January 22, 1996
Web posted at: 12:55 a.m. EST
SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- One man was killed and five others were injured Saturday when they tried to elude the U.S. Border Patrol and fell into a 150-foot canyon just east of San Diego.
The six men fell while running from authorities near the Otay Lakes Dam Saturday night, said Ron Henley, a supervising agent with the U.S. Border Patrol.
The six men were part of a group of 15 young men, all in their 20s, who crossed the border in a rugged, desolate area of Southern California, authorities said.
The five men who survived the 150-foot drop were being treated in area hospitals. Because of the depth of the canyon, rescue workers had to use helicopters to rescue the injured early Sunday morning.
The other nine men -- who surrendered before their companions ran off -- are being detained by federal authorities and would likely be sent back to Mexico, Henley said.
PLAINFIELD, Vermont (CNN) -- A death-row inmate was awarded a bachelor of arts degree in psychology Sunday, earning nearly half of his credits while in prison.
Mumia Abu-Jamal, a former reporter and Black Panther, was convicted of the 1981 shooting death of a Philadelphia police officer and was scheduled to die by injection last August. A judge granted him a stay of execution and he is seeking a second trial.
Abu-Jamal applied to Goddard College in an off-campus program last year. He did all his work through the mail "This day has truly been long in coming, several decades long, in fact. That it is here borders on the miraculous," Abu-Jamal said in a statement read by his son, Jamal, who was present to accept the degree.
NEW YORK (CNN) -- A study of poet Walt Whitman's life and Richard Ford's story of a former sportswriter were nominated for 1995 National Book Critics Circle awards Sunday.
The books were among 25 nominated in five categories by a board of directors, after a mail-in vote by 500 book editors, critics and reviewers. The winners will be announced March 21.
Ford's novel, "Independence Day," was among those nominated as the best work of fiction. "Walt Whitman's America: A Cultural Biography" by David S. Reynolds looks at the poet's life and work and was nominated in the biography- autobiography category. Other nominees:
LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- An internal audit by the Commerce Department revealed that Commerce Secretary Ron Brown used money originally appropriated for other uses within the bureau to pay for his personal travel expenses as well as those of political associates, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.
The audit discovered that Brown and his staff spent nearly $1.4 million from the budget for Brown's office on travel during 1994 -- nearly 1.5 times what was spent in 1991 by Brown's predecessor, Robert A. Mosbacher, who was often criticized by Democrats for excessive travel costs.
According to the audit, the Commerce Department exceeded its travel budget under Brown's leadership by 55 percent in 1994 and has not recovered all the money spent on private citizens' travel.
A department spokesman said steps are being taken to tighten controls on spending.
NEW YORK (CNN)-- Baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan, who helped pioneer the jazz movement and who worked with Duke Ellington and Miles Davis, died Saturday at his home in Darien, Connecticut, at 68 from complications from a knee infection, widow Franca Mulligan said.
Mulligan was a versatile musician who loved jazz, but could also jam in the big band. The composer and bandleader was king of the cool style and sweet rhythm of the jazz era, which he helped develop with Miles Davis in the late 1940s.
Born in New York on April 6, 1927, Mulligan wrote arrangements for Johnny Warrington's radio band as a teen-ager and wrote for Gene Krupa's band after moving back to New York in 1946. He became part of the cool jazz movement and took part in Davis recordings in 1949 and 1950. He won acclaim in 1952 after forming his first pianoless quartet in Los Angeles with Chet Baker on trumpet.
WASHINGTON (CNN)--Abortion opponents gathered outside the White House on Saturday to protest President Clinton's threatened veto on a pending abortion bill.
Many demonstrators waved signs that said "Mr. Clinton, do not mock God" and "Abortion is murder." One sign, showing a fetus, asked "Is this a choice or a child?"
Last month, the Senate voted to ban "partial-birth" abortions, but White House officials have said that Clinton plans to veto the bill.
"We are here to pray for the president as a Christian and to ask him to repent and protect America's children," Rev. Pat Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition, told a group of nearly 70 supporters.
Monday marks the 23rd anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision in Roe vs. Wade that legalized abortion.
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