Pakistani outage halts Florida terror testimony

Miami, Feb 13 (AP) A mysterious outage in transmission of live testimony from Pakistan has temporarily halted the South Florida terrorism support trial of an elderly Muslim cleric. The feed to a Miami federal courtroom was cut off yesterday and restoration efforts failed. Neither lawyers for 77-year-old Hafiz Khan nor the US Justice Department could explain the cause today. Khan lawyer Khurrum Wahid said employees at the Islamabad hotel where the witnesses were appearing told him police were seen taking photos in the building. But prosecutors say Pakistani government agencies contacted by the US denied cutting off the feed. US District Judge Robert Scola ordered Khan's lawyers to either bring witnesses to Miami or find a third country. Trial will resume next week. Khan is charged with funneling cash to the Pakistani Taliban. (AP) NKP NKP 02132232 NNNN