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NEW YORK CITY MAN ACCUSED OF FAKING SON

Cyril Kendall, of New York City, is on trial for allegedly scabbing $160,000 from charities by claiming his son died in the World Trade Center.

So far, the jury has heard testimony the birth certificate, travel documents and other documents were fakes.

Jurors also heard from a state tax official who said he has no record of the mental-health center where the Kendall family claimed to receive $80,000 in grief counseling over "Winfred's" purported death, the New York Post reports.

The family billed charities for therapy -- at $425 an hour -- at a company called "Alliance Counseling."

Kendall claimed to be the sole employee of Alliance Counseling -- meaning when the charities reimbursed the family for their mental-health bills, Kendall allegedly pocketed everything.

'WEBCAM' PITCHED FOR CLASSROOMS

Some British teachers think the key to improving discipline in the classroom is to install a video camera, put the images on the Internet and let parents watch.

The "Webcam" idea came up at the annual conference of the British Professional Association of Teachers, the London Evening Standard reports.

"If pupils knew their parents could see how they were behaving they would think twice about disrupting classes," says Simon Smith, who proposed the Webcam idea.

Smith acknowledged there would be concerns about security over access to images of children but he said the parents could be given a password for access to the images.

BAR OWNERS SUING THE UNDERAGE

Bar owners can sue their underage patrons for misrepresentation -- a type of civil fraud -- if they have

reasonable grounds to think they are of legal age.

Alcohol retailers feel entitled to damages because when underage drinkers are arrested the establishment that sold liquor to them faces fines as well as the loss or suspension of liquor license, FOX News reports.

The establishment owners and bartenders can even be arrested on the spot.

Ed Sullivan, a defense lawyer for students being sued by bars, says, "It gives the bar owner an incentive to accept unreasonable IDs and make money off teens."

SELF-DRIVING COMBAT VEHICLES TESTED

A number of engineers, researchers and robot aficionados are in a contest designed to lead to the development of self-driving combat vehicles.

The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency Grand Challenge will give $1 million to the team whose robotic car drives itself the fastest from Los Angeles to Las Vegas on an off-road course, CNET News reports.

The race, which must be won within 10 hours, will take place on March 13, 2004.

The 250-mile course -- which won't be revealed until two hours before the start -- will require the computerized vehicles to drive through or around sand, mud, boulders, ditches, barbed wire, mountains and at least one overpass where onboard global positioning systems for navigation won't work.