WORLD DIGEST || Puerto Rico vote abruptly canceled

Puerto Rico vote abruptly canceled

WASHINGTON

House Republicans on Wednesday abruptly canceled a committee vote on a plan to help Puerto Rico deal with its $70 billion debt in the face of conservative opposition.

A vote on the bill establishing a control board had been scheduled for today with a sense of urgency, as Puerto Rico faces a deadline for a multimillion-dollar bond payment next month. The government has said it likely will default, which would mark the first time Puerto Rico would default on general obligation bonds protected by the island’s constitution.

A spokeswoman for the House Natural Resources Committee said today’s meeting has been canceled and has not yet been rescheduled.

‘Affluenza’ teen gets two years in jail

FORT WORTH, Texas

A judge on Wednesday ordered a Texas teenager who used an “affluenza” defense in a fatal drunken-driving wreck to serve nearly two years in jail, a surprising sanction that far exceeds the several months in jail that prosecutors initially said they would pursue.

Ethan Couch, who was appearing in adult court for the first time after he turned 19 on Monday, received 180 days for each of the four deaths in the June 2013 crash.

Each 180-day term will be served consecutively, Salvant ordered. Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson said Wednesday that it was not clear if that would include the time Couch has already spent in jail.

Brussels attackers had battle experience

PARIS

The Islamic State fighters who carried out the attacks in Brussels honed their skills through combat in Syria, and the sibling suicide bombers were also crucial to planning the Paris attacks, according to the extremist group’s magazine released Wednesday.

In the English-language magazine Dabiq, the group drew a direct line between the two attacks – and made no mention of the key suspects captured in Belgium.

Brussels was home to many of the attackers who struck the French capital Nov. 13 with suicide bombings and volleys of assault weapons fire that left 130 people dead. According to Belgian and French investigators, the same cell was behind the suicide bombings that killed 32 people in Brussels on March 22.

Damning report on Chicago police

CHICAGO

Police in Chicago have “no regard for the sanctity of life when it comes to people of color” and have alienated blacks and Hispanics for decades by using excessive force and honoring a code of silence, a task force declared Wednesday in a report that seeks sweeping changes to the nation’s third-largest police force.

The panel, established by Mayor Rahm Emanuel late last year in response to an outcry over police shootings, found that the department does little to weed out problem officers and routine encounters unnecessarily turn deadly.

Myanmar quake

YANGON, Myanmar

A strong earthquake struck Myanmar on Wednesday night and was felt in parts of eastern India and Bangladesh, but an official said today that there were no immediate reports of serious injuries or major damage in Myanmar.

The magnitude-6.9 quake struck at a depth of 84 miles, 246 miles north of Myanmar’s capital, Naypyidaw, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Associated Press