Defendant in Deadly Home Invasion Said He Was Pressured to Kill, Witness Testifies

One of two Connecticut men charged with killing a woman and her two daughters in a 2007 home invasion told another inmate he killed the mother after being pressured to do so by the other suspect in the case, a prison officer testified Tuesday.

Jeremiah Krob recounted the conversation in New Haven Superior Court at the trial of Steven Hayes, who along with Joshua Komisarjevsky is charged in the killings of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, 17-year-old Hayley and 11-year-old Michaela. Prosecutors have said Hawke-Petit was strangled and her daughters died of smoke inhalation after the men set the house on fire.

Krob said Hayes recounted that he had taken Hawke-Petit to a bank to withdrew money while her family was held captive at their Cheshire home. When they returned home, Hayes put her in the den, Krob said. He was pacing between that room and the living room when Komisarjevsky told him he had to kill her, Krob recounted.

"Hayes said he didn't know if he could do it," Krob said, but told the other inmate he did kill her when he saw police cruisers outside the house.

Krob's account followed testimony by a state police detective who said Hayes gave an emotionless confession in which he told authorities how he sexually assaulted the mother after Komisarjevsky told him he had to -- to "square things up" -- because the other man already had sexually assaulted one of the girls.

Krob said he overheard the inmates' conversation in 2008 because Hayes was under suicide watch and being continuously monitored.

The officer testified Hayes said Komarisarjevsky, who is still awaiting trial, sexually assaulted Michaela, took cell phone pictures of her that he tried to e-mail to friends and doused her in gasoline. Krob said Hayes admitted pouring gas on the stairs but told the other inmate he didn't believe he could be charged with arson because he didn't light it.

Both prosecutors and defense attorneys rested their cases Tuesday. The defense called two witnesses and read a statement from Hayes' mother, Diane, who said Hayes left her house the night of the crime after saying he was waiting to hear from Komisarjevsky, who was putting his daughter to bed.

A Cheshire police officer called by the defense said he was on the scene for about 15 minutes when he saw the men fleeing the house. The officer said he tried to enter the house to rescue any occupants, but the fire was too intense.

The other defense witness testified it took him about 20 minutes to get from the Petit house to a nearby town where Hayes bought gasoline, according to earlier testimony.

It's not clear why Hayes' attorneys called those witnesses, but they have emphasized Komisarjevsky's role, reminding the jury of the period when Hayes was out of the house.

Krob also testified that the other inmate asked Hayes if he believed Dr. William Petit, who was beaten with a baseball bat but survived the attacks on his family, was in on the scheme to get an insurance payment. Hayes said he thought about it and believed it was possible because he was surprised Petit had been able to free himself after being tied up. Hayes said he wondered if Komisarjevsky had loosened the knots to help him escape.

After Tuesday's court session, Petit's father-in-law, the Rev. Richard Hawke, said the words were "cruel and out of place."

"A person has to be very insensitive to make a statement of such a man who has spent his life trying to build his family to be the greatest family he or you would ever know," Hawke told reporters, CTnow.com. "They had the opportunity to live out this greatness for a short time."

Petit also responded to the testimony, saying, "I really can't dignify that insinuation with a response." 

Authorities have never suggested Petit had any involvement. Petit testified earlier that he awoke on his couch the morning of the attacks and found two people standing near him, one holding a gun. He said he was beaten with a baseball bat, his wrists and ankles bound, and was tied to a post in his basement. He managed to free his hands, get up the stairs and crawl and roll to a neighbor's house.

Earlier Tuesday, state fire investigator Paul Makuc testified that a gas-fueled arson blaze spread "in a very rapid, quick and violent manner" through the Petit house.

Makuc said the fire was so intense that firefighters had to retreat when they tried to enter the house. He said the blaze began in a family room where Hawke-Petit's body was found and quickly spread to the second floor into the girls' bedrooms. He earlier described evidence of the accelerant poured on Michaela and around Hayley.

