Nation and World briefs for October 27

Police say they are poised to remove oil pipeline protesters

CANNON BALL, N.D. (AP) — Law enforcement officials said on Wednesday they are poised to remove about 200 protesters trying to halt the completion of the Dakota Access oil pipeline in North Dakota after the demonstrators refused to leave private land owned by the pipeline company.

Officers with county sheriff’s offices, the state Highway Patrol and the National Guard asked protesters to move off the site on Wednesday morning and were rebuffed. The authorities then left.

Cass County Sheriff Paul Laney later told reporters that authorities don’t want a confrontation but that the protesters “are not willing to bend.”

“We have the resources. We could go down there at any time,” he said. “We’re trying not to.”

Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said authorities would continue to try for a peaceful resolution but that “we are here to enforce the law as needed.”

Poll: Clinton appears on cusp of commanding victory

NEW YORK (AP) — Hillary Clinton appears on the cusp of a potentially commanding victory over Donald Trump, fueled by solid Democratic turnout in early voting, massive operational advantages and increasing enthusiasm among her supporters.

A new Associated Press-GfK poll released Wednesday finds the Democratic nominee has grabbed significant advantages over her Republican rival with just 12 days left before Election Day. Among them: consolidating the support of her party and even winning some Republicans.

“I’m going to pick Hillary at the top and pick Republican straight down the line,” said poll respondent William Goldstein, a 71-year-old from Long Island, New York, who voted for Mitt Romney in 2012. “I can’t vote for Trump.”

Overall, the poll shows Clinton leading Trump nationally by a staggering 14 percentage points among likely voters, 51-37. While that is one of her largest margins among recent national surveys, most show the former secretary of state with a substantial national lead over the billionaire businessman.

The AP-GfK poll finds that Clinton has secured the support of 90 percent of likely Democratic voters, and also has the backing of 15 percent of more moderate Republicans. Just 79 percent of all Republicans surveyed say they are voting for their party’s nominee.

Trump: I’ll run America like my business; Clinton: Let’s not

WASHINGTON (AP) — His presidential dreams increasingly in question, Donald Trump pushed his business empire to the center of his political campaign Wednesday. Taking a break from battleground states, he made the case at his newest hotel that all Americans should look to his corporate record for evidence of how well he’d run the country.

Hillary Clinton agreed, but not the way he meant it. She used campaign events in Florida to attack the GOP nominee for having “stiffed American workers,” saying he built his empire with Chinese-manufactured steel, overseas products and labor from immigrants in the country illegally.

“Donald Trump is the poster boy for everything wrong with our economy,” she told several thousand supporters in Tampa, Florida. “He refuses to pay workers and contractors.”

Trump’s political aspirations have long been deeply intertwined with promoting his corporate goals. He announced his campaign in the gilded lobby of Trump Tower in Manhattan and has held dozens of campaign events at his own properties. His remarks at his new Washington hotel, which has struggled to fill rooms amid the controversy surrounding his presidential bid, followed a visit Tuesday to his Doral golf course outside Miami.

“Under budget and ahead of schedule. So important. We don’t hear those words so often, but you will,” said Trump, linking the hotel redevelopment — just blocks from the White House — to his promised performance as president. “Today is a metaphor for what we can accomplish for this country.”

IS driving hundreds into Mosul, using them as human shields

QAYARA, Iraq (AP) — Islamic State militants have been going door to door in villages south of Mosul, ordering people at gunpoint on a mileslong trek into the city and using them as human shields as the extremists prepare to defend it from Iraqi forces, according to residents swept up in the forced evacuations.

Witnesses described scenes of chaos over the past week as hundreds of people were ordered out of their homes without having time to pack and driven north across the Ninevah plains toward the heavily-fortified city, where IS has been preparing for a climactic showdown.

“IS took all of us from our homes at gunpoint and told us they were taking us with them to Mosul,” Ahmed Bilal Harish told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “They said if you don’t come with us you’re an unbeliever.”

He said he and his family were only able to escape when a volley of airstrikes caused the fighters to scatter during the 25-mile (40-kilometer) forced march from their home in the town of Shura to Mosul.

“We had two choices: We could be killed by Daesh or die along the way, so we ran,” he said, using an Arabic acronym for IS. The family is now living in a camp for those displaced by the fighting in an area under government control.

