U.S. leaders seek high seas treaty
U.S. leaders seek high seas treaty
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and military leaders implored conservative Republicans on Wednesday to approve a long-spurned high seas treaty, saying it would create jobs, open a new path to oil, gas and other resources and bolster national security.
Clinton, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made a rare joint appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to make the case for the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.
The United States is the only major nation that has refused to sign the treaty, which was concluded in 1982 and been in force since 1994.
But the committee chairman announced at the start of the hearing that he would not push for a Senate vote before the November elections.
Still, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., insisted that approval of the treaty is necessary because the United States “has lived by the rules, but we don’t shape the rules.”
Since the Reagan administration, the U.S. has abided by the rules of the treaty, which is endorsed by 161 countries and the European Union.
Clinton and the military leaders said it was now time for the U.S. to grab a seat at the table in international negotiations on navigational rights and seabed mining.
Fighter faces trial in grim slaying
EUREKA, Calif. (AP) — A mixed-martial artist accused of ripping out his friend’s still-beating heart and removing the man’s tongue and skin while he was alive is competent to stand trial on murder, mayhem and torture charges, a Northern California judge has ruled.
Del Norte County Judge William Follett reinstated criminal proceedings against Jarrod Wyatt, 27, of Klamath, in the death of his friend and sparring partner, Taylor Powell, 21. The judge’s decision Tuesday came after a pair of psychiatrists determined Wyatt was mentally competent to stand trial. The trial was set for Sept. 10.
Authorities who went to a home near the mouth of the Klamath River on March 21, 2010, found Powell dead on the couch with his chest cut open and his heart, tongue and the skin of his face removed, according to court records.
Wyatt — naked and covered in blood — acknowledged that he had killed Powell and cut out his heart and tongue, authorities said.
An autopsy revealed that the organs had been removed while Powell was still alive. His heart was found charred in a wood-burning stove at the home.
According to witnesses, the two had ingested hallucinogenic mushrooms and believed they were part of a struggle between God and the devil.
CIA criticized over Osama film
WASHINGTON (AP) — A House committee chairman charged Wednesday that the CIA and Defense Department jeopardized national security by cooperating too closely with filmmakers producing a movie on the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King. R-N.Y., first raised questions about the bin Laden movie last summer, but said newly released documents confirm his suspicions.
The filmmakers are director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal, who won Academy Awards for the motion picture “The Hurt Locker.”
King referred to documents obtained by Judicial Watch in a Freedom of Information Act request. He said the filmmakers received “extremely close, unprecedented and potentially dangerous collaboration” from the Obama administration.
No charges in plane’s diversion
BANGOR, Maine (AP) — A French woman accused of causing a US Airways flight to be diverted to Maine by claiming she had a surgically implanted device will soon be headed back home, officials said Wednesday.
U.S. Attorney Thomas Delahanty II told a federal magistrate judge that the evidence uncovered in a brief investigation didn’t support charging Lucie Zeeko Marigot, 41, with interfering with a flight crew.
Marigot, a French citizen, was being turned over to Customs and Border Protection and will be sent home, Delahanty said.
Flight 787 was traveling from Paris to North Carolina when it was diverted Tuesday to Bangor International Airport.