Iran rejects naming new UN envoy
TEHRAN, Iran – Iran rejected naming a new diplomat Saturday to represent it at the United Nations, with one lawmaker urging the Islamic Republic to stand up to “bullying” from the U.S., which has rejected granting its pick a visa.
The standoff over Hamid Aboutalebi, a member of the group responsible for the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, comes as world powers negotiate with Iran over its contested nuclear program. It also threatens to stir fresh animosity between countries that recently have seen their relations thaw.
The Obama administration said Friday the U.S. had informed Iran it would not grant a visa to Aboutalebi, suggesting behind-the-scenes discussions to get them to withdraw him from consideration failed.
Lawyer: Ex-Marine gets 10-year sentence in Iran
TEHRAN, Iran – An Iranian appeals court has overturned a death sentence of a former U.S. Marine convicted of working for the CIA, instead sentencing him to 10 years in prison, his lawyer said Saturday.
Amir Hekmati, a dual U.S.-Iranian citizen born in Arizona, was arrested in August 2011, then tried, convicted and sentenced to death for spying.
Iranian prosecutors said Hekmati received special training and served at U.S. military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan before heading to Iran as a spy. Hekmati’s family and the U.S. government repeatedly has denied he is a spy, instead saying he traveled to Iran to visit his grandmother.
His lawyer Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabaei said he is seeking Hekmati’s conditional freedom from Evin prison, north of the capital, Tehran. Hekmati has been behind bars since his arrest.
Aussie leader sees long hunt for missing jet
PERTH, Australia – A day after expressing optimism about the hunt for the missing Malaysian jet, Australia’s leader warned Saturday the massive search likely would continue “for a long time.”
“No one should underestimate the difficulties of the task still ahead of us,” Prime Minister Tony Abbott said in Beijing, on the last day of his China trip.
He appeared to couch his comments from a day earlier, when he met in Beijing with Chinese President Xi Jinping to brief him on the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which was carrying 239 people – most of them Chinese – when it disappeared March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
After analyzing satellite data, officials believe the plane flew off course for an unknown reason and went down in the southern Indian Ocean off Australia’s west coast.
Mourners pay tribute to AP photographer
HOEXTER, Germany – Hundreds of mourners packed a church in central Germany on Saturday to remember Associated Press photographer Anja Niedringhaus, who was killed on assignment in Afghanistan last week after a life spent between the chaos of war and the serenity of her rural birthplace.
Friends, family and colleagues of Niedringhaus packed Corvey Abbey in a medieval monastery in Hoexter. She was remembered for her ability to find humanity amid terrible events.
Niedringhaus was killed when an Afghan police unit commander walked up to the car where she was sitting in the back seat and opened fire after yelling “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great.” She and AP special correspondent Kathy Gannon were traveling in a convoy of election workers delivering ballots in the eastern city of Khost, under the protection of security forces, when the shooting happened.
The unit commander, identified as Naqibullah, surrendered and government authorities are now investigating why he opened fire.
Case against baby thrown out in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD – A Pakistani judge dismissed an attempted murder charge Saturday police lodged against a 9-month-old boy, ending a bizarre case that drew new criticism to the country’s troubled criminal justice system.
The family of toddler Mohammad Musa had kept the boy in hiding after authorities pressed charges accusing him of trying to kill police officers after a neighborhood brawl in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore.
Judge Rafaqat Ali Qamar dropped the case against the boy during a hearing in which police announced they no longer would pursue the charges, defense lawyer Irfan Tarar said.
Qamar also reprimanded police in court, demanding a written explanation about why officers did not properly investigate the case, Tarar said.
Associated Press
