Spy

CAIRO - Egyptian security forces arrested a close aide of ousted Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi on Tuesday following a siege at his Cairo home, a security official and witnesses said. Ahmed Qaddaf al-Dam surrendered to Egyptian security forces after shots were fired, they said. An intelligence official under Gadhafi, Qaddaf al-Dam is among dozens wanted for their role in Libya's 2011 civil war that ended with Gadhafi's capture and killing. Police surrounded his home in the Cairo neighborhood of Zamalek before dawn Tuesday.

Stephane Hessel, 95, a concentration-camp survivor and member of the French Resistance whose 32-page book, Time for Outrage , became a best-seller and an inspiration for the left in Europe and the United States, died Tuesday in Paris. The book came out in 2010 as a rallying cry against the gap between rich and poor. Mr. Hessel said he wanted to imbue France's youth with the fervor of those who held out against the Nazis. Its first run was 8,000 copies. It sold millions of copies and became an inspiration for the Occupy Wall Street movement.

JERUSALEM - Israel's Nobel-laureate president, backed by thousands of followers, is leading an effort to press President Obama during his coming visit to free convicted spy Jonathan Pollard, ending one of the most painful episodes between the two allies. Pollard was sentenced to life in prison in 1987 for passing classified material to Israel. Pollard is said to be in poor health, and his case has become a rallying cry in Israel. Leaders routinely call for his release and say 28 years in prison are excessive punishment.

JERUSALEM - Foreign reports about the mysterious death of an Australian-born Israeli Mossad agent who died in an Israeli prison two years ago have sparked a rare backlash against the country's well-respected security agencies. Critics have accused the government of trying to cover up the affair and are demanding a full investigation, fueling a debate about balancing national security and freedom of information in a country that prides itself as a vibrant democracy. "Israel is a democracy in its basis, but it doesn't adapt itself to the modern age actually," Avigdor Feldman, a lawyer who met the man dubbed "Prisoner X" shortly before his death, told the Associated Press on Thursday.

A little more than 24 hours after Shamsiddin "Snap" Sallam shot Greg Jarvis dead in West Philadelphia on Sept. 7, 2009, the killer's phone rang. "Yo, Snap, this is Jarvis," said a familiar voice. "I'm still breathing. " Snap stuttered - "Who? Who is this?" - and hung up. In that moment, a trap had been sprung, and Snap Sallam had no idea.   Sallam and Jarvis had kept in touch since prison, both still dealing drugs. On the morning of Sept. 7, Labor Day, Sallam told Jarvis he had new connections and would repay a debt owed from a previous deal.

A Tredyffrin Township man has been cleared of charges that he used software to spy on his wife. While the couple were divorcing, Jay Anthony Ciccarone, 39, allegedly installed the program Web Watcher on her computer to read her e-mails. His attorney, Ellen Brotman, argued that prosecutors could not prove why Ciccarone used the software. At a pretrial proceeding last Friday, Chester County Judge James P. MacElree II dismissed charges of unlawful use of a computer, intercepting communications - both felonies - and unlawfully accessing stored communications, a misdemeanor.

Museumgoers will have the opportunity to brush up on a lot of dramatic American history around town this spring, with major exhibitions and events covering the Civil War, U.S. spycraft, the countercultural epicenter of 1968, the antilynching writer Ida B. Wells, and the black presence on the Delaware River - as both cargo and seafarers. In addition, the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts, which originally blasted through town two years ago, is back for a month from the end of March to the end of April.

WASHINGTON - The Senate gave final congressional approval Friday to a bill renewing the government's authority to monitor overseas phone calls and e-mails of suspected foreign spies and terrorists - but not Americans - without obtaining a court order for each intercept. The classified Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act program was on the brink of expiring by year's end. The 73-23 vote sent the bill to a supportive President Obama, whose signature would keep the warrantless intercept program in operation for another five years.