QUOTE OF THE DAY
“These movements are consistent with deliberate action by someone on the plane.”
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, explaining that radar data and a disabled communication system prove a missing jetliner with 239 people aboard was deliberately diverted Article, 1A
Iran: Attack on nuclear reactor foiled
TEHRAN, Iran - Iranian authorities have prevented sabotage at the country’s heavy-water nuclear reactor, a senior official said Saturday without giving specifics as to the nature of the attempted disruption or its suspected initiator.
Asghar Zarean, who leads security at the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said domestic intelligence agencies were instrumental in uncovering the plot, which has not been the first attempt to disrupt the contentious nuclear program.
In the past, computer viruses have attacked Iranian nuclear facilities. While Zarean did not say whether that was the case this time, his comments coincided with the opening of a specialized lab that Tehran says will fight industrial sabotage and neutralize cyberattacks.
Indian court stays 2 rapists’ hangings
NEW DELHI - India’s top court on Saturday temporarily stayed the hanging of two of the four men convicted in the 2012 gang rape and murder of a young woman on a bus in New Delhi.
The Supreme Court’s order came in response to a petition filed by an attorney for the two men that said the appeals court that confirmed the death sentence last week had completely ignored their defense.
The court scheduled a hearing for March 31.
An attorney for the other two convicted men, who also face the death penalty, said he would approach the court soon.
A special fast-track court had sentenced the four men in September.
On Thursday, the Delhi High Court dismissed the appeals filed by the men and said it “affirmed” the sentence given by the lower court.
The 23-year-old medical student and a friend were returning home from a movie when six men tricked them into boarding a bus they were joy riding. They beat the friend into submission and took turns raping the woman. They also penetrated her with a rod, causing severe internal injuries that led to her death two weeks after the December 2012 attack.
Police say one of the men hanged himself in prison. Another man - an 18-year-old who was a minor at the time of the attack - was convicted and ordered to serve three years in a reform home.
Pakistani in bin Laden hunt has term cut
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - A Pakistani judicial official on Saturday reduced the jail sentence of a doctor purported to have helped the U.S. track down Osama bin Laden from 33 to 23 years, one of his lawyers said.
Shakil Afridi was convicted in May 2012 by a tribal court in the northwest. According to his lawyer, the charges were related to allegations that he gave money and provided medical treatment to Islamic militants.
His lawyer, Qamar Nadeem, said judicial official Munir Azam dropped one of those charges: waging war against Pakistan.
Afridi is widely believed to have been targeted by Pakistani authorities because of allegations that he ran a vaccination program to collect DNA and verify bin Laden’s presence in Abbottabad, although his conviction was not related to this accusation. U.S. commandos killed the al-Qaida chief in 2011.
In Baghdad, car-bomb attacks kill 19
BAGHDAD - A series of car-bomb attacks targeting commercial areas and a restaurant killed at least 19 people Saturday in Iraq’s capital, authorities said.
Police officials said a car bomb went off at night in a commercial street in al-Ameen district in southeastern Baghdad, killing four people and wounding 13. Minutes later, police said another car-bomb explosion near a falafel restaurant killed three people and wounded six in the capital’s Qahira neighborhood.
A third car bomb exploded in a commercial street in western Baghdad, killing four people and wounding 14 others, police said. Later, a car bomb in a commercial area of Baghdad’s northwestern neighborhood of Shula killed four people and wounded nine, police said.
In Baghdad’s northern district of Hurriyah, a car bomb also exploded, killing four people and wounding 10, police said.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 03/16/2014