Briefs

That crime originated when a Millbrae resident got a phone call from a woman with an Australian accent claiming that victim had won $2.5 million in the Australian Lottery.

The victim was duped into believing that a processing fee was required to claim the money and, following a series of telephone calls, ended up wiring money via Western Union to an address in Kingston, Jamaica, on 10 separate occasions. In many similar cases the victims are seniors who are conned out of most if not all of their meager savings.

Citizens should be suspicious of anybody claiming to be giving out a reward or proposing a deal that should be kept secret, Grogan said.

Anyone calling on the phone, or initiating contact by email or in person, and asking questions about banking or finances should be regarded with suspicion.

Coast Guard aids huge cocaine seizure

The U.S. Coast Guard announced yesterday that 3 tons of pure cocaine were seized off the Pacific coast of South America, with the aid of a San Francisco-based helicopter crew.

The crew on-board the Cutter Rush Coast Guard vessel patrolled the Gulf of Tehuantepec about 100 miles south of Nicaragua before spotting a suspected smugglers' boat Feb. 5.

Four suspects aboard the 42-foot vessel set their ship on fire, and jumped overboard as the Coast Guard approached. Coast Guardsmen were able to put out the flames and keep the drug boat from sinking.

Officers took the four suspects, and 105 bales of cocaine weighing 5,755 pounds, into U.S. custody. The Joint Interagency Task Force West in Alameda coordinated the seizure with the help of Mexican Navy patrols, as well as U.S. Coast Guard and Naval officers.

Foster City police looking for two robbers

Foster City police are on the lookout for two men suspected of robbing the Bay View bank at 1100 Shell Boulevard yesterday afternoon.

At approximately 4 p.m., police received a report that the bank was robbed and that two men had just fled on foot.

The suspects did not show a weapon during the robbery, according to police. The first suspect is described as a black man, 6-foot-3-inches, muscular, and wearing a white long-sleeve Nike T-shirt and light-colored baseball cap. The second suspect is described as a light-skinned male with a stocky build and a closely cropped beard, shorter than the first subject, and wearing a brown flannel shirt and red baseball cap.

Woman convicted of murder for running down husband

HOUSTON -- A woman who ran down her cheating husband with her Mercedes after catching him with his mistress was convicted of murder Thursday despite her tearful claim that she hit him accidentally, while in a heartsick daze.

Clara Harris, 45, could get a life sentence, or a lesser punishment if the jury concludes she acted with "sudden passion." Two jurors wept as the judge read the verdict against the mother of young twins.

Harris showed no emotion as she listened to the verdict. But she burst into sobs as the penalty phase began with her 17-year-old stepdaughter confiding on the witness stand that she had attempted suicide more than once since her father's death last July. The teenager was a passenger in the Mercedes that day.

Harris, a dentist who shared a practice with her orthodontist husband, insisted David Harris' death in a hotel parking lot was an accident. She said that she was in a daze and wanted only to damage the black Lincoln Navigator belonging to her husband's receptionist-turned-lover, Gail Bridges.

Merger talks between CNN and ABC dead

NEW YORK -- AOL Time Warner on Thursday declared merger talks between CNN and ABC News dead, saying that despite the idea's merits there were too many problems to pursue at this time.

The move was not entirely unexpected, given that AOL Time Warner Chairman Richard Parsons had put the talks on hold in December.

"After careful review, it was determined that although there are great merits and possibilities to a merger of ABC and CNN news, for us, the potential problems associated with the completion of such a transaction and the integration of these two distinct and great cultures was more than we want to pursue at this time," AOL Time Warner said in a statement.

It was the second time merger talks had fallen through for CNN. The cable news network had seriously discussed combining operations with CBS News a few years ago.

U.S. senior-citizen population to double

ATLANTA -- America's population of senior citizens is expected to double by 2030 to 71 million, and the nation needs to begin preparing for the demands they are going to put on the health care system, the government said Thursday.

