UK lawmaker denies sex assault, rape allegations

LONDON (AP) — A senior British Conservative Party politician arrested on suspicion of rape and sexual assault said Sunday the allegations against him are "completely false."

Deputy House of Commons Speaker Nigel Evans, 55, was arrested on Saturday. He was questioned about sex offenses that allegedly took place between July 2009 and March 2013 and was later released on bail.

Evans — who has served in Parliament for two decades and is one of Britain's most prominent gay lawmakers — said the allegations were made by "two people well known to each other" and who until a day earlier he had regarded as friends.

"The complaints are completely false and I cannot understand why they have been made, especially as I have continued to socialize with one as recently as last week," he said, thanking colleagues and friends who echoed his own "sense of incredulity" over the allegations.

He did not address whether he would stay on as deputy speaker in his brief prepared statement on Sunday, but a spokesman for the House of Commons confirmed that Evans had asked to be excused from chairing the Queen's Speech debate due to start on Wednesday.

The debate comes after Queen Elizabeth II opens a new session of Parliament with a speech outlining the government's legislative plans, and lawmakers then debate the content of the speech over several days.

Lee Bridges, the spokesman, said Evans had asked Speaker John Bercow to excuse him from the debate in the House of Commons and that the speaker was "happy to give him that" time, which could last about a week.

British officials, including Defense Secretary Philip Hammond, expressed shock over his arrest, while Foreign Secretary William Hague called him a "popular and well-respected member of Parliament."

Evans has been a lawmaker for the Lancashire constituency since 1992. In June 2010, he was elected one of the three deputy speakers for the House of Commons.

Later that year, he told a newspaper he was gay, saying he was "tired of living a lie" and that opponents had threatened to expose his sexuality.

"I could not afford it to be used as leverage against me," he told The Mail on Sunday at the time. "I couldn't take the risk. I don't want any other MP to face that kind of nastiness again."

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Cassandra Vinograd can be reached at http://twitter.com/CassVinograd

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Nigel Evans quizzed over rape, denies allegations

LONDON (Reuters) - The deputy speaker of the Commons, Nigel Evans, was arrested this weekend on suspicion of rape and sexual assault, but said on Sunday the allegations against him were "completely false".

The 55-year-old member of Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative party was detained on Saturday over attacks allegedly carried out at his home in Lancashire, northern England between July 2009 and March of this year, police said.

After being granted bail, Evans told reporters: "Yesterday I was interviewed by the police concerning two complaints - one of which dates back four years - made by two people who are well known to each other and who until yesterday I had regarded as friends.

"The complaints are completely false and I cannot understand why they have been made, especially as I have continued to socialise with one as recently as last week."

No further details of the complainants have been released by Lancashire police.

Evans, who has been a MP for some 20 years, was elected as one of three deputy speakers three years ago.

The role mainly involves adjudicating the often noisy and fractious debates between Britain's rival parties who face each other across the floor of the Commons.

Evans, who announced to a newspaper in 2010 that he was gay, was vice-chairman of the Conservative party from 1999 to 2001 and shadow Welsh Secretary for two years after that while the Conservatives were in opposition.

(Reporting by Stephen Addison; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

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Al-Qaida denies its No. 2 in Yemen was killed

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Al-Qaida in Yemen posted a statement on militant websites Monday saying that its second-most senior commander has not been killed. It was the second time the group has denied Saeed al-Shihri's death.

The Saudi national, who fought in Afghanistan and spent six years in the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, is "alive and in good health," according to a senior al-Qaida cleric in Yemen and the group's media arm, al-Malahem. The cleric, Abu-Saad Al-Aamly, posted the claim on his Facebook account.

It came as nine people were killed in separate incidents of violence throughout Yemen. Also, its capital city was without electricity on Monday after militants attacked electricity cables connecting Sanaa to the province of Marib, where an oil pipeline was also blown up.

The impoverished nation at the tip off the Arabian Peninsula is awash with problems, including a rocky transition of power after the country's longtime leader was forced to resign during Arab Spring protests in 2011. The instability has emboldened tribes loyal to the former regime, and al-Qaida took advantage of the turmoil to temporarily overrun entire cities and towns in the south.

Washington considers the local al-Qaida branch, known as al-Qaida in The Arabian Peninsula, as the most dangerous and active of the group's offshoots.

