FBI agents investigated for shots fired during standoff ADVERTISING FBI agents investigated for shots fired during standoff PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — FBI agents involved in the traffic stop that led to the killing of one of the armed occupiers of
FBI agents investigated for shots fired during standoff
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — FBI agents involved in the traffic stop that led to the killing of one of the armed occupiers of an Oregon wildlife refuge are under investigation for not disclosing they fired shots that missed Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, authorities said Tuesday.
Oregon State Police fired the three rounds that killed the Arizona rancher during a confrontation with authorities on a remote road, Oregon law enforcement officials said at a news conference in Bend.
But the results of an independent investigation by Oregon authorities found the troopers were justified in shooting Finicum because he failed to heed their commands and repeatedly reached for his weapon, Malheur County District Attorney Dan Norris said.
The investigators discovered members of an FBI hostage rescue team who were at the scene failed to disclose they fired two rounds.
As they looked into how many shots were fired during the confrontation and by whom, the investigators found a round in the roof of Finicum’s truck.
WHO: Sexual transmission of Zika more common than thought
GENEVA (AP) — Sexual transmission of the Zika virus is more common than previously thought, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, citing reports from several countries.
After a meeting of its emergency committee on Tuesday, the U.N. health agency also said there is increasing evidence that a spike in disturbing birth defects and neurological problems are caused by Zika, which is mostly spread by mosquito bites. When WHO declared the explosive outbreak in the Americas to be a global emergency last month, it said that the evidence that Zika was responsible was only circumstantial.
WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan said “reports and investigations in several countries strongly suggest that sexual transmission of the virus is more common than previously assumed.” The U.S. is investigating more than a dozen possible cases of Zika in people who may have been infected through sex.
Dr. Bruce Aylward, who is directing WHO’s response to Zika, said the cases seen so far of sexual transmission of Zika have been from men to women. He doubted sex would play an important role in the disease’s spread.
“The mosquito is undoubtedly still the main driver of transmission,” he said.
Pre-paid card users, under scrutiny, find tax refunds frozen
PHOENIX (AP) — Thousands of people have had their prepaid debit cards frozen when they try to direct their tax refund to their accounts, a result of financial industry efforts to combat an escalation in tax fraud.
It’s keeping people from their money, and delaying access to much-anticipated tax refunds. People who rely on prepaid debit card accounts are often poorer Americans who don’t have traditional bank accounts.
Shannon King had her money frozen for two weeks. She had planned to use it for car repairs and to help pay for a move, both of which then had to be delayed. “It was very frustrating,” King said.
King has a Wal-Mart MoneyCard, which is run by Green Dot. She said after her refund was deposited, Green Dot froze the card and asked her to send a picture of her Tennessee state identification card to verify the account. The process to release the money took more than two weeks, she had to submit photos of her ID a number of times — Green Dot said they weren’t readable — and she says she spent hours on the phone with customer service agents to resolve the problem.
The Associated Press reviewed documents sent to Green Dot by King, including her ID picture, and they appeared clear.
Despair, confusion in Greece as refugees face closed border
IDOMENI, Greece (AP) — Despair and confusion spread through the camp at the Greek-Macedonian border Tuesday as thousands of stranded refugees were forced to acknowledge that the route through Europe that had carried their hopes and dreams was now shut.
The dozens of people crammed together at the front of the line to the border crossing looked at the closed gate and razor wire in disbelief. One young Syrian muttered he had been in the tent at the crossing for five days without sleeping. It was his 15th day at the Idomeni refugee camp.
One woman broke down, crying and screaming as she held her baby in her arms while a man tried to calm and comfort her. Refugees asked reporters what had happened in Brussels, and asked what they could or should do next.
European Union leaders who held a summit with Turkey said early Tuesday they hoped they had reached the outlines for a possible deal with Ankara to return thousands of migrants to Turkey, and said they were confident a full agreement could be reached at a summit next week.
They also said the “irregular flows of migrants along the Western Balkans route have now come to an end.”
Despite US airstrikes, Somali extremist group still active
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — By U.S. accounts, it was a devastating airstrike against Islamic militants in Somalia, with more than 150 fighters killed in a training camp. But the weekend attack probably won’t diminish al-Shabab’s ability to continue a wave of bloodshed.
African Union ground forces succeeded in ousting al-Shabab fighters from Somalia’s capital in 2011 and protecting the weak government. Since then, however, they have been unable to stop other violence: assaults on AU forces, including one that killed up to 200 Kenyan soldiers in January, frequent suicide attacks on civilians in Mogadishu, and an unsuccessful attempt last month to bring down an airliner with a bomb.
The forested military training camp, located 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of Mogadishu, was al-Shabab’s main planning base, a Somali intelligence official said Tuesday.
Somalia’s intelligence service cooperated with the U.S. in its airstrike, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to the media on this matter.
U.S. forces had been watching Raso Camp for several weeks, said Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman. It appeared that their training was ending and the operational phase of a suspected attack against African or U.S. personnel was about to start, he said.
Biden arrives in Israel amid rash in Palestinian attacks
JERUSALEM (AP) — Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Israel on Tuesday for a two-day visit that is to include meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders as Palestinians unleashed a wave of attacks that killed an American tourist near where Biden was visiting and wounded a dozen Israelis.
The American man, who was not identified by name, was killed in a stabbing spree in the port city of Jaffa in which a Palestinian attacker also wounded six Israelis before he was shot and killed by Israeli forces.
The attack took place as Biden was meeting with former Israeli President Shimon Peres nearby, at the Peres Center for Peace in Jaffa.
It was the latest bloodshed in more than five months of near-daily Palestinian assaults on Israeli civilians and security forces that show no sign of abating. Along with the Jaffa assailant, three other Palestinian attackers in Tuesday’s assaults were shot and killed by Israeli security forces.
“I notified the vice president on the terrible incident that took place just a few hundred meters away from here in Jaffa,” Peres said, standing next to Biden. “Terror leads to nowhere.”
