UNITED STATES: Third man arrested in sniper case agrees to cooperate
FLINT, Michigan (AP) - A Jamaican man who co-owned the blue Chevrolet Caprice believed to have been used in the Washington-area sniper attacks appeared in court Sunday and is fully cooperating with federal authorities, his attorney said.
Nathaniel O. Osbourne, 26, waived his right to a detention hearing in Michigan, where he was arrested Saturday, and agreed to be moved to federal custody in Maryland.
Osbourne, described as a friend of sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad, is wanted for questioning as a material witness in the attacks that left 10 people dead and three critically wounded over three weeks in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
Federal defender Kenneth R. Sasse said Sunday that the Osbourne was fully cooperating with federal authorities.
U.S. Magistrate Wallace Capel ordered Osbourne held without bond.
CUBA: Security concerns to keep Cuba from Central American and Caribbean Games
HAVANA (AP) - Cuba will not participate in the Central American and Caribbean Games in El Salvador next month because of concerns about the security of its athletes and leaders, sports officials announced Saturday evening.
A communique said that intelligence officials discovered anti-communist groups from Miami were planning violent attacks on the Cuban delegation, including the assassination of Vice President Jose Ramon Fernandez, president of the Cuban Olympic Committee.
Cuba, known internationally for its highly developed sports program, is sure to be missed at the event bringing together the best amateur athletes from across the region.
"The organs of intelligence and counterintelligence of Cuba have reported on the dangers of physical aggression to, and even the kidnapping of, Cuban athletes," the communique said.
The statement from Cuba's Olympic Committee and National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation also expressed concerns that "the brain washers and the shameless scouts" would harass Cuban athletes to desert.
PAKISTAN: Detainee returns after his release from Guantanamo
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - A Pakistani Islamic militant, who was held at the U.S. military's high-security prison in Cuba for months, returned home Sunday after being freed by American authorities, an Interior Ministry official said.
"Our citizen has arrived from Guantanamo Bay," Tasneem Noorani, a top official of Pakistan's Interior Ministry, told The Associated Press.
The released prisoner was identified as Mohammed Saghir, 60, from North Western Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan. He had been moved to Cuba by U.S. officials after his arrest in Afghanistan following the fall of the Taliban.
"We will hold him for some time to debrief him," Noorani said of the militant, who arrived here in a special U.S. plane.
U.S. officials allowed him to go on the recommendation of a Pakistan government delegation, which cleared him on the basis of interviews with him and 57 other Pakistanis conducted at Guantanamo two months ago.
According to the Foreign Ministry, the remaining 57 Pakistanis still being held at the U.S. naval base in Cuba are innocent and none of them is linked to al-Qaida.