A Yemeni police official told The Associated Press that security forces may have been too quick announcing al-Shihri's death in January, based on information from Saudi Arabia. The official spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to release the information to reporters.

Yemeni security officials had claimed the al-Qaida commander was killed by a U.S. drone strike. The country's state news agency, SABA, reported in January that al-Shirhi was in a coma after a missile attack in late November, but did not make clear if he had died.

Yemen had previously announced al-Shihri's death in September last year. A DNA test, however, proved that the body recovered was not that of al-Shihri. A month later, al-Shihri denied his own death in an audio message posted on Jihadi websites.

In the northeastern province of Marib, armed tribesmen were suspected of being behind an attack on oil pipelines and electricity pylons that led to a power outage in the capital, Sanaa.

Sabotage attacks on oil pipelines are common in Marib, which is flush with weapons and where the government has little control. The more than 430-kilometer (260-mile) oil pipeline carries around 100,000 barrels of oil a day. Similar acts of sabotage in December caused $310 million in losses.

Some of Marib's tribesmen maintain cordial ties with al-Qaida, while other tribal chiefs there are suspected of being allied with former President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The attacks appear to be aimed at undermining the new government, which has responded with deadly air strikes.

Four people, two soldiers and two tribesmen, were killed Monday in Marib when a group of tribesmen attacked a military checkpoint in the area of Sarwah, according to security officials.

Officials also said that troops loyal to the former president killed three protesters in the city of Radda, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of the capital. Two soldiers from the Republican Guard, still led by Saleh's son Ahmed, were also killed in clashes with protesters and police.

The Republic Guard is an elite army unit that was once the backbone of Saleh's 33-year rule. The security force was supposed to be reorganized and brought under the control of the Defense Ministry according to orders by President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, but those changes have yet to materialize on the ground.

Officials said that the troops in Radda forced residents to close their stores and blocked roads leading to the city on Sunday, prompting the protests on Monday. It was not immediately clear why the troops forced businesses to close, but security officials said they suspect it was linked to efforts by Saleh's loyalists to disrupt a national dialogue aimed at mapping out the country's future.

All officials spoke anonymously in line with regulations.

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Arrested NY assemblyman denies bribery allegation

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York state assemblyman is vowing to fight charges that he accepted $20,000 in bribes.

Bronx Democrat Eric Stevenson tells the New York Daily News (http://nydn.us/Zee5WB ) in an interview published Saturday that he "unequivocally" denies that he took the money.

Federal prosecutors charged Stevenson on Thursday with taking cash from developers of adult day care centers. They say that in exchange for the money, the assemblyman pushed through legislation protecting the centers from competition.

Stevenson denies it. He told the newspaper he "never got into any situation of taking money from these people."

He said he was reading the Bible when agents came to arrest him.

Investigators say they have video recordings of Stevenson accepting envelopes stuffed with cash.

Stevenson wouldn't discuss those details of the case with the newspaper.

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Information from: Daily News, http://www.nydailynews.com

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Arias judge denies motion to sequester jurors

PHOENIX (AP) — The judge in Jodi Arias' murder case on Thursday denied a defense motion to order jurors sequestered for the remainder of the trial during a bizarre week when one panelist was removed and videos emerged of Arias' parents telling authorities she has mental problems.

Defense attorney Kirk Nurmi sought the sequestration after noting the release of the footage and parts of Arias' journal to the media, explaining it could bias the jury.

"This case must be tried in the courtroom not in the media," Nurmi told the judge.

He said that despite daily admonitions from the judge to the jury not to follow media coverage of the trial, some on the panel are likely doing it anyway, calling it an "absolute fiction" to believe they are not.

Judge Sherry Stephens denied the motion then admonished the jury again on Thursday to avoid all media coverage of the trial.

The move comes during a week when one juror was removed from the panel for making statements the defense claimed called into question her impartiality.

In a statement to the media after her removal, the juror said she would not comment on the case until a verdict is reached. Her removal came just a few days after defense attorneys accused prosecutor Juan Martinez of misconduct by posing for photographs and signing autographs for fans outside court. The judge has not yet ruled in that matter.

Thursday's motion was just another twist in the murder trial that has captivated the nation with tales of lurid sex, lies and a bloody killing, playing out for the pubic via an unedited web feed from inside the courtroom.

