Wyoming

Judge removes park ban on snowmobiles

A federal judge Friday struck down a Clinton-era ban on snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks — a move expected to leave the parks open to the vehicles for at least the next three winters.

U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer ruled that the ban — aimed at preventing air and noise pollution and protecting wildlife — was imposed without adequate participation from the public and the states of Montana and Wyoming.

The 2001 rule was “the product of a prejudged, political decision to ban snowmobiles from all the national parks,” Brimmer said.

National Park Service officials already are drafting new rules for the next three winters. The tentative plans call for up to 720 guided snowmobiles a day in Yellowstone this winter, and 140 per day in Grand Teton and the highway that connects the two parks.

Chicago

City completes deal to privatize toll road

Chicago has reached a $1.8 billion deal to let a private consortium operate the Chicago Skyway toll road — a trailblazing agreement the city says will save it money on maintenance and allow it to pay off millions in debt.

The deal marks the first time a U.S. toll road has been privatized, according to Mark Florian of the investment bank Goldman Sachs, which advised the city.

Cintra-Macquarie, a Spanish-Australian consortium, put in the winning bid to operate the Skyway for the next 99 years. Under the lease, the consortium will be allowed to double the $2 toll to $4 over the next decade, and keep raising it thereafter.

The city will use the receipts from the lease to pay off the Skyway’s existing debt of about $400 million and other city debt and create a reserve fund.

Washington, D.C.

Counseling seen as best to prevent teen violence

Boot camps and other “get tough” programs for adolescents do not prevent criminal behavior, as intended, and may make the problem even worse, an expert panel said Friday.

Further, laws transferring juveniles into the adult court system led these teens to commit more violence and do not deter others from committing crime, the panel said.

More promising, it said, are programs that offer intensive counseling for families and young people at risk.

The 13-member panel of experts, convened by the National Institutes of Health, reviewed the available scientific evidence to look for consensus on causes of youth violence and ways to prevent it.

Virginia

Muslim sentenced for Saudi prince plot

A prominent Muslim advocate who admitted participating in a Libyan plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s crown prince was sentenced Friday in Alexandria to the maximum 23 years in prison for illegal business dealings with Libya.

Abdurahman Alamoudi, 52, pleaded guilty in July to accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars from high-ranking Libyan officials while serving as a go-between for them and Saudi dissidents.

While Alamoudi was not charged in connection with the alleged scheme to kill Crown Prince Abdullah, prosecutors cited the plot as reason for him to receive the maximum sentence.

Alamoudi, of Falls Church, Va., was a naturalized U.S. citizen from Eritrea who helped found the American Muslim Council and related American Muslim Foundation.

Washington, D.C.

Bush adviser testifies before federal grand jury

President Bush’s top political adviser, Karl Rove, testified Friday before a federal grand jury trying to determine who leaked the name of an undercover CIA officer.

Rove reportedly spent more than two hours testifying before the panel.

The investigation concerns whether a crime was committed when someone leaked the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame, whose name was published by syndicated columnist Robert Novak on July 14, 2003.

New York

Kerry campaign seeks equal time on stations

The campaign of Sen. John Kerry on Friday formally asked Sinclair Broadcast Group for equal time on all its stations to counter what the campaign said was Sinclair’s plan to air an extended attack ad during prime entertainment hours next week.

In a Friday letter to Sinclair, Kerry campaign attorney Mark Elias argued that Sinclair’s plans to air “Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal,” a film in which former Vietnam prisoners of war criticize the senator’s anti-Vietnam War activities, is “clearly intended to advance the campaign of President Bush by attacking Sen. Kerry’s record.”

Citing Federal Communications Commission doctrine and court rulings, Elias requested equal amounts of time on each of Sinclair’s 62 stations that airs the film, and asked that the time be when an equivalent number of viewers would be watching.

Sinclair’s stations include WB 62 in Kansas City, Sunflower Broadband Channel 3.

Washington, D.C.

Poll: Military members, families trust Bush

When asked who they would trust as commander in chief, people in military service and their families chose President Bush over Sen. John Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran, by almost a 3-to-1 margin.

