Former DC mayor Marion Barry dies

Former DC mayor Marion Barry dies

WASHINGTON

A controversial and tireless advocate for the nation’s capital who created jobs for generations of black families, Marion Barry was the ultimate District of Columbia politician, though his arrest for drug use in the midst of a crack cocaine epidemic often overshadows his accomplishments.

The former four-term mayor will long be remembered for one night in 1990 when he was caught on video lighting a crack pipe in an FBI sting operation. In an instant, the then-mayor of the capital city was exposed as a drug user himself.

Barry, 78, died Sunday at the United Medical Center, after having been released from a hospital a day earlier. Barry died naturally of heart problems caused by high blood pressure, and his kidney disease was a contributing factor, the D.C. medical examiner said.

Judge rejects bid to halt fracking rules

ST. LOUIS

A judge in southwestern Illinois has denied a bid by a landowners group to suspend the state’s new rules for high-volume oil and gas drilling, ruling that the plaintiffs failed to show they would suffer immediate harm if the practice commonly known as “fracking” was to go forward.

Madison County Circuit Judge Barbara Crowder rejected the request for a preliminary injunction Friday, three days after she heard arguments about the rules meant to regulate hydraulic fracturing.

Jewish homeland plan denounced

JERUSALEM

In a move likely to further inflame tensions with Israel’s Arab citizens, the Israeli Cabinet on Sunday approved a bill to legally define the country as the nation-state of the Jewish people.

The decision, which set off a stormy debate that could bring down Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s brittle coalition government, followed weeks of deadly Arab-Jewish violence and was denounced by critics as damaging to the country’s democratic character and poorly timed at such a combustible moment. It now heads toward a full parliamentary vote Wednesday.

US to Iran: Consider nuke-talk extension

VIENNA

The U.S. told Iran on Sunday that it’s time to consider extending nuclear talks, in the first formal recognition by Washington that frenzied last-minute diplomacy may not be enough to seal a deal by a rapidly approaching deadline.

A senior U.S. official said that with the cutoff date tonight, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry proposed to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohamad Java Zarf that the two sides start discussing post-deadline talks in their latest meeting since Kerry arrived three days ago to add his diplomatic weight to the talks.

Vatican prosecutor didn’t report abuse

BOSTON

An American priest named by Pope Francis as the Vatican’s sex-crimes prosecutor in September was among church officials who failed to report an abusive priest to law enforcement before the now-jailed and defrocked man committed other acts of sexual abuse, according to legal documents reviewed by The Boston Globe.

The Rev. Robert Geisinger, the second-highest-ranking leader of the Chicago Jesuits in the 1990s, knew as early as 1995 about abuse complaints against the Rev. Donald McGuire, and he advised church officials as late as August 2002 on how to discipline McGuire, the Globe reported in Sunday editions.

Associated Press