4 Afghans return home from Gitmo

4 Afghans return home from Gitmo

WASHINGTON

The Pentagon said Saturday that four Afghans from the Guantanamo Bay detention center have been returned to their home country in what U.S. officials are citing as a sign of their confidence in new Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

Obama administration officials said they worked quickly to fulfill the request from Ghani, in office just three months, to return the four — long cleared for release — as a kind of reconciliation and mark of improved U.S.-Afghan relations.

There is no requirement that the Afghan government further detain the men.

24 injured in crash of bus in Indiana

SEYMOUR, Ind.

A double-decker bus headed from Chicago to Atlanta slid off a highway in southern Indiana and rolled onto its side early Saturday, injuring 24 people, authorities said.

The bus, operated by Megabus and carrying 68 passengers, veered off the road about 5:30 a.m. on Interstate 65 in Seymour, State Police Trooper Clifton Elston said.

The most-serious injury was a broken collarbone, and most of the others were treated for minor cuts, Trooper Tommy Walker said. Two of the 26 passengers brought to Schneck Medical Center in Seymour refused treatment.

The bus driver, Christopher Kelley of Olympia Fields, Ill., told police he was in the left lane and moving to the right lane when he lost control and slid onto the grassy median, Trooper Matt Holley said.

Walker said speed and the weather may have contributed to the accident.

Egypt’s intel chief replaced by deputy

CAIRO

Egypt’s powerful intelligence chief, a longtime mentor of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, was removed and replaced by his deputy, security officials said Saturday.

Gen. Mohammed Farid el-Tohamy, in his mid-60s, was seen as a hardliner in the government crackdown against Islamists and secular dissidents.

El-Tohamy was put in charge of the general intelligence agency immediately after el-Sissi, then head of the military, led the ouster of the elected President Mohammed Morsi in July 2013 after massive protests against his Islamist government.

Chicago mayor’s son mugged near home

CHICAGO

A spokeswoman for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel says the mayor’s 17-year-old son was mugged near the family’s home.

Spokeswoman Kelley Quinn said Saturday that the mayor’s son, Zach, had “injuries that required medical treatment but was able to join the family for a long-planned trip.” She said the mayor is focused on his son’s well-being and requested the news media respect the family’s privacy.

The mayor, a former White House chief of staff, and his family were headed for a vacation in Chile this weekend.

Kurds advance on IS in Iraq, Syria

BEIRUT

Kurdish fighters advanced on the Islamic State extremist group in Iraq and Syria on Saturday, pushing into the contested, refugee-packed Sinjar mountains and advancing toward the embattled Syrian border town of Kobani after heavy clashes, Kurdish officials and an activist group said.

In Syria, Kurdish Democratic Union Party spokesman Nawaf Khalil said Kurdish fighters advanced in six neighborhoods and have besieged the IS-held cultural center east of Kobani. He added that Kurdish fighters captured the Yarmouk school, southeast of Kobani where eight bodies of IS fighters were found.

Associated Press