May 15, 2008
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Compromise on CIA interrogation
WASHINGTON // Seeking to referee a stalemate over how the CIA can interrogate prisoners, a top Senate Republican says Congress should ban waterboarding and seven other abusive methods but allow the spy agency some leeway in how it questions detainees. Missouri Sen. Christopher S. Bond, the senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, outlined his proposal in non-binding language accompanying a bill that sets out the intelligence community's policies, programs and spending for 2009. An unclassified summary was released yesterday.
Platypus' DNA is as strange as its looks
SYDNEY, Australia // With a bill like a duck, a tail like a beaver and snake-like venom hidden in heel spurs, the platypus could be the result of some strange genetic experiment. And it is, scientists say: evolution. A scientific team published the genetic makeup of the Australian animal in the scientific journal Nature yesterday, confirming that its features - which straddle multiple animal classes - are reflected in its DNA. The research could help explain how mammals evolved from reptiles millions of years ago, they said.
Owners of mortgage company charged
NEW YORK // Two former owners of a defunct mortgage firm were charged yesterday with stealing $44 million from Fannie Mae and forging paperwork in loan sales to Credit Suisse. Leib Pitner and Barry Goldstein faced arraignment in federal court in Brooklyn on wire and bank fraud charges. Before losing its license in 2004, the defendants' firm, Brooklyn-based Olympia Mortgage Corp., was involved in refinancing homeowner mortgages for Fannie Mae, the nation's largest buyer of home loans. An indictment accuses Pitner of secretly pocketing $44 million in Fannie Mae payoffs of 257 original loans.
Editor of Zimbabwe newspaper arrested
HARARE, Zimbabwe // The editor of an independent Zimbabwean newspaper has been arrested, and the country's largest farm union said yesterday that 40,000 farm workers have been displaced in post-election violence. Davison Maruziva, editor of the Standard newspaper, was taken by police from the newspaper's office yesterday, the publisher said. New York-based Human Rights Watch said prominent human rights lawyer Harrison Nkomo was also arrested in central Harare on Wednesday. Police could not be reached for comment.
Olympic torch makes top of Everest
BEIJING // Cheering mountaineers raised the Olympic torch at the summit of the world's highest peak yesterday, producing the triumphant image that China has longed for in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics. The final ascent along Mount Everest's icy ridge was broadcast live and provided organizers with a positive counterpoint to the pro-Tibet protests that marked parts of the torch's international relay. The 19-member team, dressed in red parkas emblazoned with Olympic logos, broke camp before dawn at 27,390 feet and reached the top of the 29,035-foot mountain a little more than six hours later.
Spain lays claim to treasure ship
MADRID, Spain // Spain formally laid claim yesterday to a shipwreck that yielded a $500 million treasure, saying it has proof the vessel was Spanish. Officials demanded the return of the booty recovered last year by a U.S. deep-sea exploration firm, saying the 19th-century shipwreck at the heart of the dispute is the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes - a Spanish warship sunk by the British navy southwest of Portugal in 1804 with more than 200 people on board. Tampa, Fla.-based Odyssey Marine Exploration had announced in May 2007 that it had discovered the wreck in the Atlantic - and its cargo of 500,000 silver coins and other artifacts worth an estimated $500 million. At the time, Odyssey said it did not know which ship it was, and it flew the treasure back to Tampa without Spain's knowledge, from an airport on the British colony of Gibraltar on Spain's southwestern tip.
[From wire reports
Copyright © 2008, The Baltimore Sun
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