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SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 2012 PAGE 5A
Iran accuses U.S., Israel in killing
B R I E F
Funeral for slain nuclear expect focus of rising tensions. Calls for retaliation are raised. By ALI AKBAR DAREINI Associated Press
AP PHOTO
Call him ‘Goldfinger’ Chavez
Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez holds a gold bar Friday as he gives his annual address to the National Assembly in Caracas, Venezuela. Chavez defended policies, including his recent decision to withdraw gold reserves from U.S. and European banks. He criticized prior governments, saying: ‘They had taken our gold away.’
TEHRAN, Iran — Thousands of mourners chanted “Death to Israel” and “Death to America” on Friday during the funeral of a slain nuclear expert whom Iranian officials accuse the two nations of killing in a bomb blast this week as part of a secret operation to stop Iran’s nuclear program. The assassination of Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan has raised calls in Iran for retaliation against the U.S. and Israel, and an independent news website Fri-
day said Iran is preparing a covert counteroffensive against the West. Roshan, a chemistry expert and a director of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran, was killed in a brazen daylight assassination when two assailants on a motorcycle attached a magnetic bomb to his car Wednesday in Tehran. The killing bore a strong resemblance to earlier killings of scientists working on the Iranian nuclear program. State TV showed thousands of people carrying Roshan’s coffin through central Tehran before it was taken to a north cemetery for burial. As it marched, the crowd chanted “death to terrorists.” Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all
state matters, called Roshan’s killing a “cowardly assassination” and accused the U.S. and Israel of being behind the attack. He vowed Thursday that the perpetrators and those who ordered the attack would be punished. U.N. Secretary Ban Ki-moon on Friday during a visit to Lebanon issued a vague condemnation of the killing, saying attacks on “any people, whether scientist or civilian,” are not acceptable, according to U.N. spokesman Eduardo del Buey. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has denied any American role in the slaying and the U.S administration condemned the attack. Israeli officials, in contrast, have hinted at covert campaigns against Iran without directly admitting involve-
ment. The assassination was carried out a day after Israeli military chief Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz was quoted as telling a parliamentary panel that 2012 would be a “critical year” for Iran — in part because of “things that happen to it unnaturally.” That prompted Hossein Shariatmadari, director of the hardline Iranian daily newspaper Kayhan, to ask why Iran did not avenge Roshan by striking Israel. The independent news website, irannuc.ir, quoted an unidentified security official as saying Iran is preparing a covert counteroffensive against the West in retaliation for the bomb blast. It suggested the retaliation could include assassinations abroad.
Priest who gambled $650,000 sentenced
ISLAMABAD
Leader seeking support
akistan’s prime minister appealed for support Friday from parliament P in a standoff between his beleaguered
government and the military, saying lawmakers had to choose between “democracy and dictatorship.” Tensions between the armed forces and the civilian leadership have escalated in recent months, raising fears of a coup attempt or that the army might support possible moves by a partisan Supreme Court to oust the elected government. The military and the government have been locked in a standoff for months, but a scandal that erupted last year after an unsigned memo was sent to Washington asking for its help in heading off a supposed coup has caused friction to spike this week.
Monsignor Kevin McAuliffe, 59, gets 37 months for gambling money from parish. By KEN RITTER Associated Press
GREENSBORO, N.C.
Edwards has heart problem
Ex-presidential candidate John Edwards has a life-threatening heart condition that will require surgery next month, his doctor told a judge presiding over Edwards’ upcoming court case over possible campaign violations. A cardiologist for the 58-year-old ex-North Carolina Senator wrote two letters about his condition to Judge Catherine Eagles who talked about them Friday during a hearing to consider whether the trial would go on later this month. She delayed it until at least March 26. Prosecutors had said they were ready to try Edwards on six felony and misdemeanor counts related to nearly $1 million from wealthy donors used to help hide his pregnant mistress during his 2008 White House run. BAGHDAD
Official wants PM gone
Iraq’s Sunni deputy premier called Friday for Prime Minister Nouri alMaliki to step down and warned that the country’s festering political crisis risks sparking a wider sectarian conflict in the region. Deputy Prime Minister Saleh alMutlaq stood by an earlier charge that Iraq is becoming a new dictatorship under al-Maliki, a Shiite. He said Iraqis could eventually rise up violently if al-Maliki remains in his post, and pushed for a parliamentary vote of no-confidence in the prime minister if he remains in office. A spokesman for al-Maliki dismissed al-Mutlaq’s comments, saying they are “not worthy of a response.” Al-Mutlaq’s Sunni-backed Iraqiya party has been boycotting parliament and Cabinet meetings since last month to protest what it sees as efforts by al-Maliki to consolidate power, particularly over state security forces. SCRANTON
Suit: Fired for fake penis
A Northeastern Pennsylvania woman claims she was fired from her job for wearing a prosthetic penis to work while contemplating gender reassignment. Pauline Davis filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Wednesday against J&J Snack Foods Corp. over her termination from the company’s plant in Moosic, near Scranton. Davis says she wore the prosthetic to work as a line inspector, informing some co-workers who passed in the information along to management. According to the suit, Davis was fired even though the device didn’t interfere with her work. Davis’ suit claims a male employee undergoing hormone treatments and female clothing was treated more favorably.
