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Lohan rejects plea deal in theft case Lindsay Lohan leaves Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday followed by her mother, Dina, far left, and sister, Ali, second from left. Lohan rejected a plea agreement Thursday offered by prosecutors in a grand theft case that included a guaranteed return to jail. She told a judge she agreed to delaying her case until a preliminary hearing when prosecutors will present evidence against her. Lohan is accused of taking a $2,500 necklace from a Venice jewelry store.
AP photo
MOGADISHU, Somalia
Would-be rescuers killed
An attempt by Somali security forces to free a Danish family from a pirate gang on Thursday turned deadly after the would-be rescuers walked into an ambush, a pirate and a security official said.
Pirate Bile Hussein told The Associated Press that armed forces from Somalia’s semiautonomous northern region of Puntland tried to surround the village of Hul Anod and free the family but were beaten back before they were in position. He said some government forces were killed and others were captured but did not give exact figures.
“We foiled their attempt to recover the Danish family,” he said. “We have killed and captured some of their soldiers … The hostages are safe and still in our hands.”
SANAA, Yemen
Constitution offer rejected
Yemen’s embattled president on Thursday proposed a new constitution guaranteeing the independence of the parliament and judiciary, but thousands of unsatisfied protesters poured into the streets to demand his ouster.
Opposition leaders promptly rejected President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s offer and called for mass demonstrations Friday, marking a month since the protests began.
The demonstrators have set up protest camps in the capital and the cities of Aden and Taiz, saying they won’t leave until U.S.-backed Saleh resigns.
Saleh, an ally in the Obama’s administration’s fight against al-Qaida, has been making a series of concessions to try to head off the protests, seen as one of the most serious threats to an Arab government since popular revolutions toppled regimes in Tunisia and Egypt.
NEW YORK
Legislators face charges
An influential New York state senator, an assemblyman and a well-known lobbyist were among eight people charged Thursday in what federal prosecutors called “a broad-based bribery racket” that lined the senator’s pockets with more than $1 million.
A criminal complaint charges Sen. Carl Kruger and Assemblyman William Boyland Jr., both Brooklyn Democrats, and Manhattan-based lobbyist Richard Lipsky with two counts of conspiracy and one count of money laundering — the latest in a string of corruption cases to rock Albany.
Lipsky was accused of directing about $252,000 in lobbying fees into a bank account used by Kruger between 2007 and 2010 in exchange for the senator giving legislative support to Lipsky & Associates’ clients.
QATIF, Saudi Arabia
Shiite protesters dispersed
Saudi police opened fire Thursday to disperse a protest in the mainly Shiite east, leaving at least one man injured, as the government struggled to prevent a wave of unrest sweeping the Arab world from reaching the kingdom.
The rare violence raised concern about a crackdown ahead of more planned protests after Friday prayers in different cities throughout the oil-rich kingdom. The pro-Western monarchy is concerned protests could open footholds for Shiite powerhouse Iran.