Fiorina aims to keep Clinton from playing the 'gender card'

Fiorina aims to keep Clinton from playing the 'gender card'

FILE - In this Jan. 24, 2015 file photo, Carly Fiorina speaks in Des Moines, Iowa. Fiorina, the lone Republican woman eying the White House, wants to block Hillary Rodham Clinton from playing the “gender card” in the 2016 presidential race. A former business executive with limited political experience, Fiorina argues that if Republicans nominate her, it would neutralize any advantages Democrats might get from having a woman at the top of their ticket.

  

NASHUA, N.H. (AP) -- Carly Fiorina, the lone Republican woman eying the White House, wants to block Hillary Rodham Clinton from playing the "gender card" in the 2016 presidential race.

But to do so, Fiorina is taking a page from the gender politics playbook herself.

A former business executive with limited political experience, Fiorina argues that if Republicans nominate her, it would neutralize any advantages the Democrats might get from having a woman at the top of their ticket.

Speaking of Clinton in an interview with The Associated Press, Fiorina said, "She wants to make it a gender-based campaign; she wants to talk about the war on women; she wants to talk about being the first woman president. She can't do any of that with me."

Clinton, who launched her campaign last weekend, has been playing up her life experience as a mother and grandmother, along with her policy work on women's and children's issues. She's not yet directly highlighted the prospect she would be the first female president, something she played down in her failed 2008 campaign.

While Fiorina has yet to declare her own candidacy, she has been positioning herself for weeks as a foil to Clinton, the clear Democratic front-runner. She's been among the sharpest Clinton critics in the emerging Republican field, going after the Democrat's trustworthiness in light of revelations about her private email use as secretary of state, as well as her record as the nation's chief diplomat.

"Like Mrs. Clinton, I, too, have traveled hundreds of thousands of miles," Fiorina said this week, reprising a favorite line. "But flying and traveling is an activity, it's not an accomplishment and unfortunately she didn't accomplish anything as secretary of state."

The 60-year-old Fiorina says she plans to announce whether she's running for president in late April or early May. She's put the likelihood of her running at "higher than 90 percent" and has been making stops in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina - all states that vote early in the primary process.

Fiorina is back in New Hampshire this week, joining a multitude of potential GOP presidential candidates at a two-day forum that could be an early test of who has breakout potential in the state that holds the nation's first primary.

Fiorina says she doesn't want to run based on her sex, but rather to focus on another factor that makes her an outlier in the Republican field: the fact that nearly her entire career has been in business, not the political arena. She was one of the country's highest-ranking female executives during her nearly six years as chief executive at Hewlett-Packard, but was forced out of the company in 2005.

Democrats say Fiorina's real legacy in business is the thousands of jobs lost at Hewlett-Packard during the merger she oversaw with Compaq. Democratic officials also contend that she supports policies that are bad for women, including the repeal of President Barack Obama's health care law, which expanded coverage for many preventive services for women.

As for her own political experience, she ran for the U.S. Senate in California in 2010 but was easily defeated by incumbent Democrat Barbara Boxer. She was an adviser to Sen. John McCain's unsuccessful 2008 presidential campaign.

Fiorina remains unknown to many Americans. But Steve DeMaura, executive director of the super PAC Carly for America, said she can use Clinton's presence in the race to "leverage additional attention" for her own candidacy.

"People say, `Well, Hillary's running, what does the Republican woman think?'" DeMaura said.

So far, Fiorina seems at ease playing the Clinton foil, said David Carney, a longtime New Hampshire political strategist, particularly compared with male candidates who can find it awkward criticizing female politicians - not that the GOP hopefuls have been shy about going after Clinton.

"You see some candidates when they attack a woman come across very badly," said Carney, who is not aligned with a candidate in 2016 but whose wife is working for Fiorina. "But it's not very awkward for Carly. She seems to pull it off very well."

Fiorina has also started criticizing fellow Republicans, recently calling likely candidate Jeb Bush "dead wrong" on issues such as immigration and the Common Core education standards.

One of Fiorina's biggest challenges may be raising the money she'll need to stay in the race long enough to build up more name recognition. She contributed $5 million of her own money to her Senate campaign, but left behind more than $500,000 of debt.

DeMaura said Fiorina would have to run an "insurgent campaign" that focuses on "surviving to the next round."

"Staying in the race is a big part of the process," he said.

Thousands flee as IS group advances on Iraq's Ramadi

Thousands flee as IS group advances on Iraq's Ramadi 
 

People leave their hometown Ramadi, 70 miles (115 kilometers) west of Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, April 16, 2015. Clashes between Iraqi forces and Islamic State militants pressing their offensive for Ramadi, the capital of western Anbar province, has forced more than 2,000 families to flee from their homes in the area, an Iraqi official said Thursday. The Sunni militants' push on Ramadi, launched Wednesday when the Islamic State group captured three villages on the city's eastern outskirts, has become the most significant threat so far to the provincial capital of Anbar.

  

BAGHDAD (AP) -- More than 2,000 families have fled the Iraqi city of Ramadi with little more than the clothes on their backs, officials said Thursday, as the Islamic State group closed in on the capital of western Anbar province, clashing with Iraqi troops and turning it into a ghost town.

The extremist group, which has controlled the nearby city of Fallujah for more than a year, captured three villages on Ramadi's eastern outskirts on Wednesday. The advance is widely seen as a counteroffensive after the Islamic State group lost the city of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown, earlier this month.

Hundreds of U.S. troops are training Iraqi forces at a military base west of Ramadi, but a U.S. military official said the fighting had no impact on the U.S. soldiers there, and that there were no plans to withdraw them.

The fleeing Ramadi residents were settling in the southern and western suburbs of Baghdad, and tents, food and other aid were being sent to them, said Sattar Nowruz, an official of the Ministry of Migration and the Displaced.

The ministry was assessing the situation with the provincial government in order "to provide the displaced people, who are undergoing difficult conditions, with better services and help," Nowruz said.

Sporadic clashes were still underway Thursday, according to security officials in Ramadi. Government forces control the city center, while the IS group has had a presence in the suburbs and outskirts for months. They described Ramadi as a ghost town, with empty streets and closed shops.

Video obtained by The Associated Press showed plumes of thick, black smoke billowing above the city as fighter jets pounded militant targets. On the city outskirts, displaced residents frantically tried to make their way out amid the heavy bombardment.

U.S.-led coalition airstrikes targeted the IS group in Sjariyah, Albu-Ghanim and Soufiya, the three villages the extremists captured Wednesday, the officials added. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to talk to the media.

Anbar's deputy governor, Faleh al-Issawi, described the situation in Ramadi as "catastrophic" and urged the central government to send in reinforcements.

"We urge the Baghdad government to supply us immediately with troops and weapons in order to help us prevent the city from falling into the hands of the IS group," he told the Associated Press in a telephone interview.

The spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general, Stephane Dujarric, said access to the city was limited but humanitarian workers were trying to verify the reports of fleeing residents. Prior to the current bout of fighting, some 400,000 Iraqis were already displaced, including 60,000 in Ramadi district, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Al-Bayan, the Islamic State group's English-language radio station, claimed IS fighters had seized control of at least six areas and most of a seventh to the east of Ramadi since Wednesday, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant websites.

