Atlanta: Documents detail evidence linking Rudolph to bombings

Court documents unsealed Friday provide a glimpse into the case against Eric Rudolph in the Olympic bombing, including fiber and ballistics evidence and testimony that it was his voice on a 911 warning call minutes before the 1996 blast.

The documents — released after a request filed by The Associated Press — also tie Rudolph’s handwriting to several letters claiming responsibility for other bombings in Alabama and Georgia.

In addition, a statement from a sibling included in the court file says Rudolph speculated, shortly after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, that the Olympics would be a prime target for a terrorist attack because the whole world would be watching.

Washington: U.S. says new report on Iranian weapons troubling

Iran’s nuclear program and a U.N. agency report on it are deeply troubling, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Friday.

He refused to give details that the United States found unsettling but said Washington would work closely with board members of the International Atomic Energy Agency to decide what to do next. One option would be to take it to the United Nations by asking for Security Council action.

The report, now circulating among countries represented at the IAEA in Vienna, Austria, comes 10 days before a meeting of the agency’s board that is expected to discuss Iran’s nuclear program.

Virginia: Sculptor of Iwo Jima statue dead at 96

Felix de Weldon, an Austrian-born sculptor best-known for his statue of Marines raising the U.S. flag on Iwo Jima, has died, family members said. He was 96.

De Weldon, who died Tuesday, emigrated to the United States and during World War II served in the Navy’s artist corps.

While stationed in Maryland, he saw Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal’s famous picture of the flag-raising on Mount Suribachi during the battle for Iwo Jima, and was inspired to create a sculpture based on the photo.

De Weldon is survived by his wife, Joyce, two sons and a sister.