Judge delays records release in Arizona shooting (AP)

SAN DIEGO – News organizations failed to persuade a federal judge Friday to release a second mug shot and search warrant records involving the suspect in the Arizona shooting rampage that killed six people and wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, among others.

U.S. District Judge Larry A. Burns said he was leaving it up to the U.S. Marshals Service to decide whether to release the mug shot of 22-year-old Jared Loughner taken in Phoenix while in the custody of the agency.

Burns also held off on unsealing search warrant records that show what was seized from the home of Loughner after the Jan. 8 shooting. The judge said the investigation is ongoing and another indictment is expected to bring additional federal charges.

The unreleased photo is a different image than the mug shot released by the Pima County Sheriff's Office two days Loughner was arrested.

Defense attorneys argued the new photo invades Loughner's privacy and doesn't serve any legitimate public interest. In addition, mug shots reveal people at their most humiliating moments, the lawyers said.

Prosecutors described the photo as showing Loughner with abrasions on his face and a cinderblock-wall background.

Burns said he did not agree the photo would invade the suspect's privacy or harm his chance at a fair trial, but he said he didn't have the authority to rule on the matter because the 6th Circuit requires the U.S. Marshals Service to release the photo. Two of the 15 media outlets that have requested the photo are in the 6th Circuit area.

"We're making these pictures seem way more ominous than they really are," Burns said, adding the second mug shot is much "tamer" than the first one that has been widely circulated on the Internet. That photo showed Loughner wide eyed and smiling.

Defense attorneys had argued the release of the search warrant documents also would harm Loughner's chances of a fair trial.

Loughner has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of trying to assassinate Giffords and of killing two of her aides. He was not at the hearing in San Diego.

Burns said he disagreed with defense arguments but would hold off for now because of the ongoing investigation and the expected indictment following an earlier federal complaint that also charged Loughner with murder for the killings of U.S. District Judge John Roll and Giffords' aide Gabe Zimmerman.

The upcoming indictment is expected to restore those murder charges. Loughner also will likely face state charges in the attack.

Burns indicated he may unseal the records after a hearing on March 9, when he will consider a request by prosecutors to get handwriting samples from Loughner to compare with documents seized in a search of his home. Burns said the government has told him by then they expect to have all charges "crystalized."

"It will likely be a different story as of March 9," Burns said.

David Bodney, an attorney representing The Arizona Republic and Phoenix TV station KPNX, argued it is time to release the records and there's no basis for the documents to remain sealed. He said the public has a right to the records that have been under seal since Jan. 11, and that prosecutors have failed to show the material would harm their case.

"Logic tells me these are public records," he told the judge.

Bodney said the FBI has handed over all its material to U.S. prosecutors, indicating the crux of the investigation is over and would not be jeopardized.

U.S. Attorney Beverly Johnson told Burns that wasn't true. Burns agreed with her.

Defense attorneys said the documents contain potentially inflammatory statements by a law enforcement officer and that releasing the information could have a prejudicial effect on the prospective jury pool.

Burns was appointed to hear the case after all the federal judges in Arizona recused themselves because of their connection to Roll, who was the chief federal judge in Arizona.

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Associated Press writer Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix contributed to this report.

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Memos: Firefighter refused call to Tucson shooting (AP)

TUCSON, Ariz. – A veteran firefighter refused to respond to last month's deadly shooting spree that left Rep. Gabrielle Giffords wounded because he had different political views than his colleagues and "did not want to be part of it," according to internal city memos.

Mark Ekstrum's insubordination may have delayed his unit's response because firefighters had to stop at another station to pick up a replacement for him, the Arizona Daily Star reported.

While the crew was not among the first called to the supermarket where six people were killed and 13 others wounded, a memo from Ekstrum's supervisor said his actions caused "confusion and delay" during the emergency.

Ekstrum's team, which is specially trained to handle large medical emergencies, was dispatched to assist 90 minutes after the Jan. 8 shooting.

The 28-year veteran of the Tucson Fire Department retired two days later while his supervisors were still considering how to discipline him, according to the Star, which obtained the memos about the incident through a public records request.

Capt. Ben Williams wrote in a report that when Ekstrum first said he would not go on the call, "he mentioned something about `political bantering' and he did not want to be part of it."

Williams said in the report that he told the 56-year-old firefighter that he could not refuse a call for that reason and then talked to the firefighter privately in his office. He said Ekstrum "started to say something about how he had a much different political viewpoint than the rest of the crew and he was concerned."

