Miami police catch suspect in rape cases
Police Chief John Timoney said Reynaldo Elias Rapolo, 32, a Honduran whose visa had expired, was arrested Friday night after detectives spotted him driving a car slowly through the Cuban-American area of Little Havana.
The car matched the description of the vehicle used by a man in a string of sex crimes in predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods of the city over the past year.
A police sergeant made brief eye contact with the suspect and began following him, Timoney told a news conference. "It's very hard to articulate a cop's gut, but when their eyes met and he (Rapolo) averted them, he knew there was something wrong."
The motorist ran at least two stop signs before being pulled over and arrested, officials said.
Timoney said Rapolo had been positively identified by at least one rape victim, and that his fingerprints and a DNA profile from a saliva sample he voluntarily gave had matched forensic evidence collected from some of the crime scenes.
Officials said the suspect could appear in court as early as today.
Pair charged with extortion in Buffalo kidnapping case
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Two men have been charged with extortion in a kidnapping case involving a relative of one of the men in the "Lackawanna Six" terror case.
Authorities said Brett Bigelow, 29, of Boston, N.Y., and Timothy Fisher, 26, of Angola, kidnapped a man Thursday and demanded a $1 million ransom from a close relative of Yasein Taher — one of six Yemeni-American men from Lackawanna convicted of providing material support to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.
The victim told the Buffalo News that he was bound with duct tape, given electrical shock and threatened with a gun.
Taher's relative called police after receiving the ransom demand, authorities said.
FBI agents arrested Bigelow and Fisher on Friday after Bigelow went to pick up the ransom money, U.S. Attorney Michael Battle said.
Florida Diocese repudiates confirmation of gay bishop
ORLANDO, Fla. — The Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida voted yesterday to repudiate a decision by the denomination's national convention to confirm a gay man as bishop.
The central Florida Diocese also rejected a decision by the General Convention that said same-sex blessing ceremonies are consistent with church teachings.
Other dioceses have rejected the decision to approve Gene Robinson of New Hampshire as a bishop, but the Florida Diocese was the first to do so in a formal diocesan convention.
Florida woman crowned in Miss America pageant
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Miss Florida Erika Dunlap beat out 50 rivals yesterday to be crowned Miss America.
Dunlap wins a rhinestone tiara, a runway walk, $50,000 in scholarship aid, a yearlong national speaking tour and — after it — the permanent tag of "former Miss America."
Miss Hawaii Kanoelani Gibson was runner-up, and Miss Wisconsin Tina Sauerhammer was third.
Dunlap was crowned by Miss America 2003 Erika Harold, 23, of Urbana, Ill., who won the title last year.
Law schools, professors sue over military-recruiter visits
BOSTON — A group of unnamed law schools, professors and students is suing the Department of Defense, alleging its requirement that law schools allow military recruiters on campus violates the First Amendment.
Many universities have barred recruiters, arguing the military's ban on homosexuals violated nondiscrimination rules. The Defense Department has threatened to pull federal funding from those schools.