Muslim charity case ends in a mistrial

DALLAS - The biggest terror-financing trial since the Sept. 11 attacks ended in confusion yesterday, with no one convicted and several acquittals thrown out after three jurors took the rare step of disputing the verdict. Prosecutors said they would probably retry leaders of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development and the organization itself, which the federal government shut down in 2001. Defendants and their supporters considered the outcome a victory. After two months of testimony and 19 days of deliberations, the jury reached verdicts for only one of the five defendants, finding former Holy Land chairman Mohammed El-Mezain not guilty of 31 of 32 counts and deadlocking on the remaining charge. Acquittals for two other defendants also were read in court. But when the judge polled each juror - normally a formality - three jurors said they disagreed with the verdicts. US District Judge A. Joe Fish sent the jury back to resolve the differences, but after about an hour he said he received a note from the jury saying 11 of the 12 felt that further deliberations would not lead to a unanimous decision. (AP)

Drug Enforcement Administration chief Karen Tandy said yesterday she is resigning, ending her four-year tenure as the first woman to hold that post. Tandy told employees she was leaving to take a job as a senior vice president of Motorola, DEA spokesman Garrison Courtney said. In a statement, Tandy praised the agency's 11,000 employees, saying they sacrifice "everything to live our dangerous mission 24-7, every day of the year, in order to protect America's children and communities." Tandy was confirmed to head the DEA in July 2003. (AP)

WASHINGTON - Navy SEAL Lieutenant Michael Murphy, nicknamed "Murph" and known as an intense and empathetic young man, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor yesterday "for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life" while outnumbered by Taliban fighters in a June 2005 battle high in the mountains of Afghanistan. The 29-year-old SEAL team leader and former lifeguard from Patchogue, N.Y., is the first service member to receive the Medal of Honor for heroism in the Afghanistan war and the first sailor since Vietnam to be awarded the medal, the nation's highest military decoration. At a ceremony in the White House's East Room, President Bush presented the medal to Daniel and Maureen Murphy, saying their son acted "with complete disregard for his own life." (Washington Post)