groB fob fob fob fob fob fob fob fob fob fob fob fob E ^ t-H JU**ldk4^ are rare. but one of them were roundo dup. sidering the billioi ns of doll The Conrail Boyz he Iped cargo rolling on 173,0001 make Newark — which h;c s the of rail in North At nerica. Fr East Coast s busiest conti liner losses to theft and pilferage port and is served by hundrei ds of been conservative ly eslimat trains — a hotbed of train »UD~ $9.5 million to S 14 6 milli bery. year over the past six yean Other lucrative areas tor theft tine si! 4 niill ion in } include Chicago. Dallas, East St Louis, III., and Memphis, Tenn because the freight lines ru through poor and usually rtHig parts of town. gangs pn the techno! ogy. changed: The old lostly on pas sen- tching gold and and the bagg. age- 46 car safe. Today, freight trains loaded with such merchandise as electronics, cigarettes and tires are the lure. “If you can sell it on the street easy, they’ll get it,” said James Beach, a captain for the Union Pacific railroad police in Fort Worth. Texas. Law enforcement authorities have responded with advanced technology of their own. Just as Pinkerton men used the new tan gled telegraph to track Cassidy, today’s railroad police use com puters to pinpoint where cargo disappeared, and infrared scopes that reveal people hiding in rail yards. Most freight bandits are hit- and-run artists whose strikes have little planning, such as those con ducted by street gangs in Chicago and Los Angeles, or by Mexican gangs that dash across the border in Texas and New Mexico. Many such gangs do not measure up in sophistication to the Conrail Boyz, a ring centered in northern New Jersey.s. Steven Hanes, director of Norfolk Southern’s police force, pronounced the Conrail Boyz the “largest single gang ever to attack North American rail roads.” These young gang bangers will jump on moving trains, grab stuff, throw it off, and run away. theft is in the | James ( country enev hi not — James Beat Union Pacific railroad polk bange trains w n ■til neci eve: onrat “Our trains slowly through < these young gar jump on movir _ stuff, throw it off. « away.” Beach said. E often cannot see the because freight trains cai cars long. In the ease of the Boyz, train jumpers would find out which container cars had valuable cargo, then radio the information to cohorts. The cohorts would then pose as rail workers and ask dispatchers which siding the train was headed for. Once the train had stopped, the thieves would toss the mer chandise into trucks. The gang went for designer clothes and other merchandise. In one brazen heist, members drove onrail Mong v ver. ven by a Ctxirai d Mongon. j putting out a 111 have someone a® ieutenant. i is awaiting trial Arthur J. Abut declined to comment. A day before authority a ed the Conrail Boyz, Mexican men were sentence. New Mexico to two year prison for their roles in a & with two FBI agents dunr.f foiled train robbery along the?' der. The agents were puirtmt 1 with rocks and beaten lastytr Law enforcement agf launched the sting operati along the border after Uni Pacific suffered 122 robberies 1 burglaries and 19 rock-thtw. incidents in nine months int area west of El Paso, Texas. I DRESDEh Fi nee and < Tl ursday to dlaft resolut siread the hi postwar Iraq Klieved a c Kssible. I French Pi Hiirac and G< ■erhard Scht ■at Washin ■nited Natior in Iraq’s polit stance threate barely healed oyer their ard Be Iraq war. I Under the circulated W ■nited Nath ■eks money other countru cbde political lol in Iraq. I Chirac see critical of th Bid was adan foresee the U iijg up centre process in Irac Bve permaner U N. Security tag it has v council action I Yet Chirae meeting in D Eur< Judge dismisses citizen s plea By Bob Johnson THE ASSOCIATED PRESS MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit by three residents seeking to return a 5,300-pound Ten Commandments monument to the lobby of the Alabama Judicial building. U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson said removal of the monument did not unconstitu tionally establish a religion of nontheistic beliefs, as the residents claimed. “The empty space or ’nothingness’ in the rotunda of the Judicial Building is neither an endorsement of ‘nontheistic belief’ nor a sign of disrespect for Christianity or any other reli gion,” Thompson said. He said the empty space demonstrates government neutrality toward religion. The ruling comes after a lengthy legal battle in a separate lawsuit that led to the granite mon ument’s removal last week. In that case, Thompson ruled the monument an unconstitu tional promotion of religion by government. Suspended Chief Justice Roy Moore had the monument moved into the judicial building in the middle of the night on July 31, 2001, saying it represents the moral foundation of American law. The monument soon became a symbol of the fight over the separation of church andsu drawing hundreds of protesters to Montgonx who decried its removal. Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defc Coalition, said the ruling “shows the courts now defining neutrality as the removal of; acknowledgment of God from the pub square.” Ayesha Khan, an attorney for one of llK groups that filed the original suit seel removal of the monument, applauded the nil® “Judge Thompson recognized that Jusii Moore’s monument shoves religion down ^ pie’s throats,” Khan said. Jim Zeigler, a lawyer for the plaintiffs,st he has not decided whether to app Thompson’s ruling. Thompson's dismissal came a day ate spokeswoman for Mississippi Gov. Rom Musgrove said Moore had turned do 1 Musgrove’s offer to publicly display the mor ment for a week at the Mississippi Capitol. Also Thursday, about 150 supporters of Mo marched to the Alabama Capitol and present wooden plaque of the Ten Commandments to GO Bob Riley’s chief of staff. The chief of staff said governor would consult with lawyers before o playing the plaque. The Ten commandments block was remove I BRUSSEL port for U.S. European nati Fi ance which to a survey re President I ed in German — down from H opinion incre soid the Trans I “The Gei Between Eur expressed an stud. I The war h; Significant th Fi ance (70 pe cent), Portuga undesirable, t “The tram t CsfJH Wa lD\?Ite you to coroe to one or $11 of our recrultroeDt eveDtsl t finformational - £ept. 8^ Rovmlup M2*er - £ept. 9' 7:3Cpm MSC 2X2 Buslwiss attire T^scpm. 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