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Inter stay top as rivals keep pace

ROME, Italy — Inter Milan stayed three points clear in Serie A with a 4-1 victory over Genoa in the San Siro on Wednesday nigtht

Argentinian international midfielder Esteban Cambiasso was on the scoresheet as Inter recorded their seventh victory of the season to leave them three points clear of Roma who beat city rivals Lazio 3-2.

Simone Perrotta scored the Roma third in a closely fought derby.

AC Milan shrugged off their sorry home form to score a superb 5-0 away win at Sampdoria with Brazilian superstar Kaka and veteran Dutch international Clarence Seedorf scoring the first and final goals.

But the Champions League holders remain 11 points behind charging Inter.

Former Italian international striker Christian Vieri ensured that Fiorentina stayed in the hunt as he grabbed the only goal in their 1-0 win over Napoli, while Juventus are also challenging after a 3-0 win over Empoli with French international striker David Trezeguet scoring a hat-trick. E-mail to a friend

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Church ordered to pay $2.9 million for funeral protest

BALTIMORE, Maryland (AP) — A grieving father won a $2.9 million verdict Wednesday against a fundamentalist Kansas church that pickets military funerals out of a belief that the war in Iraq is a punishment for the nation’s tolerance of homosexuality.

Albert Snyder of York, Pennsylvania, sued the Westboro Baptist Church for unspecified damages after members demonstrated at the March 2006 funeral of his son, Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, who was killed in Iraq.

U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett noted the size of the award for compensating damages far exceeds the net worth of the defendants, according to financial statements filed with the court.

The jury was to deliberate later on punitive damages.

Church members routinely picket funerals of military personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, carrying signs such as Thank God for dead soldiers and God hates fags.

A number of states have passed laws regarding funeral protests, and Congress has passed a law prohibiting such protests at federal cemeteries.

But the Maryland lawsuit is believed to be the first filed by the family of a fallen serviceman.

The church and three of its leaders — the Rev. Fred Phelps and his two daughters, Shirley Phelps-Roper and Rebecca Phelps-Davis, 46 — were found liable for invasion of privacy and intent to inflict emotional distress.

Snyder claimed the protests intruded upon what should have been a private ceremony and sullied his memory of the event.

The church members testified they are following their religious beliefs by spreading the message that the deaths of soldiers are due to the nation’s tolerance of homosexuality.

Their attorneys argued in closing statements Tuesday that the burial was a public event and that even abhorrent points of view are protected by the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech and religion.

The judge said the church’s financial statements, sealed earlier, could be released to the plaintiffs.

Earlier, church members staged a demonstration outside the federal courthouse.

Church founder Fred Phelps held a sign reading God is your enemy, while Shirley Phelps-Roper stood on an American flag and carried a sign that read God hates fag enablers.

Members of the group sang God Hates America to the tune of God Bless America.

Snyder sobbed when he heard the verdict, while members of the church greeted the news with tightlipped smiles.
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Tottenham give Ramos winning start

LONDON, England — Tottenham Hotspur gave Juande Ramos a winning start to his managerial career at White Hart Lane as they beat second-flight Blackpool 2-0 in the fourth round of the English League Cup.

Ramos, who replaced the sacked Martin Jol last week, saw his new charges reach the quarterfinals of the competition through a goal in each half by Robbie Keane and Pascal Chimbonda.

Ramos restored fit-again England goalkeeper Paul Robinson to his starting line-up and it was his clearance, flicked on by Dimitar Berbatov that set up Keane for his third goal in four games and ninth of the season on 18 minutes.

Shaky defense has been Tottenhams’ Achilles heel this season and a spirited Blackpool had their moments as Gary Fletcher-Taylor’s effort rattled the crossbar before Chimbonda headed home Steed Malbranque’s corner in the 58th minute.

Tottenham’s arch-rivals and Premier League leaders Arsenal extended their unbeaten run with a comfortable 3-0 win over another second-flight side Sheffield United at Bramall Lane.

Croatian striker Eduardo Da Silva put Arsenal ahead after just eight minutes with a thunderous shot and Arsene Wenger’s young team were dominant throughout as Da Silva scored a second early in the second half.

Brazilian youngster Denilson rounded off the scoring with a deflected shot.

