Yemen Judge Orders Arrest of Qaeda-Linked Cleric - New York Times

BEIRUT, Lebanon — A Yemeni judge on Saturday ordered the “forcible arrest” of Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born cleric who is believed to play an important role in the regional branch of Al Qaeda.

Anwar al-Awlaki

Mr. Awlaki, who is thought to be hiding among fellow tribesmen in Yemen’s remote Shabwa Province, failed to appear Tuesday at a trial where he was accused of killing a foreigner. It is rare for a Yemeni judge to order the arrest of a defendant so soon after his failure to appear.

Yemen has been under increased American pressure to act decisively against Al Qaeda since powerful explosives were discovered Oct. 29 in two separate packages being sent by air cargo to the United States. On Friday, Al Qaeda’s regional branch, known as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, claimed responsibility for the plot in an Internet posting, confirming what American officials had suspected since the plot was discovered.

The United States took the unusual step this year of authorizing the killing of Mr. Awlaki, an American citizen. Mr. Awlaki, whose eloquent sermons on Islam have long been available on tapes and on the Internet, has been the subject of intense American scrutiny since he was linked to Maj. Nidal Malik Hassan, the Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people in Fort Hood, Tex., last year, and to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian charged with trying to blow up a Detroit-bound jetliner last Dec. 25.

Mr. Awlaki has called for violent jihad against the West. He is thought to play primarily an inspirational role in Al Qaeda, and it is not yet clear whether he had anything to do with the air freight plot.

On Tuesday, Mr. Awlaki was charged in absentia as a co-defendant at the trial of another man, Hisham Assem, who is accused of killing a Frenchman at an oil compound in September. Mr. Assem has denied those charges. Prosecutors have said Mr. Assem was in contact with Mr. Awlaki.

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Balance of power still in WA Dems favor - Seattle Times

OLYMPIA, Wash. —

Voters overwhelmingly rebuked taxes passed by Washington state's large Democratic majorities in the Legislature. But while they may have been unhappy with the job Democrats did earlier this year, they appear to be letting them retain control of state government.

Republicans made gains in both the state House and Senate in this week's election, won an open U.S. House seat and were optimistic of their chances in a too-close-to-call race in another.

While they're not expected to take the majority in the Legislature as they did in 1994, Republicans have cut into Democrats' comfortable margins and ran competitive races in other districts. And voters sent a clear anti-tax statement, rolling back increased snack taxes, rejecting a $2 billion income tax on the rich and making it harder for the Legislature to raise taxes in the future.

"They're going to return Democratic majorities to the Legislature, but they clipped their wings with respect to the budget process," Democratic strategist Christian Sinderman said.

State Republican Party Chairman Luke Esser said the passage of Initiative 1053 - which requires a higher bar for legislative votes to raise taxes - plus the addition of more Republican lawmakers "is like a belt and suspenders."

"Voters said 'I'm taxed enough already,'" Esser said. "Hopefully that will chasten many of the Democrats who do remain."

All 98 state House seats and 25 of 49 Senate seats were on the ballot this fall. Many positions were considered safe for either party, leaving intense battles over a relatively small slice to decide which side controls the Legislature.

The GOP steadily lost ground during the last decade, finally giving up its one-seat control of the state Senate in 2004. Before Tuesday's election, Democrats controlled the House with a 61-37 margin and the Senate with a 31-18 majority. As of this weekend, Republicans had moved their margin up to more than 40 seats in the House with a handful of races still too close to call. In the Senate, Republicans appeared to have gained at least four additional seats, with additional close races showing Democrats holding on to three seats needed for the GOP to take the majority.

Washington Democrats' key victory this week was in the competitive U.S. Senate race with the re-election of Sen. Patty Murray over Republican Dino Rossi. Her victory preserves a small cushion for Democrats in the Senate. Republicans made inroads there Tuesday, handing Democrats a slimmed-down majority, and took control of the House.

Republican Jaime Herrera's victory Tuesday night in the open 3rd District in southwestern Washington was part of the Republican wave in the U.S. House. Herrera became the first Republican to represent the district in a dozen years and her win narrowed the state's Democratic majority in the House delegation to 5-4.

Republicans also were closely watching the state's northern 2nd Congressional Democratic incumbent, where Democratic U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen held a slim lead over Republican challenger John Koster.

Larsen won his last re-election bid in 2008 with 62 percent of the vote.

If Koster ultimately overtakes Larsen, it would be the first time Washington's House delegation had a Republican majority since the late 1990s.

