World Briefly

Published Saturday, December 6, 2008

Indian police arrest 2 in Mumbai attack probe, but some officals say 1 was undercover officer

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — One of the two Indian men arrested for illegally buying mobile phone cards used by the gunmen in the Mumbai attacks was a counterinsurgency police officer who may have been on an undercover mission, security officials said Saturday, demanding his release.

The arrests, announced in the eastern city of Calcutta, were the first since the bloody siege ended. But what was touted as a rare success for India's beleaguered law enforcement agencies, quickly turned sour as police in two Indian regions squared off against one another.

Senior police officers in Indian Kashmir, which has been at the heart of tensions between India and Pakistan, demanded the release of the officer, Mukhtar Ahmed, saying he was one of their own and had been involved in infiltrating Kashmiri militant groups.

Indian authorities believe the banned Pakistani-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which has links to Kashmir, trained the gunmen and plotted the attacks that left 171 people dead after a three-day rampage through Mumbai that began Nov. 26.

The implications of Ahmed's involvement — that Indian agents may have been in touch with the militants and perhaps supplied the SIM cards used in the attacks — added to the growing list of questions over India's ill-trained security forces, which are widely blamed for not thwarting the attacks.

___

AP IMPACT: Obama transition office is sprinkled with former lobbyists and campaign givers

By The Associated Press

Faced with hiring a new administration, President-elect Barack Obama is learning how hard it is to keep his promise to avoid aides who have been entangled with the capital's lobbying scene.

An Associated Press review of more than 400 members of Obama's transition team identified at least 34 who have registered in recent years to lobby government officials on behalf of clients or employers — some as recently as this summer. The AP's review represents the most comprehensive examination to date of people working on Obama's incoming administration.

During the campaign, Obama promised to keep lobbyists at arm's length, and he has taken steps aimed at keeping out the taint of the influence business. He imposed first-ever rules that prohibit anyone on his transition team from working in policy areas on which they had lobbied in the past year — an arbitrary time period — and a withdrawal system was set up for anyone who might run afoul of the rule.

"By moving lobbyists out of the particular matters they lobbied, our policy distances them from the interests of their clients," transition spokesman Tommy Vietor said.

Yet, as Obama is finding out, it is impractical to plan and fill up a new government without connections to lobbyists.

___

Democrats in Congress work against time to seal deal with White House on cash for automakers

WASHINGTON (AP) — Racing to seal a deal with the White House, Democratic congressional leaders dispatched aides Saturday to draft an emergency $15 billion aid package to pull Detroit's Big Three automakers from the brink of collapse.

Capitol Hill leaders prepared to sell yet another bailout to a skeptical Congress. It is an uphill battle: The anger is fresh over how the Bush administration used the $700 billion Wall Street rescue fund and lawmakers are questioning whether the once-mighty auto giants can survive.

Still, with Washington spooked by massive job losses that provided the latest evidence of a deepening recession, the White House said it was in "constructive discussions" with lawmakers in both parties on the assistance. House and Senate Democratic staff aides worked through the weekend to hammer out details, with votes on the plan expected in the week ahead.

The emerging measure would speed short-term help to General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC, while empowering the government to order a wholesale restructuring of the industry and imposing tight restrictions on the Big Three, according to congressional officials and others close to the talks. They described the developing plan on condition of anonymity because the details were not final.

It is designed to tide over the companies — particularly GM and Chrysler, which have warned that they are just weeks from going bust — through March, when Barack Obama is president and a new Congress could consider a longer-term solution.

___

Justice Department readies for trial in Blackwater shootings amid roiled Iraqi diplomacy

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense attorneys on Saturday lambasted U.S. indictments against decorated war veterans for deadly 2007 shootings as Iraqis welcomed the charges against five Blackwater guards in a case that fueled anti-Americanism and roiled diplomacy with Baghdad.

Charges against Blackwater security guards will be unsealed Monday, more than a year after the fatal shootings of 17 Iraqi civilians. Iraqis hope the charges will finally bring justice and improve relations with the United States after the gruesome slayings on Sept. 16, 2007.

Defense lawyers say the case has unfairly tarnished the images of the Blackwater guards. Each man has received honors for his service in some of the world's most dangerous places, from Bosnia and Afghanistan to Iraq. The five were to surrender to the FBI on Monday, when the Justice Department plans to unseal the charges against them.

"These are indictments that never should have been brought," said Mark Hulkower, a lawyer for Army veteran Paul Slough of Keller, Texas.

Attorney David Schertler, who represents former Marine Dustin Heard of Knoxville, Tenn., said the guards "were defending themselves and their comrades who were being shot at and receiving fire from Iraqis they believed to be enemy insurgents."

___

Family spokeswoman says heiress Martha 'Sunny' von Bulow dead after 28 years in coma

NEW YORK (AP) — Martha "Sunny" von Bulow, an heiress who spent the last 28 years of her life in oblivion after what prosecutors alleged in a pair of sensational trials were two murder attempts by her husband, died Saturday at age 76.

She died at a nursing home in New York, her children said in a statement issued by family spokeswoman Maureen Connelly.

Martha von Bulow was a personification of romantic notions about high society — a stunning heiress who brought her American millions to marriages with men who gave her honored old European names.