American troops fought some of their bloodiest battles in Anbar during the eight-year U.S. intervention, when Fallujah and Ramadi were strongholds of al-Qaida in Iraq, a precursor to the IS group. Fallujah was the first Iraqi city to fall to the militants, in January 2014.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who was visiting Washington on Wednesday, made no mention of the events in Ramadi. Instead he spoke optimistically about recruiting Sunni tribal fighters to battle the extremists, saying about 5,000 such fighters in Anbar had signed up and received light weapons.

The IS-run Al-Bayan station also reported that an attempt by Iraqi troops to advance on the Beiji oil refinery in Salahuddin province, about 250 kilometers (115 miles) north of Baghdad, was pushed back and that fighters "positioned themselves in multiple parts of the refinery after taking control of most of it," according to SITE.

Iraqi officials could not immediately be reached for comment on the fighting around Beiji. On Monday, Oil Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi said that Iraqi forces, backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, had repelled an IS attack on Beiji over the weekend.

Meanwhile, a senior U.S. military official told The Associated Press that there were no plans to evacuate U.S. troops from the Ain al-Asad air base, about 110 kilometers (70 miles) west of Ramadi - and stressed that the current fighting around Ramadi had no impact on the base. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

Since January, hundreds of U.S. forces have been training Iraqi troops at the base.

Fight for $15 protests expand for low-wage workers

Fight for $15 protests expand for low-wage workers

Boston University student Patrick Johnson, center, holds a sign as he joins with other protesters, including students, fast-food restaurant employees and other workers, as they march Tuesday, April 14, 2015, in Boston. Organizers of the event are calling for the nation's lowest paid workers to earn at least $15 per hour.

  

NEW YORK (AP) -- The Fight for $15 campaign to win higher pay and a union for fast-food workers is expanding to represent a variety of low-wage workers and become more of a social justice movement.

In New York City on Wednesday, more than 100 chanting protesters gathered outside a McDonald's around noon, prompting the store to lock its doors to prevent the crowd from streaming in.

Demonstrators laid on the sidewalk outside to stage a "die-in," which became popular during the "Black Lives Matter" protests after recent police shootings of black men. Several wore sweatshirts that said "I Can't Breathe," a nod to the last words of a black man in New York City who died after he was put in a police chokehold.

Timothy Roach, a 21-year-old Wendy's worker from Milwaukee, said the police brutality black men face is linked to the lack of economic opportunity they're given. He said the protests were necessary to send a message to companies.

"If they don't see that it matters to us, then it won't matter to them," Roach said.

Organizers said demonstrations were planned for more than 230 U.S. cities and college campuses, as well as dozens of cities overseas. Among those who joined the latest day of protests were airport workers, Walmart workers and adjunct professors.

The campaign began in late 2012 and is being spearheaded by the Service Employees International Union, which represents low-wage workers in areas like home care, child care and building cleaning services. Mary Kay Henry, the SEIU's president, said the push has already helped prompt local governments to consider higher minimum wages, nudged companies to announce pay hikes and made it easier for SEIU members to win better contracts. Those results are inspiring other groups of workers, she said.

"It has defied a sense of hopelessness," she said.

In Jackson, Mississippi, around 30 people protested in a McDonald's before being kicked out, with one of the demonstrators being arrested for trespassing. Protesters also gathered outside McDonald's restaurants in cities including Denver, Los Angeles and Albany, New York.

Even if fast-food workers and others never become union members, winning higher pay for them would benefit the SEIU by helping lift pay for its members, said Susan Schurman, dean of Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations.

"By raising the wage floor, it really benefits everyone," she said.

Ann Hodges, a professor of labor employment law at the University of Richmond, said engaging different types of workers also broadens the appeal of the movement by increasing the chances people know someone who's affected.

And the push to make Fight for $15 more of a social justice movement makes those who might have negative perceptions about unions more likely to join, she said.

"It becomes easier to organize workers if they view it as something positive and socially desirable," Hodges said.

In the meantime, McDonald's said this month it would raise its starting salary to $1 above the local minimum wage, and give workers the ability to accrue paid time off. It marked the company's first national pay policy, and indicates McDonald's wants to take control of its image as an employer. But the move only applies to workers at company-owned stores, which account for about 10 percent of more than 14,300 locations.

McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's say they don't control the employment decisions at franchised restaurants. The SEIU is working to upend that position and hold McDonald's responsible for labor conditions at franchised restaurants in multiple ways, including lawsuits.

In a statement, McDonald's said it respects the right to "peacefully protest." In the past, it said only about 10 to 15 McDonald's workers out of about 800,000 in the U.S. have participated.

In a recent column in The Chicago Tribune, McDonald's Corp. CEO Steve Easterbrook described the company's pay hike and other perks as "an initial step," and said he wants to transform McDonald's into a "modern, progressive burger company."

But that transformation will have to take place as labor organizers continue pressuring employers over wages. Ahead of the protests this week, a study funded by the SEIU found working families rely on $153 billion in public assistance a year as a result of their low wages.

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Historic encounter with Cuba's Castro awaits Obama in Panama

Historic encounter with Cuba's Castro awaits Obama in Panama 

President Barack Obama speaks during a town hall meeting at the University of the West Indies, Thursday, April 9, 2015, in Kingston, Jamaica. The president said Thursday that he soon decide whether to remove Cuba from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism now that the State Department has finished a review on the question as part of the move to reopen diplomatic relations with the island nation.

 

PANAMA CITY (AP) -- Turning the page on a half-century of hostility, President Barack Obama signaled Thursday he will soon remove Cuba from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, boosting hopes for improved ties as he prepared for a historic encounter with Cuban President Raul Castro.

Hours before his arrival in Panama for a regional summit, Obama said the U.S. State Department had finished its review of Cuba's presence on the list, a stain on the island nation's pride and a major stumbling block for efforts to mend U.S.-Cuba ties. A top senator confirmed that the agency had recommended removing Cuba from the list, all but ensuring action by the president within days.

"We don't want to be imprisoned by the past," Obama said during a visit to Kingston, Jamaica. "When something doesn't work for 50 years, you don't just keep on doing it. You try something new."

With his optimistic assessment, Obama sought to set the tone for the U.S. and Cuba to come closer to closing the book on more than a half-century of estrangement, when he and Castro come face to face at the Summit of the Americas. Obama arrived Thursday evening in Panama City.

The highly anticipated interaction with Castro will test the power of personal diplomacy as the two leaders attempt to move past the sticking points that have interfered with their attempt to relaunch diplomatic relations.

In another sign of high-level engagement, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry - also attending the summit - was to meet Thursday evening with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, the State Department said.

The U.S. has long since stopped actively accusing Cuba of supporting terrorism, and Obama has hinted at his willingness to take Cuba off the list ever since he and Castro announced a thaw in relations in December. Yet Obama has stopped short of the formal decision amid indications that the White House was reluctant to grant Cuba's request until other thorny issues - such as restrictions on U.S. diplomats in Havana - were resolved.

