Ringleader in Amish attacks files appeal

Ringleader in Amish attacks files appeal

CLEVELAND

The ringleader of 16 Amish found guilty in beard- and hair-cutting hate-crime attacks on fellow members of their faith in Ohio asked an appeals court Wednesday to overturn his conviction.

The attorney for Sam Mullet Sr., 67, of Bergholz near Steubenville, filed the notice of appeal with the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.

Thirteen defendants have appealed their convictions. The judge said defendants have until Friday to appeal.

Pittsburgh police chief steps down

PITTSBURGH

Pittsburgh Police Chief Nate Harper stepped down Wednesday at the behest of the city’s mayor, who earlier in the day met with federal investigators amid a probe of police business.

Harper’s resignation comes a week after federal agents gathered boxes of records from police headquarters and just days after City Controller Michael Lamb announced an audit of the force’s special-events office.

Anti-theft trade strategy announced

WASHINGTON

The Obama administration announced new efforts Wednesday to fight the growing theft of American trade secrets, a broad but relatively restrained response to a rapidly emerging global problem that was brought into sharp focus this week by fresh evidence linking cyberstealing to China’s military.

Mentioning China but not specifically targeting that country, Attorney General Eric Holder announced the plan, which includes a new diplomatic push to discourage intellectual-property theft abroad along with better coordination at home to help U.S. companies protect themselves.

Police add confusion to Pistorius case

PRETORIA, South Africa

The prosecution case against Oscar Pistorius began to unravel Wednesday with revelations of a series of police blunders and the lead investigator’s admission that authorities have no evidence challenging the double-amputee Olympian’s claim he killed his girlfriend accidentally.

Detective Hilton Botha’s often-confused testimony left prosecutors rubbing their heads in frustration as he misjudged distances and said testosterone — banned for professional athletes in some cases — was found at the scene, only to be later contradicted by the prosecutor’s office.

Nuclear upgrades

VIENNA

In a disheartening signal to world powers at upcoming Iran talks, Tehran has started installing high-tech machines at its main uranium enrichment site that are capable of accelerating production of reactor fuel and — with further upgrading — the core of nuclear warheads, diplomats said Wednesday.

Iran already announced last week that it had begun mounting the new enriching centrifuges, but one diplomat said at the time that the announcement was premature with only a “small number” on site and not yet installed.

Ex-senator had son outside marriage

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.

Former Sen. Pete Domenici has disclosed that he fathered a secret child in the 1970s with the 24-year-old daughter of one of his Senate colleagues — a startling revelation for a politician with a reputation as an upstanding family man.

Domenici and Michelle Laxalt sent statements to the Albuquerque Journal that announced the relationship for the first time and identified their son as Nevada attorney Adam Paul Laxalt. They said they decided to go public with their decades-old secret because they believed someone was about to release the information in an attempt to smear Domenici.

Associated Press