Charges ordered in French attacks
PARIS -- French judges investigating the 2015 Islamic State attacks that left 130 people dead in Paris have ordered charges against 20 people, including a Belgian accused of masterminding the attacks who was held for years in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq before being freed and returned home.
Three of the group, including purported leader Oussama Atar, are believed to have died in the group's final months of fighting in Iraq and Syria.
Also accused is the only survivor of the Paris cell, Salah Abdeslam, who was arrested near his home in Brussels after months on the run. Abdeslam's brother, Brahim, blew himself up in Paris.
Of the 20, 11 are jailed, three are under house arrest and six face international arrest warrants.
All are charged with terrorism offenses. Atar is charged as the leader.
The Nov. 13, 2015, attacks were linked to March 2016 bombings in Brussels.
Russia court OKs constitution law
MOSCOW -- Russia's Constitutional Court on Monday approved a law on constitutional amendments that could allow Vladimir Putin to remain in power for another 16 years.
The law still must be approved in a national referendum that has been scheduled for April 22. The court's approval came just two days after Putin signed the law.
Under current law, Putin wouldn't be able to run for president again in 2024 because of term limits, but the new measure would reset his term count, allowing him to run for two more six-year terms. He has been in power since 2000.
Other constitutional changes further strengthen the presidency and emphasize the priority of Russian law over international norms -- a provision reflecting the Kremlin's irritation with the European Court of Human Rights and other international bodies that have often issued verdicts against Russia.
The changes also outlaw same-sex marriage and mention "a belief in God" as one of Russia's traditional values.
Free U.S. citizen, Lebanon orders
BEIRUT -- A military tribunal in Beirut on Monday ordered the release of a Lebanese-American held in the country for nearly six months on charges of working for an Israeli-backed militia two decades ago, Lebanon's state-run news agency said.
Amer Fakhoury was ordered released because more than 10 years had passed since he was accused of torturing prisoners at a jail run by the so-called South Lebanon Army, the National News Agency said.
Fakhoury, 57, is a former South Lebanon Army member who became a U.S. citizen last year, and is now a restaurant owner in Dover, N.H. His case has been closely followed in his home state of New Hampshire, where U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and other officials have called for imposing sanctions on Lebanon to pressure Beirut to release him.
Fakhoury has not been attending questioning sessions in Lebanon over the past few months, after being hospitalized with stage 4 lymphoma.
It was not immediately clear if he will be set free, as he's facing another case filed by former prisoners who say they were tortured by him.
Fakhoury has been jailed since Sept. 12 after returning to Lebanon on vacation to visit family. Lebanon's intelligence service said he confessed during questioning to being a warden at Khiam Prison, which was run by the South Lebanon Army during Israel's 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon.
Human-rights groups have described the prison as a center for torture.
A Section on 03/17/2020