Diplomats: Iran nuke deal is likely today

Diplomats: Iran nuke deal is likely today

VIENNA

An Iran nuclear agreement appeared likely within hours, diplomats said late Monday after a day in which American and Iranian negotiators appeared to be struggling to clear final obstacles and looking as if they’d miss their fourth deadline in less than two weeks.

Three diplomats familiar with the talks said the announcement could come early today, possibly during pre-dawn hours in Vienna. One said some of the top officials involved in the negotiation needed to leave Austria’s capital in the morning, thus hastening the declaration.

Pentagon’s plan: Lift transgender ban

WASHINGTON

The Pentagon’s current regulations banning transgender individuals from serving in the military are outdated, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Monday, ordering a six-month study aimed at formally ending one of the last gender- or sexuality-based barriers to military service.

Carter said he is creating a working group that will review the policies and determine if lifting the ban would have any impact on the military’s ability to be ready for battle. But he said the group will begin with the presumption that transgender people should be able to serve openly “without adverse impact on military effectiveness and readiness, unless and except where objective, practical impediments are identified.”

$5.9M settlement in chokehold death case

NEW YORK

New York City reached a settlement Monday with the family of Eric Garner for $5.9 million, almost a year after the 43-year-old died in police custody.

The family filed a notice of claim in October, the first step in filing a lawsuit against the city, asking for $75 million. Garner was stopped July 17 outside a convenience store for selling loose, untaxed cigarettes. A video shot by an onlooker shows Garner telling the officers to leave him alone and refusing to be handcuffed. Garner is taken to the ground in what appears to be a chokehold, banned by police policy. The officer, Daniel Pantaleo, says it was a legal takedown maneuver.

The city medical examiner found that the police chokehold contributed to Garner’s death.

Motorist finds girl who survived crash

SEATTLE

A teenage girl who survived a small-plane crash in the craggy, thickly forested mountains of north-central Washington state emerged from the wilderness after hiking “for a couple of days” and was picked up by a motorist who drove her to safety, authorities said Monday. But the fate of her two step-grandparents, who were also on board, remained unclear.

Family members alerted authorities after the Beech A-35 failed to complete its flight from Kalispell, Mont., to Lynden, Wash., on Saturday afternoon.There was no sign of the aircraft or its occupants until Autumn Veatch, 16, followed a trail to Highway 20, near the east entrance to North Cascades National Park.

A motorist picked her up Monday afternoon.

Iraq starts to oust IS

BAGHDAD

The Iraqi government began a long-awaited, large-scale military operation Monday to dislodge Islamic State militants from the country’s sprawling western Anbar province, a military spokesman announced.

The spokesman for the Joint Operations Command, Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool, said in a televised statement that the operation started at dawn and that government forces were being backed by Shiite and Sunni pro-government fighters. Rasool did not say whether the U.S.-led international coalition was taking part.

Associated Press