Three plastic containers with gasoline traces were found in the house -- including one under Hayley's body in a second floor hallway where she had fled, Makuc said.

Under cross-examination, Makuc said the tests do not tell him who poured the gasoline.

Hayes gave an emotionless confession to a state police detective in which he said he went out and got the gas and had sexually assaulted Hawke-Petit, according to earlier testimony.

Jack Hubball of the state forensic lab testified the containers had gas and that tests confirmed gas on the clothes of Komisarjevsky and Hayes as well as on debris taken from the staircase.
Closing arguments are scheduled for Friday.

If Hayes is convicted, the same jury would weigh whether he should receive the death penalty in a separate penalty phase. Komisarjevsky goes on trial next year.

Click here to read more on this story from CTnow.com 

The Associated Press contributed to this report 

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Pentagon says US-China military ties restored

Published September 29, 2010

| Associated Press

WASHINGTON –  China and the United States have agreed to resume normal military contacts after a period of estrangement over U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, the Pentagon said Wednesday.

The two nations will hold talks on maritime security in Hawaii in October, and China plans to send senior defense officials to Washington for meetings later this year, Pentagon spokesman Col. David Lapan said. He predicted other routine exchanges would follow.

China froze military contacts with the United States earlier this year in protest of a proposed arms sale to Taiwan worth more than $6 billion. Beijing decided not to issue an invitation to Defense Secretary Robert Gates for a visit that had been tentatively planned for June, and Gates found himself in a sharp exchange with Chinese generals over the issue of Taiwan at an Asian security gathering in Singapore.

Chinese military officials agreed to resume some military contacts during a visit to Beijing this week by a senior Pentagon official responsible for Asia, Lapan said.

The maritime talks scheduled for Oct. 14 and 15 are a continuation of contacts begun in the late 1990s but subject to frequent interruption, usually at Chinese behest.

The talks "have unfortunately sort of followed the fits and starts that we have had in our relationship," Lapan said. They were last held in September 2009.

U.S. defense officials across Republican and Democratic administrations have argued that the military relationship between the United States and China has lagged behind improved ties in the economic and political spheres.

Gates in particular has argued that the two nations need ways to understand one another's goals and motives and avoid potentially deadly miscalculations.

Gates invited his Chinese military counterpart to Washington last year and had anticipated a return invitation in 2010.

Gates and other U.S. officials have said arms sales to Taiwan are not new and suggested that China used the sale as a pretext to chill contacts with the United States that some in the Chinese military ranks find uncomfortable.

The United States remains the most powerful military power in the Pacific, but China is increasingly challenging U.S. primacy as it vastly expands its military spending and ambitions. China's claim to control what the U.S. considers international waters in Asia is a regular point of friction.

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Gates says too few in US bear the burdens of war

DURHAM, N.C. –  Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday that most Americans have grown too detached from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and see military service as "something for other people to do."

In a speech Wednesday at Duke University, Gates said this disconnect has imposed a heavy burden on a small segment of society and wildly driven up the costs of maintaining an all-volunteer force.

Because fewer Americans see military service as their duty, troops today face repeated combat tours and long separations from family. The 2.4 million people serving in the armed forces today represent less than 1 percent of the country's total population.

To attract and retain recruits, the Defense Department finds itself spending more money, including handsome bonuses and education benefits. The money spent on personnel and benefits has nearly doubled since the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, from $90 billion to $170 billion.

"That is our sacred obligation," Gates told the audience of compensating troops. "But given the enormous fiscal pressures facing the country," the nation must devise "an equitable and sustainable system of military pay and benefits that reflects the realities of this century."

Gates, who plans to retire next year, has been using academic-style speeches to outline what he believes to be the nation's toughest challenges that lie ahead when it comes to defense.

Earlier this year, Gates asked whether troops were training for the right kinds of missions and called into question the utility of D-Day style amphibious landings handled historically by the Marine Corps. He has also embarked on a cost-cutting initiative to prepare for what he says are leaner days ahead for the department.

