■ United States
`Navajo' writer dropped
The publisher of two memoirs by Nasdijj, an award-winning Navajo author whose identity has been strongly challenged, said on Friday that it would no longer ship his books and would accept returns of copies from book sellers. "This looks pretty conclusive," Ballantine spokeswoman Carol Schneider said after the News and Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina, reported on Friday that Nasdijj's Social Security number matched the number of a white man, Timothy Barrus, who had a prior career writing gay pornography.
■ Germany
Top generals get the boot
Two top generals were sacked on Friday after allegations of racist abuse by one general's son, favoritism and misuse of official information. Lieutenant General Hans-Heinrich Dieter, deputy chief of the armed forces and Lieutenant General Juergen Ruwe, deputy chief of the army, were dismissed from active duty with immediate effect, Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung said in a statement. The dismissals followed a disciplinary investigation into Ruwe's son, a student at the military academy in Hamburg, who was accused of making racist and far-right comments.
■ United Kingdom
Bail refused for rock star
British rocker Pete Doherty was in custody Friday after pleading guilty in court to possessing heroin, police said. The 26-year-old singer of the group Babyshambles, and former boyfriend of top-model Kate Moss, was remanded in custody as an application for bail was refused. Police said the rocker, who has a history of drug abuse, was stopped by plain officers in London on Thursday looking "dishevelled." They found a wrap of white powder in the pocket of his jeans, a court in east London heard on Friday. When told about the bail refusal, Doherty pleaded: "Please, officers, don't do this. I've got a gig tonight, cut me a break."
■ United States
Plane-jumper hospitalized
A passenger who jumped out of a moving airplane as it prepared to take off was hospitalized after suffering a heart attack in jail on Friday, his sister said. Troy Rigby, 28, of Pompano Beach, Florida, was detained on the tarmac Monday at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport by officers who used a stun gun to subdue him. Rigby was charged with three counts of battery, trespassing, resisting arrest and criminal mischief. He was being held on US$8,000 bail and taken to an intensive psychiatric unit of a Broward County jail. Deputies found Rigby, who was not breathing, on the floor of his cell, said sheriff's spokesman Elliot Cohen. Rigby's sister Merlene said doctors called her on Friday and said her brother suffered a massive heart attack and was in intensive care.
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