Hard Labor

FORT MEADE, Md. -- A military jury sentenced an Army dog handler to 90 days hard labor and a reduction in rank yesterday for allowing his Belgian shepherd to bark within inches of an Iraqi detainee's face at Abu Ghraib prison. Army Sergeant Santos A. Cardona was the 11th soldier convicted of crimes stemming from the abuse of inmates at the prison in late 2003 and early 2004. He was found guilty of dereliction of duty and aggravated assault for allowing his dog to bark in the face of a kneeling detainee at the request of another soldier who wasn't an interrogator.

SEOUL — North Korea threatened yesterday to increase punishment for a Boston man who was sentenced to hard labor for illegally entering the country, citing what it called a hostile US policy toward Pyongyang. Aijalon Mahli Gomes was sentenced in April to eight years of hard labor and fined $700,000 for entering the country illegally and for an unspecified “hostile act.’’ The Obama administration urged North Korea not to link his case with efforts to censure the communist nation for the sinking of a South Korean warship in March.

SEOUL — North Korea said today that it has convicted and sentenced a US man to eight years in a labor prison and a fine of $700,000 for entering the country illegally and unspecified hostile acts. Aijalon Mahli Gomes acknowledged his wrongdoing at the Central Court yesterday, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said in a dispatch. The North said last month that it arrested Gomes, 30, of Boston, on Jan. 25 for trespassing after he crossed into the country from China.

SEOUL — North Korea said today that it has convicted and sentenced a US man to eight years in a labor prison and a fine of $700,000 for entering the country illegally and unspecified hostile acts. Aijalon Mahli Gomes acknowledged his wrongdoing at the Central Court yesterday, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said in a dispatch. The North said last month that it arrested Gomes, 30, of Boston, on Jan. 25 for trespassing after he crossed into the country from China.

SEOUL — North Korea threatened yesterday to increase punishment for a Boston man who was sentenced to hard labor for illegally entering the country, citing what it called a hostile US policy toward Pyongyang. Aijalon Mahli Gomes was sentenced in April to eight years of hard labor and fined $700,000 for entering the country illegally and for an unspecified “hostile act.’’ The Obama administration urged North Korea not to link his case with efforts to censure the communist nation for the sinking of a South Korean warship in March.

BANGKOK - Burma freed an ailing American whom it had sentenced to seven years of hard labor and handed him to an influential US senator yesterday, a move that could help persuade Washington to soften its hard-line policy against the military regime. Senator Jim Webb of Virginia, who secured John Yettaw’s freedom, said he believes years of sanctions have failed to move the Southeast Asian country toward democratic reforms or talks with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Webb said he would discuss his conclusions with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and...

NEW ORLEANS - A Louisiana woman has pleaded guilty to selling two children for a cockatoo and $175 in what her attorney called an attempt to do a good thing that went wrong. “It was a really clumsy attempt at an adoption proceeding,’’ said Steve Sikich, attorney for Donna Louise Greenwell of Pitkin. “She was trying to help the children and get them situated.’’ Greenwell, 53, was sentenced Monday to 15 months of hard labor on each of two criminal counts, sale of a minor.

LONDON - Roger Nicholson, former managing director of Thomson Regional Newspapers in Britain and European director for Ingersoll Publications, died of cancer Tuesday in a hospital in Crieff, Scotland. He was 77. As managing director for Thomson from 1984 to 1988, Mr. Nicholson drove the transition to computer technology at the company's papers - including The Scotsman in Edinburgh, The Belfast Telegraph, and the Western Mail in Cardiff. He next worked five years as European director for Ingersoll, supervising the company's two newspapers in Ireland.

SEOUL - Prisoners spend long days toiling in rice paddies and factories. Survivors say beatings are frequent, hunger is constant, and clothing is scarce in the freezing winter. But specialists said that based on past experiences, the two American journalists sentenced to 12 years in a North Korean labor prison probably won't see that side of the nation's notoriously brutal gulag. The reporters - Laura Ling and Euna Lee - will likely be kept apart from North Korean inmates as negotiators seek their release.

