In brief: Berenson arrives in U.S. from Peru

NEW YORK – Lori Berenson, a New Yorker paroled from a Peruvian prison after 15 years behind bars for aiding a leftist revolutionary group, arrived in the U.S. on Tuesday for her first visit home since her arrest in 1995.

Berenson, 42, did not speak to reporters after landing at the Newark airport with her 2-year-old son, Salvador. They were escorted by police to a waiting car as the boy looked with wonderment at the gaggle of reporters and flashing cameras.

Berenson was arrested at age 26 and accused of helping plot an armed takeover of Peru’s Congress, which she had entered by saying she was a journalist. The attack never took place.

She admitted helping the Tupac Amaru rebel group rent a safe house where authorities seized a cache of weapons after a shootout. But she has insisted she didn’t know guns were stored there and never joined the group.

She won early release last year from her 20-year prison sentence.

She needed Peruvian court approval to spend the holidays with her family in New York City and must return to the South American country by Jan. 11.

Ethics panel clears Rep. Young

WASHINGTON – The House Ethics Committee has concluded that Republican Don Young of Alaska did not receive improper donations to a legal defense fund.

The committee said Tuesday that 12 corporations owned and operated by the same seven people each made the maximum $5,000 contribution – for a total of $60,000.

The ethics panel said this is allowed because each company was a distinct legal entity in Louisiana. The companies provide different services or products to the maritime industry.

The committee said it is revising the rules, starting next year, to impose new contribution limits on owners who run multiple companies. In the Young case, with seven owners for the 12 contributing companies, the maximum would be $35,000 – or $5,000 per owner.

A federal investigation of Young was dropped last year.