Pakistan

Kidnap case at standstill

As the investigation crawled along in its third week, the case of kidnapped Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl showed little signs of progress Sunday beyond the realms of speculation and half-truths.

Pearl, 38, the Journal’s South Asia correspondent, disappeared Jan. 23 in the port city of Karachi.

A top investigator admitted Sunday that he was stumped by the silence from the leading suspect, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh. The last authorities heard of Sheikh was several days ago, in a brief cell-phone conversation he had with an aunt while police who have held her under virtual house arrest tried to trace the call.

“It was hardly a minute long, and then he closed off the phone,” said Syed Kamel Shah, inspector general of police in Sindh province, where Karachi is located.

New York City

Officers’ remains recovered

The remains of five Port Authority police officers, including a chief and the female head of the agency’s training academy, were recovered at the World Trade Center site, a spokesman said Sunday.

Chief James Romito, Capt. Kathy Mazza, Lt. Robert Cirri and Officers James Parham and Stephen Huczko were among the 37 Port Authority police officers killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The bodies were discovered together Saturday at the base of 1 World Trade Center, according to Port Authority spokesman Greg Trevor.

The city’s official count of those killed at the World Trade Center stood at 2,843 as of Friday. The number includes 712 people whose remains have been identified by the medical examiner.

India

Arms-smuggling charges filed

Federal investigators on Sunday charged an alleged crime boss linked to an attack on a U.S. cultural center with sending explosives and weapons from Pakistan to India for an Islamic holy war.

Indian police allege Aftab Ansari, also known as Farhan Malik, has close ties to Pakistani militants.

Ansari was extradited Saturday to India from the Gulf emirate of Dubai and was immediately arrested.

On Sunday, Ansari, 32, appeared in the court of Magistrate Kamimi Lau, who handed him to CBI custody until Feb. 16 for investigation. State prosecutors said that Ansari, an Indian citizen, and three others were charged with smuggling arms and explosives. They could face up to seven years in prison.

Honolulu

Self-proclaimed hostage won’t discuss abduction

In his first public appearance since returning from Asia, an Alabama businessman avoided any mention of the abduction and torture he says he underwent in Afghanistan.

An Internet announcement of Saturday night’s Hawaii Christian Coalition meeting had said Clark Bowers would “recount his recent ordeal of being held as a hostage in Afghanistan. He was captured, tortured and eventually released for ransom.”

Instead, Bowers, 37, mentioned Afghanistan only once, as a place he had visited. He declined questions from reporters.