Putin threatens preventive action against terrorists

Putin threatens preventiveaction against terrorists
MOSCOW -- President Vladimir Putin said today that Russia was preparing to take preventive action against terrorists, the Interfax news agency reported.
Putin said that "now in Russia, we are seriously preparing to act preventively against terrorists," Interfax reported.
Lower-level officials, including Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, have threatened pre-emptive strikes against terrorists abroad, and it was not immediately clear whether Putin was referring to actions only at home or abroad, too.
Interfax quoted Putin as saying that the steps would be "in strict accordance with the law and norms of the constitution, relying on international law."
Recalling the attempts to appease Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler in the 1930s, Putin said there could be no "bargaining" with terrorists.
Peterson murder trial
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -- Autopsy photos of the fetus Laci Peterson had been carrying before her death brought her husband, Scott, to tears and drew gasps from jurors in his murder trial.
The images, accompanied by expert testimony, were shown Thursday, near the end of the state's case against the 31-year-old former fertilizer salesman. Prosecutors could rest as early as next week.
A large white-wall screen was the backdrop for the photos, which also made a few jurors cry and others shift in their seats or cover their mouths.
The fetus' remains appeared gelatinlike, its outer tissue somewhat transparent.
"This body was very soft. It came apart very easily," said Dr. Brian Peterson, the forensic pathologist who performed autopsies on Laci and the fetus.
Dr. Peterson, who is not related to either Laci or Scott Peterson, testified that the fetus had not been born before Laci's death and was instead expelled from her decaying body.
The pathologist said the remains of the fetus, a boy the couple planned to name Conner, was much better preserved than Laci's body and still had all of its limbs and organs.
"My conclusion ... is that Conner had likely been protected by the uterus" and expelled possibly weeks after Laci's body was put in the water, he said.
North Korean explosion
BEIJING -- Sweden's ambassador to North Korea said today that diplomats who visited what North Korean officials claimed was the site of a huge explosion last week saw no evidence to support fears it might have been caused by a nuclear blast.
Diplomats from seven countries were taken Thursday to a construction site for a hydroelectric dam where North Korean officials said there were two planned explosions Sept. 9, Ambassador Paul Beijer said.
"One thing is entirely clear: This was not a nuclear explosion that happened at this site," Beijer said by phone from Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. "This is a site where thousands of people are working on dam building."
The timing of the explosion on the 56th anniversary of North Korea's founding had led to speculation that it might be a test by the North's nuclear program, but experts said they didn't believe it was a nuclear test.
British Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell said this week that the North's foreign minister told him during a visit to Pyongyang that the blast was part of demolition work for a hydroelectric project.
Beijer said North Korean officials at the site in the country's remote northeast told the diplomats the blasts were needed for construction of the dam and explained how much explosive was used.
Columbine investigation
DENVER -- A grand jury said authorities withheld a document showing deputies knew one of the Columbine High School gunmen had been accused two years earlier of making death threats and building pipe bombs, but did not hand up any indictments.
In a report released Thursday, the grand jury also said it was "troubled" by still-missing documents in what remains the deadliest school attack in U.S. history. It was at least the third investigation to place no blame for the slaughter of 13 people by suicidal teens Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.
Victims' families said the report confirmed their suspicions that the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office covered up mistakes that could have led authorities to the killers as much as two years before the attack.
"Clearly Columbine never should have happened, and they don't want the public to know that," said Brian Rohrbough, one of several family members who met Thursday with Attorney General Ken Salazar. Rohrbough's son, Daniel, was among the students slain on April 20, 1999.
The grand jury said it didn't hand up any indictments because all the witnesses claimed to know nothing about the missing sheriff's records.
Associated Press