McCain updates case in Egypt
McCain updates case in Egypt
CAIRO
Sen. John McCain said Monday that Egypt’s military rulers have reassured him that authorities are working “diligently” to resolve a criminal case against U.S. pro-democracy groups that has brought relations between the two allies to their lowest point in decades.
As part of a crackdown on nonprofit organizations, Egyptian authorities have referred 16 Americans and 27 others to trial on charges that include the illegal use of foreign funds, expected to begin Sunday. McCain chairs one of the four American groups targeted.
McCain didn’t elaborate on how the case may be resolved. He had met earlier in Cairo with the country’s military ruler, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi.
N. Korea doesn’t carry out threat
SEOUL, South Korea
South Korea conducted live-fire military drills near its disputed sea boundary with North Korea on Monday despite Pyongyang’s threat to respond with a “merciless” attack.
North Korea did not carry out the threat as it focuses on internal stability two months after the death of longtime leader Kim Jong Il and prepares for nuclear disarmament talks with the United States later this week. But with American forces scheduled to conduct additional military exercises with ally South Korea over the next few months, tensions are expected to remain high in the region.
Washington and North Korea’s neighbors are closely watching how new leader Kim Jong Un, Kim Jong Il’s son, navigates strained ties with rival South Korea, the planned U.S.-South Korean military drills and a long-running standoff over the country’s nuclear-weapons programs.
Gunmen attack polling stations
SAN’A, Yemen
Gunmen attacked three polling stations in Yemen’s restive south, officials said, a day before the country is to go to the polls to rubber stamp its vice president as the new head of state after 33 years of one-man rule.
Four people were reported killed in clashes across the country. The violence underlines the security vacuum in the Arabian peninsula’s poorest country after a one-year popular uprising seeking to oust longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Snowstorm causes power outages
RICHMOND, Va.
A day after a winter storm dumped several inches of snow on a handful of southern states, crews worked Monday to restore power to tens of thousands of customers as police responded to dozens of accidents on slippery roads.
The storm brought as much as 9 inches of snow to some areas Sunday as it powered its way from Kentucky and Tennessee to West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina. The storm system pushed off the coast early Monday.
Guards likely helped in Mexico prison riot
MONTERREY, Mexico
The revelation that guards likely helped members of the violent Zetas drug cartel slaughter 44 rival inmates and break out of a northern Mexico jail throws new attention on the enormous corruption inside the country’s overcrowded, underfunded prisons.
The top officials and as many as 18 guards at the Apodaca prison may have helped 30 Zetas escape during the confusion of a riot early Sunday in which other Zetas fatally bludgeoned and knifed 44 members of the rival Gulf cartel, Nuevo Leon Gov. Rodrigo Medina said Monday.
Associated Press