Nation & World Digest | India: Pakistan tied to Mumbai siege

India: Pakistan tied to Mumbai siege

NEW DELHI

An American convicted in the 2008 Mumbai attacks said Pakistan’s main spy agency was deeply involved in planning that strike, monitoring the preparations and providing funding and advice to the attackers, according to an Indian-government summary of his interrogation.

The attack killed 166 people, paralyzed India’s business capital and froze peace efforts between Pakistan and India.

A senior intelligence official in Pakistan said the allegations were baseless.

Thomas’ wife calls Hill for an apology

WASHINGTON

The wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is asking Anita Hill to apologize for accusing the justice of sexually harassing her, 19 years after Thomas’ confirmation hearing spawned a national debate about harassment in the workplace.

Virginia Thomas said in a statement Tuesday that she was “extending an olive branch” to Hill, now a Brandeis University professor, in a voice-mail message left over the weekend.

Hill contacted Brandeis’ public-safety office, which in turn informed the FBI.

Google, Israel to put scrolls online

JERUSALEM

The Dead Sea Scrolls, among the world’s most important, mysterious and tightly restricted archaeological treasures, are about to get Googled.

The technology giant and Israel announced Tuesday that they are teaming up to give researchers and the public the first comprehensive and searchable database of the scrolls — a 2,000-year-old collection of Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek documents that shed light on Judaism during biblical times and the origins of Christianity.

Once the images are up, anyone will be able to peruse exact copies of the original scrolls as well as an English translation of the text on their computer — for free.

Questioning state, church separation

WILMINGTON, Del.

Republican Christine O’Donnell challenged her Democratic rival Tuesday to show where the Constitution requires separation of church and state, drawing swift criticism from her opponent, laughter from her law-school audience and a quick defense from prominent conservatives.

“Where in the Constitution is separation of church and state?” O’Donnell asked Democrat Chris Coons.

Her campaign issued a statement later saying O’Donnell “was not questioning the concept of separation of church and state as subsequently established by the courts. She simply made the point that the phrase appears nowhere in the Constitution.”

Mideast leaders to continue talks

JERUSALEM

The Obama administration has secured pledges from senior Mideast leaders to continue their fitful peace negotiations until after next month’s U.S. midterm elections.

Israeli and Palestinian officials told McClatchy Newspapers on Tuesday that efforts to reach a compromise would continue until at least Nov. 3.

No firings in deaths of 7 CIA workers

WASHINGTON

Despite glaring security blunders, no intelligence officials will be fired or disciplined for failing to prevent a 2009 suicide bombing in Afghanistan that killed seven CIA employees in one of the deadliest attacks in the agency’s history, CIA Director Leon Panetta said Tuesday.

Panetta said separate internal reviews concluded that critical warnings about the Jordanian double agent who set off the explosion inside a base in Afghanistan base were not shared with other officials, security measures on the base were insufficient, and it was unclear who was in charge of the operation.

Combined dispatches