As is the case in most of these speeches, Gates on Wednesday tried to raise awareness about a long-term problem rather than solve it. He offered no plan for what he described as a growing divide between Americans in uniform and those who aren't.

"Whatever their fond sentiments for men and women in uniform, for most Americans the war remains an abstraction — a distant and unpleasant series of news items that do not affect them personally," Gates said.

Even after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, for most Americans "service in the military — no matter how laudable — has become something for other people to do," he added.

Gates gave his speech in front of some 1,200 faculty and students at Duke, considered one of the nation's top universities.

Like most elite colleges, only a small fraction of Duke students consider military service. With 34 of its 6,400 undergraduates enrolled in its Reserve Officers' Training Corps, an officer commissioning program known as ROTC, Duke is actually considered among the more military-friendly elite colleges.

Yale, for example, has only four of its 5,200 students enrolled in ROTC, whereas Harvard doesn't allow ROTC or military recruiters on campus.

Without calling out any one particular university, Gates said he was disappointed in institutions that "used to send hundreds of graduates into the armed forces, but now struggle to commission a handful of officers every year."

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are considered the first large-scale, protracted conflicts since the Revolutionary War fought entirely with volunteers. Most military officials agree that this isn't a bad thing. Today's U.S. military forces are considered more professional and better educated than their predecessors.

More enlisted troops hold a high school diploma, or its equivalent, than their civilian peers. Two-thirds of new recruits come from neighborhoods that are at or above the median household income.

But the military isn't representative of the country as a whole. Recruits are most likely to serve only if they grow up around others who do so. The military also draws heavily from rural areas, particularly in the South and the mountain West.

The trend is reinforced by the location of military bases, which tend to be in rural areas and the South where land is cheapest, rather than close to the big cities and the Northeast and West.

Today, most soldiers who are not deployed are stationed in Texas, Washington, Georgia, Kentucky and North Carolina. Many military facilities in the Northeast and along the West coast, meanwhile, have been shut down for environmental and budgetary reasons.

Whereas Alabama hosts 10 ROTC programs, the city of Los Angeles — with twice the population — hosts only four.

"There is a risk over time of developing a cadre of military leaders that politically, culturally and geographically have less and less in common with the people they have sworn to defend," Gates said.

The premise underlying an all-volunteer force also has changed. Initiated in 1973, the concept was that such a force would fight in short, conventional conflicts like the 1991 Gulf War, or defend the U.S. and its allies against Soviet aggression.

But after almost a decade of warfare since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, troops who have escaped combat unscathed still faced repeated deployments with long separations from their families. In Iraq at one point, some combat tours stretched to 18 months. More than 1 million soldiers and Marines have been deployed there during the course of the conflict.

The consequences of long deployments in combat zones have been real. Suicide figures have increased, while the divorce rate among enlisted soldiers has nearly doubled.

"No matter how patriotic, how devoted they are, at some point they will want to have the semblance of a normal life — getting married, starting a family, going to college or graduate school, seeing their children grow up — all of which they have justly earned," Gates said.

Without offering specifics, Gates said a system must be created that is generous enough to recruit and retain people without causing the Defense Department to sink under the weight of personnel costs.

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NYC mosque developer: No plans to move project

NEW YORK –  The developer behind a proposal to build an Islamic center near ground zero said Wednesday that the experience has been an "eye-opener" about misperceptions surrounding his faith, but that he is the one ultimately calling the shots on the project and has no plans to move it.

Speaking on NBC's "Today" show, Sharif El-Gamal reiterated his stance that the opposition to the Park51 project was unexpected.

"It's been an eye-opener to see how my country, the United States, is using my religion, Islam," he said. "It's been a humbling moment and it's been a very sad moment for me personally."

The proposed community center and mosque would be two blocks from ground zero. The location has upset some relatives of Sept. 11 victims and led to angry demands that it be moved. Critics say the site of mass murder by Islamic extremists is no place for an Islamic institution.

