Arafat cousin gunned down
Jerusalem The former head of general security in Gaza, Moussa Arafat, was killed early today when gunmen stormed his Gaza City home and shot him. The incident threatened to aggravate tensions among Palestinian factions now struggling for power in the Gaza Strip following Israel’s evacuation of its settlements there.
Witnesses said Arafat, a cousin of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, was killed shortly before 5 a.m. It was not immediately clear who the gunmen were. Moussa Arafat’s son, Nimhel, who also worked in the security services, was missing. Witnesses said it was unclear if he had been kidnapped or had managed to escape.
Arafat’s appointment in 2004 to be head of security in Gaza sparked the most serious internal strife in years among Palestinians. The decision triggered an uprising in the streets by the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the armed wing of Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, whose young leaders had been calling for sweeping changes inside the ruling Palestinian Authority.
Annan, others criticized in oil-for-food report
United Nations A yearlong probe into the U.N. oil-for-food program blames Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the Security Council, and some member states for allowing mismanagement and corruption to undermine the program and enrich Saddam Hussein.
A preface to the Independent Inquiry Committee’s report, to be released today, said the United Nations requires “stronger leadership” and serious overhaul. But it did not call for Annan to resign, saying the Security Council and others should share responsibility for the failures.
The panel, led by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, called for four key reforms, including the creation of a chief operating officer and an independent auditing board.
Annan set up the independent panel last year to look into allegations of corruption and management failures in the $64 billion program meant to provide relief to Iraqis from international sanctions imposed after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.
Damages reduced in clinic harassment case
San Francisco A federal appeals court Tuesday substantially reduced the $108 million in punitive damages a Portland jury awarded to several abortion doctors and clinics harassed by abortion opponents.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals called the activists’ actions reprehensible, but unanimously reduced the judgment to $4.73 million to conform with a Supreme Court precedent limiting such damages.
An attorney for many of the 12 activists who created Wild West-style posters and a Web site targeting abortion doctors said the damages should be reduced further. Three doctors listed on the Web site were murdered.
Tuesday’s decision from the appeals court was based on a 2003 Supreme Court ruling generally limiting punitive damages to no more than nine times the amount of damages awarded to compensate for monetary losses.
Gotti ambush trial reaching conclusion
New York A prosecutor declared Tuesday that John A. (Junior) Gotti resorted to “the Gambino family’s native language – violence” when Curtis Sliwa insulted his father on the radio.
In his closing arguments in Manhattan Federal Court, prosecutor Joon Kim said the younger Gotti could have simply responded to Sliwa’s words like an ordinary citizen – verbally.
“Instead of engaging in a public debate, Gotti responded to Sliwa’s words in the Gambino family’s native language – violence,” Kim said.
The prosecutor said the evidence was overwhelming that Gotti was behind the 1992 attack in which the Guardian Angels founder and radio personality was ambushed and shot in the back of a cab.
Gotti’s defense team will make its closing arguments today, and the case could go to jurors as soon as Thursday.