Ex-CIA agent charged
A former CIA station chief charged with raping an unconscious Algerian woman last year surrendered to federal agents on Tuesday. Andrew Warren, 41, was fired from the CIA earlier this year, agency spokesman George Little said. A grand jury issued a one-count indictment against Warren on June 18 that was unsealed on Tuesday. If convicted he faces up to life in prison, the Department of Justice said. Two Algerian women came forward separately last year to say they had been sexually assaulted by Warren while at his home in Algiers, papers filed in federal court in January by a State Department investigator showed.
■UNITED STATES
Cash, sex for lost puppy?
Los Angeles County prosecutors alleged that a convicted sex offender tried to extort a teenager by demanding cash or sex for the return of her lost dog. Deputy District Attorney Jan Perlstein said 27-year-old Alfredo Dempkey was scheduled for arraignment on Tuesday afternoon on a count of attempted extortion. Prosecutors said the Lancaster resident found the dog on Friday and used information on its tags to contact the owner. A meeting was arranged at a fast-food restaurant, where Dempkey was arrested. The dog was returned to its owner.
■ARGENTINA
H1N1 death toll rises
Authorities in the capital and Buenos Aires Province declared health emergencies and extended school vacations on Tuesday as the nation’s swine flu death toll surged to 35. Together the areas comprise almost half of the population and they joined four other provinces that have already declared health emergencies in a country that in Latin America is topped only by Mexico in number of swine flu deaths. Health authorities have warned that while the swine flu peak has passed in Mexico, the Southern Hemisphere is at risk as it heads deeper into its winter flu season.
■UNITED STATES
‘Bad writer’ wins prize
A shambling sentence about screaming seafarers on the sturdy whaler Ellie May stood shoulders above the rest in an annual bad writing contest. David McKenzie, 55, of Federal Way, Washington State, won the grand prize in San Jose State University’s annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest with this: “Folks say that if you listen real close at the height of the full moon, when the wind is blowin’ off Nantucket Sound from the nor’ east and the dogs are howlin’ for no earthly reason, you can hear the awful screams of the crew of the Ellie May, a sturdy whaler Captained by John McTavish; for it was on just such a night when the rum was flowin’ and, Davey Jones be damned, big John brought his men on deck for the first of several screaming contests.” The contest, a parody of prose, invites entrants to submit bad opening sentences to imaginary novels.
■CHILE
Pensions boosted for moms
The government yesterday launched a new pension system aimed at boosting retirement funds for mothers, correcting a “historic discrimination” for millions of women who put careers on hold to raise their children. This year, a bonus of 286,000 pesos (US$530) will be awarded to 13,000 mothers who reach retirement age by yesterday, at a total cost of some US$13.4 million. Next year, 42,000 will receive the pension bonuses. Official calculations showed that under the new plan, a mother of two who is 30 years old today could, at retirement age 60, see her pension boosted by an additional US$7,000.
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