News
DENVER
Lawmaker gets jail in tax evasion
The father of Colorado's Taxpayers' Bill of Rights was sentenced Monday to 180 days in jail and six years of probation for evading state taxes. Douglas Bruce, a former Colorado lawmaker, said state officials went after him for promoting smaller government. He vowed to appeal. "This is not the end. This is just — what do they call? — a strange interlude," Bruce said. Bruce, 62, was sentenced after his felony convictions for evading state taxes, filing a false return and failing to file a tax return between 2005 and 2010. Prosecutors said he hid millions of dollars in a sham charity that he set up to avoid taxes. He was also ordered to pay about $50,000 in restitution and court costs, and to share financial information with the government, including his checking accounts and investments.
Greece
Greeks cleaning up after riots over cuts
Greeks began cleaning up their battered and scorched capital of Athens on Monday after violent antiausterity riots broke out Sunday.
At least 120 people injured and 45 torched buildings, including a beloved historic cinema housed in a neoclassical building. There was rioting in several other cities as well.
Early Monday, Greece's Parliament approved tough new austerity measures, including cuts in the minimum wage and pensions and new tax hikes. The measures were required by international bankers before they would agree to a bailout package totaling $170 billion that Greece needs to avoid default.
Washington
U.S. envoy will hold talks with N. Koreans
A U.S. envoy will hold talks with North Korea on its nuclear program next week, the first such negotiations since the death of the nation's longtime leader Kim Jong Il.
Glyn Davies, the U.S. envoy on North Korea, will meet in Beijing on Feb. 23 with North Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan, the State Department said Monday.
Elsewhere
Britain: A radical Islamic preacher who has been detained for most of the past six and a half years but never charged with an offense was released from jail Monday. Abu Qatada, 51, was let out of a high-security prison in central England on Monday night, a week after a judge issued an order for him to be released on bail despite vigorous objections from the government
China: A Tibetan monk set himself on fire in western China and was beaten by security forces as they put out the flames, the rights group International Campaign for Tibet said Monday. It was the latest in a series of dramatic protests against China's handling of its Tibetan areas.
Guatemala: U.S. inability to cut illegal drug consumption leaves Guatemala with no option but to consider legalizing the use and transport of drugs, President Otto Perez said Monday, a turnaround for an ex-general who vowed to crush organized crime.
Afghanistan: Former Taliban Defense Minister Obaidullah Akhund died in a Pakistani jail in 2010, a spokesman for the group said Monday. He said relatives of Akhund, who was arrested in 2007, were recently informed that he died of heart disease.
Times wires
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