Islamic State says airstrike killed US hostage, US skeptical

Islamic State says airstrike killed US hostage, US skeptical 

In this May 30, 2013, photo, Kayla Mueller is shown after speaking to a group in Prescott, Ariz. A statement that appeared on a militant website commonly used by the Islamic State group claimed that Mueller was killed in a Jordanian airstrike on Friday, Feb. 6, 2015, on the outskirts of the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, the militant group's main stronghold. The IS statement could not be independently verified.

BEIRUT (AP) -- Islamic State extremists claimed that an American woman held hostage by the group was killed Friday in a Jordanian airstrike in northern Syria, but the government of Jordan dismissed the statement as "criminal propaganda" and the U.S. said it had not seen any evidence to corroborate the report.

The woman was identified as Kayla Jean Mueller, an American who went to Syria to do aid work, but there was no independent verification of the militants' claim. The statement appeared on a militant website commonly used by the group and was also distributed by Islamic State-affiliated Twitter users.

The 26-year-old Mueller, of Prescott, Arizona, is the only known remaining U.S. hostage held by the Islamic State group.

If the death is confirmed, she would be the fourth American to die while being held by Islamic State militants. Three other Americans - journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and aid worker Peter Kassig - were beheaded by the group.

Journalist Austin Tice, of Houston, Texas, disappeared in August 2012 while covering Syria's civil war. It's 

not clear what entity is holding him, but it is not believed to be the Islamic State group or the Syrian government, his family has said.

The announcement was the second time this week that extremists announced the death of a hostage. They released a video Tuesday showing Jordanian air force Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh, also 26, being burned to death in a cage in gruesome images that caused outrage in Jordan and the rest of the region.

Al-Kaseasbeh, whose F-16 came down in December while conducting airstrikes as part of a campaign against the militants by a U.S.-led coalition, was believed to have been killed in early January.

Friday's statement said Mueller was killed in the militants' stronghold of Raqqa in northern Syria during Muslim prayers - which usually take place around midday - in airstrikes that targeted "the same location for more than an hour."

It published photos purportedly of the bombed site, showing a severely damaged three-story building, but offered no proof or images of Mueller.

The statement said no Islamic State militants were killed in the airstrikes, raising further questions about the veracity of the claim.

Jordanian government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani said it was investigating.

"But as a first reaction, we think it's illogical and we are highly skeptical about it. How could they identify a Jordanian warplane ... in the sky? What was the American lady doing in a weapons warehouse?" al-Momani said.

"It's part of their criminal propaganda. They have lied that our pilot is alive and tried to negotiate, claiming he is alive while they had killed him weeks before," he added.

American officials said they also were looking into the report.

Bernadette Meehan, the spokeswoman for President Barack Obama's National Security Council, said the White House has "not at this time seen any evidence that corroborates" the claim."

"We are obviously deeply concerned by these reports," she added.

A U.S. official said coalition aircraft did conduct bombing near Raqqa on Friday, but had nothing to confirm the claim that the American captive was killed in the airstrike. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the issue with reporters.

White House spokesman Eric Schultz told reporters the U.S. coordinates with the Jordanian air force as they fly airstrikes. He wouldn't say whether the U.S. was aware of the hostage's location.

Mueller had been working in Turkey assisting Syrian refugees, according to a 2013 article in The Daily Courier, her hometown newspaper. She told the paper that she was drawn to help with the situation in Syria.

"For as long as I live, I will not let this suffering be normal," she said. "It's important to stop and realize what we have, why we have it and how privileged we are. And from that place, start caring and get a lot done."

According to the newspaper, Mueller had been working with the humanitarian aid agency Support to Life, as well as a local organization that helped female Syrian refugees develop skills.

A 2007 article about Mueller from the same newspaper said she was a student at Northern Arizona University and was active in the Save Darfur Coalition. A statement from the office of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Mueller graduated in 2009 and had worked to help people in need in India, Israel, the Palestinian territories and in Arizona.

On Sunday, Obama said the U.S. was "deploying all the assets that we can" to find Mueller.

"We are in very close contact with the family trying to keep them updated," he said in an interview with NBC's "Today" show. "Obviously this is something that is heart-breaking for the family, and we want to make sure we do anything we can to make sure that any American citizen is rescued from this situation."

Mueller's identity had not been disclosed until now out of fears for her safety.

Jordan has stepped up its attacks against the Islamic State group after the extremists announced they had put al-Kasaesbeh to death.

The Syrian government said Thursday that dozens of Jordanian fighter jets had bombed Islamic State training centers and weapons storage sites. It did not say where the attacks occurred.

The Jordanian military said its warplanes carried out a series of attacks Friday and "destroyed the targets and returned safely." It did not elaborate.

Activists who monitor the Syrian conflict from inside the country said coalition planes hit several targets on the edges and outskirts of Raqqa in quick succession.

A Raqqa-based collective of anti-IS activists known as "Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently" said the planes targeted multiple IS positions and headquarters in the western and eastern countryside of Raqqa, sending up columns of smoke. Explosions could be heard in the city. The collective said there were no recorded civilian casualties, and did not mention any IS casualties.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said dozens of IS members were killed in coalition airstrikes that targeted a tank and vehicle depot in the area of al-Madajen and at least six other IS positions, including a training camp and a prison.

NBC's Williams fighting for his reputation

NBC's Williams fighting for his reputation 
 

FILE - This Sept. 11, 2012 file image released by Starpix shows Brian Williams at the Cantor Fitzgerald Charity Day event in New York. NBC "NBC "Nightly News" anchor Williams has admitted he spread a false story about being on a helicopter that came under enemy fire while he was reporting in Iraq in 2003. Williams said on "Nightly News" on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015, he was in a helicopter following other aircraft, one of which was hit by ground fire. His helicopter was not hit.

NEW YORK (AP) -- NBC News anchor Brian Williams found himself the story Thursday, his credibility seriously threatened because he claimed - falsely - that he had been in a helicopter hit by a grenade during the Iraq war.

NBC News officials would not say whether their top on-air personality would face disciplinary action. The "Nightly News" anchor for just over a decade, Williams had become an online punching bag overnight.

Tweets with the hashtag (hash)BrianWilliamsMemories joked that he blew up the Death Star, saved someone from a polar bear and flew with Wonder Woman in her invisible helicopter. Photoshopped pictures showed Williams reporting from the moon, and riding shotgun with O.J. Simpson in his Ford Bronco.

"How could you expect anyone who served in the military to ever see this guy onscreen again and not feel contempt? How could you expect anyone to believe he or the broadcast he leads has any credibility?" wrote critic David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun.

Williams apologized Wednesday for telling the story a week earlier during a "Nightly News" tribute to a veteran he had befriended during a 2003 reporting trip to Iraq. Before expressing his regrets on the air, Williams did so online and in an interview with the newspaper Stars & Stripes.

He speculated online that constant viewing of video showing him inspecting the damaged helicopter "and the fog of memory over 12 years, made me conflate the two, and I apologize."

His story had morphed through the years.

Shortly after the incident, Williams had described on NBC how he was traveling in a group of helicopters forced down in the Iraq desert. On the ground, he learned the Chinook in front of him "had almost been blown out of the sky"; he showed a photo of the aircraft with a gash from a rocket-propelled grenade.

The NBC crew and military officials accompanying them spent three days in the desert, kept aground by a sandstorm.

