Nation and World briefs for April 3

Israel in deal to resettle Africa migrants, then backtracks

JERUSALEM — Israel announced a deal with the U.N. on Monday to resettle African migrants in Western nations, but hours later put the agreement on hold.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had announced the deal on national TV, saying Israel agreed to cancel the planned expulsion of tens of thousands of African migrants. He said the deal with the United Nations called for sending half of them to Western nations and allowing the rest to remain in Israel.

Late Monday, Netanyahu said he was “suspending” the deal in order to discuss the arrangement Tuesday with Israeli residents of south Tel Aviv areas with large migrant populations.

“After meeting with the representatives I will re-examine the agreement again,” he said.

Under the deal, roughly half of the 35,000 migrants living in Israel would be resettled in the West. But the rest would stay in Israel.

Most in Cosby jury pool have made up minds, know of #MeToo

NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Prosecutors and the defense began the difficult task of picking a jury for Bill Cosby’s sexual assault retrial Monday amid a powerful #MeToo movement that has pierced the consciousness of the men and women who will sit in judgment of the 80-year-old comedian.

All but one of the 120 potential jurors who answered questions about their background and views told a judge they had heard or seen something about #MeToo, the cultural campaign that’s been exposing sexual misconduct in the entertainment and news industries.

Jury selection got off to an exceedingly slow start, with a single juror seated and three-quarters of the pool dismissed for cause — primarily because the prospective jurors already had formed an opinion about Cosby’s guilt or innocence. In contrast, five jurors were picked on opening day of Cosby’s first trial.

Cosby is charged with drugging and sexually molesting a Temple University women’s basketball administrator at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. He says the sexual encounter with Andrea Constand was consensual. His last trial ended in a hung jury.

The former TV star once known as “America’s Dad” for his portrayal of kindly Dr. Cliff Huxtable on his NBC hit “The Cosby Show” was in the courtroom as jury selection got underway.

S Africa to give state burial to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

JOHANNESBURG — Nelson Mandela’s ex-wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, an anti-apartheid activist in her own right whose reputation was sullied by scandal, has died. She was 81.

Madikizela-Mandela will be honored by a state funeral on April 14, preceded by an official memorial service on April 11, said President Cyril Ramaphosa after visiting her home in Johannesburg’s Soweto township Monday evening.

Ramaphosa described Madikizela-Mandela in a televised tribute as a “champion of justice and equality” and a “voice for the voiceless.”

The woman many South Africans have described as the “Mother of the Nation” and a champion of the black majority, died “surrounded by her family and loved ones,” according to a statement released by Madikizela-Mandela’s family.

Madikizela-Mandela was the second of Mandela’s three wives, married to him from 1958 to 1996.

Mandela, who died in 2013, was imprisoned throughout most of their marriage, and Madikizela-Mandela’s own activism against white minority rule led to her being jailed for months and placed under house arrest for years.

“She kept the memory of her imprisoned husband Nelson Mandela alive during his years on Robben Island and helped give the struggle for justice in South Africa one of its most recognizable faces,” the family said.

However, Madikizela-Mandela’s political activism was marred by her conviction in 1991 for kidnapping and assault, for which she was fined. She faced these allegations again during the 1997 hearings before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a panel that investigated apartheid-era crimes.

As a parliamentarian after South Africa’s first all-race elections, she was convicted of fraud.

Still, Madikizela-Mandela remained a venerated figure in the ruling African National Congress, which has led South Africa since the end of apartheid in 1994.

Syrian rebels begin evacuating last stronghold near Damascus

BEIRUT — Syrian state media said Monday that the largest rebel group in the suburbs of Damascus has begun evacuating its last stronghold after seven years of war, but the rebels refused to say whether they had surrendered, and it was unclear who was on board a dozen buses seen leaving the town.

Residents trapped inside Douma expressed fear that further foot-dragging could provoke another major government offensive, like the one that killed an estimated 1,600 people across the eastern Ghouta suburbs in February and March.

“We don’t know what our choices are, we don’t know what’s in store for us,” said local media activist Haitham Bakkar.

Douma was one of the earliest hubs of the Arab Spring uprising against President Bashar Assad that swept through the country in 2011. Just 11 kilometers (7 miles) from the Old City of Damascus, it was part of the capital’s Ghouta hinterland, once famed for its orchards and produce. The government responded to the protests by putting Douma and other suburbs around Damascus under siege, bombing hospitals and residential areas, and blocking the entry of food and medical relief.

On Monday, more than 600 people evacuated the town on buses sent by the government and the Syrian Red Crescent to take them to Jarablus, a northern Syrian town controlled by Turkish troops and allied Syrian forces.

Deadspin video illustrates Sinclair stations’ messaging

NEW YORK — A video with dozens of news anchors reading a script about “fake stories” put in stark visual terms what for weeks had largely been an academic debate about media consolidation and the Sinclair Broadcast Group’s efforts to promote a consistent message across its stations.

The 98-second video, posted on Deadspin Saturday, has already been viewed by millions of people and provoked a tweet by President Donald Trump supporting the corporation on Monday.

Sinclair owns nearly 200 local stations and had ordered its anchors to read a statement expressing concern about “the troubling trend of irresponsible, one-sided news stories plaguing the country.” Some outlets publish these “fake stories” without checking facts first and some people in the media push their own biases, the statement said.

The anchors give no specific examples. Sinclair, whose corporate leadership leans right, uses terminology familiar to Trump and his criticisms of “fake news.” In the message, the anchors say they “work very hard to seek the truth and strive to be fair, balanced and factual.”

Timothy Burke, a video editor at Deadspin, said he read a CNN story last month about the script being sent to local stations and contacted a media monitoring service to collect examples of the statement being read on the air. After receiving more than 50, he fashioned them into a video that shows anchors reading different portions of the text, either simultaneously or one after the other.

Kathy Griffin warns that her nightmare ‘can happen to you’

LOS ANGELES — Kathy Griffin says she hopes to make her U.S. comeback by laughing about the disturbing photograph that got her in hot water with the feds and almost killed her career. But she also has this warning amid the jokes: “If it happened to me it can happen to you.”

Griffin is embarking this summer on a North American tour that kicks off a year after she was widely condemned for posing for a picture in which she gripped a bloodied rendering of President Donald Trump’s head. Ten months on, she is unbowed.

“I’m the same girl I’ve always been — just a hardworking, obnoxious, red-haired comedy girl. The whole time I’ve been consistent in just trying to make you laugh,” she told The Associated Press. “Am I shocking sometimes? For sure. Do I go too far? I hope so. That’s my job.”

The “Suddenly Susan” and “Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List” star lost income, received death threats, was denounced by Trump, landed on an Interpol criminal list and was afraid to leave her home. She said she was under investigation by the Department of Justice for two months.

“It shouldn’t happen to an American citizen,” she said. Griffin said she understands if people don’t like the photo, but it is protected speech. “If there’s one amendment I’m familiar with it’s the First Amendment. I know it back and forth and it’s how I make my living.”