Israeli leader denounces UN report on Gaza action

Israeli leader denounces UN report on Gaza action

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday vowed never to allow Israeli leaders or soldiers to stand trial on war-crimes charges over their actions during last winter’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip, furiously denouncing a U.N. report in a keynote address to parliament.

Netanyahu’s fiery rhetoric — and his decision to open the high- profile speech with remarks on the report — reflected the deep distress felt among Israeli leaders after a U.N. commission accused Israel of intentionally harming civilians when it launched a massive attack in Gaza to stop years of rocket fire.

FBI use of driver’s licenses prompts ACLU outcry

RALEIGH, N.C. — In its search for fugitives, the FBI has begun using facial-recognition technology on millions of motorists, comparing driver’s license photos with pictures of convicts in a high-tech analysis of chin widths and nose sizes.

The project in North Carolina has already helped nab at least one suspect. Agents are eager to look for more criminals and possibly to expand the effort nationwide. But privacy advocates worry that the method allows authorities to track people who have done nothing wrong.

“Everybody’s participating, essentially, in a virtual lineup by getting a driver’s license,” said Christopher Calabrese, an attorney who focuses on privacy issues at the American Civil Liberties Union.

Earth still shifting at site of Washington landslide

NACHES, Wash. — The earth continued shifting Monday at the site of a weekend landslide that obliterated a section of highway, rerouted a river and prompted evacuations in central Washington state.

The landslide early Sunday shoved a quarter-mile of State Route 410 into the Naches River, forcing the river to find a new course and causing some flooding. Nearly 80 people were evacuated. Five houses were damaged by the slide, and about 25 more were damaged by flooding. Parts of the roadway were buried under up to 30 feet of rock and debris.

Insurer reverses rejection of coverage for fat infant

DENVER — A Colorado insurance company is changing its attitude about fat babies.

Rocky Mountain Health Plans said Monday it will no longer consider obesity a “pre-existing condition” barring coverage for hefty infants.

The change comes after the insurer turned down a Grand Junction 4-month-old who weighs about 17 pounds. The insurer deemed Alex Lange — called by his parents a “happy little chunky monkey” — obese and said the infant didn’t qualify for coverage.

The insurer said Monday it would change its policy for babies who are healthy but fat. The company attributed the boy’s rejection for health coverage to a “flaw in our underwriting system.”

Born at just over 8 pounds, the boy’s current weight puts him in the 99th percentile for babies his age. The company says it’s an industry standard to reject new patients, including babies, above the 95th percentile for weight.

British PM to repay claim for maid, decorating

LONDON — In the latest blow to Gordon Brown’s beleaguered leadership, the British prime minister is being forced to repay more than $19,000 in disputed claims after an audit into how British lawmakers spent public money.

Dozens of lawmakers received letters Monday from Thomas Legg — whom Brown appointed to audit expense claims — asking them to repay the money or offer further explanations for why they claimed it. Legg was chosen to audit the spending rules in an effort to quell public outrage over lawmakers’ greed for taxpayer funds.

Service for slain student

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — The Yale University graduate student who was found murdered a month ago on what was to be her wedding day was remember Monday as a “model student” at a memorial service for the university community.

About 150 classmates, professors and others gathered at Yale’s historic Battell Chapel for a private memorial service for Annie Le, the 24-year-old found strangled behind a wall in a school laboratory.

Le was a doctoral pharmacology student from Placerville, Calif., who worked on a team that experimented on mice as part of research into enzymes that could have implications for treatment of cancer, diabetes and muscular dystrophy.

Raymond Clark III, a 24-year-old former Yale University lab technician, has been charged with murder.

Clark, who has not yet entered a plea, is due back in court next week for a hearing to determine if there is enough evidence to proceed to trial.

Associated Press