Burned as baby, woman finally meets nurse who cared for her

Burned as baby, woman finally meets nurse who cared for her 
 

Nurse Susan Berger, left, and Amanda Scarpinati pose with a copy of a 1977 Albany Medical Center annual report during a news conference at Albany Medical Center, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2015, in Albany, N.Y. Scarpinati, who suffered severe burns as an infant, is finally getting the chance to thank Berger who cared for her, thanks to a social media posting that revealed the identity of the nurse in 38-year-old photos.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- For 38 years, a few black-and-white photographs of a nurse cradling a baby provided comfort to a woman who suffered terrible burns and endured years of playground taunts and painful surgeries thereafter. For all that time, until Tuesday, she dreamed of meeting her again.

The photos show Amanda Scarpinati at just 3 months old, her head thickly wrapped in gauze, resting calmly in the nurse's arms. Shot for the Albany Medical Center's 1977 annual report, the images have a beatific, 

"Madonna and Child" quality.

As a baby, she had rolled off a couch onto a boiling steam vaporizer. Melted mentholated ointment scalded her skin. The burns would require many reconstructive surgeries over the years.

The photos helped.

"Growing up as a child, disfigured by the burns, I was bullied and picked on, tormented," she said. "I'd look at those pictures and talk to her, even though I didn't know who she was. I took comfort looking at this woman who seemed so sincere, caring for me."

Scarpinati now lives Athens, 25 miles south of Albany, and works as a human resources manager. All her life, she wanted to thank the nurse who showed her such loving care, but she didn't even know her name.

She tried to find out 20 years ago, without success. The pictures were taken by photographer Carl Howard, but his subjects weren't identified.

At a friend's urging, she tried again this month, posting the photos on Facebook and pleading for help.

"Within 12 hours, it had gone viral with 5,000 shares across the country," said Scarpinati.

She had her answer within a day: The fresh-faced young nurse with the long wavy hair was Susan Berger, then 21. Angela Leary, a fellow nurse at the medical center back then, recognized her and sent Scarpinati a message, saying Berger "was as sweet and caring as she looks in this picture."

Preserved by the photos, their encounters in the pediatric recovery room turned out to have a lasting impact on both their lives.

"I remember her," Berger said before they met face to face on Tuesday. "She was very peaceful. Usually when babies come out of surgery, they're sleeping or crying. She was just so calm and trusting. It was amazing."

Berger had been fresh out of college, and baby Amanda was one of her first patients. Now she's nearing the end of her career, overseeing the health center at Cazenovia College in New York's Finger Lakes region.

Both women were thrilled to see each other again Tuesday, sobbing and embracing as cameras clicked all around them in a medical center conference room.

"Oh my God, you're real! Thank you!" Scarpinati said.

"Thank YOU!" Berger responded.

If any scars remain, Scarpinati doesn't show them, from her long dark hair to the butterfly tattoo just above her ankle. Berger also seems youthful and upbeat, with shoulder-length blonde hair, slightly shorter than how she wore it in 1977.

"I'm over the moon to meet Sue ... I never thought this day would come," Scarpinati said.

Berger said she feels even more blessed.

"I don't know how many nurses would be lucky enough to have something like this happen, to have someone remember you all that time," Berger said. "I feel privileged to be the one to represent all the nurses who cared for her over the years."

Someone asked if their reunion might be the start of a lifelong friendship.

Scarpinati had a quick answer to that: "It already has been a lifelong friendship. She just didn't know."

Scramble to fill top jobs in House after Boehner exit

Scramble to fill top jobs in House after Boehner exit

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., speaks in Washington, Monday, Sept. 28, 2015. McCarthy announced Monday his candidacy for House Speaker, replacing the outgoing John Boehner

   

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A chaotic scramble is on to fill the top GOP jobs in the House following Speaker John Boehner's surprise resignation. Now the same conservatives who pushed him out are maneuvering to yank the next leadership team to the right.

The frenzied action under the Capitol Dome will help determine how Congress contends with upcoming battles on keeping the government running and avoiding a federal default - and whether Republicans can take back the White House next year.

Boehner's announcement Friday shocked nearly everyone, opening a rare chance for ambitious lawmakers to climb the congressional ladder and for competing factions to exert new sway as an anti-establishment fever sweeps GOP politics.

The front-runner for the speaker's job, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, made his candidacy official Monday in a letter to fellow GOP lawmakers in which he pledged to fight for conservative principles and listen to all members - something Boehner was accused of failing to do.

"If elected speaker, I promise you that we will have the courage to lead the fight for our conservative principles and make our case to the American people," McCarthy wrote. "But we will also have the wisdom 

to listen to our constituents and each other so that we always move forward together."

McCarthy, a Californian in his fifth term, has been endorsed by Boehner. But he faces an opponent in Rep. Daniel Webster, a former speaker of the House in Florida who unsuccessfully challenged Boehner at the beginning of this year and has drawn some conservative support. "I would like to have a principle-based member-driven Congress," Webster said in an interview.

And McCarthy's likely ascent leaves the race for majority leader wide open. It's quickly turned into a rough-and-tumble contest with the No. 3 House Republican, Steve Scalise of Louisiana, jockeying aggressively against the Budget Committee chairman, Tom Price of Georgia - and more candidates potentially waiting in the wings.

The No. 4 House Republican, Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, opted out of the contest late Monday after spending the day looking for support. "The best way right now for me to empower my colleagues through positive change is to remain Conference chair," she said.

The others are jockeying to lock down support as the Capitol swirls in chatter about endorsements. One seen as significant: Former Vice Presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan announced his decision to endorse Price on Monday.

The House's tea partyers, some three dozen strong, aren't fielding a candidate. But they want to see leaders who will take the fight to President Barack Obama and the Democrats, not compromise with them as the realities of divided government led Boehner to do. Some of them question whether McCarthy, who's seen more as a political operator than an ideologue, would deliver that new approach.

"I don't see how members of the Freedom Caucus can vote for Kevin McCarthy and go home to their town halls and tell them that things will be different now," said Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky.

Boehner's decision to step down rather than face a nearly unprecedented floor vote to depose him averted immediate crisis, as the Senate on Monday easily approved legislation to keep the government running, and the House was scheduled to follow suit before a Thursday deadline. Despite conservatives' demands, the bill will not cut off money for Planned Parenthood in the wake of videos focused on the group's practice of providing fetal tissues for research.

But the bill merely extends the government funding deadline until Dec. 11, when another shutdown showdown will loom as conservatives make new demands on Boehner's successor and on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

A special House Republican meeting was scheduled for Tuesday evening to discuss the way forward. Conservatives on and off Capitol Hill served notice that they would not settle on the status quo from their leaders even as Democrats and some more moderate members warn the result could be more crisis and gridlock.

"At the end of the day the reason John Boehner is stepping down is there are a lot of members in his conference who couldn't go home and defend him as speaker," said Dan Holler of Heritage Action for America. "Those members are going to have to go home and defend the new leadership team, and they'll have to be comfortable telling their constituents why the new leadership team is better than the old."