Between 2000 and 2030, the number of Americans 65 or older will increase from 35 million to 71 million, or from 12.4 percent to nearly 20 percent of the population, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

The increase reflects both the aging of the baby boom generation and major improvements in life expectancy.

Woman accused of brokering Internet adoptions arrested

SAN DIEGO -- A former San Diego woman accused of running a fraudulent Internet adoption service was arrested Thursday in Washington and faces multiple counts of wire fraud.

FBI agents arrested Tina Johnson at her home in the Seattle suburb of Maple Valley, Wash., according to a statement from the San Diego office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Two children, both under the age of 6, were found in the home and placed in protective care.

Johnson was at the center of an Internet adoption case involving twin girls who were born in 2000. A California couple claimed they had paid $6,000 to Johnson's "A Caring Heart" service to adopt the girls, Kiara and Keyara. They said the twins' birth mother, Tranda Wecker of Missouri, took the girls for a visit and never returned.

Bob Hope, nearing 100, celebrated at Reagan Library

SIMI VALLEY -- Entertainer Bob Hope is getting an early 100th birthday present: He's being honored at the shrine dedicated to longtime friend Ronald Reagan.

"Bob Hope: American Patriot," an exhibit featuring rare photographs, nostalgic video and film clips, medals presented by U.S. presidents and touching letters from the families of military personnel he visited on overseas USO tours, opens Monday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

"They really brought dad's life to life," Linda Hope, his daughter, said Thursday after touring the exhibit. "It's very exciting, and in such perfect company here at the library."

United seeks to regain share with discount airlines

CHICAGO -- United Airlines said Thursday it wants a planned new discount airline to carry 30 percent of its U.S. capacity, underscoring its intention to make a big push against the low-fare carriers that have eroded its business. The plans for a discount carrier, first announced in December after United filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, remain in the formative stage and are opposed by its unions out of concern about jobs, pay and seniority.

McDonald's stock not fast enough for buyers

OAK BROOK, Ill. -- McDonald's Corp. stock slumped Thursday to its lowest level since 1994 after the company reported a bigger sales decline than expected in Europe, its second biggest market.

The hamburger chain said after trading closed Wednesday that January sales at McDonald's restaurants open at least a year were down 2.4 percent worldwide from a year earlier, including 0.5 percent in the United States and 3.8 percent in Europe.

McDonald's shares declined 26 cents to close at $13.57 on the New York Stock Exchange after falling as low as $13.41 -- the lowest intraday price, adjusted for splits, since October 1994.

Big drop in automobile sales

WASHINGTON -- A big drop in automobile sales swamped gains registered by other merchants, causing overall sales at the nation's retailers to fall in January.

While consumers -- the main force keeping the economy going -- stayed away from car dealer showrooms last month, they hit other stores. That made economists hopeful shoppers will keep their pocketbooks and wallets sufficiently open in the months ahead to prevent the economy from falling into a new recession.

Dell profits up 32 percent

ROUND ROCK, Texas -- Dell Computer Corp., one of the leading barometers of the global computer industry, on Thursday reported record fourth-quarter sales and sharply higher profits as sales of servers and storage devices surged.

The world's No. 2 personal-computer maker earned $603 million in its fourth quarter, ended Jan. 31, up 32 percent from net income of $456 million in the same period a year ago.

The income worked out to 23 cents per share, up from 17 cents in the same quarter last year. The per-share earnings met the consensus of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call.

Bomb-scanning equipment maker reports soaring profits

NEWARK -- InVision Technologies Inc. on Thursday reported that its fourth-quarter profit soared as it filled orders for bomb-scanning devices used at U.S. airports.

The Newark-based company earned $44.4 million, or $2.40 per share -- up from net income of $6.8 million, or 43 cents per share, at the same time last year. The results outstripped the consensus estimate of $2.16 per share among analysts polled by Thomson First Call. Only one other company, L-3 Communications, makes the bomb scanners.

