Midday Roundup: Israel condemns proposed Iranian nuclear deal

Speaking out. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday his cabinet is united in its opposition to the proposed deal between Iran and six world powers over its nuclear program. “Israel will not accept an agreement which allows a country that vows to annihilate us to develop nuclear weapons, period,” Netanyahu said. The deal calls for Iran to scale back its nuclear activities and submit to international inspection in exchange for sanctions relief. Netanyahu wants Iran’s nuclear program completely dismantled. He reportedly told U.S. President Barack Obama in a phone conversation that such a deal would “threaten the survival of Israel.”

Saved. The Coast Guard yesterday rescued a North Carolina man who was lost at sea for 66 days. Louis Jordan, 37, was on a fishing trip on his sailboat when he hit bad weather that disabled his vessel. After his supplies on the boat diminished, he survived by drinking rainwater and eating raw fish. Thursday afternoon, a German container vessel spotted Jordan and notified the Coast Guard of his location, 200 miles off the coast. He reunited with his family Thursday night in Norfolk, Va.

Released. A man who spent more than half his life on Alabama’s death row was freed today. Anthony Ray Hinton, 58, was released this morning from the Jefferson County Jail in Birmingham. Hinton was convicted of the 1985 murders of two Birmingham fast-food restaurant managers. Crime scene bullets were the only evidence that linked Hinton to the crime. But prosecutors said this week modern forensic analysis showed the fatal bullets did not come from a revolver in Hinton’s home. The Supreme Court ruled last year Hinton had inadequate representation at his initial trial. Hinton’s defense lawyer hired a cut-rate ballistics expert even though he had concerns about the expert’s credentials. Prosecutors had been preparing for a retrial but moved to dismiss the case after the bullet testing.

Rescued. Indonesian officials today are evacuating human trafficking victims from one remote island where they were abandoned after being enslaved to catch seafood. More than 300 fishermen asked authorities to take them off the island of Benjina. Many of the men were migrant workers who were forced into labor on Thai fishing boats. An investigation by the Associated Press detailed the practice of slavery on the boats, some of which provide seafood to supermarkets in the United States. The International Organization for Migration estimates as many as 4,000 men are stranded on remote Indonesian islands, where their captors dumped them when Indonesia began cracking down on poaching at sea.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.