Judge to announce Manning verdict

Judge to announce Manning verdict

FORT MEADE, Md.

Pfc. Bradley Manning will learn this afternoon whether he will be convicted of aiding the enemy — punishable by life in prison without parole — for sending more than 700,000 government documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, a military judge said Monday.

Col. Denise Lind said on the third day of deliberations that she will announce her verdict at 1 p.m. today in Manning’s court-martial.

The charge of aiding the enemy is the most serious of 21 counts Manning is contesting. He also is charged with eight federal Espionage Act violations, five federal theft counts, and two federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act violations, each punishable by up to 10 years; and five military counts of violating a lawful general regulation, punishable by up to two years each.

Ex-Gov. Scranton of Pa. dies at 96

HARRISBURG, Pa.

William Warren Scranton, a former Pennsylvania governor, presidential candidate and ambassador to the United Nations, has died. He was 96.

Scranton died of a cerebral hemorrhage Sunday night at a retirement community in Montecito, Calif., where he lived with his wife, a family spokesman said Monday.

Scranton, a progressive Republican from the northeastern Pennsylvania city named after his wealthy family, was elected to Congress in 1960. He served one term before he was elected as Pennsylvania’s 38th governor in 1962.

35 hurt in Swiss train collision

BERLIN

At least 35 people were injured, five of them seriously, in a head-on collision of two trains in western Switzerland late Monday, police said.

The crash happened near the station of Granges-pres-Marnand shortly before 7 p.m. on a regional line about 31 miles southwest of the capital, Bern. It came just days after 79 people were killed in a high-speed train derailment in Spain.

Photographs from the Swiss site showed the two regional trains locked together, partly lifted off the tracks by the force of the collision.

Gas explosion razes house, injures 8

PHILADELPHIA

A natural-gas explosion on a densely populated city block Monday razed a row house and injured eight people, including two babies and a contractor, and sent dozens of neighbors pouring out of their homes.

Some neighbors fled for safety while others immediately set to work helping rescuers locate victims in the rubble.

The explosion and house collapse, which critically injured the contractor, came less than two months after the city was stunned by a collapse that killed six people at a downtown demolition site when a large wall fell on an adjacent thrift store.

Militants attack prison in Pakistan

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan

Taliban militants disguised as police and armed with guns, rocket-propelled grenades and explosives attacked a prison in northwest Pakistan holding 40 “high profile” inmates Monday night in an apparent attempt to free their colleagues, officials said.

Pakistani Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid claimed responsibility for the attack, saying 150 militants took part and around 300 prisoners were freed.

The attack in the town of Dera Ismail Khan began around midnight with a huge explosion, said intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.

Associated Press