US vet: Statement was coerced

US vet: Statement was coerced

SAN FRANCISCO

The 85-year-old U.S. Korean War veteran who was detained for weeks by North Korea said Monday that the videotaped confession in which he apologized for killing North Koreans during the war was given involuntarily and under duress.

In a written statement issued Monday, Merrill Newman said he tried to show that the words he read on the recording were not his own by emphasizing the apology’s awkward phrasing and poor English grammar.

The former Army lieutenant said that while the North Koreans treated him well during his detention at a Pyongyang hotel, an interrogator told him repeatedly that if he did not apologize for his purported crimes during the Korean War and during his visit to the communist nation, he would be sentenced to 15 years in jail for espionage.

Riot police storm office amid protests

KIEV, UKRAINE

Heavily armed riot troops broke into the offices of a top Ukrainian opposition party in Kiev and seized its servers Monday, the party said, as anti-government protests crippled the capital for yet another day.

Elsewhere police dismantled or blocked off several small protest tent camps set up near key national government buildings in the city.

Tensions also rose as a double cordon of helmeted, shield-holding police deployed in the street near Kiev’s city administration building, which demonstrators had occupied and turned into a makeshift command post and dormitory. Early today, electricity to the building was cut off and occupiers began leaving.

GOP blocks nominees

WASHINGTON

Senate Republicans blocked immediate approval of a mountain of mostly minor nominations by President Barack Obama late Monday in the aftermath of last month’s Democratic move weakening the minority party’s traditional ability to block most presidential appointments.

Included in the stack of 76 nominations was that of Janet Yellen, who Obama wants to head the Federal Reserve.

Girlfriend: Don’t charge Zimmerman

ORLANDO, FLA.

George Zimmerman asked a judge on Monday to change the terms of his bond so he can have contact with the girlfriend he’s accused of assaulting.

Zimmerman filed an affidavit from his girlfriend that says she doesn’t want him charged with aggravated assault, battery and criminal mischief.

In the signed affidavit, Samantha Scheibe — referring to Zimmerman as “my boyfriend” — said detectives misinterpreted what she said and that she hasn’t been coerced.

Zimmerman was arrested last month after Scheibe accused him in a call to 911 of pointing a gun at her, smashing a coffee table and pushing her outside.

Study: Many lung cancer tumors prove harmless

CHICAGO

Harmless lung cancer? A provocative study found that nearly 1 in 5 lung tumors detected on CT scans are probably so slow-growing that they would never cause problems.

The analysis suggests the world’s No. 1 cause of cancer deaths isn’t as lethal as doctors once thought.

In the study, these were not false-positives — suspicious results that turn out upon further testing not to be cancer. These were indeed cancerous tumors, but ones that caused no symptoms and were unlikely ever to become deadly, the researchers said.

Still, the results are not likely to change how doctors treat lung cancer.

Associated Press