El-Gamal said the project organizers had engaged with the local community and had gained their support before moving ahead, something he said was not being accurately reflected in coverage of the issue.

He said the project was an opportunity for him to do something for a community that had given him so much.

"As an American, as someone who has prospered in this country, someone who has gotten a lot from the city, this is an opportunity for us to give back," he said.

But the experience has also showed him that there was a lot of work to be done to help people understand who Muslims are, he said.

"There is such a misperception about my faith and my belief system," he said. "We are peace-loving Americans. We want the same things that everybody else wants."

El-Gamal is the manager of a real estate partnership that controls the property on which the Islamic center would be built. He also founded a nonprofit group to raise money for the project.

He said there were no discussions to move the center and that he was in control of that decision.

"I am calling the shots," he said.

But one of the major investors in the real estate partnership, Hisham Elzanaty, has described a slightly different vision for the center than El-Gamal, telling The Associated Press saying he would be willing to sell half the site for private development, while building a mosque on the other half.

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Calif. Teen Who Endured Gay Taunts Dies After Hanging Himself From Tree

Published September 29, 2010

| Associated Press

TEHACHAPI, Calif. -- A 13-year-old Central California boy who was a target of taunts from classmates has died nine days after hanging himself from a tree.

Seth Walsh had been in a coma since he was found unconscious in his Tehachapi backyard Sept. 19.

KGET-TV reports he died Tuesday.

Tehachapi Police Chief Jeff Kermode says investigators interviewed some of the teenagers who allegedly taunted Seth for being gay and concluded no crime was committed.

The chief told KGET several of the taunters broke down in tears while being questioned and said they wished they had tried to stop the bullying.

Judy Walsh says the family is not interested in casting blame and wants his memorial service to be a call for tolerance.

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Two Officers Shot, Suspect Dies in Nebraska Hospital Shooting

Published September 29, 2010

| Associated Press

OMAHA, Nebraska -- A 39-year-old man who led police on a high-speed car chase early Wednesday opened fire hours later at an Omaha hospital, grazing two police officers before they gunned him down, authorities said.

Jeffrey Layten died of his wounds Wednesday afternoon at Creighton University Medical Center, Omaha Police spokesman Jacob Bettin said.

Police did not disclose a possible motive for the shootings, and the hospital's CEO, Gary Honts, said he didn't know of any link Layten may have had to the hospital.

According to police, Layten fired at the two officers, grazing them, and the officers returned fire.

Police Lt. Darci Tierney told television station KETV that the officers' "grazing wounds" were minor. They were treated at the hospital and released.

Police have not said why they think Layten was at the hospital, but hours earlier he had fled the crash scene after driving his pickup truck into a utility pole following a high-speed police chase.

Police said he took off in his pickup truck with three guns after a family argument.

Layten owned the Upland Fields Hunt Club, had at least four years of Army training and "was a crack shot," Omaha attorney James Martin Davis said outside the hospital.

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New trial sought in Oregon Islamic charity case

Published September 29, 2010

| Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. –  Defense lawyers have asked for a new trial for a Southern Oregon man convicted in what prosecutors allege was a scheme to smuggle money to Muslim fighters in Chechnya.

A defense motion says actions by prosecutors that included waving a Quran in the air and dropping it on the table in front of jurors tainted the trial of Pete Seda of Ashland.

He was found guilty Sept. 9 of conspiracy to defraud the government and filing a false tax return.

The prosecutors haven't responded to the defense's move.

Seda was a leader of an Oregon branch of the Saudi Arabian charity Al-Haramain, which the U.S. government declared a terrorist organization in 2004.

He faces sentencing Nov. 23.

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Maryland Man Pleads Guilty to Impersonating Immigration Officer

Published September 29, 2010

| FoxNews.com

A Maryland man pleaded guilty to posing as an immigration officer as part of an alleged scheme to receive up to $1 million in immigration services, Capital News Service reports.

