American on hunger strike

American on hunger strike

TEHRAN, Iran — An American journalist jailed in Iran for purportedly spying for the U.S. was on her fifth day of a hunger strike Saturday and does not plan to stop until she is freed, her father said.

Roxana Saberi, a dual American-Iranian citizen who will turn 32 today, was convicted more than a week ago and sentenced to eight years in prison after a swift, one-day trial behind closed doors. She began her hunger strike Tuesday to protest her imprisonment, her father, Reza Saberi, told The Associated Press.

The case has been a source of tension between the United States and Iran at a time when the Obama administration has said it wants to engage its longtime adversary. The U.S. has called the accusations against Saberi baseless and demanded her release.

Taliban kill 5 officers

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Three Taliban suicide bombers evaded tight security to attack a governor’s compound in southern Afghanistan, killing at least five police officers Saturday, authorities said.

The multipronged assault was the latest bold attack in Kandahar, the country’s largest southern city and the Taliban’s spiritual birthplace.

ANC sweeps elections

PRETORIA, South Africa — The leader of South Africa’s long-dominant ANC was treated like a president-elect Saturday after his party swept parliamentary elections — though not with the two-thirds majority it won easily in the last vote.

A split in the ANC and questions about Jacob Zuma’s fitness to govern after sex and corruption scandals no doubt contributed to the party’s loss of support. But Zuma insisted he was not disappointed, telling reporters: “We have won a decisive majority.”

The party did not win the two-thirds of the 400-member parliament that would allow it to enact major budgetary plans or legislation unchallenged, or change the constitution — though Zuma says charges from the opposition that he planned to undermine the constitution were unfounded.

Parliament elects the president in South Africa, and was expected to vote Zuma into office May 6.

5 die in fiery crash in N.J.

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. — A 10-vehicle crash on the New Jersey Turnpike killed five people in one car and injured several others Saturday afternoon.

Turnpike Authority spokesman Joe Orlando said it appeared that nine cars and a tractor-trailer were involved in the fiery crash in the turnpike’s southbound lanes in Mount Laurel, considered a Philadelphia suburb. Emergency crews remained at the scene Saturday night, working to clear the crash site and redirect drivers caught in traffic delays caused by the accident.

Orlando said all those who died in the 1 p.m. crash were from one car, which burst into flames.

IMF will sell bonds

WASHINGTON — The International Monetary Fund will sell bonds as a way to raise funds to lend to struggling nations, the head of the organization said Saturday, in a victory for developing countries.

Emerging economies such as China, Brazil and India pushed for the move as an alternative to providing longer-term loans to the IMF. Those countries want greater voice in the institution before providing additional resources.

World leaders meeting three weeks ago in London pledged to boost an IMF emergency lending facility by $500 billion, but finance officials meeting in Washington disagreed on how to best provide the funds.

The IMF also said in a communiqu issued after its annual spring meeting that member nations had committed to cleaning up their banking systems and taking steps to boost their economies through increased government spending.

Defeat for gay clergy

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Efforts to allow gays and lesbians to serve as clergy in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) have been defeated again.

Votes on Saturday by two presbyteries, or district church bodies, ensured the defeat of a proposal to drop a requirement that would-be ministers, deacons and elders live in “fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness.”

The church’s General Assembly approved the proposal last summer, but it required the OK from a majority of the nation’s 173 presbyteries. Those votes have been trickling in for several months. At least two more presbyteries voted no on Saturday, enough to seal the measure’s defeat.

Associated Press