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Washington removes Cuba from US list of terrorism sponsors

Washington removes Cuba from US list of terrorism sponsors
 

This coastal view of Havana, Cuba shows the United States Interests Section diplomatic mission, the third tall building from the right, on Sunday, May 24, 2015. On Friday, May 29 the Obama administration formally removed Cuba from a U.S. terrorism blacklist as part of the process of normalizing relations between the Cold War foes.

  

HAVANA (AP) -- The Obama administration formally removed Cuba from the U.S. terrorism blacklist Friday, a decision hailed in Cuba as the healing of a decades-old wound and an important step toward normalizing relations between the Cold War foes.

Secretary of State John Kerry signed off on rescinding Cuba's "state sponsor of terrorism" designation exactly 45 days after the Obama administration informed Congress of its intent to do so on April 14. Lawmakers had that amount of time to weigh in and try to block the move, but did not do so.

"The 45-day congressional pre-notification period has expired, and the secretary of state has made the final decision to rescind Cuba's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, effective today, May 29, 2015," the State Department said in a statement.

"While the United States has significant concerns and disagreements with a wide range of Cuba's policies and actions, these fall outside the criteria relevant to the rescission of a state sponsor of terrorism designation," the statement said.

The step comes as officials from the two countries continue to hash out details for restoring full diplomatic relations, including opening embassies in Washington and Havana and returning ambassadors to the two countries for the first time since the U.S. severed diplomatic relations with the island in January 1961. The removal of Cuba from the terrorism list had been a key Cuban demand.

The Cold War-era designation was levied mainly for Cuba's support of leftist guerrillas around the world and isolated the communist island from much of the world financial system because banks fear repercussions from doing business with designated countries. Even Cuba's Interests Section in Washington lost its bank in the United States, forcing it to deal in cash until it found a new banker this month.

Banks continue to take a cautious tone about doing business with Cuba since U.S. laws still make the island off limits for U.S. businesses. Leaders of the Republicans-controlled House have shown zero interest in repealing the laws from the 1990s that codified the U.S. embargo on trade with Cuba.

"Taking Cuba off the terrorism list is one step toward normalization, but for doing business down there, we have a long way to go," said Rob Rowe, vice president and associate chief council at the American Bankers Association.

In a blog post, the White House called the decision on the terrorism list another step toward improving relations with Cuba.

"For 55 years, we tried using isolation to bring about change in Cuba," it said. "But by isolating Cuba from the United States, we isolated the United States from the Cuban people and, increasingly, the rest of the world."

The terrorism list was a particularly charged issue for Cuba because of the U.S. history of supporting exile groups responsible for attacks on the island, including the 1976 bombing of a Cuban passenger flight from Barbados that killed 73 people aboard. The attack was linked to Cuban exiles with ties to U.S.-backed anti-Castro groups and both men accused of masterminding the crime took shelter in Florida, where one, Luis Posada Carriles, currently lives.

"I think this could be a positive act that adds to hope and understanding and can help the negotiations between Cuba and the United States," said director Juan Carlos Cremata, who lost his father in the 1976 bombing.

"It's a list we never should have been on," said Ileana Alfonso, who also lost her father in the attack.  

Top U.S. Republicans criticized the move, with House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio saying the Obama administration had "handed the Castro regime a significant political win in return for nothing."

"The communist dictatorship has offered no assurances it will address its long record of repression and human rights at home," Boehner said in a statement.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said the decision was a mistake and called it "further evidence that President Obama seems more interested in capitulating to our adversaries than in confronting them."

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, praised the move, saying it is a "critical step forward in creating new opportunities for American businesses and entrepreneurs, and in strengthening family ties."

U.S. and Cuban officials have said the two sides are close to resolving the final issues needed for restoring diplomatic relations, but the most recent round of talks ended May 22 with no announcement of an agreement.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Friday that "there continue to be issues that need to be worked out." He said important progress had been made, but would not give a time frame for an announcement. "That's obviously among the next milestones," he said.

Washington and Havana are wrangling over U.S. demands that its diplomats be able to travel throughout Cuba and meet with dissidents without restrictions. The Cubans are wary of activity they see as destabilizing to their government.

Both the U.S. and Cuba say reopening embassies would be a first step in a larger process of normalizing relations. That effort would still have to tackle bigger questions such as the trade embargo as well as the future of the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay and Cuba's democracy record.

Latest on Dennis Hastert: Hastert resigns from college board

Latest on Dennis Hastert: Hastert resigns from college board 
 

FILE - In this March 5, 2008, file photo, former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert speaks to lawmakers on the Illinois House of Representatives floor at the state Capitol in Springfield, Ill. Federal prosecutors have indicted Thursday, May 28, 2015, the former U.S. House Speaker on bank-related charges.

Wheaton College says former U.S. House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert has resigned from the board of the Christian school's public policy and government center that bears his name.

The resignation was the latest fallout from a federal indictment accusing Hastert of violating banking laws. 

The indictment alleges Hastert was paying hush money to keep someone silent about "prior misconduct."

The college is home to the J. Dennis Hastert Center for Economics, Government and Public Policy. The center was established in 2007, when Hastert stepped down from Congress after eight years as speaker.

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12:20 p.m. (CDT)

Plans to honor former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert with a $500,000 statue at the Illinois Capitol were put on hold earlier this month after he asked that they be shelved because of the state's budget crisis.

Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan filed legislation on May 5 to set aside the money to honor Hastert, a former Republican Illinois congressman.

But Madigan spokesman Steve Brown says Hastert called about a month ago "and said he appreciated the recognition and honor, but asked us to defer given the state's financial condition."

The legislation filed by Madigan, a Democrat, hasn't seen movement since May 14.

Hastert was indicted on federal charges Thursday that accuse him of violating banking laws.

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11 a.m. (CDT)

U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois says anyone who knows former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert is "shocked and confused" by news of his indictment.

The Republican says it's a "troubling development" and more details are needed.

Hastert, a former Republican Illinois congressman, is accused of violating banking laws as he withdrew money after agreeing to pay someone $3.5 million to pay someone to keep quiet about "past misconduct."

Kirk released a statement released Friday morning, saying Hastert should be given his day in court considering the serious accusations. Kirk says his thoughts are with Hastert's family.

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10:30 a.m. (CDT)

The U.S. attorney's office in Chicago says former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert has not been arrested following charges linked to allegations he agreed to $3.5 million in hush money.

Prosecutors' spokesman Kim Nerheim says an initial court date will be set soon by a federal judge. A new court docket names U.S. District Thomas M. Durkin as the presiding judge in the Illinois Republican's case.

Nerheim says defendants are typically not arrested "unless they are considered a flight risk." She declined to comment on details of Hastert's case.

Thursday's indictment charges the 73-year-old with breaking banking laws as he withdrew money to pay someone to keep quiet about "past misconduct." He's also charged with lying to the FBI.

The indictment doesn't detail the alleged misconduct by Hastert.

