Washington, D.C.

FBI probes laser beams directed at cockpits

The FBI, concerned that terrorists could use lasers as weapons, is investigating why laser beams were directed into the cockpits of seven airplanes in flight since Christmas.

Laser beams can temporarily blind or disorient pilots and possibly cause a plane to crash.

The FBI is looking into two incidents in Colorado Springs, Colo., and one each in Cleveland, Washington, Houston, Teterboro, N.J., and Medford, Ore., according to federal and local law enforcement and transportation officials.

A federal law enforcement official said Thursday there was no evidence of a plot or terrorist activity. But pilots are troubled by the incidents, and the FBI earlier this month warned of the possibility that terrorists might use the devices as weapons.

“It’s not some kid,” said Paul Rancatore, a pilot who serves as deputy chairman of the security committee for the Allied Pilots Assn. “It’s too organized.”

West Bank

Palestinian gunman endorses Abbas

A prominent West Bank gunman carried a smiling Mahmoud Abbas on his shoulders Thursday, endorsing the presidential candidate and prompting questions of whether Abbas is playing campaign politics or identifying with violent groups.

Abbas, the interim Palestinian leader, is the front-runner in a Jan. 9 election for Palestinian Authority president, and his statements on how he will deal with Palestinian militants are closely monitored by the world.

In a related development, Israeli Vice Premier Ehud Olmert told a newspaper that after Israel withdraws from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank in the summer, further pullouts will be necessary. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon distanced himself from Olmert’s remarks.

The highlight of Abbas’ visit to the Jenin refugee camp next to the northern West Bank town of Jenin was his encounter with a group of gunmen led by Zakaria Zubeidi, the local leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a violent group with ties to Abbas’ ruling Fatah party.

Zubeidi, who is idolized in the camp for his swagger and wanted by Israel for organizing attacks and sending suicide bombers into Israeli cities, took center stage in welcoming Abbas to the camp.

Washington, D.C.

Thomas’ acceptance of gifts tops justices

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has accepted tens of thousands of dollars worth of gifts since joining the Supreme Court, from $1,200 worth of tires to valuable historical items and a $5,000 personal check to help pay a relative’s education expenses.

Those and other gifts were disclosed by Thomas under a 1978 federal ethics law that requires high-ranking government officials to file a report each year that lists gifts, money and other items they have received.

Thomas has reported accepting much more valuable gifts than his Supreme Court colleagues over the last six years. In that period, Thomas accepted $42,200 in gifts.

Next was Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who accepted $5,825 in gifts, mostly small crystal figurines and other items. She also reported an $18,000 award in 2003 from the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, but listed it as income.

Third was Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who accepted a $5,000 award from Fordham University — the only gift he reported for the six-year period.

Washington, D.C.

Justice Department rewrites torture memo

The Justice Department is issuing a rewritten legal memo on the meaning of torture, backing away from its own assertions prior to the Iraqi prison abuse scandal that torture had to involve “excruciating and agonizing pain.”

The 17-page document states flatly that torture violates U.S. and international law.

Critics in Congress and many legal experts say the original documents set up a legal framework that led to abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, in Afghanistan and at the U.S. prison camp for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. After the Iraqi prison abuses came to light, the Justice Department in June disavowed its previous legal reasoning and set to work on the replacement document to be released today.

Argentina

Fire kills at least 88 in crowded nightclub

A fire swept through a crowded Buenos Aires nightclub, killing at least 88 people and injuring more than 265, the city’s mayor said today.

The blaze broke out late Thursday during a rock concert. Television images showed rescue workers carrying some of the wounded away on stretchers.

Others could be seen treating the injured on the street in front of the Republica de la Crogmanon disco, which is popular with teenagers.

Indiana

Wal-Mart employees charged in cat shooting

Two Wal-Mart employees have been charged with felony animal cruelty after police said they followed a manager’s orders to shoot and kill a stray cat.

The men, both assistant managers at the Supercenter, were arrested and released after a court appearance Wednesday. Christopher Anderson, 29, and Jeffrey Hardin, 21, told police the store’s manager ordered them to get rid of the animal that was living in a storage trailer behind their store.

Anderson and Hardin repeatedly shot the cat with a pellet gun from the store until it died the following day, according to a Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Department report.

All managers potentially involved in the incident have been suspended without pay pending an internal investigation and could be fired, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman said.

Washington, D.C.

Study: Natural causes likely in infant deaths

Mysterious deaths of more than one newborn in the same family are much more likely to be the result of natural causes than infanticide, as is often suspected, British researchers reported Thursday.

In the most comprehensive attempt to examine the emotionally charged question, the researchers found that when more than one infant dies in the same family, the deaths are only rarely due to foul play.

The findings, published in this week’s Lancet medical journal, should help prevent families stricken by more than one baby’s death from automatically being placed under a cloud of suspicion, the researchers said.

About 2,500 children die each year in the United States from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), also known as crib death. The cause is unknown.

Suspicion was raised in recent years that some deaths that had been blamed on SIDS may have been infanticide.

