New York

Anti-abortion militant pleads innocent in doctor’s slaying

The anti-abortion militant suspected in the 1998 sniper slaying of a Buffalo abortion doctor was returned Wednesday to the United States from France and pleaded innocent to federal charges.

James Kopp, 47, was captured in France more than a year ago and was finally put aboard a plane in Paris after he dropped his fight against extradition in the slaying of Dr. Barnett Slepian in Buffalo.

Kopp was charged with violating a federal law against using deadly force to interfere with the right to abortion. He faces life without parole on the federal charges.

Afghanistan

Al-Qaida recruits in Pakistan

Posters plastered in the area along Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan declare that Osama bin Laden is alive and urge the faithful to wage war against the U.S.-led coalition.

“I am alive. My friend, Mullah Omar, is alive and it is the duty of all Muslims to wage a war on non-Muslims,” the posters read, referring to the Taliban’s supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar.

Posters and handbills calling for jihad, or holy war, against the U.S.-led coalition have appeared intermittently since the collapse of the Taliban last year. What makes these unusual is that they were written in the Pakistani language Urdu. That indicates al-Qaida may be stepping up recruiting in neighboring Pakistan.

United Nations

Ocean atlas published online

www.oceanatlas.org

The murky depths are getting an online road map, thanks to the United Nations and a host of scientific institutions that are launching an Internet atlas of the world’s oceans.

After a decade of planning and more than 2 1/2 years of development, the U.N. Oceans Atlas went online Wednesday, World Environment Day, with 14 global maps, links to hundreds of other sites, and more than 2,000 documents on 900 subjects ranging from climate change to poisonous algae.

Ocean-related issues are expected to dominate international efforts later this century if, as predicted, the Earth’s continued warming melts more ice and causes the oceans to rise by up to 3.3 feet.

California

‘Brockovich’ boss wins case

Ed Masry, depicted as the boss in the movie “Erin Brockovich,” did not sexually harass or wrongfully terminate a former employee who sued him after she was fired, a jury decided Wednesday.

The Van Nuys jury cleared Masry, 69, of numerous allegations by the plaintiff, Kissandra Cohen, 23, who worked as a lawyer at Masry’s firm in 1999.

However, jurors said Cohen should receive one year’s salary, $120,000, because Masry slandered her during a TV interview. Cohen was seeking $6.6 million in damages from Masry and his law firm, Masry & Vititoe12.

Masry was accused by Cohen of firing her because she refused to have a personal relationship with him.

Masry testified he had fired Cohen because she lied about her academic credentials when hired and because her work performance made him conclude she was “in over her head.”