Cuba is one of just four countries still on the U.S. list of countries accused of repeatedly supporting global terrorism; Iran, Sudan and Syria are the others. The designation not only offends Cuba's pride but also restricts Havana's access to credit and financial systems.

Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Senate's foreign relations panel, called the recommendation to delist Cuba an important step toward forging a more productive U.S.-Cuba relationship. 

"The United States has a unique opportunity to begin a fresh chapter with Cuba - one that advances our national interests on the island and in the hemisphere," he said.

Yet while recent polling has shown broad support for the thaw in both Cuba and the U.S., the change has attracted fierce opposition from many other members of Congress - especially those who represent the large Cuban-American population in Florida. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Thursday there were "serious questions" about the wisdom of taking Cuba off the list "while this dictatorship, which practices repression at home and supports violence throughout the region, continues to hold power."

This year's summit is the first to include Cuba, and for Castro it's a powerful opportunity to prove his country can be a responsible player on the world stage. Obama arrives having amassed some goodwill in Latin America by upending the U.S. policy of isolating Cuba, a policy that had irritated others in the region, and by loosening immigration policies at home.

How much face time Obama and Castro will have at the summit was unclear. Although no formal meetings were scheduled, the White House said the two would surely cross paths.

Obama and Castro shared a handshake in 2013 at Nelson Mandela's funeral, a jarring image for those who still recall the levels of U.S.-Cuban antipathy during the Cold War.

While in Panama, Obama was to meet Friday with Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela and other Central American leaders. He planned to speak at a forum of CEOs before joining other leaders for dinner at Panama Viejo, home to archaeological ruins dating to the 1500s. A visit to the Panama Canal was also likely.

In a nod to lingering U.S. concerns about human rights and political freedoms, Obama is making a point to attend a forum bringing together both dissidents and members of the Cuban political establishment. On Wednesday, Castro supporters aggressively heckled a group of Cuban dissidents at a civil society forum in Panama City, drawing criticism from the U.S.

Although taking Cuba off the terror list would remove one major obstacle to warming relations, Obama acknowledged that progress hasn't been as swift as some had hoped.

Both nations called in December for quickly reopening embassies in each other's capitals - hopefully in time for the summit. That hasn't materialized, in part due to disagreements about U.S. diplomats' freedom of movement in Havana. The U.S. sees those restrictions as an attempt to stifle dissent by limiting Americans' interactions with Castro's political opponents.

"They are proceeding as I expected," Obama said of the talks between Havana and Washington. "I never foresaw that immediately, overnight, everything would transform itself."

The wild card at the summit: Venezuela's leftist President Nicolas Maduro. Obama's recent move to slap sanctions on seven leading Venezuelan figures seemed to backfire when other Latin leaders denounced it as overkill and rallied to Maduro's side. Maduro had said he plans to hand Obama documents with millions of signatures denouncing U.S. aggression.

Tsarnaev guilty on all charges in Boston Marathon bombing

Tsarnaev guilty on all charges in Boston Marathon bombing 
 

In this courtroom sketch, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, second from left, is depicted standing with his defense attorneys William Fick, left, Judy Clarke, second from right, and David Bruck, right, as the jury presents its verdict in his federal death penalty trial Wednesday, April 8, 2015, in Boston. Tsarnaev was convicted on multiple charges in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. Three people were killed and more than 260 were injured when twin pressure-cooker bombs exploded near the finish line.

  

BOSTON (AP) -- Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was convicted on all charges Wednesday in the Boston Marathon bombing by a jury that will now decide whether the 21-year-old should be executed or shown mercy for what his lawyer says was a crime masterminded by his big brother.

The former college student stood with his hands folded, fidgeted and looked down at the defense table in federal court as he listened to the word "guilty" recited on all 30 counts against him, including conspiracy and deadly use of a weapon of mass destruction. Seventeen of those counts are punishable by death.

The verdict, reached after a day and a half of deliberations, was practically a foregone conclusion, given his 

lawyer's startling admission at the trial's outset that Tsarnaev carried out the terror attack with his now-dead older brother, Tamerlan.

The defense strategy is to try to save Tsarnaev's life in the upcoming penalty phase by arguing he fell under Tamerlan's evil influence.

The two shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs that exploded near the finish line on April 15, 2013, killed three spectators and wounded more than 260 other people, turning the traditionally celebratory home stretch of the world-famous race into a scene of carnage and putting the city on edge for days.

Tsarnaev was found responsible not only for those deaths but for the killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer who was gunned down days later during the brothers' getaway attempt.

"It's not a happy occasion, but it's something," said Karen Brassard, who suffered shrapnel wounds on her legs and attended the trial. "One more step behind us."

She said Tsarnaev appeared "arrogant" and uninterested during the trial, and she wasn't surprised when she saw no remorse on his face as the verdicts were read. She refused to say whether she believes he deserves the death penalty, but she rejected the defense argument that he was simply following his brother's lead.

"He was in college. He was a grown man who knew what the consequences would be," Brassard said. "I believe he was `all in' with the brother."

Tsarnaev's lawyers left the courthouse without comment.

In the penalty phase, which could begin as early as Monday, the jury will hear evidence on whether he should get the death penalty or spend the rest of his life in prison.

Defense attorney Judy Clarke argued at trial that Tsarnaev was led astray by his radicalized brother, telling the jury: "If not for Tamerlan, it would not have happened." She repeatedly referred to Dzhokhar - then 19 - as a "kid" and a "teenager."

Prosecutors, however, portrayed the brothers - ethnic Chechens who moved to the United States from Russia more than a decade ago - as full partners in a brutal and coldblooded plan to punish the U.S. for its wars in Muslim countries. Jihadist writings, lectures and videos were found on both their computers, though the defense argued that Tamerlan downloaded the material and sent it to his brother.

Tamerlan, 26, died when he was shot by police and run over by his brother during a chaotic getaway attempt days after the bombing.

The government called 92 witnesses over 15 days, painting a hellish scene of torn-off limbs, blood-spattered pavement, ghastly screams and the smell of sulfur and burned hair.

Survivors gave heartbreaking testimony about losing legs in the blasts or watching people die. The father of 8-year-old Martin Richard described making the agonizing decision to leave his mortally wounded son so he could get help for his 6-year-old daughter, whose leg had been blown off.

In the courtroom Wednesday, Denise Richard, the boy's mother, wiped tears from her face after the verdict. The youngster's father, Bill Richard, embraced one of the prosecutors.

In Russia, Tsarnaev's father, Anzor Tsarnaev, told The Associated Press in recent days that he would have no comment.

The others killed in the bombing were Lingzi Lu, a 23-year-old Chinese graduate student at Boston University, and Krystle Campbell, a 29-year-old restaurant manager. MIT Officer Sean Collier was shot to death at close range days later.

In a statement, Collier's family welcomed the verdict and added: "The strength and bond that everyone has shown during these last two years proves that if these terrorists thought that they would somehow strike fear in the hearts of people, they monumentally failed."

