Education official apologizes anew, this time to victims

July 14, 2017 at 12:00a.m.

WASHINGTON

The Education Department’s top civil-rights official’s “flippant” remarks are raising questions about the government’s commitment to fighting campus sexual violence, even as she issued her second apology in as many days for attributing 90 percent of sexual assault claims to both parties being drunk.

Candice Jackson, assistant secretary for civil rights, told victims of sexual-assault meeting with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Thursday that she was sorry for her remarks.

“As much as I appreciate apologies, which are difficult, unfortunately, there’s no way to take it back. It’s out there,” said Fatima Goss Graves, president of the National Women’s Law Center, who attended the meeting and relayed Jackson’s apology Thursday. “What’s extremely important now is that they do the hard work to counter those sorts of rape myths. They need to explicitly reject them.”

Qatar crisis grinds on as top diplomat leaves the Gulf

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates

The top U.S. diplomat concluded a week of shuttle diplomacy in the Persian Gulf crisis Thursday bearing no promise of an imminent breakthrough, but he voiced optimism that Qatar and its four Arab neighbors might soon at least be willing to talk face to face.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson traveled to tiny, gas-rich Qatar for a second time for a lunch meeting with 37-year-old Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, following talks earlier in the week in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

As he flew back to Washington, Tillerson told reporters that the discussions had been “helpful” and that the U.S. planned to keep at it.

Newlyweds accused of kidnapping and raping Fla. woman

MIAMI

Most couples come to South Florida on their honeymoon to enjoy the sun, the fun, the food and often the nightlife. But police say a Georgia couple’s celebration here turned a bit too debaucherous and landed them in jail on felony charges.

Police and witnesses say that Rashada Hurley, 32, and her new husband, Timothy Lowe, 37, beat and kidnapped a woman, drove her to a motel and forced sex on her, then got naked the next day inside a convenience store and grabbed a couple of sodas without paying.

Police found the couple outside a block away – still holding the sodas and still naked. They placed blankets around them, took them in for questioning and charged them with theft.

Then, with the help of video surveillance, investigators quickly linked the couple to the earlier rape and said the woman identified the couple through a photo lineup.

US, Mexico eye closer energy ties as NAFTA talks loom

MEXICO CITY

The United States and Mexico are looking to boost energy ties as the two countries prepare for the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, officials said Thursday.

U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who met in Mexico with his counterpart, Pedro Joaquin Coldwell, called the United States’ southern neighbor “a very, very important partner” on energy.

Joaquin Coldwell said his country plans two new pipelines to import U.S. natural gas in addition to the 17 that already exist.

Combined dispatches