Despite being told that was not acceptable, Williams said Ekstrum informed him he was going home "sick," so they answered the call without him.

Ekstrum's crew had been dispatched at 12:03 p.m., seven minutes after the last patient arrived at the hospital, said Joe Gulotta, an assistant fire chief. The team was responding as a support crew with a large delivery truck with tents, medical supplies, water and cots used to assist those who were not seriously injured.

Ekstrum declined to comment on the Star's story and refused to elaborate on any details of the memos when reached at his home Thursday by The Associated Press.

"I have nothing else to say about it," Ekstrum said.

But the Star said Ekstrum gave a statement Wednesday to the Fire Department saying he was distraught over the shootings and was "distracted to the point of not being able to perform my routine station duties to such an extent that I seriously doubted my ability to focus on an emergency call."

Ekstrum also said in the statement that he had no problem with Giffords and even voted for her in the last election.

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Information from: Arizona Daily Star, http://www.azstarnet.com

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Iran opposition protests, agency reports shooting (Reuters)

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Thousands of Iranian opposition activists rallied in support of popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia on Monday and a semi-official news agency said one person was shot dead and several wounded by protesters.

An opposition website said dozens were arrested while taking part in the banned protests, which amounted to a test of strength for the reformist opposition in the Islamic state.

By late evening, chants of "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest) echoed from Tehran rooftops in scenes reminiscent of 2009 protests against the disputed reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Eight people were killed in those mass street demonstrations which lasted about a month and resulted in many arrests and several executions.

A witness said security forces fired teargas to scatter thousands marching toward a Tehran square on Monday. There were also clashes between police and demonstrators, and dozens of arrests, in the city of Isfahan, another witness told Reuters.

The semi-official Fars news agency cited violence on the part of protesters in a report that could herald a hard line by authorities clearly eager to head off any resurgent opposition.

"One person was shot dead and several were wounded by seditionists (opposition supporters) who staged a rally in Tehran," Fars said, without giving further details.

Some Tehran protesters chanted "Death to the dictator" during protests, which continued in some places into the evening. Other demonstrators marched in silence.

Some chants drew comparisons between the Iranian leadership and the autocrats deposed in recent weeks in Tunis and Cairo.

By late evening, the protests appeared to have eased off.

Amnesty International condemned the authorities' reaction.

"Iranians have a right to gather to peacefully express their support for the people of Egypt and Tunisia," it said.

Describing events, state television said: "Hypocrites, monarchists, thugs and seditionists who wanted to create public disorder in Iran were arrested by our brave nation ... These people set garbage bins on fire and damaged public property."

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia against secular, Western-allied rulers an "Islamic awakening," akin to the 1979 revolution that overthrew the U.S.-backed shah in Iran.

But the opposition see events in Tunisia and Egypt as resembling their own protests after the June 2009 election which they say was rigged in favor of President Ahmadinejad.

RIOT POLICE

Police in Bahrain, where tensions arise from discontent among a Shi'ite majority, fired teargas and rubber bullets to break up pro-reform demonstrations and witnesses said one protester was killed. Analysts say any large-scale unrest in Bahrain could embolden marginalized Shi'ites in nearby Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said of the action against Iranian protesters: "President Ahmadinejad ... told the Egyptian people that they had the right to express their own views about their country. I call on the Iranian authorities to allow their own people the same right."

Large numbers of police wearing riot gear and security forces were stationed around the main squares of the capital and pairs of state militiamen roamed the streets on motorbikes.

There were minor clashes at some points across the sprawling capital city of some 12 million people, witnesses said. Mobile telephone connections were down in the area of the protests.

Video posted on the Internet showed young men, some holding sticks, gathered around overturned garbage bins, some of which were on fire. The demonstrators marched toward Azadi (Freedom) Square, a traditional rallying point for protests. Hundreds of marchers also gathered in Isfahan and Shiraz, witnesses said.

Security forces surrounded the homes of opposition leaders Mirhossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi preventing them joining the march, their websites said.

Noting official Iranian backing for demonstrations in Egypt and Tunisia, Mousavi and Karroubi asked permission to hold their own marches in solidarity. But authorities refused, wary of a repeat of the protests in 2009, which saw the greatest unrest since the revolution of 30 years earlier.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul, on a visit to Tehran, called on Middle Eastern governments to listen to their people.

The Iranian authorities accuse opposition leaders of being part of a Western plot to overthrow the Islamic system.

(Editing by Ralph Boulton)

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