Charles Manson, who led a “family” of murderers on a rampage in 1969 and was famous for his wild-eyed stare and shock of hair, has shown his face to the public for the first time in 40 years, with his California prison showing a photo of him looking, as CNN puts it, “like any gray-bearded senior citizen.” He will be up for parole in 2010, but it’s anyone’s guess if he shows up for the hearing: he didn’t bother last time around, in 2007. Meanwhile, Sarah Jane Olson, aka Kathleen Soliah, who was famously arrested after two decades hiding out behind the facade of a comfortable well-to-do family life in Minnesota, is now being paroled after seven years in prison for her part in the Symbionese Liberation Army murders in the 1970s. She’d like to spend her parole time with her family up north, but New York Times Op-Ed writer Caitlin Flanagan argues that she should serve it like the poor, the blacks, the other underprivileged criminals she says she was defending.
Cisco Rolle: showing guests the quality of large-screen networking
San Jose, California, USA (Bloomberg) – Cisco is selling $4 billion of debt, only the second sale of its bonds in 25 years, as part of measures to cut costs in the face of falling sales worldwide of networking equipment.
A woman gave birth Monday to eight babies, who were reported by doctors to be healthy, although two needed help with breathing. She is only the second woman in the United States to give birth to eight children, doctors believe. They were prepared for seven, but “baby H” surprised them. At the woman’s request, few details are available about the family or the birth, including any information about whether she took fertility treatments. Reuters The other mother of eight, Nigerian-born Nkem Chukwu, who gave birth to the world’s first set of octuplets in Houston, Texas, US, says the new mother should “Just enjoy it. It’s a blessing, truly a blessing.” One baby died shortly after birth but the other seven recently celebrated their 10th birthday. Times Leader/AP story on the 10th birthday party
Three major fires continued to burn in southern California, USA, with hundreds of homes destroyed, another 3,500 under threat and 300,000 people evacuated. Sections of several freeways have been closed, complicating the evacuation. Los Angeles Times
[Reuters video] Firefighters, working non-stop to contain two large fires that had rapidly doubled in size on the northern fringes of Los Angeles made progress overnight, as the winds began to die down. The fires have been stoked by storm-force strong winds Reuters
