UNITED NATIONS

U.S. backed on resolution to curb Iran nuclear efforts

Additional Photos

Laura Silsby, the Idaho missionary jailed for three months in Haiti, is surrounded by media after arriving in Boise Tuesday after her release. She was accused of trying to take children from Haiti after the deadly January earthquake. The Associated Press

The United States introduced a United Nations resolution aimed at Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program on Tuesday, having won long-sought and pivotal support from China and Russia for new sanctions against its powerful Revolutionary Guard and new measures to try to curtail Iran’s military, financial and shipping activities.

The agreement appeared to be a significant victory for the Obama administration, which has doggedly pursued sanctions since Iran rebuffed U.S. overtures last year.

The draft resolution, obtained by The Associated Press, would ban Iran from pursuing “any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons,” freeze assets of nuclear-related companies linked to the Revolutionary Guard, bar Iranian investment in activities such as uranium mining and prohibit Iran from buying several categories of heavy weapons.

NEW YORK

Times Square bomb suspect in court on terrorism charge

The suspect in a botched car bombing in Times Square appeared in court Tuesday on terrorism and weapons charges for the first time since his arrest two weeks ago, muttering one word about an affidavit on his finances.

Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistan-born U.S. citizen, said “yes” when asked to confirm the affidavit. Shahzad, 30, appeared in court wearing a gray sweat suit and looked calm. He was led out of court Tuesday after a 10-minute appearance and entered no plea to five felony charges against him.

Assistant public defender Julia Gatto identified herself as his attorney. She asked during the hearing if Shahzad could be provided with halal meals in custody. She didn’t comment afterward. Shahzad has been held at an undisclosed location since his May 3 arrest on charges he abandoned a bomb-laden SUV in Times Square near several restaurants and a Broadway theater showing “The Lion King.”

WEST HARTFORD, Conn.

Candidate says he misspoke about service in Vietman

Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal on Tuesday said he had “misspoken” in claiming more than once that he served in Vietnam, dismissing the furor that threatened to endanger a seemingly safe Democratic seat as a matter of “a few misplaced words.”

At a news conference backed by veterans, the popular Connecticut attorney general and front-runner to replace the retiring Sen. Christopher Dodd, said he meant to say he served “during Vietnam” instead of “in Vietnam.” He said the statements were “totally unintentional” errors that occurred only a few times out of hundreds of public appearances.

The campaign crisis erupted after The New York Times reported Monday that Blumenthal had distorted his military service.

INDIANAPOLIS

Representative to resign after admitting to an affair

Indiana Rep. Mark Souder, an eight-term Republican who promoted abstinence education, said Tuesday he’ll resign from Congress after admitting an extramarital affair with a part-time staff member.

Souder won a bruising primary just two weeks ago, and the resignation effective Friday could hurt the GOP’s chances of holding onto the Republican-leaning district in November in a year that many expect will favor the party.

Souder, an evangelical Christian who has championed family values and traditional marriage, apologized for his actions but provided no details during an emotional news conference at his Fort Wayne office.

“I am so ashamed to have hurt the ones I love,” he said as he battled tears. “I am sorry to have let so many friends down, people who have worked so hard for me.”

The announcement stunned many in political circles.

WASHINGTON

Report sees security failures similar to those on 9/11

Despite a top-to-bottom overhaul of the intelligence community after the 2001 terrorist attacks, the security system showed some of the same failures nearly a decade later and allowed a would-be bomber to slip aboard an airliner, congressional investigators said Tuesday.

The Senate intelligence Committee report at times contradicted the Obama administration’s assertion that the nearly catastrophic Christmas Day bombing attempt was unlike 9/11 because it represented a failure to understand intelligence, not a failure to collect and understand it.

The congressional review is more stark than the Obama administration’s report. It lays much of the blame at the feet of the National Counterterrorism Center, which Congress created to be the primary agency in charge of analyzing terrorism intelligence.

The NCTC is the government’s clearinghouse for terrorism information and is the only government agency that can access all intelligence and law enforcement information.

BOISE, Idaho

Woman held in Haiti for taking kids returns home

The leader of an American group detained while trying to take 33 children out of Haiti after the January earthquake returned Tuesday to Idaho, sidestepping questions about her conviction for arranging illegal travel.

Laura Silsby was freed Monday after she was convicted by a judge and sentenced to time already served in jail. She was welcomed at the Boise airport by her sister, mother and members of her Idaho church.

Silsby cried while hugging family members and sang a hymn with members of her church congregation.

Silsby, 40, organized the ill-fated effort to take the children to an orphanage being set up in the neighboring Dominican Republic.

The Idaho businesswoman declined to answer questions from reporters before leaving the airport with her sister and friend Charisa Coulter, another Idaho missionary jailed in Haiti.

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