A rappper who once flirted with stardom, under the stage name Drama, faces armed robbery charges in six Southside holdups -- four of them in one day -- police said Tuesday.

Terrence Lewis Cook, 22, has been held in the Clayton County jail since Thursday, two days after a gas station and three Clayton motels reported armed robberies minutes apart. Detectives who arrested Cook in his Henry County apartment noticed a gold record on a wall. In 2000, his breakthrough hit, a soldier-like chant called "Left, Right, Left," reached No. 3 on Billboard's rap singles chart.

Word on the street of the ATL, is that the boy is smokin that shit. But , that's just word on the street.

DUEKOUE, Ivory Coast, (Reuters) -- The French army in Ivory Coast said Sunday that it had found corpses and signs of violence against civilians at a rebel-held town, and a rebel leader said 200 civilians had been butchered there.

Rebel commander Ousmane Coulibaly said he believed more than 200 civilians were killed in Friday's attack on Bangolo. He blamed the deaths on Liberian mercenaries allied to President Laurent Gbagbo's army.

A senior French military source in western Ivory Coast said Sunday that the 200 figure could be accurate. France has more than 3,000 troops in its former colony, where civil war broke out in September after a failed coup.

The fighting in western Ivory Coast this weekend came as rebels and feuding politicians agreed in Ghana to set up a joint security council and form a new government by Friday that includes all major political groups and rebel factions.

The rebels said they repulsed the assault on Bangolo, about 375 miles [600 kilometers] northwest of Ivory Coast's main city, Abidjan, but not before the attackers reached the center of town and started killing civilians suspected of backing the rebels.

Coulibaly said the victims were mostly foreigners and Ivorians from the mainly Muslim north.

"I asked the French to come and see the dead. There is an entire neighborhood that was decimated. All the houses are full of bodies, only the imam escaped alive," he said.

"There are more than 200 bodies, maybe 300. And there are more corpses in the bush," he told Reuters from Bangolo.

A French army spokesman declined to say how many bodies the French saw when their detachment landed by helicopter in Bangolo on Saturday. He described the violence as "very visible."

"It was clear the violence affected many people," Col. Philippe Perret said in Abidjan.

Albert Tevoedjre, the U.N. special representative for Ivory Coast, told Reuters on Sunday that he believed fighting in the west was localized and that the clashes would not threaten political progress.

But a powerful group of pro-Gbagbo youths who in January staged street protests and anti-French riots rejected the deal, which gives nine portfolios out of 41 to the three rebel factions and seven to the main opposition party, RDR.

'No room for the rebels'
"There is no room for the rebels or the RDR in the government. You can't kill people and then become a minister," said Joel Tiehi of the so-called Young Patriots Alliance.

"All Ivorians need to be vigilant and wait for our call. Very soon we may ask them to take to the streets," he said.

The five-month civil war has split the world's biggest cocoa producer along ethnic lines between the largely Muslim north and the mainly Christian south, which is loyal to Gbagbo. Thousands of people have died, and a million have been driven from their homes.

Months of talks have failed to halt the fighting, despite cease-fires in October and January in the north and west.

French army Capt. Steve Carlton said Sunday that his men detained about 100 armed people Friday night at a checkpoint on the road between Duekoue and rebel-held Man. They were coming from the direction of Bangolo, 25 miles [40 kilometers] north of Duekoue, where French troops are dug in, policing a shaky cease-fire.

"They had their arms in the air. They wanted to surrender. There were French speakers and English speakers," Carlton, a Foreign Legionnaire, told Reuters.

"They have been disarmed and interned. They are here in the camp. They presented themselves as Lima," he said, referring to the name of a new armed force that military sources say is pro-government and includes Liberian refugees in Ivory Coast.

Red Cross officials were due to question the Lima detainees.

Liberians, whose own country has been in a state of war for most of the past 13 years, are also fighting with Ivorian rebels. The Ivorian army denies any links with the Liberians.

A Gbagbo spokesman accused the French army Sunday of keeping quiet about human rights abuses and brutalities committed by the rebels.

Perret said the French army would only give information about what its men witnessed in Bangolo to an international committee meant to be helping Ivory Coast end the conflict.

Tevoedjre, chairman of that committee, said he had not received the French army's report.

WHAT'S IN MY CD PLAYER:

JEDI MIND TRICKS

50 CENT

FRANK SINATRA

UGK

NON PHIXION


What are you listening to?