But in a 2008 blog post, Williams said that his helicopter had come under fire from what appeared to be Iraqi farmers with RPGs. He said a helicopter in front of his had been hit.

Then, in a 2013 appearance on David Letterman's "Late Show," Williams said that two of the four helicopters he was traveling with had been hit by ground fire, "including the one I was in."

"No kidding?" Letterman interjected.

Williams described making a quick, hard landing in the middle of the desert.

"I have to treat you now with renewed respect," Letterman said. "That's a tremendous story."

Williams' story was first questioned in posts to the "Nightly News" Facebook page. It's a touchy topic: Members of the military who are wounded or who come under enemy fire consider themselves members of a special kind of brotherhood and don't like people who try to intrude, said retired U.S. Army Col. Pete Mansoor, a professor of military history at Ohio State University.

"It smacks of stolen valor," Mansoor said - an offense that Williams specifically denied in his online apology.

Rich Krell, who piloted the helicopter Williams was flying in that day, told CNN Thursday that there were three helicopters in formation, not four. Although the helicopter in front of Williams was hit by the grenade, Krell said that all three aircraft were hit by small arms fire.

He seemed to take Williams' account in stride. "After a while, with combat stories, you just go `whatever,'" Krell said.

Many people have embellished war stories, in the local tavern or on a national stage. During the 2008 campaign, Hillary Clinton was derided for saying she came under sniper fire when, as first lady, she arrived at a military base in Bosnia. Her representatives said she had misspoken.

Williams' immediate issue is whether or not people believe his apology, a particular problem in an industry where credibility is crucial.

"It's pretty difficult to believe," Mansoor said. "I remember every time I was under fire in Iraq, especially if your vehicle is an aircraft that's been hit. That's something that gets seared into your memory for all time."

The New York Daily News labeled his apology a fake. "So what if it was 12 years ago," wrote TV editor Don Kaplan. "I remember getting hit in the head with a rock by a kid in the third grade."

Williams has an out-sized image at NBC News: the blue-collar Jersey guy and witty celebrity who "slow jams" the news with The Roots on Jimmy Fallon's "Tonight" show. He hasn't had credibility problems before and he consistently leads in the ratings, making him an outlier at a network where the "Today" show and "Meet the Press" have slipped from their lofty perch as rating champions.

It's up to NBC News President Deborah Turness to decide whether Williams will be punished in any way. She has the reputations of both her most well-known personality and the news division as a whole to consider.

"I feel a little let down and I imagine that's where a lot of the (online) anger is coming from," said Jason Maloni, a crisis public relations expert at Levick Strategic Communications and a regular "Nightly News" viewer. He isn't sure whether NBC should sanction Williams, but he doesn't want to see the anchor in a war zone anytime soon.

Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun wrote that if credibility means anything to NBC News, Williams should be out of his job by the end of the week.

But Jane Hall, a communications professor at American University, said she believed Williams' apology should be accepted.

"It seems to me to be an honest mistake of conflating the two accounts," Hall said. "I don't think he has been known as anything other than a straight shooter."

Cuba publishes first photos of Fidel Castro in 5 months

Cuba publishes first photos of Fidel Castro in 5 months 

A screenshot of Cuba's website Cubadebate shows ten photos of Fidel Castro on their opening page in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday Feb. 3, 2015. Cuba has published the first photos of Fidel Castro in five months, showing the 88-year-old former leader engaged in conversation with the head of the main Cuban student union. A first-person account by student leader Randy Perdomo Garcia says the meeting took place on Jan. 23. The photos published around midnight on Monday are the first images of the revolutionary leader since a set of photos came out in August showing him talking with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

  

HAVANA (AP) -- Cuba has published the first photos of Fidel Castro in more than five months, showing the 88-year-old former leader engaged in what appears to be a lively conversation with a university student.

Nearly two dozen images were published virtually simultaneously on the websites of Cuba's main state media outlets around midnight Monday. In them, Castro is seated and discussing current events with the head of the main Cuban student union. A first-person account by student leader Randy Perdomo Garcia says the meeting took place on Jan. 23.

The photos are the first images of the revolutionary leader since a set of photos came out in August showing him talking with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Perdomo said that he and Castro met for more than three hours in the former leader's house after an event celebrating the 70th anniversary of Castro starting his studies at the University of Havana.

The student leader said Castro said that he is keeping abreast of the news and performing daily exercises, and he engaged Perdomo in a wide-ranging discussion of topics including international politics, agriculture, astronomy, and even Namibia's donation of animals to Cuba's National Zoo.

Perdomo said the two men discussed the release of three Cuban intelligence agents as part of the Dec. 17 declaration by Cuba and the United States that they would move to re-establish full diplomatic relations. The photos show Castro examining a newspaper report on their release.

"He's full of life, he keeps up his exercises and he reads closely," Perdomo told The Associated Press on Tuesday. He said that Castro rose from his seat without help, read several articles without help and remembered details of past events with astonishing recall.

Castro did not issue a public statement for nearly a month after the announcement that Cuba and the U.S. were moving to re-establish full diplomatic relations. Castro's public appearances and statements have become increasingly infrequent since he stepped down from duties as president after a serious illness in 2006 and handed over leadership to his younger brother Raul. His unusually lengthy silence after the Dec. 17 announcement sparked intense speculation about his health.

Slain hostage's 4-year-old tweet embraced on social media

Slain hostage's 4-year-old tweet embraced on social media 
 

This screen shot made Monday, Feb. 2, 2015, shows a tweet posted by slain Japanese journalist Kenji Goto on Sept, 7, 2010, that states in Japanese, "Closing my eyes and holding still. It’s the end if I get mad or scream. It’s close to a prayer. Hate is not for humans. Judgment lies with God. That’s what I learned from my Arabic brothers and sisters." The Tweet had nearly 20,000 retweets on Goto’s Twitter account by Monday, and was being repeated by others by the minute. A video released over the weekend purported showing Goto beheaded by the Islamic State group. The Twitter account was verified as Goto’s by his friend Toshi Maeda.

  

TOKYO (AP) -- Kenji Goto's words, now more than four years old, have taken on a new poignancy.

"Closing my eyes and holding still. It's the end if I get mad or scream. It's close to a prayer. Hate is not for humans. Judgment lies with God. That's what I learned from my Arabic brothers and sisters."

That tweet from Sept. 7, 2010, has been embraced by social media users as a fitting memorial to the 47-year-old freelance journalist. It had 20,000 retweets by Monday, and was being repeated by others by the minute.

Early Sunday, news emerged that Goto had been killed by extremists of the Islamic State group after efforts to secure his release from months of captivity failed. His reported death followed that of another Japanese hostage, adventurer Haruna Yukawa, who was also being held by the militants.

The Twitter account was verified as Goto's by his friend Toshi Maeda, who heads Tokyo-based venture Pacific Bridge, which created the mobile-video application Goto used for some of his reports from Syria.

His account has other musings from Goto, of course, including comments about French wine and complaints about his tired eyes, as well as his reporting.

But it was the message of tolerance that seemed to resonate with the thousands of Japanese Twitter users, expressing admiration for Goto's reporting about the suffering of children in Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.

Yuki Watabe, a 15-year-old high school student in Sapporo, northern Japan, said the tweet gave him heartache.

"He was such a wonderful person," Watabe said. "He had a strong sense of doing the right thing."