Authorities say Robert Fred Mejia, 29, of Germantown, Md., carried a gun and wore a bulletproof vest to impersonate an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer after accepting between $40,000 and $1 million for services from up to 250 people.

On Monday, Mejia pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court of Maryland to posing as an ICE officer.

Mejia and an accomplice used an office in Gaithersburg, Md., to dupe more than 50 people into paying them for immigration services they never provided, according to the plea agreement. Some of the victims reportedly paid more than $5,000 for services.

"It's relatively uncommon for us to find a case where someone's impersonating a federal agent," Rod J. Rosenstein, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, said in a statement released to Capital News Service. "We have prosecuted quite a few immigration fraud cases where lawyers or paralegals have been engaged in schemes to defraud people who are seeking immigration benefits in the United States."

Click here to read more on this story from Southern Maryland Online 

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Indianapolis Bakery Declines Order for Rainbow Cupcakes, Sparking City Inquiry

Officials in Indianapolis are turning up the heat on a bakery that refused to take an order from a student group seeking rainbow-colored cupcakes for next month's National Coming Out Day.

A spokesman for Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard said city officials are conducting an inquiry into the bakery, Just Cookies, which declined to take the order last week from a diversity group at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), which ordered the cupcakes for Oct. 11.

"The city's position is, it's the city's market, it's a public place," mayoral spokesman Robert Vane told FoxNews.com. "There is no litmus test for buying services or products at the City Market."

Just Cookies owner Lilly Stockon defended her bakery's decision last week, first telling Fox 59 that the shop doesn't make cupcakes, and then telling a reporter that she didn't have sufficient materials to make the rainbow colors. 

But her co-owner husband, David Stockton, said he had a different reason for refusing to take the order.

"I explained we're a family-run business, we have two young, impressionable daughters and we thought maybe it was best not to do that," he told Fox 59.

Enter the city officials.

"Whatever this gentleman's personal views are, it cannot interfere with the providing of a service or allowing someone to buy their goods," Vane said.

Calls to the bakery went unanswered on Wednesday. Attempts to reach members of the student group were unsuccessful, but a friend of the customer who placed the order questioned David Stockon's reasoning.

"I don't want to topple anybody at all," Rebecca Scherpelz told Fox 59. "I just think it's important we ask ourselves and Just Cookies asks themselves why they made the statement, why they're making these choices and how it's ultimately affecting their business and the community as a whole."

The controversy has prompted an Indianapolis radio station to hold a "Gay Cupcake Party" on Friday. As of early Wednesday, nearly 400 people had indicated that they planned to attend the event.

Vane, meanwhile, said city officials are working to determine whether the order was refused because the bakery couldn't provide the desired product or because something else was at play.

"It's the other proprietor stating his personal views, that's the problem, because that's not the image of the City Market and the image Mayor Ballard is trying to portray," Vane told FoxNews.com.  "That's beyond the pale."

Stevi Stoesz, a spokeswoman for City Market, a nonprofit organization with a 13-member board of directors, said officials there found the bakery's alleged conduct inappropriate.

"As a public marketplace, we find it unacceptable, and this is very much an equal accommodations establishment," Stoesz told FoxNews.com. "We are working with the mayor's office and city [attorneys] to resolve the issue expediently."

Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, said the "truly unfortunate" incident should be investigated.

"Rainbow cupcakes are simply a tasty way to celebrate values of diversity and acceptance," Carey said in a statement to FoxNews.com. "That anyone would object to serving them is truly unfortunate. Acts of possible discrimination should always be taken seriously and investigated."

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7 U.S. Postal Workers in Puerto Rico Charged With Drug Trafficking

Published September 29, 2010

| Associated Press

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Seven U.S. Postal Service workers in Puerto Rico have been indicted on charges they shipped thousands of parcels of heroin, cocaine and marijuana through the mail.

