World & nation || OSU bomb threat
OSU bomb threat
COLUMBUS
Ohio State University reopened three labs and the main library Tuesday night that were targeted in a bomb threat that prompted the school to close all four buildings and three streets, disrupting campus life for hundreds of students, staff and faculty. No bombs were found, officials said.
The threat was in a message received Tuesday at FBI headquarters in Washington, said Paul Bresson, a spokesman based there. The bureau had several leads and was continuing to investigate, its Cincinnati spokesman, Michael Brooks, said late Tuesday.
Ohio State is one of the nation’s largest universities, with more than 56,000 students at its main Columbus campus.
Hope for Demjanjuk
BERLIN
A long-secret report on the U.S. Department of Justice’s Nazi-hunting unit that was made public over the weekend could help get John Demjanjuk out of jail, his attorney told The Associated Press.
Defense attorney Ulrich Busch said he will submit a motion after the trial resumes next week, relying on the report that was posted Saturday by the New York Times, arguing that Demjanjuk should be given credit for time he served in Israel where he was tried in the 1980s and 1990s.
He hopes to have Demjanjuk, from Seven Hills near Cleveland, Ohio, freed while his trial in Germany continues if the Munich state court agrees that the time he already spent in prison exceeds the maximum sentence he could receive.
McConnell re-elected
WASHINGTON
Sen. Mitch McConnell was re-elected Tuesday to his Senate minority leadership post, putting to rest months of speculation about whether the top-ranking Republican would face a challenge.
The Kentucky lawmaker was nominated by 2008 Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Sen.-elect Marco Rubio of Florida, one of several tea- party-backed freshmen who won with support from South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint.
Dolan heads bishops
BALTIMORE
New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan was elected president Tuesday of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in a surprise win that underscored the bishops’ shift toward a more aggressive defense of orthodoxy.
Dolan defeated Tucson Bishop Gerald Kicanas, who was known for his conciliatory style and served for three years as vice president. It is the first time since the 1960s that a sitting vice president was on the ballot for conference president and lost.
$46M pink diamond
GENEVA
A rare pink diamond smashed the world record for a jewel at auction Tuesday, selling for more than $46 million to a well-known gem dealer. London jeweler Laurence Graff paid $46,158,674, for the 24.78-carat “fancy intense pink” diamond, which he immediately named “The Graff Pink.”
Arms suspect in US
WASHINGTON
Accused Russian arms merchant Viktor Bout was flown from Bangkok toward New York Tuesday in a chartered U.S. plane, extradited in manacles despite a final outraged push by Russian diplomats to persuade Thailand to release him instead, current and former American officials said.
The extradition followed a bruising diplomatic tug-of-war between the U.S. and Russia that shows no sign of letting up and could jeopardize cooperation on arms control, nuclear- weapons curbs and the war in Afghanistan.
A former Soviet military officer and air-cargo executive nicknamed the “Merchant of Death” by critics, Bout had been accused of arming failed states and insurgents across the Third World since the 1990s, but he previously never had been arrested.
Combined dispatches