Court rules sperm donor must pay child support\nHARRISBURG, Pa. -- A state appeals court ruled that a verbal agreement between a woman and her sperm donor was invalid, and ordered the man to pay child support for the woman's twins.\nThe three-judge panel ruled Thursday that the deal between Joel McKiernan and Ivonne Ferguson -- in which McKiernan donated his sperm and would not be obligated to pay any support -- was unenforceable because of "legal, equitable and moral principles."\nDespite an agreement that appeared to be a binding contract, the father is obligated to provide financial support, the court decided.\n"It is the interest of the children we hold most dear,'" wrote Senior Judge Patrick Tamalia.\nMcKiernan's attorney said he may appeal.\nThe decision could have implications for sperm and egg donors who expect anonymity, said Arthur Caplan, a professor and medical ethicist at the University of Pennsylvania.\n"Anybody who is a sperm donor ought to understand that their identity could be made known to any child that's produced, and they could be seen by the courts as the best place to go to make sure the child has adequate financial support," he said Friday.\nAccording to the trial judge's opinion, Ferguson and McKiernan met while working together and had a two-year affair. The relationship waned by late 1993, when Ferguson convinced McKiernan to act as a sperm donor with no responsibility for any child born as a result, the opinion said.\nMcKiernan, who has paid up to $1,520 a month in support since losing the case at trial, said he was not pleased with the ruling, but declined to comment further.\nFerguson's lawyer, Elizabeth Hoffman, said there was never evidence of an agreement between the two in which McKiernan would not have to pay any support.\n"There was no evidence except his word and her word and it was a matter of credibility," he said.\n \nMorocco searches for 400 Afghan-trained militants\nMADRID, Spain -- Moroccan authorities have warned Spain that they have lost track of 400 suspected militants who trained in al-Qaida terrorist camps in Afghanistan, a newspaper reported Sunday.\nMost of the suspects in the Madrid train bombings were Moroccan, prompting the government to alert Spanish anti-terrorism judge Baltasar Garzon of the situation during a meeting in Rabat, Morocco, in early July.\nAbout 600 Moroccans were known to have trained in Afghanistan in camps sponsored by Osama bin Laden, the daily El Pais said, quoting unidentified sources close to police and judicial officials.\nBut Morocco knew the whereabouts of only 200 of them, El Pais said.\nSpanish officials refused to comment on the report, but the newspaper story supports statements Garzon made earlier this month to a Spanish parliamentary commission investigating the Madrid bombings. He told the commission that Morocco was teeming with some 100 al-Qaida-linked cells capable of staging suicide attacks in Europe.\nMore than 50 people, mostly Moroccans, have been arrested and 16 remain in jail in connection with the train bombings that killed 191 people and injured some 2,000.\nGarzon told the commission that many of the cells are in northern Morocco and contain members who speak perfect Spanish, allowing them to slip easily in and out of Spain -- just a short ferry ride across the Strait of Gibraltar.\nHe also said the groups raise money by dealing hashish, selling stolen cars and smuggling people into Spain.\nEl Pais reported Sunday that Moroccan officials and Garzon also discussed greater anti-terrorism cooperation between Spain and Morocco and among North African countries, like Algeria, and European countries, like France and Italy.
India, Bangladesh flooding death toll exceeds 760 victims\nDHAKA, Bangladesh -- Workers and volunteers frantically stacked sandbags Sunday to protect the capital from rising water, while the death toll in India's devastating floods rose sharply when 139 bodies were washed up in eastern India.\nThe combined death toll in both countries rose to 762, with 535 fatalities in India. Twenty-five new deaths were reported Sunday in Bangladesh, where a total of 227 people have been killed by massive flooding.\nRivers around the capital, Dhaka, burst their banks, leaving 40 percent of the city of 10 million people under water.\nNearly two-thirds of Bangladesh -- a delta nation of 140 million people -- has been flooded since the start of the monsoon in late June. The floods, the worst since 1998, have affected about 20 million people, the Flood Forecasting and Warning Center said.\nMost deaths have been due to drowning, lightning, waterborne diseases and electrocution from snapped power lines.\nHundreds of people from flooded parts of the capital took shelter in schools or offices. Some families pitched makeshift plastic and bamboo tents on sidewalks along busy streets.\nRelief workers and volunteers stacked sandbags in a bid to stop water gushing through cracks in two main flood protection embankments to the west and southeast of Dhaka.\nTransportation was disrupted, with two major highways and railroads linking the capital to the rest of the country, partially submerged. Many factories producing textiles -- Bangladesh's main export -- were closed as water swept into the plants.\nFloods are common in Bangladesh, a low-lying deltaic plain crisscrossed by hundreds of rivers that flow from the Himalayas into the Bay of Bengal. In 1998, about 70 percent of the country was inundated for nearly three months.\nIn India, rescue workers have found 139 bodies in the last two days as flood waters receded, said Upendra Sharma, a flood relief official in the eastern Indian state of Bihar.\nArmy soldiers were dropping food packages and drinking water in the worst hit regions.
