[naviga:h3]Organizers vague in 9-11 law response[/naviga:h3]

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A Saudi-funded lobbying campaign involving U.S. military veterans that targeted a new law allowing Sept. 11 victims’ families to sue the Middle Eastern country in U.S. courts saw some organizers disclose their activities late or vaguely, stymieing public knowledge of the scale of foreign influence in the campaign.

The chief lobbyist for the Saudi Embassy in Washington said it encouraged its subcontractors to be as transparent as possible. But the campaign and the allegations surrounding it show what can happen when the often-murky world of lobbying intersects with emotive American issues like patriotism, protecting U.S. troops and the memory of Sept. 11. It also highlights how federal laws governing disclosures of foreign influence in American politics are only as strong as they’re enforced.

“If the purpose of the statute is to make a public record about how foreign sovereigns are spending money to influence U.S. policy, it’s not clear how the Justice Department’s relatively lax enforcement of the statue furthers that goal,” said Stephen Vladeck, a law professor and national security law expert at the University of Texas.

Congress voted overwhelmingly for the law, known by the acronym JASTA, which gives victims’ families the right to sue any foreign country found to support a terrorist attack that kills U.S. citizens on American soil. Its critics warn the law opens U.S. troops, diplomats and contractors to lawsuits that otherwise couldn’t be filed under the terms of sovereign immunity, a legal doctrine usually protecting governments and its employees in court.

[naviga:h3]N. Korea to seek culprits’ extradition[/naviga:h3]

PYONGYANG, North Korea — Pyongyang will seek the extradition of anyone involved in what it says was a CIA-backed plot to kill leader Kim Jong Un last month with a biochemical poison, a top North Korean Foreign Ministry official said Thursday.

Han Song Ryol, the vice foreign minister, called a meeting of foreign diplomats in Pyongyang today to outline the North’s allegation that the CIA and South Korea’s intelligence agency bribed and coerced a North Korean man into joining in the assassination plot, which the North’s Ministry of State Security has suggested was thwarted last month.

[naviga:h3]Authorities warn of hitchhiking toads[/naviga:h3]

CANBERRA, Australia — Australian quarantine authorities today urged travelers through Asia to avoid bringing in hitchhiking amphibians after a passenger arrived at an airport with a dead black-spined toad in his shoe.

The Department of Agriculture of Water Resources warned travelers to check their luggage and other belongings for biohazards after toads from Thailand and Indonesia were found recently at three Australian airports. Authorities are confident that all the passengers were unaware they were carrying toads and were not smuggling wildlife.

The black-spined toad could significantly damage the Australian environment and could carry parasites or disease, said Lyn O’Connor, the department’s head of biosecurity.