Man who tore Bible referred to trial

Man who tore Bible referred to trial

CAIRO

Egyptian prosecutors referred to trial Tuesday a well-known radical Islamist who tore up an English copy of the Bible during a protest outside the U.S. Embassy in Cairo against an anti-Islam film produced in the United States.

The case against Ahmed Mohammed Abdullah is a rare example of Egypt’s blasphemy laws — often condemned by rights groups as restrictive of freedom — used against someone who purportedly insulted a religion other than Islam.

Texas executes man after 3 reprieves

HUNTSVILLE, Texas

A former Army recruiter failed to win a fourth reprieve from the U.S. Supreme Court and was executed Tuesday evening in Texas for participating in the shooting death of a woman he and a buddy met 10 years ago at a bar.

Cleve Foster was pronounced dead at 6:43 p.m. CDT, 25 minutes after his lethal injection began and two hours after the high court refused to postpone his punishment. Three times last year the justices stopped his scheduled punishment, once when he was moments from being led to the death chamber.

His attorneys argued he was innocent of the 2002 slaying of Nyaneur Pal, a 30-year-old immigrant from Sudan. They also said he had deficient legal help at his trial and in early stages of his appeals and argued his case deserved a closer look.

Israeli rabbi: Burn your iPhones

JERUSALEM

An influential ultra- Orthodox Israeli rabbi ordered his followers this week to burn their iPhones, the latest move in a campaign by the insular community to encourage its members to keep the outside world — specifically the Internet — at bay.

The decree by Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, 84, came ahead of Judaism’s holiest day, Yom Kippur, which began Tuesday. It said that it was forbidden to own the smartphone, and those who already had one must burn theirs.

Brooke Astor auction brings in $18.8M

NEW YORK

An auction of the contents of philanthropist Brooke Astor’s two homes brought in more than $18.8 million, Sotheby’s said Tuesday.

Sotheby’s offered 901 objects in all, including European and Asian furnishings, Old Masters, Qing Dynasty paintings, tea sets, silverware, jewelry, a porcelain menagerie, more than 100 dog paintings and even the uniforms of her domestic staff at a two-day auction that began Monday.

Proceeds will go to institutions and charities, including the New York Public Library and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, under a settlement negotiated by the state attorney general’s office.

Astor died in 2007 at age 105.

NAACP takes vote effort to UN

GENEVA

The NAACP is taking to the U.N. its effort to ensure that all former convicted felons in the United States can vote.

A delegation from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was having meetings Tuesday at the United Nation’s Geneva office in part to press the world body to send observers to the U.S. for this year’s elections.

The NAACP says nearly 6 million U.S. citizens are barred from voting because of previous felony convictions. According to The Sentencing Project, an advocacy group that seeks policies to make it easier for felons to vote, the United States has the world’s largest prison population — 2.2 million — and more than 60 percent of inmates are ethnic or racial minorities.

Associated Press