Suspicious wildfires kill 41 in Greece
ATHENS, Greece, Aug. 25 (UPI) -- At least 200 wildfires officials say are suspicious are burning in Greece and have killed have 41 people, the Athens News Agency reported Saturday.
In the midst of an unseasonably hot summer accompanied by gale-force winds, the fires began breaking out Thursday
The biggest problem was in Ilia prefecture facing the Ionian Sea, where 31 deaths were reported Friday. Most villages were evacuated, although numerous people were trapped, authorities told the agency.
Another six people, including two French tourists, were found dead near a hotel in Areopolis. Another victim was a firefighter who died of a heart attack, officials said.
States of emergency were declared in Laconia and Messinia where several blazes were burning, including on the slopes of near-inaccessible Mount Taygetos.
"If the winds don't abate so that firefighting aircraft can start flying, then the destruction will be massive," Messinia Prefect Dimitris Drakos told reporters.
U.S. terror database under rights scrutiny
WASHINGTON, Aug. 25 (UPI) -- U.S. rights groups are questioning the validity of a growing federal list of terror suspects that contains at least 235,000 names.
The database was created in 2004 and is maintained by the Terrorist Screening Center, a joint operation between the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. It includes information from the Transportation Security Administration's air passenger "no-fly" list, the State Department's Consular Lookout and Support System list and the FBI's Violent Gang and Terrorist Organizations File, the Washington Post reported.
The newspaper said last year, some 20,000 "encounters" with people on the list were made by authorities, more than half by Customs and Border Protection officers. Of those, 550 were refused entry or detained, officials said.
"This really confirms the long-standing fear that this list is inaccurate and ultimately ineffective as an anti-terrorism tool," David Sobel, senior counsel with the Electronic Frontier Foundation advocacy group told the Post.
He said the numbers "suggest a staggeringly high rate of false positives with respect to the identification of supposed terrorists."
Clinton: Republicans benefit from terror
CONCORD, N.H., Aug. 25 (UPI) -- Presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., said a terror attack on the United States would be advantageous to the Republican party.
Speaking at a campaign house party in Concord, N.H., Clinton made the remark and added she was the best candidate to deal with such an attack, CNN reported.
"It's a horrible prospect to ask yourself, 'What if? What if?'" Clinton said. "But, if certain things happen between now and the election, particularly with respect to terrorism, that will automatically give the Republicans an advantage again, no matter how badly they have mishandled it, no matter how much more dangerous they have made the world."
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who is also a Democratic presidential candidate, issued a statement saying politics shouldn't be linked to terror threats, and Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., also competing for the Democratic nomination, issued a statement saying Clinton's remark was "tasteless."
Judge: Noriega extradition hearing is a go
MIAMI, Aug. 25 (UPI) -- The U.S. federal judge who presided over former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega's Miami drug trial has ruled an extradition trial to France can proceed.
District Judge William Hoeveler's 12-page ruling Friday means another judge will hear arguments on the French extradition request on money laundering charges Tuesday, the Miami Herald reported.
Hoeveler sentenced Noriega in 1992 and declared him a prisoner of war because he was captured by U.S. troops in a 1989 invasion of Panama. Lawyers trying to block the extradition said as a POW, the 72-year-old has the right to return to his native country when he is freed Sept. 9.
However, Hoeveler rejected the request.
"This court never intended for the proclamation of defendant as a POW to shield him from all future prosecutions for serious crimes he is alleged to have committed," Hoeveler wrote.
France convicted Noriega in absentia in 1999 of funneling of $3.15 million to a bank account in Paris, where he also bought three luxury apartments, the report said.
The French conviction has a possible 10-year sentence.
Ex-French PM Raymond Barre dies at 83
PARIS, Aug. 25 (UPI) -- Former French Prime Minister Raymond Barre died at a Paris hospital Saturday of long-term heart problems. He was 83.
The university economics professor was named prime minister by President Valery Giscard d'Estaing in 1976, and served until 1981 when Francois Mitterand's Socialists came to power. Barre replaced Jacques Chirac, who resigned over disagreements with Giscard d'Estaing.
He first sought treatment for heart problems in Paris in April, Euronews.net reported.
Barre was first elected to parliament in Lyon in 1978, and was considered a tough-talking politician who cut thousands of jobs in the coal and steel industries that were losing money at the time.
He was born on the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion in 1924 and moved to France to study law in 1946.
Barre is survived by his wife and two sons.
