Nation & World at a Glance

Jun 30, 07:35 AM

Current Headlines: SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, CALIF. | People who lost their homes and belongings to a devastating wildfire were allowed to briefly return to their burned-out neighborhoods Friday as authorities declared the blaze mostly contained.

With evacuation orders lifted in many parts of town, residents of the area where 254 houses were destroyed were given an hour to sift through the wreckage .

The smoke-free skies that greeted Lake Tahoe on Friday morning confirmed the word from fire officials that the threat to thousands more homes and the region's tourist trade was subsiding after five days. The blaze was 70 percent contained Friday, while the amount of land burned was 3,100 acres, according to U.S. Forest Service incident commander Rich Hawkins.

District of Columbia

Justice official in line for job resigns

WASHINGTON | A Justice Department official who was eyed as a possible replacement for one of several fired U.S. attorneys announced her resignation Friday.

Rachel Brand, the assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Policy, will step down July 9, the department said in a statement. It did not give a reason for her departure .

Brand was a member of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' leadership team. When officials were planning to fire U.S. attorneys in San Diego, San Francisco, Michigan and Arkansas, she was named as a possible replacement for Margaret Chiari in Michigan, according to documents released as part of a congressional inquiry.

The firings have led to congressional investigations, an internal Justice Department probe and calls from Capitol Hill for the resignation of Gonzales.

New York

Four men INDICTed in JFK airport plot

NEW YORK | Four men accused of plotting to attack John F. Kennedy International Airport by blowing up a jet fuel supply were indicted Friday.

The indictment filed in Brooklyn charged Russell Defreitas, Kareem Ibrahim, Abdul Kadir and Abdel Nur, all arrested earlier this month, with conspiring to "cause death, serious bodily injury and extensive destruction."

The charges were first detailed in a criminal complaint unsealed at the time of the arrests. A grand jury voted Friday to indict the four on five counts of conspiracy.

Defreitas is to be arraigned on the indictment on July 11. The other suspects are fighting extradition in Trinidad.

If convicted, the men could face a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Gaza Strip

mouse character on tv is killed off

GAZA CITY | A Mickey Mouse lookalike who preached Islamic domination on a Hamas-affiliated children's television program was beaten to death in the show's final episode Friday.

In the skit, "Farfour" was killed by an actor posing as an Israeli official trying to buy Farfour's land. At one point, the mouse called the Israeli a "terrorist."

The weekly show, featuring a giant black-and-white rodent with a high-pitched voice, had attracted worldwide attention because the character urged Palestinian children to fight Israel. It was broadcast on Hamas-affiliated Al Aqsa TV.

Station officials said that Farfour was taken off the air to make room for new programs.

Israeli officials have denounced the program .

- From wire reports

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