Around the World: March 30, 2015

 

 

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — A series of airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition have shaken Yemen's capital into the early morning amid the group's campaign against Shiite rebels and their allies.

 

The strikes Monday in Sanaa come as the rebels, also known as Houthis, pushed south toward the port city of Aden, Yemen's economic hub and the latest seat of power for those allied with embattled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. Hadi fled Yemen last week, sparking the airstrike campaign.

 

Monday marked the fifth day of the airstrike campaign against the Houthis and their allies, largely forces loyal to deposed leader Ali Abdullah Saleh. The strikes have targeted fighters, jets, air defense systems and Scud missile launch pads that could threaten Saudi Arabia.

 

 

MARSEILLE, France (AP) — A French police official says European investigators are focusing on the psychological state of the 27-year-old German co-pilot who deliberately smashed an Airbus carrying 150 people into an Alpine mountainside.

 

Returning Monday from a meeting with counterparts in Germany, judicial police investigator Jean-Pierre Michel told The Associated Press that authorities want to find out "what could have destabilized Andreas Lubitz, or driven him to such an act."

 

Lubitz was the co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525, which slammed into a mountain near Le Vernet, France, last week en route from Barcelona, Spain, to Duesseldorf, Germany.

 

Germanwings chief operating officer Oliver Wagner was meeting with relatives of the victims Monday in the southeastern French city of Marseille. He said a total of 325 family members have come to France.

 

 

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Negotiations over Iran's nuclear program entered a critical phase on Monday with differences still remaining less than two days before a deadline for the outline of an agreement.

 

With the March 31 target fast approaching, the top diplomats from the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, Germany and Iran were meeting to try to bridge remaining gaps and hammer out the framework deal that would be the basis for a final accord to be reached by the end of June.

 

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, have been meeting in the Swiss town of Lausanne since Thursday in an intense effort to reach a political understanding on terms that would curb Iran's nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.

 

Officials say the sides have made some progress, with Iran considering demands for further cuts to its uranium enrichment program but pushing back on how long it must limit technology it could use to make atomic arms. In addition to sticking points on research and development, differences remain on the timing and scope of sanctions removal, the officials said.

 

And, in a sign that a deal is unlikely on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will leave the talks, just a day after arriving, to return to Moscow for previously planned meetings, according to his spokeswoman Maria Zarakhova. Lavrov will return to Lausanne on Tuesday if there is a realistic chance for a deal, she said.

 

 

SANT CUGAT DEL VALLES, Spain (AP) — From a lush suburban valley near bustling Barcelona, three generations of a well-heeled family set off last week for a fun trip to Manchester, England: 12-year-old Emma Solera Pardo, her mother Emma Pardo Vidal, and grandmother Emma Vidal Bardan.

 

They were on their way to pick up the youngest Emma's teen brother as he finished a semester abroad to hone his English, do some sightseeing and then head home together.

 

But the Germanwings flight 9525 taking them to Duesseldorf for a connecting flight to Britain slammed into the French Alps. Prosecutors say co-pilot Andreas Lubitz locked the pilot out of the cockpit and aimed the aircraft down in an eight-minute descent until it hit the ground and disintegrated.

 

Juan Pardo Yanez — little Emma's grandfather, the father of her mother and the former husband of the eldest Emma — was virtually speechless after returning from a trip for relatives of the 150 crash victims to the accident zone in Seyne-Les-Alpes, France, where investigators working in a ravine were collecting small pieces of the plane and body parts ahead of a painstaking identification effort.

 

"There is nothing that can be done or could be said to me to change the loss of these three so dearly loved ones," Pardo Yanez told The Associated Press and other journalists outside a Barcelona crisis center set up for victims' relatives.

 

 

JERUSALEM (AP) — Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was convicted Monday of unlawfully accepting money from a U.S. supporter in a retrial on corruption charges, the latest chapter in the downfall of a man who only years earlier hoped to lead the country to a historic peace agreement with the Palestinians.

 

The conviction could land Olmert five years in prison, in addition to a six-year prison sentence he received last year in a separate bribery conviction, all but ensuring the former premier won't return to politics for many years to come.

 

"His behavior constitutes a breach of trust which harms the public, harms morality, and harms the public's trust, in how he behaved corruptly," prosecutor Uri Korev said following the verdict.

 

Olmert's lawyers said they would likely appeal the ruling by the Jerusalem District Court. A sentencing hearing is slated to take place in May.