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10:25 a.m. (CDT)

Officials with the northern Illinois school district where former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert worked from 1965 to 1981 say no one has contacted the district to report any misconduct involving him.

 

In a statement released Friday, officials with Yorkville Community Unit School District (hash)151 say they were made aware of the indictment when it was released publicly on Thursday and they have no knowledge of any alleged misconduct.

District officials say they'll cooperate in any investigation if asked by the U.S. Attorney's office.

CDC investigating error that caused live anthrax shipments

CDC investigating error that caused live anthrax shipments 

FILE - In this May 11, 2003, file photo, Microbiologist Ruth Bryan works with BG nerve agent simulant in Class III Glove Box in the Life Sciences Test Facility at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah. The specialized airtight enclosure is also used for hands-on work with anthrax and other deadly agents. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it is investigating what the Pentagon called an inadvertent shipment of live anthrax spores to government and commercial laboratories in as many as nine states, as well as one overseas, that expected to receive dead spores.

  

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. Army's top general said Thursday that human error probably was not a factor in the Army's mistaken shipment of live anthrax samples from a chemical weapons testing site that was opened more than 70 years ago in a desolate stretch of desert in Utah.

Samples from the anthrax lot ended up at 18 labs in nine states and an Army lab in South Korea, leading more than two dozen people to get treatment for possible exposure.

Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army chief of staff, told reporters the problem may have been a failure in the technical process of killing, or inactivating, anthrax samples.

Odierno said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating what went wrong at Dugway Proving Ground, the Army installation in Utah where the anthrax originated.

Officials said the government labs that received the suspect anthrax were at the Army's Edgewood Chemical Biological Center in Maryland and the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Virginia. The rest were commercial labs, which the Pentagon has declined to identify, citing legal constraints.

Some of the samples sent from Utah were also transferred to other labs in the U.S. by the Edgewood center, a research and development resource for nonmedical chemical and biological defense.

CDC spokesman Jason McDonald said four people at labs in Delaware, Texas and Wisconsin were recommended to get antibiotics as a precaution, although they are not sick. U.S. officials at Osan Air Base in South Korea said 22 people were being treated for possible exposure.

Odierno said normal procedures had been followed, and that he was not aware that such a problem had surfaced previously at Dugway.

But there have been at least two other questionable incidents at the military post 85 miles west of Salt Lake City that has been testing chemical and biological warfare weapons since it was opened in 1942.

In 2011, Dugway was locked down for 12 hours because less than one-fourth of a teaspoon of VX nerve agent was unaccounted for.

Military officials launched an internal investigation, but the results were not released. Questions about the incident were not answered Thursday by military officials. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said in 2011 that he met with the base commander and that the issue had been resolved to his satisfaction.

In 1968, Dugway came under scrutiny when 6,000 sheep died nearby. An Army report acknowledged that the nerve agent was found in snow and grass samples, The Salt Lake Tribune reported based on a report that was declassified in 1978. An Army spokesman said in the late 1990s that state agriculture scientists never identified the cause of death of the sheep.

Herbert said in a statement he's concerned about the incident and is working with the CDC to monitor the investigation.

Test facilities like Dugway are intended to develop ways to defend against biochemical warfare, which some fear could be used by terrorists, said Barry M. Blechman, co-founder of the Stimson Center, a nonpartisan global security group in Washington.

He doesn't know why it was sending anthrax and is perplexed at how the mistake was made.

"This is an accident that should never happen," Blechman said. "You should have double-triple-positive controls over any live, lethal agent."

Steve Erickson, of the volunteer military watchdog group Citizens Education Project, said the incident isn't cause for panic but suggests more oversight is needed.

"Ever since 9/11, there's been a propensity to throw money at biodefense," Erickson said. "When you allow these activities to blossom and burgeon over a period of years without any effective oversight, you are asking for trouble."

The Dugway Proving Ground was created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The site has gone through name changes and been closed and reopened several times.

It sits on 180,000 acres of flat, desert terrain. It's miles from any population base, but it has a village with an elementary and high school, medical clinic, a few restaurants, a theater, pool, gym, and homes and temporary lodging.

About 1,700 people work at Dugway, including a mix of military and nonmilitary scientists, chemists, 

microbiologists and engineers.

It is one of six Army equipment-testing facilities that also include sites in Maryland, Arizona, Alabama and New Mexico.

In one of the chemical testing buildings at Dugway, chambers are used to test chemical warfare agents, the Army says in online materials. An outdoor range tests smokes, obscurants and explosives.

Cleveland, US Justice Department announce police settlement

Cleveland, US Justice Department announce police settlement 
 

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson speaks at a news conference announcing the settlement agreement with the City of Cleveland, Tuesday, May 26, 2015, in Cleveland. Cleveland agreed to overhaul its police department under the supervision of a federal monitor in a settlement announced Tuesday with the U.S. Department of Justice over a pattern of excessive force and other abuses by officers. The announcement comes three days after a white patrolman was acquitted of voluntary manslaughter charges in the shooting deaths of two unarmed black suspects in a 137-shot barrage of police gunfire following a high-speed chase. The case helped prompt an 18-month investigation by the Justice Department.

  

CLEVELAND (AP) -- Cleveland agreed to sweeping changes in how its police officers use force, treat the community and deal with the mentally ill, under a settlement announced Tuesday with the federal government that will put the 1,500-member department under an independent monitor.

The settlement was made public three days after a white Cleveland patrolman was acquitted of manslaughter for his role in a 137-shot barrage of police gunfire that left two unarmed black suspects dead in a car in 2012.

Mayor Frank Jackson said the ambitious plan that was worked out over five months of negotiations with the U.S. Justice Department will be expensive and will take years to put in place. But he said he sees it as a chance to set an example for other cities.

The proposed reforms come amid tension around the U.S. over a string of cases in which blacks died at the hands of police.

"As we move forward, it is my strong belief that as other cities across this country address and look at their police issues in their communities, they will be able to say, `Let's look at Cleveland because Cleveland has done it right,'" Jackson said.

In December, after an 18-month investigation prompted in part by the 2012 shooting, the Justice Department issued a scathing report accusing Cleveland police of a pattern of excessive force and other abuses.

The settlement is an expansive list of items aimed at easing tensions between the police and the city's residents, especially in the black community. Cleveland is 53 percent black. About two-thirds of its police officers are white. The mayor and the police chief are black.

The reforms were outlined in a 105-page consent decree filed in federal court. It calls for new guidelines and training in the use of force; a switch to community policing, in which officers work closely with their neighborhoods; an overhaul of the machinery for investigating misconduct allegations; modernization of police computer technology; and new training in avoiding racial stereotyping and dealing with the mentally ill.

An independent monitor approved by the court will oversee the police force's compliance. Several other police departments around the country, including those in Seattle and New Orleans, are operating under federal consent decrees that involve independent oversight.

