Iran’s leaders accused of being worse than shah

Iran’s leaders accused of being worse than shah

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s embattled opposition leaders accused the government of becoming more brutal than the shah’s regime in Web statements Saturday, and authorities announced a new Internet crackdown aimed at choking off the reform movement’s last real means of keeping its campaign alive.

Two of Iran’s top pro-reform figures said police used excessive force against anti-government protesters who took to the streets last week on the sidelines of state-sanctioned rallies to mark the 30th anniversary of the U.S. Embassy takeover.

Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi, who lead the protest movement rejecting the legitimacy of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s June re-election, said authorities wielding batons even struck women on their heads. They called such treatment an ugly act that was not even seen during Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s response to the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled him.

Comcast expected to take control of NBC Universal

NEW YORK — Eight decades after pioneering the concept of broadcasting, NBC is on the verge of a startling move that illustrates broadcast television’s decline.

Cable TV operator Comcast Corp. is expected to buy a controlling stake in NBC Universal, perhaps as early as this week, bringing the network of Johnny Carson, Jerry Seinfeld, Bob Hope, Milton Berle and Tom Brokaw under the corporate control of the company that owns the Golf Channel and E! Entertainment Television.

“This is highly symbolic,” said Tim Brooks, who had worked at NBC for 20 years and now writes books on television history.

Helicopter crash probed

RENO, Nev. — Investigators said the pilot of a medical helicopter issued a mayday moments before the aircraft crashed into a hilly area north of Reno near the Nevada-California state line early Saturday. All three crew members — the pilot, flight nurse and paramedic — died.

The helicopter, an Aerospatiale AS350, had dropped off a patient at a Reno hospital and was returning to its base in Susanville, Calif., when it crashed around 2 a.m. Saturday, according to Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor.

Daring climber found dead

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia — Veteran Slovenian climber Tomaz Humar was found dead in the Himalayas on Saturday, days after he was injured and stranded on a 23,710-foot mountain, a mountain rescue company and a close friend said.

Humar, 40, who was married with two children, ascended hundreds of difficult alpine routes around the world, including some of the hardest climbs in the Himalayas.

In 1999, Humar became the first climber ever to go solo up the southern face of the French peak Daulaghiri. He also tackled the 22,402-foot Ama Dablam in 1996, for which he was awarded a French mountaineering award.

Madoff auction does well

NEW YORK — Items once belonging to Wall Street swindler Bernard Madoff and his wife have fetched as much as 20 times their estimated value at a New York City auction.

The fallen financier’s blue satin New York Mets baseball jacket with his surname stitched on the back was valued at up to $720 but sold for $14,500. Two pairs of Ruth Madoff’s diamond dangle earrings sold for $70,000 each, far beyond their pre-sale estimates of $9,800 and $21,400.

But the top-priced item in the sale was Bernard Madoff’s Rolex watch, estimated to sell for about $80,000. An anonymous buyer picked it up for only $65,000.

Madoff is serving 150 years in prison after pleading guilty in a multibillion-dollar fraud that burned thousands of investors.

Proceeds from the auction will be divided among his victims.

Gitmo moving to Illinois?

CHICAGO — A White House official says the Obama administration is considering buying a northwestern Illinois prison to house a limited number of detainees from Guantanamo Bay, along with federal inmates.

The official says the federal Bureau of Prisons evaluated several state and federal facilities, and the maximum-security Thomson Correctional Facility emerged as a leading option to house Guantanamo detainees.

The 1,600-cell Thomson facility, about 150 miles west of Chicago, was built by the state in 2001. Budget problems prevented it from ever fully opening, and it now houses about 200 minimum-security inmates.

Associated Press