Manhattanville defeated the Merchant Marine Academy 67-51 Tuesday in a Division III women's league playoff game that had little to do with basketball and everything to do with protest and patriotism. Manhattanville College students voice their support of fellow student Toni Smith, who turns her back on the American flag during the national anthem.

To be more specific, it had to do with Toni Smith, who smiled before she turned away and looked down while Manhattanville teammates faced the flag during the national anthem.
The senior has done that before every game this season, but her actions a little more than 25 miles from the attack on the World Trade Center only recently gained national attention when a Marine veteran carrying a flag walked onto the court to counter her actions.
Tuesday, in her first interview, Smith said she is driven by her "conscience."
"There are many inequalities in this country which people are not aware of," she said. "The rich get richer, the poor get poorer."
She dismissed the idea that she might be offering encouragement to Iraq. "I don't think Saddam Hussein is watching me right now," she said.
Opposing coach Michael Murray watched Smith's rejection of the flag with dismay. His assistant, Doug Carter, was not on the bench because he had recently been called to active duty with the National Guard.
"It really hit home," Murray said, "because he's going to fight for our freedom and the flag symbolizes that freedom."
Murray, who wore an American flag lapel pin, said of Smith, "Maybe if they had an assistant who had to go off to war, her view might be a bit different."
Smith's stand is consistent with her previous behavior. Her bio on the school's Web site includes this favorite quote: "It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the military has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber." She said in a recent statement that a war "will cause many innocent people, women and children, mothers and babies, to die overseas."
Smith's latest protest evoked strong emotions in the crowd of approximately 300 that packed tiny Kennedy Gymnasium. Her introduction brought a mix of cheers and boos. At the completion of the anthem, supporters shouted "To-ni! To-ni!" while others countered with chants of "USA! USA!"
The national media turned out for the game, including at least 15 TV cameramen who stood on the court and focused on her during the anthem.
Some fans turned their backs on her when she was fouled and shot two free throws in the opening minutes. She appeared not to notice and swished both attempts for two of her four points.
Richard Berman, Manhattanville's president, said, "I think it's actually very healthy. I think what you see is a college campus alive with feeling and passion, where many perspectives can be shared with vigor."
About 20 military veterans gathered outside the main entrance to campus, waving flags and venting their emotions. Mark Volpe of White Plains, N.Y., suggested Smith is misguided: "She's not turning her back on the government or President Bush. She's turning her back on thousands of Americans who died for the freedoms she enjoys."
Four of Smith's teammates distinguished their views from hers by wearing red, white and blue headbands.
The victory means another home game for the Valiants, Thursday against Stevens Tech (N.J.).

Police were investigating yesterday the mysterious shooting of a rap producer who took a bullet in the leg outside the Manhattan offices of a top hip-hop record label.
The producer, Chris Gotti, 39, told police he was hit in the left leg Monday night by a bullet that he said was fired from "50 feet away."
Gotti - who works for his music mogul brother, Irv Gotti, the head of record company Murder Inc. - told police he does not know who shot him.
The incident occurred about 8 p.m. after Chris Gotti left Def Jam records on W. 49th St. between Eighth and Ninth Aves. But detectives were skeptical of his version of events. Police sources said they were looking into whether Gotti shot himself accidentally.
No gun was found at the scene, but a high-ranking police official told the Daily News: "That shooting was upclose and personal. If he didn't shoot himself, he had to know who did."
The gunplay was the latest in a spate of shootings that have rocked the hip-hop world and sparked a federal investigation that has focused on Irv Gotti's company.
Chris Gotti - who hours before the shooting had attended a hip-hop summit decrying violence - was treated at Bellevue Hospital and released.
"He's home and he's feeling okay," said Murray Richman, a lawyer for the Gotti brothers.
Witnesses did not report seeing any gunmen on the packed street. But Richman said it was nonsense to think that Gotti's wound was self-inflicted. "It's a pretty rough neighborhood over there," Richman said. "Chris doesn't carry a gun. He has no gun."
The brothers, whose real last name is Lorenzo, adopted the Gotti name in tribute to the late Gambino crime family boss John Gotti.
Last month, The News reported that the offices of Murder Inc. were raided by police and federal agents because of Irv Gotti's ties to notorious drug kingpin Kenneth (Supreme) McGriff, who ran the Queens cocaine trade during the city's crack epidemic.
The feds have been investigating the rap business, quietly building a racketeering case against gangsta rappers for crimes including money laundering, drug dealing and gang violence.
The bullet that hit Gotti was the second Manhattan shooting incident involving the rap world this week.
On Friday, a sport-utility vehicle belonging to Grammy-nominated rapper Busta Rhymes was riddled with six bullets, minutes after he parked it to go into the W. 25th St. office of his management company, Violator Records.

