Published: Feb. 11, 2011 at 10:06 PM
Expert: Mubarak fall ‘trouble’ for Israel
JERUSALEM, Feb. 11 (UPI) — A former Israeli ambassador to Egypt said Friday the departure of President Hosni Mubarak could be “big trouble” for both countries.
During his 30 years of rule, Mubarak followed Anwar Sadat’s policy of maintaining normal diplomatic relations with Israel, even if the relationship was seldom a warm one.
Zvi Mazel, who served as ambassador to Cairo from 1996 to 2001, told Ynetnews the Middle East could become less “manageable.” He said no one knows whether the upheavals in Tunisia and Egypt will spread.
“Egypt has completely lost its status in the area, while Turkey and Iran are on the way up. It’s a different world,” he said. “As long as we had Mubarak, there was no void in our relations with the region. Now we’re in big trouble.”
Mazel, a fellow of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, said the Egyptian army, now temporarily running the country, is not friendly to the Muslim Brotherhood. But he said the Brotherhood is more organized than other opposition groups.
Illegal immigrant charged with killing 3
MANASSAS, Va., Feb. 11 (UPI) — A man charged with killing three people in Manassas, Va., is an illegal immigrant who had been dodging deportation since 2002, police said Friday.
Jose Oswaldo Reyes Alfaro, 37, was arrested Thursday, The Washington Post reported. Investigators said his car was pulled over at about 8 p.m. less than 45 minutes after the first bodies were found.
Brenda Ashcraft, 56, and William Ashbey, 37, were shot and killed at one house in Manassas, while a teenage girl suffered minor injuries, police said. A few blocks away at a second home, Julio Cesar Ulloa, 48, died from a gunshot wound, while a 77-year-old woman was attacked with a knife.
Alfaro has been charged with three counts of murder.
Police said Alfaro knew the people he attacked, although they did not suggest a motive.
Alfaro, a native of El Salvador, has been in the United States since 2001, Cori Bassett, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said. She said he was apparently identified as an illegal immigrant soon after his arrival, failed to show up for a hearing before an immigration judge in 2002 and stayed under the radar until his arrest Thursday.
Judge blocks Loughner photo release
PHOENIX, Feb. 11 (UPI) — A judge in Phoenix Friday temporarily blocked the release of federal mug shots of the man suspected of trying to assassinate U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
U.S. District Judge Larry Burns issued a one-page order preventing the release of photos of Jared Lee Loughner, 22, charged in the Jan. 8 shooting spree that left six people dead, including U.S. District Judge John M. Roll, and 13 wounded, including the Democratic Arizona congresswoman, at a constituent meet-and-greet event outside a Tucson supermarket.
Burns’s order said a final ruling on the issue will be made at a Feb. 18 hearing, Courthouse News Service reported.
Loughner is jailed awaiting prosecution on federal charges. A photo of him with a shaved head and grinning reportedly was taken after his arrest by the Pima County Sheriff’s Department.
NYC police seek suspect in triple homicide
NEW YORK, Feb. 11 (UPI) — Police searched for a 23-year-old New York City man suspected of killing three people and injuring two others Friday, authorities said.
Maksim Gelman, 23, allegedly first fatally stabbed his 54-year-old stepfather, Aleksandr Kuznetsov, in the early morning hours at the Sheepshead Bay apartment they shared in Brooklyn borough, police told the New York Daily News.
Gelman then allegedly stabbed his girlfriend and her mother to death in an apartment in the same neighborhood, the newspaper said.
Immediately after killing the women, Gelman stabbed a 42-year-old man and stole his car, police said. That victim was hospitalized in critical condition.
One mile from the carjacking, Gelman struck an elderly pedestrian, who was in grave condition at another hospital.
Gelman is 6 feet tall and weighs 170 pounds, police said.
“We’re actively pursuing him,” said NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne.
Ex-Marine given Navy Cross 45 years late
QUANTICO, Va., Feb. 11 (UPI) — Former U.S. Marine Ned E. Seath received the Navy Cross Friday for his heroic actions during a firefight in Vietnam nearly 45 years ago.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus presented Seath with the Marine Corps’ second-highest medal for valor in a ceremony in Quantico, Va. Seath also received a Bronze Star with “V” for valor for his actions during fighting the night before the battle that earned him the Navy Cross.
The Defense Department said in a release Seath, then a lance corporal deployed as a machine gun team leader with the 3rd Marine Division’s Company K, 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, saved almost an entire company of fellow Marines in 1966.
He halted an assault by North Vietnamese soldiers on July 16, 1966, using an M-60 machine gun he reassembled from spare parts to lay down fire that repelled the attacker while exposing himself to enemy fire.
The night before, he dragged two wounded Marines to safety while under heavy machine-gun fire.
“What Ned went through — what he did — is emblematic of the Marine Corps,” Mabus said. “This is one of the biggest honors I have. Ned Seath is a hero.”
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