World/Nation Briefs July 14, 2011

8-year-old Brooklyn boy is killed and dismembered

NEW YORK - An 8-year-old Brooklyn boy who got lost while walking home alone from day camp in his Orthodox Jewish neighborhood was killed and dismembered by a stranger he had asked for directions, and his remains were found stuffed in a trash bin and the man's refrigerator, police said Wednesday.

The gruesome killing of Leiby Kletzky shocked the tight-knit Hasidic community in Borough Park, in part because it is one of the safest sections of the city and because the man under arrest is himself an Orthodox Jew.

A day-and-a-half search for the Hasidic boy ended with the discovery of his severed feet inside a bloody freezer at the home of a man who had been spotted with the child on a surveillance video, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The rest of the remains were in the trash in another neighborhood.

"It is every parent's worst nightmare," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

The 35-year-old suspect, Levi Aron, implicated himself in the killing, Kelly said.

Police said there was no evidence the boy was sexually assaulted, but they would not otherwise shed any light on a motive except to say Aron told them he "panicked" when he saw photos of the missing boy on fliers that were distributed in the neighborhood. Police were looking into whether Aron had a history of mental illness.

Aron was arrested on a charge of second-degree murder.

Betty Ford's body in Michigan for 2nd service

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Betty Ford returned Wednesday to the city where she grew up and wed the man who became the only president from Michigan, prompting hundreds to line the streets in front of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum as her casket arrived for a memorial service.

The service was followed by a public viewing at the museum, where Ford's flower-draped casket laid, surrounded by an honor guard and with a softly lit presidential seal overhead. At least 300 mourners had paid their respects Wednesday evening halfway through the four-hour viewing, which followed a similar, and sometimes tearful, send-off by thousands of well-wishers in California earlier in the day.

After another memorial service Thursday in Grand Rapids, Ford is to be buried next to her husband on the grounds of his presidential museum. Gerald Ford died in 2006.

Ninety-five-year-old Edna Jungers of Stillwater, Okla., and her 78-year-old niece, Yvonne Locker, drove from Locker's summer home in Milwaukee to greet the casket as it arrived at the museum from the Gerald R. Ford International Airport. They then joined hundreds of other mourners who slowly walked by Ford's mahogany casket covered in pink and white flowers.

"It's wonderful to give her that much honor. She was worthy of it," Jungers said.

On the way out, those paying their respects were handed a card with a photo of Ford and a note of appreciation from the Ford family. A Ford granddaughter, 30-year-old Tyne Vance, shook hands with those leaving.

"Thank you for coming," she said to each one.

A private ceremony attended by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and other dignitaries was held at the museum prior to the public viewing. On Tuesday, a service at St. Margaret's Episcopal Church in Palm Desert, Calif., was attended by 800 people, including former President George W. Bush and first lady Michelle Obama.

Steve Avink of nearby Jenison had watched the ceremonies when Gerald Ford's casket returned to Grand Rapids for burial in January 2007 and was at the airport Wednesday when Betty Ford's casket arrived from California.

Like hundreds of others in Michigan, Avink wanted to pay his respects. He praised Betty Ford's "openness about drugs and addiction."

US begins drawdown of troops from Afghanistan

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan - The first troops to leave Afghanistan as part of the U.S. drawdown handed over their slice of battlefield Wednesday to a unit less than half their size and started packing for home.

When the 650 members of the Iowa National Guard's 1st Squadron, 113th Cavalry Regiment arrived in Afghanistan in November 2010, bases didn't have enough housing, translators were in short supply and chow halls were packed. Commanders were using a buildup of 33,000 extra troops for a major push that they said would turn the tide of the war against the Taliban insurgency.

Nine months later, it's still unclear if that push has succeeded, but the pullback has begun. Although major combat units are not expected to start leaving until late fall, two National Guard regiments comprising about 1,000 soldiers in all are withdrawing this month - the Iowa soldiers from Parwan province in eastern Afghanistan, and the other group from the capital, Kabul.

U.S. President Barack Obama announced last month that he would pull 10,000 of the extra troops out in 2011 and the remaining 23,000 by the summer of 2012.

Three hundred soldiers will take over from the 650 departing troops who oversaw security in Parwan, including the area outside the main U.S. military base at Bagram.

Blast in house in Pakistan kills 4

CHAMAN, Pakistan - A government official says a blast ripped through a house where explosives and weapons had been stored in southwest Pakistan, killing four people.

Habibullah Khan Kundi says Thursday's blast in Chaman town on the Afghan border also wounded 10 people. The dead and wounded were Afghan refugees who were living in the house. Kundi is a government administrator in Chaman.

It was unclear who had stored the weapons and explosives in the house. The Afghan Taliban are believed to have a significant presence in Baluchistan province, where Chaman is located.

Chaman is one of the main border crossings into Afghanistan from Pakistan.

Suspect allowed to view child porn in jail

SEATTLE - Authorities in Washington state say they're outraged that a former pilot who's already admitted molesting young boys is being allowed to watch videos he made of the abuse while he sits in jail awaiting trial.

"The whole thing is just dirty," said Pierce County Sheriff's Detective Ed Troyer on Wednesday. "Now that victims know he's going to be watching this, they're going to feel victimized again. This is our call to action to get the law changed."

Washington's Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that upon request, prosecutors must give defense lawyers copies of evidence used to support child pornography charges - but it appears nevertheless rare that defense attorneys actually make that request.

The court's 8-1 decision said that granting copies of the materials was essential so defense lawyers, their investigators and the defendants themselves could challenge the evidence - such as by arguing that the people depicted weren't really minors.

- The Associated Press