Gitmo detainee goes home

Gitmo detainee goes home

KABUL, Afghanistan — One of the youngest people ever held at Guantanamo was welcomed home Monday by Afghanistan’s president and joyful relatives after almost seven years in prison — freed by a military judge who ruled he was coerced into confessing wounding U.S. soldiers with a grenade.

Mohammed Jawad, now about 21, flew to the Afghan capital in the afternoon and was released to family members late in the evening.

Jawad was arrested in Kabul in December 2002 and accused of tossing a grenade at an unmarked vehicle in an attack that wounded two U.S. Special Forces and their interpreter. Afghan police delivered him into U.S. custody, and about a month later he was sent to the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

A federal judge ordered Jawad released last month after a war-crimes case against him unraveled over lack of evidence and concerns about his age.

Source: Bernanke to be renominated to lead Fed

OAK BLUFFS, Mass. — An Associated Press source says President Barack Obama plans to nominate Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to a second term.

Obama was to make the announcement today during a break from his vacation on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. The source is a senior administration official who discussed the announcement late Monday on the condition of anonymity.

Bernanke was first appointed Fed chairman by former President George W. Bush. In his announcement, Obama plans to praise Bernanke as someone who led the country through a financial crisis.

Philip Morris ordered to pay $13.8M to woman

LOS ANGELES — A jury has decided that cigarette maker Philip Morris USA should pay $13.8 million in punitive damages to the daughter of a longtime smoker who died of lung cancer.

The Los Angeles Superior Court jury returned the verdict Monday, more than eight years after the smoker, Betty Bullock, sued the company for fraud and product liability. The panel voted 9-to-3 in favor of Bullock’s daughter Jodie Bullock, who is now the plaintiff in the case.

Betty Bullock died of lung cancer in February 2003. She had sued Philip Morris in April 2001, accusing the company of fraud and product liability. A jury in 2002 recommended Philip Morris pay a record $28 billion in punitive damages to Bullock, but a judge later reduced the award to $28 million.

Teen arrested in bombing

SAN MATEO, Calif. — Police arrested a 17-year-old boy who they say set off two explosions at his former school Monday and had eight pipe bombs strapped to his chest when he was tackled by a teacher. No one was injured.

The unidentified boy, a San Mateo resident, was arrested just after the second blast around 8 a.m. at Hillsdale High School in San Mateo. An unidentified teacher who ran toward the sound of the detonation spotted the former student and tackled him, police said.

The remaining eight bombs were strapped to his chest in a military-style vest, said San Mateo Police Chief Susan Manheimer during a news conference.

Indicted in hit-and-run

PHOENIX — Authorities say a Phoenix man accused of using the Cash for Clunkers program to ditch his BMW after a fatal hit-and-run crash has been indicted on a manslaughter charge.

Maricopa County prosecutors say 23-year-old Timothy Kissida remained in custody Monday on $250,000 bond.

He also is charged with leaving the scene of a fatal-injury accident and tampering with evidence. A call to Kissida’s attorney for comment on the indictment wasn’t immediately returned Monday.

Phoenix police say Kissida was driving his light-blue BWM 325i shortly after midnight Aug. 8 when he hit 52-year-old bicyclist Charles Waldrop, who was riding home from work. Police say Waldrop’s bike had lights and reflectors.

Later that day, Kissida is accused of trying to use the Cash for Clunkers program to trade in his luxury car — telling a dealer that his BMW was damaged when he hit a javelina, a piglike desert mammal.

11 Chinese miners die

BEIJING — China’s official Xinhua News Agency says 11 people have died in a coal mine gas blast in northern Shanxi province and three are missing.

Xinhua says the explosion ripped through a mine shaft in Jinzhong city Monday morning. It says 16 miners were working underground at the time in the Xingguang Coal Industry Co. mine.

Rescuers have rescued two workers and 11 bodies. They are still searching for the missing.

Combined dispatches