Bush, who served in the Texas Air National Guard, was more trusted by 69 percent while 24 percent said they trusted Kerry more, according to the National Annenberg Election Survey released Friday.

Among all Americans, Bush has a more narrow advantage on trust to be commander in chief, 50-41.

The military sample was far more likely to be Republican than Democratic, which could help explain the more favorable view of the president. Four in 10, 43 percent, of the military sample said they were Republicans, while 19 percent said Democrats and 27 percent independents.

The poll of 655 in the active military and their families was taken Sept. 22-Oct. 5 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Cleveland

Edwards’ flight delayed after indicator light

The pilot of Democratic Sen. John Edwards’ plane aborted takeoff while on the runway Friday because a light on the aircraft indicated a failed generator. No one was injured, and the plane departed about an hour later.

Mark Kornblau, press secretary for the vice presidential candidate, said the jet was taxiing down the runway at Burke Lakefront Airport around 4 p.m. CDT when the pilot noticed a problem with one of three generators.

“One of them indicated failure, so he aborted takeoff,” Kornblau said. “Everybody’s fine.”

There were about 50 people aboard including Edwards, Secret Service, flight crew, reporters and campaign staff.

United Nations

Five nations elected to Security Council

Japan won a two-year term on the U.N. Security Council on Friday along with Argentina, Denmark, Greece and Tanzania.

Japan is expected to use its presence on the powerful U.N. body, starting Jan. 1, to spotlight its campaign for a permanent council seat.

While there is widespread support among the 191 U.N. member states to expand the 15-member Security Council to reflect the geopolitical realities of the 21st century, there is no agreement on how large it should be, who should get seats, whether the new seats should be permanent or temporary, and who should have veto power.

The council currently consists of five permanent members with veto power — the United States, Britain, Russia, China and France — and 10 nonpermanent members who serve two-year terms and have no power to veto resolutions.

Berlin

Al-Qaida suspect arrested on warrant

Authorities on Friday arrested a Syrian-German businessman who is wanted by Spain on charges he helped fund the al-Qaida terrorist network for years and who appeared in a wedding video at a mosque with some of the Sept. 11 hijackers, German officials said.

Mamoun Darkazanli, 46, was taken into custody in Hamburg on a Spanish warrant and is being held for possible extradition.

Spanish authorities allege that Darkazanli was “one of the key figures of the al-Qaida terror network” and “the permanent contact person and assistant of Osama bin Laden in Germany,” Hamburg authorities said in a statement.

Darkazanli, a Syrian native, faces up to 12 years in prison in Spain if convicted of charges of membership in a terrorist organization.

Washington, D.C.

U.S. allies agree on plan for Iran nuclear program

Three European allies notified the Bush administration on Friday they intend to offer Iran a package of inducements next week in hopes of persuading Iran to halt nuclear weapons development, but the administration withheld its approval of the overture.

The three allies, Britain, France and Germany, agreed with the administration at a three-hour State Department meeting that this would be Iran’s final chance to avert the threat of U.N. economic sanctions, a U.S. official said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear watchdog of the United Nations, is scheduled to review Iran’s program next month.

Egypt

Cultural shift affects Ramadan traditions

Millions of Muslims denied themselves food, cigarettes and water before setting off on an all-night ritual of feasting, family gatherings and entertainment on Friday, the first day of Islam’s holy month of Ramadan.

The Ramadan rituals stem from the belief that the first verses of the Quran, Islam’s holy book, were revealed to the Prophet Muhammad during these four weeks in the seventh century.

Clerics urge their communities to use the month to cleanse their souls, denying themselves pleasures to encourage holy thoughts. The flip side, many say, is that Ramadan nights have become a time for excess.

Haiti

Gunfire erupts as Aristide loyalists demonstrate

Heavy gunfire erupted Friday in Port-au-Prince when police streamed into a slum stronghold of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, as his loyalists blocked streets with flaming debris to mark the 10th anniversary of Aristide’s return from his first exile.

Tensions surged in the capital, where at least 48 people have died during two weeks of shootouts and beheadings. Former Haitian soldiers, who hold sway over much of the countryside, are threatening to deploy into Port-au-Prince over the objections of the interim government, which is backed by an overextended and beleaguered U.N. peacekeeping force.