An English translation of that tweet, originally in Japanese, was also circulating on Twitter.

Goto's last tweet was in October, about the time he left for Syria, to rescue Yukawa, who disappeared last summer.

Maeda recalled how Goto believed in citizen journalism.

"He was like a brother to me," he said. "He was an inspiration. He was a friend and a colleague."

Horror in Japan as video purports to show hostage beheaded

Horror in Japan as video purports to show hostage beheaded 
 

Junko Ishido, mother of Japanese journalist Kenji Goto, speaks during a press conference at her home in Tokyo, Sunday, Feb. 1, 2015 after the release of an online video that purported to show an Islamic State group militant beheading her son. Japan condemned with outrage and horror on Sunday the video posted on militant websites late Saturday Middle East time.

TOKYO (AP) -- The wife of slain Japanese hostage Kenji Goto said Monday she was devastated but proud of her husband, who was beheaded by Islamic State extremists.

In a statement issued through the British-based journalist group Rory Peck Trust, Rinko Jogo requested privacy for her family as they deal with their loss, and thanked those who had supported them.

"I remain extremely proud of my husband, who reported the plight of people in conflict areas like Iraq, Somalia and Syria," she said.

"It was his passion to highlight the effects on ordinary people, especially through the eyes of children, and to inform the rest of us of the tragedies of war," she said.

Goto left for Syria in late October just a few weeks after the birth of the couple's youngest daughter. Soon after, he was captured by the militants.

Appalled and saddened by news of Goto's following the release of a video showing his killing, purportedly by the Islamic State group, Japan has ordered heightened security precautions at airports and at Japanese facilities overseas, such as embassies and schools, government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said.

Until now, Japan had not become directly embroiled in the fight against the militants.

In parliamentary debate Monday, opposition lawmakers challenged Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's effort to raise Japan's diplomatic profile through non-military support for countries fighting the Islamic State group, which control about a third of both Syria and Iraq.

Citing previous cases, including a 1995 sarin gas attack in Tokyo's subways, Abe said he did not see an increased terrorist risk following savage threats in the purported Islamic State group video, which vowed to target Japanese and make the knife Goto's killer was wielding Japan's "nightmare."

Japan will persevere in providing humanitarian aid to countries fighting the Islamic State extremists, said Abe, who explained that bowing to terrorist intimidation would prevent Japan from providing medical assistance and other aid it views as necessary for helping to restore stability in the region.

The failure to save Goto raised fears for the life of a Jordanian fighter pilot also held by the Islamic State militants.

Jordan renewed an offer Sunday to swap an al-Qaida prisoner for the pilot, Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh, who was seized after his F-16 crashed near the Islamic State group's de facto capital, Raqqa, Syria, in December.

Government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani told The Associated Press that "we are still ready to hand over" prisoner Sajida al-Rishawi, who faces death by hanging for her role in triple hotel bombings in Jordan in 2005. Al-Rishawi has close family ties to the Iraq branch of al-Qaida, a precursor of the Islamic State group.

With no updates for days, al-Kaseasbeh's family appealed to the government for information on his situation. But for Goto's family and friends, the beheading shattered any hopes for his rescue.

 

Jogo, Goto's wife, said she had received several emails from unknown people claiming to be her husband's captors. But the hostage crisis became a national issue after the militants issued a demand for $200 million in ransom, to be paid within 72 hours, on Jan. 20.

Later, the militants' demand shifted to seeking the release of al-Rishawi, who survived the 2005 attack that killed 60 people when her explosive belt failed to detonate in the worst terror attack in Jordan's history.

Jordan and Japan reportedly conducted indirect negotiations with the militants through Iraqi tribal leaders, but late on Friday the Japanese envoy sent to Amman to work on the hostage crisis reported a deadlock in those efforts.

The U.N. Security Council issued a statement Sunday demanding "the immediate, safe and unconditional release of all those who are kept hostage" by the Islamic State group. Council members underlined the need to bring those responsible for Goto's "heinous and cowardly murder" to justice and stressed that the Islamic State group "must be defeated and that the intolerance, violence and hatred it espouses must be stamped out."

NASA astronaut memorial stirs memories for shuttle veteran

NASA astronaut memorial stirs memories for shuttle veteran 
 

FILE - This undated file photo provided by NASA shows astronaut Ronald E. McNair. McNair was one of seven crew members aboard the space shuttle Challenger on Jan. 28, 1986, when the vehicle exploded shortly after liftoff at the Kennedy Space Center. All seven members of the crew onboard perished.

  

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) -- Each year around this time, NASA honors fallen astronauts, including the 17 men and women killed in three separate wintertime accidents in the sky and on the earth.

For Robert "Hoot" Gibson, it's a time to remember lost friends and some of their stunts, like playing a saxophone in orbit.

Gibson, who flew on five space shuttle missions, knew each of the 14 astronauts who died in the Challenger explosion on Jan. 28, 1986, and in the Columbia disaster on Feb. 1, 2003.

On Thursday, he lit a candle of remembrance during a ceremony at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. Behind him hung a photo of astronauts including Ron McNair.

Gibson and McNair were crewmates aboard Challenger during a mission in February 1984. McNair, a black belt in karate who also played jazz saxophone, serenaded the crew with music.

"He played `What the World Needs Now is Love,' and we put together a video," Gibson said in an interview.

The memorial came a day after the 29th anniversary of the Challenger explosion, in which McNair and six other astronauts died. Seven astronauts were killed aboard Columbia, and three died during ground testing of Apollo 1 in January 1967.

The memorial also honored another 40 one-time astronauts have died of various causes since NASA began.

Gibson left NASA in 1996 after post-flight work that included serving as chief astronaut. Now 68, the one-time Navy fight pilot lives in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Gibson feels fortunate to have flown in space, and he still remembers those who didn't make it back.

"You think about the contributions that those people made, and all the wonderful things they did and all the wonderful things that they were going to do in the future," he said.

Islamic State releases new audio message by Japanese hostage

Islamic State releases new audio message by Japanese hostage 
 

Safi al-Kaseasbeh, left, father of Jordanian pilot Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh, who is held by Islamic State group militants, attends a protest in front of the Royal Palace in Amman, Jordan, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2015. Jordan on Wednesday offered a precedent-setting prisoner swap to the Islamic State group in a desperate attempt to save a Jordanian air force pilot the militants purportedly threatened to kill, along with a Japanese hostage.

BEIRUT (AP) -- The Islamic State group released a message late Wednesday purportedly by Japanese hostage Kenji Goto, extending the deadline for Jordan's release of an Iraqi would-be hotel bomber linked to al-Qaida.

Earlier in the day, Jordan had offered a precedent-setting prisoner swap to the Islamic State group in a desperate attempt to save a Jordanian air force pilot the militants purportedly threatened to kill, along with a Goto.

The audio recording, in English, says the Jordanians must present Sajida al-Rishawi at the Turkish border by sunset Thursday, or Jordanian pilot Mu'as al-Kasaseabeh will be killed.

The Associated Press could not independently verify the contents of the recording which was distributed on Twitter by IS-affiliated accounts.

On Wednesday, the pilot's father met with Jordan's king who he said assured him that "everything will be fine."

King Abdullah II faces growing domestic pressure to bring the pilot home. However, meeting the Islamic State's demand for the release of a would-be hotel bomber linked to al-Qaida would run counter to the kingdom's hardline approach to the extremists.

