mack said is privately owned. The boxes probably sat in the safe since being moved when the courthouse opened in 1989.

The items are still being processed and eventually will be donated to an entity that can authenticate them, preserve them and make them available to the public, Watkins said.

"It's interesting, and it's not ours," Watkins said. "It's the public's."

Details on NIU gunman emerge

By CARYN ROUSSEAU and DEANNA BELLANDI, Associated Press Writers

The man who gunned down five people at Northern Illinois University in a suicidal rampage became erratic after halting his medication and carried a shotgun to campus inside a guitar case, police said Friday.

The man, 27-year-old former student Stephen Kazmierczak, was also wielding three handguns during Thursday's ambush inside a lecture hall.

Two of the weapons — the pump-action Remington shotgun and a Glock 9mm handgun — were purchased legally less than a week ago, on Feb. 9, authorities said. They were purchased in Champaign, where Kazmierczak was enrolled at the University of Illinois.

A spokesman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said the other two guns were also legally purchased and traced to the Champaign gun shop, but the ATF was still determining when Kazmierczak picked them up.

Kazmierczak had a valid Firearm Owner's Identification Card, which is required for all Illinois residents who buy or possess firearms, authorities said.

The gunman's father, Robert Kazmierczak, briefly came out of his single-story house in Lakeland, Fla., to talk to reporters.

"Please leave me alone. I have no statement to make and no comment. OK? I'd appreciate that. This is a very hard time. I'm a diabetic and I don't want to go into a relapse," he said before breaking down crying.

He then went back inside his house, which has a sign on the front door that says "Illini fans live here."

President Bush talked by telephone with NIU President John Peters and said people will be praying for the families of the victims and for the Northern Illinois University community.

Campus Police Chief Donald Grady said investigators recovered 48 shell casings and six shotgun shells following the attack in Cole Hall. The gunman paused to reload his shotgun after opening fire on a crowd of terrified students in a geology class, sending them running and crawling toward the exits. He shot himself to death on the stage of the hall.

Kazmierczak, whose first name was earlier listed as Steven, was taking some kind of medication, Grady said.

"He had stopped taking medication and become somewhat erratic in the last couple of weeks," Grady said, declining to name the drug or provide other details.

Correcting information his office released earlier Friday, DeKalb County Coroner Dennis J. Miller said five students, not six, were killed in the rampage, in addition to the gunman. Miller said the higher victim total was the result of confusion over the fate of a patient taken to another county for treatment.

"There was a miscommunication," Miller said.

The motive of the killer, who graduated from NIU in 2006 but was a student there as recently as last year, was still not known. Grady said Kazmierczak was an "outstanding" student while at NIU and authorities were still trying to determine why he would kill. There was no known suicide note.

"We were dealing with a disturbed individual who intended to do harm on this campus," Peters said.

Witnesses said the gunman, dressed in black and wearing a stocking cap, emerged from behind a screen on the stage of 200-seat Cole Hall and opened fire just as the class was about to end around 3 p.m. Officials said 162 students were registered for the class but it was unknown how many were there Thursday.

John Giovanni, 20, of Des Plaines said the gunman calmly fired at the greatest concentration of students.

"He was shooting from the hip. He was just shooting," said Giovanni, who turned and ran so fast that he lost a shoe. "I was running but I was hurtling over people in the fetal position."

Peters said four people died at the scene, including three students and the gunman. The other died at a hospital. The teacher, a graduate student, was wounded but was expected to recover.

Miller released the identities of four victims: Daniel Parmenter, 20, of Westchester; Catalina Garcia, 20, of Cicero; Ryanne Mace, 19, of Carpentersville; and Julianna Gehant, 32, of Meridan.

Another victim, Gayle Dubowski, a 20-year-old sophomore from Carol Stream, died at a Rockford hospital, Winnebago County Coroner Sue Fiduccia said.

The killer had been a graduate student in sociology at Northern Illinois as recently as spring 2007, Peters said. He also said the suspect had no record of police contact or an arrest record while attending Northern Illinois, a campus with 25,000 students about 65 miles west of Chicago.

The gunman was a student at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, Chancellor Richard Herman said. The university is about 140 miles south of Chicago.

Lauren Carr said she was sitting in the third row when she saw the shooter walk through a door on the right-hand side of the stage, pointing a gun straight ahead.

"I personally Army-crawled halfway up the aisle," said Carr, a 20-year-old sophomore. "I said I could get up and run or I could die here."

She said a student in front of her was bleeding, "but he just kept running."

"I heard this girl scream, 'Run, he's reloading the gun!'"

More than a hundred students cried and hugged as they gathered outside the Phi Kappa Alpha house early Friday to remember Parmenter. Flowers, candles and small notes were left in the snow near Cole Hall. Flags were flying at half-staff. At a house across the street, a hand-drawn banner made out of a sheet said: 'NIU We Pray 4 U'

The campus was closed on Friday. Students were urged to call their parents and were offered counseling at any residence hall, according to the school Web site.

The school was closed for one day during final exam week in December after campus police found threats, including racial slurs and references to shootings earlier in the year at Virginia Tech, scrawled on a bathroom wall in a dormitory. Police determined after an investigation that there was no imminent threat and the campus was reopened. Peters said he knew of no connection between that incident and Thursday's attack.