Federal officials probe pedestrian-bridge collapse

Federal officials probe pedestrian-bridge collapse

ATLANTA — Federal investigators were working through the weekend to start determining what caused a pedestrian bridge being built high above an Atlanta park to collapse, killing one man and leaving 11 other workers hospitalized, seven in intensive care.

Contractors were pouring concrete on the “canopy walk” at the Atlanta Botanical Garden when it crumbled Friday morning, sending workers hurtling up to 40 feet to the forest below. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration was investigating Saturday, but spokesman Mike Wald said it could take months to determine what happened.

No verdict in Fort Dix plot

CAMDEN, N.J. — Jurors considering the case of five men accused of plotting to attack soldiers at the Army’s Fort Dix finished their fourth day of deliberations Saturday without reaching a verdict.

The jury, which was being sequestered, agreed to resume deliberations at 8:30 this morning — an hour earlier than they have been starting.

U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler said the jury gave him a note Saturday saying that it was making progress and getting along.

Earlier in the day, the jury asked for transcripts of testimony for the first time since Wednesday, the first day of deliberations, when they also sought transcripts of some testimony.

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

King aide Bevel dies

WASHINGTON — The Rev. James L. Bevel, a prominent figure in the civil rights movement whose legacy was clouded by an incest conviction, has died, a relative said. He was 72.

The Rev. Mr. Bevel died Friday in Virginia after a fight with pancreatic cancer, said a daughter, Chevara Orrin, who lives in Winston-Salem, N.C. He was recently released on bond while appealing a 15-year prison sentence.

Mr. Bevel was a top lieutenant to Martin Luther King Jr. and architect of the 1963 Children’s Crusade in Birmingham, Ala. But in April, a jury convicted him of incest for having sex more than a decade ago with a then-teenage daughter.

A Baptist minister, Mr. Bevel was a leader in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, two of the stalwart organizations that led efforts in the 1960s to desegregate the South. Decades later, he also helped organize the Million Man March.

Rioters battle police

ATHENS, Greece — Hundreds of rioters battled police in central Athens on Saturday, fire-bombing a credit reporting agency and attacking the city’s Christmas tree two weeks after the police shooting of a teenager set off Greece’s worst unrest in decades.

Saturday’s violence followed a memorial gathering at 9 p.m. where 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos died Dec. 6, in the Athens neighborhood of Exarchia.

Grigoropoulos’ fatal shooting touched a nerve among Greek youth, who took to the streets to protest what they see as random police violence.

Slain immigrant buried

CUENCA, Ecuador — An Ecuadorean immigrant beaten to death in an apparent U.S. hate crime was carried to his grave Saturday in a town that has seen thousands of others seek their fortunes abroad.

Julia Quintuna, the mother of Jose Oswaldo Sucuzhanay, sobbed as she embraced her 10-year-old grandson, Brian, one of Sucuzhanay’s children.

Sucuzhanay, a 31-year-old real estate agent, was attacked by a group of men who kicked and beat him with an aluminum baseball bat, shouting anti-Latino and anti-gay slurs as he walked arm in arm with his brother near his Brooklyn home Dec. 7. He died after five days in a coma.

Party for Iraqi Christians

BAGHDAD — Trying to demonstrate just how much safer Baghdad is these days, Iraqi officials threw a party for Christians on Saturday, complete with huge posters of Jesus Christ.

A skinny Santa Claus draped in an Iraqi flag also made an appearance, waving and posing for photos.

Despite being slightly outnumbered by the huge security detail protecting the event, the crowd of Christians and Muslims called it a positive sign for the country.

“Such activities make me feel happy and joyful,” said Saba Tariq, 40, a Shiite who attended the “Master of the Spirit” celebration.

Combined dispatches