Around the World: March 18, 2015

 

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia has called off the search for the remaining victims of the AirAsia plane crash in the Java Sea.

 

All 162 people aboard Airbus A320-200 died when it went down Dec. 28 while flying from Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city, to Singapore. So far, 106 bodies have been recovered, the last three last week from the underwater wreckage.

 

The operations director of the National Search and Rescue Agency says the final retrieval operations ended Tuesday night.

 

The main search and rescue operation had been called off March 3, but small-scale efforts continued for another two weeks at the request of the victims' families.

 

 

BEIRUT (AP) — The main Western-backed Syrian opposition group is calling on the United Nations to send a fact-finding mission to investigate an alleged poison gas attack on a rebel-held town.

 

The Syrian National Coalition and activists inside Syria say the government carried out a chlorine gas attack on the town of Sarmin in northwestern Syria late Monday, killing six people and leaving dozens more struggling to breathe. Syrian authorities deny the allegations.

 

Hisham Marwa, vice president of the Syrian National Coalition, called for an on-site UN investigation as soon as possible.

 

In a statement released late Tuesday, he also demanded that the Security Council enforce a recent resolution condemning the use of toxic chemicals such as chlorine in Syria. That measure also threatens military action in case of further violations.

 

 

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine are threatening to abandon a cease-fire following changes to a law granting their regions self-rule.

 

Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky said today that legislation giving areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions special status has been weakened by the amendments.

 

The leaders say they are willing to resume hostilities unless Ukraine relents.

 

A law on granting autonomy to eastern territories was approved by parliament Tuesday. Foremost among the rebels' objections is a requirement for elections — to be held under Ukrainian laws — to take place before the special status can come into effect.

 

More than 6,000 people have been killed since fighting broke out last April. Clashes have reduced substantially since a cease-fire was declared last month.

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is taking the battle over federal spending to Cleveland, a day after House Republicans released a $3.8 trillion budget plan.

 

Obama's message is that the House plan won't invest in "all the things that we need to grow," like education, infrastructure, research and national security.

 

He promises a "robust debate." Senate Republicans are to outline their budget plan today.

 

 

DENVER (AP) — The U.S. Army could today begin destroying the nation's largest remaining stockpile of chemical weapons.

 

The Defense Department has given the go-ahead to start eliminating 780,000 shells containing 2,600 tons of mustard agent at the Army's Pueblo Chemical Depot in southern Colorado.

 

A depot spokesman says work could begin today if the weather is favorable for moving the material from a storage bunker to an airtight structure where the first destruction will take place.

 

 

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese police are investigating phone calls threatening to kill U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy.

 

Authorities say Tokyo's metropolitan police are investigating the calls to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo.

They say the embassy had also received similar calls targeting Alfred Magleby, the consul general based on the southern island of Okinawa, home to about half of the 50,000 American troops based in Japan.

 

The embassy has declined to comment.

 

Japanese media reports said the death threats came last month from a caller speaking in English and that police were looking into the case on suspicion of blackmailing.

 

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — New government figures show that for the second consecutive year, the Obama administration more often than ever censored government files or outright denied access to them under the Freedom of Information law.

 

The government took longer to turn over files when it provided any. It refused a record number of times to turn over files quickly that might be especially newsworthy. It also acknowledged in nearly 1 in 3 cases that its decisions to withhold or censor records were improper under the law — but only when it was challenged.

 

The new figures cover requests to 100 agencies during fiscal 2014.

 

White House spokesman Josh Earnest says the Obama administration often releases records under the law and the government has a lot to brag about.

 

 

CHICAGO (AP) — A fraternity whose chapter at Oklahoma State University was kicked off campus for a racist video says it will announce an extensive review of its chapters around the country.

Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity says it will unveil Wednesday what it calls a "national plan to combat racial intolerance."

 

Last week a video surfaced showing University of Oklahoma fraternity members engaging in a racist chant that referenced lynching and indicated that black students never would be admitted to that university's chapter.

 

 

STOCKTON, Calif. (AP) — Police in Stockton, California say three people have now died following a shooting at a grocery store. Four other people were shot and wounded.

 

The Stockton Record reports a woman was found dead Tuesday night on the sidewalk outside the store and several people were found shot inside.

 

Police say two people died after arriving at a hospital.

 

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling Likud (lee-KOOD') Party has scored a resounding victory in the country's election.

 

With nearly all the votes counted Wednesday Likud appeared to have earned 30 out of parliament's 120 seats. Exit polls had shown a tight race with the opposition Zionist Union but it wound up with just 24 seats.

 

Netanyahu will now have a relatively easy time putting together a coalition government with right-wing and religious allies.

 

 

SREBRENICA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Serbia has made its first arrests of people suspected of carrying out the 1995 Srebrenica (sreh-breh-NEET'-sah) massacre of Bosnian Muslims, Europe's worst civilian slaughter since World War II.

 

Prosecutors say Serbian police have arrested seven men accused of taking part in the slaughter of more than 1,000 Muslims at a warehouse on the outskirts of Srebrenica.

 

Altogether, more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims were killed by Serbs in the Bosnian enclave.

 

 

NEW YORK (AP) — A U.S. Air Force veteran is due in court in New York today to answer to federal charges after being indicted for attempting to provide material support to a terrorist group and obstructing justice.

 

Prosecutors say Tairod Nathan Webster Pugh, an aviation mechanic, plotted to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State group.

 

Evidence against him is said to include a laptop with information on Turkey-Syria border crossing points.

 

 

BONNE TERRE, Mo. (AP) — Missouri has put to death its oldest death row inmate for the 1996 killing of a sheriff's deputy.

 

Seventy-four-year-old Cecil Clayton was last tonight after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a last-minute appeal.

 

Clayton's attorneys had argued that their client wasn't mentally fit to be put to death because he had dementia and lingering effects from a 1972 sawmill accident that forced surgeons to remove part of his brain.

 

 

NEW YORK (AP) — The first direct charter flights between New York City and Cuba are now taking off.

 

Cuba Travel Services has started offering a weekly Tuesday charter between John F. Kennedy International Airport and Havana. The flights are operated by Sun County Airlines, and cost $849 round-trip. The price includes airfare, Cuban medical insurance and U.S. departure taxes.

 

In January, the Obama administration announced it would be easing travel restrictions.

 

Despite improving relations, tourism is still banned. Travelers must still declare a purpose that fits into one of the 12 approved categories, including family visits, government work and journalism. But most visitors no longer need to apply for a special license and wait for U.S. government approval.

 

 

LONDON (AP) — The co-owners of a dog poisoned after appearing at Britain's premier dog show say they are "extremely disappointed" in the way the show's organizers handled events after the dog died.

 

The dog's breeders in Britain and Belgium acknowledged in a statement that the true facts surrounding the death of the Irish Setter, Jagger, may never be known. But they criticized the Kennel Club, the organizers of the Crufts show, for failing to help them with the "media circus that ensued."

 

Toxicology tests show Jagger was poisoned with a fast-acting insecticide. The dog died late March 6, a timeframe that rules out the possibility of poisoning at Crufts on March 5.