EW YORK - Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday blamed Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for the breakdown of the Middle East peace talks, as her Senate opponent, Representative Rick Lazio, accused her of flip-flopping on moving the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. In an interview on WCBS-AM radio, Clinton praised Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's efforts and said Arafat ''didn't show the same commitment.'' Lazio said Clinton's call to move the embassy from Tel Aviv this year came nine months after she told an Orthodox Jewish group that she could not support an immediate move. (AP)
Ohio
Sheppard tries anew
to clear his father
CLEVELAND - The son of Dr. Sam Sheppard has filed an appeal seeking to overturn a jury's ruling that his father could not be cleared of his mother's 1954 beating death. Sam Reese Sheppard, 53, who filed the appeal Friday, has worked for 11 years to win exoneration for his father, who he claims was wrongfully imprisoned for a decade for his mother's slaying. (Reuters)
Mississippi
Computer seized in
black youth's death
JACKSON - Sheriff's deputies investigating the hanging death of a young black man have seized his computer, hoping to find evidence on its hard drive that will say whether the death was suicide or murder. Raynard Johnson, 17, was found dead June 16. Two autopsies - one commissioned by the family - showed Johnson's injuries were consistent with suicide. But Johnson's family, joined by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, say the teen was lynched because he was friendly with two white girls. (AP)
Florida
Elian asylum funds
will go to charity
MIAMI - The remaining money in a fund used in the failed attempt to keep Elian Gonzalez in the United States will be turned over to a cancer charity, trustees said. The Elian Gonzalez Defense Fund collected $210,000, and between $50,000 and $60,000 is expected to be turned over to the Miami-based League Against Cancer. (AP)
Illinois
Suspect sought in
attacks on women
CHICAGO - Police have issued an arrest warrant for a man suspected in a series of attacks against Asian women. The suspect, Mark Anthony Lewis, 33, is believed to have fled to the Philippines, Chicago police said Friday. There have been nine physical and sexual assaults, seven of them against Asian women, from April 7 to July 19 in Chicago. (AP)