Some of the most damning evidence at the trial included video showing Tsarnaev planting a backpack containing one of the bombs near where the 8-year-old boy was standing, and a confession scrawled inside the dry-docked boat where a wounded and bleeding Tsarnaev was captured days after the tragedy.

"Stop killing our innocent people and we will stop," he wrote.

Tsarnaev's lawyers barely cross-examined the government's witnesses and called just four people to the stand over less than two days, all in an effort to portray the older brother as the guiding force in the plot.

According to defense testimony, phone records showed Dzhokhar was at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth while his brother was buying bomb components, including pressure cookers and BBs. Tamerlan's computer showed search terms such as "detonator" and "transmitter and receiver," while Dzhokhar was largely spending time on Facebook and other social media sites. And Tamerlan's fingerprints, but not Dzhokhar's, were found on pieces of the two bombs.

Clarke is one of the nation's foremost death-penalty specialists and an expert at keeping her clients off death row. She saved the lives of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and Susan Smith, the South Carolina woman who drowned her two children in a lake in 1994.

Tsarnaev's lawyers tried repeatedly to get the trial moved out of Boston because of the heavy publicity and the widespread trauma. But opposition to capital punishment is strong in Massachusetts, which abolished its state death penalty in 1984, and some polls have suggested a majority of Bostonians do not want to see Tsarnaev sentenced to die.

The 12-member jury must be unanimous for Tsarnaev to receive a death sentence; otherwise the penalty will be life behind bars.

During the penalty phase, Tsarnaev's lawyers will present so-called mitigating evidence to try to save his life. That could include evidence about his family, his relationship with his brother, and his childhood in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan and later in the volatile Dagestan region of Russia.

Prosecutors will present so-called aggravating factors in support of the death penalty, including the killing of a child and the targeting of the marathon because of the potential for maximum bloodshed.

Dan Collins, a former federal prosecutor who handled the case against a suspect in the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, said Massachusetts' history of opposition to capital punishment will have no bearing on the jury's decision about Tsarnaev's fate.

"When you ask people their opinion of the death penalty, there are a number who say it should only be reserved for the horrific cases," he said. "Here you have what is one of the most horrific acts of terrorism on U.S. soil in American history, so if you are going to reserve the death penalty for the worst of the worse, this is it."

Liz Norden, the mother of two sons who lost parts of their legs in the bombing, said death would be the appropriate punishment: "I don't understand how anyone could have done what he did."

Family of black man fatally shot by officer: Justice served

Family of black man fatally shot by officer: Justice served 

This photo provided by the Charleston County, S.C., Sheriff's Office shows Patrolman Michael Thomas Slager on Tuesday, April 7, 2015. Slager has been charged with murder in the shooting death of a black motorist after a traffic stop. North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey told a news conference that city Slager was arrested and charged Tuesday after law enforcement officials saw a video of the shooting following a Saturday traffic stop.

  

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) -- Family members of a black motorist fatally shot in the back by a white police officer said they are thankful for a video that led to a murder charge against the officer.

Anthony Scott is the brother of the man shot Saturday, Walter Lamer Scott. He told a news conference Tuesday night that because of the video, "we have received the truth" and "through the process, justice has been served."

The Scotts' mother, standing next to her husband, shouted out "Thank you, Lord!" and "Hallelujah!" as the family's lawyer began the news conference.

The lawyer, L. Chris Stewart, said the family plans to file a lawsuit against the police department.

 

AP: Handful of holdout tribes dig in against gay marriage

AP: Handful of holdout tribes dig in against gay marriage 
 

In this Jan. 25, 2014 photo provided by Jerry Archuleta, Alray Nelson, left, and Brennen Yonnie, right, pose for a photo at the flea market in Gallup, N.M. The couple has been advocating to have a Navajo Nation law that prohibits same-sex marriages repealed.

 

Even if a U.S. Supreme Court ruling this spring makes same-sex marriage the law, it would leave pockets of the country where it isn't likely to be recognized any time soon: the reservations of a handful of sovereign Native American tribes, including the nation's two largest.

Since 2011, as the number of states recognizing such unions spiked to 37, at least six smaller tribes have revisited and let stand laws that define marriage as being between a man and a woman, according to an Associated Press review of tribal records. In all, tribes with a total membership approaching 1 million won't recognize marriages between two men or two women.

Several explicitly declare that same-sex marriages are prohibited. And some have even toughened their stance.

In December, just weeks after North Carolina began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, the state's Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians updated its law to add language preventing gay couples from having marriage ceremonies performed on tribal land. The resolution changing the law, which passed 8-1, says court cases around the country prompted the tribe of about 13,000 enrolled members to review its own laws.

The Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma and the Navajo Nation, with about 300,000 members each, maintain decade-old laws that don't recognize same-sex marriage. Neither tribe has shown much sign of shifting.

Alray Nelson, a gay rights activist who lives with his partner Brennen Yonnie on the Navajo reservation, said the tribe's law denies same-sex couples the right to be included in decisions on a partner's health care, or to share in a home site lease. Getting a marriage license would only require a short drive to a courthouse off the reservation, but the couple - both enrolled Navajo members - would rather wait until it's allowed on the reservation.

"We are both planning to build a life here, and we want to raise a family," he said. "So it's not an option for us to remove ourselves from our community."

As with the states, opposition to gay marriage varies among tribes. At least 10 have recognized same-sex marriage, often well ahead of their surrounding states and without having judges force their hands. Many others are neutral.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments April 28 and could decide by June whether gay couples can marry in the remaining states and U.S. territories where it's not allowed. But while 27 states that allow gay marriage got dragged over the threshold by judges, the sovereign status of federally recognized tribes means a Supreme Court ruling wouldn't directly affect their laws.

Cherokee officials in Oklahoma and North Carolina say nothing in their laws prevents members from getting marriage licenses in adjacent counties. The Oklahoma-based Cherokee Nation, which has a separate government and laws from the Eastern Band, passed its marriage law in 2004.

The Navajo Nation Council voted in 2005 to ban same-sex marriages on the 27,000 square-mile reservation that extends into Arizona, New Mexico and Utah - all states where such marriages are legal. Then-President Joe Shirley Jr. vetoed the measure, but lawmakers overturned it.

There's been no push recently among tribal lawmakers to change that, said council spokesman Jared Touchin.

The Osage Nation, bordering Tulsa, Oklahoma, passed a wide-ranging marriage law in 2012 that doesn't recognize same-sex unions.

John Hawk Co-Cke' (co-KAY), an enrolled member of the Osage Nation who's gay, said that before reservations were created, many tribes had no problem with men who embraced their feminine side and women who lean toward their masculine side, inspiring the term two-spirit people. Two-spirit people were sometimes given special ceremonial roles because of their ability to go into both the masculine and feminine world, he said.

The spread of Christianity starting when tribes were moved onto reservations contributed to a change in attitude that's reflected in laws that reserve marriage for heterosexual couples, Co-Cke' said. The influence of Christianity remains strong in many tribes more than a century after an era of mass conversions on reservations.

"It saddens me, but I don't blame them because they have been forced to give in," said Co-Cke', who was raised as a Methodist and has for many years led two-spirit retreats in Oklahoma.

