SOUTHWEST

SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT SAYS NO CHARGES WILL BE FILED AGAINST CHENEY

SARITA, Texas – The sheriff’s department closed its investigation yesterday into Dick Cheney’s accidental shooting of a hunting partner and said no charges will be filed.

The Kenedy County Sheriff’s Department issued a report that largely supports the vice president’s account of the weekend accident that wounded 78-year-old lawyer Harry Whittington.

Mr. Whittington, interviewed in the hospital, assured investigators no one was drinking when the accident occurred and everyone was wearing bright orange safety gear, according to the report.

Sheriff’s dispatcher Diana Mata, speaking for the department, said the case is closed and no charges will be filed. She said Sheriff Ramon Salinas would have no comment on the report.

– Associated Press

WEST

PROSECUTORS SAY CALIFORNIA MAN TRAINED TO COMMIT JIHAD IN U.S.

SACRAMENTO, CALIF. – A man accused of attending an Al Qaeda training camp is a trained terrorist intent on attacking Americans, prosecutors alleged yesterday, but his attorney called him just a directionless young man prone to wild storytelling.

In opening statements of Hamid Hayat’s federal trial, prosecutors said the 23-year-old Lodi man visited the Pakistan camp in 2003 and 2004, then returned to his family’s home in California farm country and awaited information about potential terrorist targets.

“Hamid Hayat talked about jihad before he even left the United States. He talked about acts of violence, he talked about training camps. He received weapons training while he was there,” prosecutor Laura Ferris said in opening statements. “He admitted he went to a jihadist training camp, not once but twice. … He returned to the United States to commit jihad, and he was waiting for orders.”

Mr. Hayat, who was born in America, is charged with supporting terrorists by attending the camp, and with lying about it to the FBI. He faces up to 39 years in prison if convicted.

Hamid Hayat’s attorney, Wazhma Mojaddidi, said the government has no proof that her client attended a terrorist camp, despite information agents received from a paid informant.

– Associated Press

COURT VOIDS EX-WIFE’S LOSS OF PARENTAL RIGHTS TO JACKSON CHILDREN

LOS ANGELES – Michael Jackson’s ex-wife, Deborah Rowe, won a round in her battle over their two children, with an appeals court ruling that her parental rights were not properly relinquished under the law.

The California 2nd District Court of Appeal ruling Wednesday set the stage for further litigation between the former couple.

The pop star, who has been living out of the country since his acquittal on molestation charges last June, could further appeal the ruling. He is reportedly traveling with his children in Italy.

Jackson had no immediate comment on the ruling, publicist Raymone Bain said yesterday.

Mr. Jackson and Ms. Rowe married in November 1996 and filed for divorce in October 1999 after the births of son Prince Michael and a daughter, Paris. Mr. Jackson also has a son whose mother hasn’t been identified.

– Associated Press

SOUTH

FEDERAL COURT SETS SECRET HEARING ON WIRETAPPING IN AIPAC CASE

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A federal court was scheduled to hold a secret hearing yesterday evening on whether the continuing controversy over warrantless wiretapping could impact a criminal case against two Aipac staffers who have been accused of illegally obtaining classified information.

Lawyers for the two men, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, filed a motion in December asking that the criminal case be delayed while the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court considers an issue related to the case, which appears to involved surveillance of alleged Israeli agents.

Judge Thomas Ellis ordered prosecutors to appear in his court at 6 p.m. today to discuss the matter. The session is to be closed to the public and to the attorneys for Messrs. Rosen and Weissman.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

WASHINGTON

HAGUE CRITIQUES BUSH OVER ‘MORAL DEFEAT’

William Hague, Britain’s shadow foreign secretary, made a calculated critique of American foreign policy yesterday night, saying Washington and its allies faced a “critical erosion” of their moral authority across the globe.

In a speech in Washington, he warned the White House that loss of international goodwill over the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandals and Guantanamo Bay could prove as costly as a battlefield defeat.

“In standing up for the rule of law we must be careful not to employ methods that undermine it,” he said.

“Reports of prisoner abuse by British and American troops, however isolated, and accounts, accurate or not, of the mistreatment of detainees at Guantanamo, and ‘extraordinary rendition’ flights leading to the torture of suspects, have led to a critical erosion in our moral authority.

“This has resulted in a loss of goodwill towards America which could be as serious in the long-term as the sharpest of military defeats.”

– The Daily Telegraph