US to Americans: Stay away from Cuba after health ‘attacks’

US to Americans: Stay away from Cuba after health ‘attacks’

WASHINGTON

The United States issued an ominous warning to Americans on Friday to stay away from Cuba and ordered home more than half the U.S. diplomatic corps, acknowledging neither the Cubans nor America’s FBI can figure out who or what is responsible for months of mysterious health ailments.

No longer tiptoeing around the issue, the Trump administration shifted to calling the episodes “attacks” rather than “incidents.”

The U.S. actions are sure to rattle already delicate ties between the longtime adversaries who only recently began putting their hostility behind them. The U.S. Embassy in Cuba will lose roughly 60 percent of its American staff and will stop processing visas for prospective Cuban travelers to the United States indefinitely, officials said.

Wisconsin girl reaches plea deal in Slender Man case

WAUKESHA, Wis.

The second of two Wisconsin girls charged with repeatedly stabbing a classmate to impress horror character Slender Man will plead guilty in a deal that will send her to a state mental hospital and bring an end to a case that shocked people in part because the attackers were only 12.

The deal, announced in court Friday, means both girls will avoid prison time for the attack on Payton Leutner, who was also 12. Morgan Geyser, now 15, will be treated indefinitely at a mental hospital. Her co-defendant, Anissa Weier, faces at least three years in a mental hospital.

Weier and Geyser lured Payton Leutner, who was also 12, into the woods at a park in Waukesha, a Milwaukee suburb. Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times while Weier urged her on, according to investigators. Leutner survived after she crawled out of the woods to a path where a passing bicyclist found her.

Canadian police issue warrant for Vatican envoy

VATICAN CITY

Canadian police have issued an arrest warrant for the Vatican diplomat who was recalled from the United States in a child-pornography investigation, accusing him of accessing, possessing and distributing child pornography over Christmas last year from a church.

Police in Windsor, Ontario, said Carlo Capella, a 50-year-old monsignor from Italy, allegedly uploaded the child porn to a social networking site while visiting a place of worship in Windsor between Dec. 24 and 27.

The Vatican recalled Capella, the No. 4 official in its Washington embassy, after the U.S. State Department notified it Aug. 21 of a “possible violation of laws relating to child pornography images” by one of its diplomats in Washington.

UN appeals for $31M for Dominica

UNITED NATIONS

The U.N. humanitarian office has launched a $31 million emergency appeal for Dominica, which was left in tatters after Hurricane Maria battered the Caribbean island as a category 5 storm.

The United Nations said Friday the appeal aims to provide aid to 65,000 people through December. It said $3 million was expected to be released later in the day from the Central Emergency Response Fund for Dominica.

A week ago Dominica Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit urged the U.N. General Assembly to “let these extraordinary events elicit extraordinary efforts to rebuild nations sustainably.”

Associated Press