Mladic evokes outrage as war-crimes trial starts

Mladic evokes outrage as war-crimes trial starts

the hague, netherlands

He’s no longer the swaggering general who held Sarajevo “in the palm of his hand” during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war. Yet as his long-awaited genocide trial began Wednesday, Ratko Mladic still managed to reopen old wounds.

The frail, 70-year-old defendant had an angry exchange of hand gestures with the families of massacre victims in the public gallery.

Mladic is accused of commanding Bosnian Serb troops who waged a campaign of murder and persecution to drive Muslims and Croats out of territory they considered part of Serbia. His troops rained shells and snipers’ bullets down on civilians in the 44-month-long siege of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, and killed 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in July 1995.

GI killed in Cambodia receives Medal of Honor

washington

Leslie Sabo’s Vietnam War ended in the flash of his own grenade, hurled at an enemy bunker in Cambodia to save surrounded comrades. Forty years later, he was honored by President Obama on Wednesday with the nation’s highest award for gallantry.

Obama presented the Medal of Honor to Sabo’s widow, Rose Mary, and said doing so helps right the wrongs done to a generation that served freedom’s cause but came home to a brooding and resentful nation.

Spec. Leslie H. Sabo Jr. of Elwood City, Pa., was serving with U.S. forces near the village of Se San in eastern Cambodia in May of 1970 when his unit was ambushed and nearly overrun by North Vietnamese forces.

Edwards doesn’t testify

greensboro, n.c.

John Edwards’ team wrapped up their defense Wednesday without calling the ex-presidential candidate, his mistress or daughter to testify, a move experts say was intended to shift focus from a political sex scandal to the nitty- gritty of campaign-finance law.

Experts said Edwards’ bare-bone defense, which lasted just over two days, may be enough to avoid conviction on charges he authorized more than $1 million secretly provided by two wealthy donors to help hide an affair with pregnant mistress Rielle Hunter as he sought the White House in 2008.

House OKs GOP’s bill

washington

House Republicans set up a showdown Wednesday with the Senate and President Barack Obama over legislation to protect women from domestic violence, a fight that’s become as much about female voters this election year as cracking down on abuse.

The House voted 222-205 to reauthorize the 1994 Violence Against Women Act for five years, as the Senate had done. But big differences remain: Obama, other Democrats and a long list of advocacy groups say the House bill doesn’t go far enough to protect abused immigrants, Native Americans or gays.

RFK Jr.’s estranged wife is found dead

bedford, n.y.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s estranged wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy, who had fought drug and alcohol problems, was found dead in her home Wednesday.

An autopsy for the 52-year-old was scheduled for today.

In a statement issued by Robert Kennedy Jr.’s chief of staff, the family described Mary Kennedy as “a genius at friendship.”

Alliance store sells $1M Mega Millions ticket

alliance

Ohio lottery officials say a ticket sold in Northeast Ohio was worth $1 million in the Tuesday drawing for the Mega Millions game.

The ticket was sold at a corner store in Alliance. It matched five numbers in the multistate game with a Megaplier of four.

The winning numbers for the drawing were 10, 11, 12, 14 and 24. The Mega Ball was six.

Associated Press