Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe India-U.S. strip search issue resurfaces NEW DELHI, July 14 (UPI) -- U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage says he was "horrified" by reports a former top Indian minister was searched twice at U.S. airports. Advertisement On an official visit to New Delhi, Armitage told reporters Wednesday he had telephoned former Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes to apologize. "I was horrified about it, and I personally apologized to him," he said. The allegation Fernandes was "strip-searched" while entering the United States resurfaced Wednesday in a book by former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott. Fernandes has said he will not visit the United States again. The U.S. embassy in New Delhi conceded some "diplomatic procedures" were not followed but Armitage said Fernandes was not strip searched. "He removed his shoes and I found this something worthy of an apology," he said. Advertisement A U.S. State Department official in Washington, who asked not to be identified, said complaints about senior foreign officials being searched at U.S. airports are not new. "We get certain complaints from foreign officials (and) ... we're trying to smooth them (the system) out," the official said. New Nazi hunt launched in Hungary BUDAPEST, Hungary, July 14 (UPI) -- The Simon Wiesenthal Center has launched a campaign in Hungary offering rewards for information on Nazi war criminals, local media reported Wednesday. The Jewish anti-Nazi organization has already launched similar campaigns in other countries across Central and Eastern Europe. Anyone bringing forward information on surviving Nazi war criminals could be eligible for a $12,000 reward, a good yearly salary in Hungary. An advertising campaign will include a telephone number that potential informants can call with information. If it leads to a conviction they will get the reward. More than half a million Hungarian Jews were killed in the Holocaust. Most were deported from Hungary to Nazi death camps in 1944. The Hungarian Jews were among the last major groups to die in the Nazi camps. The Wiesenthal Center believes the age of the people suspected of collaborating in the deportations -- many are thought to be in their 90s -- should not be used as an excuse for failing to prosecute them given the enormity of their crimes. Advertisement Auctioning Internet addresses debated KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, July 14 (UPI) -- The not-for-profit organization that acts as gatekeeper for the Internet's addresses is preparing for a meeting in Malaysia on whether to auction addresses. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which will consider the question at a meeting that begins Saturday, is being pushed by both sides, the International Herald Tribune reported Wednesday. Currently, Internet addresses are determined by the corporation on the basis of an applicant's merit. It has long been criticized as being too pro-United States. Auctioning addresses would abolish some of the corporation's discretion. On Tuesday, the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development came out for auctions. But Robert Shaw, Internet strategy and policy adviser for the Geneva-based International Telecommunication Union, a U.N. agency, expressed reservation. Auctions "may make sense economically, but the question is whether this is a market or a public-trust type function," he said. "When you see the type of specific applications that are being made for generic top-level domains, it is easy to see that it shouldn't be considered a marketplace. How would the EU feel about the highest bidder getting .euro?" Rape victim beats molester in jail Advertisement TAMPA, Fla., July 14 (UPI) -- Assault charges have been dropped against a 23-year-old Tampa man jailed with the man who had molested him as a child. Charges for a separate jail beating of another man charged with molesting a 9-year-old girl also were dropped, The St. Petersburg Times reported. Jason Flores was in a Tampa jail on other charges in October when he encountered Kevin Kinder, who was convicted of raping him 13 years ago. Kinder was badly beaten. The other beating took place in the same jail two months later. Rick Escobar, Flores' attorney, said the two beatings could have brought his client 20 years in prison, but the prosecution decided to drop charges. "At age 10, Jason was brutally raped, strangled and left for dead in a field," Escobar said. "You can't have greater trauma, in my opinion. He had been frozen in time all these years." Flores, however, pleaded guilty Monday to charges of car theft, resisting arrest and probation violation. He was sentenced to two years and five months on those charges.