The Drug Enforcement Administration says the mail carriers are among 20 people charged in the case.

Puerto Rico is a favored transit point for drugs from South America, because packages that arrive in the U.S. territory do not have to clear customs to reach the American mainland.

Federal agents began executing arrest warrants for the defendants in pre-dawn raids around the San Juan area.

The DEA alleges the trafficking ring smuggled at least 100,000 pounds of marijuana worth more than $150 million into Puerto Rico over the last three years.

The mail carriers also are accused of facilitating the shipment of guns from the U.S. mainland to Puerto Rico.

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Pregame Prayers at Pee Wee Football Games Are Out of Bounds, Florida Dad Says

Football and prayer don't belong in the same backfield, says a Florida dad who wants his hometown to stop a Pee Wee football league from having kids perform voluntary pregame prayers.

Louie Fromm, an assistant coach for the Holmes County Pee Wee Football Association, formally requested on Monday that the Vernon, Fla., City Council end the league's traditional 50-yard-line pregame prayer ritual, alleging that his and his son's First Amendment rights are being violated.

League officials say they are a private organization that takes no government money, and the city has no right to prevent them from saying prayers on the field before games. But Fromm says the league may be private, but the field on which it plays its games isn't. It's public property, Fromm says, and the city must order the pregame prayers to stop.

The case presents a conundrum for city officials, who say the prayers will continue as "business as usual" until the city's attorney delivers his opinion.

Debbie Gunter, the league's president, said a petition with nearly 500 signatures has been circulating in support of continuing the prayer. 

"We have been saying prayers for four years and [Fromm] started complaining last year," Gunter told Fox News. "He has a problem with prayer, but while I don't have a problem with his non-beliefs, he shouldn't have a problem with ours."

But Fromm, who could not be reached for comment on Wednesday, told WJHG-TV that his son has been the target of isolation and ridicule from other players because he does not participate in the prayer.

He told the City Council:

"So those of you here tonight to hear the terms and conditions required to appease a single upset individual, I say to you that you have been grossly misinformed and blinded by a small group of religious fundamentalists who would like to convince you that a single individual is attempting to take away, of all phrases, your First Amendment rights -- when I am, in fact, here to make you aware that yours and your children's rights to religious freedom under the U.S. Constitution have already been hijacked by that very same group." 

Gunter said the two-minute prayer is to stress good sportsmanship and faith in the 400-player league.

"We are Americans," she continued. "My husband and son have both served in the military and we stand for our beliefs."

Kerry Adkison, Vernon's city attorney, told NewsHerald.com that the matter was brought before the council because the city-funded Vernon Sportsplex is used for practice.

Council Chairman Trey Hawkins told attendees at Monday's meeting that "business as usual" would continue until a decision is finalized, the website reported.

"I apologize if most of you came thinking there was going to be a decision made tonight, but this is the first we’ve heard of this complaint," Hawkins told NewsHerald.com. "Until there is a decision made, it will be business as usual at the Sportsplex."

A Vernon city spokesman declined to comment further when contacted by FoxNews.com on Wednesday.

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U.S. Worsens Mexican Violence by Returning Criminal Aliens to Border Cities, Mayors Say

A coalition of Mexican mayors has asked the United States to stop deporting illegal immigrants who have been convicted of serious crimes in the U.S. to Mexican border cities, saying the deportations are contributing to Mexican border violence.

The request was made at a recent San Diego conference in which the mayors of four Mexican border cities and one U.S. mayor, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, gathered to discuss cross-border issues.

Ciudad Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes blamed U.S. deportation policy for contributing to his city's violence, saying that of the 80,000 people deported to Juarez in the past three years, 28,000 had U.S. criminal records -- including 7,000 convicted rapists and 2,000 convicted murderers.

Those criminal deportees, he said, have contributed to the violence in Juarez, which has reported more than 2,200 murders this year. Reyes and the other Mexican mayors said that when the U.S. deports criminals back to Mexico, it should fly them to their hometowns, not just bus them to the border.

