AP Network News. Good morning. I’m Larry Brown.
A military panel in Baghdad has sentenced an American soldier to three years in prison for what investigators say was a mercy killing. Thirty-year-old sergeant Johnny Horne of Winston-Salem, North Carolina pleaded guilty yesterday to unpremeditated murder for killing a badly wounded Iraqi teenager. An army investigator says Horne wanted to put the boy out of his misery. Besides prison time, Horne gets busted to private, loss of pay and dishonorable discharge.
Bernard Kerik has abruptly withdrawn as President Bush’s nominee to be the new homeland security secretary. Known as a tough cop and security enforcer, the former New York City police commissioner had been under fire from critics who questioned his ability to manage the massive agency. But Washington correspondent Carlotta Bradley says his stated reason for dropping out is a so-called nanny problem.
--- Kerik says the issue came up when he was completing documents required for Senate confirmation. He said he uncovered information that leads him to question the immigration status of a nanny housekeeper he’d hired, and it’s brought to his attention that tax payments and related filings hadn’t been made.
Investigators in Lutz, Florida outside Tampa are piecing together the facts of a murder-suicide. Sheriff sergeant Alan Hill says a man shot and killed himself after shooting a woman and two children. Only the woman survived.
--- Two of the deceased victims were children, and we believe a third person is perceived as the suspect that conducted the shooting.
The woman is in critical condition. Police aren’t sure of the relationship between the four, but say the 11-year-old boy was gunned down as he went inside the house, and the 13-year-old girl was hit as she ran for help.
Flamboyant millionaire investor Martin Frankel’s been sentenced to 16 years in federal prison for a $200 million insurance swindle. Prosecutor Kevin O’Connor tells the Connecticut Radio Network the sentence is just.
--- We think it adequately reflects, not only the severity of the crime, but the particular merits of punishing Mr. Frankel for his conduct.
The defense at Frankel’s Connecticut trial argued mental illness.
This is AP Network News.
Army private Lynndie England is being transferred to Fort Hood, Texas along with the charges against her of abusing Iraqi prisoners. She’s been at Fort Bragg, North Carolina since returning to the US last spring. England appears in some of the most notorious photos of the incidences of prisoner humiliation, shown in one picture pointing and smiling, and in another holding a leash wrapped around a naked inmate’s neck. Army spokesman Bill Buckner says the abuse cases are, been consolidated at Fort Hood in the interest of efficiency.
--- Having to try to move different witnesses around, and trying to have to go to the various locations for these different court-martials, you put an undo strain on the logistics and all the support required.
England’s court-martial had been scheduled to begin next month. It will now be up to Fort Hood’s commanding general to decide how to handle it.
Seven perspective candidates for the job of Democratic National Committee chairman are set to address party leaders in Orlando, Florida today. Among those interested in the job is former presidential candidate Howard Dean. The new chairman will succeed Terry McAuliffe.