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FIREBALL! METEOR GOING 45,000 MPH LIGHTS UP PENNSYLVANIA SKY

KITTANNING, Pa. (AP) -- A meteor moving at 45,000 mph lit up the sky over western Pennsylvania.

NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office says the space rock measuring two feet in diameter and weighing roughly 500 pounds entered Earth’s atmosphere above the Pittsburgh suburbs around 4:50 a.m. Tuesday. It could be seen in Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio.

NASA says cameras detected the rock at an altitude of 60 miles above Beaver Falls, northwest of Pittsburgh. The agency says it flared brighter than a full moon as it descended to an altitude of 13 miles above Kittanning, northeast of Pittsburgh.

The agency says the meteor likely came from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

NASA says meteorite fragments may be scattered on the ground east of Kittanning.

D E M O C R AT S B L A S T G I U L I A N I F O R Q U E S T I O N I N G O B A M A’ S L O V E O F U S New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani speaks in New York.

Democrats on Thursday assailed Giuliani for questioning President Barack Obama’s love of country, and urged the potential field of Republican presidential candidates to rebuke his comments. Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz said at the start of the DNC’s winter meeting that now is the time for Republican leaders to “stop this nonsense.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democrats on Thursday assailed former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani for questioning President Barack Obama’s love of country, and urged the potential field of Republican presidential candidates to rebuke his comments.

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OBAMA: US AT WAR WITH THOSE WHO HAVE PERVERTED ISLAM

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Muslims in the U.S. and around the world have a responsibility to fight a misconception that terrorist groups like the Islamic State speak for them, President Barack Obama said Wednesday in his most direct remarks yet about any link between Islam and terrorism.

Islam for the sake of “accuracy” and to avoid lending credence to the terrorists’ own justification for violence - a strict interpretation of Islam. Frustrated by what they deemed a manufactured controversy, Obama aides have argued that a focus on terminology has distracted from more fruitful conversations about what can actually be done to stop extremist ideologies from spreading.

For weeks, the White House has sidestepped the question of whether deadly terror attacks in Paris and other Western “These are individuals who carcities amount to “Islamic exried out an act of terrorism, and tremism,” wary of offending a they later tried to justify that act major world religion or lendof terrorism by invoking the reing credibility to the “war on ligion of Islam and their own deterror” that Obama’s predeces- President Barack Obama while while speaking about violent extremists at the White House Summit on viant view of it,” White House Countering Violent Extremism, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2015, in the South Court Auditorium of the Eisenhower sor waged. But as he hosted a Executive Office Building on the White House Complex in Washington. spokesman Josh Earnest said at White House summit on counthe time. tering violent extremism, the president said some in Muslim communities have bought into the notion that Islam is incompatible with tolerance and Yet the argument over terminology has increasingly become a distraction, modern life. including this week as Obama gathered law enforcement officials, Muslim leaders and lawmakers for a three-day summit on violent extremism. In “We are not at war with Islam,” Obama said. “We are at war with people his remarks Wednesday, Obama acknowledged it was a touchy subject but who have perverted Islam.” insisted it was critical to tackle the issue “head-on.”

While putting the blame on IS and similar groups - Obama said the militants masquerade as religious leaders but are really terrorists - the president also appealed directly to prominent Muslims to do more to distance themselves from brutal ideologies. He said all have a duty to “speak up very clearly” in opposition to violence against innocent people.

“Just as leaders like myself reject the notion that terrorists like ISIL genuinely represent Islam, Muslim leaders need to do more to discredit the notion that our nations are determined to suppress Islam,” Obama said.

Issuing such a direct challenge to Muslims marked a clear departure from the restrained, cautious language Obama and his aides have used to describe the situation in the past.

In the days after last month’s shootings at a satirical French newspaper that had caricatured the Prophet Muhammad, Obama avoided calling the attack an example of “Islamic extremism,” and instead opted for the more generic “violent extremism.” Recently, the White House also struggled to explain whether the U.S. believes the Afghan Taliban to be a terrorist organization.

The refusal to directly assess any Islamic role in the terrifying scenes playing out in Europe, the Mideast and Africa has drawn criticism from those who say Obama has prioritized political correctness over a frank acknowledgement of reality. National security hawks, in particular, argued that Obama’s counterterrorism strategy couldn’t possibly be successful if the president was unable or unwilling to confront the true nature of the threat.

White House aides said they were avoiding associating the attacks with

“We can’t shy away from these discussions,” he said. “And too often, folks are understandably sensitive about addressing some of these root issues, but we have to talk about them honestly and clearly.”

Still, the president took care to differentiate militant groups from the “billion Muslims who reject their ideology.” He noted that IS is killing far more Muslims than non-Muslims, and he called for the world community to elevate the voices of those who “saw the truth” after being radicalized temporarily.

Obama acknowledged that many Muslims in the U.S. have a suspicion of government and police, feeling they have been unfairly targeted, that has confounded efforts to strengthen cooperation between law enforcement and Muslim communities. He effusively praised Muslims who have served the U.S. in the military or in other capacities for generations.

“Of course, that’s the story extremists and terrorists don’t want the world to know: Muslims succeeding and thriving in America,” Obama said. “Because when that truth is known, it exposes their propaganda as the lie that it is.”

Obama has long tried to shift his administration’s terror rhetoric away from what he saw as the hyperbolic terminology used by his predecessor, George W. Bush, particularly Bush’s declaration in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that the U.S. was engaged in a “war on terror.”

In a high-profile national security address in 2013, Obama declared, “We must define our effort not as a boundless `global war on terror,’ but rather as a series of persistent, targeted efforts to dismantle specific networks of violent extremists that threaten America.”

JEB BUSH: US MUST ‘TIGHTEN THE NOOSE’ IN FIGHT AGAINST IS

Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz said at the start of the DNC’s winter meeting that now is the time for Republican leaders to “stop this nonsense.”

“There were mistakes made in Iraq, for sure,” during President George W. Bush’s administration, Bush said during a question-and-answer session that followed his 20-minute speech. He said intelligence about Saddam Hussein’s possession of weapons of mass destruction was not accurate and the U.S. initially failed to create an environment of security in the country after removing the Iraqi leader from power.

Giuliani, who sought the 2008 GOP presidential nomination, said at a New York City event on Wednesday night that “I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the president loves America.”

“He doesn’t love you. And he doesn’t love me. He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up through love of this country,” Giuliani said, according to Politico.

But Bush praised his older brother’s decision to “surge” troops into Iraq in 2007, which added roughly 20,000 troops to the American forces in the country in an effort to improve security. He called it “one of the most heroic acts of courage politically” of any president, given the weak support for that strategy in Congress.

The questioning of Obama’s patriotism brought to mind a familiar conservative criticism during his 2008 and 2012 campaigns that he hasn’t been proud enough of the United States. During his presidency, a smaller segment falsely claimed that Obama was not born in the United States but rather in his father’s native Kenya.

Bush raised the criticisms of his brother without prompting, and used them was a way to critique Obama’s handling of the Middle East. He said Obama failed to maintain what he called a fragile but stable security situation that his brother left behind in Iraq upon leaving office in 2009.

The private dinner was attended by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who is considering a 2016 campaign. Giuliani said that “with all our flaws we’re the most exceptional country in the world. I’m looking for a presidential candidate who can express that, do that and carry it out.”

“And if it’s you Scott, I’ll endorse you,” Giuliani said, addressing Walker. “And if it’s somebody else, I’ll support somebody else.”

Walker, asked about the comments in an interview with CNBC, did not directly address whether he agreed with the former mayor.

“The mayor can speak for himself. I’m not going to comment on whether - what the president thinks or not. He can speak for himself continued on page 2

Former Florida Gov. Jeb. Bush answers questions after speaking to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2015, in Chicago. The likely Republican candidate says his views about America’s place in the world will often be compared to those of his father and brother, but plans to tell the audience Wednesday, “I am my own man.” according to excerpts released ahead of the speech.

CHICAGO (AP) -- Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Wednesday there can be no diplomacy with Islamic State militants, but only a U.S.-led coalition of Middle Eastern countries committed to “tightening the noose and taking them out.”

In a wide-ranging speech outlining his vision of America’s place in the world, part of the Republican’s run-up toward a likely campaign for president in 2016, Bush laid the rise of the Islamic State group at the feet of President Barack Obama. He also made his most overt criticisms to date of his brother’s administration, telling the audience of several hundred people, “I am my own man.”

“My views are shaped by my own thinking and own experiences,” Bush said at an event hosted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. “Each president learns from those who came before - their principles, their adjustments.”

Had he done so, Obama “would not have allowed the void to be filled”

by Islamic State militants who now control large parts of Iraq and Syria.

He said there can be no discussions with the group, which has drawn condemnation across the region and the world for carrying out regular acts of violence, often on video, that includes beheadings.

“We have to develop a strategy that’s local, that takes them out,” Bush said. “There’s no talking about this. That’s just not going to work for terrorism.”

Obama hasn’t proposed engaging diplomatically with the Islamic State group, and on Wednesday said those fighting for the group, as well as al-Qaida, are not religious leaders, but terrorists. He has blamed the rise of the Islamic State group on the failings of the Iraqi government, specifically its alienation of minority sects. continued on page 3

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D I D N S A P L A N T S P Y WA R E I N COMPUTERS AROUND WORLD? SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Did the National Security Agency plant spyware deep in the hard drives of thousands of computers used by foreign governments, banks and other surveillance targets around the world?

into the essential software that comes pre-installed on a computer’s disk drive, known as firmware. Once there, it was difficult to detect and virtually impossible to remove, and it could gain access to vital codes, such as the keys to deciphering encrypted files. Kamluk said compromising firmware is a difficult technical challenge that likely requires knowledge of the manufacturer’s source code - normally a closely guarded secret.

A new report from Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab said its researchers identified a new family of malicious programs or worms that infected computers in multiple countries, primarily overseas.

Targets appeared to be specifically selected and included military, Islamic activists, energy companies and other businesses, as well as government personnel.

The report named several disk drive manufacturers whose products were compromised, including Seagate Technology, Western Digital Corp., Toshiba and IBM Corp. While some did not immediately respond to requests for comment, three companies said the report came as news to them.

Without naming the United States as the source of the malware, the report said one A new report from Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab released Monof the programs has elements in common day, Feb. 16, 2015 said its researchers identified malicious programs or with the so-called Stuxnet worm, which the worms that infected computers in multiple countries. Targets appeared to be specifically selected and included military, Islamic activists, energy companies New York Times and Washington Post have and other businesses, as well as government personnel said was developed by the U.S. and Israeli “We take such threats very seriously,” governments to disrupt Iranian nuclear Western Digital spokesman Steve Shatfacilities. Based on their similarities, the creators of both programs “are either tuck said Tuesday, adding in a statement that the company is “in the process of the same or working closely together,” Kaspersky’s report said. reviewing the report from Kaspersky Labs.”

The malware was not designed for financial gain but to collect information through “pure cyberespionage,” added Kaspersky researcher Vitaly Kamluk. In its report, the firm said the malware was extremely sophisticated and “expensive to develop.”

NSA spokeswoman Vanee Vines declined comment Tuesday, but cited a 2014 presidential directive that instructed U.S. intelligence agencies to respect Americans’ privacy while continuing to conduct overseas operations necessary to guard against terrorism or other threats.

Kaspersky researchers said some of the spyware was designed to burrow

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K S H A D R P L E A Y IN US A R E C A

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NEW YORK (AP) -- The co-creator of sophisticated BlackShades malware pleaded guilty Wednesday to a criminal charge after authorities said his product infected over a half-million computers in more than 100 countries.

Alex Yucel, 24, entered the plea in Manhattan federal court to a single count of distribution of malicious software.

Children Incorporated 4205 Dover Road Richmond, VA 23221-3267

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Yucel told Judge P. Kevin Castel he knew that individuals who bought the malware would use it maliciously. He said he hopes to return to Sweden after serving his sentence. Currently incarcerated, Yucel has agreed not to appeal any sentence that’s less than 7 1/4 years in prison.

Sentencing was scheduled for May 22.

Yucel was arrested in Moldova in November 2013. Prosecutors said the BlackShades Remote Access Tool, or “RAT,” has been sold since 2010 to several thousand users in more than 100 countries, enabling them to remotely take over the computers of others.

Michael Hogue, 23, of Maricopa, Arizona - the program’s co-creator - had pleaded guilty in New York after his June 2012 arrest. He awaits sentencing. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara has said he is cooperating.

POTECTING SPEICIES worldwildlife.org

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In a news release Wednesday, Bharara said Yucel enabled anyone willing to pay $40 to violate the property and privacy of others. “With his guilty plea today, Yucel will now have to pay for his conduct,” Bharara said.

The malware lets hackers steal personal information, intercept keystrokes and hijack webcams to secretly record computer users. BlackShades also can be used to encrypt and lock computer data files, forcing people to pay a ransom to regain access.

Seagate Technology said it “has no specific knowledge of any allegations regarding third parties accessing our drives.” The company said in a statement it’s committed to security and takes steps to prevent tampering or “reverse engineering” of its products. Toshiba said it had no knowledge of the malware and declined further comment.

While some of the malware was transmitted over the Internet, Kaspersky said one worm spread through infected USB thumb drives, allowing it to collect information from computers that are “air-gapped” or disconnected from the Internet. Air-gapping is a security practice used at nuclear plants and other sensitive facilities.

Kaspersky also said it uncovered “classic spying methods” in which scientists who attended an international conference in Houston were later sent a CD of conference materials from the event’s sponsor. The sponsor apparently didn’t know that the disc also contained malware which spread into certain attendees’ computers, the researchers said.

Kaspersky said it found signs the malware infected computers in more than 30 countries, with the heaviest concentrations in Iran, Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and China. There were relatively few targets in the U.S. and Britain, said Kamluk, who characterized them as individuals living or visiting in those countries rather than companies or institutions based there.

