■ Canada
Air India case dropped
Prosecutors will not appeal the acquittals in the Air India bombing case because they believe they have no chance of winning a new trial, Prosecutor Geoffrey Gaul said on Wednesday. He said that since Justice Ian Josephson's judgment was based on the fact that he didn't believe the evidence of prosecution witnesses, it couldn't win an appeal because the judge had made no error in law. "The trial judge's judgment is profoundly fact-driven," Gaul told reporters. "An appellate court will not interfere in such findings." Canadians Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri were found innocent of murder and conspiracy charges March 16 in the bombing of Air India Flight 182. It blew up June 23, 1985, off the coast of Ireland, killing all 329 people on board.
■ United States
Analyst arrested in spy probe
The FBI arrested a Defense Department analyst on Wednesday on a charge alleging he passed classified information about potential Iranian-backed attacks against US forces in Iraq to employees of a pro-Israel group. Larry Franklin, 58, turned himself in Wednesday. He made a brief appearance in a suburban US District Court and was released on US$100,000 bond under the condition he surrender his firearms and passport. The single charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years. A preliminary hearing was set for May 27. The charge is the first in an investigation dating to 2001 about whether Israel obtained classified US information.
■ United States
Rights victim to be exhumed
A half century after the murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till shocked the US and galvanized the civil rights movement, his body will be exhumed as authorities attempt to determine who killed him, the FBI said. Till's body, buried in a cemetery in a Chicago suburb, will be exhumed within the next few weeks for an autopsy. Till was abducted from his uncle's home in Money, Mississippi on Aug. 28, 1955, reportedly for whistling at a white woman at a grocery store. His mutilated body was found by fishermen three days later in the Tallahatchie River. It was unrecognizable and his mother was only able to identify him because of a ring.
■ Saudi Arabia
Crackdown paying off
A Saudi crackdown on the abuse of charities and other avenues of terrorism financing has led to a sharp drop in funding for the Palestinian militant group Hamas, according to Hamas, Middle Eastern and US officials. A Hamas official in the West Bank confirmed Saudi funding had dwindled significantly since the kingdom cracked down on charities after bombings in the kingdom in 2003, and that Hamas had been hit hard by the drop in revenue.
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