Washington, D.C.

Ex-Bush adviser named to Islamic relations post

Declaring the United States “must do better job of engaging the Muslim world,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice introduced former presidential adviser Karen Hughes Monday as the Bush administration’s choice for a State Department post designed to change Islamic perceptions about America.

Hughes, pending confirmation by the Senate, would become undersecretary of state for public diplomacy with the rank of ambassador.

Hughes, who for years has had a major voice in crafting Bush’s domestic message, is a former counselor to the president who left the White House in 2002 to move her family back to Texas.

Although not a diplomat by training, Hughes had a hand in several foreign policy initiatives during Bush’s first term, including efforts to promote democracy and improve the lives of women and children in Afghanistan.

Baltimore

Former NAACP leader to run for U.S. Senate

Kweisi Mfume, a former five-term congressman who recently stepped down as president of the NAACP, announced Monday that he will run for the U.S. Senate next year in Maryland.

In announcing his candidacy, the Baltimore native and former radio talk show host declared in a booming voice: “I can’t be bought. I won’t be intimidated, and I don’t know how to quit.”

Mfume, 56, had made no secret that his sights were set on a Senate seat, but he did not formally announce his candidacy until retiring five-term Sen. Paul Sarbanes disclosed last week that he would not seek re-election.

Washington, D.C.

Student pleads innocent to plot against Bush

An American student charged in an alleged conspiracy to kill President Bush pleaded innocent Monday, and a judge set his trial for August.

The government says Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, 23, of Falls Church, Va., confessed to the assassination plot and admitted that he had discussed with al-Qaida plans to conduct a Sept. 11-style terror attack in the United States. Abu Ali’s family and lawyers deny the charges and say he was tortured while being held captive in Saudi Arabia for 20 months.

Abu Ali is charged with providing material support to al-Qaida, contributing services to the terrorist network and receiving funds from it, along with conspiracy. The six-count indictment, unsealed Feb. 22, says he sought to become “a planner of terrorist operations.”

Washington, D.C.

Arrests thin ranks of violent gang

The Department of Homeland Security said Monday that 103 members of a violent Hispanic youth gang had been arrested nationwide in recent weeks as local law enforcement officials used immigration violations to take dangerous gang members off the streets.

The arrests took place in New York; Newark, N.J.; Miami; Los Angeles; Washington, D.C.; and Baltimore. Those cities are participating in “Operation Community Shield,” a program for local and federal law enforcement agencies to pool resources to pursue Mara Salvatrucha — one of the nation’s most vicious youth gangs.

Mara Salvatrucha, widely known as MS-13, has been linked to human smuggling, drug trafficking, arms smuggling, inter-gang violence and murder.

California

Scott Peterson lawyers seeking new trial

Scott Peterson’s attorneys have filed a motion seeking a new trial, claiming evidence allegedly withheld by the prosecution could have resulted in a different verdict.

The motion was filed Feb. 25 in Redwood City and made public Monday.

The jury convicted Peterson on Nov. 12 of two counts of murder in the deaths of his pregnant wife, Laci, and her fetus, and recommended the death penalty a month later. Formal sentencing is set for Wednesday.

Defense lawyer Mark Geragos claims he was only made aware of the tip — a state prison inmate claimed Laci Peterson had interrupted a burglary at a neighbor’s home in Modesto — six weeks before the trial’s end, and did not have sufficient time to investigate it.

Prosecutors countered that the tip was received in January 2003 and provided to defense attorneys four months later, a year before the start of the trial. They suggest Geragos simply missed the details in his haste to take the case to trial.