WASHINGTON, D.C.
U.S. considers terror prison
Facility would combine detentions and trials within existing maximum- security prison
The Obama administration could transfer Guantanamo detainees to be tried and detained at a hybrid military-civilian prison in the United States as part of a proposal being examined by U.S. security agencies, officials said Sunday.
The proposal for creating a combined detention and trial facility for Guantanamo inmates in an existing U.S. maximum-security prison is likely to be controversial. Congress has opposed bringing detainees to the United States, despite President Barack Obama’s vow to close the naval prison in Cuba by January.
Officials at the White House, Justice Department and other agencies confirmed that the idea of a “courtroom within a detention facility” was being examined. But officials emphasized that other options are under consideration.
“No decisions have been made,” said White House spokesman Ben LaBolt.
The proposal was first reported Sunday by The Associated Press.
A spokesman at the Justice Department, which is leading the task force, also said that no decisions had been made about whether to establish such a facility or which existing federal prison might be used. An Obama administration official said the task force is expected to make its recommendations as early as this month.
U.S. officials hope to prosecute some of the 229 Guantanamo detainees in federal court and others before military commissions.
— Josh Meyer and Julian Barnes, Tribune Newspapers
ISRAEL
Families mourn, gays rally after shooting at youth center
Family members of Nir Katz — one of two people shot to death at a gay youth center Saturday in Tel Aviv — embrace at his funeral Sunday in Modiin. Members of the country’s gay community and their supporters rallied Sunday in Tel Aviv as police sought the assailant. “I fear that if the man who did this is not found, the consequences to the gay community might be far-reaching — they might live in fear,” said Arnon Hirsch, 47, who took part in the protest near the center attacked Saturday night.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Arms to Somalia to double
On a seven-nation tour of Africa this week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to pledge more U.S. assistance, including military aid, to Somalia’s shaky government as it fights for survival against Islamist extremists.
U.S. officials say the Obama administration plans to go ahead with additional weapons supplies to double an initial provision of 40 tons of arms. The U.S. also has begun a low-profile mission to help train Somali security forces in neighboring Djibouti, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivities surrounding the program.
Clinton will see Somalia’s beleaguered interim president, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, on Thursday in Kenya.
PAKISTAN
Troops patrol after riots
LAHORE — Paramilitary troops patrolled the streets of an eastern Pakistani city Sunday after eight Christians died in riots led by Muslims, according to police.
Hundreds of Muslims burned and looted Christian homes in the city of Gorja in a rampage sparked by allegations that a Quran had been defaced. Shooting broke out, and six people were killed, including a child and four women. Two men wounded by gunfire died in the hospital overnight.
Officials said the riots, which began Thursday but had calmed before flaring again Saturday, had been instigated by members of a banned extremist Muslim organization.
In Islamabad, authorities lodged a criminal case Sunday against Sufi Muhammad, a cleric who helped negotiate a failed peace deal with the Swat Valley Taliban, suggesting the government is determined not to negotiate again with the militants.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
New HIV strain found
A new strain of the virus that causes AIDS has been discovered in a woman from the African nation of Cameroon.
It appears to be closely related to a form of simian virus recently discovered in wild gorillas, researchers report in Monday’s edition of the journal Nature Medicine.
The finding “highlights the continuing need to watch closely for the emergence for new HIV variants, particularly in western central Africa,” said the researchers, led by Jean-Christophe Plantier of the University of Rouen, France.
MASSACHUSETTS
Gates jokes about arrest
CHILMARK — Black Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. on Sunday joked about his arrest by a white police officer, but also described receiving death threats and dreaming about being arrested at the White House.
In his first public appearance since sharing a beer at the White House on Thursday with the officer and President Barack Obama, Gates said the national debate over racial profiling sparked by his arrest shows that issues of class and race still run “profoundly deep” in the United States.
Gates was mostly light-hearted during his speech and even poked fun at himself after a man in the crowd told him he admired his sense of humor.
“I should have been funnier in the kitchen of my house on July 16,” he said.
But Gates also described how he had to shut down his public e-mail and change his cell phone number after receiving numerous death and bomb threats.
