Mayor's lawyer asks to suspend hearing

DETROIT - A lawyer for Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick asked a judge yesterday to freeze next week's hearing that could remove him from office, accusing Governor Jennifer Granholm of being too biased to preside over the case. Dan Webb also said the rules for the hearing would greatly hamper Kilpatrick's defense. He asked for a 14-day restraining order to suspend the proceedings, scheduled to start Wednesday. (AP)

Two airliners were one minute from colliding when at least one of the planes turned away from the other over the Caribbean this week. The National Transportation Safety Board said yesterday that it was investigating an incident in which a Delta Air Lines flight and a Russian-registered passenger jet were heading toward each other Thursday about 180 miles north of Puerto Rico when cockpit alarms went off. The Russian plane - a Transaero Boeing 747 - descended 200 feet to 300 feet to avoid Delta Flight 485, which was flying from New York to Trinidad. (AP)

PHILADELPHIA - A man who made millions of dollars by plundering hundreds of bodies sent to funeral homes and selling their often-diseased parts and tissues to medical companies pleaded guilty yesterday to a raft of charges that could send him to prison for life. Michael Mastromarino, 44, of Fort Lee, N.J., pleaded guilty to hundreds of counts of abusing corpses, forgery, theft, and other allegations stemming from an operation authorities say he ran with three Philadelphia funeral directors. (AP)

OKLAHOMA CITY - Bacterial contamination has been found in well water at a northeast Oklahoma restaurant linked to an E. coli outbreak that killed a man and made dozens of others sick, state health officials said yesterday. The Department of Environmental Quality said more tests are needed to see if the bacteria found in the water includes the strain of E. coli implicated in the outbreak. (AP)