Though it’s less well-known in the United States, Kaspersky is respected in the cybersecurity industry and its reports are generally viewed as reputable. While some critics have suggested the firm has close ties to Russian authorities, several experts said Tuesday that it’s plausible the United States is behind the malware identified in the report.

“A lot of nation-states are involved in these activities. Russia, China and the U.S. are in a great cyberarms race,” said David DeWalt, chief executive of the Silicon Valley cybersecurity firm FireEye. He noted that China has been implicated in attempts to steal source code and other information from U.S. companies, for example, while Russian authorities have been linked to some hacking efforts.

Some warned that U.S. efforts could have unintended consequences: Foreign customers could become more leery of U.S. tech products if they’re suspected of being used for spying. And other hackers may be able to exploit the same vulnerabilities, said cybersecurity expert and author Bruce Schneier.

BLAST GIULIANI continued from page 1

as well,” Walker said. “I’ll tell you, I love America, and I think there are plenty of people, Democrat, Republican, independent, everywhere in between, who love this country.”

Asked about Obama in an interview with Fox News on Thursday, Giuliani said he wasn’t “questioning his patriotism. He’s a patriot, I’m sure. What I’m saying is, in his rhetoric, I very rarely hear him say the things that I used to hear Ronald Reagan say, the things that I used to hear Bill Clinton say, about how much he loves America.”

A spokesman for Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul declined comment and a spokeswoman for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush had no immediate response. Both are potential Republican presidential candidates.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Lai said if the case had gone to trial, prosecutors planned to show jurors instant messages Yucel had written and stolen data found on the BlackShades server.

Wasserman Schultz, a Florida congresswoman, said she often disagreed with former President George W. Bush and Republicans in Congress but never questioned their patriotism. She noted that Arizona Sen. John McCain, during his 2008 presidential campaign, urged fellow Republicans not to question Obama’s love of country.

She said jurors also would have seen payments from thousands of BlackShades customers and would have heard testimony from cooperating co-defendants.

“I would challenge my Republican colleagues and anyone in the Republican party to say, `Enough.’ They need to start leading,” Wasserman Schultz said.

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CUBA SEES OBAMA TERROR PROMISE A S H E A L I N G O F H I S T O R I C W O U N D on Cuba.

HAVANA (AP) -- A year after he took office, President Ronald Reagan placed Cuba on a list of state sponsors of terror for backing leftist guerrilla groups in Central and South America.

The bank that handled transactions for Cuba’s interests section in the U.S. closed its account last year, leaving its diplomats dealing almost exclusively in cash.

The ability to reopen a U.S. bank account is one of Cuba’s most urgent demands in the negotiations to reopen embassies. While that decision falls to individual banks, removal from the terror list will make it easier.

Cuba remained on the list as the Soviet Union fell, Fidel Castro stopped aiding insurgents and the global focus on terrorism turned to the Mideast. For outside observers, Cuba’s place on the list was a Cold War relic that showed the power of the communist government’s enemies in Congress. For Cuba, it became the most potent symbol of what many here call five decades of bullying by the superpower to the north.

“Its continuing presence on the list harms U.S. national interests because it prevents a rapprochement,” Muse said. “Cuba should be taken off the list because it doesn’t belong.”

Now, as the two countries move to end a half-century of acrimony, President Barack Obama has made clear that he will take Cuba off the terror list, saying in a televised address on his new Cuba policy late last year that “at a time when we are focused on threats from al Qaeda to ISIL, a nation that meets our conditions and renounces the use of terrorism should not face this sanction.”

Cuba’s top diplomat for U.S. affairs heads to Washington next week for a second round of talks on restoring ties. Cubans ranging from President Raul Castro to ordinary citizens describe their country’s removal from the list as one of the most important elements of that detente, one that could help heal a great injustice. In Cuban eyes, they are the victims of terror, not the U.S. For Cubans, the worst act of aggression against the island since its 1959 revolution occurred when 73 people aboard a Cuban passenger flight from Barbados to Havana died in a 1976 bombing blamed on exiles with ties to U.S.-backed anti-Castro groups. Both of the men accused of masterminding the crime took shelter in Florida, where one, Luis Posada Carriles, lives quietly to this day.

“This is a small country and everybody knows somebody who knows someone who was on that plane,” said Juan Carlos Cremata, a film and theater director who was 13 when his father, a 41-year-old airline dispatcher, was killed in what Cubans call “the Crime of Barbados.”

“The U.S. is going to show that it’s an intelligent country because the most absurd, the most stupid thing in the world, is to put Cuba on a list of terrorist nations,” Cremata said.

Removal from the U.S. list could provide Cuba protection against lawsuits inside the United States because inclusion on it strips countries of important immunities

U.S. and Cuban flag hang from a balcony in Old Havana, Cuba. As the two countries to end a half-century of acrimony, President Barack Obama has made clear that he is moving quickly to take Cuba off the list of state sponsors of terror, saying in a televised address on his new Cuba policy in late 2014 that “at a time when we are focused on threats from al Qaeda to ISIL, a nation that meets our conditions and renounces the use of terrorism should not face this sanction.

that U.S. courts normally grant to foreign governments.

With Cuba and the U.S. moving to tighten trade ties, protecting Cuba and any U.S. corporate partners from lawsuits by people claiming to have been harmed by the Castro government could prove essential.

“From the Cuban point of view, resolving this problem of the list also resolves this type of concern,” said Jesus Arboleya, an international relations professor at the University of Havana who served as Cuban consul in Washington from 1979 to 1982. “It isn’t convenient for anyone that they call Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism.”

While removal from the terror list would have no direct impact on U.S. sanctions against Cuba, it could also make it easier for international banks to justify doing business with Cuba, said Robert L. Muse, an attorney specializing in U.S. laws

VEGAS POLICE, FAMILY DEFEND MOM KILLED IN ROAD-RAGE SHOOTOUT back out in search of the driver who frightened her.

“There was mistakes made, like every one of us has made in our lives, but this particular mistake was made to keep a bigger mistake from happening,” Robert Meyers said.

He didn’t immediately respond Wednesday to a message left at his business, Auction Stalkers LLC. Officer Laura Meltzer, a department spokeswoman, said police were still looking Wednesday for the people in the sedan.

A police sketch shows the suspect to be a man in his mid-20s with blond spiky hair and blue or hazel eyes, wearing a white V-neck T-shirt. “All indications to us are that this unknown person fired first,” Steiber said.

People participate in a candlelight vigil for Tammy Meyers, who was taken off life support on Saturday after a shooting in Las Vegas. What police first described as a road rage-inspired shooting of an innocent mother of four has morphed into a more complex scenario, prompting a backlash Wednesday against the Las Vegas family and the way the case is being handled.

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- What police first described as the road rage-inspired killing of an innocent mother of four has morphed into a more complex scenario, prompting tough questions and a backlash against her family.

Tammy Meyers, 44, was shot in the head outside her home in a Las Vegas cul-de-sac shortly before midnight Thursday after confrontations that began when she was giving her 15-year-old daughter an after-hours driving lesson and the girl honked at a driver she felt was speeding, police said.

Those facts haven’t changed, police Lt. Ray Steiber said this week at a news conference, where he noted that the mother’s life-support was disconnected on Valentine’s Day, and insisted that she alone is “our victim.”

But the fatal shooting turned out to be a two-way shootout, provoked by an encounter with unidentified assailants, after Tammy Meyers had her daughter rouse her older son Brandon, who grabbed his gun and joined her in a hunt for the driver she had encountered earlier, Steiber said.

With questions lingering about the shooting and a murder suspect still at large, Las Vegas police held a news conference Wednesday at a busy intersection near headquarters in which they decried the dangers of road rage but did not discuss the investigation into Meyers’ killing.

Kristal Meyers told police that her mother was driving them slowly home from the parking lot when a car sped up from behind, and that she reached over and honked their horn as it passed.

“She figured that this person was speeding, and needed to be corrected. Right or wrong, she beeped the horn,” Steiber said.

The man then blocked their car, got out and said “some words” that “frightened Mrs. Meyers and her daughter, at which time Mrs. Meyers sped past him” and went home, Steiber said.

“Here’s what happens when she gets home,” the lieutenant continued. “Mrs. Meyers is scared, but she’s upset. She tells her daughter to go wake up her son, 22, to wake him up and have him come outside and get in the car with her so later they can find who frightened them and her daughter out on the roadway.”

“They left the house in search of that person,” Steiber said, and found a grey or silver four-door sedan matching the description of the car in the earlier confrontation. She followed the “suspect vehicle,” then they broke apart and she drove home. Then the vehicle came into their cul-de-sac.

“There was a volley of rounds fired from that vehicle,” and Brandon Meyers “returned fire,” the officer said. “When the firing was done, he found that his mother had been struck by gunfire. The suspect vehicle then backed out and sped away. That’s what happened. Tammy is a victim.”

No one in the family called police until after the shooting, Steiber said, and initially, investigators had just the comments of the son and daughter to go on.

Meyers’ husband, Robert, who was in Southern California at the time, said Friday that his son Brandon told him he believed there were three people in the car, and that he had hit the car at least once with his 9mm handgun.

He called his son a hero, and said his wife panicked when she went

“Cuba continues to harbor members of foreign terrorist organizations as well as fugitives from US justice who are responsible for the deaths of Americans,” said Brooke Sammon, a spokeswoman for Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio.

“Senator Rubio has seen no indication that the Castro regime has fundamentally changed its behavior and is deserving of being removed from the list.”

Recent State Department reports on the list mention Cuba’s sheltering members of the Marxist guerrila group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and the Spanish Basque separatist group ETA. They make little pretense that the U.S. actually considers Cuba to be a state sponsor of terror.

“There was no indication that the Cuban government provided weapons or paramilitary training to terrorist groups,” the State Department said in 2013.

Cuba is sponsoring ongoing peace talks between the FARC and the Colombian government in Havana. And Spain’s interest in members of the Basque group living abroad has dwindled considerably in the last decade, given a definitive ETA cease-fire in 2011 and the rising threat posed by Islamist radicals.

The biggest potential problem for Cuba is posed by black and Puerto Rican militants who fled there after carrying out attacks in the United States. The fugitives include Joanne Chesimard, who changed her name to Assata Shakur and was granted asylum by Fidel Castro after she escaped from the prison where she was serving a sentence for killing a New Jersey state trooper in 1973.

Cuba has made clear that it has no intention of returning Chesimard, particularly since the man it accuses of orchestrating the “Crime of Barbados,” Posada Carriles, has been living in Miami since a Texas federal jury in 2011 acquitted him of lying to U.S. officials about his role in a string of 1997 Havana hotel bombings that killed an Italian tourist. The U.S. government has refused to turn him over for trial in the Cubana bombing.

While few Cubans expect the U.S. to extradite Posada Carriles, many call removing Cuba from the terror list a welcome measure nonetheless.

“It would be an extraordinary event for me, for my family and I think for all the relatives of the victims,” said Camilo Rojo, a lawyer who was 5 when his father, an airline security guard, died on the flight.

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A few thousand American troops returned to Iraq last year to help fight the Islamic State group, and the U.S. and several Arab partners - including Jordan, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia - began airstrikes against IS militants in September.

During his speech, Bush offered harsh words for Obama’s foreign policy, calling his administration “inconsistent and indecisive” and saying it has led the U.S. to lose “the trust and the confidence of our friends.”

“The great irony of the Obama presidency is this: Someone who came to office promising greater engagement with the world has left America less influential in the world,” Bush said.

Bush acknowledged during the speech that his views will often be compared with those of his brother and father, former President George H.W. Bush, adding he is “lucky” to have had family members who have “shaped America’s foreign policy from the Oval Office.”

The older Bush brother finished his second term amid an unpopular war in Iraq, with the economy in freefall and with a majority of Americans disapproving of his job performance.

Among donors, Jeb Bush has noted a strong family and religious bond with his older brother, but has also said they are not clones and have differences common among siblings.

Bush promised a resurgent America if a handful of key changes are made by the next president - including new approaches to education, entitlement programs and the U.S.-based energy economy.

“The United States has this potential of being young and dynamic again,” he said.

Ahead of the speech, Bush aides released a list of what they called a preliminary group of experts who will provide him with foreign policy advice. They included familiar names, such as James Baker III and George Shultz, both secretaries of state under President Ronald Reagan; and former Homeland Security secretaries Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff and former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, all three of whom served under George W. Bush.

The family spoke at a vigil Tuesday night next to the junior high school parking lot where Kristal Meyers got her driving lesson.

“She didn’t deserve this,” said Brandon Meyers, 22. “I did what I had to do to protect my family. Everyone can think what they have to think. I did it for a reason. And I’d do it for anyone I love.”

The other countries on the list are Iran, Sudan and Syria. Removing Cuba requires Obama to send Congress a report certifying that the island hasn’t supported international terrorism for the past six months. Forty-five days later, Cuba will be taken off unless the House and Senate pass a joint resolution to block the move. Such a resolution appears highly unlikely, although Cuban-American legislators in Congress remain vehemently opposed to taking Cuba off the list because they say Havana’s behavior hasn’t changed, even if circumstances have.

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The list also included some lesser-known names, such as Meghan O’Sullivan, a former national security adviser to George W. Bush, who now teaches at Harvard and is seen as key to Jeb Bush’s idea of lessening U.S. dependence on Middle East energy.

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The Weekly News Digest, Feb 16 thru Feb 20, 2015

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F L O R I D A C R A S H S TAT I S T I C S S t u a r t w o m a n s t i l l i n c r i t i c a l condition after multi-car crash on I-95 Palm Beach Post A 26-year-old Stuart woman remained in critical condition Thursday after she was injured in a multi-car crash that shut down a stretch of Interstate 95 in the Jupiter-Hobe Sound area for more than four hours Wednesday night, the Florida Highway Patro[...]

