Nation & World Digest

Military leaders defend arms pact

WASHINGTON

U.S. military leaders dismissed Republican claims that a new arms treaty with Russia would hamper America’s missile-defense efforts as supporters tried Thursday to nudge the pact toward ratification in the Senate.

President Barack Obama has pushed for approval of the treaty in Congress’ lame-duck session, a chance for a foreign-policy victory to cap a politically difficult year. Conservative Republicans stand in the way, asserting that the United States made too many concessions in negotiations with Russia and the treaty would limit U.S. defense options.

Countering those arguments — though unlikely to appease some Republicans — Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters at the White House on Thursday that the treaty “in no way limits anything we want or have in mind on missile defense.”

20 states seek to throw out health law

PENSACOLA, Fla.

Attorneys for 20 states fighting the new federal health-care law told a judge Thursday it will expand the government’s powers in dangerous and unintended ways. The states want U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson to issue a summary judgment throwing out the health-care law without a full trial. They argue it violates people’s rights by forcing them to buy health insurance by 2014 or face penalties. “The act would leave more constitutional damage in its wake than any other statute in our history,” David Rivkin, an attorney for the states, told Vinson.

Birther gets time in prison, dismissal

FORT MEADE, Md.

An Army doctor who disobeyed orders to deploy to Afghanistan because he questioned President Barack Obama’s eligibility to be commander in chief was sentenced by a jury Thursday to six months in a military prison and dismissal from the Army.

The military jury spent nearly five hours deliberating punishment for Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin on Thursday after three days of court martial proceedings at Fort Meade, outside Baltimore.

Larry King exits CNN after 25 years

NEW YORK

Marking the occasion with bright-red suspenders, Larry King pulled the curtain down on his CNN talk show Thursday after 25 years. King, 77, said this summer he would leave.

Once the dominant voice on cable-television news, King has faded in a sea of sharp talkers. British talk-show host and “America’s Got Talent” judge Piers Morgan takes over the 9 p.m. Eastern time slot in January.

Japanese man attacks students

TOKYO

An unemployed Japanese man with a knife attacked grade-school students aboard a bus Friday in a rampage that left 13 people injured, police said.

Police arrested Yuta Saito, 27, on charges of attempted murder after he was subdued by a resident during the melee near the Toride Station in Ibaraki Prefecture, about 25 miles northeast of Tokyo, local police spokesman Masaru Morita said.

Eleven of the injured were junior high and high school students, fire department spokesman Shireka Iyoka said.

One of the injured has wounds that will require several weeks of treatment in the hospital, while the others were not seriously injured, he said.

Associated Press