Cosby killer confesses to 'wickedness'
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LOS ANGELES - The man convicted of killing actor Bill Cosby's son has withdrawn his appeal and confessed to the slaying, calling it an act of "great wickedness," in a letter to authorities released yesterday.
Lawyers for Mikhail Markhasev, 22, filed a notice in appeals court that they were abandoning efforts to reverse his murder conviction for the killing of Ennis Cosby, 27, a Columbia University graduate student who was home on vacation when he was shot to death while fixing a flat tire near a freeway offramp in January 1997.
"I am guilty, and I want to do the right thing," Markhasev said in the handwritten letter.
As for Markhasev's motivation, Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley said, "It falls in the category of confession is good for the soul."
Cosby's family would have no comment, a spokesman said.
Grandson of Cuban leader seeks asylum in U.S.
MIAMI - Yotuhel Montane, 28, grandson of a Cuban revolutionary leader, said he is seeking political asylum in the United States.
Montane, who arrived in Miami from Puerto Rico last month, made the statement earlier this week on a local radio program.
"I broke with all that because I wanted to live in freedom," Montane said of his life in Cuba. "None of the perks I had because I was a member of my grandfather's family are worth more than the freedom I enjoy now."
Montane's grandfather is the late Jesús Montane Oropesa, know as Chuchu, a close friend of Fidel Castro since 1956, the early days of the revolution that culminated with Castro taking power in 1959.
Jesús Montane's son, Sergio, a member of Cuba's diplomatic corps, defected in 1994. Now 51, he lives in Miami.
Montane said he was disenchanted by what he saw as hypocrisy on the part of his nation's leaders.
"None of them live like the rest of the people," he said. "They live in nice houses, drive fine cars and their refrigerators are full of food. They drill it into your head that you're part of a revolution, but you finally realize that the revolution doesn't exist."
Simpson surrenders to face charges in road-rage incident
MIAMI - O.J. Simpson surrendered to authorities yesterday to face charges that he reached into a man's car and pulled off the driver's glasses in December after the man honked at him for running a stop sign.
Simpson is charged with burglary of a car and misdemeanor battery. The charges carry a combined 16 years behind bars. But State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said Simpson would probably not serve any time if convicted.
Simpson posted $9,000 bail and was released less than two hours after he walked into a Miami-Dade County jail at noon. Attorney Yale Galanter read a statement to the media calling the incident "a road-rage misunderstanding."
While his attorney was talking, Simpson mugged for the camera, then signed an autograph for a woman who approached him.
At a late-afternoon news conference, Simpson called the altercation a "non-incident."
"I want to contest this to show people what kind of life I live at times when something that is to me so inconsequential can get blown into what is happening here," he said. "I actually for the first time am looking forward to a litigation."
A jury acquitted Simpson of the 1994 slayings of his former wife and her friend. In a subsequent civil trial, Simpson was found liable for the killings and ordered to pay $33.5 million.
Thurmond decides to cut down on Senate duty
WASHINGTON - Strom Thurmond, the nation's oldest and longest-serving U.S. senator, has decided to cut back on his routine of gaveling the Senate to order.
Thurmond, 98, has been slowed by fatigue in recent days, and last weekend he checked into Walter Reed Army Medical Center for observation.
The South Carolina Republican returned to work Monday but has missed several opening sessions. Since Republicans captured the Senate in 1995, Thurmond, the president pro tem, has been a fixture calling the Senate to order and asking the chaplain to recite the prayer.
He decided several weeks ago to cut back on this responsibility, but a spokeswoman said he has not missed a committee or floor vote this year. Thurmond, who lives alone, has been hospitalized several times the past year.
He was elected to the South Carolina House as a Democrat in 1932, ran for president in 1948 on the Dixiecrat ticket, was first elected to the Senate in 1954 and switched to the Republican Party in 1964.
MORE INFORMATION John S. O'Brien, 66. The University of California, San Diego researcher who discovered the genetic cause of Tay-Sachs disease and devised the first tests to identify the neurological disorder that affects mostly children of Eastern European Jewish background, died Feb. 1 in his La Jolla, Calif., home.