Co-Cke' said he respects the faith he was raised in, but learning about Native American traditions that date back further helped him become comfortable with being gay.

"I started feeling that emptiness. That's when the old ones started calling me," he said. "I had to get healthy."

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians' Tribal Council voted to strengthen a law on the books since at least 2000 with language that says: "The licensing and solemnizing of same-sex marriages are not allowed within this jurisdiction."

The tribe's acting attorney general, Hannah Smith, said the resolution's only practical effect is to make it explicit that a same-sex marriage ceremony can't legally be officiated on tribal land. A gay or lesbian couple married in a neighboring county could live on tribal land with no penalty.

At least 10 tribes - including the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes in Oklahoma, the Coquille Indian Tribe in Oregon and the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians in Michigan - have enacted laws since 2009 to recognize gay marriage, according to the New York-based advocacy group Freedom to Marry. The group's president, Evan Wolfson, said tribal laws banning gay marriage send the wrong message even if a tribe member can get a license from a nearby county.

"It's not just about a venue. It's about hanging a sign saying: `You're not welcome here. You're lesser than.' 

And what community would want to do that to its own?" Wolfson said.

Navajos are set to elect a new president April 21, a week before the Supreme Court hearing. Shirley, the former president who supports same-sex marriage, faces former lawmaker Russell Begaye, who said he would let Navajos decide the matter with a reservation-wide vote. Neither man could change the law without lawmakers on board, given the rarity of voter-led ballot initiatives on the reservation where about 185,000 tribe members live.

"It's a different battle," said Nelson, the activist. "It's a different landscape."

Pope, thousands brave rain for Easter in St. Peter's Square

Pope, thousands brave rain for Easter in St. Peter's Square 
 

Pope Francis delivers the Urbi et Orbi (to the city and to the world) blessing at the end of the Easter Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican , Sunday, April 5, 2015.

 

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- In an Easter peace wish, Pope Francis on Sunday praised the framework nuclear agreement with Iran as an opportunity to make the world safer, while expressing deep worry about bloodshed in Libya, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa.

Cautious hope ran through Francis' `'Urbi et Orbi" Easter message, a kind of papal commentary on the state of the world's affairs, which he delivered from the central balcony of St. Peter's Square.

He had just celebrated Mass in rain-whipped St. Peter's Square for tens of thousands of people, who huddled under umbrellas or braved the downpour in thin, plastic rain-slickers.

Easter day is `'so beautiful, and so ugly because of the rain," Francis said after Mass about Christianity's most important feast day. He expressed thanks for the flowers which bedecked the square and which were donated by the Netherlands, but the bright hues of the azaleas and other blossoms seemed muted by the gray skies.

Francis made his first public comments about the recent framework for an accord, reached in Lausanne, Switzerland, and aimed at ensuring Iran doesn't develop a nuclear weapon.

`'In hope we entrust to the merciful Lord the framework recently agreed to in Lausanne, that it may be a definitive step toward a more secure and fraternal world."

Decrying the plentitude of weapons in the world in general, Francis said: `'And we ask for peace for this world subjected to arms dealers, who earn their living with the blood of men and women."

He denounced "absurd bloodshed and all barbarous acts of violence" in Libya, convulsed by fighting fueled by tribal and militia rivalries. He hoped `'a common desire for peace" would prevail in Yemen, wracked by civil warfare.

Francis prayed that the `'roar of arms may cease" in Syria and Iraq, and that peace would come in Africa for Nigeria, South Sudan, Sudan and Congo.

He recalled the young people, many of them targeted because they were Christians, killed last week in a Kenyan university, and lamented kidnappings, by Islamic extremists, that have plagued parts of Africa, including Nigeria.

He also cited bloodshed closer to home, in Ukraine, praying that the Eastern European nation would `'rediscover peace and hope thanks to the commitment of all interested parties." Government forces have been battling Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine, months after a cease-fire was proclaimed following international diplomatic efforts.

On Good Friday, Francis chastised the international community for what he called the complicit silence about the killing of Christians. On Easter he prayed that God would alleviate `'the suffering of so many of our brothers persecuted because of his name."

During Mass, Francis was shielded from pelting rain by a canopy erected outside St. Peter's Basilica, while prelates carried umbrellas in the yellow and white colors of the Vatican.

The downpour petered out to a drizzle, and by the end of the ceremony, the rain had stopped. Francis, wearing a white overcoat, was driven through the square in the open-sided popemobile so he could wave to the faithful.

Kenya: Extremists vow more attacks; president responds

Kenya: Extremists vow more attacks; president responds 
 

A woman cries after she viewed the body of a relative killed in Thursday's attack on a university, at Chiromo funeral home, Nairobi, Kenya, Saturday, April 4, 2015. Al-Shabab gunmen rampaged through a university in northeastern Kenya at dawn Thursday, killing scores of people in the group's deadliest attack in the East African country. Four militants were slain by security forces to end the siege just after dusk.

  

GARISSA, Kenya (AP) -- Somalia's Islamic extremist group al-Shabab warned Saturday of more attacks in Kenya like the assault on Garissa University College that killed 148 people.

"Kenyan cities will run red with blood," said al-Shabab according to the SITE intelligence monitoring group.

The Islamic militants said the attack on Garissa college was in retaliation for killings carried out by Kenyan troops fighting the rebels in Somalia.

"No amount of precaution or safety measures will be able to guarantee your safety, thwart another attack or prevent another bloodbath," said al-Shabab.

Following the extremists' threats, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta vowed to take harsh measures against the Islamic militants.

In a nationally televised address, Kenyatta said his administration "shall respond in the severest ways possible" to the Garissa attack, which occurred Thursday when four gunmen entered a campus and slaughtered students. The military moved in hours later and the gunmen were killed.

"We will fight terrorism to the end," said Kenyatta. "I guarantee that my administration shall respond in the fiercest way possible."

Kenyatta said the country's "security forces are pursuing the remaining accomplices. We will bring all of them to justice ... We are also in active pursuit of the mastermind (of the Garissa attack) and have placed a reward for his capture," said Kenyatta, who declared 3 days of national mourning.

Five people have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the Garissa attack, a Kenyan official said.

Kenyan security agencies arrested three people trying to cross into Somalia, said Interior Ministry spokesman Mwenda Njoka in a Twitter post. He said the three are associates of Mohamed Mohamud, also known as Dulyadin Gamadhere, a former teacher at a Kenyan Madrassa Islamic school who authorities say coordinated the Garissa attack. Kenyan authorities have put a $220,000 bounty for information leading to Gamadhere's arrest.

Two other suspects were arrested at Garissa college.

A survivor of the killings at Garissa University College was found on Saturday, two days after the attack.

Cynthia Cheroitich, 19, told The Associated Press from her hospital gurney that she hid in a wardrobe and covered herself with clothes, refusing to emerge even when some of her classmates came out of hiding when demanded by the gunmen.

She was rescued shortly before 10 a.m., according to Kenyan officials.

Cheroitich said she didn't believe that rescuers urging her to come out of her hiding place were there to help, suspecting at first that they were militants.