R o a d r a n g e r t r u c k s h i e l d s w o m a n ’s v e h i c l e i n I - 9 5 s h o u l d e r c r a s h 95 JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A road ranger’s truck may have very well saved a woman’s life. The ranger had stopped to help her when she had car trouble on Interstate 95, but then someone slammed into the truck, narrowly missing the ranger and the woman.[...]

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MIAMI (AP) - The Florida Highway Patrol says a Road Ranger is recovering after he was hit by a drunk driver on Interstate 95. The crash happened Sunday in the northbound lanes of I-95 in Miami.

F H P e x p e c t e d t o r e l e a s e m o r e i n f o a b o u t 6 - v e h i c l e I - 9 5 c r a s h Florida Highway Patrol is expected to release more information Thursday about an Interstate 95 crash that sent three people to the hospital and shut down northbound lanes for four and a half hours Wednesday.[...]

C r a s h w i t h i n j u r i e s s h u t s d o w n I - 9 5 n o r t h b o u n d l a n e s , t r o o p e r s s a y Injuries were reported in a crash that shut down the northbound lanes of Interstate 95 at Broward Boulevard, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. Troopers said the crash happened just before 11 p.m. Friday in Broward County. Check: Latest traffic[...]

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________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The Weekly News Digest, Feb 16 thru Feb 20, 2015

5

D E S P I T E B A N , F O X H U N T S S T I L L T H R I V E , A N D D I V I D E , I N B R I TA I N IBSTONE, England (AP) -- The horses wait in the farmyard, tails braided and manes gleaming, while huntsmen in brightly colored coats marshal the eager hounds, straining to chase the scent of a fox.

The rival factions sometimes exchange insults, and even blows. In January, the master of the Tedworth Hunt in western England was hospitalized after being attacked by masked protesters with iron bars.

To some, the start of a fox hunt is a quintessentially English scene, steeped in tradition. To others, it’s a barbaric rite preserved for the rich. Oscar Wilde dubbed fox hunting “the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable,” and a decade ago Wednesday lawmakers banned the centuries-old blood sport, which has many opponents in Britain’s cities, and deep roots in its countryside.

Meanwhile, hunting is stuck in a legal limbo that all sides criticize.

The RSPCA wants police to do more to catch illegal hunters, and to determine the scale of illegal fox killing.

But police, whose budgets have been cut during years of government austerity, say they are already overstretched.

“People who live in the country support hunting,” said Mike Murray, who has come to see off the hounds and riders of the Kimblewick Hunt in Ibstone, a village tucked into the wooded Chiltern Hills an hour outside of London. “It’s as simple as that.”

When hunting with hounds was banned, pro-hunting groups feared the sport could disappear, endangering thousands of rural jobs, from dog breeders to stable hands to blacksmiths.

But hunting has survived, and even prospered, by adapting to the new rules - or, opponents claim, by flouting the law. Thousands of people still attend organized hunts each week throughout the winter, and only a handful of hunters have been convicted of breaching the ban.

Some opponents of hunting say that’s evidence that there is one law for the rich and one for the poor. Hunt supporters say it’s the result of a bad law motivated by social hostility. Sooner or later, all debates about fox hunting come to the c-word: class.

Tim Bonner of rural lobby group the Countryside Alliance said the ban was motivated by “a class-war agenda.”

“It has nothing to do with animal welfare,” he said. “It was about politics.

This is the chosen battleground of those who want to dismantle the rural way of life.”

Many rural people reacted with fury when then-Prime Minister Tony Blair - whose Labour Party is strongest in urban areas - announced plans to outlaw hunting. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators marched through London, some clashing with riot police outside Parliament. Protesters even stormed onto the floor of the House of Commons.

The League Against Cruel Sports wants tougher rules, with jail sentences rather than fines for offenders, and a ban on trail hunts.

members of the of Kimblewick Hunt gather and have a cup of mulled wine prior to taking part in the hunt at Ibstone, England. A decade ago, Britain banned fox hunting with hounds, a centuries-old blood sport with deep roots in the countryside and strong opponents in the towns. Animal-welfare groups cheered the end of what they considered a cruel pastime reserved for the rich _ a sport Oscar Wilde dubbed “the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable

being killed by hounds, though he denies it’s deliberate.

“Given the fine lines between what is and isn’t an offense, people aren’t too ready to advertise when they do have an unintentional pursuit,” he said. “But it does happen.”

Clamping down on illegal hunting is not a police priority.

Official figures show that 341 people were prosecuted under the Hunting Act between 2005 and the end of 2013 - but the vast majority of them had nothing to do with fox hunting. Most of the cases involved poaching or illegally hunting hares.

The Countryside Alliance says that only 12 hunt members have been convicted, out of about 45,000 people who hunt regularly with almost 200 registered groups.

Anti-hunting groups agree that fox hunters account for a very small proportion of prosecutions under the act. They say the low number of convictions means the law is not being enforced strongly enough.

Blair later said the hunting ban was one of the few acts he regretted. He said he had failed to understand that for many rural people, “this was a fundamental part of their way of life.”

“The government, when they passed the act, didn’t say who they wanted to enforce it,” said David Bowles of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

British fox hunting - a form of pest control that became a sport - traditionally involves groups of riders following a pack of hounds trained to track and kill foxes. The Hunting Act, which came into force on Feb. 18, 2005, bans using dogs to kill the animals, though there are loopholes: up to two hounds can chase foxes into open ground so they can be shot.

“There were illegal activities in the countryside and nobody was taking any enforcement actions.”

Hunting supporters feared a ban would increase rural unemployment, condemn hunting dogs to death and lead to a plague of foxes. Those dire predictions have not come true. The hunting ban has had relatively little impact on fox numbers, since the animals can still be trapped, shot or gassed by farmers.

And the sport has adapted. Like many other hunting clubs, the Kimblewick Hunt now practices trail hunting: Hounds and riders follow a scent trail of fox urine laid out in advance. Trail hunting keeps the dog packs active and allows riders the experience of hunting without the climactic act of a fox being ripped apart by dogs - or at least that’s the theory. In practice, the dogs sometimes encounter foxes, and kill them.

“Our intention is to go out and trail hunt and work within the act as best we can, but obviously that becomes very difficult,” said hunt master Gerald Sumner. “We’re riding around the countryside, there’s foxes about, a fox jumps up and suddenly we’re criminals.”

The number of foxes still being killed by hounds is unknown. The League Against Cruel Sports claims kills are a regular occurrence and accuses hunters of using “underhanded methods” - such as claiming that intentional kills were accidental - to circumvent the law.

Bonner, of the pro-hunting Countryside Alliance, agrees that foxes are still

MAN CHARGED IN B IGGES T US H ACK ING SCHEME PLEADS NOT G UILT Y NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- A Russian citizen pleaded not guilty Tuesday to an 11-count indictment charging him and four others with running what authorities have called the largest criminal computer hacking scheme ever prosecuted in the United States.

Vladimir Drinkman appeared in U.S. District Court in New Jersey shackled and in yellow prison garb for the brief hearing, in which he pleaded not guilty to computer hacking conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, several counts of unauthorized computer access and three counts of wire fraud.

The wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy counts each carries a maximum sentence of 30 years.

Authorities say Drinkman, 34, of Moscow and Syktyvkar, Russia, and four co-conspirators from Russia and Ukraine stole and sold 100 million to 200 million credit and debit card numbers from payment processing companies, retailers and financial institutions between 2005 and 2012. The U.S. attorney’s office estimated the total loss to just three of the corporate victims comes to more than $300 million.

Among the alleged victims were the Nasdaq stock exchange; Dow Jones Inc.; Heartland Payment Systems; JC Penney; 7-Eleven and JetBlue Airways.

The RSPCA and charities stepped in to fill the gap by mounting prosecutions for illegal hunting. For evidence, they rely on volunteers - hunting supporters call them vigilantes - who film hunts in a bid to record dogs killing foxes. Bands of saboteurs also sometimes try to disrupt hunts by making a racket, laying false trails and other direct-action tactics.

The Countryside Alliance, meanwhile, is fighting to overturn the law. It wants Prime Minister David Cameron to hold a vote in Parliament if his Conservative Party wins a majority in May’s national election.

But politicians, like police, are reluctant to stir up an emotive issue that exposes Britain’s class fault-lines and urban-rural divide.

Most people who have never been on a hunt - which is most people in Britain - see the sport as the preserve of the wealthy few.

Advocates of hunting say that image is based on an urban misunderstanding of rural life. They argue that for all its traditional trappings - hounds and horns and scarlet jackets - fox hunting is not restricted to the landed gentry.

Participants at the Kimblewick Hunt include a nightclub owner, a train driver, a second-hand car salesman and the owner of a construction business. Hunt gatherings are community events, attended by supporters on foot, as well as riders, and fueled by volunteers who supply hot drinks and sausage rolls.

“It was always much more about community and social life, talking and keeping the countryside together,” said Fiona Mohammadi, who owns an eyewear business and has hunted for 25 years. “I think that’s stayed really strong. People have stuck together.”

Opponents say talk of community and tradition can’t hide the cruel nature of the sport. Opinion polls suggest most Britons back the hunting ban.

“You don’t just measure traditions in years,” said Michael Stephenson of the League Against Cruel Sports. “They have to reflect the values and attitudes of society.

“There is a much more important tradition: The British people are a nation of animal-lovers.”

Hunt supporters see that as sentimental urban nonsense. Sumner, who has worked for hunts for 15 years, is adamant the sport will endure.

“My son’s as keen as what I ever was at his age, and I am determined that there will be something for him when he wants it.”

6

The Weekly News Digest, Feb 16 thru Feb 20, 2015

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E M B AT T L E D D E B A LT S E V E FA L L S T O U K R A I N E R E B E L S ; T R O O P S R E T R E AT arrived on Wednesday morning.

ARTEMIVSK, Ukraine (AP) -- Government soldiers pulled out of a ferociously contested railway hub in eastern Ukraine Wednesday, ending a siege so intense the retreating troops said they couldn’t get water or food amid relentless shelling by Russian-backed separatists. At least six soldiers were killed in the withdrawal and more than 100 wounded.

One soldier spoke of heavy government losses, while another said they had not been able to get food or water because of the intense rebel shelling. A third spoke of hunkering down in bunkers for hours, unable to even go to the toilet because of the shelling. They smoked cigarettes in the frigid winter air and gratefully accepted plastic cups of tea.

President Petro Poroshenko sought to portray the fall of Debaltseve in a positive light, saying the pullback was carried out “in a planned and organized manner,” despite assertions by exhausted and dirt-caked soldiers, some of whom made their way out on foot, that their forces suffered heavy losses.

“We’re very happy to be here,” the hungry soldier told the AP. “We were praying all the time and already said goodbye to our lives a hundred times.”

Some retreating troops said they never received any reinforcements in Debaltseve and had been walking for a whole day. One Ukrainian soldier who introduced himself only as Nikolai said he was not even sure if his unit was retreating or being rotated elsewhere.

No matter the circumstances, the retreat appeared to be an acceptance by the Ukrainian leader of a humiliating defeat in exchange for a chance at pushing a shaky truce agreement forward and securing the pullback of heavy weapons.

The loss of Debaltseve was a serious setback for the army. The town is a strategic railroad junction that lies on the most direct route between the separatist east’s two major cities, Donetsk and Luhansk. By taking control of it, rebels gain significant transportation connections to boost their regions’ capacity to function as a unified entity.

Its strategic importance kept the battle raging even after a cease-fire between Ukrainian forces and the Russia-backed rebels went into effect Sunday and appeared to be mostly holding elsewhere after fighting that has killed more than 5,600 people since April.

Relinquishing the town could remove the major impediment to a lasting cease-fire and begin the next step that was agreed to in a peace deal last week - the pullback of heavy weapons by both sides to create a buffer zone at least 50 kilometers (30 miles) wide.

But the images of traumatized soldiers and their stories of deprivation will be another wound to a national psyche already bruised by Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula last March and the vicious fighting in the east, where Ukrainian forces suffered heavy losses at the hands of rebels they and the West claim got a huge boost from Russian equipment and troops.

Semyon Semenchenko, a battalion commander and a member of parliament, accused the military command of betraying the country’s interests in Debaltseve.

“We had enough forces and means,” he said in a Facebook post. “The problem is the command and coordination. They are as bad as can be.”

Semenchenko’s words cut especially hard because he became well-known during another major rebel rout of Ukrainian forces in the battle for

A Ukrainian serviceman touches his forehead outside Artemivsk, Ukraine, while pulling out of Debaltseve, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2015. After weeks of relentless fighting, the embattled Ukrainian rail hub of Debaltseve fell Wednesday to Russia-backed separatists, who hoisted a flag in triumph over the town. The Ukrainian president confirmed that he had ordered troops to pull out and the rebels reported taking hundreds of soldiers captive.

Ilovaysk last summer. Semenchenko, who was wounded in the fighting, was critical of the government for allegedly abandoning volunteer troops there.

Separatist officials have insisted the cease-fire agreed to last week by Poroshenko and the leaders of Russia, France and Germany did not apply to Debaltseve.

A top separatist official, Denis Pushilin, meanwhile, contended that the government pullback Wednesday wasn’t a retreat at all, but that rebels had overpowered most of the soldiers, killing them or forcing them to surrender.

“Debaltseve was under our control, it was never encircled,” Poroshenko asserted. “Our troops and formations have left in an organized and planned manner.

Poroshenko told a late night meeting of his national security council that six soldiers were killed during the withdrawal and more than 100 were injured, the Interfax news agency said.

He called on the body to consider asking for a U.N. peacekeeping mission, a move he previously opposed, apparently fearing they would include troops from Russia or its client states. The new proposal suggests a mission be made up of security forces from European Union countries.

Russia, as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, has the power to veto any peacekeeping mission.

