Suicide bomber targets Pakistani spy agency

Suicide bomber targets Pakistani spy agency

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A suicide car bomb devastated Pakistan’s main spy agency building in the northwest today, killing at least seven people and striking at the heart of the institution overseeing much of the country’s anti-terror campaign.

The blast in Peshawar was the latest in a string of bloody attacks on security forces, civilian and Western targets since the government launched an offensive in mid-October against militants in the border region of South Waziristan, where al-Qaida and Taliban leaders are believed to be hiding out.

Drug lord on Forbes list

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s most-wanted drug lord escaped prison by hiding in a laundry truck nearly a decade ago, and his legend and fortune seem to grow with each passing day he eludes capture.

Now he has reached a new level of fame — or infamy — by making Forbes magazine’s list of the 67 “World’s Most Powerful People.”

Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is considered even more powerful than Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez — No. 67 — and France’s Nicolas Sarkozy — No. 56 — according to Forbes magazine’s list of the 67 “World’s Most Powerful People.” At No. 41, Guzman was just below Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Old-age disability rising

Americans entering their 70s today are experiencing more disabilities in old age than did the previous generation, researchers announced Thursday. The shift in health fortunes comes as a surprise and predicts future high disability rates for baby boomers.

The study is the first to foretell the end of a two-decade trend in which people appeared to be functioning better in old age than those who came before them, said lead author Teresa E. Seeman, a professor of medicine and epidemiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The study, funded by the National Institute on Aging and published in the American Journal of Public Health, doesn’t explain why more people are becoming disabled as they enter their later years. But, Seeman said, rising levels of obesity appear to be a major factor; the greatest increases in disability were among nonwhites and people who were obese or overweight.

Mother accused of forcing kids to torture animals

SELDEN, N.Y. — A mother of seven is accused of running a house of horrors for pets at her suburban Long Island home, forcing her children to help torture them and burying at least 20 dogs in her backyard — animals neighbors now fear were beloved pets that mysteriously disappeared over the years.

Sharon McDonough pleaded not guilty last week to six counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty on suspicion of abusing five dogs and a cat found crammed into cages, covered in feces and urine, their coats matted with filth. A judge has taken away custody of the 43-year-old woman’s six young daughters.

Douglas McDonough, 21, who turned his mother in to authorities on Nov. 5, called the home “a concentration camp for the animals” in comments to reporters after the arrest.

US moves to seize Iranian-linked assets

NEW YORK — Federal prosecutors took steps Thursday to seize four U.S. mosques and a Fifth Avenue skyscraper owned by a nonprofit Muslim organization long suspected of being secretly controlled by the Iranian government.

In what could prove to be one of the biggest counterterrorism seizures in U.S. history, prosecutors filed a civil complaint in federal court against the Alavi Foundation, seeking the forfeiture of more than $500 million in assets.

The assets include bank accounts; Islamic centers consisting of schools and mosques in New York City, Maryland, California and Houston; more than 100 acres in Virginia; and a 36-story glass office tower in New York.

In book, Palin confirms tensions with McCain

NEW YORK — The rumors are true, according to Sarah Palin: The McCain-Palin campaign was not a happy family.

In Palin’s new memoir, “Going Rogue,” she confirms reports of tension between her aides and those of the 2008 Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain. The vice presidential candidate confirms that she had wanted to speak on election night, but was denied the chance and says she was kept “bottled up” from reporters during the campaign.

Palin also writes harshly of CBS anchor Katie Couric, whom she describes as “badgering” and biased.

Combined dispatches