In search for Mexico's 43, 1 brutal killing goes ignored

In search for Mexico's 43, 1 brutal killing goes ignored 
 

In this Aug. 8, 2015 photo, Afrodita Mondragon, mother of slain student Julio Cesar Mondragon, covers her face in grief as she speaks inside her home in San Miguel Tecomatlan, a rural town in the hills of Mexico state. Unlike the families of the 43 students who disappeared a year ago, Julio's loved ones were left with a body to bury. But there is little comfort in that, because his corpse bore witness to the horror of his final moments. His autopsy showed several skull fractures and other injuries and internal bleeding to his body consistent with torture. His face had been flayed, a tactic often used by the drug cartels to incite terror and send a message.

  

SAN MIGUEL TECOMATLAN, Mexico (AP) -- Unlike the families of the 43 students who disappeared a year ago, Julio Cesar Mondragon's loved ones were left with a body to bury. But there is little comfort in that, because Mondragon's corpse bore witness to the horror of his final moments.

His autopsy showed several skull fractures, internal bleeding and other injuries consistent with torture. His face had been flayed, a tactic often used by the drug cartels to incite terror. Photos of his bloody skull were uploaded to the Internet.

International attention has been focused on the 43 students who vanished a year ago Saturday, but six others died at the hands of police in those hours, including Mondragon, a 22-year-old father of girl who is now 1 year old. According to an independent group of experts, the disappearances and the killings were the result of a long, coordinated attack against students from the Raul Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School of Ayotzinapa who had come to the southern city of Iguala to commandeer buses for a protest.

But the events of last Sept. 26 were far from isolated. Some 25,000 people have been reported missing in Mexico since 2007, and hundreds from the Iguala area in the last year alone. The disappearance of the students has drawn attention to others who have been lost, as well as brutal drug cartels, official corruption, government indifference and languishing legal cases.

According to Mexico's former attorney general, the 43 disappeared in an attack by police and the Guerreros Unidos drug gang because they were mistaken for rival gang members. The attorney general said last November they were killed and burned to ash in a giant pyre in the nearby Cocula garbage dump.

The independent experts assembled by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights took apart that version earlier this month, saying authorities knew who the students were from the minute they headed for Iguala, and at the very least did nothing to stop the attacks.

They say the funeral pyre simply didn't happen, and suggest the attack occurred because students unknowingly hijacked a bus carrying illegal drugs or money. Iguala is known as a transit hub for heroin going to the United States.

Families say the judicial neglect extends to Mondragon and five others killed that night. His fellow students Daniel Solis and Julio Cesar Ramirez were shot dead at close range. Driver Victor Manuel Lugo Ortiz and David Jose Garcia Evangelista, 15, died when police fired at a soccer team bus. Blanca Montiel, 40, was killed by stray gunfire while riding in a taxi.

Mondragon had been on one of the buses when it was attacked, then later showed up at a news conference the students called at 12:30 a.m. amid the mayhem. He fled when police opened fire. Witnesses said shortly after they last saw him, they heard screams from someone they assumed had been detained. About 6 a.m., soldiers found his body less than a mile (kilometer) from where he disappeared.

Though Mondragon's autopsy points to torture, that doesn't appear in the court records. A report by a military unit at the scene said his face had been peeled off with a knife. But the autopsy says it could have been done by an animal after the body was dumped. His family calls that conclusion "a mockery."

Mondragon's case could provide clues to who was behind the attack, according to the commission. But it languishes in three separate court files. Mondragon's body will be exhumed for a new autopsy.

The former mayor of Iguala, Jose Luis Abarca, is among 28 people charged with his killing. Authorities say the mayor was the one who ordered the attacks. But Sayuri Herrera, lawyer for the Mondragon family, said it would be easy for any defense attorney to get the charges thrown out because the shabby investigative work and foggy charges filed by prosecutors could weaken the case. Charges have already been dropped against one police officer, who remains jailed for the missing 43.

"There's not even clarity in the accusations," said Herrera.

Mondragon's family gathers most Saturdays at the large table in his uncle Cuitlahuac's modest concrete home, sometimes to meet with Herrera, sometimes for psychological counseling, always to plot a path to justice.

"Here we all pretend to be strong," said Lenin Mondragon, 22, who has his brother's eyes, now filled with sadness.

They want the case taken up by federal prosecutors. The Inter-American Commission's experts also say the six murders should be part of the federal case of the 43 because they complete the picture of what happened that night.

The attorney general's office has refused that approach. It also declined for weeks to answer questions about the case from The Associated Press, although on Friday, Eber Betanzos, deputy attorney general for human rights, said the office was about to decide whether it would take over the investigation from state prosecutors. He also said his office will be present for Mondragon's exhumation.

The case remains with state prosecutors in Guerrero, where a lack of resources and expertise make it even less likely that justice will be served.

Mondragon was a little older than his other first-year classmates because he had passed through several normal schools before enrolling in Ayotzinapa. He liked to challenge the teachers, Cuitlahuac Mondragon said. He also taught reading and writing to poor families in San Miguel Tecomatlan, a rural town in the hills of Mexico state.

Julio's mother, Afrodita Mondragon, likes to look at his Facebook profile, though in wading through the Internet she is careful not to land on the photos of a skull when she searches his name.

She is torn between agitating for justice and focusing on her youngest, who is only 3 years old.

"The only thing we ask for is the truth," his uncle said. "The government is betting that this will all be forgotten, and we're betting on justice."

In a big crowd, as at the hajj, danger can come on quickly

In a big crowd, as at the hajj, danger can come on quickly 

In this image released by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), hundreds of thousands of Muslim pilgrims make their way to cast stones at a pillar symbolizing the stoning of Satan in a ritual called "Jamarat," the last rite of the annual hajj, on the first day of Eid al-Adha, in Mina on the outskirts of the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2015.

  

NEW YORK (AP) -- When too many people are squeezed into too small a space, the situation can turn dangerous very quickly, experts say. And that, they say, may be key to understanding the deaths of more than 700 pilgrims on the outskirts of Mecca.

"It's largely a physical phenomenon, not a psychological one," says Dirk Helbing, a professor of computational social science at ETH Zurich, who has studied crowds and disasters.

When the density is too high, movements of a body "transfers forces to other bodies. These forces can add up and create uncontrollable movements in the crowd," he said Thursday.

"As a result ... people might fall on the ground and might be trampled by others" or die of suffocation as others fall on top of them, he said.

And it can happen fast. Even a small incident like two people starting a fight or trying to walk against the crowd can quickly snarl a free-flowing crowd in large-scale congestion, he said. As more and more people pour in, the density builds up, setting the stage for lethal turbulence.

So "a small problem turns into a big problem that is not controllable anymore," Helbing said. A large crowd can "get out of control very quickly."

Even for those who stay on their feet, the pressure of the surrounding bodies builds up "and people can't breathe," said Keith Still, a professor of crowd science at Manchester Metropolitan University in England.

"People don't die because they panic. They panic because they are dying."

Still, who has worked on hajj crowd management with security officials in the past but had no direct knowledge of this year's situation, said Thursday's disaster in Saudi Arabia appeared to result from too many people jammed into a space too small to hold them.

"Every system has a finite limit, the number of people who can go through it," Still said. "When you get above that number, the risks increase exponentially."

At the hajj, he said, "it just looks like the system has gone beyond its safe capacity."

