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Warm respite from winter in Japan A capybara stands under a stream of hot water to keep warm during a cold snow day in their enclosure at Saitama Children’s Zoo in Higashimatsuyama, near Tokyo, on Friday.
AP photo
DEARBORN, Mich.
Mosque suspect facing trial
A California man accused of plotting to attack a popular Detroit-area mosque was ordered to trial Friday after a police officer said the man had 96 fireworks in his car, including M-80 firecrackers, smoke bombs and bottle rockets.
Roger Stockham was arrested Jan. 24 during a traffic stop near the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn. Witnesses say the 63-year-old Vietnam War veteran spoke hours earlier at a bar about setting off an explosion at the mosque.
Dearborn Officer Stanley Chiles testified that Stockham had firecrackers, smoke bombs and bottle rockets.
“Someone can be hurt by them,” especially if combined with alcohol and spray paint found in the car and gasoline in the tank, Chiles said.
WASHINGTON
Levy’s killer gets 60 years
The man convicted of killing Washington intern Chandra Levy nearly a decade ago was sentenced Friday to 60 years in prison, a term that could keep him behind bars the rest of his life.
Ingmar Guandique would not be released from prison until he was at least about 80 years old, assuming he lives that long, said District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Gerald Fisher. The judge, who called Guandique a dangerous person and sexual predator, said the sentence would ensure he was not a danger to the community if he is released.
Guandique was convicted in November of first-degree murder in Levy’s 2001 disappearance and death, despite a lack of witnesses and no DNA evidence linking him to the crime.
During Friday’s sentencing hearing, Levy’s mother, Susan Levy, asked Guandique directly if he had been responsible for her daughter’s death. He looked her in the eyes and shook his head.
KAMPALA, Uganda
Sudan fighting claims 105
Two days of fighting in Southern Sudan between the region’s army and a rebel faction killed 105 people, a southern army spokesman said Friday, in a reminder that violence can still explode in the volatile region despite its successful independence referendum.
A former high-ranking southern army member who had previously rebelled against the southern regional government attacked the towns of Fangak and Dor in the Upper Nile state on Wednesday, breaking a January cease-fire, said Col. Philip Aguer, the army spokesman.
Aguer said 105 people were killed in the two towns: 39 civilians, 24 southern police and soldiers, and 42 of rebel commander George Athor’s men. AP attempted to reach Athor and his top aide for comment but the phone calls to the remote region did not go through.
ROME
Tunisians’ flight goes on
Hundreds of Tunisians arrived by the boatload Friday on a tiny Sicilian island, fleeing chaos in their homeland and prompting Italy to demand that the EU take stronger action to prevent an uncontrolled wave of migrants from North Africa.
On Friday afternoon, four boats crowded with a total of some 300 Tunisians reached Lampedusa, an island that is closer to northern Africa than it is to the Italian mainland. Earlier in the day, the U.N. refugee agency said some 1,600 Tunisians had landed in Italy.