Efforts to release al-Kaseasbeh and Goto gained urgency with the release late Tuesday of a purported online ultimatum claiming the Islamic State group would kill both hostages within 24 hours if the al-Qaida-linked prisoner was not freed.

The scope of a possible swap and of the Islamic State group's demands also remained unclear.

Jordanian government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani said Jordan is ready to trade the prisoner, an Iraqi woman convicted of involvement in deadly Amman hotel bombings in 2005, for the pilot. Al-Momani made no mention of Goto.

Any exchange would set a precedent for negotiating with the Islamic State militants, who in the past have not publicly demanded prisoner releases. Jordan's main ally, the United States, opposes negotiations with extremists.

The release of al-Rishawi, the al-Qaida-linked prisoner, would also be a propaganda coup for the militants who have already overrun large parts of neighboring Syria and Iraq. Jordan is part of a U.S.-led military alliance that has carried out airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq in recent months.

Participation in the alliance is unpopular in Jordan, and the capture of the pilot has only exacerbated such sentiments, analysts said.

"Public opinion in Jordan is putting huge pressure on the government to negotiate with the Islamic State group," said Marwan Shehadeh, a scholar with ties to ultra-conservative Islamic groups in Jordan. "If the government doesn't make a serious effort to release him, the morale of the entire military will deteriorate and the public will lose trust in the political regime."

The pilot's family, meanwhile, is increasingly vocal in its criticism of the government.

Several dozen protesters gathered Wednesday outside King Abdullah's palace in Amman, urging the government to do more to win the release of the pilot.

"Listen, Abdullah, the son of Jordan (the pilot) must be returned home," the protesters chanted.

The pilot's father, Safi al-Kasaesbeh, was part of the group and was allowed into the palace, along with his wife, to meet Abdullah.

"The king told me that Muath is like my son and God willing everything will be fine," al-Kasaesbeh said afterward.

Earlier, he criticized the government's handling of the crisis.

"I contacted the Turkish authorities after I found that the Jordanian government is not serious in the negotiations," he told The Associated Press. "The government needs to work seriously, the way one would do to free a son, like the Japanese government does."

Jordan reportedly is holding indirect talks with the militants through religious and tribal leaders in Iraq to secure the release of the hostages.

In his brief statement, al-Momani only said Jordan is willing to swap al-Rishawi for the pilot, but not if such an exchange is being arranged. Al-Rishawi was sentenced to death for her involvement in the al-Qaida attack on hotels in Amman that killed 60 people.

In Tokyo, Goto's mother, Junko Ishido, appealed publicly to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. "Please save Kenji's life," Ishido said, begging Abe to work with the Jordanian government until the very end to try to save Goto.

"Kenji has only a little time left," she said in a plea read to reporters. Ishido said both Abe and Japan's main government spokesman had declined to meet with her.

Later, a few dozen people gathered outside the prime minister's official residence, holding banners expressing hopes for Goto's release. "I have been trying to keep my hopes up and believe that Mr. Goto will return. I have this faith within me," said Seigo Maeda, 46, a friend of Goto.

The militants reportedly have killed a Japanese hostage, Haruna Yukawa, and the crisis has stunned Japan.

Muath al-Kaseasbeh, 26, was seized after his Jordanian F-16 crashed in December near the Islamic State group's de facto capital of Raqqa in Syria. He is the first foreign military pilot the militants have captured since the coalition began its airstrikes in August.

This is the first time the group has publicly demanded the release of prisoners in exchange for hostages. Previous captives may have been freed in exchange for ransom, although the governments involved have refused to confirm any payments were made.

Goto, a freelance journalist, was captured in October in Syria, apparently while trying to rescue Yukawa, 42, who was taken hostage last summer.

The Islamic State group broke with al-Qaida's central leadership in 2013 and has clashed with its Syrian branch, but it reveres the global terror network's former Iraqi affiliate, which battled U.S. forces and claimed the 2005 Amman attack.

Gunmen storm Libya hotel, killing American, 9 others

Gunmen storm Libya hotel, killing American, 9 others 

In this image made from video posted by a Libyan blogger, the Cortinthia Hotel is seen under attack in Tripoli, Libya, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015. Gunmen stormed the luxury hotel in the Libyan capital of Tripoli on Tuesday, killing several foreigners and guards, officials said. The attack, which included a car bombing, struck the hotel, which sits along the Mediterranean Sea. The blogger, @AliTweel, captured the moments shortly after the blast, when flames rose up from outside the hotel, appearing to be from the aftermath of the car bomb.

  

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) -- In the latest sign of Libya's descent into chaos, gunmen stormed a luxury hotel used by diplomats and businessmen in the capital on Tuesday, killing 10 people, including an American, a French citizen and three people from Asia.

Two attackers were killed following an hourslong standoff that included a car bomb that exploded in the parking lot of the seaside Corinthia Hotel. It was unclear if other gunmen were involved in the attack, which also killed five Libyan guards.

In Twitter posts and a statement on social media, a Tripoli affiliate of the Islamic State group was said to be behind the attack, but there was little evidence to back up the claims in a country that has been awash in armed extremist groups who would be equally suspect.

The SITE intelligence group reported that the two dead gunmen were identified online as sympathizers of IS and said the militants said the hotel was targeted because it houses diplomatic missions and "crusader" security companies. However, The Associated Press was unable to independently confirm the claims, which didn't conform with the group's earlier postings from Libya.

Militants claiming the attack on behalf of a group called the Islamic State of the Tripoli Province posted a brief video showing burned cars in the hotel's parking lot and said it was to avenge the 2013 abduction by American commandos of a Libyan al-Qaida operative, Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, also known as Abu Anas al-Libi. Al-Ruqai died earlier this month in a New York hospital of complications from liver surgery while awaiting trial for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

The assault highlights the growing threat from militant groups that operate with near impunity in a country torn between rival governments since the 2011 toppling and killing of dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

Since Gadhafi's ouster, the country has been torn among competing militias and tribes vying for power. Libya's post-Gadhafi transition has collapsed, with two rival governments and parliaments - each backed by different militias - ruling in the country's eastern and western regions.

Amid the bloody political rivalry, multiple armed groups have emerged, including radical Islamist militias who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, including one based in the eastern city of Derna, a stronghold of radical groups, as well as regional militias and groups loyal to the former regime.

Tripoli, which has been controlled by Islamist militiamen mostly from the western city of Misrata since the summer, has been hit with a series of car bombs and shootings. The internationally recognized government has been forced to relocate to the country's east, where a former general has waged an offensive against Islamist militias, including Ansar al-Shariah, blamed for the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi that left the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans dead.

A senior U.S. State Department official confirmed that a U.S. citizen was among those killed in Tuesday's attack, but did not provide further details. Cliff Taylor, the CEO of a Virginia security company, Crucible LLC, identified the slain American as David Berry, a contractor with his company.

A French national and three citizens of a former Soviet republic were also among the dead, according to a spokesman for a Tripoli security agency, Essam al-Naas.

The Malta-owned Corinthia hotel, among the most luxurious in Tripoli, is frequented by diplomats and foreign businessmen visiting Libya, and is also where the United Nations support mission in Libya usually holds its meetings. The mission is currently hosting political talks with rival Libyan groups in Geneva, trying to resolve the country's political and security crisis.

The hotel had Italian, British and Turkish guests but was largely empty at the time of the attack, according to hotel staff members. There was also a visiting American delegation.

