Nation briefs 11/18/02

Rejected heiress donates millions to 'Poetry'

CHICAGO -- The influential literary magazine "Poetry" has rejected Ruth Lilly's verse for decades, but it's not about to snub her latest offering -- a multimillion-dollar gift.

The ailing billionaire heiress to the Eli Lilly pharmaceutical fortune will give the publication, which ran the first major works of Carl Sandburg, T.S. Eliot and Wallace Stevens, millions of dollars a year under a new estate plan.

"Ruth Lilly has ensured our existence into perpetuity," Poetry editor Joe Parisi said in announcing the gift Friday at a dinner at the Arts Club of Chicago.

"Poetry," founded in 1912, frequently has had less than $100 in its till.

The exact amount of the gift will fluctuate with the value of Eli Lilly stock. Conservative estimates, however, put the first installment in January at $10 million and the total over 30 years at more than $100 million. The gift comes with no strings attached.

Lilly, the last surviving great-grandchild of Eli Lilly, founder of pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co., first started sending poems to the journal in the early 1970s.

Fourth suspect arrested in transgender slaying

SAN FRANCISCO -- A fourth suspect was arrested in the slaying of a transgender youth who was beaten and strangled at a party after suspects discovered the cross-dressing teen was a boy, police said Sunday.

Jason Cazares, 22, was arrested Saturday on suspicion of murder over his alleged role in the killing of Eddie "Gwen" Araujo, said Newark Police Lt. Tom Milner. He was being held without bail.

"The trail seems to be hot and we're continuing forward," Milner. He declined comment on Cazares's suspected role in the crime.

Last month, another suspect led authorities to a shallow grave 150 miles east of San Francisco in the Sierra foothills two weeks after the Oct. 3 party.

The 17-year-old was found buried -- wrists and ankles bound -- in the miniskirt he was last seen wearing while going by the name "Lida."

Witnesses told police Araujo was beaten, dragged half-conscious into a garage and strangled with a rope, according to court documents.

More than 90 arrested at military school protest

COLUMBUS, Ga. -- More than 90 people, including at least six nuns, were arrested for marching onto Fort Benning grounds Sunday during an annual protest of a U.S. military program that trains Latin American soldiers.

"I feel anger at the deliberate teaching of violence," Caryl Hartjes, a nun from Fondulac, Wis., said as she entered the compound, where she was arrested.

About 6,500 protesters gathered for the 13th annual demonstration by the School of the Americas Watch, which continues to protest the Nov. 19, 1989, killings of six Jesuit priests in El Salvador. Protesters said they demonstrate because people responsible for the killings were trained at the School of the Americas, a Fort Benning-based program that was replaced last year by a new institute.

-- From wire reports