In Brief | Nation & World | 1-5-16
The Latest: Saudis insist 47 executed had fair trial
TEHRAN, Iran — The latest developments after Saudi Arabia severs diplomatic ties with Tehran amid a dispute over Riyadh’s execution of an opposition Shiite cleric and attacks on Saudi diplomatic posts in Iran. (All times local.)
2:45 a.m.
Saudi Arabia’s U.N. Mission insists the kingdom granted “fair and just trials” to 47 people who were executed last weekend, responding to concerns raised by the U.N. chief over the fairness of the judicial proceedings.
The Saudi mission, in a statement sent to The Associated Press on Monday, expressed “deep regret” at a statement from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s spokesman on Saturday saying opposition Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr and a number of other prisoners executed were convicted after trials “that raised serious concerns over the nature of the charges and the fairness of the process.”
The Saudi statement assured the U.N. chief of “the independence and impartiality of the judiciary authority.” It said state-appointed lawyers were provided to some of the defendants, and that appeals in some of the cases took up to 10 years.
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Levees among possible cause of more frequent flooding
ST. LOUIS — The Mississippi River floods more often than it used to, and at higher levels. Richard Knaup thinks he knows why.
The veteran emergency management director for southeast Missouri’s Cape Girardeau County is fighting floods again, just as he did last year, and the year before that, and the year before that.
“Prior to levee building, the river was a wild thing and it spread out between the river bluffs,” Knaup said Monday. “Now we’ve tried to tame it. Mother Nature and Old Man River will fight back.”
The rains that caused this winter’s flood, blamed already for 25 deaths and damage to hundreds of homes and businesses, ended a week ago, but the water was still rising Monday in southern Missouri and Illinois. The Illinois River, which joins the Mississippi above St. Louis, was expected to reach near-record crests this week between the Illinois towns of Havana and Valley City, creating “a very dangerous situation” as levees there become saturated, said Steve Buan, a National Weather Service hydrologist.
Several other states along the Mississippi River were still bracing for the crest, which was flowing past Tiptonville, Tennessee, and expected to reach Memphis on Thursday at 6.5 feet above flood stage.
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Obama moves to require background checks for more gun sales
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama moved Monday to expand background checks to cover more guns sold at gun shows, online and anywhere else, aiming to curb a scourge of gun violence despite unyielding opposition to new gun laws in Congress.
Obama’s plan to broaden background checks forms the centerpiece of a broader package of measures the president plans to take on his own on gun control in his final year in office. Although Obama can’t unilaterally change gun laws, the president is hoping that beefing up enforcement of existing laws can prevent at least some gun deaths in a country rife with them.
“This is not going to solve every violent crime in this country,” Obama said. Still, he added, “It will potentially save lives and spare families the pain of these extraordinary losses.”
Under current law, only federally licensed gun dealers must conduct background checks on buyers, but many who sell guns at flea markets, on websites or other informal settings don’t register as dealers. Gun control advocates say that loophole is exploited to skirt the background check requirement.
Now, the Justice Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will issue updated guidance that says the government should deem anyone “in the business” of selling guns to be a dealer, regardless of where he or she sells the guns. To that end, the government will consider other factors, including how many guns a person sells and how frequently, and whether those guns are sold for a profit.
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Ranchers who inspired Oregon occupation report to prison
BURNS, Ore. — Father-and-son ranchers convicted of setting fire to federal grazing land reported to prison Monday as the armed anti-government activists who have taken up their cause maintained the occupation of a remote Oregon wildlife preserve.
Federal authorities made no immediate attempt to retake the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in the remote high desert of eastern Oregon, which about two dozen activists seized over the weekend as part of a decades-long fight over public lands in the West.
There appeared to be no urgent reason for federal officials to move in. No one has been hurt. No one is being held hostage. And because the refuge is a bleak and forbidding stretch of wilderness about 300 miles from Portland, and it’s the middle of winter, the standoff is causing few if any disruptions.
Meanwhile, the armed group said it wants an inquiry into whether the government is forcing ranchers off their land after the father and son were ordered back to prison for arson on federal grazing lands.
The group calling itself Citizens for Constitutional Freedom demanded a government response within five days related to the ranchers’ extended sentences.
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Armed takeover of building in Oregon puts feds in tough spot
SEATTLE — The armed takeover of a remote Oregon nature preserve has put federal officials in a tough spot: Should they confront the occupiers or lay off, given that the public faces no imminent harm?
The former risks bloodshed. The latter risks emboldening anti-government groups and possibly giving the impression that authorities treat white militia members with more deference than, say, young black men in the city.
A look at some of the key issues surrounding the federal response to the takeover at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge south of Burns, Oregon:
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RACE AND RELIGION
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US sues VW over emissions-cheating software in diesel cars
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department sued Volkswagen on Monday over emissions-cheating software found in nearly 600,000 vehicles sold in the United States, potentially exposing the company to billions of dollars in penalties for clean air violations.
