IRAQ
Searches of Syria-bound flights to increase
A government spokesman said Friday that Iraq would conduct more random searches of aircraft and vehicles moving through it territory to check for weapons heading for the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad or rebels seeking to topple his regime. The announcement came after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki during an unannounced visit Sunday that shipments of Iranian weapons and fighters through Iraqi territory must stop.
GEORGIA
Ex-school chief among dozens indicted
The former superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools and nearly three dozen other administrators, teachers, principals and other educators were indicted Friday in one of the nation’s largest test cheating scandals. Beverly Hall faces charges including racketeering, false statements and theft. She retired just days before a state probe was released in 2011 and has previously denied the allegations. The indictment represents the first criminal charges in the investigation. The cheating came to light after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that some scores were statistically improbable.
SOUTH CAROLINA
Teacher who stomped flag to resign
A high school teacher who talked glowingly about the U.S. and the importance of embracing freedom while stomping on an U.S. flag in his classroom agreed to resign at the end of this school year. The attorney for Chapin High School teacher Scott Compton and the Lexington-Richland 5 School District released a joint statement Friday announcing Compton’s decision. Compton’s lawyer said he stomped the flag to show that America stands for greater ideals than material objects like the flag that represent it and that the teacher did not intend to show any disrespect to military members to the country.
PAKISTAN
Thousands of children miss anti-polio drive
Some 240,000 children have missed U.N.-backed vaccinations against polio because of security concerns in Pakistan’s tribal regions bordering Afghanistan, a top official with the World Health Organization said Friday. Dr. Nima Saeed Abid, the acting WHO chief in Pakistan, said health workers have not been able to immunize children in the North and South Waziristan regions — Taliban strongholds — since July 2012. Pakistan is one of the few remaining countries, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria, where polio is rampant. As many as 58 cases were reported in Pakistan in 2012, down from 198 in 2011.
CALIFORNIA
Woman sentenced for funding terrorism
A California woman was sentenced Friday to five years in prison for wiring money to Pakistan to help fund terrorist attacks against U.S. military personnel. Oytun Ayse Mihalik, 40, of La Palma pleaded guilty in August to one count of providing material support to terrorists. She admitted to providing $2,050 to a person in Pakistan with the intention that the money would be used for attacks against U.S. military personnel and other people overseas, prosecutors said. Mihalik was arrested in August after trying to board a flight to her native Turkey. Court records show she cooperated with investigators.
MAINE
Fitness teacher pleads guilty to prostitution
A Zumba instructor accused of using her fitness studio as a front for prostitution pleaded guilty Friday to 20 counts. The plea agreement spares Alexis Wright, 30, from a trial that was expected to feature sex videos, exhibitionism, pornography, and more than a thousand texts and emails about operation. She faces 10 months in prison. Wright was accused of conspiring with insurance agent Mark Strong Sr. to run a prostitution business. Strong, 57, was convicted 13 counts related to promotion of prostitution and sentenced to 20 days in jail.
EGYPT
Violence hits Cairo, two other cities
Clashes erupted Friday in Alexandria and in Sharqiya, President Mohammed Morsi’s home province, and protesters rallied in Cairo in the latest demonstrations against Egypt’s Islamist leader. Earlier this week, Morsi responded to the violence and criticism with speeches decrying his opponents and calling them thugs paid to derail democracy.
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