The militia-backed government in Tripoli said the target was Prime Minister Omar al-Hassi, who normally resides at the hotel but was not there at the time of the attack. Spokesman Amr Baiou told reporters al-Hassi was unharmed.

A security official in Tripoli, Omar al-Khadrawi, said initial investigations pointed to a group of former Gadhafi loyalists.

Reports about how the attack unfolded were conflicting and it was not immediately possible to reconcile the different accounts.

Hotel staffers initially said that five masked gunmen stormed the Corinthia after security guards at the hotel's gate tried to stop them, firing randomly at the staff in the lobby as guests fled out the hotel's back doors into the parking lot.

One staffer said a car bomb exploded in the parking lot after a protection force entered the lobby and opened fire on the gunmen. Two guards were immediately killed, according to the staffer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared being targeted by militants.

The car bomb incinerated at least five cars in the parking lot and damaged windows in the hotel's facade, he said.

Al-Naas, the security agency spokesman, said after a standoff of several hours, the attackers threw a grenade at the security forces on the hotel's 24th floor, killing themselves and a security guard. Ten people were also wounded in the attack, including security guards and guests.

"The operation is over," al-Naas said but added that the streets around the Corinthia remained closed. He said an investigation was underway and the car used by the gunmen is believed to be the same one used in an assault on the Algerian embassy 10 days ago that wounded three guards.

The U.N. Security Council condemned the attack "in the strongest terms" and urged all countries to help bring "the perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism to justice." In a statement approved by all 15 members, the council also urged all parties in Libya "to engage constructively" with U.N. envoy Bernardino Leon and resume "an inclusive political process aimed at addressing the political and security challenges" facing Libya.

The Corinthia previously came under attack in 2013 when gunmen abducted then prime minister Ali Zeidan, who was living there. He was released several hours later.

Twins who became 'significant rats' to cartel await sentence

Twins who became 'significant rats' to cartel await sentence 
 

This undated photo from a wanted poster released by the U.S. Marshals Service shows Pedro Flores, left, and his twin brother, Margarito Flores. The brothers are scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday, Jan, 27, 2015, at federal court in Chicago on drug trafficking charges. The Flores twins cut deals to buy tons of narcotics from Joaquin "El Chapo” Guzman, the head of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel in the 2000s, and later cooperated with U.S. investigators.

  

CHICAGO (AP) -- In the underworld of illegal drug trafficking, identical twins Pedro and Margarito Flores rose from middling Chicago dealers to partners of Mexico's most notorious cartel lord, eventually building a nearly $2 billion franchise that spanned much of North America.

Anyone convicted of trafficking a fraction as much cocaine and heroin could normally expect a life sentence. 

But the twins can enter their sentencing hearing Tuesday confident of receiving far less. Because they spilled secrets that led to the indictments of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, a half-dozen of his lieutenants and about 40 lower-level traffickers, prosecutors are asking for a remarkably lenient term - around 10 years.

If credited for six years in protective custody, the pair could go free within a few years.

Guzman "ran the one of the biggest trafficking organizations in the last 100 years, and these brothers were crucial in helping to bring him and his people to justice," said Jack Riley, former head of the Drug Enforcement Administration office in Chicago and now the agency's No. 3 in Washington. "I don't think you can get bigger than that."

Details of the twins' story have been kept under seal for years, but recently opened federal government files, and an Associated Press review of documents in related cases, have lifted some of the secrecy surrounding the two, offering a fuller narrative of their journey from flamboyant teen traffickers to associates of Guzman, who was captured last year by Mexican authorities.

American authorities portray the twins as among the most valuable drug traffickers who ever became informants. Chicago criminal lawyer Joe Lopez, who represented several clients indicted on evidence from the twins, put it more starkly: "They're some of the most significant rats in U.S. history."

Drug-world figures weighed in on their importance, too, in their own way. After word spread in mid-2009 that the twins had turned informants, their father was kidnapped, according to government documents. A note left for the twins on the windshield of his abandoned car read, "Shut up or we are going to send you his head." He is presumed dead.

Prosecutors cited his death and the fact that the twins - as well as their mother, wives and children - will live in fear for the rest of their lives as one reason for leniency. They also want to use the lighter sentence as an enticement to urge other cartel associates to cooperate.

The threat of retaliation by cartel members looms over the case. Since becoming informants, the 33-year-old siblings have never appeared in public. Because of the constant danger, the name of their defense attorney has also been kept secret. And it's unclear how the brothers will be protected in prison or after their release.

The speed with which the 5-foot-4 twins ascended the drug-world hierarchy had something to do with location. Chicago's Little Village neighborhood, where they grew up, is surrounded by major rail lines and highways. It's an aspiring trafficker's dream - a transportation hub within a city that's a transportation hub to the nation.

As dealers in their teens, they had a reputation for being flashy but savvy, said Lopez, who had some clients from the same neighborhood. The twins' fondness for bling was illustrated by a list of items agents said they would forfeit. It included more than $400,000 in jewelry.

Only after the brothers fled Chicago around 2004 for Mexico, apparently fearing arrest following their indictment in Milwaukee, did their trafficking careers soar.

It's not clear how they first made contact with the Sinaloa cartel, but by mid-2005 they were summoned by Guzman himself, according to government filings. Flown to an airstrip in Sinaloa, they were taken to a secret mountain compound to hammer out drug deals with the kingpin.

From 2004 on, prosecutors say, the brothers ran their entire U.S. operation from a Mexican ranch, issuing orders by phone. Their network stretched to from New York, Detroit and Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles and Vancouver, Canada.

Strict rules governed the drug shipments. Guzman's people got the drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border - sometimes via tunnels - and were responsible until the packages were transferred to Flores associates in the U.S. If the drugs were lost somewhere between that point and Chicago, the brothers would be on the hook for the full cost.

Court documents say the twins approached U.S. authorities on their own in the summer of 2008, offering to cooperate. The papers do not explain why, though it happened during bloody conflicts between cartels, and the twins may have feared they would soon fall victim.

Still, they continued to do business with the cartel, now with the aim of gathering evidence.

According to court documents, they met Guzman again in his mountain compound in October 2008, when he made an ominous request of Margarito Flores: Could he obtain rocket and grenade launchers? They would use them, he was told, to attack a U.S. or Mexican government office to send the message that cartel suspects were not to be extradited.

The pressure on the twins was building.

Then something triggered U.S. agents' concern. On Nov. 30, 2008, they gave the brothers two hours' notice to get out of Mexico. They flew to Chicago with little but the clothing they wore.

But the brothers' scheming did not stop immediately.

In Chicago, the two sought to squirrel away millions in ill-gotten gains, toying with the idea of burying some of the money, filings say. While in custody, they also managed to purchase a $100,000 Bentley as a gift for Pedro's wife. They had to give it up when agents learned what they had done.

Spanish police arrest 4 suspected members of a jihadi cell

Spanish police arrest 4 suspected members of a jihadi cell 

MADRID (AP) -- Spanish National Police arrested four suspected jihadis Saturday in the country's North African enclave of Ceuta who allegedly had formed a terror cell and were ready to carry out an attack, the Interior Ministry said.

Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz said investigators, working with their Moroccan counterparts, were struck by the similarities between the suspected cell members and the two French brothers who killed 12 people in an attack upon the Charlie Hebdo newspaper in Paris.

