Suspect on trial in Indonesia hotel bombings
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — An alleged Islamist militant being tried on charges of harboring terrorists behind deadly twin hotel bombings in the Indonesian capital claimed Wednesday that he had helped craft a plot to assassinate the president. Amir Abdillah appeared in South Jakarta District Court on charges of violating Indonesia's anti-terrorism law, including concealing information and harboring terrorists linked with the July 17, 2009 attacks at the J.W. Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels in Jakarta. The bombings, which killed seven and wounded more than 50, ended a four-year lull in terrorism in the Muslim-majority country.
Health crisis in Haiti enters a deadly new phase
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Fourteen-month-old Abigail Charlot survived Haiti's cataclysmic earthquake but not its miserable aftermath. Brought into the capital's General Hospital with fever and diarrhea, little Abigail literally dried up. "Sometimes they arrive too late," said Dr. Adrien Colimon, the chief of pediatrics, shaking her head.
Doctor says vendor may have been in rubble 27 days
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The tale seems dubious: that a rice vendor survived 27 days trapped under the rubble of a flea market following Haiti's devastating earthquake. Skeptical health workers said no one could live that long without water and the last confirmed survivor found was a 16-year-old girl removed from rubble 15 days after the Jan. 12 quake. The only sources for the story were the two Haitian men who showed up at a clinic carrying the vendor, dehydrated and malnourished with rail-thin legs.
US poised to seize Afghan town as Taliban dig in
NEAR MARJAH, Afghanistan (AP) — U.S. and Afghan forces pushed Tuesday to the edge of the southern Afghan town of Marjah, poised to seize the major Taliban supply and drug-smuggling stronghold in hopes of building public support by providing aid and services once the insurgents are gone. Instead of keeping the offensive secret, Americans have been talking about it for weeks, expecting the Taliban would flee. But the militants appear to be digging in, apparently believing that even a losing fight would rally supporters and sabotage U.S. plans if the battle proves destructive.
Myanmar court sentences US man to 3 years prison
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — A Myanmar court ordered a U.S. citizen on Wednesday to serve three years in prison for entering the military-ruled country with forged documents and undeclared foreign currency. Nyi Nyi Aung, who was born in Myanmar, had faced a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison on a variety of charges that his lawyers had argued should not apply to foreigners.
UN envoy in North Korea to spur nuke talks
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A senior U.N. envoy pressed ahead Wednesday with international efforts to get North Korea back into nuclear disarmament talks, during the world body's first high-level visit to the reclusive state in nearly six years. In Beijing, top nuclear negotiators from North Korea and China were to meet again Wednesday, a day after discussing how to restart the six-nation nuclear talks aimed at ridding Pyongyang of its atomic weapons program in return for aid, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
Iran boosts nuclear enrichment, drawing warnings
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian nuclear technicians set dozens of centrifuges spinning Tuesday to begin enriching uranium stocks to a significantly higher level, prompting President Barack Obama to warn of a "significant regime of sanctions." Iran's acceleration in its enrichment program was a defiant step that puts weapons-grade uranium in closer reach, should Tehran choose to go after the bomb. It was also another in a series of mixed messages that appeared calculated to boost Iran's leverage in negotiations with world powers on limiting its nuclear program.
Nigeria: Vice president now acting president
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria's parliament empowered Vice President Goodluck Jonathan to run Africa's most populous nation Tuesday in place of an ill and absent president, striving for a political end to a crisis that ground the government to a virtual halt and triggered the resumption of an insurgency in the vital oil sector. But the move is not contemplated in the constitution, legal experts say, and could cause more friction between the Christian south, which gains the presidency at least temporarily, and Muslim north, which finds itself out of the seat of power.
Iran sentences another activist to death
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran has convicted another opposition activist on charges related to the country's post-election turmoil and sentenced him to death, the judiciary said Tuesday, bringing to at least 10 the number of those facing the death penalty for the unrest following June's disputed presidential election. Meanwhile, the New York-based International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said compiled figures show that at least 1,000 people have been detained in Iran since the unrest began, but that the actual number is likely higher. Some 500 of those in detention have been arrested since deadly clashes between opposition supporters and security forces in late December, the group said.
Haiti parents testify they gave kids to Americans
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Parents of some of the children who 10 U.S. missionaries tried to take out of Haiti after its catastrophic earthquake told a judge Tuesday that they freely handed over their kids, the Americans' lawyer said. The parents' testimony means no law was broken and "we can't talk any more about trafficking of human beings," attorney Aviol Fleurant told reporters.
