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Balloon-boy mom: Entire family in on hoax

FORT COLLINS, Colo., Oct. 23 (UPI) -- The mother of the Colorado "balloon boy" admitted that she, her husband and her three sons were all in on the hoax, court records show.

Mayumi Heene told investigators she and her husband, Richard Heene, had planned the scheme two weeks before the balloon took flight to attract media attention, according to an affidavit released Friday in Fort Collins, Colo.

She admitted she and her husband had "instructed their three children to lie to authorities as well as the media regarding this hoax," the affidavit said.

Her admission came Oct. 15, two days after the couple told authorities the homemade helium balloon had gone aloft with their 6-year-old son, Falcon, inside a passenger compartment. After a frantic chase that captivated the nation, the balloon came down 50 miles away without the boy, who turned out to have never left home and said he had been hiding in an attic.

"The motive for the fabricated story was to make the Heene family more marketable for future media interest," the affidavit states.

Richard Heene has not admitted the saga was a hoax, his lawyer told The Denver Post.

Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden has said he will recommend charges against the Heene parents, including conspiracy, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, making a false report to authorities and attempting to influence a public servant. Authorities also will seek restitution for the cost of the balloon chase, the sheriff said.

Missing Mo. girl's body found

ST. MARTINS, Mo., Oct. 23 (UPI) -- The body of a 9-year-old Missouri girl was found Friday, two days after she disappeared, police said.

KRCG-TV, Columbia, Mo., reported the body of Elizabeth Olten was found in a wooded area near her St. Martins home when an older teenager, described as a person of interest who was interviewed by police, led investigators to her body.

Police said the teen, who lives in the area but is not connected to the family, was in custody, the TV station said.

Police didn't say how the girl was believed to have died.

Hundreds of volunteers and law enforcement officers had been combing the area and a helicopter with infrared imaging equipment had been employed in the search.

Olten had a cell phone with her but efforts to pinpoint its location before its battery drained had been fruitless, police said.

FBI gives details on Boston terror suspect

BOSTON, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- A suspect in an alleged terror plot to kill mall shoppers was raised in Boston and is the son of a former Boston doctor and Muslim leader, the FBI said.

In an affidavit filed in federal court, the FBI named Ahmad Abousamra as a conspirator with Tarek Mehanna, who was arrested by the FBI and charged with providing support to terrorists, the Boston Globe reported Friday. Abousamra allegedly fled to Syria in 2006 after the FBI questioned him.

Abousamra, 28, is the son of Dr. Abdul Abousamra, who was on staff at Massachusetts General Hospital for more than 20 years, and president of the Islamic Center of New England. Dr. Abousamra moved to Detroit two years ago.

Abousamra and Mehanna were childhood friends, a person who knew both men said.

"They knew each other from when they were young," he said. Asking not to be identified because the case is sensitive, he said Abousamra and Mehanna first met while attending a mosque in Sharon, Mass., run by the Islamic Center of New England.

Catholic priest killed in church rectory

CHATHAM, N.J., Oct. 23 (UPI) -- The pastor of a Roman Catholic church in a New Jersey suburb was found slain in the rectory kitchen Friday morning.

A deacon went to search for the Rev. Edward Hinds, 61, when he failed to appear for the 8 a.m. mass at St. Patrick's Church in Chatham, The Star-Ledger of Newark reported. The priest's body was on the floor in the kitchen.

Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi said at an afternoon news conference that the death was a homicide. He did not say how Hinds was killed.

Monsignor Kenneth Lasch, a retired priest, told the Star-Ledger he was called soon after the body was found. Hinds had left instructions that Lasch would give the eulogy at his funeral.

"The parish called me and said they found him in the kitchen on the floor," Lasch said. "He had his dog with him and apparently he was making a cup of coffee."

Hinds was born in Chatham and spent his life as a priest in the diocese of Paterson, including a stint as vice-chancellor and as secretary to former Bishop Frank Rodimer, Lasch said. Between 1991 and 2003, he was pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Boonton.

Biden blasts Cheney for ripping Obama

PRAGUE, Czech Republic, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- U.S. Vice President Joe Biden pushed back against his predecessor Friday, saying it was wrong to say the Obama administration was "dithering" on Afghanistan.

"I think what the administration is doing is exactly what we said it would do," Biden told reporters at the U.S. ambassador's residence in Prague, Czech Republic, before returning to the United States. "And that is making an informed judgment based upon circumstances that have changed ... to come up with a sustainable policy that has more than one dimension."

Former Vice President Dick Cheney this week accused President Barack Obama of "dithering" in deciding whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, endangering forces on the ground.

Biden said a review about Afghanistan left by Cheney and former President George W. Bush was "irrelevant," given the situation as it is now.

"A whole lot has changed in the last year," Biden said. "Let's assume they left us a review that was absolutely correct. Is that review relevant and totally applicable to today in light of the changes that have taken place in the region, in Afghanistan itself? So I think that is sort of irrelevant. Not sort of – I think it's irrelevant."

The changing situation was why Obama "asked me to get on the plane in January and go to Afghanistan," Biden said. "I came back with a different review."

Biden also chastised Cheney for saying the Obama administration committed a "strategic blunder" and abandoned its allies by scrapping the Bush missile defense system for a more mobile version.

Biden said leaders he met in Poland, Romania and the Czech Republic told him they were satisfied that the new anti-missile system will be more effective and supported it.

"They believe that the new architecture is better," Biden said. "I'm absolutely convinced that the leaders of the opposition as well as the governments of all three countries have no doubt about the commitment."