Still Chipping Away: The sculptor of the...

Still Chipping Away: The sculptor of the statue of three soldiers at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial filed a copyright violation suit Wednesday against a veterans’ group that sells T-shirts with the statue’s image. Frederick E. Hart says the defendants “have no right to use the copyrighted image.� Veteran Ted Sampley retorts: “I intend to keep printing those shirts . . . until a federal judge tells me not to.�

* The Real McCoy: The mystery of D.B. Cooper remains the FBI’s only unsolved skyjacking 20 years after he parachuted into history with $200,000 in loot. But two former feds, Bernie Rhodes and Russell Calame, say in their new book the FBI won’t acknowledge that they had the man in custody in August, 1974, before he escaped and was killed by feds three months later.

* Doing Lunch: Freed Beirut hostage John McCarthy celebrated his first birthday since his release with lunch Wednesday at Buckingham Palace in the company of Queen Elizabeth II. McCarthy was freed Aug. 8 after more than five years in captivity. The TV journalist marked his 35th birthday at the private luncheon.

* Roach Rout: Malaysia wrapped up a “cockroach awareness campaign� Thursday by awarding $370 to a woman who brought in the biggest crawler. An “American� cockroach measuring 2.24 inches was found by Wan Sadina Wan Ariffin in her storeroom. The American, German and Brown-Banded species are the most prevalent in the country. “We must all play a part in controlling cockroach infestation and reduce incidence of diseases caused by them,� the health minister said.