"These are two pairs of very radicalized brothers who are highly trained militarily, physically and mentally and are prepared to carry out an attack, and ready, according to the police, to blow themselves up in the act," Fernandez Diaz said.

Two houses in Ceuta were searched in Saturday morning police raids and four men, all Spanish citizens of Moroccan origin, were arrested, the agency said. Officers found an automatic pistol, ammunition, military fatigues, face-concealing hoods, Spanish vehicle license plates, large machetes, knives and documents.

The ministry said the four were following instructions given by the al-Qaida in Iraq leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, via what it called "a powerful and aggressive communication campaign" including jihadi Internet forums and websites. Al-Baghdadi is now the leader of the extremist Islamic State group, which controls about a third of Iraq and Syria.

Investigators were still assessing the cell's "infrastructure to carry out terror attacks in the country," the ministry said.

Spain and Morocco have arrested dozens of suspected jihadist militants and recruiters in recent years, especially around Melilla and Ceuta, Spanish coastal cities in North Africa that are surrounded by Morocco.

Challenges on multiple fronts likely to test new Saudi king

Challenges on multiple fronts likely to test new Saudi king 
 

In this photo provided by the Saudi Press Agency, Saudi Arabia's newly enthroned King Salman, right, talks with Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah during the funeral of Salman's half brother King Abdullah at the Imam Turki bin Abdullah mosque in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Friday, Jan. 23, 2015. Saudi state TV reported early Friday that King Abdullah died at the age of 90.

  

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Saudi Arabia's new monarch inherits the throne at a moment when the oil-rich kingdom is being buffeted by a plunge in the value of its most valuable commodity, growing challenges by activists at home and deepening turmoil on its borders that stands to benefit rival Iran.

Those who know King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud note the 79-year-old's diplomatic skills, honed over nearly five decades as governor of the capital, Riyadh. Those abilities will be put to the test as he positions his country to confront a collapsing Yemen on its southern frontier and threats from the extremist Islamic State group to the north in Iraq.

But he is unlikely to bring fundamental changes to the country's policies and its embrace of the ultraconservative Wahhabi brand of Sunni Islam.

Saudi kings derive their legitimacy through the support of the clerical establishment, limiting the potential for radical change. Salman already has had plenty of opportunity to put his stamp on Saudi policies, both in his role as defense minister since 2011 and as he increasingly took over duties for his half brother, King Abdullah, who died early Friday.

Salman made clear he has no intention to shift course in a nationally televised address hours after he succeeded Abdullah, vowing to hew to "the correct policies which Saudi Arabia has followed since its establishment."

His biggest immediate crisis is how to deal with deeply impoverished Yemen, which is home to what the U.S. sees as al-Qaida's most dangerous branch. Its militants have infiltrated the porous border to launch attacks against the OPEC heavyweight.

Yemen's U.S. and Saudi-backed president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, quit just hours before Salman ascended to the throne, driven out by pressure from Shiite rebels known as Houthis who control the capital of Sanaa. The rebels have been accused of being backed by overwhelmingly Shiite Iran, although the Houthis deny any links.

"Their greatest worry is what's going on in Yemen, which is very much their backyard," said Simon Henderson, director of the Gulf and Energy Policy Program at The Washington Institute.

Salman Shaikh, director of the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar, said that from a Saudi perspective, the advances by the Houthis in Yemen add to a "sense of encirclement by Iran," which is deepening its ties with Shiite-led Iraq and is the main regional patron for embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The Sunni monarchy of the Gulf island nation of Bahrain, a favorite getaway spot for Saudis just off the kingdom's coast, has failed to quell unrest led by its Shiite majority despite political and security backing by Riyadh.

Of more concern, Iraq and a U.S.-led coalition that includes Saudi air power is struggling to beat back the extremists of the Islamic State group across Saudi Arabia's northern frontier. Earlier this month, gunmen with belts of explosives attacked a Saudi security patrol near the kingdom's 745-mile (1,200-kilometer) border with Iraq, killing three soldiers and wounding at least three more. Saudi Arabia swiftly gave shoot-to-kill orders to all border patrol afterward.

Saudi Arabia took a dim view of former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and Riyadh had been taking steps to mend ties with Iraq's new leadership even before Salman's ascension. It announced this month that it was considering reopening an embassy in Baghdad for the first time in more than two decades.

Aziz Jaber, a political science professor at Baghdad's Mustansiriyah University, said Salman has no choice but to try to defuse political and sectarian tensions "because the chaos in the region has reached its peak, and danger is knocking everybody's door."

A nearly 60 percent drop in oil prices since summer could limit Salman's ability to maneuver in the long run.

The kingdom relies on oil revenues to fund most of its expansive budget, which covers lavish payouts to royal family members as well as perks such as subsidized fuel and large numbers of public-sector jobs to ordinary Saudis.

While the country has hundreds of billions of dollars in cash reserves stashed away, lower oil prices give it less flexibility to maintain spending levels at home and to influence its policies abroad. Current oil prices of below $50 a barrel are well short of what the kingdom needs to balance its budget - $89 a barrel in 2013, according to the International Monetary Fund.

As OPEC's biggest oil exporter and one of the world's largest producers, Saudi Arabia has the ability to cut output significantly to try to drive up prices. It hasn't shown willingness to do so for now, preferring to maintain market share and pressure higher-cost producers rather that trim its own production. That policy, which has dealt a blow to Iran and its backer, Russia, is unlikely to change in the near future, analysts say.

"The Oil Ministry is largely headed by technocrats, and so it is relatively shielded from changes in the kingdom's political environment," Jason Tuvey, Middle East economist at Capital Economics, wrote in a report Friday.

Ruling family members are nonetheless involved in the country's biggest industry. One of Salman's sons, Prince Abdulaziz, is the deputy oil minister.

Salman faces plenty of pressures at home too.

Within his own family, he bolstered those closest to him. Salman's designated heir, 69-year-old Prince Muqrin, is the youngest of the sons of Saudi Arabia's founder, King Abdul-Aziz Al Saud.

Salman also named a second-in-line to the throne, Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who is the son of Salman's late full brother Nayef. He also named one of his sons who is in his 30s, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as defense minister.

A ballooning youth population is putting pressure on the ruling family to do more to create well-paying jobs in the country, where more than half of the population of 20 million is under 25. Doing so will likely involve enticing more private-sector companies to a country where more than two-thirds of employed citizens work for the government.

Officials said last month that half of all public expenditures go for wages and allowances, so any cuts risk stirring resentment and undoing much of the goodwill generated by the extra spending that Salman's predecessor put in place after the 2011 Arab Spring.

The rapid rise of social media is also upending old assumptions, giving greater voice to everyone from young jihadists to Saudi women protesting restrictions on driving in the kingdom. The Arab Spring, while limited in the kingdom, also exposed younger generations to the possibility of challenging long-entrenched Arab regimes.

Salman will need to decide how harshly his government will deal with activists who test the limits of freedom in the ultraconservative country.

The kingdom, for instance, has come under renewed scrutiny from rights groups over its decision to publicly flog Raif Badawi. He was sentenced last year to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes meted out over 20 sessions for criticizing Saudi Arabia's clerics and mocking the country's morality police on a blog that he founded. The first round of lashes was administered this month. Another Saudi man was recently arrested for filming a woman's public beheading and posting it online.

