Around the Nation

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Judge Denies Release For 2 at Guantanamo

A federal judge declined Tuesday to release two detainees from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, finding that the U.S. government had proved that they were enemy combatants.

U.S District Court Judge Richard J. Leon found that Moath Hamza Ahmed al-Alwi, a Yemeni, and Hisham Sliti, a Tunisian, were part of or supported Taliban or al-Qaeda forces. Both men were captured in Pakistan in late 2001 after fleeing Afghanistan and were transferred to the naval base in Cuba.

The government charged that Sliti first traveled to Afghanistan from London in 2000 on a false passport and with financial support from known extremists with ties to al-Qaeda. Leon rejected his assertion that he went to Afghanistan to kick a drug habit and find a wife.

The government charged that Alwi fought with the Taliban and served as one of Osama bin Laden's bodyguards. The judge said there was enough evidence that he had fought alongside the Taliban to hold him as an enemy combatant.

Damages Awarded In USS Pueblo Case

A federal judge awarded more than $65 million to several men who were captured and tortured by North Korea after the communist country seized the U.S. spy ship USS Pueblo during the Cold War.

In entering the judgment against North Korea, which had never responded to the lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr.

in Washington called the abuse of William Thomas Massie, Dunnie Richard Tuck, Donald Raymond McClarren and Lloyd Bucher "extensive and shocking."

The Pueblo was seized off North Korea while it was on an intelligence-gathering mission on Jan. 23, 1968. The North said the ship was inside its coastal zone, while the U.S. Navy contended it was in international waters.

One of the ship's 83 crew members was killed, and 10 were wounded. The crew, led by Bucher, who died in 2004, was released after 11 months of captivity and sometimes torture.

The ship is still in North Korean hands, the only active-duty U.S. warship in the hands of a foreign power.

Jena Six Member Shoots Himself

NEW ORLEANS -- One of the central figures in the 2007 Jena Six civil rights case shot himself in the chest with a .22-caliber handgun after news broke of his arrest on a shoplifting charge. Mychal Bell, 18, remained hospitalized Tuesday, but police said his chest wound was not life-threatening. Bell's grandmother and mother told police that Bell had said "because of the current media attention he had because of the shoplifting arrest, he didn't feel like he could live anymore," Monroe Police Lt. Jeff Harris said, reading from a police report.

Ark. Sued Over Adoption Curbs

LITTLE ROCK -- More than a dozen families sued to challenge a new Arkansas law banning unmarried couples living together from becoming foster or adoptive parents. The Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of the families seeking to overturn Act 1, which was approved by voters in last month's general election. The families assert that the act violates their constitutional rights and that its language was misleading to voters.

Boy, 9, Ruled Unfit for Trial

ST. JOHNS, Ariz. -- A psychologist found a 9-year-old murder suspect incompetent to stand trial and determined that the boy's age and level of intelligence keep him from understanding the premeditated-murder charges he faces, the boy's attorney said. The boy, whose birthday was Monday, is accused of using a .22-caliber rifle to shoot his father and another man on Nov. 5 at the family home.

-- From Staff Reports and News Services