Shorts (left)
Bin Laden’s wives charged with illegal entry to Pakistan
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s interior minister said Thursday that Osama bin Laden’s three wives had been charged with illegally entering the country, in the first legal action against them since they were taken into custody after their husband’s death in May.
The minister Rehman Malik said the women’s case had been turned over to the Federal Investigation Agency and that they were being kept under house arrest in a “comfortable five-bedroom house” in the capital. Their children, however, may be sent back to their native countries if they want, he said in brief comments to reporters at a local arts gallery.
No official announcement has been made about when the inquiry commission is expected to finalize and release its findings.
—Salman Masood, The New York Times
Film puts a bit of gloss on Obama’s presidency
Coming soon from the Academy Award-winning director Davis Guggenheim: “The Road We’ve Traveled,” a 17-minute film for the Obama campaign that puts a Hollywood shine on the president’s record.
On Thursday morning, the movie’s two-minute trailer ran on NBC’s “Today” show before being posted on the campaign website. Copies will go out nationally to supporters on March 15 at house parties, union halls, campuses, and maybe some theaters, campaign officials said.
The trailer takes viewers back to election night of 2008, as the soon-to-be first family greets the revelers in Chicago’s Grant Park. The film then recounts the financial crisis, the rescue of the auto industry, the passage of the 2010 health care law and the death of Osama bin Laden.
—Jackie Calmes, The New York Times
Confidence grows on approval of Gr
LONDON — Greece appeared to have clinched a landmark debt restructuring deal with its private sector lenders late Thursday. The deal would clear the way for the release of bailout funds from Europe and the International Monetary Fund that would save the country from default.
Greek officials said the total number of participants in the deal would be announced at 6 a.m. Friday, London time — 1 a.m. Friday in New York.
According to two officials closely involved in the debt negotiations, the participation rate could surpass 90 percent, a level that few would have predicted weeks ago. Greece will still need to impose so-called collective action clauses — provisions that will force the holdouts to accept the offer.
—Landon Thomas Jr., The New York Times
Highest court in Mi
Bringing a close to the legal controversy that has swarmed since former Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi gave pardons to nearly 200 felons in his last days in office, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the judicial branch did not have the power to void those pardons.
The court, in a 6-3 decision, found that pardon procedures lay outside its constitutional authority and that to interfere even in cases where those procedures were flouted would violate separation of powers.
Lawyers for nine of those pardonedargued that the courts did not have the authority to determine whether procedures were followed correctly. The court’s majority agreed.
—Campbell Robertson, The New York Times