Canada excluded from anti-IS coalition meeting

Canada excluded from anti-IS coalition meeting

TORONTO

Canada has been excluded from a meeting of defense ministers in Paris this week to discuss the fight against Islamic State militants. The apparent snub follows new Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s announcement that he would remove the country’s six fighter jets from the anti-IS coalition at a time the U.S. is looking for its allies to step up their contributions.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter didn’t mention Canada last week in a speech in Fort Campbell, Ky., when he said he would meet defense ministers from nations who are playing a “significant role” in the coalition.

Search suspended for missing Marines

HONOLULU

Officials Tuesday suspended the massive search for 12 Marines who were aboard two helicopters that crashed off Hawaii last week.

The around-the-clock effort failed to locate any sign of the 12 service members despite five days of searching by several agencies.

Officials said at a late- afternoon news conference that the Marine Corps was transitioning to “recovery and salvage efforts” and a memorial was planned for Friday at Marine Corps Base Hawaii.

Palin’s son arrested

ANCHORAGE, Alaska

The oldest son of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was arrested in a domestic violence case in which his girlfriend was afraid he would shoot himself with an AR-15 assault rifle, according to court documents filed Tuesday.

Track Palin, 26, is charged with assault, interfering with the report of a domestic violence crime and possessing a weapon while intoxicated in connection with the incident Monday night at the Wasilla home of his parents, where he lives, according to an affidavit by police.

California man whose family says he was 117 has died

OAKLAND, Calif.

A California man whose family said he was 117 years old has died. The age likely would have made him the oldest person on Earth when he died.

Andrew Hatch died quietly Monday at the Oakland home of daughter Delane Sims, who had been taking care of him there for the past two years, Sims said.

“No one stays on this Earth forever,” Sims told the Contra Costa Times, a newspaper that has chronicled hatch since he turned 107. “But even 117 was not enough; I didn’t want to say goodbye.”

The lack of a birth certificate kept Hatch from being officially recognized as the oldest person alive by the organizations that acknowledge such things, though he had for years had driver’s licenses and other official documents with his age on them. His family said he was born in Louisiana on Oct. 7, 1898, in a time and place when birth certificates were rare for poor black children.

US attorney general ‘appalled’ at Ohio officer’s slaying

COLUMBUS

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch says she is “appalled and deeply saddened” by the killing of an Ohio policeman by a man who’s accused of targeting an officer.

In a statement Tuesday, the nation’s top enforcement officer expressed sadness at the death of Danville Officer Thomas Cottrell Sunday night, as well as the recent shootings of officers in Utah and Philadelphia. She says they are reminders of the dangerous nature of the job.

Associated Press