Around the World: February 3, 2015

Here's what's happening across the United States and around the world today.

Fighters who escape Islamic State group caught between death if found and jail if they go home

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — The man stands furtively on a street corner, his face masked by a hoodie, his tense eyes scanning the crowd for any hint of Islamic State militants.

He was one of them before he left Syria a year ago, and he is afraid.

Now he chain-smokes as he describes the indiscriminate killing, the abuse of female recruits, the discomfort of a life where meals were little more than bread and cheese or oil. He recounts the knife held to his throat by fellow fighters who demanded he recite a particular Quranic verse on Islamic warfare to prove himself.

"It was totally different from what they said jihad would be like," said the man, Ghaith, who asked to be identified by his first name only for fear of being killed. Ghaith eventually surrendered to Syrian soldiers.

While foreigners from across the world have joined the Islamic State militant group, some find day-to-day life in Iraq or Syria much more austere and violent than they had expected. These disillusioned new recruits also soon discover that it is a lot harder to leave than to join. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the Islamic State group has killed 120 of its own members in the past six months, most of them foreign fighters hoping to return home.

Killing of hostages by Islamic State group highlight growing threats for more assertive Japan

TOKYO (AP) — The killing of two Japanese taken hostage by the Islamic State group has violently driven home the high stakes Japan faces and limited options it can muster in such circumstances.

It also offers a glimpse into how Japan is struggling to handle the rising menace of terrorism.

Until this crisis, Japan had not become directly embroiled in the fight against the militants, who now control about a third of both Syria and neighboring Iraq in a self-declared caliphate. Tokyo's backing for U.S.-led air strikes against the Islamic State group is confined to financial and humanitarian aid for refugees and other non-military support for countries affected by the conflict.

That proved no hindrance for the jihadis, and Japan is re-examining its response to the threat, both abroad and at home, mindful also of Tokyo's preparations for the 2020 Olympic Games.

Government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said Tuesday that the government convened a meeting on counterterrorism to review the situation.

Possible common ground in budget aftermath: Defense spending, public works, corporate taxes

WASHINGTON (AP) — There are reasons President Barack Obama and his aides will argue that his new budget can be the start of a negotiation with the Republican controlled Congress. For one, some of his proposals are thematically in the same sphere as those of the GOP. For another, he can block their initiatives.

Wielding a hockey stick given to him by the National Hockey League champions, the Los Angeles Kings, Obama on Monday bit his lower lip and swung. "This is even better than a veto pen," he declared just hours after sending his budget to Congress. "You don't want to mess with somebody who's got one of these."

No doubt Obama's ability to veto is a power that can be just as conducive to deals as it is to gridlock. But Obama's priorities and those of Republicans find overlapping common ground on proposals to increase defense spending, upgrade the nation's aging infrastructure and fix the corporate tax system.

Agreement on any one of those is a long shot; there are significant differences between Obama and Republicans over scale and scope in each of their intersecting interests. How far apart could begin to become evident Tuesday when Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and White House budget office director Shaun Donovan testify before key congressional committees about the president's budget.

Obama is also meeting with his Cabinet Tuesday, with the budget as a top agenda item.

Many middle-income families would see only small changes in tax bill under Obama's budget

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is proposing nearly $280 billion in tax cuts for low- and middle-income families, but not everyone will benefit.

Obama's proposed budget calls for a total of $1.5 trillion in new taxes over the next decade, mostly on corporations and high-income households. He would use much of that money to pay for targeted tax breaks for low- and middle-income families.

The proposed tax cuts would benefit households with two wage earners, families with young children in child care and those with older children in college. One proposal would automatically enroll workers in individual retirement accounts, unless they opt out. Another would extend the Earned Income Tax Credit to low-wage workers without children.

Obama calls his tax and spending plan "middle-class economics." But middle-income families that don't fit these categories won't see many changes in their taxes, according to an analysis by the Tax Policy Center, a research group formed by the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution.

For families making between $50,000 and $75,000 a year, about a quarter of them would get a tax cut, averaging $545, according to the analysis. About 6 percent would get a tax increase, and the rest — about 70 percent — would see no change in their tax bill.

Arctic temperatures following Northeast storm could cause dangerous, slippery roads

BOSTON (AP) — Forecasters from Philadelphia to Portland, Maine, have warned that "flash freezing" could make roads dangerously slippery a day after snow fell on much of the East Coast.

National Weather Service forecaster Bill Simpson in Massachusetts said Monday night the biggest concern was for areas where rain and slush ponded on roads before temperatures plunged. "They are going to have a pretty difficult time when that slush freezes," he said.

Arctic temperatures following the storm were expected to bring minus 20 degree wind chills in parts of Pennsylvania, New York and New England, and minus 35 degrees in pockets near the Canadian border.

Hezbollah at the crossroads: Thorn in Israel's side evolving into regional defender of Shiites

BEIRUT (AP) — Hezbollah's ambitions are spreading far beyond its Lebanon home as the militant Shiite movement appears increasingly bent on taking on Sunni foes across the Middle East. It has sent thousands of its fighters into Syria and senior military advisers to Iraq, helped Shiite rebels rise to power in Yemen and threatened Bahrain over its abuse of the Shiite majority.

