Libyan al-Qaida suspect arrives for trial after questioning aboard US warship
Libyan al-Qaida suspect arrives for trial after questioning aboard US warship
WASHINGTON — After a weeklong interrogation aboard a U.S. warship, a Libyan al-Qaida suspect is now in New York awaiting trial on terrorism charges, U.S. officials said Monday.
Abu Anas al-Libi was grabbed in a military raid in Libya on Oct. 5. He’s due to stand trial in Manhattan, where he has been under indictment for more than a decade on charges he helped plan and conduct surveillance for the bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998.
Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York, confirmed that al-Libi was transferred to law enforcement custody over the weekend. Al-Libi was expected to be arraigned Tuesday, Bharara said.
President Barack Obama’s administration took criticism years ago when it decided to prosecute admitted 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York, rather than at the naval prison at Guantanamo Bay. After reversing course, however, the government has successfully prosecuted several terrorism cases in civilian courts.
A federal law enforcement official and two other U.S. officials said al-Libi arrived in New York on Saturday. The officials insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter.
Hopes for progress high as US, partners meet with Iran over nuclear program
GENEVA — Iran is promising a new proposal to break the deadlock over its nuclear program when it resumes talks Tuesday with the U.S. and five major world powers — the first since the election of a reformist Iranian president.
The U.S. and its partners are approaching the talks with caution. They are eager to test Tehran’s new style since the June election of President Hassan Rouhani but insist that it will take more than words to advance the negotiations and end crippling international sanctions.
Iran has long insisted it does not want nuclear weapons and that its nuclear program is entirely peaceful — a position received with skepticism in Western capitals. But Iranian officials from Rouhani down say their country is ready to meet some international demands to reduce its nuclear activities and build trust.
Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, a senior member of Iran’s negotiating team, said Sunday that Tehran is bringing a new proposal to the talks to dispel doubts about the nuclear program. While offering no details, he told Iran’s student news agency ISNA that the Islamic Republic should “enter into a trust-building path with the West.”
3 US economists win Nobel for their work
in explaining prices for bonds, stocks, housing
Ordinary investors don’t stand much chance of beating the market. It moves way too fast and efficiently. Or it behaves in ways that make no sense at all.
Three Americans won the Nobel prize in economics Monday for their sometimes-contradictory insights into the complexities of investing.
Eugene Fama and Lars Peter Hansen of the University of Chicago and Robert Shiller of Yale University were honored for shedding light on the forces that move stock, bond and home prices — findings that have transformed how people invest.
Fama’s research revealed the efficiency of financial markets: They absorb information so fast that individual investors can’t outperform the markets as a whole. His work helped popularize index funds, which reflect an entire market of assets, such as the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index.
“Fama’s work was incredibly fundamental in the ’60s and ’70s,” said David Warsh, who follows economists at his Economic Principals blog. “It led to enormous practical change in terms of people not buying particular stocks but buying index funds.”
By wire sources