Yale Students Arrested On Charges Of Burning American Flag

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) _ Three Yale University students, one a U.S. citizen born in Pakistan, were arrested on charges of setting fire to an American flag hanging outside a home. <br/><br/>Said Hyder Akbar,

Wednesday, April 4th 2007, 8:15 am

By: News On 6

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) _ Three Yale University students, one a U.S. citizen born in Pakistan, were arrested on charges of setting fire to an American flag hanging outside a home.

Said Hyder Akbar, 23, Nikolaos Angelopoulos, 19, and Farhad Anklesaria, also 19, were arrested early Tuesday on charges ranging from reckless endangerment to arson, police said.

Akbar, a senior, was born in Pakistan but is a U.S. citizen, police said. He worked as an informal translator for U.S. forces during the invasion of Afghanistan and later published a memoir, ``Come Back to Afghanistan,'' based on his experiences, the Yale Daily News reported Wednesday.

Angelopoulos, who is Greek, and Anklesaria, who is British, are both freshmen. They had to surrender their passports.

Bail was set at $25,000 for Angelopoulos and Akbar, and $15,000 for Anklesaria. They were jailed Tuesday night; police did not immediately respond to calls on their status Wednesday morning.

Authorities said the three students had waved over two police officers in the area early Tuesday to ask for directions.

A short time later, the officers returned to the neighborhood to see if the students had found their way home and spotted the burning flag. One officer pulled down the burning flag and the other tracked down the three men, authorities said.