Associated Press journalists were blocked from access to Debaltseve making it impossible to independently assess circumstances there. Russian television ran footage of rebels raising the flag of Novorossiya, as they call their nominal republic, over a building in the town, and images of several dozen captured Ukrainian troops being escorted along a village road by the rebels.

In the nearby town of Artemivsk, several dozen weary Ukrainian soldiers

M A N W I T H B O D I E S B U R I E D I N H I S YA R D G E T S L I F E I N P R I S O N plastic flex ties to strangle him and Fassett.

The pharmacist had pleaded guilty to running an illegal prescription drug ring and was about to be sentenced when he and Fassett were reported missing in 2002. About a year later, authorities found their decomposing bodies and at least three other sets of human remains on Selenski’s property near Wilkes-Barre.

Hugo Selenski, 41, was convicted last week on two counts of first-degree murder in the killings of Michael Kerkowski and Tammy Fassett during a robbery at the pharmacist’s home. He showed no reaction to the jury’s decision, which means he will serve life without parole. He will be formally sentenced next month.

One of Selenski’s lawyers, Bernard Brown, said he was pleased with the decision to spare him.

“We’re happy,” he said. “We’re relieved, not only for Hugo but for the family.”

He said Selenski, who declined to comment, maintains his innocence and plans to appeal the guilty verdict.

Kerkowski’s teenage son said after the jury’s decision there is no winner.

“I will never have my father back,” Connor Kerkowski tweeted. “but maybe now there can now be closure and justice for my family. hugo can rot in jail.”

Fassett’s relatives showed no reaction in court and had no comment later.

Prosecutors had asked for a death sentence for Selenski, saying he and a co-conspirator brutally beat Kerkowski to compel him to reveal the location of tens of thousands of dollars he kept in his house and then used

Whether that contention will be widely accepted is uncertain.

“Many will be disappointed, especially in the camp of the patriots,” said Kiev-based political analyst Vadim Karasyov. But he said he did not view Poroshenko as being in political danger, because polls show support for him is fairly strong. “The political position of Poroshenko, I don’t think this affects it fundamentally,” he said.

Poroshenko faces knotty challenges if the peace process laid down in the Minsk agreement is to go forward. The agreement obliges Ukraine to pass laws granting a yet-undefined degree of autonomy to the separatist regions, including the highly emotional issue of status for the Russian language.

The deal foresees Ukraine regaining control of its border with Russia in the separatist region only by the end of the year. Many fear that delay and the expanded powers for the region will allow Russia leverage to keep Ukraine destablized, thereby reducing any likelihood it could seek membership in NATO. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg accused the separatists of refusing to respect a cease-fire agreement and urged Russia “to end support for separatists and to withdraw forces and military equipment from eastern Ukraine.”

Russia has denied supplying the separatists with troops and weapons, a claim scoffed at by Western nations and Ukraine, who point to NATO satellite pictures of Russian weapons in eastern Ukraine.

Prosecutors argued Kerkowski was tortured, one of the aggravating circumstances they urged jurors to consider in deciding Selenski’s fate.

“The defendant has repeatedly used fear and lies and pain and death in order to obtain frivolous, material things,” Sam Sanguedolce, Luzerne County first assistant district attorney, told jurors in his closing argument.

“The defendant has earned his sentence.”

Viktor Ponosov, a rebel commander at the checkpoint, said Ukrainian forces appeared to have run out of ammunition and food.

Selenski’s attorney Edward “E.J.” Rymsza begged the jurors to spare his client’s life, asking them to ignore “voices of vengeance and retribution.”

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) -- A jury on Wednesday spared the life of a man convicted of strangling a pharmacist and his girlfriend in 2002 and burying their bodies in his yard, granting a defense request to show mercy despite the brutal nature of the crimes.

“The Ukrainian troops... gave a blow in the teeth to those who were trying to encircle them,” Poroshenko said at a Kiev airport before flying to eastern Ukraine to “shake the hands” of the soldiers leaving Debaltseve.

At a barricade outside the town of Vuhlehirsk, in rebel-held territory, reporters were barred from the road into Debaltseve by a group of fighters.

Some of the men identified themselves as coming from Russia’s Far East and bore the typical Asiatic features of native people there.

Prosecutors and jurors declined to comment after the jury’s decision was announced.

Hugo Selenski is led into the Luzerne County Courthouse, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2015, for the second day of the penalty phase in his double murder trial. A jury on Wednesday spared the life of Selenski, convicted of strangling pharmacist Michael Kerkowski and his girlfriend, Tammy Fassett, during a robbery at the pharmacist’s home in 2002 and burying their bodies in his yard, granting a defense request to show mercy despite the brutal nature of the crimes. He will serve life without parole

Earlier, Poroshenko portrayed the troop pullout as taking place “in a planned and organized manner” and characterized their stand in Debaltseve as a success by default because “we managed to show to the whole world the true face of the bandit-separatists backed by Russia.”

The defense tried to cast Selenski as a good father, brother and uncle even behind bars, with family members testifying earlier Wednesday that he wrote frequently and gave life advice.

Two of Selenski’s daughters and four of his sisters spoke of their love for him, calling him an intelligent and caring man who’s protective of his family, a portrait starkly at odds with the greedy, manipulative killer described in earlier trial testimony.

The two youngest sisters, both nursing students in their 20s, said he served as a father figure while briefly taking care of them more than a dozen years ago while their dad, now deceased, was ill.

“I wouldn’t be who I am today without him,” Katlyn Selenski said.

Selenski has spent most of the last 20 years in prison, with convictions for a 1994 bank robbery, a 2003 home invasion and robbery and now murder.

He escaped from a county lockup in 2003 using a rope fashioned from bed sheets but turned himself in days later. Now he will spend the rest of his days in a maximum security state prison.

In 2006, he beat two other homicide charges in the deaths of two suspected drug dealers whose charred remains also were found in his yard. The fifth body found on the property was never publicly identified.

Even if the jury had sentenced Selenski to die, he likely would have spent decades on death row and might never have received a lethal injection.

Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf recently declared a moratorium on the death penalty, calling the current system of capital punishment “error prone, expensive and anything but infallible.” Philadelphia’s district attorney has filed a legal challenge to the moratorium.

Pennsylvania has executed only three inmates since the U.S. Supreme Court restored the death penalty in 1976, the last one in 1999. All three had voluntarily given up their appeals.

“We have heard that they are calling their relatives and friends from within the encirclement and saying to them: `Please help us, because they are killing us and destroying us,’” Ponosov said.

AT T O R N E Y G E N E R A L NOMINEE DEFENDS B R I T I S H B A N K INVESTIGATION WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama’s nominee for attorney general is defending her office’s handling of a money-laundering investigation involving British bank HSBC, saying the deal carried stern penalties even though no individual executives were prosecuted.

Senate Republicans have delayed a vote on Loretta Lynch’s confirmation and said they had more questions, including about a 2012 deal in which HSBC agreed to pay $1.9 billion to resolve the investigation. The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected now to vote next week, though other questions from committee members remain outstanding.

Among the questions posed to Lynch from Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Iowa Republican who heads the committee, are 18 focused on the HSBC probe.

The Justice Department accused the bank of helping Mexican drug traffickers and other countries under U.S. suspicion or sanction move money around the world, but as part of the deal, no bank executives were criminally charged.

Loretta Lynch is the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, the office that brought the case.

In written responses received by committee staff Thursday, Lynch defended the deal, known as a deferred prosecution agreement, and said it had produced consequences that are “perhaps the most stringent ever imposed on a financial institution.”

“Our prosecution of HSBC resulted in a number of consequences to the individuals who oversaw HSBC’s anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance programs during the relevant time period,” Lynch wrote.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The Weekly News Digest, Feb 16 thru Feb 20, 2015

7

ISLAMIC STATE MILITANTS FIND A F O O T H O L D I N C H A O T I C L I B YA

CAIRO (AP) -- Libya, virtually a failed state in recent years, has succeeded in one way: It’s providing a perfect opportunity for the Islamic State group to expand from Syria and Iraq to establish a strategic foothold closer to European shores.

from his post days ago. It was not possible immediately to verify his account. In charge of the western half is a Yemeni emir based in Darna and known as Abu al-Baraa el-Azdi, according to local activists and a former militant from the city.

Extremists loyal to the group have taken control of two Libyan cities on the Mediterranean coast, have moved toward oil facilities and are slowly infiltrating the capital, Tripoli, and the second-largest city, Benghazi. They have siphoned off young recruits from rival militant groups linked to al-Qaida and in some places taken over those groups’ training camps, mosques and media networks.

The Islamic State has established is presence in Libya by exploiting the country’s breakdown since Gadhafi fell. After his ouster and death, hundreds of militias took power, and some of them have militant ideologies, including Ansar al-Shariah, an al-Qaida-associated group. A militia coalition known as Libya Dawn, which backs Islamist political factions, has taken over Tripoli, where Islamists set up their own parliament and government, and Islamist militias control Benghazi.

Notably, there appears to be strong coordination between the Libya branch and the group’s central leadership in Syria and Iraq. One of its top clerics, Bahraini Turki al-Binali, has visited the Libyan city of Sirte to preach: in 2013 and again at the end of last year, soon before it fell into the hands of the group’s supporters, according to a rival militia official based there. The official spoke on condition of anonymity for fear for his life.

A video released last week showing the beheading of a group of Egyptian Christians abducted from Sirte was produced by the IS media branch.

About 400 mostly Yemeni and Tunisian fighters are in Sirte, according to Libyan Interior Minister Omar al-Sinki. The militia official said Islamic State fighters have set up headquarters in the city’s convention complex, the Ouagadougou Center, built by former dictator Moammar Gadhafi as a symbol of his secular regime’s aspirations to be a pan-African leader. An Associated Press reporter who briefly visited Sirte on Wednesday saw masked militants deployed along the main road linking the convention center to downtown.

The close connection between the Libya branch and the central leadership around Islamic State chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi underscores the strategic importance of the North African country to the group.

Libya boasts oil resources - something the extremists have exploited for funding in Iraq and Syria. There are vast amounts of weapons, a legacy of the turmoil since Gadhafi’s 2011 ouster. Its borders with Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria are porous.

And the southern shore of Italy is about 400 miles (660 kilometers) away, a distance Libyans fleeing their country’s chaos regularly try to

In this file image made from a video released Sunday, Feb. 15, 2015 by militants in Libya claiming loyalty to the Islamic State group purportedly shows Egyptian Coptic Christians in orange jumpsuits being led along a beach, each accompanied by a masked militant.

Libya, virtually a failed state the past years, has provided a perfect opportunity for the Islamic State group to expand from its heartland of Syria and Iraq to establish a strategic stronghold close to European shores.

cross in rickety boats. Italy and France favor some sort of international action in Libya, while Egypt is pressing for a U.N.-backed coalition air campaign.

Besides Sirte in the center of the country, Islamic State loyalists control the city of Darna, farther east along the coast. This week, Egyptian warplanes struck IS training facilities and weapons depots in Darna in retaliation for the beheadings.

In Tripoli, which is controlled by powerful militias, IS militants have infiltrated some neighborhoods, destroying statues they consider forbidden by Islam and distributing pamphlets to spread their message.

They also claimed responsibility for a deadly attack at a luxury hotel that killed several foreigners, including an American.

Some IS extremists have entered Benghazi and are battling government troops, fighting beside other Islamic militias who dominate the city. IS fighters from Sirte recently were seen waving their black banners in a parade of vehicles in the town of Nofaliya, heading toward Libya’s oil ports of Sidr, Ras Lanouf and Brega.

The IS leadership in Iraq has named an “emir of Tripoli” to oversee the eastern half of Libya. He is a Tunisian known by the nom de guerre of Abu Talha, according to Interior Minister al-Sinki, removed

COURT NIXES GUANTANAMO CONVICTION OF AUSTRALIAN EX-DETAINEE Hugo Selenski is led into the Luzerne County Courthouse, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2015, for the second day of the penalty phase in his double murder trial. A jury on Wednesday spared the life of Selenski, convicted of strangling pharmacist Michael Kerkowski and his girlfriend, Tammy Fassett, during a robbery at the pharmacist’s home in 2002 and burying their bodies in his yard, granting a defense request to show mercy despite the brutal nature of the crimes. He will serve life without parole

MIAMI (AP) -- An appeals court on Wednesday struck down the terrorism conviction of Australian David Hicks, reversing one of the few successful prosecutions of a prisoner before a U.S. military court at the Navy base at Guantanamo Bay. The U.S. Court of Military Commission Review vacated Hicks’ March 2007 guilty plea, the first conviction of a prisoner at the base in Cuba and still one of only a handful.

For Hicks, the decision is the end of an odyssey that began when he traveled to Pakistan in 2000, joined the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba and took part in an attack on Indian forces, according to court records.

He later went to Afghanistan and attended a training camp run by al-Qaida. His only real fighting experience was helping to guard a Taliban tank near the Kandahar airport.

He was captured by the Northern Alliance, turned over to U.S. forces and spent about five years at Guantanamo.

Asked at the news conference what he was doing in Afghanistan, Hicks said: “Having a holiday.”

His U.S. lawyer, Wells Dixon, said Wednesday’s decision is “confirmation that he is actually innocent” of any crime. “In that sense he is finally free of Guantanamo,” the lawyer said.

The Guantanamo military commission has finalized six cases at the trial level, all of which ended in convictions. Three of those verdicts were vacated after the men’s release, and the other three are on appeal.

Two more prisoners have pleaded guilty and await sentencing; seven are facing trial, including five men charged in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack.

The U.S. holds 122 prisoners at Guantanamo.

The elected, Western-backed government has been pushed to the remote eastern city of Tobruk, from which remnants of the military led

by Gen. Khalifa Hifter and some allied militias have been battling the Islamists. The fighting has displaced hundreds of thousands of people and damaged large parts of Benghazi.