Salman's predecessor took some modest steps to empower women, including giving them seats on the government's advisory Shura Council and allowing them to participate in the Olympics for the first time in 2012.

But many limits on women's freedom remain. They cannot, for example, travel or marry without a male guardian's permission. Saudi women are increasingly challenging those strictures, particularly the prohibition on driving, by getting behind the wheel. Those acts of defiance are not likely to abate under Salman.

"People you talk to, they are much more willing to raise their voice now than before," said Ali al-Ahmed, director of the Washington-based Institute of Gulf Affairs. "When Abdullah came, people had high hopes. I don't think that is there now. ... People think of (Salman) as another Al Saud prince who is not willing to share power, so I think people are going to accelerate their demands."

MLK's legacy honored with tributes, rallies around nation

MLK's legacy honored with tributes, rallies around nation
 

Rev. Bernice King, daughter of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., speaks during a service honoring King at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King preached, Monday, Jan. 19, 2015, in Atlanta. Rev. Bernice King, urged those gathered to act out against injustice. But she also said they should remember his message of nonviolence.

  

ATLANTA (AP) -- Speakers honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at his spiritual home in Atlanta repeated the same message on his national holiday Monday: We've come a long way, but there's still much to be done to fulfill King's dream.

The holiday came against the backdrop of recent national protests over the deaths of unarmed black men and youths at the hands of the police around the U.S. Some new protests flared Monday: several dozen demonstrators blocked traffic while marching in Cleveland, Ohio, and protests also were reported in St. Louis, Missouri and Seattle, Washington.

In Atlanta, King's daughter, the Rev. Bernice King, urged those gathered at Ebenezer Baptist Church for the 47th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Annual Commemorative Service to act out against injustice. She also said they should heed her father's message of nonviolence.

"We cannot act unless we understand what Dr. King taught us. He taught us that we still have a choice to make: nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation," she said. "I challenge you to work with us as we help this nation choose nonviolence." The courage and sacrifice of the civil rights activists of the 1950s and 1960s provide a model for those seeking to effect change today, she added.

She also made reference to the high-profile deaths. Those have included the deaths of unarmed black men in Ferguson, Missouri, and in New York City, as well as the fatal shooting of a 12-year-old boy in Cleveland, Ohio. All three were killed by white officers.

"I cannot help but remember many women and men who have been gunned down, not by a bad police force but by some bad actors in a police force," she said.

The Northeast Ohio Media Group reported about 60 people gathered Monday at a recreation center where a Cleveland police officer fatally shot the 12-year-old. Their march ended at the city's public square and police told the group some arrests were made.

In Seattle, authorities reported a handful of arrests after dozens chanting "black lives matter" disrupted traffic in Seattle, blocking part of a state highway and interstate off-ramps. Seattle officials advised motorists to take alternate routes when one side of a key state route was temporarily blocked.

The deaths have sparked a nationwide debate over police use of force, further fueled after two New York City police officers were shot to death last month by a man who suggested in online posts that he was retaliating for deaths in Missouri and New York. The gunman, who was black, committed suicide.

The name of the New York man who died in a white police officer's chokehold was invoked by some during peaceful tributes in New York.

"We will move forward as a city. We will move forward to deeper respect for all," New York Mayor Bill de Blasio vowed at the city's main MLK Day event in Brooklyn.

Elsewhere, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that two dozen protesters interrupted a King event at Harris-Stowe State University in that area, leading to angry confrontations with students outside a campus auditorium. Police kept watch, but no arrests were reported.

President Barack Obama, the nation's first black president, sought to focus on the next generation. In Washington, Obama and his wife Michelle went with one of their daughters, Malia, to a site for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Washington to paint murals and assemble "literacy kits" of flashcards and books to help youngsters improve their reading and writing skills.

In Philadelphia, activists pressed for several social justice causes under the King mantle, saying they wanted better police accountability, more education funding and a higher minimum wage. And in Denver some held signs up about the recent deaths as tens of thousands, including cowboys on horseback, made it one of the biggest turnouts in years for Denver's event. Drill teams and floats paraded in Las Vegas under the theme: "Living the Dream: Where Do We Go From Here?"

In Atlanta, many reflected both on the present and the past.

A day after he joined other actors from the movie "Selma" and hundreds of others in Alabama for a march to Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge - where civil rights protesters were beaten and tear-gassed in 1965 - actor David Oyelowo said during the Atlanta commemoration that playing King was a heavy burden.

He cried as he talked about putting himself in King's place. "I only stepped into his shoes for a moment, but I asked myself, `How did he do it?'" Oyelowo said.

U.S. Rep. John Lewis told the Atlanta crowd he was just 17 when King sent him a bus ticket to head to Alabama to join the civil rights movement. Lewis, who marched alongside King, recalled the man he called his hero a man who is "still a guiding light in my life."

"The memory of such a great man can never, ever fade," Lewis said. "I still think about him almost every day."

'Selma' stars including Oprah march in Alabama, honoring MLK

'Selma' stars including Oprah march in Alabama, honoring MLK 

Oprah Winfrey locks arms with David Oyelowo, left, who portrays Martin Luther King Jr. in the movie "Selma," Ava DuVernay, the director of "Selma" and rapper Common, far left, as they march to the Edmund Pettus Bridge in honor of Martin Luther King Jr., Sunday, Jan. 18, 2015, in Selma, Ala.

  

SELMA, Ala. (AP) -- Oprah Winfrey and fellow actors from the movie "Selma" marched with hundreds Sunday ahead of Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, recalling one of the bloodiest chapters of the civil rights struggle. Their steps in tribute to King in Alabama came as key black members of Congress elsewhere invoked recent police shootings of young black men as evidence that reforms are needed to ensure equal justice for all.

Winfrey, a producer of "Selma" who also had a part in the film, joined in marching along with director Ava DuVernay, actor David Oyelowo, who portrayed King in the movie, and the rapper Common, who also had an acting role. They and others marched from Selma City Hall to the city's Edmund Pettus Bridge, where civil rights protesters were beaten and tear-gassed by officers in 1965.

"Every single person who was on that bridge is a hero," Winfrey told the marchers before they walked up the bridge as the sun went down over the Alabama River. Common and John Legend performed their Oscar-nominated song "Glory" from the film as marchers crested the top of the bridge amid the setting sun.

Winfrey said the marchers remember "Martin Luther King as an idea, Selma as an idea and what can happen with strategy, with discipline and with love." Winfrey played the civil rights activist Annie Lee Cooper in the movie, which was nominated for two Oscars, in categories of best picture and best original song.

"Selma" chronicled the campaign leading up to the historic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, and the subsequent passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Law enforcement officers used clubs and tear gas on March 7, 1965 - "Bloody Sunday" - to rout marchers intent on walking some 50 miles to Montgomery, the Alabama capital, to seek the right for blacks to register to vote. A new march, led by King, started on March 21 of that year and arrived in Montgomery days later with the crowd swelling to about 25,000.

Today, the Selma bridge and adjoining downtown business district look much as they did in 1965, though many storefronts are empty and government buildings are occupied largely by African-American officials who are beneficiaries of the Voting Rights Act.

Lisa Stevens brought her two children, ages 6 and 10, so they could walk the bridge that King walked. "I wanted to bring my children here so they can know their history and for them to participate in this walk," said Stevens, who moved recently from New York to Greensboro, Alabama. 

