PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philadelphia Sheriff John Green said he will postpone foreclosure sales of owner-occupied houses for one month to give people whose homes are at risk a chance to work out solutions.

An increasing number of homeowners in the city are behind on their mortgages. At an auction earlier this month, a record 1,120 homes were up for bid.

Groups including Community Legal Services and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now had called for a moratorium.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The tipster who pointed American forces toward the hideout of Saddam Hussein's two sons has been paid the bulk of $30 million in reward money.

The informer, along with his or her family, has been relocated.

The brothers, Odai and Qusai, were killed last July by U.S. troops who fired TOW missiles into a villa in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul where they had been hiding.

Julie Reside, a State Department spokeswoman, said Friday the informant who provided information on the sons' whereabouts was paid the bulk of the reward in the last few days. She did not say how much money the informant received.

The reward offered $15 million for each of the sons.

The $30 million reward for the two sons was the largest ever made under the reward program.

U.S. government's policy is not to publicly identify informants.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Although the Bush administration reacted with surprise to Pakistan's nuclear assistance to Iran, the Islamabad government warned the United States that such technology transfers might occur as long as 14 years ago, two former Pentagon officials say.

The threat was conveyed in January 1990 from Pakistan's top general to the administration of President Bush's father, but the information doesn't appear to have made its way to the Clinton administration when it took office three years later, according to interviews by The Associated Press.

"We knew they were up to no good," said Henry Sokolski, the Pentagon's top arms control official in 1990.

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German man who failed to settle a gambling debt called police after his dentures were seized as collateral, police said on Thursday.
"He called us saying he was afraid he might have to live off liquid food for the next few days," said a police spokesman in the western city of Dortmund.

Police persuaded a 51-year-old local man to hand over the dentures after the owner promised to settle a 150 euro ($186.6) debt.

"He gave us a great big smile at getting them back," police said.

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's third-largest credit card issuer fired a quarter of its workforce via mobile phone text messages on Friday, after negotiations with striking unionized workers broke down.
KEB Credit Service Co sacked 161 employees, a spokeswoman for the company's parent bank said.

"The layoff date is February 28," the message said, according to a member of the union. "We will receive applications for voluntary retirement package until February 28."

The firm said it had no method for contacting striking staff other than using moble phone text messages.

Thanks to Karen Fegely from Philadelphia's Urban Industry Intiative for joining us and giving our audience the scoop on the upcoming "Made in Philadelphia" campaign. The number to her office is 215-683-2030....

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court considered Tuesday whether the death sentence of a Pennsylvania man who killed 13 people can be overturned because of confusing jury instructions.

Mass murderer George E. Banks, a former state prison guard who gunned down family members, friends and two innocent bystanders, was sentenced to death in 1983. But his lawyers argued his sentence should be thrown out in the wake of a 1988 Supreme Court decision striking down requirements for jurors to unanimously agree on which details of the case supported or weakened the imposition of the death penalty.


The case is Beard v. Banks, 02-1603.

Today's guest is Pentagon Correspondent for the Washington Times Rowan Scarborough, his new book Rumsfeld's War includes a secret Defense Intelligence Agency report that shows Israel owns 82 nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, arch-rivals Pakistan and India plan big increases in their atomic arsenals.......

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The dead may not vote in Philadelphia, but prosecutors say they occasionally nominate candidates for public office.

The father of a state senator was charged Wednesday with forging hundreds of voter signatures, including the names of dead people, on nomination papers circulated for a city council candidate during last year's Democratic primary.

Investigators found that at least three voters whose names were on the papers were deceased. Others no longer lived in the city. Some were hospitalized at the time they allegedly signed. Many more told authorities they never saw the petitions.

State prosecutors blamed the forgeries on Michael Stack Jr., a Philadelphia ward leader whose son, Sen. Michael J. Stack III, was elected in 2000. Pennsylvania Attorney General Jerry Pappert said Stack and two helpers faked at least 200 signatures on nomination petitions for city council candidate John Farley.

