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IN BRIEF
U.S. soldier sentenced
in Iraq prison abuse case
BAGHDAD, Iraq — The highest
ranking U.S. soldier charged in the
Abu Ghraib prison case was sentenced
Thursday to eight years in prison, the
severest punishment so far in the scan
dal that broke in April with the publi
cation of photos and video showing
Americans humiliating and abusing
naked Iraqis. Staff Sgt. Ivan “Chip”
Frederick’s civilian attorney, Gary My
ers, called the sentence “excessive”
and argued that the military command
was at fault for failing to train his client
— a veteran military policeman and a
corrections officer in civilian life — and
for failing to address the horrid condi
tions at the prison on the western out
skirts of Baghdad.
Missile strike in Gaza Strip
kills senior Hamas leader
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — An Israeli
aircraft fired two missiles at a car trav
eling in the Gaza Strip late Thursday,
killing a senior Hamas commander
who was among the government’s
most-wanted fugitives for years, the
latest in a series of Israeli assassina
tions that have weakened the militant
group. Adnan al-Ghoul, a founder and
the No. 2 figure of Hamas’ military
wing, was killed along with a lower
ranking militant. The air strike dealt
another heavy blow to Hamas’ mili
tary wing, Izzedine al Qassam, which
is responsible for attacks that have
killed hundreds of Israelis during four
years of fighting.
Poll security strengthened
in watch for terrorism
WASHINGTON — Election offi
cials are beefing up security and
taking other precautions at many of
the nation’s 200,000 polling places
amid continuing concern that al
Qaida terrorists are intent on dis
rupting the U.S. political process.
Some officials are increasing police
patrols and assigning plainclothes
officers to monitor voting sites on
Election Day. Others are taking
steps to secure ballot boxes, set up
emergency communications sys
tems and locate backup polling
places in the event of an attack.
Typhoon wreaks havoc
on Japan, kills dozens
TOKYO — Rescue workers and
Japanese troops waded through
sludge Thursday to search for victims
of mudslides in Japan's deadliest ty
phoon in over a decade .
Typhoon Tokage, the record eighth
typhoon to hit Japan this year, un
leashed towering waves and rapid
mudslides that demolished homes
and flooded dozens of communities
when the storm slammed into west
ern Japan Wednesday.
Tokage, which means lizard in
Japanese, headed east into the Pacific
Ocean Thursday after losing power,
leaving clear blue skies in its wake
and rescue workers combing the sea
for victims feared washed away in
the typhoon.
Powerful gusts uprooted huge
trees, flash floods submerged cars to
their windows and entire hillsides
crumbled in landslides across south
ern and central Japan. Delivery
trucks, tipped over by winds, lay on
their sides.
By Thursday evening, the death
toll had risen to 63 and 25 others
were still unaccounted for, the Na
tional Police Agency said. Injuries to
taled 273.
Castro stands stong after
fall at public event
HAVANA — Cuban President Fidel
Castro’s advancing age — and ulti
mately his mortality — were brought
home Thursday after he fractured a
knee and an arm when he tripped
and fell at a public event.
In a communist society where the
78-year-old leader has played a larg
er-than-life role for more than four
decades, the tumble was the latest re
minder that Cuba’s commander in
chief is an aging man who will not
live forever, with an elderly brother
as his designated successor.
“I’m all in one piece,” Castro de
clared on state television Wednesday
night after tripping on a concrete step
while returning to his seat after an
hour-long speech in the central city
of Santa Clara.
A medical examination early
Thursday confirmed Castro suffered
a broken left knee and a hairline
fracture in his upper right arm, ac
cording to an official notice carried
by state media.
— The Associated Press
Nigerian insurgents might
face death penalty for coup
Five Nigerians were charged with two counts
of treason each for trying to topple the government
BY DULUE MBACHU
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LAGOS, Nigeria — The Nigerian
government for the first time Thurs
day publicly disclosed a foiled coup
plot, charging four military officers
and a civilian with conspiring to
topple the government by shooting
down a helicopter carrying Presi
dent Olusegun Obasanjo.
