International News in brief

 

Lighten drug-related charges

WASHINGTON, United States (AP):

With the United States facing massive overcrowding in its prisons, Attorney General Eric Holder is calling for major changes to the nation's criminal justice system that would scale back the use of harsh sentences for certain drug-related crimes.

In remarks prepared for delivery to the American Bar Association in San Francisco, Holder also favours diverting people convicted of low-level offences to drug treatment and community service programmes and expanding a prison programme to allow for release of some elderly, non-violent offenders.

Spy programme report may make visit difficult

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP):

United States Secretary of State John Kerry's attempts to build warmer relations with two US allies in Latin America may be hindered by resentment after reports about an American spy programme that widely targeted data in emails and telephone calls across the region.

Kerry is visiting Brazil and Colombia this week, his first trip to South America as the Obama administration's chief diplomat. It comes at a time that disclosures by National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden could chill talks on several fronts.

Sheriff's quick thinking helped in teen rescue

BOISE, Idaho (AP):

The highly publicised multistate search for a Southern California teenage girl probably would have taken longer if she and her abductor hadn't encountered a sharp-eyed retired sheriff and three others riding horseback in Idaho's rugged backcountry, authorities said.

The girl, 16-year-old Hannah Anderson, was rescued Saturday afternoon after the former sheriff passed along his suspicions, allowing investigators to focus efforts on a southwest corner of wilderness in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, a 3,600-square-mile roadless preserve in the heart of Idaho.

26 Palestinian prisoners to be released

JERUSALEM, Israel (AP):

Israel on Monday published the names of 26 Palestinian prisoners, most of them jailed for deadly attacks, who are to be released this week as part of a United States-brokered deal that led to a resumption of Mideast negotiations.

Israelis and Palestinians are to launch talks in Jerusalem on Wednesday, following a preparatory round two weeks ago in Washington. The prisoner release, expected Tuesday, is part of an agreement to restart the talks after a five-year freeze.

Family survives being lost at sea

PHOENIX (AP):

A northern Arizona family has survived being lost at sea for weeks after an ill-fated attempt to leave the United States over what they consider government interference in religion.

Hannah Gastonguay and her family will fly back home Sunday after taking their two small children and her father-in-law and setting sail from San Diego for the tiny island nation of Kiribati in May.

Weeks into their journey, the Gastonguays hit a series of storms that damaged their small boat, leaving them adrift for weeks, unable to make progress. They were eventually picked up by a Venezuelan fishing vessel, transferred to a Japanese cargo ship, and taken to Chile.

Minimal House support for US immigration

BEL AIR, Maryland (AP):

Immigration advocates are swarming the country this month, trying to persuade House Republicans to pass a comprehensive overhaul. It was hard to tell at the town-hall meeting that second-term Republican Andy Harris held recently in this town northeast of Baltimore.

The overflow crowd in the board of commissioners meeting room was overwhelmingly white and older and booed loudly when one audience member asked Harris to support a path to citizenship for immigrants who are in the US illegally.

Mexico proposes private firms in oil industry

MEXICO CITY (AP):

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto is making the most daring gamble yet of his eight-month-old presidency with a proposal to lift a decades-old ban on private companies investing in the state-run oil industry, a cornerstone of Mexico's national pride that's seen production plummet in recent decades.

The reform outlined Monday proposes profit-sharing with private companies, which is currently prohibited by the constitution.

Animal-welfare group vandalises Iowa butter cow

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP):

An animal welfare group intent on sending a message in support of veganism hid until closing time then poured red paint over the Iowa State Fair's butter cow. But the damage was quickly scraped away and visitors never knew the iconic sculpture had been damaged.

Iowans for Animal Liberation claimed responsibility for the attack in a news release emailed Sunday night, saying members hid in the cavernous Agriculture Building on Saturday night and emerged after the fair closed for the day. They then broke into a refrigerated room where the sculpted cow and other butter sculptures are displayed and poured red paint over the cow.

The words "Freedom for all" were scrawled on a display window.

'Whitey' Bulger guilty of gangland killings

BOSTON (AP):

James 'Whitey' Bulger, the feared Boston mob boss who became one of the nation's most-wanted fugitives, was convicted Monday in a string of 11 killings and other gangland crimes, many of them committed while he was said to be an FBI informant.

Bulger, 83, showed no reaction upon hearing the verdict, which brought to a close a case that not only transfixed the city with its grisly violence but exposed corruption inside the Boston FBI and an overly cozy relationship between the bureau and its underworld snitches.