President Bush called Saddam Hussein "a master of disguise and delay" Wednesday and mocked the Iraqi leader for disclosing some weapons that he'd previously denied were in his arsenal.

On a day in which the White House threatened Saddam with trial as a war criminal in the event of war, Bush said, "The danger with Iraq is that he can strike in the neighborhood and the danger with Iraq is that he has got the willingness and capacity to train al-Qaida type organizations and provide them with equipment to hurt Americans."

Saddam "will be disarmed one way or the other," the president declared as his administration prepared for another faceoff at the United Nations on a resolution designed to bring about the disarmament of Iraq.

In remarks before the Latino Coalition, however, Bush stopped short of repeating previous claims of an already existing link between Iraq and al-Qaida terrorists. But he did say, "The world has waited a long time for Mr. Saddam Hussein to disarm."

Meanwhile, in an impassioned appeal, French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin warned Wednesday that waging war against Iraq now - without exhausting all peaceful means for disarming Saddam Hussein - would split the international community and "be perceived as precipitous and illegitimate."

Addressing a debate on the Iraq crisis in the French parliament, Raffarin said France remains committed to continued and strengthened weapons inspections in Iraq.

Also, a confidential Mexican foreign policy directive obtained by The Associated Press suggested its government may be the first among a handful of undecided U.N. Security Council members to shift toward the U.S. position on Iraq.

While the directive doesn't explicitly commit Mexico to voting for a U.S.-backed resolution, it says Mexico agrees the resolution's sole aim is to disarm Iraq.

Canada meanwhile offered a plan that could reconcile the bitter differences posed by the U.S.-British-Spanish resolution, which is seeking U.N. authorization for war, and a French-Russian-German proposal to continue weapons inspections at least into July.

After the Latino Coalition speech, Bush stepped into a meeting with President Geidar Aliev of Azerbaijan, a country 250 miles northeast of Iraq, which has backed the U.S. call for Iraq's disarmament.

On Tuesday, Bush said that if the Iraqi president and his generals "take innocent life, if they destroy infrastructure, they will be held accountable as war criminals."

Also, U.S. warplanes bombed two military communications sites in southern Iraq Wednesday, marking the fourth American strike on Iraq in two days.

The U.S. Central Command said American planes bombed the two communications sites, which help tie together Iraq's air defense network, at about 8:35 a.m. EST.

Bush was to give a speech on Iraq later Wednesday at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington think tank from which he drew many of his aides.

He was expected to argue that Saddam is a menace to the Iraqi people and that getting rid of him would make the Middle East - including the volatile Israeli-Palestinian conflict - more stable.

Bush also was to stress the prospects for democracy in a post-Saddam Iraq and the United States' intention to address humanitarian needs caused by possible war, said his spokesman, Ari Fleischer.

Offering Congress and the American public a peek into war and postwar preparations, the Army's top general said Tuesday that a military occupying force could total several hundred thousand soldiers.

Iraq is "a piece of geography that's fairly significant," Gen. Eric K. Shinseki said at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Any postwar occupying force, he said, would have to be big enough to maintain safety in a country with "ethnic tensions that could lead to other problems."

On Wednesday, the White House sought to minimize the impact of Shinseki's testimony, with Fleischer declining to repeat his estimate. "It's impossible to guess the exact numbers of people that would be involved in any longer-term effort," he said.

In a speech prepared for Wednesday delivery to the Council on Foreign Relations, Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., was calling on the Bush administration to work with the United Nations to name an international administrator to oversee reconstruction of Iraq.

A U.S. civilian administrator "would put America in the position of an occupying power, not a liberator," said Lieberman, who is running for the Democratic nomination for president in 2004. "And it may well widen the gulf between the United States and the Arab world."

In northern Iraq, which was pried from Saddam's control to protect Kurdish civilians after the 1991 Persian Gulf war, White House and State Department officials were holding a meeting with political opponents of Saddam's government. The aim was to help plan the kind of government that would take over in Baghdad after an ouster of Saddam.

Joseph Best was active at his church. Now he and a woman said to be his wife are facing attempted murder charges.
Police said that Cynthia Powell, 36, drove the car from which Joseph Best, 32, fired into a group of girls. A bullet hit Ebony Smith, 10, in the head.
Joseph Best used to sing and play drums for his church choir.
He also committed armed robberies.
After a seven-year stretch in prison, Best rejoined Fellowship Evangelistic Church in West Philadelphia. He had not been attending regularly in recent months, his mother recalled. But Best vowed to her, "Mama, I'm going to make sure I go this Sunday."
He did.

