Hearing for ambush suspect postponed

Hearing for ambush suspect postponed

MILFORD, Pa.

A preliminary hearing for the man charged in the fatal ambush of a Pennsylvania State Police trooper was rescheduled Friday after one of his lawyers withdrew from the case.

A judge granted a defense request to move Eric Frein’s hearing to Jan. 5. It had been scheduled for Tuesday. The judge will decide at the hearing whether Frein should stand trial in the Sept. 12 slaying of Cpl. Bryon Dickson and wounding of a second trooper.

Defense attorney Michael Weinstein asked for the postponement after his co-counsel, Robert Bernathy, withdrew from the case, citing potential “professional and personal conflicts of interest” and his responsibilities as Pike County’s chief public defender. Weinstein said a new lawyer will need time to get up to speed.

Frein, 31, is charged with firing on the Blooming Grove barracks, killing Dickson and seriously wounding Trooper Alex Douglass. Frein led police on a 48-day manhunt after the attack in the Pocono Mountains.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Hostage escapes Filipino extremists

MANILA, Philippines

A Philippine military commander says a Swiss hostage has escaped from Abu Sayyaf extremists after more than two years of jungle captivity in the restive southern region.

Lt. Gen. Rustico Guerrero says Lorenzo Vinciguerra fought with his captors in the jungles off Patikul town in Sulu province and was wounded either by gunfire or hacking as he dashed to freedom early today. The hostage later was found by army troops and taken to a hospital.

Vinciguerra was one of two European bird watchers who were seized by the militants in nearby Tawi Tawi province more than two years ago.

France agrees to compensate Holocaust deportees

PARIS

Thousands of Holocaust survivors and family members in the United States and elsewhere will be entitled to compensation from a $60 million French-U.S. fund announced Friday — reparations to those deported by France’s state rail company SNCF during the Nazi occupation.

As part of the deal, the U.S. government will work to end lawsuits and other compensation claims in U.S. courts against SNCF, which is bidding for lucrative high-speed rail and other contracts in U.S. markets. State legislators in Maryland, New York, Florida and California have tried to punish SNCF for its Holocaust-era actions.

SNCF transported about 76,000 French Jews to Nazi concentration camps, though experts disagree on its degree of guilt.

Associated Press