Arias faces a possible death sentence if convicted of first-degree murder in the June 2008 killing of Travis Alexander in his suburban Phoenix home.

Authorities say she planned the attack on her lover in a jealous rage. Arias initially denied involvement then blamed it on two masked intruders. Two years after her arrest, she said it was self-defense.

Testimony has been ongoing for three months.

Later Thursday, psychotherapist Alyce LaViolette continued her testimony discussing Arias' relationship with the victim after spending several days explaining to jurors the traits of victims and abusers in generalities.

The defense witness, who spent more than 40 hours interviewing Arias, said the defendant and the victim appeared to be in a comfortable relationship and that Arias wasn't stalking him as some of Alexander's friends have indicated.

"It looks like a comfortable relationship where there's a lot of back and forth," LaViolette said.

She also explained again how battered women tend to minimize the abuse by their partners "or not talk about it at all."

Arias says Alexander was physically abusive and attacked her on the day of the killing, forcing her to fight for her life, yet no other evidence at trial has shown the victim was ever violent in the past. Arias says she was too ashamed to tell anyone.

In developments outside court, authorities released to the media videos of investigators questioning Arias' parents after her arrest in 2008.

Both of her parents told police they believed Arias has mental problems.

"Jodi has mental problems, Jodi would freak out all the time," Sandra Arias says on the tape. "I had quite a few of her friends call and tell me I needed to get her some help."

On the tape, William Arias says he had suggested that she might be bipolar.

The videos have not been admitted into evidence at the trial, and Arias' parents have not been called as witnesses.

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FBI denies report it arrested Russian tycoon Abramovich

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A spokesman for Roman Abramovich denied a news report on Monday that the billionaire Russian owner of London's Chelsea soccer club had been arrested in the United States.

"It's not true," John Mann said in response to a report on the web site of Russian financial daily RBK that Abramovich had been held by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.

"He is in the U.S. but he has not been arrested or detained," said Mann, who is Abramovich's Moscow spokesman.

The unsourced RBK report followed media speculation over the unexplained death in Britain of exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky, who launched and lost a multi-billion-dollar court case against Abramovich, his former business partner, last year.

Abramovich, 46, is a major shareholder in London-listed steel firm Evraz, whose shares fell by more than 6 percent before recovering to trade 3.4 percent down on the day.

The London-based tycoon, reputed to have close ties to the Kremlin, was brought in late last year to strike a peace deal between the feuding shareholders in Norilsk Nickel, the world's largest nickel and palladium miner.

(Reporting by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Steve Gutterman)

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Iran denies link to group arrested in Saudi Arabia

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's foreign ministry said the country was not linked to a group of alleged spies arrested in Saudi Arabia, Iranian media reported on Sunday.

Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday that it had detained an Iranian, a Lebanese, and 16 Saudis for spying. Political analysts and press in Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia have accused Shi'ite Iran of being behind the alleged espionage.

The two countries are locked in a struggle for influence across the region, backing opposing sides in Bahrain, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. Gulf Arab foreign ministers, meeting in Riyadh last month, issued a statement condemning what they said was Iranian "meddling" in their countries - an accusation Tehran rejects.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, denied that an Iranian national was involved in the alleged spy ring and called the allegations a "repetitive scenario", according to Iran's English-language Press TV on Sunday.

"Raising such baseless issues at the media level is merely for domestic consumption," he said, according to Press TV.

Leaders of Saudi Arabia's Shi'ite minority have also criticized the arrests of 16 members of their community, which they said sought to exploit sectarian tension.

The Saudi government has previously blamed unrest among Shi'ites in the Qatif district of oil-producing Eastern Province on an unnamed foreign power, which officials privately acknowledge means Iran - a charge local Shi'ite activists have denied. Sixteen people have been killed in Qatif in clashes with police in the past two years.

Riyadh also accuses Tehran of having masterminded an alleged plot to assassinate its ambassador in Washington that was announced by U.S. police in late 2011. Iran denies this.

Kuwait said in 2010 it had uncovered an Iranian spy ring, Yemen said last year it had arrested Iranian spies and that Tehran was backing rebels in the north, and Bahrain has accused Iran of plotting attacks on its territory. Tehran has denied all these charges.

(Reporting By Yeganeh Torbati; Additional reporting by Angus McDowall in Riyadh; Editing by Pravin Char)

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