Senegal to take in 2 Gitmo prisoners

Senegal to take in 2 Gitmo prisoners

DAKAR, Senegal

Senegal has agreed to take in two Libyans who spent nearly 14 years in custody at the U.S. base in Cuba without charge, becoming the second country in West Africa to accept former detainees, officials said Monday.

Salem Abdu Salam Ghereby, 55, and Omar Khalif Mohammed Abu Baker Mahjour, who records show is about 44, were both members of the Libya Islamic Fighting Group, an organization that sought the ouster of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and had been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. since 2004.

Crow war chief, historian dies at 102

BILLINGS, Mont.

Joseph Medicine Crow walked in “two worlds” – white and Native American – and made his mark on each.

Medicine Crow, who died Sunday in a Billings hospice at the age of 102, grew up in a log home on Montana’s Crow Indian Reservation, hearing stories during his childhood from direct participants in the Battle of Little Bighorn.

Decades later, he returned from World War II a hero in his own right for performing a series of daring deeds that made him his tribe’s last surviving war chief.

Medicine Crow went on to become a Native American historian who gained recognition in scholarly circles, even as he sought to live according to Crow tradition.

President Barack Obama, who awarded Medicine Crow the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009, released a statement Monday praising the World War II veteran as a “bacheitche,” which translates to “a good man” in Crow.

5 die in crash of tourist helicopter

SEVIERVILLE, Tenn.

Five people died Monday when a sightseeing helicopter crashed near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in eastern Tennessee, officials said.

The Bell 206 helicopter crashed about 3:30 p.m. near Sevierville, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said in an email. Officials said the tourist helicopter was destroyed by fire after the crash.

Princeton to keep Wilson’s name

PRINCETON, N.J.

Woodrow Wilson’s name will remain on Princeton University’s public-policy school, despite calls to remove it because the former U.S. president was a segregationist, the Ivy League university announced Monday.

Princeton was challenged to take a deeper look into Wilson’s life in the fall, when a group of students raised questions about his racist views. The Black Justice League held a 32-hour sit-in inside Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber’s office, demanding Wilson’s name be removed from programs and buildings and for other changes to make the university more diverse and inclusive.

Eisgruber said the process helped him learn more about one of Princeton’s most celebrated alumni and presidents.

Scientists decry end of orca breeding

ORLANDO, Fla.

There’s one last orca birth to come at SeaWorld, and it probably will be the last chance for research biologist Dawn Noren to study up close how female killer whales pass toxins to their calves through their milk.

Though SeaWorld’s decision last month to end its orca breeding program delighted animal-rights activists, it disappointed many marine scientists, who say they gradually will lose vital opportunities to learn things that could help killer whales in the wild.

Associated Press