MOSCOW -- His work and even his name were once top Soviet secrets. It wasn't until after his death that Sergei Korolyov became known to the world as the man who led the team that put the world's first satellite into orbit and sent the first human into space. Russia marks the 100th anniversary today of the birth of Korolyov, who suffered years of torture, starvation, and hard labor in Josef Stalin's gulag before becoming chief of the Soviet rocket program. His daughter, Natalia, recalled how her father, who was forced to mine for gold in a labor camp amid...

NEW ORLEANS - A Louisiana woman has pleaded guilty to selling two children for a cockatoo and $175 in what her attorney called an attempt to do a good thing that went wrong. “It was a really clumsy attempt at an adoption proceeding,’’ said Steve Sikich, attorney for Donna Louise Greenwell of Pitkin. “She was trying to help the children and get them situated.’’ Greenwell, 53, was sentenced Monday to 15 months of hard labor on each of two criminal counts, sale of a minor.

BANGKOK - Burma freed an ailing American whom it had sentenced to seven years of hard labor and handed him to an influential US senator yesterday, a move that could help persuade Washington to soften its hard-line policy against the military regime. Senator Jim Webb of Virginia, who secured John Yettaw’s freedom, said he believes years of sanctions have failed to move the Southeast Asian country toward democratic reforms or talks with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Webb said he would discuss his conclusions with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and...

SEOUL - Prisoners spend long days toiling in rice paddies and factories. Survivors say beatings are frequent, hunger is constant, and clothing is scarce in the freezing winter. But specialists said that based on past experiences, the two American journalists sentenced to 12 years in a North Korean labor prison probably won't see that side of the nation's notoriously brutal gulag. The reporters - Laura Ling and Euna Lee - will likely be kept apart from North Korean inmates as negotiators seek their release.

LONDON - Roger Nicholson, former managing director of Thomson Regional Newspapers in Britain and European director for Ingersoll Publications, died of cancer Tuesday in a hospital in Crieff, Scotland. He was 77. As managing director for Thomson from 1984 to 1988, Mr. Nicholson drove the transition to computer technology at the company's papers - including The Scotsman in Edinburgh, The Belfast Telegraph, and the Western Mail in Cardiff. He next worked five years as European director for Ingersoll, supervising the company's two newspapers...

MOSCOW -- His work and even his name were once top Soviet secrets. It wasn't until after his death that Sergei Korolyov became known to the world as the man who led the team that put the world's first satellite into orbit and sent the first human into space. Russia marks the 100th anniversary today of the birth of Korolyov, who suffered years of torture, starvation, and hard labor in Josef Stalin's gulag before becoming chief of the Soviet rocket program. His daughter, Natalia, recalled how her father, who was forced to mine for gold in a labor camp amid freezing cold and...

Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born , By Tina Cassidy, Atlantic Monthly Press, 288 pp., $24 Folks expecting a baby or even contemplating starting a family in the near future might want to hold off reading Tina Cassidy's engaging new "Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born" until after the blessed event. Cassidy's vivid descriptions in the introduction recalling her mother's, her grandmother's, and her own experiences of giving birth are dismayingly grim.

Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born , By Tina Cassidy, Atlantic Monthly Press, 288 pp., $24 Folks expecting a baby or even contemplating starting a family in the near future might want to hold off reading Tina Cassidy's engaging new "Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born" until after the blessed event. Cassidy's vivid descriptions in the introduction recalling her mother's, her grandmother's, and her own experiences of giving birth are dismayingly grim.

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe began selling hundreds of thousands of carats of rough diamonds yesterday that were mined from an area where soldiers killed 200 people, raped women, and forced children into hard labor, Human Rights Watch contends. Soldiers guarded security vaults built at the main Harare airport, where private jets brought buyers from Israel, India, Lebanon, and Russia. Abbey Chikane, Zimbabwe monitor of the world diamond control body, certified the diamonds as ready for sale, saying the controversy-plagued diamonds from two mines in...

FORT MEADE, Md. -- A military jury sentenced an Army dog handler to 90 days hard labor and a reduction in rank yesterday for allowing his Belgian shepherd to bark within inches of an Iraqi detainee's face at Abu Ghraib prison. Army Sergeant Santos A. Cardona was the 11th soldier convicted of crimes stemming from the abuse of inmates at the prison in late 2003 and early 2004. He was found guilty of dereliction of duty and aggravated assault for allowing his dog to bark in the face of a kneeling detainee at the request of another soldier who wasn't an interrogator.