Safe House

U.S. warplanes bombed several Iraqi houses along the Syrian border Tuesday morning, killing a man described by the military as a "known terrorist" and destroying what officials called three insurgent safe houses. A U.S. military statement gave no overall casualty estimate for the attacks on the remote border towns of Karabila and Husaybah, but residents estimated that more than 50 people were killed. The first two attacks, the military said, successfully targeted a man known as Abu Islam.

With President Bush expected to nominate U.S. Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Orange County Republicans on Wednesday predicted major political interest in the safe GOP seat. Heading the list of potential candidates is state Senate Republican leader Dick Ackerman of Irvine. Others include state Assembly members Chuck DeVore (R-Irvine), Todd Spitzer (R-Orange) and Mimi Walters (R-Laguna Niguel).

The two men who authorities allege helped keep 146 illegal immigrants in two separate safe houses in South Los Angeles were themselves illegal immigrants who told investigators they were working to pay off their debt to a human smuggling ring. The men, both Guatemalan nationals, were identified as Jose Garcia Rush and Marco Vinicio Jimenez.

Carrying out a threat issued two days earlier, Iraqi militants beheaded a South Korean hostage Tuesday, dumping the man's body on the side of the road between Baghdad and Fallouja where it was found by U.S. soldiers. On Tuesday night, U.S. fighter jets launched strikes in Fallouja on what the military said was a safe house sheltering associates of Abu Musab Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born militant whose network was believed to be responsible for the kidnapping.

U.S. helicopter gunships and ground troops struck a village in Iraq's western desert, hitting what Iraqis said was a wedding celebration, but what the U.S. said was a suspected safe house for foreign fighters. Reports of the number of people killed varied, but Iraqi and U.S. officials estimated that about 40 died in Tuesday's attack on a hamlet of just 11 houses. The village is 15 miles from the Syrian border and about 50 miles southwest of Husaybah.

Nearly a month after authorities discovered 110 illegal immigrants held in a so-called safe house in Watts, federal officials have been unable to build a case against the alleged smugglers. Because of a shortage of detention space, all but a few of the 88 immigrants apprehended have been released from custody. Some of the immigrants refused to cooperate with investigators out of fear the smugglers might take revenge on them or their families, officials said.

In January, I officially became qualified to be a foster mother after receiving my certificate to board. The document must be posted in a prominent spot in my home, along with my emergency disaster and house floor plans. I learned to be a foster parent at a private children's agency, among many such agencies contracted by the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services to train foster parents and place children. It took me nearly a year to earn the certificate.

Adriana says she looks a lot like a man she doesn't know: her father. For that, she says, she pays a price. "My mom hits me all the time," the 14-year-old says. "She hates my father, and I look just like him. I'm a reminder." Adriana, who is being identified only by her first name, says her relationship with her mother has recently deteriorated to new lows.

Hallmark Hall of Fame meets 007 in "Safe House," a wonderfully unconventional film in which a man's paranoia may or may not be caused by the onset of Alzheimer's disease. Patrick Stewart stars in this Showtime presentation, which debuts Sunday (opposite the Golden Globes), as a retired military man who holes up in a surveillance-protected, munitions-stockpiled fortress of a home in the Hollywood Hills.

Summer's here, school's out, and that long-awaited vacation's looming. Ah--takeoff season. Tickets? Check. Reservations? Check. Destination? Carefree city. But in your haste to hit the holiday road, you may be leaving more behind than your favorite pair of sunglasses: The security of your home. When routines are set aside to make room for travel itineraries, household security often is lost in the logistics, warn residential protection experts.