The worst examples of excessive force in the Justice Department report involved officers who endangered lives by shooting at suspects and cars, hit people over the head with guns and used stun guns on handcuffed suspects. Only six officers had been suspended for improper use of force over a three-year period.

The city is still awaiting a decision on whether any officers will be prosecuted in two other deaths: that of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old black boy who was killed by a white rookie patrolman last November while playing with what turned out to be a pellet gun, and that of 37-year-old Tanisha Anderson, a mentally ill woman who suffocated last fall after she was subdued on the ground and handcuffed.

U.S. Attorney Steven M. Dettelbach said that the overhaul "will help ensure the many brave men and women of the Cleveland Division of Police can do their jobs not only constitutionally, but also more safely and effectively."

Steve Loomis, president of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association, said he and the union's attorneys are still studying the agreement.

"I'm hopeful it has reached some good conclusions," Loomis said. "But the devil is always in the details for these kinds of things."

Attorney James Hardiman, chairman of the NAACP Criminal Justice Committee, said his organization is looking at the agreement "with a fine-tooth comb," but added: "If I can assume everything I was told is true, it sounds like a pretty comprehensive agreement."

The mayor said that when the reforms take hold, community policing will become "part of our DNA."

The Justice Department has launched broad investigations into the practices of more than 20 police forces in the past five years, including agencies in Ferguson, Missouri, and, most recently, in Baltimore. Both cities were convulsed by violence and protests in recent months over the police-involved deaths of black men.

Then-Attorney General Eric Holder said in December that the Justice Department was enforcing settlement agreements with roughly 15 police departments, including eight consent decrees.

Saturday's verdict by a judge in favor of Patrolman Michael Brelo led to a day of mostly peaceful protests but also more than 70 arrests. Dozens of church parishioners also protested the acquittal in a downtown march Tuesday afternoon just before officials announced the settlement.

Cleveland has paid a total of $3 million to the families of the victims in the 2012 shooting, Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams. They were gunned down at the end of a 22-mile car chase that began when police mistook automobile backfire for gunshots.

Thirteen officers in all shot at the car; Brelo jumped onto the hood and fired the last 15 shots through the windshield.

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Mexican official: About 40 dead in shootout in cartel area

Mexican official: About 40 dead in shootout in cartel area 
  

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- About 40 people were killed Friday in what authorities described as a large-scale shootout between law enforcement and criminal suspects in western Mexico.

Almost all the dead were suspected criminals, said a Federal Police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk with journalists.

There were few details of the reported gunbattle, but video obtained by The Associated Press showed federal police coming under fire and bodies strewn throughout a ranch. A local police official in the neighboring town Puerto de Vargas said the location is called Rancho del Sol. The official wouldn't give his full name to the AP but said his department received a report of the confrontation from fellow police in the neighboring town Ecuandureo and was told to keep everyone calm.

With dozens dead, it was the most violent confrontation between authorities and alleged drug traffickers in recent memory.

The confrontation started when federal police officers tried to pull over truck on the highway near the ranch, and as they got close people inside the truck opened fire, Michoacan Gov. Salvador Jara told Radio Formula.

According to an account of events circulated among federal police units, the first report of the confrontation came in at about 8 a.m. Friday. The government dispatched special forces and a Black Hawk helicopter as reinforcements.

The confrontation occurred near the border of Michoacan and Jalisco states, an area known as being dominated by the Jalisco New Generation cartel, which has mounted several large-scale attacks on federal and state forces in recent weeks.

While there was no immediate confirmation on the identity of the suspects, Jara told Milenio television that "it was most likely" the Jalisco cartel was involved.

The scene of the shootout is close to the community of La Barca, a Jalisco town where authorities in 2013 found more than five dozen bodies in mass graves linked to the Jalisco cartel. According to the federal police account, which was not immediately confirmed by top officials, units confiscated dozens of high-caliber weapons and a rocket launcher.

In April, gunmen believed linked to the cartel ambushed a police convoy in Jalisco, killing 15 state police officers and wounding five. Earlier this month, the New Generation cartel shot down a military helicopter with a rocket launcher in Jalisco, killing eight aboard.

The area, about two hours from the Lake Chapala communities of Canadian and U.S. expatriates, has also been marked by killings of politicians. In 2014, gunmen killed the mayor of a nearby town, Tanhuato.

US officials: Iran enters Iraqi fight for key oil refinery

US officials: Iran enters Iraqi fight for key oil refinery 
 

Displaced civilians from Ramadi wait to receive humanitarian aid from the United Nations in a camp in the town of Amiriyat al-Fallujah, west of Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, May 22, 2015. The United Nations World Food Program said it is rushing food assistance into Anbar to help tens of thousands of residents who have fled Ramadi after it was taken by Islamic State militant group.

  

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Iran has entered the fight to retake a major Iraqi oil refinery from Islamic State militants, contributing small numbers of troops - including some operating artillery and other heavy weapons - in support of advancing Iraqi ground forces, U.S. defense officials said Friday.

Two U.S. defense officials said Iranian forces have taken a significant offensive role in the Beiji operation in recent days, in conjunction with Iraqi Shiite militia. The officials were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

One official said Iranians are operating artillery, 122mm rocket systems and surveillance and reconnaissance drones to help the Iraqi counteroffensive.

The Iranian role was not mentioned in a new U.S. military statement asserting that Iraqi security forces, with U.S. help, had managed to establish a land route into the Beiji refinery compound. The statement Friday by the U.S. military headquarters in Kuwait said Iraqis have begun reinforcing and resupplying forces isolated inside the refinery compound.

Iran's role in Iraq is a major complicating factor for the Obama administration as it searches for the most effective approach to countering the Islamic State group. U.S. officials have said they do not oppose contributions from Iran-supported Iraqi Shiite militias as long as they operate under the command and control of the Iraqi government.

Friday's U.S. military statement quoted Brig. Gen. Thomas Weidley as saying that over the past three days Iraqi security forces and federal police have made "steady, measured progress" in regaining some areas leading to the Beiji refinery compound, in the face of suicide vehicle-borne bombs and rocket attacks. 

Weidley, chief of staff of the U.S.-led military headquarters in Kuwait, recently described the oil refinery as a "key infrastructure and critical crossroads."

The U.S. statement said Iraqis, enabled by the U.S. and its coalition partners, have "successfully cleared and established a ground route" into the refinery to resupply Iraqi troops. It listed U.S. and coalition contributions as including airstrikes, reconnaissance and the use of "advise and assist elements."

Asked about the newly emerging role of Iranian forces in Beiji, the U.S. command in Kuwait declined to comment directly, citing "operational security reasons." It added that all forces involved in Beiji are "aligned with the government of Iraq" and under the control of Iraqi security forces.

Separately, the Pentagon said Friday that the cost of U.S. military operations in Iraq and Syria since U.S. airstrikes began in August is $2.44 billion as of May 7.