The Saudi Interior Ministry has said the crush appeared to result from two waves of Muslim pilgrims meeting at an intersection. King Salman has pledged a speedy investigation to improve crowd management.

One effective strategy for crowd safety, Still said, is a hold-and-release approach. People are stopped temporarily from following a route and then let go in pulses. "That creates space," Still said.

Helbing said the hajj is "one of the most difficult mass events to organize," in part because some pilgrims aren't registered for the event and so don't adhere to assigned camps or official schedules, and the hajj attracts people of many origins and languages.

The last such hajj incident was nine years ago near the same site.

"When such an event has been safe for a number of years, that's not a reason to relax and take things easy," he said. "There is always a kind of a critical threshold. If your system happens to get beyond that threshold, then things get uncontrollable."

Deputy saves drowning kids in dark pond; the dad is arrested

Deputy saves drowning kids in dark pond; the dad is arrested

Durham County Sheriff's Deputy David Earp speaks to reporters at headquarters in Durham, N.C. on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2015. Earp pulled two young girls out of a pond Sunday night after their father allegedly tried to drown them and their brother.

  

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) -- A North Carolina sheriff's deputy says he heard wailing in the darkness and plunged into an apartment complex's pond at night to rescue two young girls who, police say, had been thrown there to drown by their father.

Durham County Sheriff's Deputy David Earp was off duty and says he rushed out with little more than his department T-shirt, badge and flashlight after the apartment manager called him at home around 9 p.m. Sunday to report some kind of trouble.

"I heard something about children, that they might possibly be in trouble," Earp said in an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press. "And after I was informed that there were kids involved, instinct took over just to go out there and rescue them."

Earp, who lives around the corner from the pond, spotted the girls in the dark with his flashlight and saw a 5-year-old floating and crying. Her 3-year-old sister was fully submerged. Earp says he charged into water about 5 feet deep and scooped them up, holding one in each arm.

He took no notice of the girls' father, Alan Tysheen Eugene Lassiter, 29, of Raleigh - the man who was later charged with trying to drown his kids. In the heat of the moment, Earp was focused on just one thing: trying to save the girls' lives.

Earp said they were about 10 feet from the bank, which slopes sharply down to the pond that stretches about the length of a football field. After pulling the girls to land, Earp said he took the 5-year-old to a nearby gazebo and asked the property manager and her son to watch over her.

"I knew she was terrified and I just took her off and didn't want her to be around her sister," Earp said.

The 5-year veteran of the sheriff's department said he and the arriving officers from the Durham police department performed cardio-pulmonary resuscitation on the 3-year-old for about 15 minutes until medical help arrived.

Police said the younger girl was in critical condition Tuesday and the older girl in good condition.

According to authorities, Lassiter threw the girls into the pond surrounded by apartment buildings.

Lassiter said so himself, during a 911 call Sunday night. Between expletive-laden rage and distraught sobs, he told a dispatcher that officials had tried to take away his children as he dealt with a personal problem. He can be heard on the call telling the complex's property manager, "I just drowned my two daughters in the lake back there."

Sylvia Scott, the property manager for five years, said she called Earp after a tenant reported a man walking around the complex looking for a son he said had been kidnapped. Scott quickly found Lassiter talking on the phone with the 911 dispatcher. Lassiter also told Scott his missing son had been kidnapped. In fact, the boy had run away from his father and was seeking help, police said.

Earp, who frequently drives through the complex in his marked patrol car, arrived seconds later. As the deputy retrieved the girls, Lassiter was standing nearby smoking a cigarette, then became distraught, saying "what have I done?" and started crying, Scott said.

Lassiter did not live at the apartment complex, and Durham Police Chief Jose Lopez said he apparently went there at random.

Lassiter, who waited passively by the pond as police arrived, was charged with three counts of attempted murder: one count for each of the girls and a third for their 7-year-old brother. Lassiter was jailed, with bond set at $2 million, pending a hearing next month.

Earp, 26, who has no children of his own, says the life-or-death episode continues to reverberate for him.

"It plays over in my mind a lot, as I'm sure with any person," Earp said. "Hopefully these kids will push through."

He added, "When it was all going on, I had tunnel vision. But later on, I felt like if I didn't show up and find out where they were, they possibly could have stayed in the water for several more minutes ... I felt like I did one of the best things I could."

Pope Francis arrives in US, faces a polarized country

Pope Francis arrives in US, faces a polarized country 

Pope Francis talks with President Barack Obama after arriving at Andrews Air Force Base in Md., Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2015. The Pope is spending three days in Washington before heading to New York and Philadelphia. This is the Pope's first visit to the United States. First lady Michelle Obama is at right.

  

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Pope Francis arrived Tuesday on the first visit of his life to the United States, bringing his humble manner and his "church of the poor" to a rich and powerful nation polarized over economic inequality, immigration and equal justice.

According a rare honor to the pontiff, President Barack Obama and his wife and daughters met Francis at the bottom of the stairs on the red-carpeted tarmac at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland after the pope's chartered plane touched down from Cuba. Presidents usually make important visitors come to them at the White House.

Emerging from the plane to boisterous cheers from a crowd of hundreds, the smiling 78-year-old pontiff removed his skullcap in the windy weather and made his way down the steps in his white robes.

He was welcomed by a military honor guard, chanting schoolchildren, politicians, and Roman Catholic clerics in black robes and vivid sashes of scarlet and purple. Joe Biden, the nation's first Catholic vice president, and his wife were among those who greeted him.

Eschewing a limousine, the pope climbed into the back of a modest little Fiat family car and promptly rolled down the windows, enabling the cheering, whooping crowds to see him as his motorcade took him to the Vatican diplomatic mission in Washington, where he will stay while in the nation's capital. The choice of car was in keeping with his simple habits and his stand against consumerism.

During his six-day, three-city visit to the U.S., the pope will meet with the president on Wednesday, address Congress on Thursday, speak at the United Nations in New York on Friday and take part in a Vatican-sponsored conference on the family in Philadelphia over the weekend.

The Argentine known as the "slum pope" for ministering to the downtrodden in his native Buenos Aires is expected to urge America to take better care of the environment and the poor and return to its founding ideals of religious liberty and open arms toward immigrants.

During the flight, Francis defended himself against conservative criticism of his economic views. He told reporters on the plane that some explanations of his writings may have given the impression he is "a little bit more left-leaning."

But he said such explanations are wrong and added: "I am certain that I have never said anything beyond what is in the social doctrine of the church." Joking about doubts in some quarters over whether he is truly Catholic, he said, "If I have to recite the Creed, I'm ready."

He is the fourth pope ever to visit the United States.

Francis' enormous popularity, propensity for wading into crowds and insistence on using an open-sided Jeep rather than a bulletproof popemobile have complicated things for U.S. law enforcement, which has mounted one of the biggest security operations in American history to keep him safe.

The measures are unprecedented for a papal trip and could make it nearly impossible for many ordinary Americans to get anywhere close to Francis. For anyone hoping to get across town when the pope is around, good luck.

For all the attention likely to be paid to Francis' speeches, including the first address from a pope to Congress, his more personal gestures - visiting with immigrants, prisoners and the homeless - could yield some of the most memorable images of the trip.