Later that day, a snowball incident outside the church grew into a street fight involving Best's daughter and her half-sister. Best, 32, returned later that afternoon with a woman identified by police as his wife and opened fire, police said. One of the bullets hit 10-year-old Ebony Smith in the head, police said.
Yesterday, the woman was charged with attempted murder, police said. Best has also been charged with attempted murder and related offenses.

Ebony, a third grader at Edward Heston School at 54th Street and Lancaster Avenue, remained in critical condition yesterday at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Ebony's uncle, Frank Smith, 36, who lives with his niece and her family a half-block from where the shooting occurred, said she was improving.
"She just came out of surgery. They removed a blood clot," said Smith, standing at the front door of a house on the 1600 block of Wilton Street yesterday afternoon. "She seems like she is doing a little better. She's still critical. It's still like a wait, 50-50," he said.
Ebony is surrounded by family and friends as she fights for her life, Smith said.
"Man, I'm still devastated. You never can prepare for something like this," he said.
Then he hesitated, sucking in his breath.
"We're all praying," he said. "It's all we can do right now."

Best, whose last known address was the 2900 block of North 26th Street, was arrested Monday at a motel in Bensalem. His mother said he called her collect from jail.
"He said, 'Mama, I had promised you I would never put you through this again,' " said the 59-year-old North Philadelphia woman, who asked that she not be named.
She reported that her son said: "I don't know what happened. I just somehow lost it."
She said he did not specifically say he fired the gun. She withheld judgment of her son, but, she added, "I'm not saying he didn't."
Cynthia Powell, 36, described by police as Best's wife and by Best's mother as his fiancee, was charged yesterday with attempted murder. Powell, of the 2900 block of Stillman Street, allegedly drove the car, a 1999 Chrysler Concord, police said.
The couple was arrested at the Lincoln Motel on U.S. Route 1 in Bensalem. A gun was found in the car, police said.

In 1992, Best was found guilty of two counts of felony robbery for stickups he committed the year before. He was sentenced to five to 10 years in prison.
In court records for that case, the minister of Fellowship Evangelistic, the Rev. Frank McCrae, co-signed an undated letter on Best's behalf, describing how Best sang in the choir, played drums, and served as an usher.
"Joseph still serves faithfully in the church as the Sunday School Dept. Secretary, and drummer of the church. I have known Joseph Best to be a fine, respectable young man who has never given me one bit of trouble since I have known him," the letter said.
The armed robbery cases were not Best's first brushes with the law.
According to court records, he was convicted twice in 1990 on theft charges after driving stolen cars. Best, a graduate of Dobbins Vocational High School, was sentenced to probation in both cases. He also used aliases in those cases, calling himself Joseph Singletary and Joseph Smith.
He entered the state prison system for the 1991 robberies on April 10, 1992, and was paroled from the prison at Graterford on Sept. 20, 1999, state records show.

Best played drums for the Graterford choir, his mother said. He taught himself to play as a child.
"It was a gift from the Lord," she said.
His only sibling, an older sister, died of cancer, his mother said.
Best rejoined the church upon his release from prison and was active until the last nine months or so, she said.

50 Cent may not be Number 1 on the Billboard 200, that honor goes to R. Kelly, but his single "In Da Club" is still number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Additionally, "In Da Club" is No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Rap Tracks chart, and the 50 Cent shine doesn't stop there. His 8 Mile soundtrack single, Wanksta, is number 14 on the Hot 100, and number 8 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart, where he currently has six songs representing. Also on the list is, Realest Niggaz featuring Notorious B.I.G. at 33, and 21 Questions, with Nate Dogg on the urban chart's at number 59. 50 Cent's, Love Iz , is number 81, and Patiently Waiting, produced by and featuring Eminem is number 82.

And his debut CD, Get Rich Or Die Trying, has sold over 2 million copies in just three weeks. Look for, HEAT and P.I.M.P., also from Get Rich, to hit the charts soon. And to think, this is just the beginning for 50 and G Unit.

Dionne Warwick, who was arrested at a Florida airport last year after authorities found marijuana in her bag, is blaming someone else for putting it there. According to the singer, Apparently, somebody that didn't want to get caught thought it would be better off in somebody else's bag.
The 62-year-old was arrested in May and charged with a misdemeanor after baggage screeners at Miami International Airport said they found several joints inside an empty lipstick container in her bag. Charges were dropped after Warwick agreed to a plea-bargain deal, which included a drug treatment program.