"How do I know that you are the Kenyan police?" she said she asked them.

Only when Kenyan security forces had one of her teachers appeal to her did she come out, she said.

"I was just praying to my God," Cheroitich, a Christian, said of her ordeal.

Cheroitich appeared tired and thirsty, sipping on yoghurt and a soft drink, but otherwise seemed in good health.

She said she drank body lotion because she was so thirsty and hungry while in hiding.

Authorities displayed the bodies of the alleged attackers before about 2,000 people in a large open area in central Garissa. The bodies lay on the bed of a pickup truck that drove slowly past the crowd, which broke into a run in pursuit. Soldiers monitored the crowd. There was shouting and clouds of dust rose as the vehicle left the area.

Spectator Yusuf Mohamed applauded the display, saying authorities wanted to "win the hearts of the people" and clear any doubts that the attackers had been killed.

Kenyan authorities initially said the attackers had been strapped with explosives that went off like bombs when they were shot, but investigators later said there were no suicide vests. The four bodies shown Saturday had wounds but were intact.

The bodies of many of those killed in Garissa have been transported to the capital, Nairobi, where grieving family members gathered to view the remains.

Thirteen buses left Garissa Saturday afternoon carrying hundreds of students who survived the attack. The buses, under armed escort, took the survivors to their home areas, said officials. Three of the buses arrived in the capital Nairobi at night.

Black Indians: A Crossroads Between Different Civilizations. You/We are the "Indigenous" Indians of the Vast Lands by Van Stone frontpagenews1@yahoo.com (267) 293-9201

Black Indians:  A Crossroads Between Different Civilizations.  You/We are the "Indigenous" Indians of the Vast Lands by Van Stone frontpagenews1@yahoo.com (267) 293-9201

 

It is not known how many people lived in South America, Central America, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and even North America before Spain, Portugal (Germany), France, and England European civilizations arrived; it may have been millions of people.   Each of these families had their own separate civilizations-bloodlines identified as Black Peoples before the European arrival there.    
 
Almost half of the peoples of these vast lands, American Indians, Vikings (Danes), and Asians, tell of travels from the Eastern World to the Western World long before the Spanish, Portuguese (Germanic), French, and British arrived there.
 
The Real History of Black Peoples is left out so deliberately and harshly by empowered Europeans who traveled far away from their own lands that the average person who is living in Latin America, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and the USA cannot find it very easy to understand the facts about the different civilizations who actually still continue there in the Americas and parts of Asia today. 
 
Yet, yours truly, Van Stone, will help to make it very easy to understand the facts about who the different Black civilizations from the Eastern World to the Western World are because they are all still around today.
 
Your closest neighbor, most likely an individual or group who has a direct Latin America, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, or, North America civilizations family line most likely has experienced historic name calling by the Spanish, Portuguese (Germanic), French, and the United Kingdom of British. 
 
According to where yours and my family of Peoples were at, not where they were actually stolen from, or forced to migrate from, or traveled simply to explore from, Peoples of Color were name called either Indians, or Vikings (Danes), or Asians by the Spanish, Portuguese (Germanic), French, and United Kingdom  British people. 
 
Yes, even from the beginning of Native American (Indian) civilizations, Viking (Danes) civilizations, or Asian civilizations in both the Eastern Worlds and Western Worlds, peoples identified one another by the crossroads between facial features and complexion of their skin.
 
Therefore,people then as well as today weren’t understood to be a part of White civilization or land areas just because the complexion of their skin is white.
 
And the same goes for people then and today who weren’t understood to be a part of Black civilizations or land areas just because the complexion of their skin was black. People were identified by their civilization origin.
 
Today, so many many people worldwide incorrectly understand that if someone has white skin complexion that means that the person is a part of the White civilization.
 
The Europeans of Spain, Portugal (Germany), France, and the United Kingdom of British have white skin complexion.  And their civilization origin is very close to one another by the crossroads between facial features and complexion of their skin. They  basically had the same daily life skills and daily life practices.
 
Black People were identified as being Black by other people regardless of wherever Blacks had lived worldwide.  And Black People were identified as Black according to the land area origins they had established long before other people had arrived to where they were living.
 
Therefore if people’s origins were anywhere outside the boundaries of Spain, Portugal (Germany), France, and the United Kingdom of British, the European concluded that no other people were White people regardless of the complexion of their skin.              
 
In the beginning, European nations name-called a person of color - -meaning completely different skin complexions other than the European, an Indian, or Viking (Danes), or Asian. 
 
It was quite easy for the European to see that although the Viking skin complexion was as nearly white as theirs was, to them the Viking natural skin complexion was still very very different from the Europeans natural skin complexion. 
 
As for the Danes, the Danes skin complexion was not white at all. Still, the Danes whose skin complexion was black were fellow Vikings of the Scandinavia decent. 
 
Because the Danes, black skin complexion, traveled into European lands on separate occasions and had no planned connection to travel with the other Vikings, white skin complexion, the European wanted to identify both type of Vikings, as separate but equal civilizations.  Therefore, the Viking who had white skin was name-called “Viking" and the Dane who had black skin was name-called “Dane" by the European. So not to confuse anyone, the Vikings were not all white skin complexion peoples.   Most Viking legends exclude Blacks in the story. 
 
One Scandinavian civilization skin complexion was white and one Scandinavian civilization skin completion was black. But their facial features were mostly the same. And Scandinavia was never considered to be a part of Europe by Europeans or Scandinavians. 

The name-calling by the European nations wasn’t proof that Europeans were racist. 
 
It’s just that people were identified that way by the Europeans because any area of land that was vast and very very different from theirs meant that the other people were not the same as Europeans. And that’s all there was to that at the beginning.
 
Speaking of "in the beginning", Europeans concluded that a man who lived in Vik,(Dane), which were small land areas located in Scandinavia, is a King just the same as a man who lives in any European area is a King.
 
And the same goes for that man who lived in the country of India; the Europeans concluded that a man of India is a King. And the Europeans wanted to find a better way to travel to India by sea to get to the man of India and its King or Queen, if there was a Queen.   
 
Lots of times, a European who represented a European King or Queen traveled abroad searching for the country of India by sea.
 
The European didn’t have to search for the country of Norway, a land where the Vikings originated or the country of Denmark, a land where the Danes originated.  Norway and Denmark were so nearby to the Europeans land that many times the European land boundaries had ended where the land boundaries of their Viking and Dane neighbors began.
 
Often times in search of India the European would land on a vast new land and came to the conclusion that the land was India.  But the European hadn’t reached India at all.  The European could see that People had already been in the different vast land a long time ago before the European had landed.  The European was determined and decided to name-call the people on the different land an Indian anyway.
 
The European never bothered to correct him or herself about name-calling people who weren’t actually in the country of India Indians.  And therefore all peoples who are direct decedents of Latin America, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and North America are of Indian civilizations first and foremost long before they are of African civilizations. They are actually Black People or People of Color.           
 
Therefore, if you are well aware of your immediate family ancestry as much as I am well aware of mine, you are most likely an Indian and me too before you are an African as name-called by the European. So, if anyone of you dear readers didn't know, now you know. 

