Kuwait City

Accused terrorists’ court trial begins

Twenty-one men and one woman pleaded innocent Tuesday to counts of joining a terrorist group that allegedly planned to attack American troops and Kuwaiti security officers. They also were accused of killing policemen in a series of deadly clashes this year.

Most face the death penalty or life in prison if convicted.

Seven told the criminal court they confessed under duress, including four who took off their shirts to display scars on their backs, claiming they were inflicted by state security investigators.

The defendants were charged with joining a group “based on extremist ideology” and rebellions against state institutions.

Four policemen and eight suspected terrorists were killed in clashes across this small oil-rich country in January. In February, the alleged ringleader of the group, Amer al-Enezi, died of a heart attack while in custody, and more suspects surrendered to police.

Rome

Police crack down on child porn ring

Italian police raided the homes and offices of 186 suspected members of a child pornography ring – including three Roman Catholic priests and a local mayor – that downloaded pictures from an exclusive Web site, officials said Tuesday.

The group downloaded photos and video of sex abuse against children, whose ages ranged from 4 to 8, from a Web site that could only be entered with a password, according to a police officer in the Sicilian town of Syracuse, where the investigation was based.

The officer, who cited office policy that he could not be identified, said the site had operated for just nine days before authorities closed it down in July after receiving a tip from Telefono Arcobaleno, a local association that scans the Internet to combat child abuse.

Police searched the homes and offices of 159 suspects in 16 of Italy’s 20 regions Tuesday, the official said. The remaining 27 suspects had their homes and offices searched in recent months.

During the searches, police seized child pornography videos from computers owned by the three priests and were studying some homemade videos confiscated during the raids in an attempt to identify where the children were filmed and who filmed them, authorities said.