Also charged was James V. McGinley, who until recently was one of Sen. Stack's aides, and Arline Petroff, a Democratic committeewoman in Philadelphia's 58th ward.

Prosecutors said the three apparently copied voters' names from voter registration lists rather than collect the signatures door-to-door. A forensic expert determined that many of the signatures were in the same handwriting, authorities said.

A judge tossed Farley off the ballot in the city's Democratic primary last spring because not enough of the 850 nominating signatures submitted by his campaign were valid.

Investigators began examining the petitions last year after Farley complained that his campaign had been a victim of a deliberate fraud.

A former postal employee, Farley said he was recruited by Democratic party officials to run for city council against incumbent Republican Brian O'Neil, then abandoned by ward leaders as part of a political compromise.

Further irregularities were alleged last March. When Farley showed up for a court hearing to defend his candidacy, he said he found that someone had forged his name to a form that "voluntarily" withdrew his name from the ballot.

Stack, McGinley and Petroff had arranged to surrender sometime this week, prosecutors said. They are charged with numerous counts of forgery, tampering with public records and criminal conspiracy. Stack and McGinley also face perjury charges.

Sen. Stack said McGinley retired from his staff about five weeks ago.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) - A drug suspect who went to the airport to pick up 119 pounds of marijuana wound up with two boxes of human organs, federal authorities said Tuesday.

After realizing the mistake - the boxes were labeled "PLEASE RUSH, HUMAN TISSUE FOR TRANSPLANT" - a Canadian woman and New York man were arrested trying to make an exchange, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The mix-up occurred at the Delta Airlines (DAL) ticket counter at Buffalo Niagara International Airport, where Tabitha Bracken, 27, of Toronto, was mistakenly given packages from Crolife, an Atlanta medical agency.

One contained a pulmonary valve destined for an emergency transplant into a young person in a Hamilton, Ontario hospital. The other contained a vein intended for coronary bypass graft surgery at a Buffalo hospital, the DEA said.

Bracken and Dalvan Robinson, 43, of Lockport, were arrested 12 hours later after Bracken tried to exchange the organs for packages which contained the pot wrapped in plastic and newspapers and smeared in mustard, agents said.

The suspects were charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana and held without bond.

The organs were delivered to the appropriate hospitals. The emergency surgery eventually took place at the Ontario hospital, while a spokesman for the Buffalo hospital said the vein wasn't intended for immmediate use.

PHILADELPHIA (Paul Kircher) Investors in Chicago have purchased the infamous Steve Bartman baseball for $113,824 and plan to explode it in front of the opening day crowd for the Chicago Cubs. The investors say that exploding the baseball will remove the "curse" placed on the Chicago Cubs baseball team.

In other news a source from Washington reports today that it's difficult to pin down the exact numbers, but most nutritional experts agree that on any one day, about 13 million children go hungry across the United States.

Santa Monica, CA (February 26, 2004) - MTV: Music Television, Bunim-Murray Productions and the Greater Philadelphia Film Office announced today that the network will go into production on The Real World Philadelphia beginning in spring '04. The 15th season of the popular MTV reality series putting seven strangers in a house and following them for four months is scheduled to premiere in the fall '04 with 24 episodes.

Friday's guest is Pentagon Correspondent for the Washington Times Rowan Scarborough, his new book Rumsfeld's War includes a secret Defense Intelligence Agency report that shows Israel owns 82 nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, arch-rivals Pakistan and India plan big increases in their atomic arsenals.......

SSE is in the beginning stages of forming a team of women (and men) who are willing to grow their hair 10 or more inches in order to cut it and donate it to the Locks of Love (LOL) organization. LOL is a non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children under the age of 18 years suffering from long-term medical hair loss.

Last year, Marcia Applegate and Karin Eanes raised over $1,700 for SSE when they donated 22 inches of hair to Locks of Love. To learn more visit www.syrentha.org

Well, we've been doing the radio program for a few years now and I thought it was time to add a section to the website where we can run exclusive news stories uncovered by the Paul Kircher show staff. It's also a great opportunity for me express some personal thoughts along the way. Feel free to shoot me an email with any local news or events you would like published here........