Ex-cop gets 4 1/2 years for torture

January 22, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

CHICAGO

A decorated former Chicago police officer whose name has become synonymous with police brutality in the city was sentenced Friday to 41/2 years in federal prison for lying about the torture of suspects.

Dozens of suspects — almost all of them black men — have claimed for decades that Jon Burge and his officers electrically shocked, suffocated and beat them into confessing crimes ranging from armed robbery to murder. Several victims and their supporters said the sentence wasn’t nearly stiff enough.

Keith Olbermann leaves MSNBC

NEW YORK

MSNBC host Keith Olbermann announced Friday that he is leaving the network and has taped his last “Countdown” show.

MSNBC issued a statement that it had ended its contract with the controversial host, with no further explanation. Olbermann hosted the network’s most popular show, but his combative liberal opinions often made him a target of critics.

Olbermann did not explain why he was leaving.

Duvalier: I came back to help rebuild

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti

Former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier told Haitians on Friday that he returned after 25 years in exile to participate in the post- earthquake reconstruction of his homeland and that he was ready to face “persecution” for alleged crimes during his administration.

In his first public comments since his shocking return to Haiti on Sunday, the ousted strongman known as “Baby Doc” spoke in a faint voice and did not take questions, leaving that to three American consultants — including former U.S. congressman and presidential candidate Bob Barr — and one of his Haitian lawyers.

Hawaii can’t release Obama birth info

HONOLULU

Democratic Gov. Neil Abercrombie will end his quest to prove President Barack Obama was born in Hawaii because it’s against state law to release private documents, his office said Friday.

State Attorney General David Louie told the governor he can’t disclose an individual’s birth documentation without a person’s consent, Abercrombie spokeswoman Donalyn Dela Cruz said.

“There is nothing more that Gov. Abercrombie can do within the law to produce a document,” said Dela Cruz. “Unfortunately, there are conspirators who will continue to question the citizenship of our president.”

Sudan army in clash with rebels

KHARTOUM, Sudan

Rebels in Sudan’s western Darfur region ambushed a small army unit Friday, triggering an hours-long clash that killed 21 soldiers and 13 rebel fighters, the military said.

Army spokesman Capt. Sawarmy Khaled said the rebels behind Friday’s attack were led by the main Justice and Equality Movement, which has been involved in faltering peace talks with the government.

Russian spy has TV show on ‘secrets’

MOSCOW

Russian spy Anna Chapman stares seductively into the camera lens and declares “I will uncover all the secrets.” It’s the top of a new television show that takes her post-espionage career as a media persona to a new level.

The secrets to which the 28-year-old Chapman alludes aren’t about her years of undercover work in the U.S., but on unexplained mysteries of the occult.

The show, which debuted Friday on the REN-TV network, further raises Chapman’s profile among Russians who have seen her pose half-naked in a men’s magazine and attend a rocket launch.

Associated Press