Asylum

GREEN RIVER, Utah -- Great spellers come in all types, from egotistical showoffs to loners who find sanctuary in the forest of words. Kunal Sah, a 13-year-old eighth-grader, is an angry speller. He lives with his uncle and aunt at their family-owned Ramada Limited Motel in this tough former railroad town in eastern Utah. Kunal is making himself into a great speller by way of unhappiness and the immense pressure he feels to reunite his family, which was blown apart across two continents when his parents were sent back to India last year after being denied political asylum.

In Baltimore CityDeportation hearing in Canada delayed for man sought in killingA fugitive from Baltimore who is seeking political asylum in Canada delayed his deportation hearing yesterday so he can get a new lawyer, said Haven H. Kodeck, deputy city state's attorney.David A. Gatton, 21, of Brooklyn is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting Feb. 18 of Anthony Henson, 20, during an argument. Gatton surrendered to police in Vancouver, British Columbia, on June 25. Noting Maryland's death penalty and crowded prisons, he has requested asylum in Canada as a United Nations political refugee.

Peanut the Rare Dark Blue Elephant rambles in the shadows of cyberspace, fetching hefty sums, considering that he's small and stuffed and a member of the species Beanie Baby.Twenty dollars and fifty cents on one Web site, a mere $5 on another, but nearly $30 at a third site.Flaming Peanut fans can spend hours comparing these prices on auction sites such eBay or uBid. Or they can go to Bidder's Edge, a new site that lets you compare bids from more than a dozen auction sites (www.biddersedge.

Six retired Cuban baseball players who reportedly overslept in Baltimore and missed their return flight Tuesday flew home yesterday amid complaints by congressmen who said the stragglers did not get a fair chance to seek asylum here.Rep. Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat who came to Baltimore Monday and protested the exhibition game between the Orioles and a Cuban all-star team, said immigration agents interviewed the six at Baltimore-Washington International Airport just before the Air Jamaica plane took off at 8: 30 a.m."

In a ruling that spotlights the corruption of the Russian legal system, a U.S. immigration judge has granted political asylum to a Russian banker accused by Moscow prosecutors of stealing millions from a bank he helped found.Judge John M. Bryant wrote in his decision that he was convinced by testimony from several experts -- including a former KGB agent and a former Soviet Communist Party official working for the CIA -- that banker Alexandre P. Konanykhine was targeted for prosecution for political reasons.

A Cuban baseball pitching coach, after a night spent wandering downtown streets, walked into the Central District police station and asked for political asylum yesterday, just hours after his country's team left Baltimore with a historic 12-6 victory over the Orioles.Six other Cubans, all former ballplayers, missed the chartered plane taking a 335-member delegation back to Havana, but U.S. officials said they had no indication that they wanted to defect.Cuban officials said the six had overslept at their Baltimore hotel, spent the day visiting Washington and would probably leave today.

ROME -- An Italian court of appeals rejected Turkey's request yesterday for the extradition of a Kurdish rebel leader, deepening tensions between Italy and Turkey.Abdullah Ocalan, arrested last week while seeking to enter Italy, is to be released from detention in a military hospital and put under house arrest while Italy considers his request for political asylum.Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema had said Italy would not hand Ocalan over to Turkey, citing an Italian law that prohibits extraditing prisoners to countries that have the death penalty.

Federal officials say Richard Charles broke the law when he came into this country. But, so far, the more laws he breaks, the longer he gets to stay.The 29-year-old native of Haiti was convicted on fraud and attempted theft charges in Howard County Circuit Court yesterday. In June, he was found guilty of a fourth-degree sex offense.Having lived in the United States since 1989, he will likely spend more time here -- in jail.And even after he's out of jail, he might get to stay in this country.

YVENIE EMMANUEL had committed no crime. She simply had asked the United States to protect her from persecution in her homeland of Haiti.However, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) put her behind bars in the Wicomico County Detention Center, a county jail in Salisbury, for almost seven months while the Justice Department reviewed her political asylum case.Three months pregnant when the INS apprehended her, Emmanuel huddled in solitary confinement for five days at the start of her incarceration because she mistakenly answered "yes" when a prison official asked her in English, a language she barely understands, if she felt suicidal.

WESTON, W.Va. - A spiked wrought-iron fence guards the massive sandstone fortress here that once confined hundreds of anguished souls, some held for decades in what was then called a lunatic asylum.Today the infirmary's dark rooms and endless halls hold only shadows and dust.But real-estate developers and government leaders envision a new future for the ancient Weston State Hospital. They see it reborn as an $80 million resort hotel, its pastoral lawns and hills converted to a tournament-class golf course.

