News Briefs

Man Sets Himself on Fire at NYC Red Cross

NEW YORK--A man walked into the high-rise offices of the International Red Cross yesterday ranting about human rights violations in Poland, then set himself aflame before two horrified employees.

The unidentified man was dead when an Emergency Medical Service team arrived at the 21st floor of the midtown Manhattan office tower shortly after 1:30 p.m., said EMS spokesperson David Billig.

International Red Cross and Red Crescent director Eigil Petersen, who witnessed the suicide, said the man had threatened to blow up the office before dumping gasoline on the floor and himself.

The man, as he had in previous visits, had complained in broken English about genocide and human rights violations in Poland. Petersen said he and another employee fled the office and called the Fire Department when the man set himself on fire.

"He screamed, and then became very quiet," Petersen said. "The tragic thing is he felt he had to commit suicide."

The man refused efforts to direct him to the Polish consulate or the United Nations before killing himself, said the other Red Cross worker, Debra Bunt.

"He said he wouldn't listen to us, and he wouldn't leave the office," Petersen said.

The Red Cross office, at 630 Third Ave., is a small one, housing only a few staffers and generally dealing with natural disaster relief. Petersen and Bunt were the only workers there when the self-immolation occurred.

A man who answered the telephone at the building's management office referred all questions to the police.

`Witch' Claims She Suffers Discrimination

EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I.--A woman whose three foster children were removed from her home by the state says she's being discriminated against because she's a witch.

A licensed foster parent since 1991, Jessica Spurr said the three toddlers were removed last week after a Department of Children, Youth and Families case worker made a first-ever unannounced visit.

Spurr said the timing of the visit--four days after a newspaper article detailed her induction as a pagan high priestess--and comments made by the social worker show religious bias.

The state said Spurr's witchcraft was not a factor in the removal of the 2-year-old boy, 1-year-old boy and 1-year-old girl Spurr had taken care of for months.

"It had absolutely, positively no relation to religion," DCYF chief of staff Joanne Lehrer said yesterday.

Spurr was told by DCYF that her children were removed because the case worker had found them unattended and in unsanitary conditions in Spurr's home.

The case worker "reported that the children were eating food off the floor, which she observed as being filthy," according to a DCYF letter to Spurr.

Sitting in the living room of her modest first-floor apartment, pictures of children hanging overhead and on decorating tables, there is nothing that points to Spurr's involvement in Our Lady of the Roses Wiccan Church.

Two bedrooms the children shared overflow with stuffed animals and children's books. A hamster scrambles through wood chips in a glass tank and fish dart back and forth in two well-kept tanks.

There are no mystical figurines or black magic books. Spurr, a 27-year-old single mother raising a 4-year-old son, wore a pink tunic top over a white turtleneck and leggings. A pewter necklace depicting a rose and pentagon, the symbol of witchcraft, hung around her neck.

"It was so unreal," Spurr said of the DCYF visit.

Spurr said she had gone upstairs to ask her neighbor to watch one of the children while she drove the other three to day care.

She ran downstairs to find the case worker in her kitchen, having let herself in after receiving no answer when she knocked on a partially opened door.

Spurr said the case worker scolded her for leaving the children alone and about the condition of the house. As she was about to leave, the case worker asked, "Why didn't you tell me you're a witch?" Spurr said.

Spurr said she later was told case workers had been asking acquaintances whether she was a good or bad witch. Dow Jones

Stocks followed bonds cautiously higher yesterday, but they were hampered by continued volatility in the dollar. The Dow Jones industrial average ended 4.16 higher at 3,983.39. Weather

Today: Sunny, high in the upper 30s.

Tonight: Clear, low 20 to 25.

Tomorrow: Fair, high in the mid 40s.