图 1
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12, 2006
NEWS
STATE
Allie Stephens, left, and Chelsea King hang a poster of missing Kelsey Stelting at a Subway Restaurant, Tuesday morning in Independence, Kan. Stelting was last seen about 6:30 a.m., while getting ready for school, said her mother, Kelly Cox. The softball player was getting a bag of softball bats from the family car and did not return to the house, Cox said.
Police search for missing girl
BY JOHN HANNA THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
INDEPENDENCE, KAN. Kansas and Oklahoma authorities were searching Tuesday for a 16-year-old girl who reportedly was abducted from her home in Independence, Kan.
Kelsey Lynn Stelting was last seen about 6:30 a.m. while getting ready for school, said her mother, Kelly Cox. The softball player was getting a bag of softball bats from the family car and did not return to the house, Cox said.
Police believe she was abducted in a white van of unknown make or model, which
was last seen going south on U.S. 75 toward Oklahoma, Independence Police Chief Lee A. Bynum told the Independence Daily Reporter.
"Shortly after that we called authorities," Cox said in a telephone interview. "We knew something was wrong right away."
Cox said when she went outside to see where Kelsey was, the doors to the family's car were open, and the keys were on the ground.
The family had not heard from the girl by Tuesday afternoon, she said. The family was offering a $50,000 reward for Kelsay's safe return.
Kelsey is blond, blue-eyed,
weighs 112 pounds and is 5 feet
4 inches tall. She was last seen
wearing black shorts, a T-shirt
and tennis shoes.
The family said a 911 call was made from Kelsey's cell phone, but Bynum refused to discuss the call because of the ongoing investigation.
Kelsey's father, Gerald Stelling, lives in Houston and arrived in Independence after noon. He told the Independence Daily Reporter he was "in shock."
Bynum said planes were searching along U.S. 75 and in the rural areas of Montgomery County. Law enforcement officials also were scouring the list of registered sex offenders in the area.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN SA WORLD
Cox said the family hadn't received any threats, and Kelsey had no reason to run away. The junior in high school was preparing to play in a softball doubleheader Tuesday evening, was doing well academically, and was a member of the student council and captain of the dance team, she said.
Anyone with information has been asked to call the Independence Police Department at (620) 332-1700 or the Kansas Bureau of Investigation at (800) KS-CRIME.
Stroke ends career of prime minister
BY ARON HELLER
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
JERUSALEM — With his chair empty and a small brown gavel lying untouched in front of it, ailing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was declared permanently incapacitated by Israel's Cabinet on Tuesday, officially ending his five-year tenure.
After the stroke, Sharon's deputy, Ehud Olmert immediately stepped in as his temporary replacement. Olmert has since won national elections as leader of the centrist Kadima Party, and has become the designated prime minister, assigned the task of forming a coalition government.
Sharon, 78, suffered a devastating stroke Jan. 4 and has been in a coma since.
Tuesday's declaration was largely symbolic in nature since Olmert has been Israel's de facto leader since January, and because medical experts believe Sharon's chances of recovery are slim.
Under Israeli law, an aling prime minister can only have a temporary replacement for up to 100 days before an official successor must be named. That deadline expires Friday, but because the week-long Jewish Passover holiday begins Wednesday, the declaration of permanent incapacitation was moved up to Tuesday.
"Today, we realize that he is not with us anymore in the political arena, that he could not see the results of what he initiated, the Kadima Party," said Cabinet minister Meir Sheetrit of Kadima.
Cabinet Secretary Israel Maimon noted at the beginning of a special Cabinet session that Friday marks the end of the 100-day period.
the end of 100 days, the government must appoint a minister from his party as the acting prime minister, until the establishment of a new government. The suggestion laid forth today is to appoint the head of the Kadima party, the acting prime minister Ehud Olmert, as the prime minister in practice," Maimon said.
"According to the law, at
Sharon has been lying unconscious since his stroke. Last week, surgeons reattached a portion of his skull removed in previous surgery. It was his eighth operation since he fell ill.
Sharon underwent a CT scan on Monday to determine the outcome of surgery on his skull last week, Hadassah Hospital spokesman Ron Krumer said.
The scan revealed no change in his condition, which the hospital defines as "serious but stable," meaning that his life is not in immediate danger.
Hadassah officials have said that discussions were still under way on whether to move Sharon to a long-term care facility. Experts say his chances of recovery are extremely slim, given the gravity of his stroke and his persistent coma.
Sharon suffered the stroke weeks after leaving the hawkish Likud Party and forming the new centrist Kadima movement, pledging to pull out of large parts of the West Bank and draw Israel's final borders by 2010.
Sharon had been expected to coast to a third straight term as prime minister, and his removal from the political scene shocked Israelis.
Led by Olmert, Sharon's heir apparent, Kadima won last month's Israeli election, although by a smaller margin that was expected when Sharon led the party. Analysts have said the party's popularity was a result of Sharon's legacy.
For the most current schedule information go to: www.washburn.edu/schedule/summer
---