Pro-independence woman becomes Taiwan’s president

Pro-independence woman becomes Taiwan’s president

TAIPEI, Taiwan

Taiwan elected Tsai Ing-wen as its first female president Saturday, handing her pro-independence party its first majority in the national legislature and rejecting the China-friendly party that has led the self-governing island for eight years.

The result should be deeply unsettling to China, which may respond by further reducing Taipei’s already limited ability to win diplomatic allies and participate in international organizations.

In a statement issued after Tsai’s win, the Chinese Cabinet’s body for handling Taiwan affairs reaffirmed its opposition to Taiwan independence, but said it would work to maintain peace and stability between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.

23 Chicago cops to testify to grand jury

CHICAGO

Nearly two dozen Chicago Police Department employees have been called to testify before a federal grand jury investigating the 2014 death of a black teenager shot 16 times by a white police officer, according to records released to the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times.

Among them are four officers whose initial accounts of the confrontation conflict with squad-car video showing 17-year-old Laquan McDonald walking away from officers, rather than turning threateningly toward them. The names of the 23 subpoenaed officers appear on court notification logs released Friday in response to public-records requests from the two newspapers.

Activists: IS kills at least 135 in Syria

BEIRUT

Islamic State militants killed dozens of people Saturday, most of them pro-government militiamen, in wide-scale attacks on government-held areas of the eastern city of Deir el-Zour, opposition activists said.

The opposition activist group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 135 people were killed, at least 80 of them soldiers and pro-government militiamen and the rest civilians, in the attacks, which saw the group make significant advances in the contested city.

Refuge occupiers in Ore. clash with environmentalists

BURNS, Ore.

The armed activists occupying a national wildlife refuge in southeastern Oregon clashed with environmentalists Saturday as a standoff stretched into a 15th day.

A shouting match erupted as members of the Center for Biological Diversity, a national nonprofit conservation group, tried to speak at a news briefing, The Oregonian reported. As the center’s executive director Kieran Suckling began speaking, the armed activists screamed and booed him.

“We’re here to speak up for public land, which belongs to the public,” Suckling said over the yelling. “These people are trying to take the land away.”

The armed group took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge to protest federal land-use policies. So far, authorities have not tried to remove the group from the refuge.

Cruz supporters boo Trump at event

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.

Donald Trump ran afoul of some conservative activists Saturday with an attack on Republican presidential rival Ted Cruz for his failure to disclose certain bank loans during his 2012 Senate bid.

“You give a campaign contribution to Ted Cruz, you get whatever the hell you want,” Trump told a tea-party gathering in the early-voting state of South Carolina.

By the time Trump added that he thinks Cruz is “a nice guy,” loud boos had commenced among the hundreds of attendees divided almost exclusively between the two leading GOP contenders.

Associated Press