An individual or group wasn’t name-called African, by the Spanish, Portuguese (German), French, or the United Kingdom of British, unless the European nation of people just couldn’t figure out for themselves where in Africa that particular person of Africa place of origin was. 
 
Because Africa is so complex with many different neighboring civilizations throughout the continent unless people are first and foremost immediate direct decedents of Africa there is hardly any way to be identified as an African today. And this same truth goes for all other races and religious decendents.
 
And African civilizations are unique unlike others and people from Africa actually traveled abroad from the Eastern World to the Western World and back to the Eastern World many times long before the European were successful at doing something like that. 
 
Whenever the African civilizations traveled to Latin America, Southeast Asia, and North America for whatever reason they just didn’t return to African countries in large numbers.  The facts are that all of the European civilizations that traveled to Latin America, Southeast Asia, and North America regularly returned to European countries in large numbers. 

Latin American civilizations, Southeast Asia civilizations, and North American civilizations for whatever reason just remained in their land of origins in large numbers instead of traveling back to their very first homelands which is very very nearby the continent of Africa.

History shows that the past and present Black Women or Women of Color are very beautiful. And there are so many who are inter-related to one another because of the Native Indian history.     

And the Modern Native Indians who are from South America, Central America, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and North America share in the true Native Indian Ancestry to its completion. 

Black Indian Women may go from the Americas and all the way back to Vikings and Danes of Scandinavia and the Asians of Southeast Asia and Central Asia although they are rarely shown as such in legend tales. In fact, more research shows that Women of Color go further in decent touching lands that had people of color traveling through Europe and nearby Europe as well. 

These Women have a Queenly place in the Fashion and Beauty Collection of Van Stone regardless of the color of their skin or skin complexions.  It’s just important to express that women are beautiful and fashionable, and recognizable. And although there is much respect for Women's History Month in the USA, not one individual has to wait for Women's Celebration Month to express the modern Black Indian Woman.

Lower Moreland Teacher Sentenced To Prison For Sex With Teen Student

Lower Moreland Teacher Sentenced To Prison For Sex With Teen Student

 

Erica Ginnetti walks under a camera crew’s microphone cable after
her sentencing in Montgomery County Court.

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (CBS) — A former math teacher from Lower Moreland High School will spend some time behind bars after pleading guilty to having sex with a 17-year-old student she was tutoring nearly two years ago.

Judge Garrett Page told Erica Ginnetti he has hope for her and no doubt that she will continue to turn her life around.  But he told her that one bad day because of sexual hunger resulted in harm to two families.

For full story go to:  http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

Philadelphia Woman Charged With Trying To Join ISIS

Philadelphia Woman Charged With Trying To Join ISIS

 

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A Philadelphia woman faces charges of trying to join a terrorist organization, and was about to go overseas to act on her beliefs.

She made a brief court appearance Friday before a Federal Magistrate in Philadelphia.

The United States Attorney’s Office says 30-year-old Keonna Thomas, also known as Fatayat Al Khilafah, was ready to join, fight with and martyr herself on behalf of Islamic State of Iraq, also known as ISIL. She also referred to herself as the “Young Lioness.”

For full story go to:  http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

AP investigation prompts emergency rescue of 300 plus slaves

AP investigation prompts emergency rescue of 300 plus slaves 

Burmese fishermen raise their hands as they are asked who among them wants to go home at the compound of Pusaka Benjina Resources fishing company in Benjina, Aru Islands, Indonesia, Friday, April 3, 2015. Hundreds of foreign fishermen on Friday rushed at the chance to be rescued from the isolated island where an Associated Press report revealed slavery runs rampant in the industry. Indonesian officials investigating abuses offered to take them out of concern for the men's safety.

  

BENJINA, Indonesia (AP) -- At first the men filtered in by twos and threes, hearing whispers of a possible rescue.

Then, as the news rippled around the island, hundreds of weathered former and current slaves with long, greasy hair and tattoos streamed from their trawlers, down the hills, even out of the jungle, running toward what they had only dreamed of for years: Freedom."

I will go see my parents. They haven't heard from me, and I haven't heard from them since I left," said Win Win Ko, 42, beaming, his smile showing missing teeth. The captain on his fishing boat had kicked out four teeth with his military boots, he said, because Win was not moving fish fast enough from the deck to the hold below.

The Burmese men were among hundreds of migrant workers revealed in an Associated Press investigation to have been lured or tricked into leaving their countries and forced into catching fish for consumers around the world, including the United States. 

In response to the AP's findings, Indonesian government officials visited the island village of Benjina on Friday and found brutal conditions, down to an "enforcer" paid to beat men up. They offered immediate evacuation.

The officials first gave the invitation for protection just to a small group of men who talked openly about their abuse. But then Asep Burhanuddin, director general of Indonesia's Marine Resources and Fisheries Surveillance, said everybody was welcome, including those hiding in the forest because they were too scared to come out.

"They can all come," he said. "We don't want to leave a single person behind."

About 320 men took up the offer. Even as a downpour started, some dashed through the rain. They sprinted back to their boats, jumped over the rails and threw themselves through windows. They stuffed their meager belongings into plastic bags, small suitcases and day packs, and rushed back to the dock, not wanting to be left behind.

A small boat going from trawler to trawler to pick up men was soon loaded down.

Throughout the day and until darkness fell, they kept coming, more and more men, hugging, laughing, spilling onto the seven trawlers that were their ride out. Even just before the trawlers pushed off Benjina on the 24-hour trip to neighboring Tual island, fishermen were still running to the shore and clambering onto the vessels. Some were so sick and emaciated, they stumbled or had to be carried up the gang plank.

While excitement and relief flooded through many of the fishermen on the dock, others looked scared and unsure of what to expect next. Many complained they had no money to start over.

"I'm really happy, but I'm confused," said Nay Hla Win, 32. "I don't know what my future is in Myanmar."

Indonesian officials said security in Benjina is limited, with only two Navy officials stationed there to protect them. The men will be housed at a government compound while immigration is sorted out. Officials from Myanmar are set to visit the islands next week and will assist with locating other men and getting the ones freed from Benjina home.

The dramatic rescue came after a round of interviews Indonesian officials held with the fishermen, where they confirmed the abuse reported in the AP story, which included video of eight men locked in a cage and a slave graveyard. The men, mostly from Myanmar, talked of how they were beaten and shocked with Taser-like devices at sea, forced to work almost nonstop without clean water or proper food, paid little or nothing at all and prevented from going home.

There was essentially no way out: The island is so remote, there was no phone service until a cell tower was installed last month, and it is a difficult place to reach in the best of circumstances.

The abuse went even further at the hands of the man known as "the enforcer." This man, deeply feared and hated by the workers, was hired by their boat captains to punish them for misbehavior, they said.

Saw Eail Htoo and Myo Naing were among those he tormented. After three months at sea working with only two to four hours of sleep a night, the two Burmese slaves just wanted to rest. They fell asleep on the deck.

Their Thai captain decided to make an example of them, they said. So the two were driven by motorbike to a hill above the port. They were handcuffed together and placed in front of an Indonesian flag. Then they were punched in the face and kicked until they collapsed into the dirt, they said, blood oozing from their ripped faces.

