WORLD_ AP News in Brief at 5:58 p.m. EDT

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AP News in Brief at 5:58 p.m. EDT

The Associated Press
March 15, 2015
Updated 11 minutes ago


Kerry says he'd be willing to negotiate with Syrian President Bashar Assad

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he would be willing to talk with Syrian President Bashar Assad to help broker a political resolution to the country's civil war.

Kerry said in an interview with CBS News that the U.S. is pushing for Assad to seriously discuss a transition strategy to help end Syria's four-year conflict, which has killed more than 220,000 people, given rise to the Islamic State group and destabilized the wider Middle East.

"We have to negotiate in the end," Kerry said. "What we're pushing for is to get him to come and do that, and it may require that there be increased pressure on him of various kinds."

The Obama administration has long pushed for a political settlement to the Syrian crisis, and helped bring the Assad government and the Western-backed opposition to the negotiating table in early 2014.

Those talks collapsed without making any headway, however, and there has been no serious effort as of yet to revive them.

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As Israelis prepare to vote, struggling Netanyahu puts legacy on the line in bid for 4th term

JERUSALEM (AP) — As Israelis prepare to vote in parliament elections on Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finds himself at a fateful crossroads: Make history or become history.

If Netanyahu can lead his Likud Party to victory and secure a fourth term in office, he will move closer to overtaking the nation's iconic founding father, David Ben-Gurion, as the longest-ever serving premier — and cementing a status as the dominant Israeli politician of the past two decades.

But if Likud stumbles and finds itself in the opposition — a real possibility, according to recent polls — the Netanyahu era could end with a resounding thud, concluding a career that many would say brought few major accomplishments beyond longevity. Iran and the international community seem headed toward a nuclear deal that Netanyahu abhors, and a resolution to the Palestinian issue seems as distant as ever.

"If he leaves office, he won't leave any dramatic changes," said Yoaz Hendel, a former aide to Netanyahu. In a turbulent region, one could say "this is the best thing to do," Hendel said.

The Israeli campaign is widely seen as a choice between two world views: Netanyahu's focus on Israel's many security challenges — he has long been a voice calling for zero tolerance of terrorism — or his opponents' focus on Israel's social problems and high cost of living. It also touches on his support for Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, which the opposition and the outside world detest.

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Family of wealthy eccentric thanks authorities for arresting him on LA murder warrant

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Robert Durst, a wealthy eccentric linked to two killings and his wife's disappearance, was arrested on a murder warrant just before Sunday's finale in a serial documentary about his life.

FBI agents arrested Durst Saturday at a New Orleans hotel, on a warrant from Los Angeles for the murder of Susan Berman in Hollywood 15 years ago, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said.

Durst ordered held without bond during a brief appearance Sunday pending another hearing set for Monday morning. His lawyer, Chip Lewis, said Durst will waive extradition and be transported to Los Angeles.

"He's maintained his innocence for years," Lewis said. "Nothing has changed."

But Durst's estranged family thanked authorities for tracking him down.

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University of Oklahoma not alone in dealing with race-related incidents involving fraternities

WASHINGTON (AP) — Their reputations sullied by race-tainted incidents, many colleges are clamping down on campus fraternities. Despite some swift and tough actions by schools — and in some cases, public humiliation — episodes such as the racist chants by members of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter at the University of Oklahoma keep surfacing.

In recent years, numerous other fraternities have been suspended and students expelled from school for racially tinged parties or behavior, such as hanging nooses or shouting racial profanities.

"All too often the outcry has been, 'Look at those bad apples we need to root out,'" said Nolan L. Cabrera, a professor in the Center for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Arizona. "When in fact the conversation we need to have is, 'Why is this occurring on such a widespread level throughout the country?'"

Many incidents come to light after the students themselves post pictures or videos online, drawing public attention; others are reported by onlookers or whistleblowers.

Either way, "it's hard to ignore a current on many, many campuses of behaviors that are just offensive and disgusting at the far end and maybe just lack common sense at the other end," said Kevin Kruger, president of NASPA: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, a professional organization.

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Prosecutor: Man charged with shooting 2 St. Louis-area officers said they weren't the target

CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) — A 20-year-old charged Sunday with shooting two police officers watching over a demonstration outside the Ferguson Police Department attended a protest there earlier that night but told investigators he wasn't targeting the officers, officials said.

St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch said Jeffrey Williams told authorities he was firing at someone with whom he was in a dispute, not at the police officers.

"We're not sure we completely buy that part of it," McCulloch said, adding that there might have been other people in the vehicle with Williams.

Williams is charged with two counts of first-degree assault, one count of firing a weapon from a vehicle and three counts of armed criminal action. McCulloch said the investigation is ongoing.

The officers were shot early Thursday as a crowd began to break up after a late-night demonstration that unfolded after Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson resigned in the wake of the scathing federal Justice Department report.

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US, Iran scramble for nuclear pact; officials suggest they may settle for lesser announcement

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — The United States and Iran plunged back into negotiation Sunday, hoping to end once and for all a decades-long standoff that has raised the specter of an Iranian nuclear arsenal, a new atomic arms race in the Middle East and even a U.S. or Israeli military intervention. Two weeks out from a deadline for a framework accord, some officials said the awesomeness of the diplomatic task meant negotiators would likely settle for an announcement that they've made enough progress to justify further talks.