FRIDAY 'GRUNDLEHAMMER': Forget "Tommy" and "Jesus Christ Superstar," "Grundlehammer" is a rock opera for the masses. The Baltimore Rock Opera Society and its seven-piece metal orchestra perform 15 original rock songs in this medieval fantasy at 2640 Space, 2640 St. Paul St. The show is at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $8-$10. Go to baltimorerockopera.org. SUGARLOAF CRAFT FESTIVAL: More than 250 juried artists display their crafts, including pottery, sculpture, jewelry, fashion and furniture, at Timonium Fairgrounds, 2200 York Road.

The 12-year-old boy's harrowing story tumbled out: Tormented by a gang in his native El Salvador. Sent by his terrified mother to sneak into the United States in search of safety. Nabbed by Border Patrol agents in Texas. Told he'd have to go back home, whatever the consequences. Santos Maldonado-Canales badly wanted to stay, and now, sitting in a plush Baltimore law firm in August 2008, his hopes rested with an earnest young lawyer. At 27, Azim Chowdhury was two years out of law school and knew nothing about immigration law. A partner at the Duane Morris firm had given him the case as part of its mission to offer free representation.

U.S. immigration authorities have begun deportation proceedings against a Rwandan academic who was suspended by Goucher College amid allegations that he had participated in the African country's 1994 genocide. Leopold Munyakazi, 59, was arrested Tuesday afternoon at his home in Towson. Immigration officials said only that he was "in the country illegally," though he had arrived with a valid visa, said Brandon A. Montgomery, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Munyakazi was released on condition he wear a monitoring device and remain at home, Montgomery said, adding that "removal proceedings" have begun.

Hallucinogens a risky quick fix Before The Sun weighed in on the medicinal value of hallucinogens ("Tuning in, not out," editorial, July 6), it would have been worth its while to engage in some scientific investigative reporting. A publication by Hopkins researchers should not be accepted blindly as the truth. LSD for victims of trauma? This recommendation despite the increased risk of suicide documented among LSD users? Ecstasy for post-traumatic stress? Ecstasy may provide short-term relief, but it can cause long-term defects in the brain's systems for transporting and receiving serotonin, the very systems most important for stable mood.

WASHINGTON - Growing up in the West African nation of Mali, Alima Traore assumed that girls everywhere had to undergo the procedure. "In my country, it is usually an old lady" who performs the crude surgery, the 29-year-old woman said during an interview in her attorney's Rockville office. "They have a traditional knife for it. They cut your intimate parts. This knife is used for many girls." It wasn't until Traore came to the United States eight years ago that she learned that female genital mutilation has been condemned the world over as a human rights abuse.

GREEN RIVER, Utah -- Great spellers come in all types, from egotistical showoffs to loners who find sanctuary in the forest of words. Kunal Sah, a 13-year-old eighth-grader, is an angry speller. He lives with his uncle and aunt at their family-owned Ramada Limited Motel in this tough former railroad town in eastern Utah. Kunal is making himself into a great speller by way of unhappiness and the immense pressure he feels to reunite his family, which was blown apart across two continents when his parents were sent back to India last year after being denied political asylum.

When the Colts played in Baltimore, Memorial Stadium was described as "the world's largest outdoor insane asylum." Although M&T Bank Stadium lacks the same nostalgia and national reputation, the Ravens believe their home field not only rivals Memorial Stadium, but could be the loudest in the NFL. AFC divisional playoff Saturday, 4:30 p.m., chs. 13, 9, 1090 AM, 97.9 FM Line: Ravens by 4

WASHINGTON -- The first time they came for her, members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia shoved the 31-year-old nurse blindfolded into the back of a green Renault sedan. After a seemingly endless trip, her kidnappers took her to a house and forced her to treat one of their commandants, who was writhing in pain from a bullet wound to the leg. The woman was abducted seven more times in 1997 and 1998 to give medical care to FARC guerrillas. Each time, she said, they warned her not to go to the police.

Russia is a country run by means of fear - not terror, by and large, but a quietly pervasive in-the-background fear. Fear of Chechens, fear of the law, fear of the arbitrariness of the state, fear of power. It serves President Vladimir V. Putin's purposes well because it distracts people, cows them, induces them to leave the politicians alone. To be not afraid is to be subversive. Anna Politkovskaya was not afraid, and now she is dead. She was the third journalist with Novaya Gazeta to be murdered since 2000.

ROME -- The hijacking of a Turkish airliner by at least one unarmed Turk reported to have a message for Pope Benedict XVI ended peacefully last night, with the passengers free and unharmed and the assailant in custody. The hijacked Boeing 737-400 with 113 people aboard landed on Italy's Adriatic coast, near Brindisi. The plane was en route to Istanbul from the Albanian capital of Tirana when diverted over Greece. Initial reports said two hijackers were protesting the pope's coming visit to Turkey, apparently another violent reaction to recent statements made by the pontiff that cast Islam in a bad light and triggered protests.