Afghan: NATO bombing followed attack
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- Afghan security officials said Monday a joint U.S.-Afghan raid preceded a deadly NATO attack that left 24 Pakistani soldiers dead.
The Washington Post, quoting Afghan security officials, said U.S. Special Operations forces and Afghan army commandos conducting a night raid against suspected Taliban militants in Kunar province Saturday called in an airstrike after they came under fire from the Pakistani side of the border.
Pakistan rejected the explanation, saying the attack on Pakistan was unprovoked.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said President Obama takes the deaths "very seriously" as NATO forces braced for possible Pakistani-backed insurgent reprisals.
Top NATO-led International Security Assistance Force officers sought to resume contacts with their Pakistani counterparts in the hope of setting up a joint investigation into the incident, which NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen called a "tragic, unintended accident."
But Pakistani officials -- who maintained the air assault was unprovoked and continued even after Pakistan made clear to the coalition through all possible channels an official checkpoint was under attack -- cut off communications and closed the two main NATO force supply routes into Afghanistan.
Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the move would be permanent.
Rep. Frank won't seek re-election
WASHINGTON, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said he won't run in 2012, a move he said was based partly on a redrawn district with new constituents wary of an incumbent.
"People are skeptical about incumbents," Frank said during a news conference in Newton, Mass. "There was also this: I don't like raising money."
He said his redrawn 4th Congressional District had too many new constituents, which he estimated at 325,000, more than he could serve in two years, the Boston Herald reported.
Frank said he also has had a "busy and stressful" four years because of tackling financial reform after the recession.
He said he was stepping down sooner than planned because of "anger" in the country and the reality that the behind-the-scenes work he did well "won't be constructive."
"I will miss this job and I will have some twinges of regret," Frank said. "But one of the advantages is I don't have to pretend to be nice to people I don't like."
Frank, former chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, was first elected to represent Massachusetts' 4th Congressional District in 1980.
Occupy groups seek restraining orders
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- In several cities across the United States, members of the Occupy movement turned to courts to prevent police from tearing down encampments.
Protesters sought a federal injunction to prevent Los Angeles police from dismantling the Occupy LA encampment around city hall.
The complaint, which alleges the protesters' civil rights were violated, seeks a court order barring the city from evicting campers from the City Hall Park, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The complaint accused the city of engaging in "arbitrary and capricious action in violation of the 1st and 14th amendments by first approving the Occupy presence for 56 days before suddenly revoking permission through the unilateral action of defendants." Chief Deputy City Attorney William Carter said the city attorney's office was reviewing the document and was prepared to respond or appear in court if needed.
The protesters' complaint points out the City Council passed a resolution of support for the protesters and states an aide to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told two of the plaintiffs, protester Mario Brito and Jim Lafferty of the National Lawyers Guild, the city code section prohibiting overnight camping in city parks would not be enforced.
Oklahoma City co-conspirator grieves daily
OKLAHOMA CITY, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- Convicted Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols said he thought his co-conspirator would blow up a structure at night, not during busy daylight hours.
In a letter written from a Colorado prison to pen pal Jannie Coverdale, Nichols also said he grieves "daily knowing that I had a part in such a devastating tragedy," The (Oklahoma City) Oklahoman reported Monday.
For years Nichols denied involvement in the deadly 1995 Oklahoma City federal building bombing. However, in 2005, he admitted to family and the FBI his role in making the bomb, and then later told the FBI he thought Timothy McVeigh planned a nighttime attack on a monument or similar structure.
McVeigh detonated a truck bomb outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building April 19, 1995, resulting in 168 deaths and hundreds of injuries. McVeigh was executed in 2001.
Nichols writes regularly to Coverdale, an Oklahoma City woman whose two grandsons were among the 19 children who died in the explosion, the newspaper said. She shared her two-year correspondence with The Oklahoman.
Bahraini medics hit with weapons charge
MANAMA, Bahrain, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- Prosecutors in the retrial of 20 medical personnel convicted of trying to overthrow the Bahraini government produced weapons they said were found in a hospital.
The weapons -- including swords, hammers, chains and machine guns -- at first provoked laughter among the defendants who later became angry as they denied ever seeing them, CNN reported.
"That evidence is being fabricated," Fatima Haji, one of the medics being retried, said of the weapons cache.
The medical personnel, arrested during pro-democracy protests this year and convicted in October, are being retried in civilian court, saying they hope their sentences of five to 15 years in prison will be tossed.
Observers said they hoped the government would be more amenable toward the defendants following an independent commission report last week that criticized the government's crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.
The defense objected strongly to presenting the weapons in court, saying they weren't registered as evidence and weren't presented at the first trial, CNN said. The defense also said it wasn't notified about the weapons.
