Mississippi town mourns 2 slain police officers; 3 suspects arrested
HATTIESBURG, Miss. — One was a decorated “Officer of the Year.” The other was a proud recent graduate of the police academy.
A routine traffic stop led to their shooting deaths Saturday night — the first Hattiesburg police officers to die in the line of duty in more than 30 years — and three suspects were in custody, including two who were charged with capital murder.
The deaths of Officers Benjamin Deen and Liquori Tate stunned this small city in southern Mississippi. On Sunday morning, bloodstains still marked the street where the two were shot, and in the nearby New Hope Baptist Church, worshippers prayed for them and their families.
“This should remind us to thank all law enforcement for their unwavering service to protect and serve,” Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant said in a statement. “May God keep them all in the hollow of his hand.”
Marvin Banks, 29, and Joanie Calloway, 22, were each charged with two counts of capital murder, said Warren Strain, a spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety. Banks also was charged with one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and with grand theft for fleeing in the police cruiser after the shooting, Strain said.
As sea level rise threatens Florida coast, state offers no clear plan or coordination
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — America’s oldest city is slowly drowning.
St. Augustine’s centuries-old Spanish fortress sits feet from the encroaching Atlantic, whose waters already flood the city’s narrow streets about 10 times a year — a problem worsening as sea levels rise. The city relies on tourism, but visitors might someday have to wear waders at high tide.
“If you want to benefit from the fact we’ve been here for 450 years, you have the responsibility to look forward to the next 450,” said Bill Hamilton, whose family has lived in the city since the 1950s. “Is St. Augustine even going to be here? We owe it to the people coming after us to leave the city in good shape.”
St. Augustine is one of many chronically flooded communities along Florida’s coast, and officials in these diverse places share a concern: They’re afraid their buildings and economies will be further inundated by rising seas in just a couple of decades. The effects are a daily reality in much of Florida. Drinking water wells are fouled by seawater. Higher tides and storm surges make for more frequent road flooding from Jacksonville to Key West, and they’re overburdening aging flood-control systems.
But the state has yet to offer a clear plan or coordination to address what local officials across Florida’s coast see as a slow-moving emergency. Republican Gov. Rick Scott is skeptical of man-made climate change and has put aside the task of preparing for sea level rise, an Associated Press review of thousands of emails and documents pertaining to the state’s preparations for rising seas found.
Tropical storm warnings discontinued as Ana weakens to depression, moves inland in Carolinas
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Tropical Storm Ana lost the last of its strength and was downgraded to a depression as it created wet and windy conditions along the North and South Carolina coasts.
At 2 p.m. Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said the center of the depression was located about 30 miles north of Myrtle Beach. The storm’s maximum sustained winds were at 35 mph. Gradual weakening was expected over the next few days, according to the hurricane center.
While the storm was stationary over the northeastern coast of South Carolina, forecasters said Ana should resume moving to the north on Sunday, turn to the northeast and pick up speed. It was expected that the storm would move over eastern North Carolina on Sunday night.
The forecast also called for between 2 and 6 inches of rain over the affected regions, and coastal flooding, especially around high tide. A combination of storm surge and the rising tide created the possibility of up to 2 feet of water above normal from Cape Hatteras as far south as South Carolina. Forecasters said those conditions should diminish as well over the next day or so.
Forecasters also reiterated their warnings for rip currents along the southeastern U.S. coast.
Raul Castro at Vatican thanks pope for Cuban-US detente
VATICAN CITY — Cuban President Raul Castro paid a call Sunday on Pope Francis at the Vatican to thank him for working for Cuban-U.S. detente — and said he was so impressed by the pontiff he is considering a return to the Catholic church’s fold.
“Bienvenido (welcome)!” Francis said in his native Spanish, welcoming Castro to his studio near the Vatican public audience hall. The Cuban president, bowing his head, gripped Francis’ hand with both of his, and the two men began private talks. The meeting lasted nearly an hour, as the Argentine-born Francis and Castro spoke in Spanish.
Francis will visit Cuba in September en route to the United States.
After leaving the Vatican, Castro, the brother of Fidel, the revolutionary leader who brought the Communists to power in Cuba, gushed with praise for Francis.
Girls, women rescued from Boko Haram, dozens raped and pregnant, confront trauma and stigma
YOLA, Nigeria — The taunts wouldn’t stop. “Boko Haram wives,” the schoolgirls were called because they had been briefly held by Nigeria’s Islamic extremists before escaping. The teasing was so relentless that some of the Chibok girls left their town and families.
Their plight does not bode well for hundreds of girls and women recently rescued from months of captivity by Boko Haram, including dozens who are pregnant. After enduring captivity by the militants, the females may now face stigma from their communities.
“The most important thing is to restore their dignity,” the executive director of the United Nations Population Fund, Babatunde Osotimehin, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from his office in New York.
“When you have been in captivity against your will, and God knows whatever they have done to them, some of them will have been violated, some raped, food insecure … We need to take them, work with them and bring them back to the reality of their lives,” said Osotimehin, who is Nigerian.
His agency is providing the women and girls with intense psychosocial counseling and medical care for reproductive and maternal health. It is also encouraging communities to allow the girls to return in peace.
By wire sources.