Bounty

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. occupation authorities will begin releasing 506 low-risk security detainees this week in a gamble calculated to win the support, or at least the neutrality, of many Iraqis who had opposed the American presence. At the same time, the U.S.-led coalition will increase the bounty for information leading to the capture or death of a newly identified cadre of insurgent leaders. Senior coalition officials described both moves as an attempt to build on the momentum generated by the capture of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein last month.

As the Ravens began preparation for their heated rematch with the Pittsburgh Steelers, defensive end-linebacker Terrell Suggs said he hasn't received another warning from the NFL office this week about bounties. "But I have a good feeling Roger will be somewhere nearby watching," said Suggs, referring to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Two months ago, Suggs told an Atlanta radio station the Ravens had a "bounty" on Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward. In the same radio interview, he called Ward "a cheap-shot artist" before saying the Ravens "got something in store for him."

PARRIS N. GLENDENING, who said he wanted to be the "education governor," can at least lay claim to being the "education infrastructure governor."In awarding $257 million for school construction in the coming year, Mr. Glendening is funding projects at a level that affirms his own description: "Golden age for school construction."He provided $634 million for school construction in his first term, almost twice the total of the prior four years. Benefiting from economic good times, he is on pace to provide $1 billion to build and renovate schools through his second term.

WASHINGTON - John McCain offered plans yesterday to develop more fuel-efficient cars and trucks, drawing a warm welcome from energy analysts. Environmentalists were more cautious, warning that new vehicles might trade one problem for another if they just plug into coal-burning power plants. The Republican presidential candidate's proposals to increase energy efficiency, rolled out in Fresno, Calif., came atop his proposal last week to boost supply by opening off-shore sites to oil drilling and sought to match environmental concerns to energy anxiety.

Two Baltimore bounty hunters were indicted yesterday on charges related to the alleged invasion of an Ellicott City home in December. The Howard County grand jury indicted Darnell Anthony Brown, 29, and Everett Ambush Chambers, 26, on charges of armed robbery, robbery, theft, second-degree assault and impersonating a police officer. Deputy State's Attorney I. Matthew Campbell said the case against the bounty hunters is unusual. Bond industry experts have said that prosecutors sometimes hesitate to bring charges against bail bondsmen and their employees because they are thought to be widely exempt from the law. Chambers and Brown, both employees of Baltimore-based Prestige Bail Bonds, said they were recovering bail jumpers at an apartment on Town & Country Boulevard on Dec. 19. While at the apartment, the two ate food, watched television and stayed until 2:40 a.m. without permission before leaving with one of the female residents, whom they later dropped off outside a police station in Catonsville, according to charging documents.

The wrongful release of a prisoner brought to Baltimore's Central Booking and Intake Center by a bounty hunter is the subject of an internal investigation by city police, a department spokeswoman said last night. Jerome Briggs, 40, a drug offender, was wanted for failing to appear in court in November, and was caught Monday afternoon by a bounty hunter working for a bail bond business, the city's jail commissioner confirmed yesterday. Briggs, of the 500 block of Denison St., was to begin serving a 55-year sentence.

PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico - Under any other circumstances, the residents of this beach town would have been just plain happy to have Andrew Luster off the streets. In his last five days of freedom, the heir to the Max Factor fortune and fugitive serial rapist was living in a motel that rents by the hour next to the local office of the Mexican version of the FBI. Nights would find him in the flashy clubs, consorting with lots of young women. But when a U.S. bounty hunter tackled Luster last month in front of a taco stand near the waterfront, the capture created its own brouhaha over vigilantism, national sovereignty and neighborly relations.

It wasn't Marlon Brando's Fletcher Christian aboard the HMS Bounty, moored in Fells Point. But passers-by in East Baltimore yesterday could be forgiven for taking a second look at the replica ship and its crew, who were on location for the filming of a potential television program about the ship and its famed mutiny. Baltimore is to be the backdrop for five such documentaries on world explorers - the latest bounty for a local film industry that generated $125 million in economic impact last year.

BAGHDAD - When it comes to the search for Saddam Hussein, many Iraqis say, it's not about the money. Bitter foes and loyal supporters of the deposed Iraqi leader say the $25 million reward offered by the United States isn't likely to persuade anyone to betray him. If Hussein is in Iraq, as U.S. officials say they believe, he is probably being sheltered by relatives or former high-ranking officials who had long prepared for just such a contingency and...

Howard County prosecutors can proceed with charges against two Baltimore bounty hunters accused of holding five non-English-speaking people hostage in their own apartment late last year, District Judge Neil Edward Axel ruled after a routine probable-cause hearing yesterday. Everett Ambush Chambers, 26, and Darnell Anthony Brown, 29, have been charged with 28 counts each that stem from a Dec. 19 incident in a Town & Country Boulevard apartment in Ellicott City. Charges against them range from kidnapping to armed robbery to first-degree assault.