IS fighters recently gained substantial control over the Beiji oil refinery, a strategically important prize in the battle for Iraq's future and a potential source of millions of dollars in income for the militants. They also control the nearby town of Beiji, on the main route from Baghdad to Mosul, along the Tigris River.

The militants' move on Beiji largely coincided with its successful offensive in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, last week. Iraqi forces withdrew from Ramadi on Sunday, leaving behind large numbers of U.S.-supplied vehicles, including several tanks. The U.S. said Friday that its airstrikes in Ramadi overnight hit an IS fighting unit, destroying five armored vehicles, two tanks and other military vehicles, as well as nine abandoned tanks and other armored vehicles.

Together, the Ramadi and Beiji losses have fueled criticism of the Obama administration's Iraq strategy and prompted the White House to authorize an acceleration of U.S. weapons transfers to Baghdad, including expedited shipments of 2,000 shoulder-fired missiles for use against armored suicide vehicles.

Iran had contributed advisers, training and arms to Iraqi Shiite militias in an attempt to retake the city of Tikrit in March, but that effort stalled. In April, after the U.S. joined the effort with airstrikes, Iraqi security forces and allied Shiite militias succeeded in regaining control of the city.

Tony Cordesman, a Middle East expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that while some in Tehran see the advantages of a Shiite-led Iraqi government that deals equitably with the Sunni and Kurdish populations in order to achieve national unity, Iranian hardliners do not.

"At best, they are still pursuing a policy of competing with the United States for military influence over the Iraqi military and police, Shiite militias, and even influence over Iraq's Kurds," Cordesman wrote in an analysis published Thursday. "At worst - and `at worst' now seems more likely than `at best' - Iran's leaders are seeking an Iraq where Iran has dominant influence" after the Islamic State threat has been overcome.

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DEA raids clinics, pharmacies in 'pill mill' crackdown

DEA raids clinics, pharmacies in 'pill mill' crackdown 

A Drug Enforcement Administration officer walks into a medical clinic in Little Rock, Ark., Wednesday, May 20, 2015. The DEA began wrapping up a multistate crackdown on prescription drug abuse with raids at pain clinics, pharmacies and other locations in the South.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- Authorities raided medical clinics, pharmacies and other locations across the South on Wednesday as part of a Drug Enforcement Administration attempt to thwart illegal prescription drug sales.

The raids in Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi were the latest stage of an operation launched last summer by the Drug Enforcement Administration's drug diversion unit, which has now netted 280 arrests over more than a year, including 22 doctors and pharmacists.

"We have people who have taken an oath to do no harm who are throwing that oath out the window," DEA Special Agent in Charge Keith Brown said after the early morning raids.

The DEA's "Operation Pilluted" had focused on the illegal distribution of oxycodone, hydrocodone and Xanax by medical professionals, and does not target addicts. Agents arrested 48 people Wednesday: 22 in Louisiana, nine each in Alabama and Arkansas and eight in Mississippi.

Since January 2014, half of the overall arrests have occurred in Arkansas. It and the other three states involved in Wednesday's raids each ranked among the top 11 states for hydrocodone prescriptions in 2014, according to DEA data.

"Arkansas is unfortunately not only not immune from this epidemic, but in some ways, we are a leading cause of it," U.S. Attorney Chris Thyer said. He said the state has 146 million hydrocodone pills distributed annually.

In Little Rock, agents raided the KJ Medical Center within sight of the DEA's local office, detaining seven people, and also swept into the Bowman Curve Pharmacy a mile away, where one woman was brought out in handcuffs.

Thyer said at a news conference that customers at the KJ clinic were told in November to take their prescriptions to Bowman Curve after a major chain pharmacy raised questions.

He said that, of the 1,484 prescriptions filled at Bowman Curve Pharmacy between December and March, only six were not sent from the KJ clinic.

Agents also said that, during Wednesday's raid, officers seized four loaded guns and a money counter from the KJ clinic.

The KJ Medical Center was often protected by a security guard while another employee was often stationed outside to direct traffic when patients started showing up around 6:45 each morning. Agents arrested one uniformed guard and another man identified as security personnel, two nurses, a doctor, a man identified as the office manager and a man accused of recruiting homeless people and others to obtain unneeded prescriptions.

Reporters asked the doctor if he was selling pills illegally. He responded, "No," as he was led away in handcuffs and placed in a prisoner van.

A DEA official had told The Associated Press on Tuesday that, in Mobile, Alabama, agents targeted two doctors accused of running multiple pain clinics.

Thyer said about 130 previous Arkansas arrests were linked to the operation, including one Monday by Lonoke County officials. Police began investigating a Little Rock doctor after a patient's death was blamed on a prescription drug overdose. He was arrested Monday and charged with 187 counts of fraudulent practices.

The list also includes a 2014 raid on an oxycodone distribution ring that netted 33 indictments.

At a Montgomery, Alabama, press conference, Gov. Robert Bentley, a dermatologist, held up a copy of the license that allows him to prescribe painkillers to patients.

He said that while drugs can help patients, doctors who overprescribe them to aid abusers "change from being a physician to really being a drug dealer."

"These physicians are an embarrassment to the medical profession," Bentley said.

Prosecutors said four of the nine people arrested in Alabama on Wednesday were doctors, as were two in Louisiana.

DEA officials said 40 doctors, pharmacies and others have surrendered their DEA registration numbers as part of the crackdown, and two immediate suspension orders were issued. A registration number is required to prescribe certain medications.

Those arrested Wednesday face a variety of state and federal criminal charges, including distribution of a controlled substance and conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance.

Law enforcement officials also have warned that people who become addicted to prescription painkillers often turn to heroin when it becomes too difficult to get a prescription.

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New mystery in train crash: Was it hit by a flying object?

New mystery in train crash: Was it hit by a flying object? 
 

New rail lines are stacked up in an area near the site where a deadly train derailment occurred earlier in the week, Friday, May 15, 2015, in Philadelphia. Amtrak is working to restore Northeast Corridor rail service between New York City and Philadelphia. Service was suspended after a train derailed in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, killing eight passengers and injuring more than 200.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The Amtrak train that derailed along the nation's busiest tracks may have been struck by an object in the moments before it crashed, investigators said Friday, raising new questions about the deadly accident.

National Transportation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt said an assistant conductor told investigators that she heard Amtrak engineer Brandon Bostian talking over the radio with an engineer for a regional railroad just before the crash.

The regional engineer, who was in the same area as the Amtrak train, said his train had been hit by a rock or some other projectile. The conductor heard Bostian say the same had happened to his Amtrak train, according to Sumwalt.

The windshield of the Amtrak train was shattered in the accident but one area of glass had a breakage pattern that could be consistent with being hit by an object, he said, and the FBI is investigating.

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority does not yet know what caused the damage to its train that night, said Jerri Williams, a spokeswoman for the agency.

SEPTA trains traveling through the area - including one of the poorest and most violent parts of the city - have had projectiles thrown at them in the past, whether by vandals or teenagers, she said. It was unusual that the SEPTA train was forced to stop on Tuesday night.