"What the pope does in the United States will be more important than what he says," said Mat Schmalz, a religious studies professor at Holy Cross college in Worcester, Massachusetts. "There are a lot of things he will say about capitalism and about wealth inequality, but many Americans and politicians have already made up their minds on these issues. What I would look for is a particular gesture, an unscripted act, that will move people."

In Cuba, Francis basked in the adulation of Cubans grateful to him for brokering the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and the communist island.

On the plane, though, he told reporters he will not use his speech to Congress to call specifically for the U.S. to lift the Cold War-era trade embargo against Cuba.

He arrives at a moment of bitter infighting across the country over gay rights, immigration, abortion and race relations - issues that are always simmering in the U.S. but have boiled over in the heat of a presidential campaign.

Capitol Hill is consumed by disputes over abortion and federal funding for Planned Parenthood after hidden-camera videos showed its officials talking about the organization's practice of sending tissue from aborted fetuses to medical researchers. While Francis has staunchly upheld church teaching against abortion, he has recently allowed ordinary priests, and not just bishops, to absolve women of the sin.

Francis' visit comes three months after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage, putting U.S. bishops on the defensive and sharply dividing Americans over how much they should accommodate religious objectors. The pope has strongly upheld church teaching against same-sex marriage but adopted a welcoming tone toward gays themselves, saying, "Who am I to judge?" when asked about a supposedly gay priest.

Americans are also wrestling anew with issues of racism. A series of deaths in recent years of unarmed black men at the hands of law enforcement has intensified debate over the American criminal justice system. 

Francis will see that system up close when he meets with inmates at a Pennsylvania prison.

U.S. bishops, meanwhile, expect Francis will issue a strong call for immigration reform, a subject that has heated up with hardline anti-immigrant rhetoric from some of the Republican presidential candidates, especially Donald Trump.

Francis, the first Latin American pope, will be sending a powerful message on that front by delivering the vast majority of his speeches in his native Spanish.

"Our presidential candidates have been using immigrants as a wedge issue," Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski said. "It's our hope that the visit of Pope Francis will change this narrative."

Francis' most eagerly watched speech will be his address to Congress. Republicans and many conservative Catholics have bristled at his indictment of the excesses of capitalism that he says impoverish people and risk turning the Earth into an "immense pile of filth." Many conservatives have likewise rejected his call for urgent action against global warming.

Nevertheless, Francis enjoys popularity ratings in the U.S. that would be the envy of any world leader. A New York Times/CBS News poll conducted last week found 63 percent of Catholics have a favorable view of him, and nearly 8 in 10 approve the direction he is taking the church.

Just how far Francis presses his agenda in Washington is the big question.

Paul Vallely, author of "Pope Francis, The Struggle for the Soul of Catholicism," predicted both "warmth" and "some finger-wagging" from the pope.

"He won't necessarily confront people head-on," Vallely said, "but he'll change the priorities."

Dozens feared dead in Aegean Sea after boat incidents

Dozens feared dead in Aegean Sea after boat incidents 
 

A Greek police man gives instuction as migrants whose boat stalled at sea while crossing from Turkey to Greece approach a shore of the island of Lesbos, Greece, on Sunday, Sept. 20, 2015. A boat with 46 migrants or refugees has sunk Sunday in Greece and the coast guard says it is searching for 26 missing off the eastern Aegean island of Lesbos.

  

ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Disasters at sea claimed the lives of dozens of migrants on Sunday, as desperate people fleeing war and poverty braved the risky journey to seek sanctuary in Europe.

Thirteen migrants died after their boat collided with a ferry off the Turkish coast, officials there said, while the Greek coast guard fanned out in the choppy waters of the Aegean Sea searching for another 27 people missing after their boat sank off the island of Lesbos.

Coast guard officials said some 29 people were rescued in the two incidents, which followed another sinking near Lesbos Saturday, in which a 5-year-old girl drowned. Between 10 and 12 people went missing.

The events highlight the risks that those fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia are willing to take in hopes of reaching sanctuary in Europe. Men, women and children continue to take the perilous sea journey despite the fact that thousands of earlier migrants find themselves blocked by closed border crossings in the Balkans.

Hungary's decision to shut its border with Serbia on Sept. 15 set off a chain reaction in Croatia and Slovenia that has forced people fleeing violence in their homelands to rush from one European border to the next as they desperately try to find their way north before the rules change again.

Thousands are on the move all over southeastern Europe as authorities struggle to respond. Some 11,000 migrants crossed from Hungary into Austria in the 24-hour period ending on midnight Saturday, with at least another 7,000 expected Sunday.

In the Austrian border village of Nickelsdorf people arrived by foot after completing a half-an-hour walk from the Hungarian town of Hegyeshalom. From there, buses and trains take them to emergency shelters in Vienna and other parts of Austria.

Meanwhile, leaders all across the region are sniping at one another, underscoring the sense of crisis and disarray.

Hungary's erection of razor-wire fences is deeply straining its ties with neighboring countries, who feel the problem of the huge flow of migrants is being unfairly pushed onto them. After completing a fence along the border with Serbia, Hungary is now building fences along its borders with Croatia and Romania.

After lashing out against Croatian officials, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto is now trading barbs with his Romanian counterpart over the fence.

Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu on Saturday called the border closure an "autistic and unacceptable act" that violated the spirit of the European Union.

"We would expect more modesty from a foreign minister whose prime minister is currently facing trial," Szijjarto said. That was a reference to corruption charges filed recently against Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta.

"We are a state that is more than 1,000 years old that throughout its history has had to defend not only itself, but Europe as well many times," Szijjarto added. "That's the way it's going to be now, whether the Romanian foreign minister likes it or not."

The Hungarian Foreign Ministry has called in the Romanian ambassador for a consultation on Monday.

Refugee surge to Europe raises concern about militants

Refugee surge to Europe raises concern about militants
 

Refugees queue up for a bus, as they arrive at the border between Austria and Hungary, Heiligenkreuz, Austria, late Tuesday Sept. 15, 2015. Austria's Interior Ministry says temporary border controls with Hungary will be in effect immediately after midnight Tuesday. The ministry says the measure could be extended to the country's borders with Slovenia, Italy and Slovakia, if needed. That reflects the possibility that migrants now streaming into Austria from Hungary could instead try to cross into Austria over those borders in large numbers.

  

PARIS (AP) -- When Islamic State extremists lost control of a key crossroads town in northern Syria in June, some militants shed their jihadi garb and blended in with the flood of Syrians fleeing across the Turkish border. Since then, the exodus of Syrians and Iraqis toward Europe has surged - and Europeans opposed to taking in more refugees say that more than ever, they fear "disguised terrorists" in their midst.

Governments along the route have different assessments of the threat. Two senior Iraqi officials and a Syrian activist say a small group of hardened Islamic State extremists is believed to have left the war zones of Iraq and Syria to blend in with the masses of asylum seekers in recent weeks.

Intelligence officials in France and Germany expressed skepticism, saying they have no specific evidence. The Soufan Group, a security consulting firm, said Monday that some infiltration was probable but the extent of the danger was unknowable, making it "susceptible to exaggeration and exploitation."

The disarray of Europe's asylum procedures in the face of thousands of applications has heightened worries, although security experts say Europe is at far greater risk from homegrown Islamic State sympathizers with valid European travel documents and the means to plan an attack.