But critics in America say the Mexican lawmakers are simply trying to pass the buck to the U.S. and its taxpayers. They say the Mexicans should take responsibility for their criminals, who are putting both Mexican and American lives in danger.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement transports a majority of Mexican criminal aliens back to Mexico on buses. Since they're often held in U.S. detention centers near the border prior to deportation, busing them to Mexican border cities is much less expensive than flying them to the interior of the country.

Those convicted of crimes in the U.S. are required first to fulfill "any sentence imposed by the U.S. courts,"  ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice told FoxNews.com. 

She said all of the deportees are then inspected by Mexican immigration authorities when they arrive in Mexico, and if they are wanted for crimes in Mexico, they are also met by representatives from the Mexican Attorney General’s Office. 

But if they don't have charges pending against them in Mexico, they are free men and women once they cross the border regardless of what they have done in the U.S. 

Despite that, ICE says it recognizes the threat posed by Mexico's cartel-related crime and has been working closely with Mexican authorities to address it.

"Earlier this year, ICE suspended the removal of Mexican nationals with criminal records to Ciudad Juarez," Kice said. "…In addition to dedicating unprecedented manpower, technology and infrastructure resources to the border, ICE has also collaborated with Mexico to adapt its removal procedures in response to safety considerations."

And while criminal aliens continue to be repatriated to Mexico at other locations along the border, Kice said, "those removals are coordinated closely with Mexican authorities and advance notification is provided prior to the return of convicted violent offenders."

Juan Hernandez, founder of the Center for U.S.-Mexico Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas and former director of Mexico's Presidential Office for Mexicans, says he's spoken to the border city mayors, and they don't believe the U.S. is doing enough.

"Mexico believes that individuals who commit crimes in the United States should be prosecuted in the United States and not sent to Mexico to continue their performing of crimes," he told FoxNews.com.

Critics of the Mexican lawmakers say the U.S. is prosecuting the criminals in question, and if Mexico wants to keep them out of its border towns, then it should be up to Mexico to lock them up or transport them elsewhere.

"It's almost perverse that foreign officials would blame us for sending their criminals back to their country. Sovereignty entails responsibility. This country needs to take responsibility for its own criminals, and other countries -- Mexico included -- need to take responsibility for their own criminals and deal with them," Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, told FoxNews.com.

But Hernandez, a dual citizen of both the U.S. and Mexico, says the U.S. can't wash its hands of this issue.

"The border will never totally be shut down because we don't want that to happen in the United States. Mexico is our second most important trading partner, there are close to one million people crossing legally every day between Mexico and the United States," Hernandez told FoxNews.com. "So we can be strict to the letter of the law and say these criminals are Mexico's problem, but it's not just their problem because it will come back to haunt the United States."

Melhman says in some cases it may be worth spending the extra time and money to fly criminals to the Mexican interior to lower the risk of them coming back over the border. But that decision, he says, needs to be made because it's deemed to be in the best interest of the U.S., not because of pressure from Mexico.

"Every day, American citizens are victimized by illegal alien criminals because, for political reasons, our government refuses to enforce immigration laws," he said. "…We need to put resources into protecting our own interests and making sure violence doesn't spread across our border."

Asked whether ICE planned to make any changes to its deportation policy since the conference, Kice simply said, "While ICE has suspended criminal alien removals to Cuidad Juarez, criminal aliens continue to be repatriated to Mexico at other locations along the border and to the interior of the country."

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Mom Faces Drug Charges After Reports of Girl, 4, Selling Pot Door to Door

Published September 29, 2010

| FoxNews.com

A Texas mother is behind bars after neighbors told authorities that her 4-year-old daughter was going door-to-door selling marijuana, MyFoxDFW.com reported.

Maria Ipina of San Juan has been charged with possession of a controlled substance after police allegedly found more than 200 grams of cocaine packaged for sale in the 22-year-old’s apartment.

