Egypt grants retrial for 3 journalists

Egypt grants retrial for 3 journalists

CAiRO

An Egyptian appeals court on Thursday ordered the retrial of three Al-Jazeera English journalists held for more than a year on terror-related charges, a ruling that their lawyers hoped was a step toward resolving a case that brought a storm of international criticism on Egypt’s government.

The three will remain behind bars at least until the retrial begins. But their lawyers expressed cautious optimism that a quick retrial will lead to their eventual exoneration.

The journalists, Canadian-Egyptian Mohammed Fahmy, Australian Peter Greste and Egyptian Baher Mohammed, have argued they were targeted because of the Egyptian government’s political fight with Qatar, the Gulf nation that finances the Al-Jazeera news network.

Greece, Italy vary on number of missing

BRINDISI, Italy

Greece and Italy have issued widely different figures for how many people are still not accounted for in the ferry fire that killed at least 11 people in the Adriatic Sea.

The numbers ranged from as many as 98, according to Italian prosecutor Giuseppe Volpe, to 18, according to the Greek Merchant Marine Ministry. Greece says Italy’s list is full of duplications and misspellings but the discrepancy could not be immediately explained since the prosecutor’s office was closed for the New Year holiday.

LGBT activists face additional challenges

NEW YORK

Even as same-sex marriage edges closer to becoming legal nationwide, gay-rights advocates face other challenges in 2015 that may not bring quick victories. In Congress, for example, liberal Democrats plan to introduce civil-rights bills in the House and Senate that would outlaw a broad range of discrimination against lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people.

However, Republicans will control both chambers in the new Congress, and there is no sign that GOP leaders will help the bills advance.

Absent such a federal law, activists will seek to pass more nondiscrimination laws at the state and local levels, but some efforts are meeting resistance.

Sheriff’s office: Man decapitated mother

OLDSMAR, FLA.

A Florida man is charged with first-degree murder after his mother was found decapitated outside their home on New Year’s Eve.

According to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, Mario Gomez called 911 on Wednesday evening and told dispatchers that his brother Christian, 23, had killed their mother and cut off her head.

Deputies found Maria Suarez-Cassagne’s body outside the Oldsmar home.

Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said Thursday that Gomez had planned his mother’s murder for two days. Gomez confessed killing his mother, Gualtieri said.

7-inch car part is found in man’s arm

CREVE COEUR, Mo.

Fifty-one years ago, Arthur Lampitt of Granite City, Ill., smashed his 1963 Thunderbird into a truck. This week during surgery in suburban St. Louis, a 7-inch turn-signal lever from that T-Bird was removed from his left arm. Lampitt, now 75, is recovering at home.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the accident broke Lampitt’s hip, drawing attention away from the arm, which healed.

He was moving concrete blocks a few weeks ago when the arm began to hurt for the first time.

Associated Press