Top security officials Top security officials ADVERTISING to testify in retrial of Egypt’s Mubarak CAIRO — An Egyptian judge Saturday named top security officials to testify in the retrial of former President Hosni Mubarak on charges related to the killings
Top security officials
to testify in retrial
of Egypt’s Mubarak
CAIRO — An Egyptian judge Saturday named top security officials to testify in the retrial of former President Hosni Mubarak on charges related to the killings of around 900 protesters during the 2011 uprising that led to his ouster.
The 85-year-old autocrat’s previous conviction for failing to stop the killings was overturned on appeals earlier this year.
The naming of former prison and top intelligence officials in the case appeared to intertwine Mubarak’s trial with accusations facing his successor, Mohammed Morsi, who was ousted in a popularly-backed coup July 3 just one year after his election.
Morsi has been held since at an undisclosed military facility and is being investigated on allegations that he and other Muslim Brotherhood leaders conspired with the Palestinian Hamas group in the neighboring Gaza Strip to escape from prison during the anti-Mubarak uprising.
35 injured when bus leaves Ohio highway
CINCINNATI — A Greyhound bus drove off an interstate highway in southwest Ohio early Saturday, struck a tree and a fence and flipped on its side before sliding to a stop in a cornfield, injuring at least 35 people.
None of the injuries was considered life-threatening, though several people were trapped and had to be extricated by firefighters and paramedics, the State Highway Patrol said. The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
Cause of NJ boardwalk fire not yet determined
SEASIDE PARK, N.J. — Hot spots could hamper investigators trying to figure out the cause of a Thursday fire that charred four blocks of bars, pizza shops and T-shirt stands — perhaps 50 businesses in all — on a Jersey shore boardwalk that still was trying to recover from Superstorm Sandy.
In a news briefing Friday, Gov. Chris Christie said it would be “irresponsible for any of us to speculate” what sparked the fire. He said firefighters working on spraying down any flare-ups are also doing their best to preserve evidence for the fire investigation team that’s trying to piece together what happened.
Plans to rebuild again already are in the works.
Filipino troops attack to end rebel standoff
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines — Philippine troops have started to battle their way into coastal villages in the south where Muslim rebels have held scores of residents hostage in a six-day standoff, sparking fierce clashes that have killed 56 people and displaced more than 60,000, officials said Saturday.
Interior Secretary Mar Roxas said government forces surrounding about 200 fighters from a Moro National Liberation Front rebel faction have started to advance and slowly retake rebel-held areas and clear roads in villages in the coastal outskirts of Zamboanga, a major port city.
Military spokesman Lt. Col. Ramon Zagala said the offensive was “calibrated” to protect a still-unspecified number of hostages still held by the rebels.
“It’s not an all-out war,” he said.
Tea party activists
now criticizing Republican leaders
FLETCHER, N.C. — Tea party activists, once unquestioned as a benefit to the Republican Party for supplying it with votes and energy, are now criticizing GOP leaders at seemingly every turn.
They’re demanding Congress use upcoming budget votes to deny money for putting in place President Barack Obama’s 2010 health care law, despite warnings the strategy could lead to a government shutdown.
They’re upset Republicans didn’t block a Senate-passed immigration bill.
Many are outspoken opponents of U.S. involvement in Syria’s civil war. A recent Pew Research Center survey found more than seven in 10 self-identified “tea party Republicans” disapprove of the job performance of GOP congressional leaders.
World’s oldest man dies at age 112
GRAND ISLAND, N.Y. — The world’s oldest man, a 112-year-old self-taught musician, coal miner and gin rummy aficionado from western New York, has died. He was 112.
Salustiano Sanchez-Blazquez died Friday at a nursing home in Grand Island, according to Robert Young, senior gerontology consultant with Guinness World Records.
Sanchez-Blazquez became the world’s oldest man when Jiroemon Kimura died June 12 at age 116.
Born June 8, 1901, in the village of El Tejado de Bejar, Spain, he was known for his talent on the dulzaina, a double-reed wind instrument that he taught himself and played at weddings and village celebrations. At 17, he moved with his older brother Pedro and a group of friends to Cuba, where they worked in the cane fields.
In 1920, he came to the United States through Ellis Island and worked in the coal mines of Lynch, Ky. Ultimately, he moved to the Niagara Falls area of New York, where he worked in construction and in the industrial furnaces. He married his wife, Pearl, in 1934.
Calif. mother arrested in two kids’ deaths
SANTA ANA, Calif. — Police said an apparently suicidal woman whose remarks sent authorities to a Southern California hotel room is the mother of two children found dead there.
Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said Saturday night that the 42-year-old woman from Scottsdale, Ariz., has been released from a hospital and will soon be booked for investigation of two counts of murder.
Police said earlier Saturday the woman deliberately drove her car into poles guarding an electrical box in a supermarket parking lot.
The woman made statements that led them to a Santa Ana hotel room where the two kids were found dead, police said.
No names have been released, and the age and gender of the children were also being withheld while relatives are notified.By wire sources
By wire sources
