National news briefs

Funding announced for fuel efficiency

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration announced on Monday funding for nine projects designed to significantly increase fuel efficiency in heavy trucks and passenger vehicles, with more than half the money coming from the $787 billion stimulus package.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu detailed the projects during a ceremony in Columbus, Ind., home of Cummins Inc., which is to receive nearly $40 million to develop a more efficient and cleaner diesel engine, a more aerodynamic long-haul truck cab and trailer, and a fuel cell that would deliver auxiliary power to reduce engine idling while the vehicle was not on the road.

Chu said the nine projects will receive $187 million from the federal government, with more than $100 million coming from stimulus funds and the remainder from DOE appropriations.

Recipients are expected to match government funding, creating a total investment of $375 million in the projects.

According to the administration, the nine recipients are expected to create more than 500 research, engineering and management jobs, with 6,000 more positions anticipated when the technologies go into production and assembly.

In detailing the project awards, the administration said the new technologies, when in broad use, "could save more than 100 million gallons of gasoline and diesel per day and reduce carbon emissions from on-road vehicles by 20 percent by 2030."

In addition to Cummins, Daimler Trucks North America LLC, of Portland, Ore., will receive nearly $40 million, and Navistar Inc., of Fort Wayne, Ind., is in line for $27.3 million.

The remaining six projects for passenger vehicles will spread more than $71 million among Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Delphi Automotive Systems, Robert Bosch and a second Cummins project.

Detainee's lawyer wants charges tossed

NEW YORK (AP) — A lawyer asked a judge Monday to toss out charges against the first Guantanamo Bay detainee to be brought to civilian courts, saying he was tortured for 14 hours over five days and denied trial for nearly five years.

Attorney Peter Enrique Quijano told U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan that Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani's right to a speedy trial was violated when he was sent after his July 2004 arrest to a secret CIA-run interrogation camp abroad rather than to the U.S. for a civilian trial.

After two hours of arguments, the judge reserved decision.

At the time of his arrest in Pakistan, Ghailani was a fugitive, already indicted in federal court in Manhattan in the August 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa. The bombings killed 225 people, including a dozen Americans.

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