Briefly

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Leader of hijacking plot sentenced to life

The leader of a group of Palestinian terrorists who took over a Pan Am jet and killed 22 people was sentenced to life in prison Thursday, capping an emotional two-day hearing in which survivors recounted their trauma from the 1986 hijacking attempt.

Zayd Hassan Abd Al-Latif Masud Al Safarini was sentenced to three consecutive life terms plus 25 years on 95 charges of murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to attempt murder as part of a plea agreement approved Thursday in U.S. District Court.

Judge Emmet Sullivan also said he would recommend to the Bureau of Prisons that Al Safarini never be paroled and that he be sent to a supermaximum security prison in Florence, Colo., whose inmates include Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, and Ramzi Yousef, mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Idaho

Jurors in Saudi’s terror trial can view Web sites

A federal judge on Thursday handed a major blow to a Saudi student accused of terrorism, allowing jurors to see inflammatory Web sites that allegedly had been posted from his home computer.

The government claims the Web sites prove that Sami Omar Al-Hussayen, a computer science graduate student at the University of Idaho, used his computer skills to foster terrorism.

U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge ruled that the evidentiary value of the Web sites, which contain articles extolling suicide bombings in defense of Islam, outweighed their prejudicial value against Al-Hussayen.

The government has accused the 34-year-old Al-Hussayen of turning the Web site of the Islamic Assembly of North America in Michigan into the platform for encouraging terror.

Mississippi

Court throws out award against drug maker

The Mississippi Supreme Court on Thursday threw out a $48.5 million verdict against the makers of the heartburn drug Propulsid in a case brought by 10 patients who claimed the drug caused heart problems and anxiety attacks.

The justices, in the 6-1 decision, said the 10 plaintiffs should not have been grouped because their claims were too dissimilar. The court ordered separate trials for each plaintiff.