Nation in brief

Spy trial witness: Defendant was in debt

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- An FBI agent testified Thursday that Brian Patrick Regan had run up credit card debts of almost $117,000, which prosecutors say provided a financial incentive for the retired Air Force master sergeant to offer to sell classified information to Iraq, Libya and China.

Prosecutors have said Regan planned to offer Iraqi President Saddam Hussein secret details about American satellite surveillance that could help Iraq hide its antiaircraft missiles for $13-million in Swiss francs. He also is accused of plotting to sell information to China and Libya.

Regan, 40, worked at the National Reconnaissance Office, a government spy agency, for the Air Force and then for TRW. He has pleaded innocent to attempted espionage. If convicted, he could be the first American executed for spying since 1953, when Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were put to death after being convicted of conspiring to steal U.S. atomic secrets for the Soviet Union.

Abandoned boy's mother still missing

RENO, Nev. -- Police intensified their search for a missing woman whose 3-year-old son was abandoned at an Utah store Saturday, and the boy's stepfather was charged Thursday with child abuse, accused of leaving the boy.

A police affidavit said the boy's statements led them to believe his mother had been harmed. Jeannette Acord, 28, has been missing for two weeks.

Her husband, Lyle Montgomery, 42, was charged Thursday in Salt Lake City with misdemeanor child abuse. Montgomery's lawyer said police have given no indication he is a suspect in the disappearance of Acord, whom he married in December.

Two Marines jailed in parachute sabotage

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. -- Two Marines have been arrested in the suspected sabotage of more than a dozen parachutes last fall, officials said. Three jumpers were slightly injured when they were forced to use their reserve chutes.

No charges were filed immediately against Lance Cpl. Antoine D. Boykins, 21, and Lance Cpl. Julian Ramirez, 25, who were placed in the brig Tuesday night, Staff Sgt. Jay Connolly said.

Police theory on park jogger attack rebutted

NEW YORK -- The police theory that five teenagers whose convictions were overturned attacked a Central Park jogger in 1989 is not supported by any evidence, a prosecutor said Thursday.

A serial rapist's confession last year that he acted alone, however, is supported by many facts, Manhattan Chief Assistant District Attorney James Kindler told a City Council committee.

His comments were the first extensive statements from the district attorney's office since a Police Department report released Monday said it was "more likely than not that the five original defendants participated in an attack upon the jogger."

Also . . .

CHILD PORN CASE: A former Roman Catholic priest who admitted in court to molesting more boys than he could remember was sentenced Thursday in Chicago to 15 years in prison for possessing child pornography. Vincent McCaffrey had pleaded guilty to possessing hundreds of images of boys, some under 12, engaging in sexual acts, being beaten and confined in cages. He was not charged in the molestations because the statute of limitations had expired.

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