"It's a part of their history and I think that they should know. Being that we're in the South now I want them 

to understand everything that is going on around them," she said.

McLinda Gilchrist, 63, said the movie should help a younger generation understand what life was like for those in the 1960s who sought to oppose discrimination. "They treated us worse than animals," Gilchrist said of the treatment of the original marchers at the hands of white officers.

"It was terrifying," recalled Lynda Blackmon Lowery, who still lives in Selma and was the youngest person to march there in 1965 as a teenager. Now a 64-year--old mother and grandmother, she spoke Sunday in New York of a harrowing experience of unarmed marchers going up against rifles, billy clubs and fierce dogs. She has since written a memoir, "Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom."

For Monday's federal holiday, some were recalling King's leadership in light of fatal police shootings that have recently shaken the U.S., including the death of an unarmed black teen last year in Ferguson, Missouri.

Eight members of the Congressional Black Caucus joined U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay at Wellspring United Methodist Church in Ferguson on Sunday as they invoked King's legacy. They vowed to seek criminal justice reform.

"We need to be outraged when local law enforcement and the justice system repeatedly allow young, unarmed black men to encounter police and then wind up dead with no consequences," the St. Louis Democrat said. "Not just in Ferguson, but over and over again across this country."

Other King events planned Monday include a wreath-laying in Maryland, a tribute breakfast in Boston, Massachusetts, and volunteer service activities by churches and community groups in Illinois. In South Carolina, civil rights leaders readied for their biggest rally of the year.

King's legacy also was being celebrated at the church he pastored in Atlanta. The current pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, the Rev. Raphael Warnock, said the annual King holiday is a time when "all of God's children are busy spreading the message of freedom and justice."

In the Sunday sermon, Professor James Cone of New York's Union Theological Seminary urged Ebenezer's congregation to celebrate the slain civil rights leader "by making a political and a religious commitment to complete his work of justice."

Warnock closed the service by leading singing of the civil rights anthem, "We Shall Overcome."

NCAA agrees to restore wins to Penn State, title to Paterno

NCAA agrees to restore wins to Penn State, title to Paterno
 

T-shirts displayed in the window of the Penn State Student Bookstore, Friday, Jan. 16, 2015, in State College, Pa., honor the 409 career coaching wins of former Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno. The NCAA announced Friday a settlement with the univeristy that will give the school back 112 wins wiped out during the Jerry Sandusky child molestation scandal and restore Paterno as the winningest coach in major college football history

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) -- The NCAA agreed Friday to restore 112 football wins it had stripped from Penn State and Joe Paterno in the Jerry Sandusky child-molestation scandal and to reinstate the venerated late coach as the winningest in major college football history.

The agreement, swiftly approved by the boards of the NCAA and the university after intermittent talks heated up this week, lifts the last of the sanctions imposed in 2012 and wipes away the black marks that had tainted one of the nation's most celebrated college athletics programs.

After more than two years of criticism that the NCAA had overstepped its authority, officials with college sports' governing body did not back down. Instead, they said they were focused on ending litigation that had held up distribution of the university's $60 million fine to fund child abuse-prevention programs.

Before the deal, the NCAA had agreed last year to eliminate some of the sanctions, including reinstating Penn State's full complement of scholarships and letting the team participate in post-season play.

Friday's agreement threw out the rest of the sanctions, including eliminating a five-year probation period and scholarship and transfer rules, and restoring the wins that had been wiped out. It also bowed to Pennsylvania officials' desire to see the $60 million fine spent in Pennsylvania, not spread to abuse-prevention programs around the nation.

The pact emerged just days after a federal judge declined to rule on the constitutionality of the sanctions and weeks before a Pennsylvania court was to hold a trial on the legality of the penalties.

"Hopefully, today we'll begin to make right the damage that has been done," said Pennsylvania Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, who had sued the NCAA with state Treasurer Rob McCord. "Today is a victory for due process, which was unafforded in this case. Today is a victory for the people of Pennsylvania. Today is a victory for Penn State nation. The NCAA has surrendered."

The unprecedented scope of the sanctions had drawn intense criticism from Penn State alumni and fans who defended Paterno as innocent in the scandal and called the school's athletics program a national model. They accused the NCAA of rushing to judgment to assert its dominance, ultimately punishing people who had nothing to do with Sandusky.

The family of Paterno, who died as the scandal was unfolding, hailed the agreement, while lawyers for Sandusky's victims worried that the NCAA's retreat sent the wrong message. In State College, home to Penn State's sprawling main campus nicknamed Happy Valley, the news was welcome, although not everybody felt warmly toward the NCAA.

In the agreement, Penn State acknowledged that the NCAA had acted in good faith in the Sandusky matter, and university President Eric Barron said he believed the agency had a legitimate concern about institutional control.

NCAA officials said Friday that their motivation in the deal was to start funding abuse-prevention programs with the fine.

"The victors are those of us who were advocating for the children," said Harris Pastides, an NCAA board member and president of the University of South Carolina.

They did not back off their right to take such action.

"The board felt they had to quickly and decisively put forward a set of sanctions. I hope we never have to do this again," said Kirk Schulz, an NCAA board member and Kansas State's president.

The penalties sprung from the scandal that erupted when Sandusky, a retired assistant coach, was accused of sexually abusing boys, some of them on campus.

Penn State's then-President, Rodney Erickson, agreed to the sanctions in 2012, in the weeks after Sandusky was convicted. Just days earlier, former FBI Director Louis Freeh released a scathing report commissioned by Penn State's trustees, and the school removed an iconic bronze statue of Paterno from the school's Beaver Stadium.

Freeh's report accused Paterno and other top Penn State officials of burying child sex-abuse allegations against Sandusky to avoid bad publicity. The report portrayed the Hall of Fame coach as more deeply involved in the scandal than previously thought.

The alleged cover-up by Paterno, then-university President Graham Spanier and two other Penn State administrators allowed Sandusky to prey on other boys for years, it said.

Paterno was never charged with a crime, although Spanier and the two other former administrators continue to fight charges in court.

Paterno's family called Friday's announcement "a great victory for everyone who has fought for the truth in the Sandusky tragedy."

"This case should always have been about the pursuit of the truth, not the unjust vilification of the culture of a great institution and the scapegoating of coaches, players and administrators who were never given a chance to defend themselves," they said.

Michael Boni, a lawyer for one of the victims who testified at Sandusky's trial, said he supported the restoration of Penn State's scholarships and bowl eligibility last fall, but does not believe Paterno's victories should be reinstated because they were "tarnished" by Sandusky.

He also said he sensed a shift in Penn State's attitude after the criminal case against Sandusky wrapped up and it concluded civil settlements with victims.

"There was a movement away from what I thought was a genuine mea culpa on the part of Penn State, having accepted the NCAA sanctions, and one toward, `Why did we cave so easily?' That was disappointing," Boni said.

The sanctions eliminated all wins from 1998, when police investigated a mother's complaint that Sandusky had showered with her son, through 2011, Paterno's final season as head coach after six decades with the team and the year Sandusky was charged.

The restored wins include 111 under Paterno and the final victory of 2011, after trustees fired Paterno in the wake of the charges against Sandusky and the team was coached by Tom Bradley. That returns Paterno's record to 409-136-3. He died of lung cancer at 85 shortly after the season ended.

Sandusky was convicted of 45 counts and is now serving a 30- to 60-year prison sentence.