Across The Nation

MAN SUES HIS EX-GIRLFRIEND FOR BECOMING PREGNANT

SANTA FE, N.M. - A New Mexico man has filed a lawsuit against his former girlfriend for getting pregnant without his consent, an attorney said yesterday.

Peter Wallis, 36, seeks unspecified damages for costs he expects to incur in helping care for the daughter borne by Kellie Smith, 37.

Mary Han, Smith's attorney, said the pregnancy was accidental and her client had not asked Wallis to pay child support. She accused Wallis of evading responsibility for his actions.

"I think he enjoyed the full extent of sexual activity and now refuses to accept responsibility for his conduct. If he felt so strongly, why didn't he have a rubber on?" Han said.

She asked a judge in New Mexico state court to throw out the suit on grounds that it was "ridiculous."

The lawsuit accuses Smith of fraud, breach of contract and conversion of property, or, in essence, stealing Wallis' semen to make a baby, Han said.

It contends the two had an oral contract that Smith would take birth-control pills but that she stopped in order to become pregnant. The child was born in November 1997.

Historic Santa Barbara wharf burns; firefighter injured

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Flames fed by treated timbers roared through Santa Barbara's historic Stearns Wharf last night, destroying three businesses and lighting the waterfront.

Firefighters battled the blaze from above and below California's oldest working wooden pier yesterday as a huge plume of gray smoke streaked into the evening sky.

One firefighter was slightly injured in a fall. About 250 feet of the half-mile-long wharf was charred.

Stearns Wharf was built in 1872. It has shops and restaurants and gets 5 million visitors a year.

The blaze was fueled by wood treated with creosote, a flammable chemical used to protect the wharf from saltwater.

Residents gazed silently at flames, firefighters say

EMELLE, Ala. - Firefighters who arrived at a blazing girls' dormitory in a ramshackle religious commune found residents gazing at the flames in silence.

Four children, none older than 5, were killed as flames swept the one-story, wood-frame dormitory Tuesday night at the isolated commune called Holyland.

Firefighters described a virtually emotionless scene as flames shot from the building, which housed dozens of girls who slept three to a bed and lived apart from their parents.

Commune leader Luke Edwards, 72, who has raised millions of dollars while battling claims of child labor and stressing an ascetic Christian life, was not at the compound.

The commune has been hit with repeated lawsuits, child-labor fines, $1.3 million in court judgments and allegations of sexual misconduct.

Students go wild as teachers go on strike in New Jersey

JERSEY CITY, N.J. - Teachers in the state's second-largest school system staffed picket lines instead of classrooms today while administrators and police struggled to control unruly students.

Carrying signs that read, "It's about dignity, not dollars," striking union members marched outside schools throughout the district.

The Jersey City Education Association represents 2,500 teachers and 1,000 aides and support staff. Schools, with more than 32,000 students in all, opened at 8:30 a.m., staffed by administrators and 200 substitute teachers.

The 1,800 students at Dickinson High School were dismissed after fire alarms were pulled and students began fighting, Vice Principal John Powers said. Area merchants said students uprooted planters, stole merchandise and threw food.

About 150 students were kicked out of Lincoln High. Jersey City police Sgt. Edgar Martinez said more than 150 police were being reassigned to place officers at every school.

Jury finds woman guilty in beating death of nanny

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. - A jury yesterday found a woman guilty of manslaughter in the beating death of her live-in Filipina nanny in 1996.

Marcelina Baluch, 40, a Philippines native and U.S. citizen, was cleared of first-degree murder. She will be sentenced Jan. 11.

The body of Imelda Ritua, 28, was found wrapped in plastic beside a road 100 miles from Baluch's Edison, N.J., home.

Miami Beach anthrax scare was hoax, authorities say

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. - Workers at a fashion magazine were hospitalized for decontamination yesterday after a receptionist opened a letter purporting to contain anthrax.

Nineteen people were decontaminated and put on antibiotics as a precaution against the anthrax bacterium, which is found in cattle and sheep and can be used as a biological weapon.

Authorities said late yesterday they had determined the letter was a hoax, but they did not know what the envelope contained. "It is not anthrax, I repeat, not anthrax," FBI spokesman Mike Fabregas said.

The letter, containing a white powder, was opened by a receptionist at Ocean Drive magazine. The letter said, "If you've opened this, you've been exposed to anthrax."