Virginia

Sniper suspect’s lawyers protest eyewitness testimony

Lawyers for sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad are trying to have eyewitness testimony barred from his capital murder trial next month, claiming the identifications were tainted by intense media attention and other factors.

In court papers made public Friday, Peter Greenspun and Jonathan Shapiro wrote that the recollections of eyewitnesses are tainted by continued public viewing of photographs of Muhammad and accused accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo, and by pressure on witnesses to be helpful to the investigation.

They have asked a judge to bar all eyewitness testimony identifying either Muhammad or Malvo at Muhammad’s trial. The request is set for a Sept. 23 hearing.

Miami

Hurricane Isabel maintains Category 5 status in Atlantic

Hurricane Isabel retained its 160 mph winds and its mystery Friday, as forecasters said it was still too early to tell if and where the Category 5 storm would strike the United States.

Isabel was about 350 miles northeast of the northern Leeward Islands in the northeastern Caribbean Sea and was moving west at 9 mph. Forecasters also said the storm could weaken today.

The long-range forecast placed it roughly 375 miles east of Cape Canaveral early Wednesday, if it makes a predicted turn to the northwest.

But that forecast has a possible error of more than 430 miles, and meteorologists said they would know more about the potential direction of the storm late this weekend.

Washington, D.C.

New citizenship oath delayed

Government officials who planned to unveil a more modern citizenship oath next week are going back to the drawing board.

Citizenship and Immigration Services has canceled plans to use the oath for the first time at an immigrant swearing-in ceremony Wednesday in Washington.

Eduardo Aguirre Jr., director of Citizenship and Immigration Services, said last week that his agency wanted the oath language to be less arcane so it would be more meaningful to immigrants.

A timetable and more details on the rewriting process will be released later.

South Korea

N. Korea rejects U.S. demand

North Korea again rejected a U.S. demand to end its nuclear weapons program, saying Friday it has no intention of disarming itself in the face of perceived American aggression.

The commentary by North Korea’s official newspaper Rodong Sinmun came a day after U.S. officials said in Washington that the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel rods at a key North Korean facility apparently had ceased, although the reason was unclear.

North Korea can extract weapons-grade plutonium from its pool of 8,000 rods to build several nuclear bombs. The United States has long believed that North Korea has at least one or two nuclear bombs and could have five or six within a matter of months.