Soldier facing charges of killing Afghan civilian

Soldier facing charges of killing Afghan civilian

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — A Special Forces soldier will be court-martialed early next year on charges that he killed an Afghan civilian and cut off his ear near a remote village, the Army said Thursday.

Master Sgt. Joseph D. Newell, 38, of Tecumseh, Mich., was arraigned Wednesday on charges of murder and desecration of a body.

Prosecutors say Newell shot an unidentified man his team encountered during a convoy March 5 near the village of Hyderabad in southern Afghanistan’s Helmand province.

Prosecutors said Newell showed the ear to several soldiers.

An investigator said he found the ear on a shelf in Newell’s room at Forward Operating Base Robinson in Afghanistan.

Transformer malfunction shuts down atom smasher

GENEVA — A 30-ton transformer that cools the world’s largest particle collider malfunctioned, forcing physicists to stop using the atom smasher just a day after launching it to great fanfare, the European Organization for Nuclear Research said Thursday.

The faulty transformer has been replaced and the ring in the 17-mile circular tunnel under the Swiss-French border has been cooled back down to near zero on the Kelvin scale — minus 459.67 degrees Fahrenheit — the most efficient operating temperature, said a statement by CERN, as the organization is known.

When the transformer malfunctioned, operating temperatures rose slightly higher than the normal operating temperature.

Measles outbreaks prompt warning from doctors

CHICAGO — A new coalition of 22 major medical groups says public confidence in vaccine safety needs to be restored to avoid risks for deadly disease outbreaks.

Their concern stems from recent measles outbreaks in several cities. About 131 children have gotten the measles this year — the highest number in more than a decade.

Recent government data show that more than 77 percent of U.S. toddlers have gotten all their recommended shots. The doctor groups say that means about one-fourth of toddlers aren’t getting the shots they need.

Thursday’s message comes from the Chicago-based American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and 20 more of the nation’s most influential health-related groups.

Mob hit man testifies

MIAMI — A self-described mob hit man testified Thursday that he was reluctant to kill a gambling executive but was convinced by a Boston organized crime kingpin that a trusted FBI agent indicated the gangsters would go to prison if the executive lived.

John Martorano said he believed Winter Hill Gang leader James “Whitey” Bulger had been warned by FBI agent John Connolly, who is on trial in Miami for murder and conspiracy in the executive’s death. Martorano, a prosecution witness, conceded under questioning by Connolly’s lawyer that he had to take Bulger’s word for it.

The warning relayed by Bulger, Martorano said, was that former World Jai-Alai president John Callahan was likely to become the focus of an FBI probe into another murder and that he would probably crumble under the intense pressure and implicate gang members.

Charges unlikely for Foley

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Two federal officials have told The Associated Press that no charges are expected against former Congressman Mark Foley after a lengthy investigation into his lurid computer messages to underage pages.

They also told AP results of the state investigation will be announced Friday. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.

The Palm Beach County Republican resigned in 2006 after being confronted with graphic e-mails and instant messages he sent to male teenage pages. He has since been under investigation by the state and the FBI.

Foley’s attorney, David Roth, has acknowledged that Foley sent the messages to the teens but has maintained Foley never had inappropriate contact with minors.

New marine life found

SYDNEY, Australia — Marine scientists have discovered hundreds of new animal species on reefs in Australian waters, including brilliant soft corals and tiny crustaceans, according to findings released Thursday.

The creatures were found during expeditions run by the Australian chapter of CReefs, a global census of coral reefs that is one of several projects of the Census of Marine Life, an international effort to catalog all life in the oceans.

Associated Press