Leaders of countries opposed to taking in the refugees routinely cite the fear as one of their primary reasons. The concerns are fanned by lines of exhausted refugees, bedraggled families walking northward along railroad tracks, and trains carrying refugees between countries with minimal or no identity checks, straining a system already near the breaking point.

Even Pope Francis urged caution. In an interview with a Portuguese Catholic radio station broadcast Monday, he recalled that the Bible requires that strangers be welcomed, but acknowledged the need for precautions.

"It's true that 400 kilometers (250 miles) from Sicily there is an exceedingly cruel terrorist guerrilla group, and it's true there's the danger of infiltration," Francis said.

U.S. intelligence officials also are worried that Europe's disorganized response will allow terrorists to circumvent checks.

"We don't obviously put it past the likes of ISIL to infiltrate operatives among these refugees," Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Sept. 9, using an alternate acronym for the Islamic State group. He said the U.S. is aggressively screening the small number of Syrian refugees it has accepted, but is not so sure every European country is using similar vigilance.

A top Iraqi intelligence official said 20 Islamic State fighters from Syria and Iraq, trained and selected by senior IS operatives, are believed to have slipped into Europe in recent weeks to plan attacks. The chaos of the mass movement northward "is a chance that will never be repeated," he said. The official declined to say where the men were believed to have landed or whether they are coordinating with each other, but said the 

Iraqi government is working with European authorities to trace them and learn their plans.

Both he and a second Iraqi official said as many as 100 suspected defectors have also made it through, fleeing the grip of the extremist group the only way they safely can. The Iraqis said the defectors were discovered when they failed to show up for morning roll call and have not been tracked beyond Turkey.

A Syrian activist who works against both the regime and Islamic State also said a handful of extremists traveled to Europe. He said there were indications that many more made the journey in the past three months from the northern provinces of Hassakeh, Raqqa and Deir al-Zour, through Turkey and then European shores. The activist said he saw one of the fighters being interviewed on television as a refugee.

The Iraqis and the Syrian spoke on condition of anonymity - the former because they were not authorized to talk to the media about the sensitive information and the latter because he feared for his safety and the lives of colleagues who gathered the information.

Other activists expressed doubt that significant numbers of extremists were among the refugees. A Syrian living in Turkey who goes by the name of Abu al-Hassan Marea said it is not far-fetched that some IS members have infiltrated the refugees in Europe but he knew of no organized initiative. The overwhelming majority of refugees are fleeing the war: "From the tens of thousands, there are maybe one or two," he said.

Marea said he believes the Islamic State group's primary aim is to draw Western militaries into Syria, not to go out to meet them on their home turf.

An edict in Islamic State's Dabiq magazine bolstered that view and offered indirect evidence that defections are a problem.

Deadly attacks this year in France were carried out by homegrown extremists, not migrants from the Mideast. But the Islamic State group's repeated threats to strike in Europe have left many fearful and have fueled the arguments of people opposed to accepting more refugees. It's not clear how imminent the threat to Europe might be compared with the thousands of Syrians and Iraqis fleeing violence in their homelands.

Marc Trevidic, until recently a top French terrorism judge, criticized a group of French mayors who said they would give priority to Christian refugees because of fears of "disguised terrorists."

"Because there is a risk that a few people among the migrants may be from Islamic State, we should do nothing? That's the talk of those who do not want to accept migrants, but it's a little too simplistic," he told BFM television last week. "They have absolutely no need of that to send people. There are enough French, Belgians who have passports or identity cards that can return to carry out attacks."

In addition, there are other extremist groups and no shortage of hard-liners in Syria and Iraq, some of them affiliated with al-Qaida, which has also vowed to carry out attacks in the West.

In June, when the Islamic State group seized the frontier town of Tal Abyad, thousands of Syrians fled into Turkey in chaotic scenes, with some crossing illegally through holes in fences. At the time, activists said the militants were mingling with the refugees and trying to hide their identities.

Magnus Ranstorp, a Swedish counterterrorism expert, emphasized that although it was probable people with links to terrorist groups are among the migrants from Syria and Iraq in the recent waves, Europe already is coping with the risk of its own radicalized citizens. Efficient screening during the asylum process - which includes fingerprinting, photos and a cross-check of European records - can reduce the risk, he said.

"There's no way one can guarantee 100 percent that terrorists are not coming through," Ranstorp said.

Any numbers of extremists are likely to be small, but the issue is highly sensitive in Europe, both on the far right and among mainstream politicians.

"We haven't any terrorism in our region and I don't want to somehow escalate the situation and increase the possible threat level," said Raimonds Vejonis, the president of Latvia, where in August about 300 people protested the government's decision to accept 250 refugees.

"We know that among refugees, there also could be some terrorists, maybe. And that is the main fear of our society," he told AP.

A spokeswoman for the German Interior Ministry said they have "no reliable information" that any individuals or groups have tried to enter Germany amid the migrant flood. Germany's foreign intelligence service, the BND, refused to comment on the specifics offered by the Iraqi officials.

A BND spokeswoman pointed to a Sept. 7 interview by BND head Gerhard Schindler with the newspaper Bild, where he said "it is still unlikely that terrorists would attempt to recklessly cross the Mediterranean in a boat to get to Europe. They could do that with false or stolen papers and a plane ticket much more easily." 

Neither spokeswoman would be quoted by name.

The top Iraqi official said going into Europe with a false document is more of a risk and can only be done on a very small scale.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has pointed out that many of the Islamic State's fighters are European.

"The fight against Islamic State reminds us again and again that fighters there come from our countries - from Germany, Great Britain, France, from European countries," she said. "That means we can't just say that there's a problem somewhere out there; it concerns us."

After Iran deal, Obama struggles to gain Israel's trust

After Iran deal, Obama struggles to gain Israel's trust 

FILE - In this Sunday, June 14, 2009 file photo, an Israeli man tears posters hung by an extremist right wing group, depicting U.S. President Barack Obama, wearing a traditional Arab headdress, in Jerusalem. Seeking to sell his nuclear deal with Iran to a skeptical Israeli public, Obama has repeatedly declared his deep affection for the Jewish state. But the feelings do not appear to be mutual.

   

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Seeking to sell his nuclear deal with Iran to a skeptical Israeli public, President Barack Obama has repeatedly declared his deep affection for the Jewish state. But the feelings do not appear to be mutual.

Wide swaths of the Israeli public, particularly supporters of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have little trust in the American leader, considering him naive and even hostile. One recent poll showed less than a tenth considered him "pro-Israel."

Such misgivings bode poorly for Obama as he tries to repair ties with Israel in the final year of his presidency, and they would certainly complicate any renewed effort at brokering peace between Israel and its neighbors - once a major Obama ambition.

The tense personal relationship between Netanyahu and Obama are certainly a factor in the poor state of affairs, and Netanyahu has made a number of missteps that have contributed to the tensions.

On a trip to the White House in 2011, the Israeli leader appeared to lecture Obama on the pitfalls of Mideast peacemaking. Netanyahu has close ties to the billionaire Republican donor Sheldon Adelson, and during the 2012 presidential race, Netanyahu appeared to favor Obama's challenger, Mitt Romney.