The violence also appears to have radicalized some militia members, making them easy recruits for the Islamic State. The group was kicked out of al-Qaida’s network for being too extreme, and it made a bid to become the leader of jihadis worldwide last year by declaring a “caliphate” in parts of Iraq and Syria it controls.

It took over Darna last year, while its move to dominate Sirte came more recently.

Once a showcase for Gadhafi’s rule, Sirte was devastated by the 2011 civil war, and little has been done to repair it. Schools operated sporadically, banks ran short of cash and bakeries were low on wheat, while garbage piled up in the streets, said Reem el-Breki, a Benghazi activist who runs a news portal that has covered Sirte. “The city was buried alive,” she said.

In 2013, it fell under the control of Ansar al-Shariah, which made alliances with local tribes and an uneasy truce with other militias and the few military troops in Sirte. Ansar militants took the Ouagadougou Center as their base, and the group boasted a TV and radio station in the city.

But the Islamic State group appears to have taken over Sirte though a slow infiltration. In 2013, al-Binali - the prominent radical cleric made his visit to preach in the city’s central mosque. Fighters from Mali, Tunisia, Egypt, Syria and the Palestinian territories began to move in, according to the militia official from the city.

Al-Binali - now firmly established in the top echelons of the Islamic State leadership - visited again late last year, the militia official said.

Soon after, the 21 Egyptian Christians in Sirte were abducted, and there was a wave of assassinations Jan. 22, with three top security and militia officials killed.

Afterward, Ansar al-Shariah disappeared from Sirte, replaced by the Islamic State group, according to an activist who runs a Facebook page called Sirte Steadfast Youth.

Radio stations played speeches by IS leader al-Baghdadi and songs urging people to pledge allegiance to him. Gunmen forced government workers to sign “repentance” statements. Militia vehicles switched their markings from Ansar to the Islamic State. Local media said IS gunmen looted Sirte’s banks.

The Islamic State group posted photos purportedly from Sirte showing religious police touring shops to remove sleeveless dresses.

Schools and hospitals were segregated by gender and curriculum was censored, said the activist, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

Sirte’s fall caused alarm in nearby Misrata, whose powerful militias make up the bulk of Libya Dawn and effectively control Tripoli. The city called on its allies in Tripoli to take action, and a militia official told AP that some forces from the capital have moved to the outskirts of Sirte, although they have not attacked.

“We had been waiting for this decision for years,” Hicks said at a news conference in Sydney. “It’s a relief because it’s over.”

Hicks, 39, pleaded guilty to providing material support to terrorism. It was a plea bargain in which all but nine months of his seven-year sentence was suspended and he was allowed to return home by the end of that year.

Last year, an appeal’s court ruling in the case of another detainee found that material support was not a legally viable war crime for conduct that occurred before 2006, when Congress passed legislation authorizing the special wartime court at Guantanamo known as a military commission.

Hicks had been in custody since late 2001.

“What he was doing there was not at that time illegal,” said Stephen Kenny, his Australian lawyer. “He wasn’t doing anything that was a breach of Australian, international or U.S. law. That is what this decision today confirms.”

Prosecutors conceded that material support was no longer a crime but argued his conviction should still stand because he agreed not to appeal as part of the plea deal, an argument rejected by the U.S. Court of Military Commission Review.

A Pentagon spokesman, Army Lt. Col. Myles Caggins, said the government would not appeal the ruling. He added in a written statement Hicks had been convicted based upon “voluntary admissions” that he trained with al-Qaida and met Osama bin Laden.

Hicks and his lawyers say he was abused in U.S. custody and only pleaded guilty so he could go home. “I was subjected to five-and-a-half years of physical and psychological torture that I will now live with always,” he told reporters in Sydney.

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L I B YA T O U N S E C U R I T Y C O U N C I L : LIFT ARMS EMBARGO TO FIGHT IS the video of the beheadings emerged. Both Italy and Algeria during the council meeting expressed their willingness to participate in international efforts.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Libya’s foreign minister on Wednesday demanded that the U.N. Security Council lift an arms embargo so his country can fight the Islamic State group as it establishes a presence in north Africa and moves closer to Europe.

Italy is especially worried. The country’s islands on the Mediterranean are only a few hundred miles from Libya, and Italian officials worry that militants will mingle with the waves of migrants being smuggled across from Libya and arrive in Italy by sea.

Foreign Minister Mohammed al Dairi spoke to an emergency session of the council amid regional alarm after the Islamic State group over the weekend posted a video of the beheadings of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians in Libya.

France, a lead player in the campaign to oust Gadhafi in 2011, has campaigned for months for some kind of international action in Libya.

Al Dairi stressed that Libya is not asking for international intervention. But he said the international community has a “legal and moral responsibility to lend urgent support” and that the region, including the Mediterranean, is in danger.

“If we fail to have arms provided to us, this can only play into the hands of extremists,” he said. He told reporters he wanted to see the same attention paid the danger in Libya as has been paid to Iraq and Syria, where a U.S.-led coalition is battling the Islamic State group.

The foreign minister of neighboring Egypt, Sameh Shoukry, called for a naval blockade on arms heading to areas of Libya outside the control of “legitimate authorities.” He did not rule out troops on the ground in Libya and said his country was seeking international support “by all means.”

Jordan was circulating a draft resolution on the issue to fellow council members later Wednesday. Aside from the call to lift the arms embargo, the draft resolution also calls on militias to withdraw from Tripoli to allow the return of the “legitimate government,” and it condemns any attempt to supply arms to non-state actors.

Egypt responded strongly to the beheadings, carrying out airstrikes against Islamic State group positions in Libya and saying it was in self-defense. Shoukry has said those airstrikes could continue.

Energy rich Libya is wracked by the worst fighting since long-ruling dictator Moammar Gadhafi was overthrown in 2011. Two rival govern-

Libyan Foreign Minister Mohamed Elhadi Dayri speaks during a Security Council meeting on the situation in Libya, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2015, at United Nations headquarters.

ments and parliaments - each backed by different militias - rule in the country’s eastern and western regions. After Islamic and tribal militias took over the capital, Tripoli, the elected parliament has been forced to function in the eastern city of Tobruk.

On Tuesday, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi had called on the United Nations to approve a new coalition for airstrikes in Libya, where the extremists have set up their first major affiliate outside of Iraq and Syria.

But U.N. diplomats said Egypt’s initial demands eased during talks later Tuesday.

It’s possible for Libya to apply for weapons imports under an exemption in the arms embargo for the Libyan government, but the U.N. committee that considers such requests has been cautious about giving approval amid concern that weapons might be leaked to armed groups. The U.N. embargo has been in place since 2011.

Countries in the region have been stepping up to offer support since

SNOWBOUND BOSTONIANS JUMP OUT W I N D O W S , S C A L E S N O W M O U N TA I N S Boston police reminded the public that snowmobiles and other off-road vehicles are prohibited on city streets.

THE ALPS OF MIT Tucked between dormitory buildings near the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus is a towering pile of snow, perhaps three stories high, dubbed “The Alps of MIT” or “Mount Cambridge.”

Located in a parking lot used as a dumping ground for snow, the mountain has quickly become a popular spot for skiing, sledding and other winter pastimes. The university has put up a chainlink fence and posted “No Trespassing” signs, but that hasn’t discouraged some visitors.

Three students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology jokingly use mountaineering gear to make their way down from a massive snow pile on the MIT campus in Cambridge, Mass., Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2015. The mountain of excess snow has been dubbed the “Alps of MIT” and is being used for climbing, sledding and posing.

BOSTON (AP) -- Thrill-seekers jumping out windows into snowbanks and posting videos of their feats online. Snowmobilers racing through normally busy Boston streets with snowboarders in tow. And college students skiing and sledding down a colossal snow pile dubbed “Mount MIT.” New England’s winter blast is serious business, but there’s been no shortage of horseplay.

“I’ve been in the house an awful lot and I’ve been getting stir-crazy, so I don’t blame people for doing stupid stuff,” said John Goodman, a Cambridge resident marveling at “Mount MIT” on Wednesday. “Everything has become an obstacle. So rather than let it continue to be an obstacle, let it become something entertaining.”

Police in Boston - a city with a heavy concentration of college students - said they have not had to deal with any reports of snow-related mischief, but department spokesman Michael McCarthy urged people not to do foolish things.

“Common sense would hopefully dictate a lot of what people are doing out there,” he said. “Obviously if you are sledding down mountains of snow into a lane of traffic, that’s not the best thing to be doing.”

A look at some of the ways Boston-area residents are making the most of the surreal winter landscape created by an unprecedented 8 feet of snow over the past three weeks: SNOW JUMPERS Boston Mayor Marty Walsh has been appealing to residents to stop jumping out windows into the snow, which is piled 10 feet high or more in places.

“It’s a foolish thing to do, and you could kill yourself,” Walsh said this week.

SNOWBOARDS AND SNOWMOBILES Snowmobilers were spotted near the Boston University campus during the last weekend’s storm, which dumped more than a foot of new powder. At least one snowmobiler in a video posted online had a snowboarder in tow.

HEALTHY? NO THANKS: DIETS OF PEOPLE WORLDWIDE ARE W O R S E N I N G

On Wednesday, gawkers took selfies at the base of the mountain, while three MIT students in mountaineering gear scaled the snowy peaks, giggling all the way up.

ICE BAR Boston residents Christopher Haynes and Kristy Nardone carved a cozy little bar out of the 9-foot mound of snow in front of their house.

Two overweight women speak to each other in New York. There may be more fruit, vegetables and healthy options available than ever before, but the world is mostly hungry for junk food, according to a study of eating habits in nearly 190 countries that was released on Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2015.

LONDON (AP) -- There may be more fruit, vegetables and healthy options available than ever before, but the world is mostly hungry for junk food, according to a study of eating habits in nearly 190 countries.

International researchers combed through more than 320 self-reported diet surveys from 1990 to 2010 and looked at how often people said they ate 17 common foods, drinks and nutrients including healthy choices like fruits, vegetables and fish and unhealthier alternatives like salt, processed meat and sugary drinks.

Experts found that even though people are eating more healthy foods including whole grains and fish, there has been an even bigger jump in the amount of junk food eaten. The study was paid for by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Britain’s Medical Research Council and was published online Thursday in the journal, Lancet Global Health, as part of an obesity series.

Some of the study’s key findings: - Older adults ate better than younger adults and women ate healthier than men.

- Some of the best nutritional improvements were seen in Mongolia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Countries needing to curb their junk food habits included Bosnia, Armenia and the Dominican Republic.

- There was a mixed picture in the U.S., with increases both in the amount of healthy and unhealthy foods eaten.

The Texas natives, who posted pictures of the bar on Facebook, say they held a gathering with neighbors over the weekend, serving up Moscow Mules of vodka, ginger beer and lime juice.

With the snow not melting anytime soon, Haynes hopes to add seating.

“There’s still a long way to go,” said Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, of the Friedman School of Nutrition at Tufts University and one of the study authors. He said that despite Westerners being among the biggest eaters of junk food, China and India were catching up and that governments should step in.

“We’ve been shoveling and shoveling, so it was nice to at least have some fun with it,” he said. “To make something creative, instead of just dealing with ice dams and huge icicles and the other annoying stuff that comes with all this snow.”

“We can’t leave it unchecked,” he said.

FOR RENT: IGLOO

H E A L T H F U L DIET PROPOSAL: S U G A RY D R I N K S O U T, COFFEE, EGGS IN

On the website AirBnb, a few enterprising Boston-area residents have been offering up cool lodgings for rent: backyard igloos.

Conrad Williams, of Stoneham, says he originally built the 7-by-4-foot snow cave for his three young children to play in.

Now he’s advertising a $10-a-night stay in the “snow fort/igloo,” which comes with a ventilation chimney, candlelight and wireless Internet access.

“I’m thinking about putting a bed pad in there, like an inflatable type for camping,” Williams said. Sleeping bags are not included.

YETI SIGHTINGS The proliferation of Yeti sightings is one of more harmless antics the winter storms have brought to the Boston-area.

Furry-costumed Abominable Snowmen have been spotted casually walking through snowbound streets, trying to hail cabs and working the beer taps at bars. One of the Yetis has become a Twitter sensation: (at)BostonYeti2015 has more than 8,000 followers.

“Reading that I’ve brought smiles to people’s faces and that it brought them some levity in this storm has really made my day,” the elusive creature said in a message exchange with The Associated Press. “Goal achieved.”

- Researchers found in some countries in Africa and Asia, there has been no improvement in their diet during the past 20 years.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Drink less sugary soda. But an extra cup or two of coffee is OK. So are eggs. And as always, don’t forget your vegetables.

A government advisory committee is recommending the first real limits on added sugars, but it’s backing off stricter ones for salt and cholesterol. It calls for an environmentally friendly diet lower in red and processed meats.

The Agriculture and Health and Human Services departments will use Thursday’s report to write new dietary guidelines, due by the end of the year. The guidelines influence everything from federally subsidized school lunches to food package labels to doctors’ advice.

Overall, the new advice doesn’t stray too far from the guidelines issued in 2010: Eat more fruits and vegetables and whole grains; eat less saturated fats, salt and sugar.

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L E T H A C K E R S I N : E X P E R T S S AY T R A P S M I G H T B E B E T T E R T H A N WA L L S saltwater and wild animals from invading their crops. And each year swollen rivers, monsoon rains and floods wash many of those banks and mud-packed homes back into the sea.

offers limited protection to some of the islands in Bangladesh’s portion of the Sundarbans. The World Bank is now spending some $200 million to improve those barriers.

Most struggle on far less than $1 a day. With 5 million people on the Indian side and 8 million in Bangladesh, the Sundarbans population is far greater than any of the small island nations that also face dire threats from rising sea levels.

Experts worry that politicians will ignore the problem or continue to make traditional promises to build roads, schools and hospital clinics. This could entice more people to the region just when everyone should be moving out.

