Reilly demands website add restrictions

Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly is demanding that Xanga.com, a popular online journal based in New York, change its website to protect children. He said in a written statement that the state is pressing the website to raise its age requirement, implement technology to block sexually explicit messages, increase the number of employees who review images and content on the website and offer free, downloadable software that allows parents to block their children from using the website. Xanga representatives could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Karen Keester, accused of using other people's identities and temporary jobs to steal roughly $250,000 in the past five years, was ordered held on bail in the same amount yesterday at her arraignment in Suffolk Superior Court. Keester, 31, of Boston, is charged with 20 counts of uttering, seven counts of identity theft, six counts of attempted larceny, five counts of larceny over $250 by continuous scheme, and a single count of possession of false RMV documents. Keester pleaded not guilty on all counts, including charges brought since her district court arraignment late last month. She is due back in court on Oct. 4.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.

A judge sentenced a 20-year-old man yesterday to life in prison without parole, denying his request to withdraw a guilty plea in the slayings of six people over an Xbox video game system. The victims included a former Lowell, Mass., resident, Erin Belanger, 22. Robert Anthony Cannon said in court that his lawyer told him he would get the death penalty if he didn't plead guilty and testify against three others in the baseball bat attacks. In July, a jury convicted Troy Victorino, 29, Jerone Hunter, 20, and Michael Salas, 20, of first-degree murder. Prosecutors said Victorino was angry with Belanger, who had him evicted when she found him living in her grandmother's house in Deltona. She kept some of his belongings, including the video game system. (AP)

BANGOR

A reported threat that caused a trans-Atlantic flight from England to Chicago to be diverted to Bangor International Airport Friday was not credible, the FBI said yesterday, citing a determination by federal investigators. ``That issue's been resolved. Nobody was charged," said an FBI spokeswoman, Gail Marcinkiewicz. American Airlines Flight 55 originated in Manchester, England. The Boeing 767, carrying 167 passengers and 12 crew members, was diverted at the request of the Transportation Security Administration and landed in Bangor at 12:59 p.m. Passengers were questioned after they were taken off the plane, which was searched by bomb-detection dogs. The flight continued at about 9 p.m. The incident was one of seven that disrupted US flights Friday. (AP)

PEABODY

For at least the third time since May, State Police yesterday began a dig here for the remains of a Medford teenager slain nearly a decade ago by a Mafia-connected gang of drug dealers. Investigators planned to resume their search behind the William A. Welch Sr. Elementary School today for the remains of 19-year-old Aislin Silva, according to Karen Dawley, a spokeswoman for the Essex district attorney's office. Reputed Mafia associate Paul A. DeCologero, who was convicted of ordering Silva's killing on Nov. 13, 1996, to prevent her from cooperating against his alleged gang of drug dealers, is to be sentenced tomorrow in US District Court in Boston. Derek Capozzi was sentenced last year to 23 years in prison for helping dismember Silva's body after she had been strangled.

NEW HAVEN

The state Supreme Court yesterday unanimously overturned a mother's conviction for contributing to her 12-year-old son's suicide by creating an unsafe and unhealthy home. Judith Scruggs of Meriden was convicted of risk of injury to a minor in October 2003 after her son, J. Daniel, hanged himself with a necktie in his closet in January 2002. She said he had killed himself because of constant bullying at school, and she filed a federal lawsuit against Meriden school officials, contending that they should have done more to stop the bullying. Scruggs was thrust into the national spotlight; legal specialists said they believed it was the first time a parent had ever been convicted in connection with a child's suicide. In yesterday's ruling, Justice William Sullivan wrote that the law used to convict Scruggs was unconstitutionally vague. (AP)