Netanyahu's U.S.-born ambassador to Washington, Ron Dermer, is a former Republican activist, and earlier this year, Netanyahu angered the White House by delivering a speech to Congress against the emerging Iran deal at the invitation of Republican leaders. Netanyahu has continued to lobby American lawmakers to oppose the Iran deal since it was finalized in July.

But Obama also bears responsibility for a number of policy decisions that have jolted Israelis' faith in him.

"The average Israeli probably thinks that he is a nice guy, but he is naive," said Alexander Yakobson, a historian at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In Israeli eyes, "he doesn't get the Middle East, doesn't understand how the Mideast functions, and he doesn't therefore understand what dangers Israel has to face," he added.

Yakobson said the president's missteps went back to his earliest days in office, when he chose to deliver a landmark speech in Cairo seeking to repair American relations with the Arab world. "That was never going to make him popular in Israel," he said.

Yakobson, who himself agrees with Obama's opposition to Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank, 

said the president had nonetheless mishandled disagreements with Netanyahu over the issue and peace efforts with the Palestinians that collapsed last year. Many Israelis, he said, believe the Palestinians also deserve some of the blame.

But the biggest issue has been the U.S.-led nuclear agreement with Iran. Politicians across the spectrum have come out against the deal, agreeing with Netanyahu's assessment that it does not have sufficient safeguards to prevent Iran from gaining the ability to make a nuclear bomb and that it will boost Iran's influence across the region. Iran is a key backer of Israel's toughest enemies, and Netanyahu has warned that the ending of sanctions against Iran will result in more money and arms flowing to groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Recent opinion polls reflect these sentiments. In one survey published Sunday in the Maariv daily, 77 percent of respondents said the deal endangers Israel, compared to 15 percent who said it didn't. The poll interviewed 500 people and had a margin of error of 4.3 percentage points.

An April survey of Jewish Israelis, carried out just after a preliminary nuclear deal with Iran was reached, had an equally harsh view of Obama. Just 9 percent of respondents described the White House as 

"pro-Israeli," while 60 percent called it "pro-Palestinian." More than 60 percent described Obama as the worst president for Israel in the past 30 years, far outdistancing runner-up Jimmy Carter at 16 percent.

That survey, conducted by the Panels Politics agency with the Jewish Journal, questioned 503 Jewish Israelis and had a margin of error of 4.6 percentage points.

In a survey of 40 countries, the Pew Research Center found the sharpest decline in Obama's image over the past year occurred in Israel, where confidence slipped from 71 percent to 49 percent.

At times, the anger toward Obama in Israel is palpable. On the streets and in online news forums, Israelis often refer to Obama by his middle name "Hussein," a reference to his Muslim heritage on his father's side. 

Last year, after an anonymous White House official used a pejorative term to describe Netanyahu as cowardly, Cabinet Minister Naftali Bennett warned that Obama was "throwing Israel under the bus."

For his part, Obama has acknowledged feeling hurt. In an address to American Jewish leaders last month, Obama underscored his deep commitment to Israel's security and likened the debate over the Iran deal to a dispute within the family.

"I would suggest that, in terms of the tone of this debate, everybody keep in mind that we're all pro-Israel," he said. "And we have to make sure that we don't impugn people's motives."

Obama has said that with the Iran deal complete, he would like to begin working with Israel on ways to increase its security and allay fears about the deal. The Haaretz daily on Sunday said talks on providing Israel with additional U.S. weaponry have already quietly begun. Netanyahu's office declined comment.

But even if the two countries do manage to reach a new security deal, it seems unlikely that Obama will be able to repair the relationship with Netanyahu or restart Mideast peace efforts. The differences just run too deep.

The White House has said it is trying to set up a meeting between Obama and Netanyahu for November, which would be their first meeting since the Iran deal was finalized.

Yoram Ettinger, a former Israeli consul-general in Houston, said the issues here have little to do with personalities or alleged hostilities on the part of Obama. "It's an issue of a gap between two very different world views," he said.

He said that in Israeli eyes, Obama is unrealistic, sending a message of weakness through his handling of the so-called Arab Spring over the past five years and by trusting an Iranian government with such a long record of defying the international community and supporting violent groups across the region.

"Are you rooted in reality or are you rooted in wishful thinking," he said.

9/11 victims' relatives mark anniversary with grief, appeals

9/11 victims' relatives mark anniversary with grief, appeals 
 

Retired New York City firefighter Joseph McCormick visits the South Pool prior to a ceremony at the World Trade Center site in New York on Friday, Sept. 11, 2015. With a moment of silence and somber reading of names, victims' relatives began marking the 14th anniversary of Sept. 11 in a subdued gathering Friday at ground zero.

  

NEW YORK (AP) -- During years of going to ground zero every Sept. 11, Tom Acquaviva has seen crowds diminish at the ceremonies commemorating the terror attacks. But his determination to participate hasn't.

"As long as I'm breathing, I'll be here," Acquaviva, 81, said Friday as he arrived to pay tribute to his late son, Paul.

More than 1,000 victims' relatives, survivors and recovery workers marked the 14th anniversary at ground zero with grief, gratitude and appeals to keep the toll front of mind as years pass. "It's a hard day. But it's an important day. I'll come every year that I can," recovery worker Robert Matticola said.

But if the private ceremony is smaller than in its early years, the date also has become an occasion for the public to revisit ground zero, where the memorial plaza now opens to everyone on the anniversary.

Around the country, the date was marked with what has become a tradition of lowered flags, wreath-laying, bell-tolling and, in New York, reading the names of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the terror strikes at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. One woman at ground zero collapsed during the ceremony, apparently overcome by grief; bystanders helped her to her feet.

Family members praised first responders, thanked the armed forces and prayed for unity and security. They also sent personal messages to their lost loved ones.

"You are the reason that I wear this uniform and stand here today," Air Force Technical Sgt. Sparkle Thompson said of her uncle, Louie Anthony Williams.

In Washington, President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama stepped out of the White House for a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m., when the first of four hijacked planes hit on Sept. 11, 2001, striking the World Trade Center's north tower. Later Friday, the president told troops at Fort Meade in Maryland that he hoped Sept. 11 would inspire thoughts of what binds the country together, while Vice President Joe Biden praised New Yorkers' resilience in remarks to bikers and police officers taking part in a 9/11 memorial motorcycle ride.

The Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville marked the completion of its $26 million visitor center, which opened to the public Thursday. At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Ash Carter and other officials joined in remembrances for victims' relatives and Pentagon employees. Other observances were held around the country.

Some Americans honored the anniversary in their own ways.

"I don't go to the memorial. I don't watch it on TV. But I make sure, every year, I observe a moment of silence at 8:46," electrician Jeff Doran said as he stood across the street from the trade center, where the signature, 1,776-foot One World Trade Center tower has opened since last Sept. 11.

The memorial plaza opened in 2011 but was closed to the public on the anniversary until last year, when an estimated 20,000 people flocked there to pay respects in the evening. Moved by the influx, organizers decided to open it more quickly after the ceremony this year.

Some victims' relatives welcome the openness after years when the site was largely off-limits for construction. "It's a little more comfortable for people to be here," said Alexandria Perez, who lost her aunt, Ana Centeno.