The civil complaint against the German automaker, filed on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency in U.S. District Court in Detroit, alleges the company illegally installed software designed to make its “clean diesel” engines pass federal emissions standards while undergoing laboratory testing. The vehicles then switched off those measures in real-world driving conditions, spewing harmful gases at up to 40 times what is allowed under federal environmental standards.
“Car manufacturers that fail to properly certify their cars and that defeat emission control systems breach the public trust, endanger public health and disadvantage competitors,” John C. Cruden, the assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, said in a statement.
“The United States will pursue all appropriate remedies against Volkswagen to redress the violations of our nation’s clean air laws alleged in the complaint,” he said.
The company is in the midst of negotiating a massive mandatory recall with U.S. regulators and potentially faces more than $18 billion in fines for violations of the federal Clean Air Act.
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Stocks sink around the world on first trading day of 2016
NEW YORK (AP) — The new year got off to an inauspicious start on Wall Street as stocks tumbled Monday in a global sell-off triggered by new fears of a slowdown in China and rising tensions in the Middle East.
The Dow Jones industrial average clawed back from a steep early decline but still ended the day down 1.6 percent, its biggest drop in two weeks. Markets in Asia and Europe suffered heavier losses.
The wave of selling on the first trading day of 2016 served as a reminder that the global worries that weighed on financial markets last year are not going away anytime soon.
“It’s going to be a turbulent year,” said Kevin Kelly, chief investment officer of Recon Capital Partners. “This isn’t a blip.”
The trouble started in China, the world’s second-largest economy, where signs of manufacturing weakness sent the Shanghai Composite Index plunging 6.9 percent before Chinese authorities halted trading by using a new “circuit-breaker” mechanism for the first time.
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2 Clintons and plenty of Republicans in motion
BOONE, Iowa — The sprint to the Iowa caucuses opened Monday with nearly a dozen presidential candidates in motion, a rather restrained Bill Clinton stepping up for his wife and a pledge by the only billionaire in the race to start spending serious money.
From Iowa to New Hampshire — on the air, on the bus and on the stump — candidates vying to become America’s next president roared out of the holidays in full force with less than a month to go before voting begins.
The coming weeks are especially crucial for Republicans as voters look to weed through the thicket of choices to determine who will represent and attempt to reunite a bickering party. This, as contentious issues over terrorism, security, civil liberties and gun ownership reverberate, giving candidates plenty to argue about.
Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump have been the consistent favorites in polls overall. But they have very different strengths.
Clinton also has an impressive organization behind her while Trump’s ability to pull off a winning ground game is in question and his frugal spending to date has stood in stark contrast to his vast personal wealth. He says he’s opening the money spigot now.
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Unusual shooting attack sets off panic in Israeli heartland
TEL AVIV, Israel — For all its years of strife, Israel has rarely seen anything quite like this: an armed, wanted Arab killer on the loose, spreading fear across the land.
Even the most stoic are keeping their children home from school following the deadly daytime shooting at a popular bar on a busy Tel Aviv street that has become among the most unsettling attacks in a three-month wave of violence.
Israelis are used to quickly resuming their daily routines following attacks because assailants are typically captured or killed. But the frantic search for this gunman, whose attack on Friday afternoon was caught on security cameras, has sent jitters across this seaside city.
The unusual escape of the accused gunman, Nashat Milhem, an Arab from northern Israel who is considered to be armed and dangerous, is one of many elements of a case that has left Israelis on edge.
“Everything about this is characterized by uncertainty,” said Yossi Melman, a prominent security analyst, adding that the level of planning and sophistication were closer in style to those of Islamic State attackers in Brussels, Paris and California.
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The smart-tech future beckons to us from the CES gadget show
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Look around. How many computing devices do you see? Your phone, probably; maybe a tablet or a laptop. Your car, the TV set, the microwave, bedside alarm clock, possibly the thermostat, and others you’ve never noticed.
Much of that computing isn’t doing much while segregated into individual devices. But many of these gadgets have the potential to get smarter by connecting to their fellows, which in turn could open the door to a brave new “Internet of Things.”
To see where that might be taking us, there’s no better place than the annual gadget extravaganza formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Show — and now simply as CES.
The show, which starts Wednesday in Las Vegas, is the place for companies large and small to show off new connected devices. These range from the seemingly trivial — for instance, smart umbrellas that message you if you leave them behind — to the undeniably helpful, such as navigation devices that display driving directions onto your windshield so you don’t have to take your eyes off the road.
And while traditional consumer electronics such as phones and TVs account for about half of revenue in U.S. consumer tech, they aren’t growing as quickly as newer connected devices, according to the Consumer Technology Association, the organizer of CES. For instance, smart home devices, such as cameras, thermostats and locks, are expected to grow 21 percent to 8.9 million units in 2016, or $1.2 billion in revenue.
