US: 6 Guantanamo prisoners have been sent to Uruguay to be resettled as refugees
MIAMI (AP) - Six prisoners from Guantanamo Bay have been transferred to Uruguay, the U.S. government said Sunday, announcing a resettlement deal that had been delayed for months by security concerns in the Pentagon and political considerations in the South American country.
The six are the first prisoners transferred to South America from the U.S. base in Cuba, part of a flurry of recent releases amid a renewed push by President Barack Obama to close the prison.
Uruguayan President Jose Mujica agreed to accept the six men - four Syrians, a Tunisian and a Palestinian - as a humanitarian gesture and said they would be given help getting established in a country with a small Muslim population.
All six were detained as suspected militants with ties to al-Qaeda in 2002 but were never charged. They have been cleared for release since at least 2010 but they could not be sent home and have languished as the U.S. struggled to find countries willing to accept them.
“We are very grateful to Uruguay for this important humanitarian action, and to President Mujica for his strong leadership in providing a home for individuals who cannot return to their own countries,” U.S. State Department envoy Clifford Sloan said.
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California protesters smash windows, pelt police with rocks; 2 officers injured
BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) - Two officers were injured as a California protest over police killings turned violent with protesters smashing windows and throwing rocks and bricks at police, who responded by firing tear gas, authorities said.
Several officers were struck, but there were just two reports of injury, Berkeley police spokeswoman Jenn Coats said. A Berkeley police officer received hospital treatment for a dislocated shoulder after being hit with a sandbag, while another sustained minor injuries.
Saturday night’s demonstration against police killings of unarmed black men in Missouri and New York began peacefully, the latest of several in the Bay Area in recent days. But Officer Coats said that some protesters later broke away and began throwing rocks, bottles and pipes at officers.
Scores of law officers from several surrounding agencies joined Berkeley Police Department in trying to quell unrest that went on for hours, into early Sunday morning.
She said several businesses on University Avenue were vandalized, including Trader Joe’s, Radio Shack and a Wells Fargo Bank branch. Some squad cars were also damaged.
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GOP’s Cassidy beats Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, last of chamber’s Deep South Democrats
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy has denied Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana a fourth term, calling his Senate victory “the exclamation point” on midterm elections that put Republicans in charge on Capitol Hill for President Barack Obama’s last two years in office.
With nearly all votes counted, unofficial returns showed Cassidy with a commanding victory in Saturday’s runoff as he ousted the last of the Senate’s Deep South Democrats. In the South, Democrats will be left without a single U.S. senator or governor across nine states stretching from the Carolinas to Texas.
Cassidy, after a campaign spent largely linking Landrieu to Obama, called his win more of the same message American voters sent nationally on Nov. 4 as Republicans scored big gains in both chambers of Congress.
“This victory happened because people in Louisiana voted for a government that serves us, that does not tell us what to do,” Cassidy said in Baton Rouge, the state capital.
He did not mention Obama or offer any specifics about his agenda in the Senate, but said in his victory speech that voters have demanded “a conservative direction” on health care, budgets and energy policy.
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Republicans to hold at least 246 House seats next year to tie post-World War II high
WASHINGTON (AP) - Republicans will hold at least 246 House seats come January, according to election results Saturday, giving the GOP a commanding majority that matches the party’s post-World War II high during Democratic President Harry S. Truman’s administration.
The GOP retained control of two seats in runoffs in Louisiana, expanding the advantage for Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, who can afford defections from his increasingly conservative caucus and still get legislation passed. Combined with the Republican takeover of the Senate, Congress will be all-GOP for the final two years of President Barack Obama’s second term.
The latest count gives the GOP a 246-188 majority. One race, in Arizona, is still outstanding.
In Louisiana’s 5th Congressional District, which extends from the state’s northeast into parishes bordering Mississippi, physician Ralph Abraham defeated Jamie Mayo, the Democratic mayor of Monroe. The incumbent, Vance McAllister, had failed to advance to the runoff. Elected less than a year ago, the married McAllister saw his career undermined after a video surfaced earlier this year showing him kissing another woman.
In the 6th Congressional District, in the Baton Rouge area, former state coastal restoration chief Garret Graves turned back Democrat Edwin Edwards, a four-term governor and ex-congressman who had to overcome his 2000 corruption conviction and subsequent prison term.
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Central Philippines escapes last year’s devastation as typhoon weakens after hitting land
LEGAZPI, Philippines (AP) - Typhoon Hagupit knocked out power, mowed down trees and sent more than 800,000 people into shelters before it weakened Sunday, sparing the central Philippines the type of devastation that a monster storm brought to the region last year.
Shallow floods, damaged shanties and ripped off store signs and tin roofs were a common sight across the region, but there were no confirmed deaths or major destruction after Hagupit slammed into Eastern Samar and other island provinces. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 140 kilometers (87 miles) per hour and gusts of 170 kph (106 mph) on Sunday, considerably weaker from its peak power but still a potentially deadly storm, according to forecasters.
