INTERNATIONAL
Judge orders McDonald’s to pay former manager for weight gain
 
SAO PAULO (AP) — A Brazilian court has ordered McDonald’s to pay a former franchise manager $17,500 because he gained 65 pounds while working there a dozen years.
 
The 32-year-old man says he was forced to sample food products each day to ensure that quality standards remained high because McDonald’s hired “mystery clients” to randomly visit restaurants and report on the food, service and cleanliness.
Spiritual caretaker of Indonesian volcano dies during eruption
 
MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia (AP) — He was the keeper of Mount Merapi, an 83-year-old man entrusted to watch over the volcano’s spirits, believing it could be appeased by tossing offerings of rice, chickens and flowers into the crater.
 
And when the eruption came, Maridjan was among those who died, along with dozens of villagers who believed him, not seismologists or government officials, about the danger.
 
As Merapi began spewing 1,800-degree gases and thousands of panicked people streamed down the mountain’s slopes, Maridjan refused to budge from his home deep in the evacuation zone, just four miles from the crater.
French port strike strands 1,600 foreign sailors off Marseille coast
 
PARIS (AP) — They’re the unseen victims of France’s strikes: up to 1,600 foreign sailors trapped in 80 ships off the southern coast of Marseille, most of them not to get to the shore that is so tantalizingly close.
 
The sailors from around the globe have been caught in a power struggle between French labor unions and port authorities that has virtually shut down the country’s largest oil terminals — one facet of the French strikes that are costing the national economy up to €400 million a day.
NATION
New Mexico Pueblo Indians ban trick or treaters on tribal land
 
JEMEZ PUEBLO, N.M. (AP) — The leaders of a Pueblo Indian community in New Mexico have banned trick-or-treating on tribal land, saying costumed children on the streets this Halloween will be sent home because the practice runs counter to tribal culture.
 
Jemez Pueblo Gov. Joshua Madalena also said a gruesome killing last month involving two young men has led the community to realize it needs to stay in touch with its youth.
 
He said the Sept. 29 stabbing death of tribal member Matthew Panana affected the whole community, although he also said he had been discussing the trick-or-treat ban with the Jemez Tribal Council, public safety officials and pueblo elders for months.
 
Federal investigators have said Panana was killed after knocking continuously on the window of Lucas Toledo’s Jemez Pueblo home.
 
STATE
Sen. Vitter won’t say if he broke the law with prostitution ring
 
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Sen. David Vitter repeatedly refused Thursday to say whether he broke the law in connection with a Washington prostitution ring to which he was linked by phone records in 2007.
 
Pressed several times by reporters to tell voters whether he broke the law, Vitter said the actions happened some 10 years ago and he is looking to the future.
 
“You can look back all you want to,” Vitter said during the final debate of the Louisiana Senate campaign on WWL television. “That’s your decision. It’s a free country.”
 
It was the first time since the story broke in July 2007 that Vitter was faced with repeated, pointed questions about the scandal. He has limited his publicized appearances during most of his campaign, relying heavily on attack ads, many of which tie his opponent, Democratic Rep. Charlie Melancon, to the unpopular policies of Barack Obama.
Grand jury indicts former evidence officer Wednesday for tampering cases
 
NAPOLEONVILLE (AP) — An Assumption Parish grand jury indicted a former evidence officer Wednesday on 337 counts of malfeasance in office for evidence tampering as well as on more than 100 other drug or weapons charges, prosecutors said.
 
The grand jury issued the indictment against former sheriff’s Lt. Louis B. Lambert at the parish courthouse in Napoleonville.
 
Lambert, 48, of Labadieville, was arrested June 11 on suspicion of tampering with drug evidence.
Audit questions New Orleans Regional Business Park’s spending
 
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The New Orleans Regional Business Park misspent nearly $60,000 in federal grants and failed to keep proper records of another $95,000 in grant-related spending, according to an audit.
 
The organization that runs a 7,700-acre business campus in eastern New Orleans also paid $2,000 to a consulting firm owned by its executive director, Roy Mack Sr., in violation of state ethics laws, according to the private audit filed with the legislative auditor’s office.
 
Mack has since been fired by the park’s board of commissioners.