Such a declaration would hardly satisfy American critics of the Obama administration's diplomatic outreach to Iran and hardliners in the Islamic Republic, whose rumblings have grown more vociferous and threatening as the parties have narrowed many of their differences. And, officially, the United States and its partners insist their eyes are on a much bigger prize: "A deal that would protect the world," Secretary of State John Kerry emphasized this weekend, "from the threat that a nuclear-armed Iran could pose."

Yet as Kerry arrived in Switzerland for several days of discussions with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, no one was promising the breakthrough. One diplomat said new differences surfaced only in the last negotiating round of what has been a 15-month process, including a sudden Iranian demand that a nuclear facility buried deep underground be allowed to keep hundreds of centrifuges that are used for enriching uranium — material that can be used in a nuclear warhead. Previously, the Iranians had accepted the plant would be transformed into one solely for scientific research, that diplomat and others have said.

The deal that had been taking shape would see Iran freeze its nuclear program for at least a decade, with restrictions then gradually lifted over a period of perhaps the following five years. Washington and other world powers would similarly scale back sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy in several phases. Iran says it is only interested in peaceful energy generation and medical research, but much of the world has suspected it of maintaining covert nuclear weapons ambitions. And the U.S. and its ally Israel have at various times threatened military action if Iran's program advances too far.

Speaking Sunday on CBS News, Kerry said most of the differences between Iran and the negotiating group of the U.S., Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia were "political," not technical. He didn't elaborate, but political matters tend to include levels of inspections, Iran's past military work linked to its nuclear program and how quickly to scale back sanctions. Technical matters refer, for example, to how many centrifuges Iran can maintain, what types of those machines and how much plutonium it would be allowed to produce from a planned heavy water reactor.

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Before the brackets come out on Selection Sunday, the real drama rests with UConn

Everyone knows where Kentucky will be when the brackets come out later Sunday.

For some real drama, keep an eye on UConn.

The Huskies (20-13) almost certainly have to win the American Athletic Conference final against SMU to get into the NCAA Tournament and earn a chance to defend their national title. If they do, they'll steal a spot that will otherwise go to an at-large bubble team.

"It's a scenario where we lose and we don't get a bid," coach Kevin Ollie said. "We feel not the pressure, but we feel the opportunity."

Kentucky, meanwhile, had long ago set itself up as the team to beat when the tournament opens Tuesday. The Wildcats (34-0) stayed undefeated by beating Arkansas 78-63 in the final of the Southeastern Conference tournament. Not that it would've mattered. They were slotted for the top seed in the tournament, win or lose. Coach John Calipari knows the seed is only a number.

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Saddam's tomb suffers extensive damage in fighting as Iraqi security forces battle for Tikrit

OUJA, Iraq (AP) — The tomb of Iraq's late dictator Saddam Hussein was virtually leveled in heavy clashes between militants from the Islamic State group and Iraqi security forces in a fight for control of the city of Tikrit.

Fighting intensified to the north and south of Saddam Hussein's hometown Sunday as Iraqi security forces vowed to reach the center of Tikrit within 48 hours. Associated Press video from the village of Ouja, just south of Tikrit, shows all that remains of Hussein's once-lavish tomb are the support columns that held up the roof.

Poster-sized pictures of the late Sunni dictator, which once covered the mausoleum, are now nowhere to be seen amid the mountains of concrete rubble. Instead, Shiite militia flags and photos of militia leaders mark the predominantly Sunni village, including that of Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the powerful Iranian general advising Iraqi Shiite militias on the battlefield.

"This is one of the areas where IS militants massed up the most because Saddam's grace is here," said Captain Yasser Nu'ma, an official with the Shiite militias, formerly known as the Popular Mobilization Forces. "The IS militants' set an ambush for us by planting bombs around the palace."

The extremist Islamic State group has controlled Tikrit since June, when it waged its lightening offensive that saw Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, come under their control. The group claimed in August that the tomb had been completely destroyed, but local officials said it was just ransacked and burned, but suffered only minor damage.

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Peril and promise of Clinton candidacy both on display in run-up to 2016 campaign's launch

WASHINGTON (AP) — All the peril and promise of Hillary Rodham Clinton's expected presidential campaign played out in high relief this past week.

In one hour, really.

There she was, in her element, enjoying a hero's welcome at a U.N. conference on women. Cellphone cameras snapped away as she spoke with passion of women's rights as the "great unfinished business of the 21st century."

And there she was, a half-hour later, in her own personal hell just down the hall, carefully fending off questions from reporters asking about secrecy, ethics and whether she had played by the rules as secretary of state in using a private email account and server.

"I fully complied with every rule that I was governed by," she insisted without apology, in a deja vu moment that revived memories of all too many Clinton dramas past.

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Putin says Russia was prepared to raise nuclear readiness as Crimea crisis simmered

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia was ready to bring its nuclear weapons into a state of alert during last year's tensions over the Crimean Peninsula and the overthrow of Ukraine's president, President Vladimir Putin said in remarks aired on Sunday.

Putin also expanded on a previous admission that the well-armed forces in unmarked uniforms who took control of Ukrainian military facilities in Crimea were Russian soldiers.

Putin's comments, in a documentary being shown on state TV, highlight the extent to which alarm spread in Russia in the weeks following Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's ouster in February 2014 after months of street protests that turned increasingly violent.

The documentary comes as speculation swirls about Putin's 10-day absence from public view. On Monday, he will meet with the president of Kyrgyzstan in an event covered by the news media, which would be his first appearance before journalists since March 5.

After Yanukovych fled Kiev, eventually surfacing in Russia, separatist sentiment soared in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula dominated by ethnic Russians.

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