Juror assails Benghazi prosecutors
WASHINGTON— U.S. prosecutors overplayed appeals to jurors’ emotions and failed to prove that Ahmed Abu Khattala conspired to kill a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans in the 2012 attacks on U.S. facilities in Libya, according to a juror who convicted the militia leader last week on terrorism charges, but not murder, in the deaths in Benghazi.
The juror, a man who discussed deliberations after being contacted by The Washington Post, said in an interview that the panel of 12 had doubts early on about some of the testimony from three Libyan informants who testified under pseudonyms that they saw or heard Abu Khattala take steps to plan, execute and claim responsibility for the attacks.
Over five days, jurors painstakingly pieced together a timeline of events, the juror said, trying to establish for themselves when Abu Khattala joined a plot by several militant groups that overran and burned a U.S. special diplomatic mission on the night of Sept. 11, 2012, and fired mortars on a nearby CIA base before dawn Sept. 12.
Germany nears change
BERLIN—Germany inched toward a new government Friday as leaders from thecenter-left Social Democrats, the previous partners of Chancellor Angela Merkel’ s conservative bloc, agreedto sit down next week for exploratory talks on resuming the arrangement.
Andrea Nahles, parliamentary whip for the Social Democrats, said her party’s leadership would meet on Wednesday with its counterparts from Ms. Merkel’s conservatives to begin the process that a majority of Germans, according to recent opinion polls, hope will lead to a fourth chancellorship for Ms. Merkel.
The two groups governed together from 2005 to 2009 and again from 2013 until this year.
Poland ignores EU warnings
WARSAW, Poland—Polish lawmakers overwhelming ly approved two billsFriday that give the ruling party greater power over the judiciary despite blunt warnings from European Union officials and others that the laws contravene democratic norms.
Supporters in the ruling conservative Law and Justice party said the changes would make Poland’s courts more efficient and more accountable to citizens by giving elected representatives a role in choosing judges.
Opponents said the ruling party ,led by leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, was violating international law and Poland’s Constitution by infringing on judicial independence andthe separation of powers.
Japan counters terrorism
TOKYO — The Japanese government plans to create a new counter terrorism center next summer for sharing international terrorism information among 11 government ministries and the Foreign Ministry and the National Police Agency.
Thenew center, which also will cross-check and analyze international terrorism information with the by ministries and agencies, is tentative ly called the“center for sharing information on terrorism and other
Its establishment is a major part of an outline on counterterrorism measures compiled by the government ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, details of which have been learned by The Yomiuri Shimbun.