THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 11, 1997 TAG: 9702110284
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
DATELINE: LENGTH: 55 lines
LYNCHBURG - Steve Forbes drew cheers Monday from about 4,000 students at Liberty University with attacks on abortion laws and assisted suicide.
He called abortion ``a national tragedy'' and said he supports a ban on partial birth abortions and legislation that requires teen-agers to notify their parents before getting an abortion.
``America needs a change of attitude to get rid of abortion,'' he said. ``We need to change the culture by changing the law.''
Forbes also said the biggest obstacle the country faces is a federal income tax code that puts a heavy financial burden on families and is too complicated.
He said it's too early to decide whether he'll run for president again in 2000. NORTHERN VIRGINIA State calls Bennett a fake
MANASSAS - Eugene Bennett was a wily former FBI undercover agent and SWAT team officer who feigned insanity after his bizarre plot to kill his wife went awry, prosecutors said during closing arguments at his trial Monday.
But the defense said Bennett was struggling to maintain his sanity when the discovery of his wife's affair with another woman pushed him over the brink.
Bennett, who is using an insanity defense, is accused of trying to kill his then-wife, Marguerite Bennett, and abducting her minister.
Bennett, 42, is charged with attempted murder, kidnapping and seven other charges. He could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted of all of them.
The jury retired Monday evening after about five hours of deliberation and planned to resume this morning.
Bennett believed that his wife would no longer need him because of her affair with best-selling crime novelist Patricia Cornwell, defense attorney Reid Weingarten said.
His wife's affair and the effect he feared it would have on their two small daughters ``threw him topsy-turvy,'' Weingarten said.
COMING UP
TODAY: Hampton - Department of Defense program director Dr. Bradford Parkinson discusses the history, applications and future of the Global Positioning System, 2 p.m., NASA Langley's H.J.E. Reid Conference Center at Langley Research Center. Richmond - Allen administration officials attend kickoff for a statewide initiative to reduce out-of-wedlock births, 9:30 a.m., auditorium of Crestar Bank, 919 E. Main St. MEMO: Compiled from reports by The Associated Press.