Correction: Attorneys for Army leaker Pfc. Bradley Manning raised no objection Tuesday to a proposal to have the military judge in the case silently read written witness statements to protect their confidentiality. The Associated Press article and headline below incorrectly reported the substance of what the attorneys did.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Sticking your head in the sand might make you feel safer, but it’s not going to protect you from the coming storm.”
President Barack Obama, who declared Tuesday that limiting carbon emissions is in the national interest Article, 1A
Gunman wounds 2 undercover officers
LOS ANGELES - A black-clad gunman ambushed two undercover detectives returning to a police station early Tuesday, but their wounds didn’t prevent them from aiding the hunt for the attacker.
Police Chief Charlie Beck described the shooting as an attempted assassination and mobilized a search involving helicopters, dogs and about 200 officers.
Police initially cordoned off 25 square blocks of the Mid-City area of Los Angeles, leaving thousands of residents stranded in homes and forcing drivers to find detours for their morning commutes.
Later in the day, the search focused on a neighborhood just south of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Wilshire substation, where the attack occurred.
Rights group sues over N.D. abortion law
A women’s-rights group filed a lawsuit in federal court Tuesday to block the country’s most stringent abortion law, a North Dakota ban on abortions as early as six weeks into pregnancy.
Adopted in March, the law forbids abortions once a fetal heartbeat is “detectable,” which can be as early as six weeks and before some women know they are pregnant.
According to the Supreme Court, women have a right to an abortion until the fetus is viable outside the womb, which is often around 24 weeks into pregnancy. The enforcement of another early limit on abortions - a ban at 12 weeks that was enacted by Arkansas in March - was temporarily blocked last month by a federal judge, who said it was likely to be found unconstitutional.
The latest lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Bismarck by the Center for Reproductive Rights on behalf of the clinic in Fargo. The suit is also challenging the constitutionality of two other measures adopted by North Dakota this year: one barring abortion because of genetic defects in the fetus, the first provision of its kind in the country; and one barring abortions for the purpose of sex selection.
$1.2 million missing from cash shipment
NEW YORK - FBI agents were investigating a report that about $1.2 million disappeared from a shipment of cash flown from Switzerland to New York City as part of a banking transaction, authorities said Tuesday.
The U.S. currency - all $100 bills - was reported missing Monday after a count of the money at the Federal Reserve came up short.
The shipment had arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Saturday afternoon aboard a Swiss International Air Lines flight, FBI spokesman J. Peter Donald said. The FBI is investigating whether the cash disappeared from a cargo hold in Zurich, where the flight originated, or sometime after it landed.
The JFK airport’s operator, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, declined to comment on Tuesday.
In an e-mail, the airline said it could not comment because of the ongoing investigation. But it added it had “no indication that any valuables were removed from a Swiss International Air Lines aircraft” at the airport.
Manning attorneys OK closed courtroom
FORT MEADE, Md. - Attorneys for Army leaker Pfc. Bradley Manning raised no objection Tuesday to a government proposal to temporarily close his court-martial to the public and press, possibly as early as this week, to protect classified evidence.
As the trial entered its fourth week, defense attorney David Coombs told the military judge, Army Col. Denise Lind, that he had no objection to closing the courtroom while prosecutors read aloud the classified sections of written witness statements.
Prosecutors have said they expect to present as many as 17 such statements this week. The statements, called stipulations of expected testimony, might include evidence about more than 250,000 State Department diplomatic cables Manning is accused of stealing from a classified computer database.
Manning denies the theft charge but has acknowledged he sent the cables, along with hundreds of thousands of classified war logs and some Iraq and Afghanistan battlefield videos, to the organization WikiLeaks. The former intelligence analyst has said he leaked the material to expose wrongdoing by American service members and diplomats.
The trial at Fort Meade, near Baltimore, is to determine whether Manning is guilty of espionage, theft, computer fraud and aiding the enemy, which carries a possible life sentence.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 06/26/2013