Obama: Refugee vetting is vigorous

Obama: Refugee vetting is vigorous

WASHINGTON

The Obama administration is assuring governors that refugees who come to the United States in its resettlement program undergo a “rigorous security vetting process,” particularly if they are fleeing from Syria.

“In short, the security vetting for this population – the most vulnerable of individuals – is extraordinarily thorough and comprehensive,” Secretary of State John Kerry and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson write in letters sent to all state and territorial governors and to the mayor of Washington, D.C.

After last week’s attacks in Paris by the Islamic State, several governors vowed to block efforts to resettle Syrian refugees in the U.S. for fear their ranks would be infiltrated by IS militants planning a domestic attack. In the House, lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to erect high hurdles for Syrian and Iraqi refugees.

Bangladesh executes 2 opposition leaders

NEW DELHI

Bangladesh executed two influential opposition leaders on charges of war crimes during the country’s 1971 independence war, a senior jail official said today, despite concerns that the legal proceedings against them were flawed and threats of violence by their supporters.

Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, secretary general of the main Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami, were “hanged together, at the same time” at 12:55 a.m. at Dhaka Central Jail in the nation’s capital, Senior Jail Superintendent Mohammad Jahangir Kabir told The Associated Press.

Former S. Korea president Kim dies

SEOUL, South Korea

Former President Kim Young-sam, who formally ended decades of military rule in South Korea and accepted a massive international bailout during the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, died today. He was 87.

The chief of Seoul National University Hospital, Oh Byung-Hee, told a televised briefing that Kim died there early today. He said Kim is believed to have suffered from a severe blood infection and acute heart failure before he died.

Kim was taken to the hospital Thursday with a high fever, Oh said.

Footage shows student being shot

NEW ORLEANS

Police released surveillance footage of a Tulane University medical student being shot while trying to stop an apparent armed robbery in New Orleans.

According to The Times-Picayune, the footage, captured by a nearby business, shows a man in a hooded shirt dragging a woman down a street early Friday morning. She falls, and the man takes her purse. Peter Gold, 25, stops to help the woman, and the man pulls out a gun and shoots Gold. The woman was not injured.

Police said Gold is listed in “guarded” condition at a hospital and that they were looking for a suspect.

Transgender killings hit a record high

For a few transgender Americans, this has been a year of glamour and fame. For many others, 2015 has been fraught with danger, violence and mourning.

While Caitlyn Jenner made the cover of Vanity Fair and Laverne Cox prospered as a popular actress, other transgender women have become homicide victims at an alarming rate. By the count of the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, there have been 22 killings so far this year of transgender or gender-nonconforming people – including 19 black or Latina transgender women.

The toll compares with 12 last year and 13 in 2013, and is the highest since advocacy groups began such tallies a decade ago.

Associated Press