Hikers: Iran held us based on nationality

Hikers: Iran held us based on nationality

NEW YORK

Two American hikers held for years in an Iranian prison came home Sunday, declaring that they were detained because of their nationality, not because they might have crossed the border from Iraq.

Joshua Fattal and Shane Bauer arrived in New York on Sunday morning, ending their diplomatic and personal ordeal with a sharp rebuke of the country that sentenced each to eight years in jail for espionage and illegally walking into Iran. They say they may never know if they actually stepped across the border while hiking and getting lost.

“From the very start, the only reason we have been held hostage is because we are American,” Fattal said at a news conference at a Manhattan hotel.

Saudi women get the right to vote

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, considered a reformer by the standards of his own ultraconservative kingdom, decreed on Sunday that women will for the first time have the right to vote and run in local elections due in 2015.

For the nation’s women, it is a giant leap forward, though they remain unable to serve as Cabinet ministers, drive or travel abroad without permission from a male guardian.

Chief: NYPD could take down plane

NEW YORK

The chief of the New York Police Department says city police could take down a plane if necessary. Commissioner Ray Kelly told CBS’ “60 Minutes” that after the Sept. 11 attacks, he decided the city couldn’t rely on the federal government alone. He set about creating the NYPD’s own counter- terrorism unit. He says the department is prepared for multiple scenarios and could even take down a plane.

Wife’s body in drum; man charged

JERSEY CITY, N.J.

A woman whose remains were found inside a 55-gallon concrete-filled drum in her apartment building might have been strangled by her husband, authorities said Sunday.

Randy “Amanda” Lehrer was last seen Aug. 17 leaving the diner where she worked, and investigators believe she was killed shortly afterward, Hudson County prosecutor Edward DeFazio told The Jersey Journal.

Her husband, Steven Acuna, was charged with her murder and remained jailed Sunday on $1 million bail. Lehrer’s remains were found Friday in the basement of the apartment building where the couple and their infant daughter lived.

Blasts kill 10 in Iraq

BAGHDAD

Back-to-back bomb blasts ripped through one of the holiest cities in Shiite Islam on Sunday, killing at least 10 people in a community still reeling from a deadly bus hijacking earlier this month that left Iraq’s Shiites again feeling hunted.

Four explosions struck the city of Karbala over a five-minute period, government officials said, sending thick black smoke over the city. Two of the bombs targeted an Interior Ministry office that issues ID cards. Another struck near a house, shredding its walls and ceiling. And one of the explosions went off half a mile from an important gold-domed shrine.

Probe looks at death during nurse strike

SAN FRANCISCO

Authorities were investigating the death of a patient who was given a “nonprescribed dosage” of a medical drug by a replacement hired when thousands of nurses went on strike across California, an Oakland police spokeswoman said Sunday.

Spokeswoman Johnna Watson did not release details of the incident at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center. The patient died Saturday, two days after the nurses walked out during the labor dispute Thursday. Many were not allowed to return to work Friday.

Associated Press