Even then, the enforcer would not stop.

"He kept kicking me," said Naing, rail-thin with a military-style haircut. "I kept thinking, if I was at home, this wouldn't be happening."

The findings documented by Indonesian officials and the AP came in stark contrast to what a Thai delegation reported they saw during a visit to Benjina earlier this week. Their trip was focused only on finding Thai nationals who had been trafficked. They denied mistreatment on the boats and said the crews were all Thai, even though the AP found many migrant workers from other countries are issued fake documents with Thai names and addresses.

"We examined the boats and the crews, and the result is most of the crews are happy and a few of them are sick and willing to go home," said Thai police Lt. Gen. Saritchai Anekwiang, who was leading the delegation. 

"Generally, the boat conditions are good."

Thailand, the world's third-largest seafood exporter, has been under further pressure to clean up its industry since the AP's investigation, which used satellites to track fish caught by slaves on a large refrigerated cargo ship from Benjina to Thailand. The investigation linked the seafood to supply chains of some of America's largest supermarkets and retailers.

The report prompted the U.S. government and major seafood industry leaders to urge Thailand to end slavery at sea and to punish those responsible. Thailand's biggest seafood company, Thai Union Frozen Products, announced it was cutting ties with a supplier after determining it might be involved with forced labor and other abuses.

Last week, the International Organization for Migration said there could be as many as 4,000 foreign men, many trafficked or enslaved, who are stranded on islands surrounding Benjina following a fishing moratorium called by the Indonesian Fisheries Ministry to crack down on poaching. Indonesia has some of the world's richest fishing grounds, and the government estimates billions of dollars in seafood are stolen from its waters by foreign crews every year.

Three-quarters of the more than 320 migrant workers who left the island on Friday were Burmese, but about 50 from the country refused to go, saying they had not received their salaries and did not want leave without money.

Some were also from Cambodia and Laos. A few Thais were allowed to board the boats, but the Indonesians said Thai nationals could stay on Benjina more safely, since Thai captains were less likely to abuse them.

"I expected to evacuate all of them, but I did not expect it this soon," said Ida Kusuma, one of the leaders of the Fisheries Ministry delegation. "But I think it's good."

Police are investigating in Benjina and will decide whether to prosecute those involved in abuse, said Kedo Arya, head of Maluku province prosecutor's office. The Indonesian officials were told "the enforcer" was being detained.

For those like Naing, who recalled being tortured, beaten and locked in a room for a month and 17 days for simply falling asleep, the thought of finally leaving the island was impossible to believe.

"Is it real that we are going home?" he asked.

A firework soon shot off from one of the boats, signaling it was indeed time to go. The same trawlers where the fishermen had suffered years of abuse were heading back to sea. This time crowded with free men full of hope.    

State lacks evidence, frees man after 30 years on death row

State lacks evidence, frees man after 30 years on death row
 

Anthony Ray Hinton wipes away tears after greeting friends and relatives upon leaving the Jefferson County jail, Friday, April 3, 2015, in Birmingham, Ala. Hinton spent nearly 30 years on Alabama's death row, and was set free Friday after prosecutors told a judge they won't re-try him for the 1985 slayings of two fast-food managers.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) -- A man who spent nearly 30 years on Alabama's death row walked free Friday hours after prosecutors acknowledged that the only evidence they had against him couldn't prove he committed the crime.

Ray Hinton was 29 when he was arrested for two 1985 killings. Freed at age 58, with grey hair and a beard, he was embraced by his sobbing sisters, who said "thank you Jesus," as they wrapped their arms around him outside the Jefferson County Jail.

Prosecutors said this week that new ballistics tests couldn't match his mother's gun to any of the six bullets found at the crime scenes.

"I shouldn't have sat on death row for 30 years. All they had to do was test the gun," Hinton said.

The state of Alabama offered no immediate apology.

"When you think you are high and mighty and you are above the law, you don't have to answer to nobody. But I got news for them, everybody who played a part in sending me to death row, you will answer to God," Hinton said. "They just didn't take me from my family and friends. They had every intention of executing me for something I didn't do," Hinton said.

Hinton was arrested in 1985 for the murders of two Birmingham fast-food restaurant managers after the survivor of a third restaurant robbery identified Hinton as the gunman. Prosecution experts said at the trial that bullets recovered at all three crime scenes matched Hinton's mother's .38 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver. He was convicted despite an alibi: He had been at work inside a locked warehouse 15 minutes away during the third shooting.

"The only thing we've ever had to connect him to the two crimes here in Birmingham was the bullets matching the gun that was recovered from his home," Chief Deputy District Attorney John R. Bowers, Jr. told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that Hinton had "constitutionally deficient" representation at trial because his defense lawyer wrongly thought he had only $1,000 to hire a ballistics expert to rebut the state's case. The only expert willing to take the job at that price struggled so much under cross-examination that jurors chuckled at his responses.

Attorney Bryan Stevenson, who directs Alabama's Equal Justice Initiative, called it "a case study in what is wrong with our system. He was convicted because he was poor. We have a system that treats you better if you are rich and guilty than if you are poor and innocent."

The independent experts Stevenson hired to re-examine this evidence after taking on Hinton's case in 1999 "were quite unequivocal that this gun was not connected to these crimes," he said. "That's the real shame to me. What happened this week to get Mr. Hinton released could have happened at least 15 years ago."

Stevenson then tried in vain for years to persuade the state of Alabama to re-examine the evidence. The bullets only got a new look as prosecutors and defense lawyers tangled over a possible retrial following the Supreme Court ruling.

The result: Three forensics experts could not positively conclude whether the bullets were fired from Hinton's revolver, or whether they came from the same gun at all, according to the state's request to dismiss the case against Hinton. Bowers said the "bullets were so badly mutilated that they did not have the necessary microscopic markings to make a conclusive determination."

Asked how the state's conclusions could be so different this time, Bowers said they put the same question to the experts, who said test standards have become more "conservative."

"Some things back then that experts would be willing to attest to, they would not be willing to attest to now. They would need more now," he Bowers said.

The science of bullet matching remains the same as it was 30 years ago, even though microscopes have improved since then: A gun is test-fired and the bullet is compared with a slug from the crime scene. Problems can result mainly through human error, or when analysts aren't qualified, said Pete Gagliardi, a former ATF special agent in charge and vice president of Forensic Technology Inc.

Hinton was one of the longest-serving inmates on Alabama's death row, and is one of the longest-serving inmates to be released in the United States. But Stevenson said there are many others behind bars who were convicted "based on bad science."

"We've allowed too many people to assert things in court that are not credible or reliable, painted over with this kind of scientific expertise which means there could be a lot of wrongful convictions," Stevenson said.

Hinton left the jail for a cemetery, planning to put flowers on the grave of his mother, who died in 2002.

After that comes the adjustment to the modern world after spending nearly half of his life in solitary confinement.

"The world is a very different place than in what 30 years ago. There was no internet. There was no email. I gave him an iPhone this morning. He's completely mystified by that," Stevenson said.