Report: U.S. may ease N. Korean sanctions
WASHINGTON, Jan. 29 (UPI) -- The Bush administration reportedly is prepared to ease some financial sanctions against North Korea as part of negotiations over Pyongyang's nuclear program.
Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper cited unidentified U.S. sources as saying State Department officials had persuaded the Treasury Department to unfreeze $13 million in assets in Macao's Banco Delta Asia bank.
The U.S. freeze in September 2005 tied up about $24 million of North Korean funds on allegations of money-laundering and counterfeiting and North Korea stalled negotiations on its nuclear program based on the sanctions.
Talks are scheduled Tuesday in Beijing to get the talks going again involving North and South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.
There was no immediate indication of North Korea's response to the partial lifting of sanctions, the newspaper said.
Prolific child molester gets 152 years
SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 29 (UPI) -- A man believed to be one of the most prolific child molesters in U.S. history was sentenced in San Jose, Calif., Monday to 152 years to life in prison.
Dean Schwartzmiller is expected to appeal his conviction and sentence for molesting two 12-year-old San Jose boys in 2005, the San Jose Mercury News reported.
He acted as his own attorney in the trial that ended when a jury convicted him of 10 counts of child molestation.
Schwartzmiller had previously been arrested on more than 80 counts of child molestation in five states. He was convicted on nine counts, but four were overturned upon appeal, the newspaper said.
Police arrested Schwartzmiller in May 2005 at a San Jose apartment he shared with another convicted child molester and found notebooks containing the names of 36,000 children with codes next to their names, presumbably describing how the children were abused, the Mercury News said.
Iraqi-born terror suspect in U.S.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 29 (UPI) -- Iraqi-born Wesam Al Delaema, alias Wesam Khalaf Chayed Delaeme, has been extradited from the Netherlands and faces terror charges in Washington.
The U.S. Justice Department said it is the first U.S. criminal prosecution of a suspect for alleged terror activities in Iraq.
The indictment says Delaema traveled from the Netherlands to Iraq in October 2003 and joined up with the "Mujahideen from Fallujah," declaring his intention to kill Americans with explosives.
Delaema and his co-conspirators also hid explosives in a road in the area of Fallujah, the indictment charged.
Delaema was indicted in the District of Columbia in 2005 and charged with six separate counts, the Justice Department said.
He was arrested by the Dutch police that year.
The suspect is charged with a number of counts, including conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens abroad and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction.
Gulf vet admits killing family
NEWCASTLE, England, Jan. 29 (UPI) -- A British Gulf War veteran charged with killing four members of his family headed off a murder trial Monday by pleading guilty.
David Bradley of Newcastle, England, admitted shooting his uncle, aunt and two cousins in the head at close range with a handgun last July, The Daily Mail reports.
Bradley pleaded guilty to four counts of manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility after two psychiatrists testified he was mentally ill at the time of the killings.
The court was told Bradley's heavy use of marijuana might have contributed to his deteriorating mental health.
Bradley had lived with his aunt and uncle, Peter and Josie Purcell, since he was 16.
