Columnist in CIA-leak case publicly IDs Rove as source
Washington – Columnist Robert Novak said publicly for the first time Tuesday that White House political adviser Karl Rove was a source for his story outing the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame.
In a column, Novak also said his recollection of his conversation with Rove differs from what the Rove camp has said.
“I have revealed Rove’s name because his attorney has divulged the substance of our conversation, though in a form different from my recollection,” Novak wrote. Novak did not elaborate.
A spokesman for Rove’s legal team, Mark Corallo, said Rove did not know Plame’s name at the time he spoke with Novak, that the columnist called Rove, not the other way around, and that Rove simply said he had heard the same information that Novak passed along to him regarding Plame.
“There was not much of a difference” between the recollections of Rove and Novak, said Corallo.
Novak said he is talking now because Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald told the columnist’s lawyer that after 2 1/2 years, his investigation of the CIA-leak case concerning matters directly relating to Novak has been concluded.
Novak’s secret cooperation with prosecutors while maintaining public silence about his role kept him out of legal danger and had the effect of providing protection for the Bush White House during the 2004 presidential campaign.
LAHORE, Pakistan
130 freed as women gain right to bail
Authorities released 130 women facing trial for murder and adultery from jails in eastern Pakistan, days after President Pervez Musharraf amended a law to give them the right to be freed on bail, officials said Tuesday.
Seventy women were freed on bail late Monday and early Tuesday from jails in various cities in the eastern Punjab province.
Another 60 women were freed later Tuesday, taking the number of women released on bail in the province to 130, said Saeed Niwani, minister for jails in Punjab.
MANILA, Philippines
Marine’s accuser has testimony postponed
Prosecutors on Tuesday postponed further testimony from a Filipino woman who claims she was raped by a U.S. Marine and instead presented a forensic expert.
The 22-year-old woman, who punched her alleged assailant in court Monday, had been expected to continue her testimony for a third day Tuesday in the trial.
But prosecutors told the court they wanted forensic pathologist Raquel Fortun to testify Tuesday because her tight schedule might not allow her to appear at another time.
WASHINGTON
Republicans pressing for missile defense
Responding to North Korea’s missile tests, congressional Republicans urged greater efforts to build a national missile-defense system and proposed new sanctions on nations doing weapons business with North Korea.
“We have to have a defense that allows us to shoot down incoming ballistic missiles,” said House Armed Services Committee chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., Tuesday.
FRANKFORT, Ky.
Gov. douses smoke in state buildings
Government workers in Kentucky, the nation’s top producer of cigarette tobacco, will not be permitted to smoke in state buildings after Aug. 1 under an executive order signed Tuesday by the governor.
Gov. Ernie Fletcher said the ban will extend to state buildings controlled by the executive branch but will exclude portions of the state Capitol and the Capitol Annex.
YUCCA VALLEY, Calif.
Fire hits historic film site for Westerns
A wildfire burned several structures Tuesday in a desert locale where dozens of Hollywood Westerns were filmed.
The blaze burned through historic Pioneertown.
The site, about two hours east of Los Angeles, was host to Roy Rogers, Russ “Lucky” Hayden and other Hollywood cowboys who helped establish the desert hideaway in 1946.
RABAT, Morocco
Aid to Africa pledged to stem migration
Delegates from 58 countries promised Tuesday to combine tougher immigration enforcement with more aid for Africans to help stem a rising tide of illegal migration to Europe.
The plan includes proposals for short-term work visas, grants to migrants in Europe to start businesses back home and funding for job creation in regions with high emigration rates.