Holders Chelsea owed a dramatic odd-goal in seven victory over Leicester City at Stamford Bridge to a pair of late goals by Andriy Shevchenko.

The Ukrainian is starting to find his goalscoring touch under new manager Avram Grant and spared his blushes after they fell 3-2 behind to a Carl Cort effort with just under 15 minutes left.

A pair of Frank Lampard goals had put Chelsea 2-1 ahead before DJ Campbell and Cort scored to give them an almighty scare.

Sven-Goran Eriksson’s Manchester City rebounded from their 6-0 rout at Chelsea on Saturday by beating fellow Premier League side Bolton 1-0 at the Reebok.

Brazilian Elano settled a scrappy affair with a late penalty.

Liverpool welcomed back old boy Robbie Fowler to Anfield and his Cardiff side gave a good account of themselves before Steven Gerrard scored the home side’s winner late on. Fowler came closest to scoring with an early free kick. E-mail to a friend

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Top GOP senator: Attorney general nomination ‘at risk’

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A top GOP senator Wednesday warned that Michael Mukasey’s nomination for attorney general is at risk because the retired federal judge refused to categorically declare that a controversial interrogation technique is torture.

In answers to questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee about the use of waterboarding against suspected terrorists, retired federal judge Michael Mukasey told senators he found the practice repugnant.

But Mukasey said he could not answer hypothetical questions about whether the technique violates a U.S. ban on the use of torture, fueling increased opposition to his nomination.

I think we need to have a very frank discussion with more facts available, said Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the committee’s ranking Republican. And I believe that can only be done in a closed-door session. I would hope we might do that early next week.

The committee’s chairman, Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy, has scheduled a Tuesday meeting to take up Mukasey’s nomination.

Obviously, many of us felt that the United States, which would roundly and universally condemn the waterboarding of an American held by any other country — many of us had felt that the attorney general nominee should do the same thing, Leahy said.

The White House expressed confidence that President Bush’s pick for attorney general will be confirmed despite senators’ concerns about his views on waterboarding as well as his answers about the president’s power to order electronic surveillance without a warrant.

We feel confident that he will be confirmed, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters.

In further written statements released Wednesday, Mukasey said the president is bound to follow the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires a special federal court to approve wiretaps on people inside the United States. But he said that while FISA remains the foundation for foreign intelligence-gathering, arguments that the president’s constitutional power as commander-in-chief of the armed forces supersedes the law could pose a difficult separation of powers question.

The Bush administration argued the president’s authority as commander-in-chief allowed him to order the National Security Agency to monitor communications between people in the United States and those overseas suspected of having ties to terrorists. The program, disclosed in 2005, was launched without following FISA, which was passed in response to Watergate-era wiretapping abuses.

Mukasey’s written answers to the committee repeated the positions he took in his October 18 confirmation hearing, when he told senators he has not received classified briefings on what techniques American interrogators are allowed to use on suspected terrorists and can’t make a legal judgment.

Sources with knowledge of the CIA-run interrogation program have said waterboarding is not being used as part of its interrogations now. But those sources have said waterboarding was used in the interrogation of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, now facing trial for planning al Qaeda’s 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

The practice — in which interrogators produce the sensation of drowning in a restrained prisoner by either dunking him in water or pouring water over his face — was used by the Spanish Inquisition, Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge and the World War II Japanese military, according to Human Rights Watch.

It was specifically banned in U.S. law governing the treatment of prisoners by the U.S. military.

Bush has admitted authorizing the use of alternative interrogation techniques against suspected terrorists, though his administration insists it does not torture prisoners.

White House Counselor Ed Gillespie said Mukasey can’t get those briefings until he’s confirmed — but he said senators who have been told details of the CIA’s top-secret enhanced interrogation program have declared it legal.

The fact is the government doesn’t confirm techniques regardless of whether they’re used or not used, Gillespie said. They don’t rule in or out, because the idea is not to help terrorists who would mean to do us harm know what to train or not train for.

Mukasey has been nominated to replace Alberto Gonzales, who resigned in September amid multiple controversies stemming from his stewardship of the Justice Department.

In 2002, while serving as White House counsel, Gonzales wrote that terrorists captured overseas should not be covered by the Geneva Conventions and that the battle against the al Qaeda terrorist network renders obsolete Geneva’s strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions.

