|
Russia recants spy charges against jailed
grad student
MOSCOW - Russian security officials
reversed themselves Wednesday and said that a U.S. postgraduate
student jailed in southern Russia on marijuana charges was not
involved in spying.
The Federal Security Service (FSB, in its Russian initials) said
John Edward Tobin, 24, whom it originally had identified as Tobin,
remains under investigation for drug possession. But the agency
softened its earlier assertion that the American scholar was
linked to the U.S. defense community and appeared to be in Russia
training as a spy. The FSB is the successor to the KGB, the Soviet
security agency.
Tobin remained Wednesday in a preliminary detention cell in Voronezh,
about 300 miles south of Moscow, with three other inmates while
officials investigate if he was selling drugs out of his Voronezh
apartment. He was charged with drug possession after authorities
arrested him Feb. 1 in Voronezh with 1.5 grams of marijuana.
Another 3.5 grams were found in his apartment, the FSB said.
Tobin is a postgraduate student at Voronezh State University,
where he was preparing a thesis on Russian politics in the post-Soviet
era.
"The political information that Tobin was gathering is within
the limits of his thesis and did not inflict any damage on Russian
security," said Pavel Bolshunov, a spokesman for the FSB's
Voronezh office.
On Tuesday, Bolshunov charged that Tobin was connected to the
"U.S. special services" and appeared to be in Russia
awaiting his "main appointment," an allegation that
was widely broadcast by the Russian media and reported in the
United States by Knight Ridder and others. But on Wednesday,
the FSB spokesman said his agency has "no security-related
questions for this American citizen."
The FSB announced Tobin's arrest only Tuesday. Russian officials
said they were concerned about his background as an Army reservist
who underwent Russian language training at a U.S. defense facility
in Monterey, Calif., and attended a military intelligence school
in Fort Huachuca, Ariz.
A spokesman at Fort Huachuca said Tobin attended the basic interrogation
course from March 3 to April 29, 1997, while he was a private
first class in the Army Reserve.
Fund-raisers charged with ties to anti-Iranian
group
LOS ANGELES - Five Iranian nationals
and two Iranian-Americans appeared in federal court in Los Angeles
Wednesday on charges of raising more than $1 million to fund
terrorist activities abroad.
Most of the money was solicited from unsuspecting travelers at
Los Angeles International Airport and sent to bank accounts in
Turkey controlled by an anti-Iranian government group called
the Moujahedeen Khalq, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The FBI arrested the seven people Tuesday after a three-year
investigation, said James V. DeSarno Jr., assistant director
in charge of the FBI Los Angeles office.
All seven are suspected of being members of what the FBI called
a cell of Moujahedeen Khalq, although at least one of those arrested
denied belonging to the group. The Moujahedeen Khalq, also called
MEK, routinely solicits money, usually from Asian travelers,
at airports on behalf of a charity called the Committee for Human
Rights. The travelers are shown photographs of starving children
and victims of alleged Iranian government atrocities and told
the money is used to support these refugees. The FBI says the
group raises between $5,000 and $10,000 daily just in Los Angeles.
The FBI says the Committee for Human Rights is a sham charity.
The money, the agency alleges, is funneled to MEK bank accounts
in Turkey. From there, investigators allege, more than $400,000
has been transferred to an auto-parts store in the United Arab
Emirates.
Combs ready to take the stand in shooting
case
NEW YORK - As Sean "Puffy"
Combs prepared to give his version of a 1999 nightclub shooting,
lawyers in the gun and bribery case argued Wednesday over what
the hip-hop mogul's ex-girlfriend, Jennifer Lopez, told a grand
jury last year.
Combs' lawyer continued to dangle the tantalizing possibility
that Lopez would take the stand in Combs' defense.
"My expectation would be to call Mr. Combs and after he
completes his testimony, we'll rest," Combs' lawyer Benjamin
Brafman told State Supreme Court Justice Charles Solomon in Manhattan
Wednesday. "The additional evidence may or may not include
Ms. Lopez. We'll alert you."
Later, Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos squared off
with Brafman over Lopez's account of events on Dec. 27, 1999.
The singer is crucial because she drove in from Long Island with
Combs and accompanied him to Club New York where three people
were later shot.
The couple fled the nightspot with bodyguard Anthony "Wolf"
Jones in Combs' Lincoln Navigator.
Lopez was initially arrested after police found a gun in the
Navigator and was in a station house holding cell with the defendants
when Combs allegedly offered his driver, Wardel Fenderson, a
$50,000 bribe to claim ownership of the weapon. Charges against
her were eventually dropped.
Greenspan seems gloomier about economy
WASHINGTON - Telling Congress
the economic slowdown "has yet to run its course,"
Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan signaled Wednesday
he is ready to cut interest rates for a third time this year
- but he didn't say when.
The Fed chief implied the central bank might be inclined to wait
until its March 20 meeting before taking such a step. That hint
sent the weak stock market into another tumble, chiefly because
investors had been expecting faster Fed action on the heels of
this week's disappointing economic news.
Many analysts have said they believe the Fed will lower interest
rates by another one-half of 1 percent, following up on two cuts
of that magnitude in January. The chairman did not tip his hand,
but his analysis of economic developments - including a collapse
in consumer confidence - appeared to tip opinion in favor of
such a cut.
"Changes in consumer confidence will require close scrutiny
in the period ahead," Greenspan said, citing two recent
reports that this important gauge of consumers' attitudes had
deteriorated in February.
Previously, the Fed chief had
told Congress that he feared a break in consumer confidence as
a result of the economic slowdown.
| 