The typhoon, which made landfall in Eastern Samar late Saturday, was moving slowly, dumping heavy rain that could possibly trigger landslides and flash floods.
Traumatized by Typhoon Haiyan’s massive death and destruction, more than 800,000 people fled to about 1,000 emergency shelters and safer grounds. The government, backed by the 120,000-strong military, had launched massive preparations to attain a zero-casualty target.
Rhea Estuna, a 29-year-old mother of one, fled Thursday to an evacuation center in Tacloban - the city hardest-hit by Haiyan last year - and waited in fear as Hagupit’s (HA’-goo-pit’s), wind and rain lashed the school where she and her family sought refuge. When she peered outside Sunday, she said she saw a starkly different aftermath than the one she witnessed last year after Haiyan struck.
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Arrest of China’s ex-security chief addresses corruption, leaves Xi stronger
BEIJING (AP) - The criminal case against China’s ex-security chief not only plays to public demands to curb corruption but spells the downfall of one of President Xi Jinping’s biggest rivals, puts other challengers on their toes and leaves Xi more solidly in control than ever.
The fate of the once-feared Zhou Yongkang, 72, appeared to be sealed by the just-after-midnight announcements Saturday that he was expelled from China’s ruling Communist Party and arrested in a criminal investigation into allegations ranging from bribe-taking to leaking state secrets.
“Many of Xi’s enemies have been scared, and he’s been successful in intimidating his enemies,” said Willy Lam, an observer of China’s elite politics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “All of them have become obedient - at least superficially - to Xi Jinping.”
Zhou, with a face that looks like it is made of stone, was a former member of the party’s all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee and was once in charge of the country’s police, security forces and judiciary, a vast apparatus that spends more on domestic security than what China spent on the People’s Liberation Army, the world’s biggest military.
Zhou’s status as security czar would have meant he had access to private phone conversations and secret information about national leaders. The state secrets allegations against him likely stem from his attempts to use leaks about colleagues to jockey for position ahead of China’s handover of power in late 2012 to a new generation of leaders at the retirement of President Hu Jintao, Lam said.
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News Guide: The rise and fall of China’s former security czar Zhou Yongkang
BEIJING (AP) - Chinese authorities announced that they have arrested Zhou Yongkang, a former member of the all-powerful Standing Committee of the ruling Communist Party’s Politburo, on accusations including taking bribes and leaking state secrets.
Zhou is the highest-level official to fall in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign, which began in late 2012.
Here’s a look at Zhou’s rise and fall, and what could be in store for the man who once oversaw China’s vast apparatus of police, state security, prosecuting offices and courts.
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EARLY YEARS
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Killings by Jamaica’s police down sharply, drawing cautious praise from human rights groups
KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) - Jamaican police have often been viewed with suspicion and fear, routinely accused of indiscriminately using their weapons and intentionally killing suspects as the island struggled with soaring violent crime.
Now, with overall violence ebbing, the Caribbean country is on track to have the fewest deaths at the hands of law enforcement in years, drawing cautious praise from human rights activists and making officers more welcome in some of Jamaica’s grittiest districts.
The number of citizens killed by police is expected to reach just over 100 this year, far below the 258 slain last year by security forces. The annual total of police killings hasn’t been below 200 since 2004.
“Police always used to come with guns cocked, but more of them are calmer now and have a better attitude,” said Susan Ramsay, a mother of three in the rough east Kingston neighborhood of Rockfort. “It’s gotten to the point where I prefer seeing the police around here than not seeing them.”
There seems to be a mix of reasons for the reduction, but perhaps the biggest is a new-found fear among officers of prosecution by an independent agency that investigates allegations against police.
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Children with autism and their families take test ’flight’ to alleviate air travel stress
LINTHICUM, Md. - With boarding passes in hand, children with autism spectrum disorders and their families took part in an air travel rehearsal at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.
Fifty families experienced a typical day at an airport, from check-in and security to receiving peanuts and pretzels from flight attendants onboard a Southwest Airlines jet for a 30-minute simulated “flight” that never left the gate.
Rehearsals like this one originated with a Massachusetts-based chapter of The Arc, an advocacy organization for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families, with the intention of alleviating some of the stress of air travel for children with autism.
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Who’s in? Who’s out? Playoff selection committee has tough choices ahead
WACO, Texas (AP) - Alabama is in. So is Oregon. That we know for sure about the College Football Playoff.
The rest of the contenders didn’t make it so easy on the selection committee, ensuring some drama before the first playoff pairings are revealed Sunday.
Florida State? The Seminoles are far from perfect, but they are still unbeaten.
TCU? The Horned Frogs were third last week and certainly did nothing to hurt that on Championship Saturday.
Baylor and Ohio State presented winning final arguments, too.
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