Mubarak to be put under house arrest

Mubarak to be put under house arrest

CAIRO

Egypt’s prime minister ordered Wednesday that deposed autocrat Hosni Mubarak be placed under house arrest when he’s released from prison after more than two years in detention.

The announcement came hours after a court ordered Mubarak be released for the first time since he was first detained in April 2011, a move threatening to further stoke tension in a deeply divided Egypt. Many feared Mubarak’s release would amplify Islamist allegations that last month’s military coup was a step toward restoring the old regime.

Hasan: ‘Illegal war’ provoked killings

FORT HOOD, Texas

American soldiers deploying overseas to “engage in an illegal war” provoked the deadly shooting rampage at Fort Hood in 2009, the soldier accused in the attack said Wednesday after refusing to mount a defense during his trial.

Maj. Nidal Hasan could face the death penalty if convicted for the attack that killed 13 people and wounded more than 30 others at the Texas military base. But when given the chance to rebut prosecutors’ lengthy case — which included nearly 90 witnesses and hundreds of pieces of evidence — the Army psychiatrist declined.

Closing arguments are scheduled to begin today in the court-martial, the military’s equivalent of a trial, though it’s unclear whether Hasan plans to say anything.

Woman who lost arm to shark dies

HONOLULU

A German woman who lost her arm in a shark attack died Wednesday, one week after she was bitten while snorkeling off Maui.

Jana Lutteropp, 20, who had been on life support, died at Maui Memorial Medical Center, hospital spokeswoman Carol Clark said.

Lutteropp was snorkeling up to 100 yards off Palauea Beach at the resort community of Makena when the shark bit off her right arm.

It’s not known what type of shark bit Lutteropp. State officials investigating the attack said witnesses didn’t see the animal.

Chinese politician goes on trial

JINAN, China

Disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai went on trial today on charges of bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power, marking the ruling Communist Party’s attempts to draw a line under one of its most lurid political scandals in decades.

Bo entered the courthouse under police escort in the eastern city of Jinan, the court said, in closely choreographed proceedings under extremely tight security.

Once the powerful party boss in the megacity of Chongqing, Bo became the most-senior leader to fall from power in years after revelations emerged that his wife had killed a British businessman. His removal marked China’s biggest upheaval in the leadership since the violent suppression of the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests in 1989.

Rights group wants answers from UK

LONDON

In an unusual warning, Europe’s top human-rights organization said Wednesday that Britain’s reaction to the exposure of the United States’ vast surveillance program had potentially troubling consequences for free expression.

Using language usually reserved for authoritarian holdouts in Eastern Europe or the Caucasus, the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe asked British authorities to explain why they ordered the destruction of computer equipment held by the Guardian newspaper — the publication at the center of the revelations — and the detention of a reporter’s partner at London’s Heathrow Airport.

Associated Press