Opposition leader awaits word of fate

Opposition leader awaits word of fate

CARACAS, Venezuela

Held at a military jail, opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez waited to learn Wednesday if he will be charged for violence that has erupted during protests that have revitalized challenges to 15 years of socialist rule in the oil-rich nation.

Lopez, who dramatically surrendered to authorities before thousands of cheering supporters Tuesday, was to appear before a judge to learn what charges he would face for organizing mass demonstrations that have resulted in at least six deaths and more than 100 injuries over the past week.

The hearing was closed, and the outcome had not been announced by late Wednesday as sporadic protests continued to erupt throughout the capital, with protesters setting fires in the streets and police firing volleys of tear gas and blasts from water cannons.

Sheriff: Man killed by agent threw rocks

SAN DIEGO

A man who was shot and killed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent threw large rocks at the agent, including one about the size of a basketball, investigators said Wednesday.

The man, who was suspected of being in the country illegally, began throwing fist-sized rocks at the agent from a hillside perch, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department said. The rocks became larger, and one of the bigger pieces hit the agent in the head.

The sheriff’s department said the agent fired his gun at least twice Tuesday, fearing he might be killed or incapacitated if he was hit again in the head. The agent tried to revive the man, who died at the scene. The man’s identity is unknown.

The agent, whose name was not disclosed, was treated at a hospital for minor injuries and released.

2nd evaluation for shooting suspect

DENVER

The man accused of killing 12 people in a Colorado movie theater shooting must undergo a second sanity evaluation by the state mental hospital because the first was “incomplete and inadequate,” a judge ruled Wednesday.

The ruling means a months-long delay in James Holmes’ case, which already has been in the courts for a year and a half.

The key finding of the first evaluation, whether Holmes was sane at the time of the attack, has not been made public, but prosecutors asked for the second review, claiming the first was flawed.

Taliban claims talks with US on prisoners

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan

Washington has had indirect talks with the Taliban over the possible transfer of five senior Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo Bay in exchange for a U.S. soldier captured nearly five years ago, a senior Taliban official told The Associated Press.

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, 27, of Hailey, Idaho, was last seen in a video released in December, footage seen as “proof of life” demanded by the United States. Bergdahl is believed to be held in the border regions between Afghanistan and Pakistan. He is the only U.S. soldier to be captured in America’s longest war, which began with the U.S.-led ouster of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan for sheltering al-Qaida in 2001 in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

The talks, which the Taliban official said took place sometime over the past two months in a Middle East country, would be the first significant movement toward an exchange since it was last discussed by the U.S. and the Taliban in June 2013. That earlier initiative, along with the overall peace efforts, lost steam after Afghan President Hamid Karzai argued over the name of a Taliban political office that opened in the Gulf nation of Qatar. The office eventually was closed, but several Taliban have remained behind in Qatar.

Associated Press