In the Nation

FRANKFORT, Ky. - A week after a come-from-behind victory over the GOP's establishment candidate in a Kentucky Senate primary, Rand Paul faces a possible challenge by the Libertarian Party.

Despite Paul's pedigree as the son of former Libertarian presidential candidate Ron Paul, Libertarian Party vice chairman Joshua Koch said that Rand Paul had betrayed the party's values with his stands and that the party was considering finding a candidate to run for the seat.

The development could play a role in shaping the outcome of the race by siphoning votes from Paul to the benefit of his Democratic opponent, Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway. Koch, once an ally, said Paul went "from being an outsider candidate to a tea party candidate to an establishment candidate in the past nine months. It's a complete identity crisis." - AP

MIAMI - A federal judge Wednesday ordered the Obama administration to free a Yemeni man at Guantanamo who has long contended that he was captured in Pakistan studying the Quran and had no ties to al-Qaeda.

U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr.'s ruling that Mohammed Hassen, 27, was unlawfully detained raised to 36 the number of detainee wins in challenges by Guantanamo inmates. Civilian judges have upheld the military detentions of 14 other foreign men among the 181 terrorism-related captives at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba.

Hassen had asserted that he was unjustly rounded up in a March 2002 dragnet by Pakistani security forces in the city of Faisalabad that targeted Arabs.

The Justice Department has yet to decide whether to appeal the ruling, spokesman Dean Boyd said. - McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - An eighth grader from Florida won the National Geographic Bee on Wednesday with the help of a question about Caribbean neighbor Haiti.

Aadith Moorthy, 13, of Palm Harbor, came out on top as 10 boys faced off in a battle of world knowledge at National Geographic's headquarters. He wins a $25,000 college scholarship and a trip to the Galapagos Islands.

The final question asked for the largest city in northern Haiti, which was renamed after Haiti's independence from France. The answer was Cap-Haitien. Moorthy had it and gave a small fist pump.

"I feel great," he said with a big smile shortly after. "The mission is accomplished."

The bee will be broadcast later on public television stations. - AP

A concrete-testing company president, V. Reddy Kancharla, 46, convicted of concocting results for iconic projects such as ground zero's centerpiece skyscraper was sentenced in New York on Wednesday to up to 21 years in prison in a racketeering case that spurred him to try suicide twice.

After months of pressure from national Republicans, two-time gubernatorial runner-up Dino Rossi said Wednesday he would run against Washington state's powerful senior senator, Democrat Patty Murray.