■URUGUAY
Amnesty unconstitutional
The government deems unconstitutional a 1986 amnesty law for crimes committed under the 1973 to 1985 military dictatorship, Vice President Rodolfo Nin Novoa said on Tuesday. The Ley de Caducidad, which was approved by referendum in 1989, “is in flagrant violation of Article 8 of the Constitution stating that all citizens are equal before the law, and we agree with every argument deeming it unconstitutional,” Nin Novoa said. The bulk of military leaders suspected of human right abuses during their “dirty war” against leftist insurgents have gone unpunished and many Uruguayans have sought to revoke the amnesty law to heal the country’s lingering wounds.
■UNITED STATES
Judge faces impeachment
A Democratic lawmaker in Texas has introduced a bill to impeach a judge who sent a condemned man to his death rather than receive his last-minute appeal after office hours. The bill called for a special committee to consider impeaching Appeals Court Judge Sharon Keller “for gross neglect of duty and conducting her official duties with willful disregard for human life.” The chain of events began Sept. 25, 2007, when the US Supreme Court decided to take up the question of the legality of lethal injections. That decision launched lawyers for Michael Richard, who was supposed to be executed at 6pm by lethal injection, on a race against the clock to draw up an appeal and submit it before the court of criminal appeals closed at 5pm. With 10 minutes to go before closing time, the lawyers called the court to ask for another 20 minutes but were refused. Richard was the last man executed before the start of a seven-month moratorium.
■UNITED STATES
Thong thief sentenced
One of two Colorado men who used women’s thong underwear to cover their faces while they robbed a convenience store has been sentenced to 12 years in prison. Twenty-year-old Joaquin Rico was sentenced on Tuesday. He and 25-year-old Joseph Richard Espinoza pleaded guilty to the May 15 robbery. Prosecutors say the pair threw a large rock through the store’s window at 5am, soon after the clerk opened the store. One man wore a green thong; the other wore blue. The thieves stole about US$100 and 37 packs of cigarettes.
■UNITED STATES
‘Goth’ groomer to face trial
A Pennsylvania dog groomer has been ordered to stand trial on animal cruelty charges for selling “gothic kittens” with ear, neck and tail piercings. Holly Crawford’s home outside Wilkes-Barre was raided on Dec. 17 after the county Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals got a tip, the Citizens’ Voice newspaper reported. A prosecutor says Crawford inflicted pain on the cats, which were listed for sale for hundreds of dollars on the Internet.
■GREECE
Citibank bombing foiled
Police said they have foiled a car bomb attack outside the offices of Citibank in an Athens suburb. Police spokesman Panagiotis Stathis said the bomb squad destroyed the powerful time bomb in Kifissia before dawn yesterday. Stathis said the device consisted of five large propane gas canisters that had been emptied and then filled with explosives. A guard called police after seeing the car being abandoned there. The attempted bombing came hours after gunmen fired shots and threw a suspected bomb outside a private television station on Tuesday night.
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