The deadly Amtrak wreck has made it clear that despite the train industry's widespread use of electronic signals, sensors and warning systems, safety still sometimes comes down to the knowledge and experience of the engineer at the controls.

Those skills would have been critical on the curve where the New York-bound train derailed, killing eight and injuring more than 200 in the deadliest U.S. train accident in nearly six years.

Instead of high-tech signals or automatic controls, engineers on that stretch of track have to rely on their familiarity with the route and a printed timetable they carry with them, not unlike engineers a century ago.

"We're depending heavily on the human engineer to correctly obey and interpret the signals that he sees and also speed limits and other operating requirements," said David B. Clarke, a railroad expert at the University of Tennessee.

The engineer of the train has told investigators that he does not recall the moments leading up to Tuesday night's crash.

The conductor told the NTSB in an interview Friday that he felt comfortable with the train and was not fatigued, Sumwalt said.

In the minute before the derailment, the Amtrak train accelerated from 70 mph to more than 100 mph, even though the curve where it came off the tracks has a maximum speed of 50 mph.

Experts say the railroad's signaling system would have slowed the train automatically if it had hit the maximum speed allowed on the line, but older cab-signal and train-control systems do not respond to localized speed restrictions.

Investigators are also conducting drug tests. Bostian's lawyer has said he was not using drugs or alcohol.

Preliminary checks have not found any pre-existing problems with the train, the rail line or the signals.

Because of his experience, Bostian should have known the route, even if there's not so much as a speed limit sign on the side of the tracks, said Howard Spier, a Miami-based lawyer who is a former president of the Academy of Rail Labor Attorneys.

"It's engrained in them. He knew it," Spier said. "I'm convinced he knew he was entering a speed-restrictive curve."

The wreck has raised questions about positive train control, a system that automatically brakes trains going too fast. It is installed on the tracks where the train derailed, but it had not been turned on because further testing was needed, Amtrak President Joseph Boardman said.

 

Boardman said this week that he intends to have the system running across Amtrak by the end of this year, as Congress mandated back in 2008.

The system is already operating in other parts of the Northeast Corridor, the busy stretch of tracks between Boston and Washington. An older, less robust automatic-control system is in place for southbound trains in the same area as the derailment.

The last wrecked railcars from the deadly accident were removed Friday as Amtrak prepares to resume service on the line next week.

Also Friday, the first funeral was held for one of those killed in the wreck. U.S. Naval Academy midshipman Justin Zemser, 20, was laid to rest on Long Island. About 150 classmates from the academy joined his family and students from his New York City high school.

Jury orders death for the Boston Marathon bomber

Jury orders death for the Boston Marathon bomber 

FILE - This undated photo released by the FBI on April 19, 2013 shows Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. On Friday, May 15, 2015, Tsarnaev was sentenced to death by lethal injection for the 2013 Boston Marathon terror attack.

   

BOSTON (AP) -- A jury sentenced Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death Friday for the Boston Marathon bombing, sweeping aside pleas that he was just a "kid" who fell under the influence of his fanatical older brother.

Tsarnaev, 21, stood with his hands folded, his head slightly bowed, upon learning his fate, sealed after 14 hours of deliberations over three days. It was the most closely watched terrorism trial in the U.S. since the Oklahoma City bombing case two decades ago.

The decision sets the stage for what could be the nation's first execution of a terrorist in the post-9/11 era, though the case is likely to go through years of appeals. The execution would be carried out by lethal injection.

"Now he will go away and we will be able to move on. Justice. In his own words, `an eye for an eye,'" said bombing victim Sydney Corcoran, who nearly bled to death and whose mother lost both legs.

Karen Brassard, who suffered shrapnel wounds on her legs, said: "We can breathe again."

Three people were killed and more than 260 wounded when Tsarnaev and his brother set off two shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs near the finish line of the race on April 15, 2013. The Tsarnaevs also shot an MIT police officer to death during their getaway.

The 12-member federal jury had to be unanimous for Tsarnaev to get the death penalty. Otherwise, the former college student would have automatically received a sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole.

In weighing the arguments for and against death, the jurors decided among other things that Tsarnaev showed a lack of remorse. And they emphatically rejected the defense's central argument - that he was led down the path to terrorism by his big brother.

"Today the jury has spoken. Dzhokhar Tsrnaev will pay for his crimes with his life," said U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz.

Tsarnaev's father, Anzor Tsarnaev, reached by phone in the Russian region of Dagestan, let out a deep moan upon hearing the news and hung up. Tsarnaev's lawyers had no comment as they left the courtroom.

The attack and the ensuing manhunt paralyzed the city for days and cast a pall over the marathon - normally one of Boston's proudest, most exciting moments - that has yet to be lifted.

With Friday's decision, community leaders and others talked of closure, of relief, of resilience, of the city's Boston Strong spirit.

"Today, more than ever, we know that Boston is a city of hope, strength and resilience that can overcome any challenge," said Mayor Marty Walsh.

Tsarnaev was convicted last month of all 30 charges against him, including use of a weapon of mass destruction. Seventeen of those charges carried the possibility of a death sentence; ultimately, the jury gave him the death penalty on six of those counts.

Tsarnaev's chief lawyer, death penalty specialist Judy Clarke, admitted at the very start of the trial that he participated in the bombings, bluntly telling the jury: "It was him."

But the defense argued that Dzhokhar was an impressionable 19-year-old led astray by his volatile and domineering 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan, who was portrayed as the mastermind of the plot to punish the U.S. for its wars in Muslim countries.

Tamerlan died days after the bombing when he was shot by police and run over by Dzhokhar during a chaotic getaway attempt.

Prosecutors depicted Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as an equal partner in the attack, saying he was so coldhearted he planted a bomb on the pavement behind a group of children, killing an 8-year-old boy.

To drive home their point, prosecutors cited the message he scrawled in the dry-docked boat where he was captured: "Stop killing our innocent people and we will stop." And they opened their case in the penalty phase with a startling photo of him giving the finger to a security camera in his jail cell months after his arrest.

"This is Dzhokhar Tsarnaev -unconcerned, unrepentant and unchanged," prosecutor Nadine Pellegrin said.

The jurors also heard grisly and heartbreaking testimony from numerous bombing survivors who described seeing their legs blown off or watching someone next to them die.

Killed in the bombing were Lingzi Lu, a 23-year-old Boston University graduate student from China; Krystle Campbell, a 29-year-old restaurant manager; and 8-year-old Martin Richard, who had gone to watch the marathon with his family. Massachusetts Institute of Technology police Officer Sean Collier was gunned down in his cruiser days later. Seventeen people lost legs in the bombings.

The speed with which the jury reached a decision surprised some, given that the jurors had to fill out a detailed, 24-page worksheet in which they tallied up the factors for and against the death penalty.

The possible aggravating factors included the cruelty of the crime, the killing of a child, the amount of carnage and lack of remorse. The possible mitigating factors included Tsarnaev's age, the influence of his brother, and his turbulent, dysfunctional family.