But to Erick Jimenez, a brother of 9/11 victim Eliezer Jimenez Jr., "every year, it's a little less personal," though he still appreciates being with others who lost loved ones.

This year's anniversary comes as Congress is weighing whether to start providing financing for the memorial plaza and whether to extend programs that promised billions of dollars in compensation and medical care to Sept. 11 responders and survivors. They're set to expire next year.

"People are still dying because of what happened," both on battlefields and from illnesses that some responders have developed after exposure to toxic dust, Army Sgt. Edwin Morales said as he arrived at ground zero in remembrance of a cousin, firefighter Ruben "Dave" Correa.

Jyothi Shah read names of victims in memory of her husband, Jayesh Shantitlal Shah, then paused with a message for the public.

"My kids and I would like to humbly thank everyone who has helped us, through the last 14 years, to be able to gently go through the sorrows, the suffering, the pain," she said. "Thank you all very much - the city, the nation, the friends, the family."

Candy and cuddly toys: Migrants finish epic trek to Germany

Candy and cuddly toys: Migrants finish epic trek to Germany 

Refugees flash victory signs and wipe away tears as they arrive at the main train station in Munich, Germany, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2015. Hundreds of refugees arrived in various trains to get first registration as asylum seekers in Germany.

  

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) -- For weeks while they traveled a punitive road, Europe cast a cold and callous eye on their unwelcome progress. On Saturday, for the first time since fleeing their troubled homelands, they could set foot in their promised land - and it came with a German face so friendly that it brought some newcomers to tears of joy.

More than 7,000 Arab and Asian asylum seekers surged across Hungary's western border into Austria and Germany following the latest in a string of erratic policy U-turns by Hungary's immigrant-loathing government. Within hours, travelers predominantly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan who had been told for days they could not leave Hungary were scooped from roadsides and Budapest's central train station and placed on overnight buses, driven to the frontier with Austria and allowed to walk across as a new morning dawned.

They were met with wholly unexpected hospitality featuring free high-speed trains, seemingly bottomless boxes of supplies, and gauntlets of well-wishers offering trays of candy for everyone and cuddly toys for the tots in mothers' arms. Even adults absorbed the scenes of sudden welcome with a look of childlike wonderment as Germans and Austrians made clear that they had reached a land that just might become a home.

"I'm very glad to be in Germany. I hope that I find here a much better life. I want to work," said Homam Shehade, a 37-year-old Syrian shopkeeper who spent 25 days on the road. He left behind his parents, a brother, wife, a 7-year-old boy and a 2 1/2-year-old girl. He hopes to bring them all to Germany. Until then, he said: "I hope that God protects them from the planes and bombs. My shop was bombed and my house was bombed."

As the migrants departed Hungary, leaders took a few final swipes at their departing guests and those considered foolish enough to host them.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban told reporters that Hungary collected and drove the migrants to the border only because they were posing a public menace, particularly by snarling traffic and rail lines west of Budapest when they mounted a series of surprise breakouts from police-controlled positions Friday and headed for Austria in large groups on foot.

Orban said the people being taken by Germany mostly come "from regions that are not ravaged by war. 

They just want to live the kind of life that we have. And I understand that, but this is impossible. If we let everybody in, it's going to destroy Europe."

Orban said Hungary was determined to staunch the flow of foreigners traversing the country. He criticized European Union plans to reach a bloc-wide agreement at a summit Sept. 14 committing each nation to accept higher quotas of foreigners to shelter, arguing that this would only spur more one-way traffic.

"What will it solve if we divide 50,000 or 100,000 migrants among us, when uncountable millions will be on the way?" Orban said.

A central Budapest rally by Hungary's third-largest party, the neo-fascist Jobbik, underscored why many of those seeking sanctuary in Europe wanted to get through the country as quickly as possible. Earlier in the week, many of the same Jobbik activists traveled south to the border with Serbia to hurl verbal abuse point-blank at newly arrived travelers.

Jobbik leader Gabor Vona told the crowd of 300 waving Hungarian and party flags "that Hungary belongs to the Hungarians. We like everybody, we respect everybody - but we don't want anybody coming here."

Other speakers branded supporters of refugee rights "traitors" and "scum." Activists' placards included appeals for "Deportation, not work permits!" and "Border closures! We don't want immigrants!"

The contrast could not have been greater in Vienna's central train station. When around 400 asylum seekers arrived on the morning's first border train, charity workers offered supplies displayed in labeled shopping carts containing food, water and packages of hygiene products for men and women. Austrian onlookers cheered the migrants' arrival, with many shouting "Welcome!" in both German and Arabic. One Austrian woman pulled from her handbag a pair of children's rubber rain boots and handed them to a Middle Eastern woman carrying a small boy.

Sami Al Halbi, a 28-year-old veterinarian from Hama in Syria, said he fled to avoid mandatory military service. "They asked me to join the army. I am educated. For years I've been holding a pen. I do not want to hold a weapon," he said. "We all want to have a better future."

It got better as travelers continued west on more trains, some of them specially provided for the migrants. As Austria's government noted, virtually none of those coming intended to seek asylum before reaching Germany, the Eurozone powerhouse that has pledged in particular to aid Syrians fleeing from their 4-year-old civil war. Germany expects to receive a staggering 800,000 asylum seekers this year.

In Munich's central station, the first arrivals from Hungary received sustained cheering and applause. Many who had endured nights sleeping on crowded concrete floors at Budapest's Keleti station appeared disoriented as Germans approached them holding trays of nibbles. Only the youngest appeared quick to accept the new reality, brightening up joyously as teddy bears were offered as gifts.

"We are giving a warm welcome to these people today," said Simone Hilgers, spokeswoman for Upper Bavaria government agencies tasked with providing the migrants immediate support. "We realize it's going to be a big challenge but everybody, the authorities and ordinary citizens, are pulling together."

A total of about 6,000 people had come through Munich by Saturday evening, Hilgers said. All were given 

food and drink, and most were housed in temporary accommodation.

The latest arrivals add to the tens of thousands of migrants who have been streaming each month into Germany, the EU's most populous nation with 81 million residents. The influx has strained emergency accommodation and local bureaucracy, triggered sporadic violence by neo-Nazi extremists, and also inspired empathy from many more ordinary Germans. Volunteer groups have sprung up to help asylum seekers find permanent housing and jobs, and to receive free German language lessons. German media estimate this year's expected bill for providing sanctuary to be 10 billion euros ($11 billion), should the forecast 800,000 arrive.

Germany typically places newcomers in housing earmarked for asylum seekers. They are provided free meals, clothing, health care and household support, as well as monthly spending money averaging 143 euros ($160). After three months, they receive restricted work opportunities. By contrast the migrants left behind a Hungary that stuck them in sweltering outdoor facilities on the Serbian border, left any aid to private charities, and pocketed the money they paid to buy cross-border train tickets that they were blocked from using.

While Saturday's surprise mass movement of migrants eased immediate pressure on Hungary, officials warned that the human tide south of Hungary was still rising.

The apparent futility of stopping the migrants' progress west was underscored when Hungary announced Saturday morning that its emergency bus services to the border had finished and would not be repeated. 