French authorities declare the Calais migrant camp empty

CALAIS, France (AP) — The grim camp known as “the jungle,” a symbol of Europe’s failure to come to grips with its crisis over asylum seekers, is no more.

French authorities declared Wednesday they had cleared out the camp after most of its thousands of residents were driven away on buses — an evacuation accelerated because some of the frustrated, departing migrants set fire to parts of the burgeoning slum.

Smoke hung in the air as dusk fell, its stench a reminder of how one of the world’s wealthiest nations was unable to create order at the camp, where those fleeing war and poverty have lived in squalor for months or longer.

Most of the camp’s former residents, foiled in their bid to enter Britain despite reaching the port city of Calais on the edge of the English Channel, are being relocated to communities throughout France, where authorities have pledged to give them decent shelter and advice about how to seek asylum so they can stay in Europe rather than return to trouble spots in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Some refused the offer, however, preferring to take their chances trying to hop trucks heading to ferries crossing the English channel or on the speeding Eurostar trains that connect France to Britain via the nearby Eurotunnel.

Mass protest in Venezuela demanding end of ‘dictatorship

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Anti-government protesters jammed the streets of Venezuela’s capital on Wednesday on the heels of a decision by congress to open a political trial against President Nicolas Maduro, whose allies have blocked moves for a recall election.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators shut down Caracas’ main highway, and schools and shops were closed as protesters occupied other key points around the city to demand the ouster of Maduro, who many Venezuelans blame for triple-digit inflation and shortages of food, medicines and other basic goods.

Protesters also rallied in other major cities in what opposition leaders were calling “the takeover of Venezuela.”

“Maduro has shown how scared he is that the people will express themselves,” opposition leader Henrique Capriles said.

The protests come after electoral authorities blocked a recall campaign against the deeply unpopular president last week. The faceoff escalated on Tuesday when the opposition-led legislature voted to put Maduro on trial, accusing him of effectively staging a coup.

Pentagon suspends California National Guard bonus repayments

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon worked Wednesday to stave off a public relations nightmare, suspending efforts to force California National Guard troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan to repay their enlistment bonuses that may have been improperly awarded.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter ordered the suspension in the wake of angry reaction from congressional Republicans and Democrats. They demanded he relieve the burden on Guard members following news reports that soldiers were asked to repay bonuses that in some cases totaled more than $25,000.

The announcement does not end the reimbursement process, but postpones collection efforts while the Pentagon and Congress look for a long-term solution.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said President Barack Obama was pleased with the decision, but said it was important for the Pentagon “to follow through” by finding a long-term solution. Obama had warned the Defense Department earlier this week not to “nickel and dime” service members who were victims of wrongdoing by overzealous recruiters.

In a statement issued during a meeting of defense ministers in Brussels, Carter said efforts to collect reimbursement from Guard members should stop “as soon as is practical.” Carter said he has ordered the department to set up a streamlined process by Jan. 1 to help troops get relief from the repayment obligation, because the current program has moved too slowly.

2 quakes rattle Italy, crumbling buildings and causing panic

ROME (AP) — A pair of strong aftershocks shook central Italy late Wednesday, crumbling churches and buildings, knocking out power and sending panicked residents into the rain-drenched streets just two months after a powerful earthquake killed nearly 300 people.

One person was injured in the epicenter of Visso, where the rubble of collapsed buildings tumbled into the streets. But the Civil Protection agency, which initially reported two injured, had no other immediate reports of injuries or deaths.

The first quake carried a magnitude of 5.4, but the second one was eight times stronger at 6.1, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Because many residents had already left their homes after the first one struck at 7:10 p.m., with plans to spend the night in their cars or elsewhere, they weren’t home when the second one hit two hours later, possibly saving lives, news reports said.

“It was an unheard-of violence. Many houses collapsed,” Ussita Mayor Marco Rinaldi told Sky TG24. “The facade of the church collapsed. By now I have felt many earthquakes. This is the strongest of my life. It was something terrible.”

Rinaldo said two elderly people were rescued from their home, where they were trapped. He said they appeared to be in good condition. Some 200 people in Ussita will sleep in the streets, given the impossibility of putting up tents in the night.