The jury agreed with the prosecution on 11 of the 12 aggravating factors cited. In weighing the mitigating factors, only three of the 12 jurors found Tsarnaev acted under the influence of his brother.

Tsarnaev did manage to escape a death sentence in the killing of the MIT officer, after prosecutors admitted they do not know which brother pulled the trigger.

Tsarnaev did not take the stand at his trial, and he slouched through most of the case, a seemingly bored look on his face. In his only flash of emotion during the months-long case, he cried when his Russian aunt took the stand.

The only evidence of any remorse on his part in the two years since the attack came from the defense's final witness, Sister Helen Prejean, a Roman Catholic nun and staunch death penalty opponent portrayed in the movie "Dead Man Walking."

She quoted Tsarnaev as saying of the victims: "No one deserves to suffer like they did."

Tsarnaev's lawyers also called teachers, friends and Russian relatives who described him as a sweet and kind boy who cried during "The Lion King." The defense called him a "good kid."

The defense argued that sparing his life and sending him instead to the high-security Supermax federal prison in Colorado would be a harsh punishment and would help the victims move on with their lives without having to read about years of death row appeals.

The outcome of the penalty phase was wrapped in high suspense.

Massachusetts is a liberal, staunchly anti-death penalty state that hasn't executed anyone since 1947, and there were fears that a death sentence for Tsarnaev would only satisfy his desire for martyrdom. Even the grieving parents of the 8-year-old boy publicly urged prosecutors to drop their push for death.

But others argued that if capital punishment is to be reserved for "the worst of the worst," Tsarnaev qualifies.

U.S. District Judge George O'Toole Jr. will formally impose the sentence at a later date during a hearing in which bombing victims will be allowed to speak. Tsarnaev will also be given the opportunity to address the court.

The Tsarnaevs - ethnic Chechens - lived in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan and the volatile Dagestan region, near Chechnya, before moving to the U.S. about a decade before the bombings. They settled in Cambridge, just outside Boston.

On The Spot Praying Hands: by Van Stone Philadelphia Front Page News Magazine And Media Key 307 Magazine

Malaysia turns away 800 boat people; Thailand spots 3rd boat

Malaysia turns away 800 boat people; Thailand spots 3rd boat 
 

An ethnic Rohingya man carries a plastic bag containing his belongings at a temporary shelter in Lapang, Aceh province, Indonesia, Thursday, May 14, 2015. More than 1,600 migrants and refugees from Myanmar and Bangladesh have landed on the shores of Malaysia and Indonesia in the past week and thousands more are believed to have been abandoned at sea, floating on boats with little or no food after traffickers literally jumped ship fearing a crackdown.

 

LANGKAWI, Malaysia (AP) -- Rohingya and Bangladeshis abandoned at sea following a crackdown on human traffickers had nowhere to go Thursday after Malaysia turned away two wooden boats crammed with hundreds of hungry people. Thailand, too, made it clear the migrants were not wanted.

"What do you expect us to do?" asked Malaysian Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi Jafaar. "We have been very nice to the people who broke into our border. We have treated them humanely, but they cannot be flooding our shores like this."

"We have to send the right message," he said, "that they are not welcome here."

Thai Prime Minister Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, meanwhile, said his country couldn't afford to host the refugees.

"If we take them all in, then anyone who wants to come will come freely," he said. "Where will the budget come from?"

He had no suggestions as to where they should go, saying: "No one wants them."

Southeast Asia for years tried to quietly ignore the plight of Myanmar's 1.3 million Rohingya but finds itself caught in a spiraling humanitarian crisis that in many ways it helped create. In the last three years, more than 120,000 members of the Muslim minority, who are intensely persecuted in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, have boarded ships to flee to other countries, paying huge sums to human traffickers.

But faced with a regional crackdown, some captains and smugglers have abandoned the ships, leaving an estimated 6,000 refugees to fend for themselves, according to reliable aid workers and human rights groups.

Around 1,600 have washed to shore in recent days - a thousand on Langkawi, a resort island in northern Malaysia, and another 600 arriving surreptitiously in Indonesia.

But nearly just as many have been sent away. And now food and water supplies are running low.

"This is a grave humanitarian crisis demanding an immediate response," said Matthew Smith, executive director of nonprofit human rights group Fortify Rights. "Lives are on the line."

Denied citizenship by national law, Myanmar's Rohingya are effectively stateless. They have limited access to education or adequate health care and cannot move around freely. They have been attacked by the military and chased from their homes and land by extremist Buddhist mobs in a country that regards them as illegal settlers.

Despite appeals by the U.N. and aid groups, no government in the region - Thai, Indonesian or Malaysian - appears willing to take the refugees, fearing that accepting a few would result in an unstoppable flow of poor, uneducated migrants.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is "alarmed by reports that some countries may be refusing entry to boats carrying refugees and migrants," a statement from his office said Thursday. It said Ban urged governments in the region to "facilitate timely disembarkation and keep their borders and ports open in order to help the vulnerable people who are in need."

Days after Malaysia let in a few boats carrying around migrants, Wan Junaidi announced that a vessel carrying 500 people on a boat found Wednesday off northern Penang state were given provisions and sent on their way. Another carrying about 300 migrants was turned away near Langkawi island overnight, according to two Malaysian officials who declined to be identified because they weren't authorized to speak to the press.

Indonesia's navy also sent away a boat carrying 400 people this week, giving them food, water and directions to Malaysia - the country migrants allegedly said they were trying to find.

Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch Asia accused Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia of playing "a three-way game of human ping pong."

Though Thailand has a "help-on policy" - give people provisions and then send them on their way - its navy got a green light Thursday from Prayuth's government to rescue a vessel spotted along the Thai-Malaysian maritime border in Satun province, said Jeffrey Labovitz, the International Organization for Migration's chief of mission in Bangkok, Thailand.

The migrants had been begging for help by phone for days, but when sailors finally arrived, offering to bring them to land, they said they were fine.

"None of them wanted to go to the Thai shore," said Maj. Gen. Sansern Kaewkamnerd, deputy government spokesman. "They said they wanted to travel to a third country."

Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, said relatives of some of those on board - including a 16-year-old boy - were crushed to learn their loved ones were not disembarking.

She said they believe the decision was made by a person who appeared to be controlling everyone on the boat.

Investigators: Train in deadly wreck was speeding 106 mph

Investigators: Train in deadly wreck was speeding 106 mph 
 

Emergency personnel walk near the scene of a deadly train wreck, Wednesday, May 13, 2015, in Philadelphia. Federal investigators arrived Wednesday to determine why an Amtrak train jumped the tracks in Tuesday night's fatal accident.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The Amtrak train that crashed in Philadelphia, killing at least seven people, was hurtling at 106 mph before it ran off the rails along a sharp curve where the speed limit drops to just 50 mph, federal investigators said Wednesday.