Almost immediately two new groups hit the pavement to start long walks to the border: about 200 people who walked out of an open-door refugee camp near the city of Gyor, and about 300 who left Budapest's central Keleti train station, the epicenter of Hungary's recent migrant crisis. Hundreds more made their way independently west on foot and internal train services.

A spokesman for Austria's Interior Ministry, Karl-Heinz Grundboeck, said more than 7,000 asylum seekers crossed the border Saturday from Hungary and most traveled by train to Vienna or beyond.

US jobless rate falls to 7-year low; Fed move still unclear

US jobless rate falls to 7-year low; Fed move still unclear 

Graphic shows the national unemployment rate and monthly job gains; 2c x 3 inches; 96.3 mm x 76 mm;

  

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. unemployment fell to a seven-year low of 5.1 percent last month, but hiring slowed - a mixed bag of news that offers few clues to whether the Federal Reserve will raise rock-bottom interest rates later this month.

The Labor Department report, issued Friday, was closely watched because it will be the last snapshot of the job market before the Fed meets in two weeks. And overall, it painted a picture of an economy growing at a modest but steady pace seven years after the Great Recession.

But it wasn't the unambiguous signal many on Wall Street were hoping for.

The unemployment rate fell from 5.3 percent in July to its lowest point since 2008 and is now at a level Fed officials say is consistent with a healthy economy. But employers added a moderate 173,000 jobs in August, the fewest in five months.

"Anyone hoping today's data would clear up the timing of the Fed's first rate hike in years will be sorely disappointed," said Megan Greene, chief economist at John Hancock Asset Management.

Nevertheless, the prospect of higher interest rates weighed heavy on the stock market Friday, with the Dow Jones industrial average plunging 272 points, or 1.7 percent.

Higher rates rise would most likely push up borrowing costs for mortgages and other loans for consumers and businesses, and some on Wall Street fear that could put a damper on corporate profits and the larger economy.

The Fed cut the short-term rate it controls to a record low of nearly zero in December 2008 to try to stimulate growth during the Great Recession.

For months, Fed officials have been saying the economy appears to be getting strong enough to tolerate the first increase in interest rates in a decade. They have signaled that they might raise rates at their Sept. 16-17 meeting.

Yet other factors have clouded those predictions lately.

For one thing, there are signs that China's economy, the second largest in the world, is stumbling, which could drag down global growth. The slowdown has already caused violent swings in the financial markets that could undermine consumer confidence.

Friday's report suggested to many economists that the U.S. job market, at least, has satisfied the Fed's criteria.

"We're well on our way to full employment if we aren't already there," said Carl Tannenbaum, chief economist at Northern Trust and a former Fed official.

Even the slip in hiring last month may not end up as bad as it looks. August's jobs totals are typically revised much higher in later months, because of the difficulties in adjusting the data for the end of millions of summer jobs.

Also, consumer spending has been healthy and has been powering job growth at retailers, restaurants and hotels. State and local governments added 31,000 jobs in August, while health care gained 40,500.

Michael Kanter, president and co-owner of Cambridge Naturals, a health products store in Cambridge, Massachusetts, plans to add two workers to his 20-person staff to handle increased foot traffic and sales.

"We're seeing growth. We're seeing opportunity. We're definitely in a hiring mode," he said.

Still, manufacturing companies have been stumbling amid the global headwinds. They cut 17,000 jobs in August, the most since July 2013.

And there are signs that job growth is still not back to full health. Hourly wage growth remains sluggish. And the proportion of Americans working or looking for work is stuck at a 38-year low.

Chris Williamson, chief economist at the financial information firm Markit, said Friday's report provided "frustratingly little new insight into whether the Fed will start to raise rates."

"A bumper payrolls number would have sealed the case for higher interest rates in many people's minds," he said, "while a low number would have dealt a blow to any chances of tightening of policy at the next meeting."

Judge refuses to drop charges against police in Gray death

Judge refuses to drop charges against police in Gray death 

Police handcuff a protester in Baltimore on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015, near the city's Inner Harbor. Dozens of protesters marched in the street after rallying at a nearby courthouse, where motion hearings for officers charged in Freddie Gray's death were scheduled.

  

BALTIMORE (AP) -- A Baltimore judge on Wednesday refused to dismiss charges against six police officers in connection with the death of a black man from injuries he suffered while in custody. The judge also refused to remove the prosecutor in the case.

The death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray - who succumbed to injuries sustained after his arrest on April 12 - sparked rioting and unrest that shook Baltimore for days. Protests Wednesday outside the Baltimore courtroom where a pretrial hearing on the charges took place resulted in just one arrest.

Defense attorneys failed to persuade Circuit Judge Barry Williams that what they claimed was prosecutorial misconduct on the part of State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby was reason enough to drop the charges against the police officers - which range from second-degree assault to second-degree murder.

Williams ruled that while Mosby's public comments regarding initial statements made by the officers to investigators were "troubling," they were not likely to prejudice a jury.

Andrew Graham, an attorney representing Officer Caesar Goodson, unsuccessfully argued that Mosby's comments after filing charges against the officers were "reckless and unprofessional," and violated the rules of conduct. He likened Mosby's comments on the case to a "pep rally calling for payback."

Williams also ruled against another defense motion, one that sought to have Mosby removed from the case due to what the defense contended were conflicts of interest. He called the assertion that Mosby's judgment was impacted by the fact that her husband Nick Mosby is a councilman in a district that experienced a disproportionate amount of violence "troubling and condescending."

"Being married to a councilman is not a reason for recusal," he said.

Williams added that allegations of prosecutorial misconduct would have to be addressed by the state Attorney Grievance Commission.

Prosecutors also told Williams they will put into evidence redacted statements that the officers made to investigators. Both sides agreed to ask for an order sealing the statements from public view.

Officers Edward Nero, Garrett Miller, William Porter and Goodson, as well as Lt. Brian Rice and Sgt. Alicia White, face charges in Gray's death. They did not attend the hearing. All six are charged with second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and misconduct in office. Rice, Porter and White also face manslaughter charges, and Goodson faces an additional charge of second-degree murder.

After hearing arguments about whether the officers should be tried together or separately, Williams ruled that they would be tried separately. Defense attorneys had argued their clients' cases would be hurt if they were tried together.

Graham, Goodson's lawyer, argued that his client - who faces the most serious charge - would face a great risk of "spillover effect and transference of guilt."

Prosecutors wanted to try Goodson, Nero and White together. Prosecutor Jan Bledsoe argued that evidence to be introduced at trial was relevant to all three.

Separately, the judge was scheduled to hear Sept. 10 a defense motion for a change of venue.

Dozens of protesters made their way about six blocks to the Inner Harbor before the pretrial hearing began. Dozens of officers responded and cleared protesters from the streets to keep traffic moving at the end of the morning rush hour.

One person was arrested. Interim Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis told WBAL-AM that a protester "kicked a police officer in the face, and that's unacceptable." At a press conference later, Davis said the man was charged with assaulting a police officer, "a couple of counts of disorderly conduct" and making a false statement.

Police spokesman T.J. Smith said charges are being filed against the man. He did not specify what the charges would be. The man was arrested for blocking the road and ignoring warnings to return to sidewalk, according to a police news release.

The man arrested was identified by witnesses as Kwame Rose, a well-known local activist.