Republican consultant Chris Vance points to gains in the Legislature, the Herrera win and the closeness of the Larsen race as proof that Washington state benefited from a nationwide trend in favor of Republicans.

"Did a wave hit here, yes. Was it a massive tidal wave like hit the U.S. House, obviously not," Vance said. "I think now we're returning back to what we used to be, which is a very, very competitive state that can go either way."

State Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, also saw a clear message. Murray, who is co-chairman of the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee, said the election shows Republicans are too conservative for many suburban voters, particularly on social issues. But he also faults Democrats for not making the case for changes in the state's tax structure.

"One of the lessons here, post-Obama's election, is this is still the age of Reagan," Murray said, noting that Republicans have been able to make the argument for smaller government and low taxes "on their terms."

"We have not been able to articulate a vision that voters understand," he said.

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AP writer Curt Woodward contributed to this report.

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Hayes' Jury Begins Deliberations - Hartford Courant

The jury deciding whether to sentence Steven Hayes to death ended deliberations today without a decision. The jury will resume deliberations on Sunday.

Hayes was convicted of murder in the death of three members of the Petit family during a 2007 home invasion in Cheshire.

It had been decades since a Superior Court jury deliberated on a weekend, but with just one alternate left and the high-stakes nature of the widely publicized trial, jurors went back to work today.

The jury of five men and seven women first told Judge Jon C. Blue that they would work through lunch today but then indicated that they would take a lunch break. They reported to Blue at about 4:15 p.m. that they wanted to return to deliberations tomorrow.

Cindy Hawke-Renn, the sister of Jennifer Hawke-Petit, who was killed along with her daughters, told reporters outside the court that the time it will take to decide on a sentence, "has to be the jury's choice, not mine."

Jurors went into the deliberation room at 9:31a.m. today and deliberated for about 90 minutes before sending a note asking to rehear a portion of Prosecutor Michael Dearington's cross-examination of defense expert witness Dr. Eric Goldsmith.

Goldsmith interviewed Hayes over several hours. He testified that Hayes told him that Hayes' accomplice, Joshua Komisarjevsky, told Hayes he had killed the Petit family after Hayes had returned from the bank with Hawke-Petit. The expert said Hayes became enraged and as a result, raped and strangled Hawke-Petit.

The expert said that this extreme emotional reaction was the type that a jury considering the death penalty could view as a mitigating factor.

Before the jury began deliberations, Blue acknowledged the unusual Saturday proceedings. The only business at the Church Street courthouse today is the Hayes trial.

Court staff and judicial marshals were brought in for duty.

"I just want to thank everyone for their extraordinary professionalism to be willing to come to court on this Saturday."

Blue told jurors the court would adapt to their schedule and said they controlled today's clock.

"If you want to work deep into the night, we are here," Blue said.

Two notes jurors sent Friday with hypothetical vote counts on charges suggest they are divided on mitigating factors in the case, which could result in Hayes' being spared the death penalty for the killings of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Hayley and Michaela.

Hayes was convicted Oct. 5 of breaking into the Petits' home in the middle of the night on July 23, 2007, beating Dr. William Petit Jr. and tying up the family while he and an accomplice robbed the family's Cheshire home. At one point, Hayes forced Hawke-Petit to drive to a bank to withdraw money.

When they returned to the home, Hayes raped and strangled Hawke-Petit. The house was doused with gasoline and set on fire. Hayley, 17, died of smoke inhalation. Michaela, 11, suffered the same cause of death and was also sexually assaulted by Hayes' accomplice, Joshua Komisarjevsky, according to trial testimony.

Petit was the only family member to survive the attack and arson.

Komisarjevsky, 30, of Cheshire, will go to trial next year. He also faces execution if convicted.

Six of the 16 counts Hayes was found guilty of are capital felonies, making Hayes, 47, of Winsted, eligible for death by lethal injection.

Blue began Friday's juror discussions at 10:19 a.m., telling the panel, "With much thanks and appreciation, we will let you go to work." The jury then went to the deliberation room while members of the victims' family and news reporters waited in the courtroom. The mood in the gallery was mostly light, and the talkative crowd was quieted often by judicial marshals and the judge, who stepped out from his chambers from time to time.

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Fall Back And Change Your Batteries - WTAP-TV

Fall is here and that means the hour on your clocks needs to fall back. Sunday at 2 a.m is the official fall daylight saving time hour and authorities say that's not the only thing that may need changing.

Officials with the Marietta Fire Department say daylight saving is also a perfect time to check your fire, smoke, gas and carbon monoxide alarms and change out the batteries.