Geneva

U.N. agency: 70,000 have died in Sudan refugee camps

At least 70,000 refugees have died since March because of poor conditions in camps in Sudan’s Darfur region, and more will die at the same rate unless countries contribute the $300 million in aid they promised, the U.N. health agency said Friday.

The new death toll estimate by the World Health Organization is 20,000 higher than one it released last month.

The Darfur conflict, originally a clash between African farmers and Arab nomads, has grown into a counterinsurgency in which pro-government Arab militia have raped, killed and burned the villages of their enemy. The government denies allegations that it supports the Arab militia, known as Janjaweed.

Indonesia

Cleric with al-Qaida links charged in hotel attack

An Islamic cleric believed to lead an al-Qaida-linked terror group was charged Friday with ordering a deadly attack on an Indonesian hotel last year — a legal move that should please the United States, which has long demanded action against Abu Bakar Bashir.

The 67-year-old Bashir, jailed since 2002, is often seen as the public face of the country’s radical Islamic fringe and is believed to be the inspirational leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah terror group. However, prosecutors did not say Friday whether they would charge Bashir with leading Jemaah Islamiyah.

The group has been blamed for a string of terror attacks in Indonesia beginning in 1999 that have killed 224 people and injured hundreds more.

New York

In letter, Stewart says she’s adjusting to life behind bars

Home fashion guru Martha Stewart said Friday that she had adjusted to prison life and was keeping busy behind bars since reporting a week ago to a federal penal camp in West Virginia, where she is serving a five-month sentence for lying about a stock sale.

The celebrity homemaker said she was touched by the outpouring of support she has received from millions of people who have visited her Web site, according to a letter posted by Stewart on www.marthatalks.com.

“The best news — everyone is nice — both the officials and my fellow inmates,” the letter said. “I have adjusted and am very busy.”

Russia

Spacecraft docks with international station

A Soyuz spacecraft carrying two cosmonauts and an American astronaut docked today at the international space station, where another Russian-U.S. team has spent the past six months.

The Soyuz TMA-5, carrying Russians Salizhan Sharipov and Yuri Shargin and American Leroy Chiao, docked with the station at 8:16 a.m. Moscow time.

It is the fourth time a Soyuz has filled in for U.S. space shuttle flights, suspended since the Columbia burned up on re-entry in February 2003.

Mission Control said the Soyuz’s approach to the station went normally, but announced at the last minute that the crew would guide the spaceship in manually. Officials gave no indication why.

Sharipov and Chiao are to replace Russian Gennady Padalka and American Mike Fincke, who are ending a half-year mission on the orbiting station. Padalka and Fincke will return to Earth with Shargin on Oct. 24.

Washington, D.C.

British flu vaccine unsafe, FDA concludes

A last-ditch U.S. inspection of a British vaccine factory that officials hoped might salvage millions of desperately needed flu shots concluded Friday that none can be used safely, dashing lingering hopes of averting an influenza inoculation crisis as the winter approaches.

A team of Food and Drug Administration inspectors determined there was no way to ensure the system the Chiron Corp. used for filling vials at its Liverpool plant would have prevented contamination with a dangerous bacteria detected at the plant in August, officials said.

The announcement was another blow to U.S. health officials, who are scrambling to calm growing public alarm about vaccine shortages because of the loss of about half of the 100 million doses of flu vaccine the nation was expecting.

Washington, D.C.

Report: Medicare drug card info confusing

Some seniors are confused by Medicare’s new prescription discount card system because early information mailed to them was unclear or incomplete, according to a report by the government’s health policy watchdog.

But the government agency that runs the program discounted that survey as unscientific, saying a more extensive investigation is needed to detect any widespread problems.

The inspector general’s office of the Department of Health and Human Services surveyed 59 seniors, many of whom were relatives of agency employees, and described the results in a Sept. 29 internal memo obtained by The Associated Press.

“We found that these beneficiaries received very little mail from drug card sponsors that would enable them to make an informed choice among cards,” the memo says. The agency is now conducting a more formal investigation.