CIA chief pulled from Pakistan

CIA chief pulled from Pakistan

ISLAMABAD

The CIA yanked its top spy out of Pakistan after his cover was blown and his life threatened, and 54 suspected militants were killed in a U.S. drone missile attack Friday in stark new signs of the troubled relationship between mistrustful allies locked in a war on terror groups.

The station chief’s outing has spurred questions whether Pakistan’s spy service might have leaked the information.

Alaska’s high court weighs vote dispute

ANCHORAGE, Alaska

Legal wrangling over Alaska’s contested U.S. Senate race reached the state Supreme Court on Friday, with justices hearing Republican Joe Miller’s appeal of a lower-court ruling that amounted to a victory for rival Lisa Murkowski.

Miller is appealing a state judge’s decision to toss out his challenge to the handling of the election and counting of write-in ballots for Murkowski, who waged a write-in campaign after losing the GOP primary to Miller.

The court did not immediately rule Friday.

WikiLeaks founder remains defiant

BUNGAY, England

The founder of WikiLeaks said Friday he fears the United States is preparing to indict him but insisted that the government secret-spilling site would continue its work despite what he calls a dirty-tricks campaign against him.

Julian Assange spoke from snowbound Ellingham Hall, a supporter’s country mansion where he is confined on bail as he fights Sweden’s attempt to extradite him on allegations of rape and molestation.

Attorney General Eric Holder has said repeatedly a criminal investigation of the WikiLeaks’ continuing release of some 250,000 secret U.S. State Department cables is under way and that anyone found to have broken the law will be held accountable.

Orphaned bears make debut at zoo

BILLINGS, Mont.

They will never escape their savage backstory, but three young bears whose mother led them on a rampage through a Montana campground embarked on a new career Friday: fuzzy zoo attractions.

As a posse of preschoolers pressed as close as the glass would allow, the three grizzlies — now Dolly, Loulou and Koda — nosed around their new 2-acre spread at ZooMontana.

Wildlife officials euthanized the bears’ mother in July, after the bruin family was trapped in the wake of a rare late-night attack outside Yellowstone National Park. A Michigan man was killed, and two people were injured.

Bones found on isle might be Earhart’s

NORMAN, Okla.

The three bone fragments turned up on a deserted South Pacific island that lay along the course Amelia Earhart was following when she vanished. Nearby were several tantalizing artifacts: some old makeup, some glass bottles and shells that had been cut open. Now scientists at the University of Oklahoma hope to extract DNA from the tiny bone chips in tests that could prove Earhart died as a castaway after failing in her 1937 quest to become the first woman to fly around the world.

N. Korea warns South to end drills

SEOUL, South Korea

North Korea warned South Korea on Friday not to stage artillery drills on a front-line island the North bombed last month, saying it would hit back even harder than in the previous attack that killed four South Koreans. The North warned the South against similar drills before the Nov. 23 shelling that destroyed homes and renewed fears of war on the divided peninsula.

Associated Press