National Desk

NORTHEASTNEWSWEEK REVAMPS SOURCE POLICIESNewsweek has adopted new policies for the use of anonymous sources, a week after retracting a report that claimed investigators had found evidence the Koran was desecrated by interrogators at the American naval prison at Guantanamo Bay. In a letter to readers appearing in today’s edition, Newsweek chairman and editor in chief, Richard Smith, apologized for the report and said the magazine will raise standards for anonymous sourcing.“We got an important story wrong, and honor requires us to admit our mistake and redouble our efforts to make sure that nothing like this ever happens again,” he wrote. Two of the magazine’s top editors will be assigned sole responsibility for approving the use of anonymous sources, and the magazine will stop using the phrase “sources said” to attribute information in stories, Mr. Smith said.Newsweek retracted the May 9 report after officials at the White House, the Pentagon, and the State Department criticized its publication and its use of an anonymous source. The article said American investigators had found evidence that interrogators placed copies of Islam’s holy book in washrooms and had flushed one down the toilet to get inmates to talk. The magazine’s report was blamed for violent protests in Afghanistan, where more than a dozen people died and scores were injured.– Associated PressWASHINGTONKARZAI: OTHER COUNTRIES NEED TO FOLLOW THROUGH ON HELPAfghanistan’s president sharply rejected yesterday American claims that he had not worked strongly enough to curtail production of opium, the raw material for heroin. “We are going to have probably all over the country at least 30% poppies reduced,” President Karzai said. “So we have done our job. The Afghan people have done our job.“Now the international community must come and provide alternative livelihood to the Afghan people, which they have not done so far. Let us stop this blame,” he told CNN’s “Late Edition.” Ahead of his White House meeting today with President Bush, Mr. Karzai said he wants greater control over American military operations in his country and punishment for any American troops who mistreat prisoners.He cited reports of prisoner abuse by American forces at the main military prison north of Kabul, the capital. One American military policeman was sentenced in Ford Bliss, Texas, yesterday for his role in the beating death of an Afghan prisoner. Production of opium has soared since the fall of the Taliban government in 2001, leading to warnings that the former Al Qaeda haven is fast turning into a “narco-state” despite the presence of more than 20,000 foreign troops. Last year, cultivation reached a record 131,000 hectares and yielded nearly 90% of the world’s supply.– Associated PressSOUTHPSYCHIATRISTS MAY PUSH FOR GAY MARRIAGE OKAYATLANTA – Representatives of the nation’s top psychiatric group approved a statement yesterday urging legal recognition of gay marriage. If approved by the association’s directors in July, the measure would make the American Psychiatric Association the first major medical group to take such a stance. The statement supports same-sex marriage “in the interest of maintaining and promoting mental health.” It follows a similar measure by the American Psychological Association last year, little more than three decades after that group removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders.The psychiatric association’s statement, approved by voice vote on the first day of its weeklong annual meeting in Atlanta, cites the “positive influence of a stable, adult partnership on the health of all family members.” The resolution recognizes “that gay men and lesbians are full human beings who should be afforded the same human and civil rights,” a Raleigh, N.C., psychiatrist and member of the assembly’s committee on gay and lesbian issues, Margery Sved, said.– Associated PressMAN CHARGED WITH KIDNAP, RAPE OF TWO GIRLSPORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. – A man kidnapped two girls from their homes while their parents slept, took them to a construction site, and raped them before sending them home, threatening to kill their families if they said anything, authorities said. Erick Thomas Knapp Jr., 31, confessed to investigators that he kidnapped, bound, and raped the girls, ages 13 and 7, in separate incidents, sheriff’s Captain Michael Savage told the Charlotte Sun Herald for yesterday’s editions. He said there may be more victims.“He went into occupied residences and snatched children while their parents were sleeping in the next room,” Captain Savage said. “I don’t know how much more of a monster” one can be. Mr. Knapp was charged with kidnapping, armed burglary, and sexual battery and was being held in the Charlotte County Jail without bond. If convicted, he could face the death penalty for allegedly raping a person younger than age 12. A woman who answered the phone at the jail early yesterday said Mr. Knapp would not be allowed to answer a reporter’s questions and said she did not know whether Mr. Knapp had legal representation.– Associated Press

National Desk

National Desk

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