But the regional aspirations also are taking a heavy toll and threatening to undermine Hezbollah's support at home. The group has suffered significant casualties, there is talk of becoming overstretched, and judging by the events of recent days, even a vague sense that the appetite for fighting the Israelis is waning.

In the recent confrontation, Israel struck first, purportedly destroying a Hezbollah unit near the front line of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Among the seven dead on Jan. 18 were an Iranian general, a top Hezbollah commander and the son of another former commander in chief. A heavy Hezbollah retaliation appeared inevitable.

Yet when it came last Wednesday, Hezbollah's revenge was relatively modest: two Israeli soldiers dead, seven wounded. The choice of location — a disputed piece of land excluded from a U.N. resolution that ended the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel — suggested to some that Hezbollah's mind remains focused on more distant fronts.

The Hezbollah leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, seemed to allude to criticism that Hezbollah's taste for foreign adventurism is weakening its appetite for fighting Israel. In his speech Friday, Nasrallah said Israel had incorrectly thought that "Hezbollah is busy, confused, weak and drained. ... The resistance is in full health, readiness, awareness, professionalism and courage."

Virgin Galactic turning corner after mishap, maintaining march toward space tourism

UPHAM, N.M. (AP) — The only thing interrupting the creosote and mesquite that makes up one of New Mexico's most remote stretches of desert is a pristine runway where Virgin Galactic plans one day to launch the world'sfirst commercial space-line.

In the four years since its completion, however, the runway has seen little use. No constant roar of jet engines. No screeches from landing gear. Just promises, year after year, that it would shuttle paying passengers to the edges of Earth.

Virgin Galactic had proclaimed 2015 was finally going to be the year. That was until the company's rocket-powered spacecraft broke apart over California's Mojave Desert during a test flight last fall, killing one pilot and igniting speculation about the future of commercial space tourism and Spaceport America.

Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides said things are on track now and testing will take off again this year.

"I really think we're turning the corner," Whitesides said. "We've gone through one of the toughest things a company can go through and we're still standing, and now we're really moving forward with pace."

Mother, girlfriend of man prosecutors say was murdered by Aaron Hernandez set to testify

FALL RIVER, Mass. (AP) — Testimony in the murder trial of ex-NFL star Aaron Hernandez is set to resume with the girlfriend and mother of the man Hernandez allegedly killed taking the stand.

Proceedings began last week but were suspended Monday when another snowstorm hit.

The former New England Patriots standout is accused of the June 2013 killing of Odin Lloyd, who was dating his fiancée's sister. On Friday, Lloyd's girlfriend, Shaneah Jenkins, testified that Lloyd and Hernandez were cordial but not close. She is expected to be back on the stand Tuesday.

Lloyd's mother, Ursula Ward, also is expected to testify. She was overcome with emotion and had to leave the courtroom twice last week when a prosecutor showed graphic photos of her 27-year-old son's body.

The trial resumes as Patriots fans celebrate the team's fourth Super Bowl victory. Hernandez, 25, had a $40 million contract with the Patriots when he was arrested.

Cuba publishes first photos of Fidel Castro in 5 months; former leader chats with student

HAVANA (AP) — Cuba has published the first photos of Fidel Castro in more than five months, showing the 88-year-old former leader engaged in what appears to be a lively conversation with a university student.

Nearly two dozen images were published virtually simultaneously on the websites of Cuba's main state media outlets around midnight Monday. In them, Castro is seated and discussing current events with the head of the main Cuban student union. A first-person account by student leader Randy Perdomo Garcia says the meeting took place on Jan. 23.

The photos are the first images of the revolutionary leader since a set of photos came out in August showing him talking with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Perdomo says in a lengthy article accompanying the photos that he and Castro met for more than three hours in the former leader's house after an event celebrating the 70th anniversary of Castro starting his studies at the University of Havana.

The student leader says Castro said that he is keeping abreast of the news and performing daily exercises, and he engaged Perdomo in a wide-ranging discussion of topics including international politics, agriculture, astronomy, and even Namibia's donation of animals to Cuba's National Zoo.

Ex-rap mogul Marion 'Suge' Knight to appear in court on murder, attempted murder charges

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Marion "Suge" Knight, the former hip-hop mogul now charged with murder, attempted murder and hit-and-run, is expected to appear in court Tuesday.

Prosecutors filed the charges against Knight on Monday, alleging he intended to run down a friend and another man after an argument on a movie set on Thursday.

He is scheduled to appear in court to be arraigned on four felony counts, which include murder in the death of 55-year-old Terry Carter, "attempted, willful, deliberate and premeditated murder" involving 51-year-old victim Cle "Bone" Sloan, plus two charges of hit-and-run.

Knight's attorney, James Blatt, says Knight accidentally ran over the men as he tried to escape a vicious attack. He turned himself in the following day.

Also Monday, Knight's $2 million bail was revoked after a court commissioner agreed with authorities that he was a potential flight risk and could intimidate witnesses.

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