No decision yet in case of Fort Dix attack plot

No decision yet in case of Fort Dix attack plot

CAMDEN, N.J. — The jury considering the case of five men accused of plotting to kill soldiers on Fort Dix has finished its second day of deliberations without reaching a verdict.

The jury has considered evidence for 14 hours so far after a trial that lasted 29 days. Jurors asked no questions of the judge on Thursday.

The jury is being sequestered during deliberations.

The five foreign-born Muslims face charges including conspiracy to kill military personnel and attempted murder.

Federal authorities portray the case as an example of efforts to stop terrorist attacks before they happen.

But defense lawyers say the men, who lived for years in the Philadelphia suburb of Cherry Hill, were not planning anything.

Radio transcripts show guards were attacked first

WASHINGTON — Radio logs from a deadly 2007 shooting in Baghdad cast doubt on U.S. government claims that Blackwater Worldwide security guards were unprovoked when they killed 14 Iraqi civilians.

The transcripts of Blackwater radio reports, obtained by The Associated Press, describe a hectic eight minutes in which the guards repeatedly reported incoming gunfire from insurgents and Iraqi police.

Five guards face manslaughter and weapons charges for their roles in the shootings. A sixth has pleaded guilty. Prosecutors said the men unleashed a gruesome attack on unarmed Iraqis, including women, children and people trying to escape.

But the radio logs from the Sept. 16, 2007 shooting suggest otherwise. Because Blackwater guards were authorized to fire in self-defense, any evidence their convoy was attacked will make it harder for the Justice Department to prove they acted unlawfully.

Bush rusty on cooking

WASHINGTON — First lady Laura Bush said Thursday that her husband, President George W. Bush, teases her about her cooking because she hasn’t banged pots around for more than a decade.

“I haven’t cooked in 14 years,” she said in an interview with Fox News Channel’s “On the Record.” “He can’t even remember what it was like and neither can I. This will be interesting.”

She said the president has yet to step foot in their new house in Dallas, although she has.

The Bushes recently bought a home among business leaders and prominent Republican donors in an affluent North Dallas neighborhood of Preston Hollow, where they will live after the president leaves office in January.

Shoe-tosser seeks pardon

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoes at President George W. Bush is begging for a pardon for what he described as “an ugly act,” the prime minister’s spokesman said Thursday.

Muntadhar al-Zeidi, a correspondent for an Iraqi-owned television station based in Cairo, Egypt, could face two years’ imprisonment for insulting a foreign leader. He remained in custody Thursday night.

“It is too late to reverse the big and ugly act that I perpetrated,” al-Zeidi wrote in a letter delivered to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, according to the prime minister’s spokesman.

Al-Zeidi has been in custody since the Sunday night incident, which occurred during a news conference by Bush and al-Maliki.

The case has riveted Iraq, with many Iraqis considering him a hero for defying a president they blame for destroying the country.

Paraplegic’s suit allowed

LOS ANGELES — Proving that no good deed goes unpunished, the state’s high court on Thursday said a would-be Good Samaritan accused of rendering her friend paraplegic by pulling her from a wrecked car “like a rag doll” can be sued.

California’s Supreme Court ruled that the state’s Good Samaritan law only protects people from liability if they are administering emergency medical care, and that Lisa Torti’s attempted rescue of her friend didn’t qualify.

Justice Carlos Moreno wrote for a unanimous court that a person is not obligated to come to someone’s aid.

Alexandra Van Horn was in the front passenger seat of a car that slammed into a light pole at 45 mph on Nov. 1, 2004, according to her negligence lawsuit.

Torti was a passenger in a car that was following behind the vehicle and stopped after the crash. Torti said when she came across the wreck, she feared the car was going to explode and pulled Van Horn out.

Associated Press