Losing the 26,000-square-kilometer (10,000-square-mile) region - an area about the size of Haiti - would also take an environmental toll. The Sundarbans region is teeming with wildlife, including the world’s only population of mangrove forest tigers. The freshwater swamps and their tangles of mangrove forests act as a natural buffer protecting India’s West Bengal state and Bangladesh from cyclones.

“We have 15 years ... that’s the rough time frame I give for sea level rise to become very difficult and population pressure to become almost unmanageable,” said Jayanta Bandopadhyay, an engineer and science professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi who has studied the region for years.

With rising temperatures melting polar ice and expanding oceans, seas have been rising globally at an average rate of about 3 millimeters a year - a rate scientists say is likely to speed up. The latest projections suggest seas could rise on average up to about 1 meter (3.3 feet) this century.

Thousands are homeless as seas rise twice as fast as the global average and water eats away at the islands or subsumes them altogether in this vast region called the Sundarbans, straddling India and Bangladesh.

BALI ISLAND, India (AP) -- The tiny hut sculpted out of mud at the edge of the sea is barely large enough for Bokul Mondol and his family to lie down. The water has taken everything else from them, and one day it almost certainly will take this, too.

Saltwater long ago engulfed the 5 acres where Mondol once grew rice and tended fish ponds, as his ancestors had on Bali Island for some 200 years. His thatch-covered hut, built on public land, is the fifth he has had to build in the last five years as the sea creeps in.

“Every year we have to move a little further inland,” he said.

Seas are rising more than twice as fast as the global average here in the Sundarbans, a low-lying delta region of about 200 islands in the Bay of Bengal where some 13 million impoverished Indians and Bangladeshis live. Tens of thousands like Mondol have already been left homeless, and scientists predict much of the Sundarbans could be underwater in 15 to 25 years.

That could force a singularly massive exodus of millions of “climate refugees,” creating enormous challenges for India and Bangladesh that neither country has prepared for.

“This big-time climate migration is looming on the horizon,” said Tapas Paul, a New Delhi-based environmental specialist with the World Bank, which is spending hundreds of millions of dollars assessing and preparing a plan for the Sundarbans region.

“If all the people of the Sundarbans have to migrate, this would be the largest-ever migration in the history of mankind,” Paul said. The largest to date occurred during the India-Pakistan partition in 1947, when 10 million people or more migrated from one country to the other.

Mondol has no idea where he would go. His family of six is now entirely dependent on neighbors who have not lost their land. Some days they simply don’t eat.

“For 10 years I was fighting with the sea, until finally everything was gone,” he says, staring blankly at the water lapping at the muddy coast. “We live in constant fear of flooding. If the island is lost, we will all die.”

That would be bad enough for the Sundarbans, where the highest point is around 3 meters (9.8 feet) and the mean elevation is less than a meter above sea level.

But sea rise occurs unevenly across the globe because of factors like wind, ocean currents, tectonic shift and variations in the Earth’s gravitational pull. The rate of sea rise in the Sundarbans has been measured at twice the global rate or even higher.

In addition, dams and irrigation systems upstream are trapping sediments that could have built up the river deltas that make up the Sundarbans. Other human activities such as deforestation encourage erosion.

A 2013 study by the Zoological Society of London measured the Sundarbans coastline retreating at about 200 meters (650 feet) a year. The Geological Survey of India says at least 210 square kilometers (81 square miles) of coastline on the Indian side has eroded in the last few decades. At least four islands are underwater and dozens of others have been abandoned due to sea rise and erosion.

Many scientists believe the only long-term solution is for most of the Sundarbans population to leave. That may be not only necessary but environmentally beneficial, giving shorn mangrove forests a chance to regrow and capture river sediment in their tangled, saltwater-tolerant roots.

“The chance of a mass migration, to my mind, is actually pretty high. India is not recognizing it for whatever reason,” said Anurag Danda, who leads the World Wildlife Fund’s climate change adaptation program in the Sundarbans. “It’s a crisis waiting to happen. We are just one event away from seeing large-scale displacement and turning a large number of people into destitutes.”

West Bengal is no stranger to mass migration. Kolkata, its capital, has been overrun three times by panicked masses fleeing violence or starvation: during a 1943 famine, the 1947 partition and the 1971 war that created today’s Bangladesh.

India, however, has no official plan either to help relocate Sundarbans residents or to protect the region from further ecological decline.

“We need international help. We need national help. We need the help of the people all over the world. We are very late” in addressing the problem, said West Bengal state’s minister for emergencies and disaster management, Janab Javed Ahmed Khan. He said West Bengal must work urgently with the Indian and Bangladeshi governments to take action.

On their own, the Sundarbans’ impoverished residents have little chance of moving before catastrophe hits. Facing constant threats from roving tigers and crocodiles, deadly swarms of giant honeybees and poisonous snakes, they struggle to eke out a living by farming, shrimping, fishing and collecting honey from the forests.

Bangladesh is supporting scientists “trying to find out whether it’s possible to protect the Sundarbans,” said Taibur Rahman, of the Bangladesh government’s planning commission. “But we are already experiencing the effects of climate change. The people of the Sundarbans are resilient and have long lived with hardship, but many now are leaving. And we are not yet prepared.”

Each year, with crude tools and bare hands, they build mud embankments to keep

A network of concrete dykes and barriers, like those protecting the Netherlands,

DENTIST CHARGED IN DEATH OF PAT I E N T G E T T I N G 2 0 T E E T H P U L L E D Gan’s death and other incidents prompted the State Dental Commission in December to suspend Patel’s license pending a months-long review of his practice and permanently ban him from performing conscious sedation.

Dentist Rashmi Patel, who has been charged in the death of a patient who became unresponsive while having 20 teeth pulled and several implants installed last year. Patel faces a misdemeanor count of criminally negligent homicide and a felony count of tampering with evidence, according to police.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- A dentist has been charged in the death of a patient who became unresponsive while having 20 teeth pulled and several implants installed.

Rashmi Patel turned himself in Tuesday at the Enfield Police Department and was charged with a misdemeanor count of criminally negligent homicide and a felony count of tampering with evidence, police said. Patel has offices in Enfield and Torrington.

The charges came a year after Patel’s patient Judith Gan died at a hospital on Feb. 17, 2014. State dental regulators concluded that Patel failed to adequately respond when Gan’s oxygen levels dropped dangerously low as she was consciously sedated in the middle of the tooth extraction and implant procedures in his Enfield office that day.

Patel, who posted $25,000 bail, has denied any wrongdoing in his treatment of Gan. “Dr. Patel disputes the charges and urges that the charges be dropped,” his attorney Paul Knag said in a statement Wednesday.

Bandopadhyay and other experts say India and Bangladesh should be creating jobs, offering skills training, freeing lands and making urbanization attractive so people will feel empowered to leave.

Even if India musters that kind of political will, planning and funds, persuading people to move will not be easy.

Most families have been living here since the early 1800s, when the British East India Company - which then governed India, Pakistan and Bangladesh for the British Empire - removed huge mangrove forests to allow people to live on and profit from the fertile agricultural land.

Even those who are aware of the threat of rising seas don’t want to leave.

“You cannot fight with water,” said Sorojit Majhi, a 36-year-old father of four young girls living in a hut crouched behind a crumbling mud embankment. Majhi’s ancestral land has also been swallowed by the sea. He admits he’s sometimes angry, other times depressed.

“We are scared, but where can we go?” he said. “We cannot fly away like a bird.”

KANSAS COMMUNE LEADER FOUND GUILTY OF DROWNING WOMAN IN POOL WICHITA, Kan. (AP) -- A man who led a Kansas commune that collected millions of dollars in life insurance payouts from dead members was convicted of premeditated murder Wednesday in the 2003 drowning death of a female member.

Daniel Perez, 55, also was found guilty of 27 other counts, some alleging that he sexually abused minor daughters of the commune’s members and devised a scheme to receive life insurance payments from members who lived on a 20-acre site in suburban Wichita known as Angels Landing.

Witnesses testified during the trial about sexual violence and the death of six people as the group wandered over 15 years into several states and Mexico before settling at the elaborate compound. Perez, who went by Lou Castro, was charged only with the death of 26-year-old Patricia Hughes, who died in the commune’s pool.

For nearly a decade, Hughes’ death was considered an accident. But a woman who was 12 at the time told authorities in 2011 that Hughes and Perez arranged her death so the compound could receive $1.24 million from her life insurance policy.

The woman, whom The Associated Press isn’t identifying because she says she is a victim of sexual assault, said during a pretrial hearing that Hughes kissed her daughter goodbye and reassured another child that she would return from the dead.

While expressing satisfaction with Wednesday’s verdict, Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett told reporters the case and outcome “is the reflection of a terrible time in a lot of lives.”

“Is this a happy moment? The answer is, `Sure, we got the verdict,’” Bennett said. But “we heard about life after life that was adversely affected by this man.”

But, Krag said, the commission did not revoke Patel’s license.

A message left Wednesday with Perez’s court-appointed attorney, Alice Osburn, was not immediately returned.

“In the Dental Commission proceeding, multiple expert witnesses testified that Dr. Patel followed the standard of care,” Krag said. “The state’s seeking of criminal charges is contrary to this evidence and inconsistent with the decision of the Commission not to revoke his license.”

Authorities were told Hughes drowned after falling and becoming unconscious while trying to save her toddler daughter from the pool. The witness said in reality, Perez and Hughes got into the pool and she heard a scream and a splash.

She said she was told to wait 20 minutes while Perez drove to a dealership to establish an alibi, then jump into the pool with the toddler and call 911.

The commission said in a report that Patel “ignored” signs that Gan, of Ellington, was in distress, including the drop in her oxygen saturation, changes in the color of her face and hands and wheezing and gurgling sounds. The commission said Patel, who lives in Suffield, also ignored warnings from his dental assistants that Gan was in danger and continued with the procedures.

When one of Patel’s assistants yelled that Gan was “flat lining,” Patel tried to revive Gan while the assistant called 911, according to the Dental Commission’s report. Gan, 64, was rushed to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

The commission also found that Patel should not have attempted to perform so many procedures on Gan in one office visit given that her medical history included a heart attack six months before the visit, two strokes within the last two years and medication that could have affected her response to the sedation.

Patel also violated care standards in December 2013 when another patient under conscious sedation to have teeth extracted inhaled a piece of gauze called a throat pack, which was designed to protect him from swallowing foreign objects, the commission found. The patient began flailing, his blood pressure spiked and he was rushed to a hospital but recovered.

A lawyer for Gan’s husband has said a lawsuit against Patel is planned.

Perez testified that he was not at the compound when Hughes died, and the distraught girl blamed herself for not being able to save Hughes.

Several other women testified that Perez coerced them into sex when they were minors. One said the girls were told Perez was a type of seer, and another testified that she submitted out of fear for her life and the lives of relatives.

Others testified about millions of dollars in life insurance policies sold to people associated with Perez who died after naming others in the commune as beneficiaries. The witnesses said Perez directed the scheme and profited from it.

Perez claimed he was innocent of all the allegations, saying he was called a “seer” as a type of nickname. He said a genital injury prevented him from having sex with uncooperative partners and all of his partners were of legal age.

He also said he suffered severe memory loss after a beating in Texas in 1997 and that he didn’t know where the millions of dollars his commune received came from.

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UNEASY ALLIANCES AS FRACTURED I R A Q B A T T L E S I S G R O U P KIRKUK, Iraq (AP) -- Shiite Arab militias have flooded into northern Iraq’s Kirkuk region to help Kurdish forces battle the Islamic State group, but their uneasy alliance threatens to reignite a much older conflict over the oil-rich area pitting the largely autonomous Kurds against the Arab-led government in Baghdad.

tribes in a brutal warning to others.

Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has tried to reach out to Sunnis following the divisive rule of his predecessor Nouri al-Maliki, pushing for the creation of a new National Guard force reminiscent of the Sahwa. But many Shiites in his government distrust the Sunni tribes, viewing them as a holdover from the cruel reign of Saddam Hussein’s Sunni-dominated government. And it’s not yet clear whether enough Sunnis in the Islamic State’s self-styled caliphate see the Baghdad government as a better option.

All across Iraq, the rapid advance by the Islamic State extremists over the past year has drawn longtime rivals into reluctant alliances. The shared struggle could with time help Iraqis forge a long-elusive sense of national unity. But it also risks papering over disputes that could burst into the open if the threat subsides.

---

Here are some of the strange bedfellows in Iraq’s fight against the Islamic State group.

IRAQI KURDS AND NON-IRAQI KURDS

KURDS AND SHIITES: Shiite Arab militias officially known as the Popular Mobilization Forces have teamed up with the Kurdish peshmerga in a number of battles, breaking the siege of the northern Shiite-majority town of Amirli in August and more recently, driving IS militants from a string of towns in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad.

But Kirkuk is different. Kurdish forces claimed control of the city just days after the Islamic State group swept across northern Iraq last June, and their longstanding goal of incorporating it and surrounding areas into their semiautonomous region seemed within reach. But the city’s Arabs and Turkmen, as well as Baghdad, have long opposed such a scenario.

For now, the Shiite fighters are making common cause with the Kurds against the Islamic State group, a mortal enemy of both. But if the Iranian-backed militias gain a foothold in the region, they could one day help Baghdad wrench it back.

Kurdish regional President Massoud Barzani alluded to such fears earlier this week, saying only peshmerga troops can operate in the city of Kirkuk. The next day Hadi al-Amiri, a top Shiite militia commander, told a Kurdish TV channel his forces “are able to go wherever if needed.”

THE U.S. AND IRAN As the United States has assembled a coalition to aid Iraqi forces with airstrikes, Baghdad’s influential neighbor Iran has organized and backed the Shiite militias on the ground. Both sides are also believed to be aiding Kurdish forces. Iraq has welcomed aid from both, but risks being drawn into a region-wide proxy war pitting Iran against the U.S. and its Gulf allies.