AP PHOTO
Coast Guard personnel on snowmobiles prepare to enforce the safety zone during the fuel transfer from the Russian tanker Renda to the dock in Nome, Alaska.
Russian fuel tanker gets through to Nome Transferring diesel and gasoline via mile-long hose from ship to shore fraught with potential problems. By MARY PEMBERTON Associated Press
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A Russian tanker has muscled its way through hundreds of miles of Bering Sea ice several feet thick to deliver fuel to Nome. Now comes the tricky part: Getting more than a million gallons of diesel and gasoline to shore through a mile-long hose without a spill. The problem is that Nome’s harbor is iced-in, preventing the 370-foot tanker from getting to the city dock. It will have to moor offshore to transfer the 1.3 mil-
lion gallons across the ice and to fuel headers at the dock. “I think all of the precautions have been addressed,” Nome Harbormaster Joy Baker said Friday. “I think everything that should be done has been done.” For days, operations officials have looked at how best to lay the segmented fuel hose across the shore ice for the transfer. They were waiting for daylight Friday to get a better look at any changes overnight. The idea is to get the tanker in as close as possible to reduce the chance of a spill. There has been lots of anxious waiting since the ship left Russia in mid-December. It picked up diesel fuel in South Korea before traveling to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, where it took on unleaded gasoline.
A Coast Guard icebreaker escorted the tanker through the Bering Sea pack ice, the two vessels at times barely crawling along as officials looked for new techniques to get the tanker free of shifting ice. Late Thursday, the Coast Guard Cutter Healy and the Renda stopped six miles offshore to wait for daylight and figure out how to get the tanker within about a mile of the harbor so its hose will reach the dock. The state is requiring that the fuel transfer be done only in daylight hours. Nome’s northern latitude leaves it mostly hidden from the sun this time of year, meaning sunrise doesn’t come until 11:39 a.m. local time (3:39 p.m. EST), and there was to be just 5 hours and 4 minutes of sunlight Friday.
Marines pick general to handle desecration probe This image made on Thursday from undated video posted on the Internet on Wednesday by a YouTube user who identified themself as ‘semperfiLoneVoice’ shows men in U.S. Marine combat gear, standing in a semi-circle over three bodies.
By ROBERT BURNS AP National Security Writer
WASHINGTON — The Marine Corps on Friday laid the groundwork for deciding what, if any, disciplinary action will be taken in the case of an Internet video purporting to show Marine snipers urinating on dead bodies in Afghanistan. The top Marine officer, Gen. James Amos, appointed three-star Gen. Thomas Waldhauser to oversee the case. Waldhauser named another officer to do an internal Marine Corps investigation, which is in addition to a criminal probe under way by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Waldhauser will decide what to do as a result of the investigations. In Afghanistan, a senior US commander issued a letter to all personnel in the international coalition that is fighting the war, explicitly reminding them of the need to respect the dead. The letter from Army Lt. Gen. Curtis M. Scaparrotti, commander of the International Security Assistance Force Joint Command, reflected the depth of
AP PHOTO
concern about fallout from the video. “Defiling, desecrating, mocking, photographing or filming for personal use insurgent dead constitutes a grave breach of the LOAC (laws of armed conflict), violate basic standards of human decency and can cause serious damage to relations with the Afghan government,” Scaparrotti wrote. He ordered all commanders to remind their subordinates of their duty to comply. No one has been charged in the case,
which triggered widespread outrage with the appearance Wednesday on YouTube of a brief video that appears to show four Marines in full combat gear urinating on the bodies of three dead men lying on the ground. Marine Gen. John Allen, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, condemned the behavior and said in a statement Friday while he was traveling in the U.S. that the facts in the case should be determined swiftly.
LAS VEGAS — A Roman Catholic priest was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison Friday for siphoning about $650,000 from his northwest Las Vegas parish to support his gambling habit. Monsignor Kevin McAuliffe, 59, made no reaction as U.S. District Court Judge James Mahan faulted him for abusing a position of trust in his congregation. Muffled sobs erupted from a courtroom packed with supporters. McAuliffe Defense attorney Margaret Stanish asked the judge for probation and to let the McAuliffe continue getting counseling for his gambling addiction, keep practicing as a priest and pay restitution to St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Summerlin. But the judge added four months to the sentence recommended by Deputy U.S. Attorney Christina Brown, who said there is no reason McAuliffe should get a break. He could have received up to 60 years in prison. McAuliffe had complete control from to 2002 to 2010 of church activities and finances and was able to hide his embezzlement because he was a signatory to financial statements to the Las Vegas Diocese and Catholic Archdiocese in San Francisco, Brown said. When confronted by the FBI last May, “the defendant for two hours offered various explanations as to how his earnings supported his gambling,” she said. “When these explanations failed, agents asked the defendant if he stole money from the church, which the defendant denied.” McAuliffe pleaded guilty in October, before an indictment or criminal complaint was filed, to three counts of federal mail fraud for falsifying documents sent in 2008, 2009 and 2010 to the archdiocese. McAuliffe was removed as pastor of the northwest Las Vegas congregation of more than 8,000 families and relieved of diocese duties.
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