Occupiers’ words used against them

Occupiers’ words used against them

PORTLAND, Ore.

Ammon Bundy and his followers made ample use of social media and videos to summon armed recruits to join their takeover of a wildlife refuge and to declare their readiness to stand their ground. Now federal authorities are using the occupiers’ own words against them.

Court documents against the 11 occupiers under arrest show that FBI agents have carefully scrutinized social media postings, interviews and online talk shows that were broadcast from the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge during the standoff that began nearly a month ago.

Bundy and several other jailed leaders appeared Friday in federal court in Portland, where a judge denied their release. U.S. Magistrate Judge Stacie Beckerman said she would release them only if the standoff ends. Four holdouts continued to occupy the refuge in the snowy high country near Burns, and they posted a YouTube video Friday demanding pardons for everyone involved in the occupation.

1 fugitive surrenders

SANTA ANA, Calif.

One of three violent inmates who broke out of a Southern California jail a week ago surrendered Friday, and authorities believe the other two may be 400 miles north in the San Jose area.

Bac Duong, 43, surrendered in Southern California earlier in the day and told investigators he had been with the other two fugitives, 20-year-old Jonathan Tieu and 37-year-old Hossein Nayeri, in San Jose on Thursday and they may be headed to Fresno, Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. Jeff Hallock said.

Duong was taken into custody in Santa Ana, where the trio made their brazen escape Jan. 22 from the maximum-security facility, authorities said.

UN: More cases of sex abuse by troops

GENEVA

The U.N. human-rights office says it has turned up six more cases of purported sexual abuse against children by European troops in Central African Republic, including a 7-year-old girl who said she had to perform sexual acts on soldiers in exchange for water and cookies.

A U.N. team recently interviewed five girls and a boy who claimed their abusers were part of French and European Union military operations in the troubled African country, the office of High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad al-Hussein said.

FBI weapons stolen from vehicle in Calif.

SACRAMENTO, Calif.

Three handguns and an FBI agent’s badge were stolen early Friday from a locked and alarmed vehicle in the latest such incident in the San Francisco Bay Area, the FBI said.

Two other recent thefts in the area had tragic results after firearms stolen from law-enforcement agents’ vehicles were subsequently used in slayings.

Two .40-caliber Glocks and one .45-caliber handgun were stolen from an FBI vehicle parked in a residential neighborhood in Benicia, FBI spokeswoman Gina Swankie said. An FBI badge, credentials and other FBI property also were taken.

Shaky start to Syria peace talks

GENEVA

Peace talks aimed at ending Syria’s five-year civil war got off to a shaky and chaotic start Friday, with the main opposition group at first boycotting the session, then later agreeing to meet with U.N. officials – while still insisting it would not negotiate.

That small commitment by the group known as the Higher Negotiating Committee came just minutes before U.N. special envoy Staffan de Mistura met with a delegation representing the government of President Bashar Assad.

Associated Press