Weekly News Briefs
Abductor of 14-year-old didnāt know her sister was watching
Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY ÷ Police investigating the disappearance of 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart said Tuesday that contrary to what they reported earlier, the kidnapper did not threaten the girlās little sister or even realize she saw him.
Two weeks ago, Elizabeth was reported taken by gunpoint from the bed shared by the two girls. Police said initially that the kidnapper warned 9-year-old Mary Katherine Smart to remain quiet, and that the little sister waited two hours before alerting her parents.
But police who interviewed the youngster three times now say that the man did not speak to the child.
"The threat was not made to Mary Katherine," Capt. Scott Atkinson said.
He said the police account changed as investigators with skills at interviewing child witnesses talked to the girl. Police also reviewed the 9-year-old witnessesā earlier two interviews with police, Atkinson said.
"I donāt believe that sheās changed her story," Atkinson said.
As for the search for the kidnapper, "we believe this man may be a trusted person in the neighborhood or community," the police captain said. The kidnapper was calm and "spoke nicely and dressed nicely."
Colorado wildfire grows by up to 7,000 acres
Associated Press
LAKE GEORGE, Colo. ÷ A wildfire burning in the Pike National Forest grew by as much as 7,000 acres Tuesday as authorities debated whether to file state charges against a Forest Service employee accused of setting the blaze.
Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar and district attorneys and sheriffs in four counties affected by the fire reviewed charges ranging from arson to reckless endangerment that could be lodged against Terry Barton.
"The fact of the matter is, houses were burned as a result of the fire. Two jurisdictions can exercise authority here," Salazar spokesman Ken Lane said.
Barton, a 38-year-old Forest Service technician, was being held without bail pending a Thursday hearing in U.S. District Court. She is accused of federal counts of setting fire to timber in a national forest, damaging federal property and making false statements to investigators.
U.S. Attorney John Suthers has expressed doubt about Bartonās story. He declined to comment beyond court filings, but noted the criminal complaint alleged she "willfully and without authority set on fire timber, underbrush, grass and other inflammable material."
Suthers said he plans to take the case to a grand jury within 30 days and that additional charges may be filed later.
Barton initially told authorities she was patrolling the Pike National Forest on June 8 when she smelled smoke and discovered the fire about 40 miles southwest of Denver.
Investigators confronted her a week later after concluding there were inconsistencies in her story. They said Barton confessed she started the fire as she tried to burn a letter from her estranged husband at a campfire ring.
Saudi Arabia arrests suspects linked to al-Qaida
Associated Press
JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia ÷ Saudi Arabia announced its first al-Qaida-related arrests since Sept. 11 and said Tuesday it was holding 11 Saudis, an Iraqi and a Sudanese man behind a plot to shoot down a U.S. military plane taking off from a Saudi air base.
Meanwhile, U.S. officials announced another Saudi, described as an al-Qaida operative, was in custody in Morocco. They said Abu Zubair al-Haili helped evacuate al-Qaida members from Afghanistan after Sept. 11, officials said.
The arrests in Saudi Arabia were made public through the official Saudi Press Agency, which linked the suspects to Osama bin Ladenās terror network and said they were planning to use explosives and missiles in other attacks in the kingdom.
The agency provided only sketchy details on when or where the suspects were arrested. But it was the first time since the terrorist attacks on the United States ÷ carried out by 15 Saudis and four other Arabs ÷ that the U.S. ally has announced arrests linked to bin Laden, the Saudi exile whose first cause was the overthrow of this Muslim kingdom.
