Monday, August 20, 2007
hImmigration activist
is arrested in LA
LOS ANGELES — Elvira Arellano, an illegal immigrant who sought sanctuary in a Chicago church for a year to avoid deportation and separation from her 8-year-old American son, Saul, was arrested Sunday, the church’s pastor said.
Arellano was arrested before 3 p.m. outside Our Lady Queen of Angels church on LA’s historic Olvera Street where she had been speaking to reporters, said the Rev. Walter Coleman, pastor of Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago where she sought sanctuary.
The Rev. Mr. Coleman said he was with Arellano when she was detained, but declined to provide other details.
“We’re trying to determine her situation right now,” he said.
It was unclear what law enforcement agency had taken Arellano into custody.
A call to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was not immediately returned.
The 32-year-old Arellano arrived in Los Angeles on Saturday, leaving her sanctuary for the first time in a year to campaign for immigration reform.
Arellano has become a symbol of the struggles of illegal immigrant parents and a source of controversy. She had said Saturday she was not afraid of being taken into custody by immigration agents.
Israel says it will turn
away Darfur refugees
JERUSALEM — Israel said Sunday it will no longer allow refugees from Darfur to stay after they sneak across the border from Egypt, drawing criticism from those who say the Jewish state is morally obliged to offer sanctuary to people fleeing mass murder.
Israel has been grappling for months over how to deal with the swelling numbers of Africans, including some from Darfur, who have been crossing the porous desert border.
The number of migrants has shot up to as many as 50 a day, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, apparently as word of job opportunities in Israel has spread. The rise has led to concerns that the country could face a flood of African refugees if it doesn’t take a harsher stand on asylum seekers.
But Israel has not turned back refugees from Darfur until now, and last month Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said a limited number would even be allowed to remain in Israel. On Sunday, a government spokesman said all new asylum seekers would be sent back to Egypt, with no exception.
“The policy of returning back anyone who enters Israel illegally will pertain to everyone, including those from Darfur,” spokesman David Baker said. He offered no explanation for the change.
Death toll in bridge
collapse reaches 12
MINNEAPOLIS — The body of a man missing since an interstate bridge collapsed into the Mississippi River was recovered early Sunday, bringing the confirmed death toll to 12, authorities said.
The Hennepin County medical examiner’s office identified the remains as Scott Sathers, 30, of Maple Grove.
Sathers worked in enrollment services at Capella University and was on his way home from work, using his usual route, when the Interstate 35W bridge crumpled amid evening rush hour traffic Aug. 1.
Divers continued to search for the last person on the list of missing, Greg Jolstad, 45, of Mora.
A vehicle also was pulled from the rubble Sunday. Bad weather Saturday had hampered recovery efforts at the site.
Canada to assert claim
in talks with Bush
MONTEBELLO, Quebec — Canada’s prime minister is expected to assert his nation’s claim to the fabled Northwest Passage through the warming, resource-rich Arctic at talks with President Bush starting today.
Canada claimed the passage in 1973 but competition to control the Arctic has intensified with global warming. Shrinking polar ice has raised the possibility of new shipping lanes and development of what one U.S. study suggested could be as much as 25 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil and gas.
The summit involving is largely about expanding economic cooperation among the three nations, but Harper will assert Canada’s claim during a private meeting with Bush, Canadian officials said at a press briefing on the summit.
Associated Press