DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The U.S. Navy said Monday it has deployed a second aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf region amid rising tensions with Iran over its nuclear program.
The deployment of the nuclear-powered USS Enterprise along with the Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group marks only the fourth time in the past decade that the Navy has had two aircraft carriers operating at the same time in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea, said Cmdr. Amy Derrick-Frost of the Bahrain-based 5th Fleet.
The two carriers will support U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and anti-piracy efforts off Somalia’s coast and in the Gulf of Aden, said Cmdr. Derrick-Frost.
The warships also patrol the Gulf’s strategic oil routes that Iran has threatened to shut down in retaliation for economic sanctions.
NIGERIA
Gunmen kill 4 people, including 6-year-old girl
MAIDUGURI — Gunmen suspected of being members of a radical Islamist sect have killed at least four people - including a 6-year-old girl - in recent attacks in Nigeria’s restive northeast, authorities said Monday.
In the northeastern city of Potiskum, gunmen opened fire on a policeman and his family, killing the policeman’s 6-year-old daughter, Yobe State police spokesman Toyin Gbadegeshin said.
Early Monday, gunmen killed three people when they attacked a police station, a church and a bank in the border town of Dikwa in the northeast.
RUSSIA
Charges dropped in lawyer’s prison death
MOSCOW — Russia’s top investigative body said Monday it has dropped charges against a doctor suspected of negligence in the case of a prominent lawyer who reported official corruption in Russia, then died in custody while suffering from untreated pancreatitis.
The lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, had accused Interior Ministry officials of using false tax documents to steal $230 million from the state. He was imprisoned for tax evasion in 2008 and died in custody in November 2009.
A private investigation concluded Magnitsky was severely beaten and denied medical treatment in prison, and it accused the government of failing to prosecute those responsible.
Magnitsky worked for Hermitage Capital, an investment fund owned and run by U.S.-born William Browder, who has since been barred from Russia as a security risk.
On Monday, Russia’s Investigative Committee dropped the negligence charge against Dr. Larisa Litvinova, citing a two-year statute of limitations in such probes.
MALI
Constitutional court meeting in Mali
BAMAKO — Mali’s highest court met Monday to determine the next step after both the democratically elected president and the coup leader stepped aside, leaving the helm of the West African nation vacant.
Under intense international pressure, the soldiers who seized power on March 21 agreed over the weekend to begin the process of returning Mali to constitutional order.
In hiding since the coup, President Amadou Toumani Toure resurfaced over the weekend to hand in his resignation.
Article 36 of the constitution states that in the event that the president cannot carry out his term, the head of the national assembly becomes interim leader until new elections are held.
Only the constitutional court can determine if Article 36 can be applied, and Ivory Coast’s Minister of African Integration Adama Bictogo confirmed Monday that the legal body was meeting to render its decision.
PAKISTAN
Gunmen kill six in religious attack
QUETTA — Gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on Shiite Muslims in southwest Pakistan on Monday, killing six in an apparent sectarian attack, police said.
Three other Shiites were wounded in the attack on a shoe store in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, said police officer Hamid Shakil. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Sunni militants with ideological and operational links to al Qaeda and the Taliban have carried out scores of bombings and shootings against minority Shiites in recent years. The past year has been especially bloody in Baluchistan.
GEORGIA
Stalin museum to focus on his atrocities
GORI — A museum that has honored Josef Stalin in Georgia since 1937 is being remodeled to exhibit the atrocities committed during the Soviet dictator’s rule.
Georgian Culture Minister Nika Rurua said Monday that his nation, which became independent in 1991, can no longer host a museum “glorifying the Soviet dictator.”
Stalin was born Josef Dzhugashvili in the central Georgian town of Gori in 1879. The museum opened at the height of purges that left hundreds of thousands of people executed and millions jailed or exiled.
The gigantic museum includes the house where Stalin was born and some 47,000 exhibits, including his personal belongings and death masks.
• From wire dispatches and staff reports
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