Georgia

Trash collectors busy week after Christmas

Now that Santa has made his rounds, the nation’s sanitation workers are making theirs, hauling off tons of boxes, torn wrapping paper and other Christmas detritus during what is the busiest week of the year for those in the garbage business.

Few trash collectors are allowed to take vacation this week, and some sanitation companies bring in extra workers to help handle the holiday refuse.

Americans generate an estimated 25 percent more waste, or 1 million extra tons, per week between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, according to the environmental group Use Less Stuff.

United Nations

Counting amid chaos proves problematic

As the toll from this week’s earthquake and tsunami in Asia continues to climb, the certainty about how many people have died is another casualty of the disaster.

With entire villages swallowed by the sea, and beach dwellers swept away along thousands of miles of coastline, hundreds or thousands of people have disappeared with no one left behind to report them missing. To prevent disease, bodies are being bulldozed into mass graves before they have been identified. Many of the corpses still unburied four days after the tsunami are no longer recognizable.

“These are the nameless victims of this disaster,” U.N. emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland said. “There may be many more that we’ve never heard of.”

The total of those killed in the 12 affected nations jumped by nearly 50,000 overnight Wednesday to an estimated 125,000 and is expected to rise further.

Although there is a tendency for death rates to be inflated in the chaotic days after catastrophes, the staggering numbers of victims of this disaster may yet be understated.

Washington, D.C.

Powell-led delegation will travel to region

President Bush announced Thursday that a delegation of experts led by Secretary of State Colin Powell would travel Sunday to Asia to assess the need for further U.S. assistance.

The Bush administration also lent its support to a European-hosted international conference designed to accelerate pledges of assistance to victims of the Asian and African tsunamis and added the United Nations to a four-nation coalition organizing humanitarian relief.

To further assess the need for U.S. support, Bush said, the delegation of experts, including his brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, will travel to the region.

It is unknown how long the visit would last; the delegation’s stops were not announced. A senior U.S. official said several countries were under consideration, including Indonesia and Thailand.

Washington, D.C.

American donations: stingy or generous?

Americans think of themselves as the most generous people on Earth. So to many, it came as a shock to hear that the U.S. response to the southern Asian tsunami this week was considered stingy.

But views of American generosity depend on who is doing the measuring and how.

By total money, the United States by far donates more than any other country in the world. This is the gauge preferred by most U.S. officials.

But when aid is calculated per U.S. citizen or as a percentage of the economy, the United States ranks among the least generous in the industrialized world.

As U.S. officials and foreign aid experts debate which measure is more apt, the issue is another example of how Americans’ views of themselves differ from those around the world.

The Bush administration now is pledging much more aid to the region — at least $35 million, up from $15 million — and said the amount will rise further.

Washington, D.C.

U.S. agency defends tsunami-warning effort

The U.S. weather agency didn’t have the phone numbers nor staff to alert all Indian Ocean coastal countries when it saw the first signs that tsunamis could be heading their way, its top official said Thursday. He cautioned that the Caribbean and Atlantic also lack an early warning system.

The head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said his agency did all it was responsible for doing in warning 26 countries in the Pacific.

“We cannot watch tsunamis in the Indian Ocean,” said Conrad C. Lautenbacher, the Commerce Department’s undersecretary for oceans and atmosphere and a retired Navy vice admiral, noting that no warning system exists for all 11 countries where the death toll now tops 117,000.

Fifteen minutes after Sunday’s quake near Sumatra, NOAA fired off a bulletin from Hawaii to 26 Pacific nations that now make up the International Coordination Group for the Tsunami Warning System, alerting them of the quake but saying they faced no threat of a tsunami.

Fifty minutes later, the U.S. agency upgraded the severity of the quake and again said there was no tsunami threat in the Pacific, but identified the possibility of a tsunami near the quake’s epicenter in the Indian Ocean.

London

Europe seeks victims of deadly tsunami

The Indian Ocean tsunami that has wrought such awesome destruction upon the poorest nations of Asia also hit hard in wealthy Europe.

More than 100 British tourists are feared dead, and the number is expected to climb. The official British government toll stood at 28 Thursday, but authorities in Thailand confirmed 43 dead Britons there, and British Ambassador David Fall said hundreds were missing.

Among Swedes, 1,500 people were reported missing, including more than 400 children.

The beach resorts of Thailand and Sri Lanka are popular holiday destinations for many northern Europeans.

Australia

Tsunami also smashes region’s coral reefs

When giant tsunami waves smashed onto shores around the Indian Ocean on Sunday, they first killed tens of thousands of people. Then a massive backwash returned to sea carrying a deadly cargo that could destroy the region’s vital coral reefs.

For now, officials and scientific experts in affected areas are focused primarily on aiding the survivors of the disaster.

But as they think about longer-term implications, many scientists are anticipating devastation of reefs, coastal wetlands and the fish populations they support.

The tsunami hit reefs left vulnerable by global warming, increased tourist activity, and such local practices as the illegal but widespread use of explosives to kill or stun fish, known as “blast fishing.”

In some hard-hit areas, damage to reefs is already apparent.