When the memo became public after the Abu Ghraib scandal broke in 2004, Gonzales said the measure did not give U.S. officials a green light to torture or abuse prisoners.

After his departure, the New York Times reported that Justice Department memos written during his tenure endorsed the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the CIA. Democrats accused the administration of secretly reversing its public 2004 disavowal of the use of torture, but the White House said the documents were consistent with that pledge.

Gonzales was also accused of misleading Congress about the NSA surveillance program during testimony after its disclosure.
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Despite allegations, Oprah’s school supported

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) — A mother whose daughter and granddaughter attend Oprah Winfrey’s school in South Africa considers the talk-show host heaven-sent, despite allegations of abuse being investigated there.

Oprah is an angel, she is God-sent, Masechaba Hine said Wednesday from her small home in gritty Soweto township. She came to my rescue when my husband was not working.

Hine’s daughter Palesa and her granddaughter Alebohang, both 14, were among the 152 students chosen to be the first class to attend the high-tech, high-profile Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls when it opened in January. Her faith remains unshaken by the news that South African police have opened a criminal investigation into allegations that a dorm parent mistreated students at the school.

Hine said her children have no problems about the school, they are happy about everything.

Investigators declined to provide details of the alleged abuse, but the academy’s CEO, John Samuel, said in a statement issued earlier this month that an internal inquiry was launched based on a claim of misconduct involving a dormitory parent. Watch why school is being investigated

According to an article in The Cape Argus, a Cape Town newspaper, the dorm parent allegedly grabbed a pupil by the throat and threw her against a wall, the girl claimed. Girls at the school also claimed that the matron swore and screamed at the girls and assaulted them, the newspaper reported Saturday.

The newspaper said one of the pupils ran away from the school, blaming the alleged abuse.

Winfrey personally selected the school’s students, all of them straight-A students from underprivileged backgrounds. The students get free tuition, free uniforms, free accommodation and free meals at the school in Henley-on-Klip, near Johannesburg.

In Hine’s case, her children’s status as the poorest of the poor that the school aims to serve was clear-cut: Hine supports the five people who live in her small two-bedroom Soweto home on the $50 a week she makes from a fruit and vegetable stand. Hine also is caring for two other orphans — a niece and a younger granddaughter — as well as Palesa and Alebohang, whom Hine took responsibility for when her own mother died of AIDS.

Along with the money she scrapes together, the family survives on food baskets they receive once a month from a charity.

Hine attended an emergency meeting with Winfrey when the talk-show host came to the school two weeks ago.

She was emotional, she was crying when she was talking about her daughters. It is not our daughters anymore, it is Oprah’s daughters, Hine said.

Winfrey did not give the parents details of the allegations other than to say that the dormitory parent didn’t treat the girls the way she likes, Hine said. She said parents were told at the start of the meeting that Winfrey does not want the thing to be in the media. It was a private meeting.

The controversy that now surrounds the school now offers a sharp contrast to the glitter and air of limitless hope when Winfrey brought a gaggle of Hollywood stars with her to officially open the well-appointed school. The criminal probe was opened after a team of three American experts hired by Winfrey gave police the results of their initial investigation, police said.

We came to the conclusion that there were criminal elements and then we opened the case for investigation, said Police Superintendent Lungelo Dlamini.

Dlamini told CNN that the team of U.S. experts hired by Winfrey to conduct the internal investigation included Robert Farley, a retired Cook County, Illinois, detective. He said two American social workers were also on the team.

Previously, Winfrey — who has spoken publicly about the abuse she suffered as a child — issued a statement on October 17 saying, Nothing is more serious or devastating to me than an allegation of misconduct by an adult against any girl at the academy.

In the statement, Samuel said South African child protection services were notified and the dorm parent was removed from the campus.

We have engaged professional investigators of the highest standing from South Africa and the United States to conduct a fair and impartial inquiry into these claims, the statement said.

The school’s head has agreed to take a paid leave of absence pending the results of the investigation, although she is not the subject of the allegation, Samuel said.

The national prosecuting authority is deciding whether criminal charges will be filed. In an October 23 statement, Samuel referred inquiries to the South African Child Protection Services Unit.
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