While Washington and Tehran both view the Islamic State as a regional menace,

The Kurds have proven to be the most unified and disciplined force battling the Islamic State group, but even among them there are divisions that could undermine their struggle.

Iraqi security forces and Shiite militiamen fire at Islamic State group positions during an operation outside Amirli, some 105 miles (170 kilometers) north of Baghdad, Iraq. When the Islamic State group staged a lightening advance across much of northern Iraq last year, it expanded its rule to about a third of the country, drawing in different groups with different motivations for taking up arms. In many cases, former rivals are now finding themselves in an uneasy alliance as they seek to combat the Sunni extremist group.

Here are the groups involved in the anti-Islamic State war in Iraq and what they each hope to accomplish.

they are sharply divided on the conflict in Syria, where Iran is a key backer of President Bashar Assad. They have also long been at odds over Iran’s disputed nuclear program, as well as its hostility toward Israel and support for militant groups like Hezbollah and Hamas.

The United States and Iran insist they do not coordinate their operations in Iraq, making it in many ways an alliance of inconvenience THE GOVERNMENT AND THE SUNNIS Virtually everyone agrees that the only way to defeat the Islamic State is to rally tribes and militias in the Sunni heartland to rebel against it. The formula worked for a time starting in 2006, when Sunnis allied with U.S. troops to drive out al-Qaida in Iraq, a precursor of the extremist group.

This time it will be more difficult. Many of the Sunni tribes that took part in the Sahwa, or Awakening, feel they were later betrayed by the Shiite-led government, which neglected them after the Americans left. They also harbor a deep distrust of the Shiite militias, which rights groups say have terrorized Sunni civilians. The Islamic State group has meanwhile severely punished those who have opposed it, massacring scores of men, women and children from unruly

M E M O R I A L I N K AY L A M U E L L E R ’ S HOMETOWN HONORS HER LIFE, WORK saying it doesn’t know how she was killed.

Churches and community groups in her hometown of Prescott, the former territorial capital of Arizona, organized a candlelight memorial Wednesday to reflect on Mueller’s life and work as an international aid worker. It will feature a song Mueller’s mother used to sing to her as a child, “He Who Began a Good Work in You,” and the choir from a local high school she graduated from in 2007.

Mueller’s parents - Carl and Marsha - plan to attend. Her brother, Eric Mueller, is scheduled to speak to the crowd.

Prescott-area residents set up camping chairs on the lawn of the courthouse plaza, and Mueller’s friends were accepting canned food and money to support the needy.

Kayla Mueller is shown after speaking to a group in Prescott, Ariz. Omar Alkhani, boyfriend of Mueller, spoke to The Associated Press on Sunday, Feb. 15, 2015, via webcam from Turkey in one of his first interviews. Alkhani talked about how he met Mueller in 2010 and the last time he saw her in 2013 as a prisoner of the Islamic State group. The U.S. government and Mueller’s family confirmed her death last week.

PRESCOTT, Ariz. (AP) -- Candles lit up the plaza of a central Arizona courthouse Wednesday as hundreds gathered to honor the American woman taken hostage by Islamic militants.

Kayla Mueller’s death was confirmed earlier this month by her family and U.S. officials. The 26-year-old international aid worker from Prescott, Arizona, had been captured in Syria in August 2013.

She was killed earlier this month.

Friends, family and strangers wore pink ribbons on their shirts as they listened to speakers reflect on Mueller’s life and work. Her parents, Carl and Marsha Mueller, did not speak to the crowd, but they mingled afterward and embraced friends.

Eric Mueller encouraged the crowd to live as his sister did by reaching out to people who are suffering and make the community stronger.

“Let Kayla’s heart live on through all of us and the people she touched in life,” he said. “Do what Kayla would do, make the community even stronger.”

The crowd lit candles toward end of ceremony and followed Karl Mueller’s lead as he stretched his candle toward the sky.

“Everyone that knew Kayla seemed to think that would be something she would have liked to see - the community getting involved in service and giving,” said Ron Merrell, a pastor at Heights Church in Prescott who will give introductory remarks at the memorial.

From Prescott, Mueller helped raise awareness of HIV and AIDS, and volunteered for the overnight shift at a women’s shelter. She protested genocide in Darfur while she attended Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. She also traveled to Palestinian territories, Israel, India and France.

Kathleen Day, a campus minister at the university, said she’ll speak to people in the crowd about the values, experiences and faith that sustained Mueller through her life.

“One thing I want to do is bring Kayla right back to them and place her in their care,” she said.

Mueller, 26, was captured in Syria in August 2013. Little is known about her time in captivity.

Day, who kept in touch with Mueller after she graduated from college in 2009 and has counseled Mueller’s family recently, said circumstances surrounding Mueller’s death also are unclear and that’s OK with her.

“It’s really about what’s next and what’s before us,” she said. “I’m sure our government will be trying to come to those conclusions.

It’s all going to be speculation. There’s probably no way for us to ever have fully the truth.”

The Kurdish peshmerga have been a close U.S. ally since Saddam’s rule, but the PKK waged a long and bloody struggle against NATO ally Turkey, and Washington considers it a terrorist group. The YPG has, meanwhile, claimed Sinjar and surrounding areas as part of Rojava, its self-declared Kurdish enclave in northern Syria, against the wishes of Iraq’s Kurds.

T R I A L S TA RT S F O R RABBI WHO ALLEGEDLY RAN DIVORCE KIDNAP TEAM Rabbi Mendel Epstein, right, arrives for his trial at federal court in Trenton, N.J. on Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2015.

Prosecutors say Epstein employed a kidnap team to force unwilling Jewish husbands to

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Before prosecutors described Rabbi Mendel Epstein as a leader in a devout Orthodox community, they played a short, grainy video clip that they say shows he is a criminal.

“Basically, what we’re going to be doing is kidnapping a guy for a couple hours,” he’s heard telling two undercover FBI agents about what prosecutors say was a staged kidnapping in 2013.

Opening statements began Wednesday in the trial of Epstein and his three co-defendants: son David Epstein, Jay Goldstein and Binyamin Stimler. Mendel Epstein, who is accused of employing a kidnap team to force unwilling Jewish husbands to divorce their wives, faces charges of conspiracy to commit kidnapping and attempted kidnapping. The others face similar charges stemming from a staged kidnapping in 2013 and three other forced divorces.

Defense attorney Robert Stahl disputed the charges and portrayed Mendel Epstein, 69, as a “champion of women’s rights.”

“This is not a band of criminals extorting men for money or beating them for money,” Stahl said, arguing that Jewish law allows recalcitrant husbands to be forced to giving a divorce document known as a “get.”

He called the husbands the villains as Epstein, dressed in a dark suit, silently nodded toward Stahl.

Prosecutors allege the Orthodox rabbi’s team used brutal methods and tools, including handcuffs and electric cattle prods, to torture the men into granting divorces. The kidnap team brought surgical blades, a screwdriver and rope to a staged kidnapping in 2013, authorities have said. Epstein allegedly told the undercover agents he arranged similar kidnappings every year or year and a half, U.S. Attorney Joseph Gribko said. Gribko noted the recordings throughout his opening statement, including Epstein allegedly describing how the cattle prods were used.

“If (the cattle prod) can get a bull that weighs 5 tons to move, you put it in certain parts of his body and in one minute the guy will know,” prosecutors said Epstein told two undercover FBI agents posing as a brother and sister trying to force the sister’s husband to grant the divorce. Gribko said he was recorded telling the agents the effort would cost $60,000.

Stahl, holding Epstein’s 1989 book “A Woman’s Guide to the Get Process,” called Gribko’s opening statement an “interesting and compelling story,” but not evidence against Epstein.

Stahl argued that Epstein is simply good at advocating for women and that his reputation is “that he can convince these husbands to go give their wives a get.” Stahl didn’t dispute that “some laws may have been broken along the way,” but said that did not include kidnapping.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

Dozens of people gathered in central Arizona, wearing pink ribbons and holding candles, to honor the American woman taken hostage

by Islamic State militants.

Kayla Mueller’s death was confirmed earlier this month by her family and the U.S. government. The Islamic State group claimed she died in a Jordanian airstrike, but the Pentagon rejected that,

Kurdish militiamen from the Turkey-based Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Syria-based People’s Protection Units (YPG) have crossed into Iraq and massed outside the northern town of Sinjar, a town still in the grip of Islamic State militants despite months of blistering airstrikes.

www.additions.generalcontractors1.com

Stahl, along with the other defense attorneys, sought to discredit David Wax, a witness in the case. Wax is cooperating with prosecutors after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit kidnapping in a case where he was paid $100,000 to force a Jewish man to divorce his wife.

Prosecutors are expected to play footage on Thursday from recordings by undercover FBI agents.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Weekly News Digest, Feb 16 thru Feb 20, 2015

11

O B A M A A I M S T O S H O W I S L A M , WESTERN COMMUNITIES CAN COEXIST WASHINGTON (AP) -- In the fight against violent extremism, President Barack Obama argues the U.S. has one thing going for it that Europe doesn’t: a long tradition of warmly embracing its immigrants, including Muslims.

they’ve been fully embraced by society.

Jamila Nasser, a high school junior, said she rarely sees good news about Muslims in the American media. She doesn’t expect a positive reception once she ventures outside of Dearborn, which has elected Arabs and Muslims to many local offices and has one of the largest concentrations of Muslims in North America.

With the Islamic State group spreading and terrorists gaining strength in the Mideast and Africa, Obama has sought to use this week’s White House summit on violent extremism to urge the world to broaden its response far beyond military interventions. U.S. airstrikes have managed to blunt some of the militants’ gains in Iraq and Syria, but they don’t address the extreme ideologies that underpin deadly groups such as IS, al-Shabab and Boko Haram.

“For being a Muslim American growing up in America, I really don’t feel a part of it,” she said.

As Islamic State militants have seized control of a major swath of Iraq and Syria, the global community has taken alarm at how alluring the group’s brutal ideology has proven for individuals outside the Middle East. U.S. officials have said roughly 20,000 volunteers from around the world have joined IS or other extremist groups fighting in Syria. Of those, about 150 are believed to be Americans, according to the National Counterterrorism Center.

During the summit’s closing session Thursday at the State Department, Obama urged delegates from 65 countries to “confront the warped ideology” espoused by terror groups, particularly efforts to use Islam to justify violence.

“These terrorists are desperate for legitimacy and all us have a responsibility to refute the notion that groups like ISIL somehow represent Islam, because that is a falsehood that embraces the terrorist narrative,” Obama said, using an acronym to refer to the Islamic State.

The president urged Arab nations in particular to take steps to quell sectarian violence and boost economic and educational opportunities that could provide young people in particular options beyond joining terror groups.

But even in the U.S., not all Muslim-Americans feel like full members of American society, and security experts warned against assuming that the U.S. is impervious to those who seek to recruit and radicalize.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the U.S. has largely been spared the terrorist assaults that have hit cities in Denmark, Belgium and France, growing out of radical interpretations of Islam. In the weeks since the Charlie Hebdo newspaper shootings in Paris, Obama and other U.S. figures have portrayed the U.S. as being at a lower risk. After all, America is known as the “Great Melting Pot,” where minorities of all stripes are made to feel at home.

“In the U.S., you can be 100 percent American and 100 percent anything else. In Europe, you have to reduce the percentage of anything else to be more European,” said Ahmed Younis, a prominent Muslim-American leader participating in the summit. “People burn and destroy what they perceive to not be their own. They do not burn and destroy what they perceive to own.”

Speaking Thursday morning, Secretary of State John Kerry told participants: “There’s been a silly debate in the media in the last days about what you have to do. You have to do everything. You have to take the people off the battlefield, who are there today.”

“But you’re kind of stupid if all you do is do that and you don’t prevent more people from going to the battlefield,” he said.

President Barack Obama speaks at the Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) Summit, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2015, at the State Department in Washington. The White House is conveying a three-day summit to bring together local, federal, and international leaders to discuss steps the US and its partners can take to develop community-oriented approaches to counter extremist ideologies that radicalize, recruit and incite to violence.

Ample evidence suggests that Muslims in America do feel more integrated into society than those living in Europe. Often marginalized and relegated to poorer neighborhoods in European cities, many Muslim immigrants to the U.S. have flourished as doctors and scientists and in other white-collar professions. Middle-class, predominantly Muslim or Arab-American enclaves have cropped up in places such as Dearborn, Michigan, and Minneapolis, allowing immigrants to carve out their own stories.

“That’s the story extremists and terrorists don’t want the world to know: Muslims succeeding and thriving in America,” Obama said during separate remarks at the summit Wednesday.

There’s also reason to believe that sense of successful assimilation has offered a degree of protection against the allure of extremism. In 2011, a Pew Research Center survey of American Muslims found that just 2 in 10 Muslims in the U.S. thought there was a great deal or a fair amount of support for extremism among Muslim Americans. Roughly 80 percent said suicide bombings and other violence against civilians was never justified to defend Islam from its enemies, compared to just 8 percent who said it was sometimes or often justified.

Europe, where many Muslims or their ancestors emigrated from former colonies, is host to a much larger Muslim population. There were about 1,350,000 self-identified Muslims in the U.S. in 2008, the last date for which Census data is available. France, by comparison, has an estimated 5 million Muslims - about 8 percent of the total population. In the U.K., 2011 census data counted about 2.7 million Muslims out of a population of 63.1 million.

But within America’s smaller Muslim population, not everyone feels

OREGON COUPLE ACCUSED OF LETTING T H E I R B A B Y S TA RV E T O D E AT H An affidavit filed by deputies says the parents told investigators they did pornography, which involved the mother self-lactating while others paid to watch online. Williams and Hancock said they fed the baby milk several times each day but never took him to a doctor.