The engineer applied the emergency brakes moments before the crash but slowed the train to only 102 mph by the time the locomotive's black box stopped recording data, said Robert Sumwalt, of the National Transportation Safety Board. The speed limit just before the bend is 80 mph, he said.

The engineer, whose name was not released, refused to give a statement to law enforcement and left a police precinct with a lawyer, police said. Sumwalt said federal accident investigators want to talk to him but will give him a day or two to recover from the shock of the accident.

Mayor Michael Nutter said there was "no way in the world" the engineer should have been going that fast into the curve.

"Clearly he was reckless and irresponsible in his actions," Nutter told CNN. "I don't know what was going on with him, I don't know what was going on in the cab, but there's really no excuse that could be offered."

More than 200 people aboard the Washington-to-New York train were injured in the wreck, which happened in a decayed industrial neighborhood not far from the Delaware River just before 9:30 p.m. Tuesday. Passengers crawled out the windows of the torn and toppled rail cars in the darkness and emerged dazed and bloody, many of them with broken bones and burns.

It was the nation's deadliest train accident in nearly seven years.

Amtrak suspended all service until further notice along the Philadelphia-to-New York stretch of the nation's busiest rail corridor as investigators examined the wreckage and the tracks and gathered evidence. The shutdown snarled the commute and forced thousands of people to find other ways to reach their destinations.

The dead included an Associated Press employee, a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy, a Wells Fargo executive and a CEO of an educational startup. At least 10 people remained hospitalized in critical condition.

Nutter said some people were unaccounted for but cautioned that some passengers listed on the Amtrak manifest might not have boarded the train, while others might not have checked in with authorities.

"We will not cease our efforts until we go through every vehicle," the mayor said.

He said rescuers expanded the search area and were using dogs to look for victims in case someone was thrown from the wreckage.

The NTSB finding about the train's speed corroborated an AP analysis done earlier in the day of surveillance video from a spot along the tracks. The AP concluded from the footage that the train was speeding at approximately 107 mph moments before it entered the curve.

Despite pressure from Congress and safety regulators, Amtrak had not installed along that section of track Positive Train Control, a technology that uses GPS, wireless radio and computers to prevent trains from going over the speed limit. Most of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor is equipped with Positive Train Control.

"Based on what we know right now, we feel that had such a system been installed in this section of track, this accident would not have occurred," Sumwalt said.

The notoriously tight curve is not far from the site of one of the deadliest train wrecks in U.S. history: the 1943 derailment of the Congressional Limited, bound from Washington to New York. Seventy-nine people were killed.

Amtrak inspected the stretch of track on Tuesday, just hours before the accident, and found no defects, the Federal Railroad Administration said. Besides the data recorder, the train had a video camera in its front end that could yield clues to what happened, Sumwalt said.

As for the engineer, Sumwalt said: "This person has gone through a very traumatic event, and we want to give him an opportunity to convalesce for a day or so before we interview him. But that is certainly a high priority for us, to interview the train crew."

The crash took place about 10 minutes after the train pulled out of Philadelphia's 30th Street Station with 238 passengers and five crew members listed aboard. The locomotive and all seven passenger cars hurtled off the track as the train made a left turn, Sumwalt said.

Jillian Jorgensen was seated in the second passenger car and said the train was going "fast enough for me to be worried" when it began to lurch to the right. Then the lights went out, and Jorgensen was thrown from her seat.

She said she "flew across the train" and landed under some seats that had apparently broken loose from the floor.

Jorgensen, a reporter for The New York Observer who lives in Jersey City, New Jersey, said she wriggled free as fellow passengers screamed. She saw one man lying still, his face covered in blood, and a woman with a broken leg.

She climbed out an emergency exit window, and a firefighter helped her down a ladder to safety.

"It was terrifying and awful, and as it was happening it just did not feel like the kind of thing you could walk away from, so I feel very lucky," Jorgensen said in an email. "The scene in the car I was in was total disarray, and people were clearly in a great deal of pain."

Among the dead were award-winning AP video software architect Jim Gaines, a father of two; Justin Zemser, a Naval Academy midshipman from New York City; Abid Gilani, a senior vice president in Wells Fargo's commercial real estate division in New York; and Rachel Jacobs, who was commuting home to New York from her new job as CEO of the Philadelphia educational software startup ApprenNet.

Several victims were rolled away on stretchers. Others wobbled as they walked away or were put on buses.

"It's incredible that so many people walked away from that scene last night," the mayor said. "I saw people on this street behind us walking off of that train. I don't know how that happened, but for the grace of God."

The area where the wreck happened is known as Frankford Junction, situated in a neighborhood of warehouses, industrial buildings and homes.

Amtrak carries 11.6 million passengers a year along its busy Northeast Corridor, which runs between Washington and Boston.

Obama library locale a lift to Chicago hometown's South Side

Obama library locale a lift to Chicago hometown's South Side 
 

U.S. Rep Bobby Rush, D-Ill., looks on as Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel speaks during a news conference announcing the future of the Barack Obama Presidential Center, Tuesday, May 12, 2015, in Chicago.

CHICAGO (AP) -- President Barack Obama will establish his presidential library on the South Side of Chicago, a part of the city where his political career began and where some of the issues that he plans to devote himself to when he leaves the White House are playing out on the streets.

The Barack Obama Foundation made official Tuesday what had been widely expected, that the library will be erected on a site proposed by the University of Chicago. The location was selected over bids made by Columbia University in New York, the University of Hawaii and the University of Illinois at Chicago.

"With a library and a foundation on the South Side of Chicago, not only will we be able to encourage and effect change locally, but what we can also do is to attract the world to Chicago," Obama said in a video accompanying the release. "All the strands of my life came together and I really became a man when I moved to Chicago."

The library, to be located in one of two public parks near campus, is expected to be a boon to nearby communities that struggle with gang violence, drugs, and unemployment. The University of Chicago has said the library and its 800,000 expected visitors a year will translate into dozens of new businesses, thousands of jobs and tens of millions of dollars in revenue.

While the choice was not a surprise - people with direct knowledge of the decision told The Associated Press and other media nearly two weeks ago that it was the winner - sewing up the deal was less smooth than expected. Questions lingered for months about whether the library could legally be built on park land as the university proposed, because the university had not secured the land.

Those questions triggered a flurry of activity, with the City Council approving an ordinance to transfer the land and state lawmakers passing a bill reinforcing the city's right to use the park land for the library as well as "Star Wars" creator George Lucas' proposed lakefront museum.

But the bid was still considered a front-runner, in large part because the president once taught constitutional law at the university, the first lady once worked as an administrator at the University of Chicago Medical Center and they still have a family home nearby.

In the video, Obama cited Chicago as the place he was able to apply his "early idealism to try to work in communities in public service" as well as being where he met his wife and their children were born.

Added first lady Michelle Obama: "Every value, every memory, every important relationship to me exists in Chicago. I consider myself a South Sider."

