Oregon

Spain bombings probe leads to lawyer’s arrest

FBI agents arrested a Portland lawyer Thursday as part of the investigation into the deadly train bombings in Spain, federal officials said.

Brandon Mayfield, a U.S. citizen, was taken into custody on a material witness warrant, said a senior law enforcement official in Washington, D.C. The arrest is the first known in the United States with connections to the March 11 bombings in Madrid.

The FBI also searched Mayfield’s home, which he shares with his wife, the official said.

His father, Bill Mayfield, of Halstead, Kan., called the allegations “asinine.”

“He’s completely innocent,” Mayfield of his son, who grew up in the town, about 30 miles northwest of Wichita, and attended Washburn University before moving to Oregon.

Libya

Six get death sentence for infecting children with HIV

Libya sentenced five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor to death by firing squad after convicting them Thursday of intentionally infecting more than 400 children with the AIDS virus in an experiment to find a cure.

Relatives of the children shouted for joy as the sentences were handed down, but Bulgaria’s justice minister called the verdicts “absurd.” Some human rights groups say Libya concocted the experiment story to cover unsafe hospital practices.

Under Libyan law, death sentences produce an automatic appeal, and European leaders suggested they were exerting pressure on the government of Moammar Gadhafi to reverse the verdicts. Gadhafi has been trying to present a new image to the world after decades of supporting terrorism.

West Bank

Arafat fortifies compound

Fearing Israel will seize him, Yasser Arafat fortified his West Bank headquarters with hundreds of concrete-filled barrels and wrecked cars Thursday, saying he’s determined to go down fighting.

Israel, which repeatedly has threatened the Palestinian leader, said it had no immediate plan to go after Arafat. One senior Israeli official said Arafat and his aides were being “hysterical” — although Prime Minister Ariel Sharon warned only last month he is no longer bound by a promise to the United States not to harm Arafat.

Washington, D.C.

Deficits threaten economy, Fed chairman warns

Huge federal budget deficits threaten the nation’s long-term economic stability, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Thursday as he raised new concerns about impending financing problems in Social Security and Medicare.

A day of reckoning will come, Greenspan warned, because there is no “free lunch.”

Greenspan used a speech to a banking conference in Chicago to make the case again that this year’s presidential campaign should address reforms of those massive entitlement programs.

Greenspan said he was more concerned about the economic impact of budget deficits than the soaring trade deficit or record levels of household debt.