Would-be bomber gets 23-year term

Would-be bomber gets 23-year term

CHICAGO

A judge raised the specter of the Boston Marathon on Thursday as he sentenced a young Lebanese immigrant to 23 years in prison for placing a backpack he believed contained a powerful bomb along a bustling city street near the Chicago Cubs’ baseball stadium.

Everyone at Sami Samir Hassoun’s sentencing in a crowded courtroom in Chicago could not help but think of the bombs that went off a month ago concealed in backpacks on the East Coast, killing three people and wounding hundreds more, U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman said.

“Let’s give the elephant in the room a name: It’s called the Boston Marathon,” he said. “What would have happened had [Hassoun’s] bomb been real would have made Boston look like a minor incident.”

Ricin-tainted letter

Seattle

A suspicious letter containing the deadly poison ricin was mailed to President Barack Obama from Spokane, Wash., on the same day similar ricin-tainted letters were mailed to a federal judge and a post office, the FBI said Thursday.

A man arrested last week in Spokane has been charged with sending the letter to the Spokane-based judge after that letter and the letter to the post office were intercepted May 14.

The Obama letter was intercepted May 22, along with a similar letter sent to Fairchild Air Force Base, near Spokane, the Seattle FBI office said in a written statement.

Assad ‘confident in victory’ in war

BEIRUT

Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview broadcast Thursday that he is “confident in victory” in his country’s civil war, and he warned that Damascus would retaliate for any future Israeli airstrike on his territory.

Assad also told the Lebanese TV station Al-Manar that Russia has fulfilled some of its weapons contracts recently, but he was vague on whether this included advanced S-300 air defense systems.

The comments were in line with a forceful and confident message the regime has been sending in recent days, even as the international community attempts to launch a peace conference in Geneva, possibly next month. The strong tone coincided with recent military victories in battles with armed rebels trying to topple him.

Navy uniforms

RICHMOND, Va.

The Navy is phasing in flame-resistant clothing for every sailor who goes to sea.

The decision announced Thursday follows testing last year by the Navy Clothing and Textile Research Facility in Natick, Mass., that revealed the camouflage working uniforms most sailors wear at sea are flammable. The nylon- and-cotton-blend uniforms worn by most sailors aboard ships will burn and melt until they’re completely consumed.

Army and Marine combat uniforms are designed to be self-extinguishing and are made of a blend that includes flame-resistant rayon.

Award-winning author Vance dies

SAN FRANCISCO

Jack Vance, an award-winning mystery, fantasy and science fiction author who wrote more than 60 books, has died. He was 96.

Vance died Sunday evening at his home in Oakland, his son John Vance II told The Associated Press.

Jack Vance, whose legal name was John Holbrook, published most of his work as Jack Vance, but he also wrote 11 mysteries as John Holbrook Vance and three as Ellery Queen, as well as books under the pen names of Alan Wade, Peter Held, John van See and Jay Kavanse, according to the Jack Vance website, which is maintained by family and friends.

Associated Press