EU sets six-month deadline to rule on border guard plan
EU sets six-month deadline to rule on border guard plan
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders on Thursday set a six-month deadline for deciding whether to push ahead with plans for a border guard agency that could deploy to member states unable or unwilling to manage their borders as thousands of migrants continue to arrive in Europe daily.
The border and coast guard project is chiefly aimed at protecting Europe’s external borders in countries like Greece and Italy as people fleeing conflict or poverty for better lives in Europe overwhelm coast guards and reception facilities.
In a statement released during their summit in Brussels, the leaders tasked EU ministers to “rapidly examine” the scheme and to rule on its future by June 30 at the latest, side-stepping a potentially divisive debate on Thursday over the issue.
While the leaders note that “it is indispensable to regain control over the external borders” of Europe, the idea that the agency could send personnel, ships or planes to a country even if that nation opposes the deployment is reviving old fears about a loss of national sovereignty to unelected officials in Brussels.
Countries farther north in Europe like Germany and Sweden — the preferred destinations of many migrants — are particularly keen to have tighter controls along Greece’s twisting maritime border with Turkey to ease the flow of people, as is France.
Buyer of guns used in massacre charged with terrorism counts
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The man who bought the assault rifles used by his friend in the San Bernardino massacre was charged Thursday with terrorism-related counts.
The FBI arrested Enrique Marquez, 24, on charges of conspiring with Syed Rizwan Farook to commit terrorist attacks in 2011 and 2012 that they never carried out. Marquez was Farook’s next-door neighbor and longtime friend who converted to Islam and was radicalized by Farook, federal prosecutors said.
Marquez also was charged with illegally purchasing two assault rifles used by Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, to kill 14 people at a holiday gathering of Farook’s health department co-workers on Dec. 2. The shooters died hours later in a gunbattle with police.
Marquez had no role in the attack, but prosecutors said the guns and bomb-making materials he bought that the couple planned to detonate linked him to the killings.
“While there currently is no evidence that Mr. Marquez participated in the Dec. 2 attack or had advance knowledge of it, his prior purchase of the firearms and ongoing failure to warn authorities about Farook’s intent to commit mass murder had fatal consequences,” U.S. Attorney Eileen Decker said.
House OKs tax-cut package, first leg of year-end budget deal
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans overwhelmed divided Democrats to whisk tax breaks for businesses, families and special interests through the House on Thursday as Congress sped toward final votes on a year-crowning budget accord that will also bankroll the government in 2016.
The tax measure, approved 318-109, includes political coups for both parties. More than 50 expiring tax cuts will be extended with more than 20 becoming permanent, including credits for companies’ expenditures for research and equipment purchases and reductions for lower-earning families and households with children and college students.
“Finally with this tax bill, families and businesses are going to have the long-term certainty that they need instead of scrambling year after year to find out what’s next,” declared House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
Ryan, who just six weeks ago succeeded the deposed former Speaker John Boehner, all but claimed the bill’s passage as a personal triumph, citing it as an example of his drive “to get our House back on track.” The Senate aimed to approve the tax bill Friday.
Both chambers also planned Friday votes on the second leg of the budget compromise, a $1.1 trillion measure financing government, after which Congress was ready to adjourn until January.
Syria activists in hiding after Islamic State killing
ISTANBUL (AP) — The killing of the young Syrian activist took place close enough to his home in southern Turkey that his youngest brother heard his piercing scream. Ibrahim Abdelqader’s attackers stabbed him dozens of times and left his partially decapitated corpse hanging from a doorframe.
His family and colleagues say he was killed by a secret operative from the Islamic State group who befriended him before the attack. The message from IS was clear: Its enemies are not safe, even across borders.
More than a month after the slaying of Abdelqader and his friend Fares Hamadi, the media collective that Abdelqader belonged to — which secretly documents life at the heart of the Islamic State group’s self-proclaimed caliphate — has been forced into deep hiding.
IS claimed responsibility for the killings in a video message warning that “every apostate will be slaughtered silently.” It was a grim riff on the media collective’s name — Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, a reference to the Syrian city of Raqqa that has become synonymous with IS and its efforts to build a caliphate.
Last month, the activist media group received the 2015 Committee to Protect Journalists’ International Press Freedom Award for its work in one of the most terrifying cities of the world, monitoring IS and countering its steady stream of propaganda with factual accounts.
Putin praises Donald Trump as ‘bright and talented’
MOSCOW (AP) — In Vladimir Putin’s view, Donald Trump is “bright and talented.” But as much as those words sound overtly like praise, there are some murky nuances.
The most unequivocally favorable part of the comments the Russian leader made Thursday to a scrum of reporters after his annual year-end news conference was about the Republican presidential aspirant’s claims that he wants to improve relations with Russia.
“He says that he wants to move to another, closer level of relations. Can we really not welcome that? Of course we welcome that,” Putin said.
Trump hasn’t given details about he would go about achieving that, relying instead on his fireproof self-regard.
“I think that I would probably get along with him very well,” Trump said in an October interview with CBS.
Carter admits improper use of personal email account
IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter acknowledged on Thursday he sometimes used a personal, unsecured email account to conduct official business after he took office in February, a practice he called “entirely my mistake.”
His admission followed a New York Times report revealing that he continued the practice even after Hillary Clinton triggered a wave of criticism in March for using a private email account to conduct government business while she was secretary of state. The FBI and several congressional committees are investigating Clinton.
Presidential chief of staff Denis McDonough found out in May about Carter’s emailing and, through White House counsel, expressed concern to Pentagon lawyers, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. Carter nonetheless persisted, telling reporters Thursday that he ended the practice “a few months ago.”
Carter said he did not use his phone for classified information. The Defense Department said all his messages, which appeared to be largely about meetings and speeches, were backed up for record keeping on the department’s email system.
Earnest made clear that Carter had erred in his email practices, but he said the consequences did not seem significant. He said the Pentagon had expressed willingness to cooperate with congressional inquiries.