Accused war criminal Demjanjuk in Germany
MUNICH, Germany, May 12 (UPI) -- Nazi war crime suspect John Demjanjuk arrived in Germany Tuesday to face accusations of crimes he allegedly committed as a death camp guard.
Demjanjuk, 89, is wanted by German authorities for his alleged involvement during World War II at the Nazi death camp at Sobibor, Poland, where some 250,000 people were killed in the camp's 18 months of operation.
His trial will take place in Munich.
Demjanjuk had lived in Cleveland for years before being removed from his home Monday and put on a plane to Germany. The U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay of deportation for Demjanjuk last week, with Justice John Paul Stevens refusing to intervene without comment. Germany's high court also turned aside an appeal.
The native Ukrainian was once accused by the United States and Israel of being a brutal S.S. guard known as "Ivan the Terrible" at the Treblinka camp, and was tried and convicted in an Israeli court. His conviction eventually was overturned.
His son, John Demjanjuk Jr., said his father, beset by bone marrow and kidney diseases, is being pursued doggedly by U.S. and German authorities, The New York Times reported.
"Now at the age of 89, when alleged witnesses are now dead, he's faced with having to defend himself again, when with the pain and suffering he's no longer capable," his son told the Times. "You would have thought that after the mistake they made in nearly sending him to the gallows, they would have just let this go."
Ex-G.I. faces death for Iraq war crimes
PADUCAH, Ky., May 12 (UPI) -- A Kentucky man may become the first person face a death penalty from a U.S. civilian court for crimes committed overseas as a soldier, prosecutors say.
Steven Green was convicted last week in U.S. District Court in Kentucky on charges of murder, rape, conspiracy and obstruction of justice in the 2006 incident involving U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Prosecutors say Green and other soldiers broke into the home of an Iraqi family, raped a 14-year-old girl, killed her and her family and set the home afire, CNN reported.
The trial is in the penalty phase, and if prosecutors are successful in obtaining a death sentence for Green, he would become the first person in U.S. history executed by a civilian court for war crimes, CNN said. Green is being tried by in federal court because he quit the military before the crimes came to light, court files show.
Relatives of the slain Iraqi family testified at a hearing Monday in Paducah, Ky., saying the dead girl's brothers' lives were ruined when they came home and discovered the carnage, CNN said.
Four soldiers have reportedly been sentenced by military courts to up to 110 years in the case.
Senate strikes credit card bill compromise
WASHINGTON, May 12 (UPI) -- Top Senate Banking Committee members reached a compromise on a bill that would protect U.S. consumers from abusive credit card industry practices.
The agreement increases the chances that the Senate will consider the legislation, possibly this week, The Washington Post reported Tuesday. The compromise was struck during the weekend between committee chairman, Sens. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Richard Shelby, R-Ala., the committee's ranking Republican.
The compromise bill would allow card issuers to retroactively increase rates for a borrower who is 60 days behind in payments. However, if a borrower pays on time for six months after the rate hike, the card issuer would have to restore the original rate. The bill also would bar issuers from raising rates during the first year a credit card account is opened and would require issuers to get customers' permission to set up accounts to allow transactions over the limit can be processed. The compromise also would require card issuers to post credit card agreements online.
"It's a meaningful compromise that will significantly improve the credit card marketplace and stop abusive practices," Travis B. Plunkett, legislative director of the Consumer Federation of America, told the Post.
The banking industry has said such changes would force financial institutions to restrict lending, or raise rates and fees, because the cost of doing business would rise.
The House already passed its version of the credit card legislation.
Aung San Suu Kyi's health better
YANGON, Myanmar, May 12 (UPI) -- A spokesman for Aung San Suu Kyi said Tuesday the health of the ailing democracy activist in Myanmar has improved now that she's on an intravenous drip.
The 63-year-old Nobel Prize-winning opponent of the ruling military junta has been under house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years, but her detention is set to end later this month. The military has ruled the country, formerly called Burma, since 1962.
Nyan Win, a spokesman for Aung San Suu Kyi's party, said she met with a doctor Monday who put her on a drip and there was no longer cause for concern about her health, CNN reported. The doctor was allowed to see her after being barred earlier from doing so.
The CNN report said while it was not clear why she was put on an IV, the procedure is used to give saline solution to patients facing dehydration.
The doctor attending on her was not her regular physician Tin Myo Win, who was arrested last week on an undisclosed charge, Nyan Win was quoted as saying.
The spokesman said the junta no longer has any legal grounds to extend Aung San Suu Kyi's detention.
The U.S. State Department in a statement said her detention was unjust and called for her immediate release as well as those of more than 2,100 other political prisoners, CNN reported.
Jet engine pulls in baggage container
LOS ANGELES, May 12 (UPI) -- A departing jetliner was taken out of service at Los Angeles International Airport after a baggage container was sucked into one of its engines, officials said.
The metal baggage container -- measuring about 5 feet by 5 feet by 4 feet -- was pulled from a baggage cart into the engine of a Japan Airlines Boeing 747-400 about 1:30 p.m. PDT Monday when the pilot pulled away from Gate 101 at the Tom Bradley International Terminal, the Los Angeles Times reported.
With the empty container lodged in the engine's housing, Flight 61 to Narita, Japan, was delayed and other travel arrangements were made for its 245 passengers, the newspaper said. The plane was towed to a hangar.
The Federal Aviation Administration was investigating. The newspaper said there was speculation the baggage cart had been placed too close to the jetliner.
