Briefs

Waterboarding held to protest

attorney general nominee

WASHINGTON - Protesters staged a waterboarding yesterday outside the Justice Department, calling for a Senate committee to reject attorney general nominee Michael Mukasey because of his reluctance to define the tactic as torture.

The demonstration came shortly before Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., said he would oppose Mukasey during a Senate Judiciary Committee vote set for today on whether the retired judge should be confirmed to lead the Justice Department.

Mukasey's approval was all but assured last week when two Democrats on the panel - Charles Schumer, of New York, and Dianne Feinstein, of California - said they would disregard concerns about his stand on torture and support him.

The demonstration of waterboarding brought a volunteer to retching coughs and tears in four minutes.

"I wanted desperately to scream but I couldn't because as soon as I would - water," said Maboud Ebrahimzadeh, 26, an Iranian-American actor from Maryland. "Water would go through the mouth and through the nose."

Discovery's daylight landing

requires coast-to-coast descent

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Shuttle Discovery's astronauts surveyed the wings of their ship yesterday to ensure a safe descent over the American heartland after leaving the international space station.

On the ride home tomorrow, the shuttle will make the first coast-to-coast re-entry since Columbia shattered in the sky over Texas in 2003 and sent tens of thousands of pounds of wreckage raining down on at least two states.

Discovery was not supposed to re-enter over the entire United States - just Florida after zooming up from the southwest over Central America and the Caribbean. But that original plan would have entailed a pre-dawn landing, and shuttle commander Pamela Melroy preferred a safer, easier touchdown in daylight, said shuttle program manager Wayne Hale.

This 15-day mission is longer than most - and more stressful, too, with the astronauts' impromptu repair to the torn solar wing at the space station. As a result, crew fatigue must be considered, Hale said.

Cop's friend admits she aided in disposing of his wife's body

CANTON, Ohio - A high school classmate of a suspended police officer who is accused of killing his pregnant girlfriend pleaded guilty yesterday to helping dispose of the body and agreed to testify against him.

Myisha Ferrell, 30, quietly pleaded guilty just before opening statements were to begin in her jury trial. She was sentenced to two years in prison but will be eligible for release after one year as part of a plea deal.

The plea gives prosecutors a witness with firsthand knowledge of the crime, but it leaves many questions in the case publicly unanswered until Bobby L. Cutts Jr.'s trial on aggravated murder and other charges begins Feb. 4. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

* In Lansing, Mich., a man suspected of killing several women over several terrifying weeks was ordered yesterday to stand trial on murder charges in two of the deaths and assault charges in a third attack. Matthew Emmanuel Macon is charged in the August deaths of Karen Delgado-Yates, 41, and Sandra Eichorn, 64, Ingham County District Judge Patrick Cherry ruled.

Government scrambles to help

victims of Mexico's flooding

VILLAHERMOSA, Mexico - Hungry and dehydrated victims of one of the worst floods in Mexico's history scrambled for government packages of food and medicine, while at least 20,000 people remained trapped yesterday on the rooftops of homes.

Nearly a week of floods left 80 percent of the Gulf Coast state of Tabasco under water and destroyed or damaged the homes of about half a million people. Fearing looting, Gov. Andres Granier ordered central streets in the state capital of Villahermosa closed.

Authorities said two more bodies were found Sunday in the brackish waters covering much of the region. If the deaths are confirmed to have been caused by the flooding, the disaster's death toll would stand at 10.

We were forgotten after Noel,

Haitian slum-dwellers say

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Residents of a notorious Haitian slum lashed out at local authorities yesterday for abandoning them in the recovery from Tropical Storm Noel, and said U.N. troops and Haitian officials failed to protect one shelter from gangs. Protesters blocked roads and burned tires on the outskirts of the Cite Soleil slum to demand the government clean up after Noel. Heavy rains and flooding killed 148 people there and left tens of thousands homeless. *

- Daily News wire services