But she ended her days in a coma, showing no sign of awareness as she was visited by her children and tended around the clock by nurses.

In the 1980s, she was the offstage presence that haunted her husband's two sensational trials in Newport and Providence, R.I.

___

Fla. appeals court OKs diaper evidence at astronaut kidnapping trial, but interview barred

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Diapers, latex gloves and other items found in an ex-astronaut's car can be used as evidence when the woman accused of driving 1,000-miles to confront a romantic rival goes to trial, an appeals court ruled.

But the three-judge panel said Friday that Lisa Nowak's six-hour police interview after her arrest cannot be used.

Nowak has pleaded not guilty to attempted kidnapping, battery and burglary with assault. She is accused of trying to abduct Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman from the Orlando International Airport in February 2007. Nowak and Shipman were vying for the affections of the same space shuttle pilot.

A lower court judge also threw out Nowak's comments from the interview, saying investigators took advantage of the former astronaut, who had not slept for more than 24 hours, coercing her into giving information.

"The trial court applied the correct legal standards in determining that Nowak neither waived her Miranda rights, nor voluntarily spoke with police," the appeals panel ruled. "Consequently, the state cannot use the statements that Nowak made during her custodial interview with police as part of its direct case."

___

Searching for fountain of youth has become an obsession for Americans, but at what cost?

LAS VEGAS (AP) — It's one of those photos that make you do a double-take. Dr. Jeffry Life stands in jeans, his shirt off. His face is that of a distinguished-looking grandpa; his head is balding, and what hair there is is white. But his 69-year-old body looks like it belongs to a muscle-bound 30-year-old.

The photo regularly runs in ads for the Cenegenics Medical Institute, a Las Vegas-based clinic that specializes in "age management," a growing field in a society obsessed with staying young. Life, who swears that's his real last name, also keeps a framed copy of the photo on his office wall at Cenegenics.

"He's the man!" patient Ed Detwiler says teasingly, pointing to the photo of the doctor who, in many ways, has become his role model.

Detwiler, 47, has been Life's patient for more than three years. In that time, he has adopted the regimen that his doctor also follows — drastically changing his exercise and eating habits and injecting himself each day with human growth hormone. He also receives weekly testosterone injections.

He does it because it makes him feel better, more energetic, clear-minded.

He does it because he wants to live a long, healthy life.

___

Can NYC keep title as global financial capital as Wall St. takes hits day by day?

NEW YORK (AP) — For the hundreds of camera-toting tourists who visit Wall Street every day, the New York Stock Exchange presents an imposing sight.

The building-sized American flag draped over the exchange's towering Corinthian columns. The sculptures on the facade that symbolize the prosperity of a capitalist nation. The stern-looking statue of George Washington across the street.

These icons of national pride mark Wall Street as both a site of business and a symbol of the risk-taking and financial success that have spurred American global dominance and helped shape this country's identity.

But with the nation's top investment houses shuttered, sold or changing into staid commercial operations, doubts have emerged about whether the city that for generations has been known as the world's financial capital can retain that title — or the daredevil swagger that has defined Wall Street for so long.

It is a transformation that some say was under way long before the meltdown of 2008.

"It's going to be a long, slow process and take many years for us to really restore our leadership in the world," said Ron Chernow, who has written extensively on the history of Wall Street. "New York has been damaged, and some of it I think is permanent."

___

Angry laid-off workers occupy factory in Chicago; union seeks severance, vacation pay

CHICAGO (AP) — Workers who got three days' notice their factory was shutting its doors have occupied the building and say they won't go home without assurances they'll get severance and vacation pay they say they are owed.

About 200 union workers occupied the Republic Windows and Doors plant in shifts Saturday while union leaders outside criticized a Wall Street bailout they say is leaving laborers behind.

Leah Fried, an organizer with the United Electrical Workers, said the Chicago-based vinyl window manufacturer failed to give 60 days' notice required by law before shutting down.

During the peaceful takeover, workers have been shoveling snow and cleaning the building, Fried said.

"We're doing something we haven't since the 1930s, so we're trying to make it work," Fried said.

___

Tyrod Taylor, Virginia Tech rough up No. 18 Boston College 30-12 to repeat as ACC champs

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Dangle the Atlantic Coast Conference title in front of Virginia Tech and the Hokies will find a way to grab it.

Tyrod Taylor scored two first-half touchdowns and Darren Evans ran for 114 yards and one TD in less than half-full Raymond James Stadium on Saturday, helping Virginia Tech become the first two-time winner of the ACC championship game with a 30-12 victory over No. 18 Boston College.

The Hokies (9-4), who have won three titles since leaving the Big East for the ACC in 2004, also beat Eagles (9-4) for last year's crown and earned their second consecutive trip to the Orange Bowl.

Easily playing its most complete game of the season, Tech was dominant on offense and defense in avenging a 28-23 regular season loss to BC, which won that meeting despite five turnovers.

Special teams contributed, too, with Dustin Keys kicking a 50-yard field goal — longest in the title game's four-year history.

Evans became the sixth player in league history to rush for over 1,000 yards as a freshman, but also fumbled twice. His 10-yard TD burst, set up by Stephan Virgil's interception and 36-yard return, put the Hokies up 24-7 late in the third quarter.

---

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SHARE THIS STORY?

---