Briefly

Pakistan

Top nuclear scientist fired

Pakistan’s most prominent nuclear weapons scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, was fired from his government job Saturday after investigators concluded that he made millions of dollars from the sale of nuclear secrets to Iran and Libya, officials said.

The wealth that Khan accumulated during 30 years as a government servant, on a salary estimated now at $2,000 per month, is part of evidence that officials say led Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s president, to conclude that he had no choice but to take action against Khan, the flamboyant, European-trained metallurgist who is widely regarded as the father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb.

Khan, 67, counts among his assets four houses in Islamabad, a palatial lakeside retreat in the nearby village of Bani Gala, ownership shares in two restaurants and a hotel in Timbuktu, Mali, that he named for his wife, who is of Dutch ancestry, according to Pakistani investigators.

Washington, D.C.

Pentagon readies for biggest round of base closures

The Pentagon is gearing up for a sweeping round of base closures that could shutter as many as one-fourth of the country’s 425 military installations over the next few years.

Defense officials and analysts say the move next year will save billions of dollars that the armed services are spending every year to maintain obsolete and unneeded facilities — money they say could be better spent on modernizing military hardware and improving the quality of life for America’s 1.4 million active-duty servicemen and women.

Even though the $401 billion defense budget is at an all-time high, the push comes as U.S. troops are already stretched thin fighting a guerrilla insurgency in Iraq, tracking down al-Qaida and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan and keeping a lid on potential hot spots such as the Korean peninsula.

Washington, D.C.

Families of troops complain about lack of rest time

Soldiers’ spouses complained to the Pentagon’s second-in-command Saturday that American troops need time to rest between their frequent missions.

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz spoke to soldiers of the Army’s 1st Infantry Division and their families as the division prepared to go to Iraq beginning next week.

Family members of the soldiers told Wolfowitz they needed more stability in their lives.

Wolfowitz said the Army was considering an increase in the number of combat units to ease the strain.