Nation & World Digest

Virus could target many industries

WASHINGTON

A malicious computer attack that appears to target Iran’s nuclear plants can be modified to wreak havoc on industrial-control systems around the world and represents the most dire cyber-threat known to industry, government officials and experts said Wednesday.

They warned that industries are becoming increasingly vulnerable to the so-called Stuxnet worm as they merge networks and computer systems to increase efficiency. The growing danger, said lawmakers, makes it imperative that Congress move on legislation that would expand government controls and set requirements to make systems safer.

Koop: AIDS is ‘forgotten epidemic’

WASHINGTON

Calling it the “forgotten epidemic,” former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop urged Americans to end complacency about AIDS and put the deadly disease back on the radar screen.

Koop, the bearded physician who sounded the alarm against AIDS nearly three decades ago, joined other doctors Wednesday at a panel discussion on the epidemic, as scientists and medical professionals prepared to open a national summit on the disease.

NATO: Karzai affirms mission

WASHINGTON

After a newspaper interview in which he was critical of U.S. operations, Afghan President Hamid Karzai met with the top U.S. commander and said he supported NATO’s military campaign and, reluctantly, its nighttime special-operations raids, a senior NATO official said Wednesday.

The hourlong meeting in Kabul between Karzai and Gen. David Petraeus, the senior NATO commander in Afghanistan, helped smooth over the controversy that followed the interview, said the official, who was among those briefed on the meeting.

Senate to vote again on ‘don’t ask’ policy

WASHINGtON

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says he will call for a vote after Thanksgiving on legislation that would allow gays to serve openly in the military.

His announcement Wednesday makes good on his pre-election promise to resurrect the bill during the lame-duck session. But it remains uncertain whether the legislation would have enough votes to pass.

Police nab top mob boss in Italy

ROME

Police in southern Italy on Wednesday captured one of Italy’s most-wanted fugitive mobsters, who was considered the financial brains behind the bloodiest of Camorra crime-syndicate clans.

Antonio Iovine, 46, grinned at crowds outside Naples police headquarters as he was hustled from a squad car into the building.

A convicted boss of the Casalesi crime family, Iovine had been on the run for 14 years. He was arrested with virtually no resistance after being found hiding in a crawl space in an apartment in the town of Casal di Principe.

Iraq leader opposes execution of Aziz

BAGHDAD

Iraq’s president declared Wednesday that he will not sign off on the hanging of Tariq Aziz, joining the Vatican and others in objecting to the death sentence for a man who for years was the international face of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

President Jalal Talabani’s statement sets up a showdown between those seeking maximum punishment for key figures of the ousted regime and groups calling for reconciliation after years of fierce sectarian conflict unleashed by the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Associated Press