MUMBAI: The only surviving suspected gunman in last year's terrorist attacks in Mumbai would be tried as an adult, which means he could face the death penalty, the presiding judge said.The defense lawyer representing Mohammed Ajmal Kasab said his client was 17 at the time of the November attacks and should be tried by a juvenile court. But Indian medical experts declared that Kasab is at least 20 after examining his teeth and X-rays of his bones. Judge M.L. Tahiliyani, who was presiding over his trial, ruled Saturday that the medical tests were enough to prove Kasab was an adult at the time of the attacks. Prosecutors say Kasab, a Pakistani, was one of 10 attackers responsible for killing 166 people and wounding 304 more during the three-day siege of India's financial capital. Nine other suspects were killed during the attacks. He will face the death penalty if convicted. Had he been tried as a minor, Kasab would have faced a maximum of three years in prison.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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