Warwick says she's not a drug user, Drugs of every sort, including aspirin, are not anything I even think about,she said.

Says Warwick, It taught me not to travel with an open bag. You never know what's going to end up in it, she said. Or leave the bud at home.

According to reports from SOHH, Roc-A-Fella records artist, CamRon, had his tour bus involved in a shooting, early Wednesday morning. State police confirmed that shots were fired at drivers in vehicles headed south on Route 128 at about 2:45am, those shots came from the bus.

A spokesman for the Massachusetts State Police said the tour bus and an accompanying 2003 Ford Excursion, were stopped by Police while going south towards I-95. Three guns were found in the Excursion and both passengers were arrested and charged with a firearm violation. The victim identified the shooter from the bus, and he was arrested along with the man who supplied the gun. Both men were charged with assault, intent to murder and firearm violations.

The names of the men have been released and none of them are Cam or other members of The Diplomats, although they were on the bus. They were headed to Boston for a show as part of their tour to promote their upcoming album, Diplomatic Immunity.

The Augusta National Golf Club's policy of all-male membership has gained a surprise supporter, the American White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
J.J. Harper, imperial wizard of the Cordele-based KKK group, on Thursday requested an application for a permit from the Richmond County Sheriff's Department to protest during the Masters tournament.
"We are going to stand up for the rights of the Augusta National to choose whomever they want to choose as a member of their club," Harper said in a telephone interview on Thursday evening.
News of the KKK's involvement brought immediate reaction from the woman pressuring the club to invite females -- Martha Burk, chair of the National Council of Women's Organizations.
"I'm sure the Augusta National welcomes the support of the Ku Klux Klan because they seem bent on discriminating against women at any cost," Burk said.
"Augusta National should not be shocked by the KKK's endorsement . . . They have behaved in a manner that attracts this type of support.
"They are going to have a real circus as this goes on. If I was Augusta National, I would spare my golfers, my members, my patrons, the city and citizens of Augusta, and the tournament all the trouble by simply opening membership immediately to women or announcing a plan to do so in a reasonable amount of time."
Augusta National also responded -- through spokesman Glenn Greenspan -- when told of the KKK's support.
"As a result of the controversy created by political activists, a number of organizations -- some of them extreme -- have sought to voice their political views. Anyone who knows anything about Augusta National Golf Club or its members knows this is not something that the club would welcome or encourage.
"For our critics to try to capitalize on this sideshow is utterly reprehensible and has no place in any civilized discourse."
Harper said his group became interested in supporting Augusta National after "hearing on the radio on Wednesday that Jesse Jackson wanted to come to Augusta" to demonstrate. Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition requested a protest permit on Tuesday.
"We don't want Jesse Jackson in our state," Harper said.
Burk also clarified reports that indicated she might stage a protest that does not comply with Augusta's ordinances.
"What I said is that we haven't ruled out an [illegal protest], but also that we certainly haven't ruled it in . . . let's just say it is not part of the plan at this time."

CLARENCE “BIG HOUSE” GAINES


With March Madness on the threshold, I thought Iwould touch on a topic that is near and dear to my heart. When the talk of coaching records and the all-time winningest coaches is broached, I want you to remember this name, Clarence (Big House)Gaines. Gaines coached at Division II, Winston-Salem State University from 1946 until 1983, 47 years and compiled an incredible 828-447 win/loss record. His achievements are substantial and historic. 12 Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (CIAA) championships, eighteen 20-plus win seasons, 5 CIAA Coach of the Year Awards.

Clarence Gaines was born May 21, 1023 in Paducah, Kentucky. After attaining all-state status in football and basketball, Gaines matriculated to Morgan State University, in Baltimore, played three years of varsity basketball and graduated, in 1945, with a degree in science with a major in chemistry. Though accepted to Howard University Dental School, lacking tuition, he accepted a part-time job as assistant basketball coach at Winston-Salem. By 1947, he had been named head coach and athletic director.

In 1967, Winston-Salem team, became the first black team to win an NCAA championship, winning the Division II title, fueled by guard Earl (The Pearl)Monroe, who that season averaged 41.5 points and had a field goal percentage of 60% and Gaines was named NCAA Division II Coach of the Year. Coach Gaines was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1982. The coach spends his days playing golf and still teaching basketball to the kids. So, when talk of coaches goes to Dean Smith, Adolph Rupp and Jim Phelan, always remember Clarence (Big House)Gaines.