Maj. Hamza al-Mustapha, former
chief of personal security to late mil
itary dictator Gen. Sani Abacha, and
four others were each charged with
two counts of treason in a federal
high court in Nigeria’s commercial
capital, Lagos. If convicted, they
could face the death penalty.
Abacha was the last in a line of
military dictators that have repeat
edly seized power in Nigeria, which
has known only 15 years of democ
racy since its independence from
Britain in 1960. The years of often
corrupt and dictatorial rule have left
Nigeria destitute, despite the fact it
is Africa’s most populous country
with 126 million people and the
continent’s largest oil producer.
According to court documents re
leased Thursday, the military offi
cers engaged in a conspiracy “for
the purpose of overthrowing the fed
eral government of Nigeria by force
of arms” and had sought to buy a
“Stinger surface-to-air missile to be
used in shooting down the presi
dent’s helicopter with the president
on board.”
The documents did not say when
the attack was to take place, but
three of the five charged Thursday
were among dozens of military offi
cers arrested and interrogated by
Nigeria’s security agencies in April
over what the government de
scribed at the time as “a security
breach.”
Al-Mustapha, who has been in
detention since 1999 for a series of
assassinations of political opponents
during Abacha’s years in power,
was questioned in April by military
intelligence officials in connection
with the security breach.
Al-Mustapha, Lt. Col. Mo
hammed ibn Umar Adeka and civil
ian Onwuchekwa Okorie pleaded
not guilty Thursday.
Two other suspects — navy
Cmdr. Yakubu Kudambo, who es
caped following his April arrest, and
Lt. Tijani Abdallah — remain at
large and were charged in absentia.
Justice Dan Abutu set the next hear
ing date for Oct. 28 and ordered the ac
cused to remain in military custody.
Faulty tape recorder poses
conflict in grave-looting case
A Medford man is accused of paying off a hit man
with $10,000 of opals to cover an Indian grave raid
BY JEFF BARNARD
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MEDFORD — The jury deciding
whether artifacts collector Jack
Harelson paid $10,000 in opals to
have four people murdered in retali
ation for his Indian grave-looting
conviction will have to decide
whether or not to believe a paid in
formant facing federal drug charges.
Defense attorney Robert Abel and
prosecutor Clay Johnson both told
the Jackson County Circuit Court
jury that a tape recorder that inform
ant Brian Doland carried in his
pocket didn’t capture a key piece of
the case against Harelson — his re
sponse to a staged photo showing a
man lying dead in a shallow grave
in the woods.
“That’s the primary issue. That’s
what we ask you to zero in on,”
Abel said Thursday in his opening
statement. “Where is Doland’s testi
mony verified?”
Harelson, 64, a former insurance
agent and amateur archaeologist, has
pleaded innocent to charges alleging
that after his 1996 conviction for rob
bing Indian graves in the Nevada
desert, he gave Doland $10,000 in
opals to pay a hit man to kill four peo
ple responsible for sending him to jail.
They are retired Josephine County
Circuit Judge Loyd O’Neal, who sen
tenced Harelson in 1996; state police
Lt. Walt Markee, who led the investi
gation in that case; and two partners
in a Nevada opal mine, Lloyd Olds
and the late Richard Ledger.
On Tliesday, Harelson pleaded
guilty to abusing the ancient remains
of two Indian children he dug up in
Elephant Mountain Cave in Nevada’s
Black Rock Desert in the 1980s.
The prosecution is seeking a sen
tence of 10 to 12 years in prison if
Harelson is convicted on all the
charges against him, including two
counts of being a felon in possession
of firearms.
Johnson told the jury in his open
ing statement Wednesday that the
tape recorder didn’t work, but Doland
reported afterwards that Harelson
had chuckled at seeing a staged photo
of Olds pretending to be dead, then
tossed the photo into a fire and said,
“One down, three to go.”
But the key piece of evidence they
needed to prove an intent to commit
a crime — Harelson accepting the
phony photo as proof the first victim
had been murdered — has no tape
to back it up, Abel said.
State police Detective Stephanie In
graham, who oversaw the investiga
tion, testified that the tape recorder
had failed several times before the key
meeting, when it shifted in Doland’s
pocket, depressing the stop button.
the first ever
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