World briefs 11/17/06

Indiana mom arrested in deaths of her children

ELKHART, Ind. -- The mother of four young children found dead in their home was arrested Thursday in connection with their deaths, police said. Angelica Alvarez, who was found unconscious next to the bodies of her two daughters and two sons in the basement of their home Tuesday, was placed under arrest in the hospital where she has been in critical condition. Prosecutors have until Wednesday to decide whether to charge her, authorities said. An autopsy found the children, ages 2 to 8, died of asphyxia, and police have ruled the deaths were homicides. Alvarez, 27, was in custody at Elkhart General Hospital, police Capt. Steven Mock said. He did not give details on her injuries but said she was expected to live.

Hospital accused of 'patient dumping'

LOS ANGELES -- In an unprecedented crackdown on a practice experts say is shamefully common around the country, prosecutors accused a major hospital chain Thursday of ridding itself of a homeless patient by dumping her on crime-plagued Skid Row. A surveillance camera at a rescue mission recorded the demented 63-year-old woman wandering around the streets in a hospital gown and slippers last March. In announcing the criminal and civil charges, City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo said a Kaiser Permanente hospital put the woman in a taxi and sent her to the neighborhood even though she had serious, untreated health problems. Homeless and mental health advocates in a number of states -- including California, New York and Maine -- have long decried and fought to stop the discharge of homeless patients into urban communities. But no U.S. hospital has been prosecuted on criminal charges of patient-dumping, said President Bush's homelessness czar, Philip F. Mangano.

CDC to try to improve care of lab animals

ATLANTA -- The nation's top public health agency has dramatically revamped how it cares for lab animals after an inspection found problems that led to the deaths of six monkeys, agency officials said Thursday. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has spent $3 million on animal care improvements since last year, when independent reviewers threatened to revoke its approval for the way the CDC treats lab animals. The CDC has volunteered to submit to inspections since 1967 by the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Care International (AAALAC), a private, not-for-profit organization that promotes the humane treatment of animals in science through voluntary accreditation programs. In an inspection last year, the group found a range of problems with the way the CDC handles lab animals that prompted it to consider revoking the CDC's accreditation.

Air Force takes wraps off secret program

DAYTON, Ohio -- A once-secret program that enabled thousands of U.S. military pilots to practice dogfighting against Soviet-designed MiG fighter jets was detailed Thursday by the Air Force as part of the first public acknowledgment of the program's existence. The classified air combat training program ran from 1977 to 1988 at the Tonopah Test Range in remote desert scrubland near Las Vegas and Nellis Air Force Base.

Florida begins probe into Foley's messages

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Florida authorities have opened a criminal investigation into the sexually explicit computer messages that former Rep. Mark Foley sent to former male congressional pages. "It was a preliminary inquiry before, but we found the basis to open up a criminal investigation," Kristen Perezluha, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said Thursday. She would not elaborate. The FBI is investigating whether Foley broke federal laws, and the House Ethics Committee is looking into whether senior GOP officials hid what they knew about the messages. Foley resigned Sept. 29 after being confronted with the lurid communications. His attorney, David Roth, has said Foley never had inappropriate sexual contact with minors. He declined to comment Thursday on the criminal investigation. Florida law prohibits seducing or attempting to seduce a minor. However, authorities have said the term "seduce" is open to interpretation.

-- From wire reports