As a place to tell the president's life story, Mayor Rahm Emanuel noted that the chapter about the president's days as a community organizer happened just outside what will be the doors of the library.

"This is where President Obama's journey began in public life," Emanuel said Tuesday. "He walked these streets, knocked on these doors."

That connection remains a strong one. After the videotaped beating death of a 16-year-old honor student in 2009, for example, Obama dispatched his attorney general and education secretary to discuss teen violence. Four years later, after honor student Hadiya Pendleton was shot to death in a park about a mile from the Obama home, Michelle Obama returned to Chicago to declare in a deeply personal speech that "Hadiya Pendleton is me and I was her."

Much was said Tuesday about the powerful effects the library will have for a part of the city, both as an inspiration for local children and as an economic boost to an area that "suffers the effects of systematic neglect and disinvestment," as Carol Adams, former president of the DuSable Museum of African American History, said.

The South Side is also widely viewed as an opportune spot for Obama to base his post-presidential plans to create and broaden educational and other opportunities for boys and young men of color.

"On the South Side he's going to be right in the middle of the lives of young black men, not in some remote place but right down there where this is a big issue," said Willard Boyd, a former president of Chicago's Field Museum and past chairman of the(Harry S.) Truman Library Institute in Independence, Missouri.

One remaining question is which of two proposed sites near the campus, Washington Park or Jackson Park, will be chosen. Foundation Chairman Marty Nesbitt, a friend of Obama, said Tuesday that he expects the selection to come within nine months and expects the library to be finished in 2020 or 2021.

Nesbitt said the university and foundation would be independent entities but, "we will be good neighbors."

Another deadly earthquake spreads fear and misery in Nepal

Another deadly earthquake spreads fear and misery in Nepal 
 

A Mexican rescue worker stands at the site of a building that collapsed in an earthquake in Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, May 12, 2015. A major earthquake has hit Nepal near the Chinese border between the capital of Kathmandu and Mount Everest less than three weeks after the country was devastated by a quake.

  

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) -- A new earthquake killed dozens of people Tuesday and spread more fear and misery in Nepal, which is still struggling to recover from a devastating quake nearly three weeks ago that left more than 8,000 dead.

A U.S. Marine Corps helicopter carrying six Marines and two Nepalese soldiers was reported missing while delivering disaster aid in northeastern Nepal, U.S. officials said, although there have been no indications the aircraft crashed.

Tuesday's magnitude-7.3 quake, centered midway between Kathmandu and Mount Everest, struck hardest in the foothills of the Himalayas, triggering some landslides, but it also shook the capital badly, sending thousands of terrified people into the streets.

Nepal's Parliament was in session when the quake hit, and frightened lawmakers ran for the exits as the building shook and the lights flickered out.

At least 37 people were killed in the quake and more than 1,100 were injured, according to the Home Ministry. But that toll was expected to rise as reports began reaching Kathmandu of people in isolated Himalayan towns and villages being buried under rubble, according to the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Tremors radiated across parts of Asia. In neighboring India, at least 16 people were confirmed dead after rooftops or walls collapsed onto them, according to India's Home Ministry. Chinese media reported one death in Tibet.

The magnitude-7.8 earthquake that hit April 25 killed more than 8,150 and flattened entire villages, leaving hundreds of thousands homeless in the country's worst-recorded quake since 1934. The U.S. Geological Survey said Tuesday's earthquake was the largest aftershock to date of that destructive quake.

Tuesday's temblor was deeper, however, coming from a depth of 18.5 kilometers (11.5 miles) versus the earlier one at 15 kilometers (9.3 miles). Shallow earthquakes tend to cause more damage.

At least three people were rescued Tuesday in Kathmandu, while another nine pulled to safety in the district of Dolkha, the government said.

Rescue helicopters were sent to mountain districts where landslides and collapsed buildings may have buried people, the government said. Home Ministry official Laxmi Dhakal said the Sindhupalchowk and Dolkha districts were the worst hit.

Search parties fanned out to look for survivors in the wreckage of collapsed buildings in Sindhupalchowk's town of Chautara, which had become a hub for humanitarian aid after last month's quake.

Impoverished Nepal appealed for billions of dollars in aid from foreign nations, as well as medical experts to treat the wounded and helicopters to ferry food and temporary shelters to hundreds of thousands left homeless amid unseasonal rains.

In Washington, Navy Capt. Chris Sims said the missing Huey helicopter was conducting disaster relief operations near Charikot, Nepal.

A nearby Indian helicopter heard radio chatter about a possible fuel problem, said U.S. Army Col. Steve Warren. The Huey, carrying tarps and rice, had dropped off supplies and was headed to a second site when contact was lost, he said, adding that there has been no smoke or other signs of a crash.

A Nepalese air brigade unit had seen the Huey, so Marines in V-22 Osprey aircraft searched unsuccessfully near its last known location for about 90 minutes, Warren said. Members of the Nepalese army are searching on foot because of darkness, he added.

Due to the rugged terrain, the helicopter could have landed in an area where the crew was unable to get a beacon or radio signal out, Warren said.

Tuesday's quake was followed closely by at least 10 strong aftershocks, according to the USGS.

Early reports indicated at least two buildings had collapsed in Kathmandu, though at least one had been unoccupied due to damage it sustained on April 25. Experts say the earlier quake caused extensive structural damage even in buildings that did not topple, and that many could be in danger of collapse.

Frightened residents in the capital, who had returned to their homes only a few days ago, once again set up tents Tuesday night with plans to sleep in empty fields, parking lots and on sidewalks.

"Everyone was saying the earthquakes are over. ... Now I don't want to believe anyone," said 40-year-old produce vendor Ram Hari Sah as he searched for a spot to pitch the orange tarpaulin to shelter his family. "We are all scared, we are terrified. I would rather deal with mosquitoes and the rain than sleep in the house."

Extra police were sent to patrol ad-hoc camping areas, while drinking water and extra tents were being provided, according to Kathmandu administrator Ek Narayan Aryal.

"I thought I was going to die this time," said Sulav Singh, who rushed with his daughter into a street in the suburban neighborhood of Thapathali. "Things were just getting back to normal, and we get this one."

Paul Dillon, a spokesman with the International Organization for Migration, said he saw a man in Kathmandu who had apparently run from the shower with shampoo covering his head. "He was sitting on the ground, crying," Dillon said.

Meanwhile, new landslides blocked mountain roads in the district of Gorkha, one of the regions hit hardest on April 25, while previously damaged buildings collapsed with the latest quake.

Residents of the small town of Namche Bazaar, about 50 kilometers (35 miles) from the epicenter of 

Tuesday's quake and well known to high-altitude trekkers, said a couple of buildings damaged earlier had collapsed there as well. However, there were no reports of deaths or injuries.

The earth also shook strongly in neighboring Tibet, unleashing a landslide that killed one person and injured three, according to China Central Television. Two houses collapsed, the state broadcaster said, quoting disaster officials of the regional Tibetan government.