Judge: Release 17 Chinese Muslims from Guantanamo

Judge: Release 17 Chinese Muslims from Guantanamo

WASHINGTON — A federal judge ordered the Bush administration Tuesday to immediately free 17 Chinese Muslims from Guantanamo Bay into the United States, a dramatic ruling that could set the course for releasing dozens of other prisoners at the naval facility in Cuba.

In a stern rebuke of the government, U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina said it would be wrong to continue holding the detainees since they are no longer considered enemy combatants. Known as Uighurs, the men have been in custody for nearly seven years.

Over the objections of government lawyers who called the Uighurs a security risk, Urbina ordered their release in Washington, D.C., by Friday. It was the first court-ordered release of Guantanamo detainees since the prison camp opened in 2002.

Man on trial in slayings in 2 separate events

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A defense attorney says a man on trial for murder killed a couple by throwing them off their yacht and killed another man too. But attorney Gary Pohlson told jurors that defendant Skylar Deleon shouldn’t face the death penalty for his actions.

Pohlson used his opening statement at the trial Tuesday to say he is only interested in saving Deleon’s life. The concession is not the same as a guilty plea, however, and Pohlson says he will dispute some details of the prosecution case.

Deleon is accused of murdering the Arizona couple, Tom and Jackie Hawks, by throwing them into the ocean tied to an anchor in 2004. He is also accused of stealing $50,000 from a man and murdering him in 2003.

Man charged in strangling of starving stepsister, 11

FULTON, N.Y. — A man was charged Tuesday in the strangling death of his 11-year-old stepsister who was starved by her parents and slept in a locked room inside an upstate New York house filled with garbage and more than 100 cats, police said.

Alan Jones, 27, was indicted on a second-degree murder charge in the death of Erin Maxwell. The girl died Aug. 29, a day after she was found unconscious in her bedroom with a green cord around her neck, one end caught on a nail in a window frame.

Lindsey Maxwell, 35, the girl’s father, and Lynn Maxwell, 53, her stepmother, were each charged with six counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

“Erin was being raised in a home with over 100 cats, as well as caged poultry. The home reeked of animal urine. There was animal feces over 18 inches deep in one of the rooms,” State Police Capt. Mark Lincoln said.

Investigators found that Erin was given “minimal amounts of food” and routinely locked every night in a small bedroom. She weighed only 65 pounds, Lincoln said.

Fighting for dad’s pension

WASHINGTON — If William Kennedy had updated all his financial paperwork in accordance with his divorce decree, chances are his daughter would not have been at the Supreme Court on Tuesday fighting for the $402,000 she thinks should be hers.

When Kennedy died in Texas in 2001, his employer, DuPont Co., looked at the form on which he designated the beneficiary of his retirement account and saw the name of his ex-wife, Liv.

So, despite divorce papers in which she waived her right to the proceeds from that account and over the objection of her daughter Kari, DuPont paid Liv Kennedy the money.

Ex-Army captain pleads guilty to fuel theft in Iraq

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A former Army contractor pleaded guilty Tuesday to stealing nearly $40 million worth of jet and diesel fuel from a U.S. Army base in Iraq and selling it on the black market.

Lee W. Dubois, 32, of Lexington, S.C., faces up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced on a single count of theft of government property. He also will be required to pay restitution.

Federal sentencing guidelines could recommend a term as long as nine years, Dubois’ lawyer said.

Dubois had been a captain in the Army dealing with contract issues until he took a job in September 2007 with Kuwait-based Future Services General Trading and Contracting Co.

In all, the government estimates that Dubois and several conspirators — not yet charged — stole roughly 3.5 million gallons of jet fuel and 7 million gallons of diesel fuel.

Associated Press