Intuit profits slightly up

SAN FRANCISCO -- Intuit Inc. reported a slightly higher quarterly profit Thursday as the personal software maker shook off blistering attacks against a new anti-piracy feature on its popular TurboTax program.

The company earned $128.4 million, or 60 cents per share, for the three months ended Jan. 31. The results represented a 7 percent increase from net income of $119.9 million, or 55 cents per share, from the same quarter last year.

The earnings beat the consensus estimate of 57 cents per share among analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call.

Revenue for the quarter totaled $558 million, a 17 percent improvement from last year.

Dirty Harry is now outgunned

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- Dirty Harry is now outgunned: Smith & Wesson has introduced its biggest handgun ever, a .50-caliber Magnum.

The five-shot revolver with an 8 1/2-inch barrel weighs about 4 1/2 pounds -- roughly a pound more than the big black .44 Magnum boasted by Clint Eastwood in the Dirty Harry movies.

It fires a new .50-caliber cartridge that the company said produces nearly three times the muzzle energy of the .44 -- or enough stopping power to bring down a charging bear. In fact, company spokesman Ken Jorgensen maintained it is primarily intended for big game hunters.

Study indicates ibuprofen could be bad for heart patients

LONDON -- Fresh evidence adds to suspicions that ibuprofen could be dangerous for most heart patients because it can block the blood-thinning benefits of aspirin.

New research published this week in The Lancet medical journal found that those taking both aspirin and ibuprofen were twice as likely to die during the study period as those who were taking aspirin alone or with other types of common pain relievers. Scientists believe ibuprofen clogs a channel inside a clotting protein that aspirin acts on. Aspirin gets stuck behind the ibuprofen and cannot get to where it is supposed to go to thin the blood.

Aspirin is considered the most important medicine for heart disease. Nearly all heart patients take it every day because it prevents the clots that cause heart attacks and strokes. Ibuprofen, which is in Motrin and Advil among other brands, is widely used for arthritis and other aches and pains.

U.S. plane crashes in Columbia; five aboard feared captured

BOGOTA, Colombia -- A U.S. government plane carrying four Americans and a Colombian crashed Thursday in southern Colombia, apparently killing two of those aboard, and officials feared the survivors were captured by leftist rebels.

Officials with the state prosecutor's office spotted two bodies amid the wreckage of the plane, said the government office, which is responsible in Colombia for investigating deaths. U.S. Embassy officials said they had no comment on the report.

After getting word of the crash, U.S. officials scrambled rescue teams to the sweltering plains of the region, but at least one report said rebels had captured those aboard and announced, "We have them! We have them!" in an intercepted radio transmission.

There was no statement from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, Colombia's main leftist rebel group. A Colombian military official reported the transmission and said FARC rebels had apparently found the plane.

Striking police in Bolivia return to work after two days of deadly riots

LA PAZ, Bolivia -- Striking police officers returned to work Thursday after two days of violent street protests that left 22 people dead and a trail of burned and looted buildings throughout the capital of South America's poorest nation.

People lined the streets of La Paz to cheer police officers as they began to restore order after demonstrators set fire to government buildings and looted stores in a wave of violence that began as a protest against a new income tax that the government suspended to calm the unrest.

Over the two days, 22 people were killed, including at least nine police officers, and 102 were injured, according to Eduardo Chavez, director of La Paz's General Hospital, where most of the casualties were treated.

Vatican opens archives about Germany

VATICAN CITY -- For years the Vatican has struggled to defend its wartime pope, Pius XII, against claims he was anti-Semitic and didn't do enough to save Jews from the Holocaust.

Now the Vatican is taking the extraordinary step of opening part of its secret archives ahead of schedule, in a bid to silence attacks against a man it is considering for sainthood. Starting Saturday, millions of Vatican documents from the years leading up to World War II will be available to scholars.<