Police Chief Juan Gonzalez told local newspaper The Monitor of McAllen, that neighbors reported Ipina’s daughter was trying to sell them marijuana.

Gonzalez says the girl and her 6-month-old sibling have been turned over to their grandmother.

Click here fore more on this story from MyFoxDFW.com

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NKorea vows to strengthen nuclear arms

NEW YORK –  North Korea vowed Wednesday to strengthen its nuclear weapons stockpile in order to deter a U.S. and South Korean military buildup in the region.

Speaking before the United Nations Wednesday, North Korea's Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Pak Kil Yon said Pyongyang is, however, ready to join nuclear nonproliferation efforts in its capacity as a nuclear weapon state.

"As long as the U.S. nuclear aircraft carriers sail around the seas of our country, our nuclear deterrent can never be abandoned but be should be strengthened further," Pak said. "This is the lesson we have drawn."

Pak defended Pyongyang's development of nuclear weapons, saying it has succeeded in preventing the Korean peninsula from being "turned into a war field scores of times."

He insisted that North Korea's stockpile of atomic weapons was exclusively for the purposes of self-defense and that his country hoped to abide by international treaties governing their use.

"As a responsible nuclear weapon state, we are willing to join in the international efforts for nuclear non-proliferation and safe management of nuclear material on an equal footing with other nuclear weapon states," he said.

North Korea's nuclear program is of intense concern because of worries the country is building its arsenal of atomic weapons. Pyongyang conducted two nuclear weapons tests in 2006 and 2009, drawing international condemnation and U.N. sanctions.

The U.S. is trying to restart stalled negotiations on North Korea's nuclear disarmament. North Korea walked out of the six-party talks last year amid international criticism of its long-range rocket launch. Prospects for resuming the talks dimmed after Pyongyang was accused of sinking of a South Korean warship in March.

Pak didn't say if his country was ready to return to talks but said a nuclear-weapon-free Korean peninsula would be achieved only if external nuclear threats are eliminated, a referrence to the U.S. presence in South Korea.

Pak denounced the U.S. as "disruptor of peace" in the Korean peninsula, saying ongoing U.S.-South Korean military exercises close to its border were provocative and causing tension.

North Korea has strongly objected to the drills, which came in response to the warship's sinking, claiming they are in preparation for an invasion.

Pak denied his country had anything to do with ship's sinking and questioned the credibility an investigation into the incident that found North Korea responsible.

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Religion News in Brief

Published September 29, 2010

| Associated Press

SIDNEY CENTER, N.Y. –  Members of a small Muslim community in rural upstate New York say the uproar over a planned mosque near ground zero is behind attempts by local officials to shut down the community's graveyard and remove the two bodies buried there.

Hans Hass of the Osmanli Naksibendi Hakkani community, 130 miles northwest of Manhattan, says Tuesday that anti-Islamic bigotry motivated the Sidney Town Board's August vote to pursue legal action to shut down the Sufi community's cemetery.

Town Supervisor Bob McCarthy says the cemetery is illegal and bigotry has nothing to do with it. He says no legal action has been taken yet.

Hass has a 2005 document from the town zoning board saying the cemetery is legal, as well as burial permits.

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Gates: Day will come when women join special ops

Published September 29, 2010

| Associated Press

DURHAM, N.C. –  Defense Secretary Robert Gates says the day will come when women will be allowed to serve in special operations units, the kind of commando teams that conduct secret raids and nab terrorists.

Such an allowance would be a major change for the military. Women by law aren't allowed to serve on the front lines of combat, although women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan often face the same threats as infantry troops.

Gates was addressing a group of ROTC students at Duke University on Wednesday when he was asked whether special operations units will open to women now that they are allowed on submarines.

Gates said he expects women will eventually be allowed to join special operations forces in a careful manner, as they are on subs. Only female officers are being allowed on submarines, and only on subs large enough to accommodate separate living quarters.

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