■UNITED STATES
AIDS adviser named
AIDS expert Helene Gayle, president and chief executive of the charity CARE USA, has been named to chair the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, the US government said on Monday. Gayle, former head of AIDS research at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will advise US President Barack Obama on fighting the virus, which has infected an estimated 1 million Americans and 33 million people globally.
■UNITED STATES
Crypt sells for US$4.6m
A widow sold her husband’s burial crypt directly above film legend Marilyn Monroe’s final resting place for US$4.6 million on Monday, through online auctioneer eBay Inc. Elsie Poncher has said she was selling the crypt in a small, celebrity-heavy cemetery in Los Angeles to pay off her mortgage. The auction opened earlier this month at US$500,000 and attracted 21 bids before closing on Monday. Poncher’s husband, Richard Poncher, bought the crypt from baseball star Joe DiMaggio, Monroe’s ex-husband, as the famous couple divorced in 1954. Monroe died at age 36 in 1962. Richard Poncher died in 1986 at age 81. Elsie Poncher said her husband’s body was positioned “face down” to allow him to “look” at Monroe. She plans to move his remains over one spot to a crypt that had been intended for her. She will be cremated when she dies.
■UNITED STATES
Girl accused in milk killing
A prosecutor plans to upgrade the charge against a 14-year-old Milwaukee girl accused of fatally stabbing her step-grandfather in the neck after he poured her milk down the drain. Assistant district attorney Kevin Shomin said on Monday he plans to change the charge against Labrina Brown from first-degree reckless homicide to first-degree intentional homicide. Prosecutors say Brown killed Robert Moon, 48, on Aug. 8. Brown’s attorney said there was a history of domestic issues and the case is about more than spilled milk.
■PERU
Live turkeys carry cocaine
Police expecting to find a shipment of cocaine hidden in a crate holding two live turkeys were surprised to discover the drug surgically implanted inside the birds. Acting on a tip, officers stopped a Turismo Ejecutivo SRL bus outside the city of Tarapoto in the central jungle state of San Martin, officials said on Monday. Police were puzzled when they found the turkeys, but no cocaine, said anti-drug police chief, Otero Gonzalez. They then noticed the two turkeys were bloated. “Lifting up the feathers of the bird, in the chest area, police detected a handmade seam,” he said. A veterinarian extracted 11 plastic capsules containing 1.9kg of cocaine from one turkey and 17 capsules with 2.9kg from the other, he said. Both turkeys survived the ordeal.
■UNITED STATES
Philip Morris ordered to pay
A jury has decided that cigarette maker Philip Morris USA should pay US$13.8 million in punitive damages to the daughter of a longtime smoker who died of lung cancer. The Los Angeles Superior Court jury returned the verdict on Monday, more than eight years after the smoker, Betty Bullock, sued the company for fraud and product liability. The panel voted nine-to-three in favor of Bullock’s daughter Jodie Bullock, who is now the plaintiff in the case. Betty Bullock died of lung cancer in February 2003. Philip Morris argued Betty Bullock could have stopped smoking at anytime and the harmful effects of cigarettes were known to smokers.
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