“Stephen and Amanda both admitted there was no prenatal care, and they didn’t go to any doctor’s appointments after Data was born,” the probable-cause affidavit said.

Williams told investigators he thought the baby had lost some weight, but he didn’t call the doctor “because that was Amanda’s responsibility,” the document said. “This was the agreement they had made.”

This Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2015 booking photo provided by the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office shows Stephen Williams Jr., 26, of Glendale, Ore., and Amanda Hancock. Williams and Hancock were arrested Tuesday at their home in Glendale, Ore., on charges of murder by abuse after their seven-week-old baby boy, Data Hancock, was determined to have died of starvation

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) -- An Oregon couple involved in online pornography was arraigned Wednesday on murder by abuse charges alleging they let their baby starve to death.

Stephen Michael Williams Jr., 26, and Amanda Marie Hancock, 21, of the small timber town of Glendale, are accused of causing the death of their 7-week-old son through neglect and maltreatment.

The two were ordered held without bail when they appeared in Douglas County Circuit Court in Roseburg, Deputy District Attorney Shannon Sullivan said.

No pleas were entered. Judge Stephen Tiktin authorized a court-appointed attorney, but the public defender’s office has not named the attorney yet, Sullivan added.

The charging document says the couple showed extreme indifference to human life in causing Data Toria Hancock’s death by failing to provide him adequate food and medical care.

Douglas County sheriff’s deputies said an ambulance was called to the couple’s home Jan. 22 for a report of a baby who had stopped breathing. Efforts to revive him were unsuccessful.

The couple was arrested Tuesday after an autopsy by the state medical examiner’s office showed the infant died of starvation.

A grand jury will hear the charges next week.

The couple’s 2-year-old son was taken into protective custody, Deputy Dwes Hutson said.

Glendale is a town of about 875 people in southwestern Oregon timber country, which has struggled economically since national forest logging was sharply reduced in the 1990s to protect fish and wildlife. Leading employers include a wood products mill and public schools.

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U C L A S AY S M O R E T H A N 1 0 0 M AY H AV E E N C O U N T E R E D ‘SUPERBUG’ LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A potentially deadly “superbug” resistant to antibiotics infected seven patients, including two who died, and more than 100 others were exposed at a Southern California hospital through contaminated medical instruments, UCLA reported Wednesday.

Patients at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center were exposed to CRE during endoscopic procedures between October and January, the University of California, Los Angeles said in a statement.

It may have been a “contributing factor” in the deaths of two patients, the university said.

Similar outbreaks of Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) have been reported around the nation. They are difficult to treat because some varieties are resistant to most known antibiotics. By one estimate, CRE can contribute to death in up to half of seriously infected patients, according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The bacteria can cause infections of the bladder or lungs, leading to coughing, fever or chills. CRE infections have been reported in every state except Idaho, Alaska and Maine, according to the CDC. UCLA said infections may have been transmitted through endoscopes used during the diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic and bile-duct problems.

The two medical devices may have carried the bacteria even though they were sterilized according to the manufacturer’s specifications, UCLA said.

The devices have been removed, and decontamination procedures upgraded, the university said.

Potentially infected patients are being sent free home-testing kits that UCLA will analyze, the university said.

A similar outbreak occurred in Illinois in 2013. Dozens of patients were exposed to CRE, with some cases apparently linked to a tainted endoscope used at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital. The hospital later changed its sterilization procedures.

A Seattle hospital, Virginia Mason Medical Center, reported in January that CRE linked to an endoscope sickened at least 35 patients, and 11 died, although it was unclear whether the infection played a role in their deaths.

HACKING SCHEME continued from page 5

Heartland, which has offices in Princeton and is one of the world’s largest credit and debit card payment processing companies, suffered the loss of more than 130 million card numbers leading to losses of about $200 million, according to the indictment. The co-conspirators allegedly stole more than 950,000 card numbers from Atlanta, Georgia-based Global Payment Systems, one of the world’s largest electronic transaction processing companies, creating losses of about $93 million.

According to the U.S. attorney’s office, Drinkman and others would seek vulnerabilities in the networks of corporations that conducted financial transactions and then used computers in New Jersey, California, Illinois, and Pennsylvania and in countries, including the Netherlands, the Bahamas, Latvia and Panama, to stage attacks on the networks.

Federal prosecutors say that once log-in data, card numbers and personal information was stolen it was passed to Dmitriy Smilianets, who allegedly sold it to resellers who in turn sold it to individuals to be encoded onto the magnetic strips of blank plastic cards. The cards were used to withdraw money from ATMs or charge purchases.

According to the indictment, Smilianets charged about $10 for each stolen U.S. credit card number, $15 for a Canadian number and $50 for each European credit card number, with discounts for bulk purchases.

Drinkman was held in Amsterdam after his arrest in 2012 before he was extradited Friday, according to his attorney.

Amsterdam-based attorney Bart Stapert said his client “will finally be able to receive and confront what the government claims is the evidence against him. He looks forward to thoroughly litigating these charges.”

Smilianets also is in custody awaiting trial. The other three named in the indictment are fugitives.

12

The Weekly News Digest, Feb 16 thru Feb 20, 2015

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AMID MEASLES OUTBREAK, FEW RULES O N T E A C H E R VA C C I N AT I O N S LOS ANGELES (AP) -- While much of the attention in the ongoing measles outbreak has focused on student vaccination requirements and exemptions, less attention has been paid to another group in the nation’s classrooms: Teachers and staff members, who, by and large, are not required to be vaccinated.

were immediately excused, assuming they had either had gotten measles as a child or been exposed to the disease.

Kathy Ericson, president of the Murrieta Teachers Association, said the instructors were willing to do “whatever needs to be done” to protect students. But she stopped short of saying whether vaccination or proof of immunization should be required for employment.

In most states, there is no law dictating which vaccines teachers and school staff workers are required to get. Some states provide a list of recommended vaccines, but there is no requirement or follow-up for teachers to receive them.

“Most of us don’t have our shot records,” she said. “It would be a hard thing to go back and prove.”

So when a measles case surfaced at a California high school, it was easy for officials to review student records, but there were no immunization records on file for employees.

That meant all 24 teachers and staff exposed to the employee with measles had to prove their immunity - records that, for most, were decades old.

The issue has surfaced from time to time in state legislatures and is likely to be raised again in response to the latest outbreak, which originated at Disneyland in December and has spread to a half dozen states and Mexico. Most of those who fell ill were not vaccinated. As of Friday, public health officials said 114 people had contracted measles.

“I was definitely shocked,” Rep. Joanna Cole, a Democrat in the Vermont Legislature, said when she learned in 2012 that there were no teacher vaccination requirements in her state. There are still no requirements today. “I guess we all just assumed that they would have them.”

Cole and other legislators and parents across the U.S. believe the blanket presumption that teachers are up to date on their vaccines should be re-examined. They note that most of those sickened in the current outbreak are adults, and that schools are one of the top places for the spread of communicable disease.

“I will be surprised if we don’t see some changes in the next year to year and a half,” said Kristen Amundson, executive director of the National Association of School Boards of Education.

Already, some states are considering measles legislation. In Vermont, Democratic Rep. George Till says legislators will try this year to eliminate philosophical exemptions for students and require that teachers be up to date on the same vaccines students must receive.

“If we’re trying to limit the spread in school, why just students?” Till

Several parents with students in Murrieta Valley schools said they believed it was important for teachers to show proof of immunity or get vaccinated to protect their children and others too young or vulnerable to get the vaccines themselves. photo, shows boxes of the measles, mumps and rubella virus vaccine (MMR) and measles, mumps, rubella and varicella vaccine inside a freezer at a doctor’s office in Northridge, Calif. While much of the attention in the ongoing measles outbreak has focused on student vaccination requirements and exemptions, less attention has been paid to another group in the nation’s classrooms: Teachers and staff members, who by and large are not required to be vaccinated.

said. A similar bill he introduced in 2012 was defeated amid strong opposition from anti-vaccine groups, and he expects another battle.

In Colorado, pro-vaccination groups have been pushing the Department of Human Services to require vaccinations for workers at child care facilities, another area with uneven employee immunization standards.

Measles cases have been confirmed at day care facilities in Chicago and Santa Monica, California.

“It is everyone’s responsibility to keep students healthy and safe,” said Sherrie Zettlemoyer, the mother of two elementary-school students. “I believe if you can be vaccinated you should.”

ROSETTA SPACE P R O B E TA K E S S H A R P, CLOSE-UP IMAGES OF COMET

Barbara Loe Fisher, director of the National Vaccine Information Center, a Virginia-based nonprofit that favors letting parents decide whether to vaccinate, said the discussion on vaccination requirements has started to expand from schoolchildren to certain adult professions. She said her organization has a number of concerns about requiring teacher vaccinations, including safety and job protection for those who cannot or choose not to be immunized.

“I think at the end of the day, the most important principle to protect is the right to make an informed voluntary decision, and that includes teachers,” she said.

At Vista Murrieta High School in California’s Riverside County, a middle class community between Los Angeles and San Diego, all teachers and staff who had been exposed to the measles were able to return to work within one to three days. Teachers who were born before 1957

TINY OREGON MINNOW IS FIRST FISH TA K E N O F F E N D A N G E R E D L I S T Cole and other legislators and parents across the U.S. believe the blanket presumption that teachers are up to date on their vaccines should be re-examined. They note that most of those sickened in the current outbreak are adults, and that schools are one of the top places for the spread of communicable disease.

“I will be surprised if we don’t see some changes in the next year to year and a half,” said Kristen Amundson, executive director of the National Association of School Boards of Education.

Already, some states are considering measles legislation. In Vermont, Democratic Rep. George Till says legislators will try this year to eliminate philosophical exemptions for students and require that teachers be up to date on the same vaccines students must receive.

U.S. Geological Survey shows adult female walruses on an ice flow with young walruses in the Eastern Chukchi Sea, Alaska. A remote plateau on the Arctic Ocean floor, where thousands of Pacific walrus gather to feed and raise pups, has received new protections from the Obama administration that recognize it as a biological hot spot and mark it off-limits to future oil drilling.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- While much of the attention in the ongoing measles outbreak has focused on student vaccination requirements and exemptions, less attention has been paid to another group in the nation’s classrooms: Teachers and staff members, who, by and large, are not required to be vaccinated.

In most states, there is no law dictating which vaccines teachers and school staff workers are required to get. Some states provide a list of recommended vaccines, but there is no requirement or follow-up for teachers to receive them.

So when a measles case surfaced at a California high school, it was easy for officials to review student records, but there were no immunization records on file for employees.

That meant all 24 teachers and staff exposed to the employee with measles had to prove their immunity - records that, for most, were decades old.

The issue has surfaced from time to time in state legislatures and is likely to be raised again in response to the latest outbreak, which originated at Disneyland in December and has spread to a half dozen states and Mexico. Most of those who fell ill were not vaccinated. As of Friday, public health officials said 114 people had contracted measles.

“I was definitely shocked,” Rep. Joanna Cole, a Democrat in the Vermont Legislature, said when she learned in 2012 that there were no teacher vaccination requirements in her state. There are still no requirements today. “I guess we all just assumed that they would have them.”

“If we’re trying to limit the spread in school, why just students?” Till said. A similar bill he introduced in 2012 was defeated amid strong opposition from anti-vaccine groups, and he expects another battle.

In Colorado, pro-vaccination groups have been pushing the Department of Human Services to require vaccinations for workers at child care facilities, another area with uneven employee immunization standards.

Measles cases have been confirmed at day care facilities in Chicago and Santa Monica, California.

Barbara Loe Fisher, director of the National Vaccine Information Center, a Virginia-based nonprofit that favors letting parents decide whether to vaccinate, said the discussion on vaccination requirements has started to expand from schoolchildren to certain adult professions. She said her organization has a number of concerns about requiring teacher vaccinations, including safety and job protection for those who cannot or choose not to be immunized.

“I think at the end of the day, the most important principle to protect is the right to make an informed voluntary decision, and that includes teachers,” she said.

At Vista Murrieta High School in California’s Riverside County, a middle class community between Los Angeles and San Diego, all teachers and staff who had been exposed to the measles were able to return to work within one to three days. Teachers who were born before 1957 were immediately excused, assuming they had either had gotten measles as a child or been exposed to the disease.

Kathy Ericson, president of the Murrieta Teachers Association, said the instructors were willing to do “whatever needs to be done” to protect students. But she stopped short of saying whether vaccination or proof of immunization should be required for employment.

“Most of us don’t have our shot records,” she said. “It would be a hard

The photo provided by European Space Agency ESA on Monday, Feb. 16, 2015 shows a four-image mosaic of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko which comprising images were taken on Feb. 14, 2015 during the first dedicated close flyby from a distance of 8.9 km from the surface.

On Saturday Rosetta passed just 6 kilometers (less than 4 miles) above the surface of comet.

BERLIN (AP) -- The European Space Agency says high-resolution images the Rosetta space probe took during a swoop close to a comet it’s been tracking for months show boulders on the comet’s surface as well as “stunning details of the contrasting terrain.”

The agency said Monday the boulders ranged in size from a few meters (yards) to a few tens of meters, and lie “scattered across the whole surface of the comet.” It says the sun was directly behind Rosetta as the pictures were taken, providing optimal light conditions.

While swooping in as close as 6 kilometers (under 4 miles) Saturday to take the pictures, Rosetta’s instruments also sampled the innermost parts of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko’s atmosphere.

Rosetta, which has been alongside the comet since August, is now moving out to take far-view images thing to go back and prove.”

Several parents with students in Murrieta Valley schools said they believed it was important for teachers to show proof of immunity or get vaccinated to protect their children and others too young or vulnerable to get the vaccines themselves.

“It is everyone’s responsibility to keep students healthy and safe,” said Sherrie Zettlemoyer, the mother of two elementary-school students. “I believe if you can be vaccinated you should.”

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