Across the Nation

Abortion protest supports accused priest

ROCKFORD, Ill. - Dozens of anti-abortion protesters at an annual rally yesterday said they support the devotion - if not the alleged actions - of a Catholic priest accused of crashing into an abortion clinic here and chopping away at the building with an ax.

"I don't agree with his methods, but I appreciate his heart," said the Rev. David Broom. He carried a sign that said "Adoption: The loving option" and joined a human chain of about 1,000 protesters outside a Catholic church forming the shape of a cross.

The rally had been scheduled long before Saturday's attack. Amid the singing, people could be heard along the chain talking about the Rev. John Earl, who is charged with burglary and felony criminal damage to property for the attack Saturday morning at the Northern Illinois Women's Center. He was freed after posting $10,000 bond.

Earl was stopped inside the building by its owner, who fired two shotgun blasts to scare him away. The clinic wasn't open and there were no injuries.

"It's hard to support those kinds of actions when you stand for life, but we definitely do support him in standing up for life," Jeff O'Hara said at yesterday's rally.

The attack came two days after government approval of the RU-486 abortion pill at the office of Richard Ragsdale, who successfully challenged Illinois abortion laws in the 1980s that claiming they limited women's access to the procedure.

Navy detains 65 military protesters

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - The U.S. Navy detained 65 protesters yesterday near a former weapons depot on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, part of a day of antimilitary demonstrations.

The protesters entered the base by crawling under a fence before dawn, Navy spokesman Lt. Jeff Gordon said.

They would likely face trespassing charges, he said.

Later in the day, thousands of Puerto Ricans marched to demand the military abandon the Vieques training ground it has used since the 1940s.

"What's that sound I hear? It's the people on the warpath!" they chanted, waving Vieques' blue-and-white flag.

Authorities have arrested more than 600 protesters since May. More than 400 await trial on trespassing charges.

The Navy controls about two-thirds of the 20-mile by four-mile island.

Opposition to the military's presence on Vieques flared in April 1999, when a U.S. Marine Corps F-18 jet dropped two 500-pound bombs off target, killing a civilian guard on the range.

Judge rejects second attempt at Waco suit

WACO, Texas - A federal judge rejected a second attempt by plaintiffs to reopen the Branch Davidians' wrongful-death lawsuit against the government.

Attorneys David Hardy and Jim Brannon asked U.S. District Judge Walter Smith Jr. to reconsider his ruling that rejected the notion that flashes picked up on FBI infrared video on the final day of the 51-day standoff at the sect's Waco compound were blasts from FBI weapons.

In a ruling last week, the judge said the lawyers' request was without merit.