"It's a wonderful time to look at our fire alarms, make sure that they have a fresh battery. Make sure that the smoke detector works properly when you test with the alarm test switch on it," says Lt. Jack Hansis says. "Good time to vacuum it out and make sure there are no cobwebs or spiders or other little insects in it and taking up residence which would hinder the effects of the fire alarm."

Lt. Hansis says your alarms can play a larger role in survival than you may think.

"2/3 of the fire related deaths in the years 2002-2006 were due to inoperable smoke alarms due to damage, defect, or just having the batteries out. That's probably the most common."

Authorities recommend writing the date on the new battery you put in the alarms so there will be no question as to when you last replaced it.

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Haiti spared the worst of Tomas - Christian Science Monitor

Tropical storm Tomas is heading into the central Atlantic Ocean after splitting the uprights – the 50-mile -wide Windward Passage between Haiti and Cuba – as a category 1 hurricane Friday.

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After inflicting an estimated $185 million in damage on the island of St. Lucia in the Lesser Antilles last weekend, resulting in 14 deaths, Tomas's effect on Cuba, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic has been more restrained.

For residents of Haiti, still struggling to recover from last January's destructive earthquake and more recently trying to cope with an outbreak of cholera, the country dodged a bullet. So far, seven fatalities have been attributed to Tomas so far, mostly around the town of Leogane, southwest of the capital of Port-au-Prince. The city lies in a region where flooding and storm surge were said to be particularly heavy.

IN PICTURES: Tropical storm Tomas

There, initial reports indicate the storm destroyed 48 homes, partially damaged as many as 2,800, and slightly damaged another 150. But vast numbers of people in tent cities to the east have largely been spared, if initial reports hold up.

In Cuba, civil-defense officials said their country sustained little damage and no fatalities, according to the Cuban News Agency.

In Jamaica, officials were fending off questions about whether the government had over-prepared in the face of tropical-storm warnings.

"There can be no over-planning or over-reaction when there is a probable threat of a disaster," government information minister Daryl Vaz told reporters after Tomas had passed. "This was probably the best prepared we have been in terms of being proactive and doing everything we needed to do" to protect Jamaicans.

Meanwhile, across Haiti's border with the Dominican Republic, floods from the storm destroyed an estimated 1,700 homes and forced at least 8,500 people to evacuate. So far, no fatalities have been reported.

Prior to the storm, concerns centered on the effect a direct hit would have on some 1.3 million people living in tent cities in and around the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince. In some ways, it's a vulnerability too many Haitians have long experienced, says Julie Schindall, a spokeswoman for Oxfam/America in Port-au-Prince.

She notes that before the earthquake, some 80 percent of the capital's residents lived in slums in shelters hardly more robust than the tents that now house them. Even before the quake, they lived "in a country that doesn't have the infrastructure to take care of itself on a day-to-day basis the way that its neighboring countries do," she says.

As it turned out, winds in the capital were mild, and the rainfall not nearly as heavy as people feared. The worst flooding came to tent cities built on the streets of Port-au-Prince, says Andrea Koppel, a spokeswoman for the American Red Cross who currently is in the capital. There were no other paths for running water to follow.

Outside the city center, the Red Cross had been working with residents for months to dig drainage ditches and build sandbag retaining walls to keep water and mud at bay.

Teams have been working their way through these areas assessing any damage, Ms. Koppel notes. And while they have yet to report in, she says she counts it as an encouraging sign that during the height of the storm, volunteers in these areas still had cell phone service, and they reported nothing significant in the way of damage.

Prior to the storm, public health officials and aid groups were trying to stem an outbreak of cholera that threatened to reach the city and spread. At the time, representatives of the American Red Cross in Port-au-Prince expressed concerns over the effect flooding through the tent cities would have in spreading the disease.

So far, public-health officials have succeeded in keeping the small handful of cases isolated, Koppel says.

Given the 800 people killed during the 2008 hurricane season, when Haiti fell within the crosshairs of four tropical cyclones and fewer people were exposed to the elements, "we got very, very lucky" with Tomas, Koppel says.

The event once again throws a spotlight on the challenges the international community faces in trying to keep the tottering country upright while also trying to help it rebuild and become self-sustaining, aid workers say.

Tomas's timing was terrible, Oxfam's Ms. Schindall says, adding, "I sincerely hope that this is a reminder to us all that we need to seize on this opportunity after the earthquake to rebuild this country properly."

IN PICTURES: Tropical storm Tomas

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