CAIRO

Military and protesters clash for a third day

Egypt’s ruling military and the revolutionaries who demand they step down battled for a third day in the streets Sunday. Security forces cleared hundreds of demonstrators away from the area, according to videos posted on the Internet. Earlier, a man died in custody, a lawyer said.

Protesters have tried to stir up anger at the military by spreading videos and photos of military police beating young men and women.

At least 10 protesters have been killed and 441 others wounded in the three days of violence, according to the Health Ministry.

The military has played on Egyptians’ frustration with instability and economic woes since Mubarak’s fall. Many are now more focused on the multistage parliamentary elections. Islamist parties have so far dominated the vote.

NEW YORK

Man accused of burning woman to death in elevator

As Deloris Gillespie, 73, rode the elevator to her fifth-floor Brooklyn apartment, a man was waiting. Surveillance video from inside the elevator shows that he carried a canister sprayer full of flammable liquid.

When the elevator opened Saturday afternoon, the man sprayed the  woman, New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said.

Then, Browne said, the attacker pulled out a barbecue-style lighter and used it to ignite a rag in a bottle. He waited a few seconds. Then he backed out of the elevator and tossed in the flaming bottle.

Overnight, Jerome Isaac, 47, of Brooklyn went into a police station and implicated himself in Gillespie’s death, Browne said. Isaac told police he set her on fire because she owed him $2,000 for some work he had done for her, Browne said.

Isaac was arrested Sunday on murder and arson counts.

WASHINGTON

Gingrich criticizes courts, Romney defends his record

Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich doubled down on his criticism of federal judges and the Supreme Court on Sunday as chief rival Mitt Romney defended his record against likely Democratic attacks.

Gingrich is courting the conservative primary voters he will need to win in Iowa and sustain his campaign against Romney, whose superior organization and pile of cash has him seeming ever more confident.

Polls in Iowa and nationally show Gingrich ahead of Romney in the race for the GOP nomination.

Gingrich has mounted a broad attack on federal judges and the Supreme Court, arguing that they are legislating from the bench.

It’s an argument that could particularly resonate in a state where Republicans fought a protracted battle with state Supreme Court judges over gay marriage.

In a separate TV interview Sunday, meanwhile, Romney portrayed himself as the GOP candidate who is best able to defeat President Obama next year.

Romney defended his years making millions in private business, claiming he’ll be able to handle attacks from Democrats who are already trying to paint him as wealthy and out-of-touch.

And he argued that his tax proposal is kinder to the middle class and less generous to the rich than the flat tax proposals his rivals – including Gingrich – are backing.

“The president’s going to go after me. I’ll go after him,” Romney said on “Fox News Sunday.”
 

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