 

Olmert has claimed he was on the brink of a historic agreement with the Palestinians when he was forced to resign in early 2009 amid corruption allegations. His departure cleared the way for hard-liner Benjamin Netanyahu's election, and subsequent peace efforts have not succeeded.

 

 

NEW YORK (AP) — Susan Bernardo trusted her stockbroker. She wound up losing a fortune.

 

Her broker, David Harris, advised her to sell $400,000 worth of relatively safe municipal bonds, she says, and sink the proceeds into real estate and energy partnerships in hopes of earning more income. She had received the money from a settlement after her husband died in an accident and needed it to raise her small son.

 

More than six years later, those investments are in trouble. The stream of interest payments she used for living expenses has mostly dried up and the value of her portfolio is half of what it was, according to a financial planner who helped her file a claim against the broker.

 

Bernardo says Harris never told her how risky the new investments were, or about the fat 5 percent commission that brokers typically get selling them. Harris hasn't returned calls seeking comment.

 

That her broker might not have acted in her best interest never occurred to her, until recently.

 

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — The intensive care unit is a last frontier for physical therapy: It's hard to exercise patients hooked to ventilators so they can breathe.

 

Some hospitals do manage to help critically ill patients stand or walk despite being tethered to life support. Now research that put sick mice on tiny treadmills shows why even a little activity may help speed recovery. It's work that supports more mobility in the ICU.

 

"I think we can do a better job of implementing early mobility therapies," said Dr. D. Clark Files of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, who led the research and whose hospital is trying to get more critically ill patients up, ventilator and all.

 

Hospitals have long nudged less critical patients out of bed, to prevent their muscles from wasting away. But over the past several years, studies in ICUs have shown that some of the sickest of the sick also could benefit — getting out of intensive care sooner, with fewer complications — once it's medically feasible for them to try.

 

This isn't just passively changing a patient's position. It could involve helping them sit on the side of the bed, do some arm exercises with an elastic band or in-bed cycling, or even walk a bit with nurses holding all the tubes and wires out of the way. It takes extra staff, and especially for patients breathing through tubes down their throats, it isn't clear how often it's attempted outside specialized centers.

 

 

HONG KONG (AP) — The president and CEO of The Associated Press called Monday for changes to international laws that would make it a war crime to kill journalists or take them hostage.

 

Gary Pruitt said a new framework is needed to protect journalists as they cover conflicts in which they are increasingly seen as targets by extremist groups.

 

"It used to be that when media wore PRESS emblazoned on their vest, or PRESS or MEDIA was on their vehicle, it gave them a degree of protection" because reporters were seen as independent civilians telling the story of the conflict, Pruitt said.

 

"But guess what: That labelling now is more likely to make them a target," he said in a speech at Hong Kong's Foreign Correspondents' Club.

 

Last year was a particularly deadly year for the AP -- four of the news cooperative's journalists were killed on assignment. Globally, 61 journalists were killed in the line of duty in 2014, bringing to more than 1,000 the number who have died since 1992, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

 

 

The iHeartRadio Music Awards should be called the iHeartTaylorSwift Awards.

 

The pop singer cleaned house at the show Sunday, winning artist of the year and song of the year for "Shake It Off," and even assisted Madonna by strumming her guitar onstage while the pop icon sang a new song.

 

"More than anything in the world, I just hope that any of the fans watching know how much I adore you ... we've gotten closer and closer with each year, not further apart," a glossy-eyed Swift said at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. "Like, you make me so happy."

 

The pop star also won best lyrics for her other hit song, "Blank Space."

 

Madonna, whose recent awards show performances were energetic and upbeat, toned it down when singing "Rebel Heart" while Swift played guitar next to her.

 

 

If you liked the look of last year's Final Four, you will love the 2015 edition.

 

One game — Kentucky vs. Wisconsin — is not only a matchup of two No. 1 seeds, it's a replay of last year's semifinal won by Kentucky, 74-73.

 

Seventh-seeded Michigan State will face Duke, a four-time national champion led by coach Mike Krzyzewski, who is in his 12th Final Four, tying the legendary John Wooden.

 

It is the fifth time at least three No. 1 seeds reached the Final Four. The only top-seed sweep was in 2008.

 

This is the third straight year one conference has had two teams in the Final Four with Wisconsin and Michigan State coming from the Big Ten. The Southeastern Conference did it last year with Kentucky and Florida and the Big East had Louisville and Syracuse in 2013.

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