Hundreds rally as 7-year-old girl’s killer remains at large

Hundreds rally as 7-year-old girl’s killer remains at large

HOUSTON

Hundreds of people who gathered at a rally Saturday for a 7-year-old Houston girl whose killer remains at large were asked to think of the victim as their own child and to be part of an “army” that will help authorities catch the person who fatally shot her.

The rally was held in the parking lot of a Walmart near where the shooting happened Dec. 30 as Jazmine Barnes and her family drove to a grocery store.

During the rally, people held up balloons and stuffed animals, as well as signs that said “Justice for Jazmine.” Organizers of the rally also led the crowd in chants that repeated the phrases, “What do we want? Justice. Who do we want it for? Jazmine.”

Jazmine’s family believes her death was racially motivated. The girl was black, and the alleged shooter is described as a white man in a red truck.

Lee Merritt, a national civil- rights attorney working with Jazmine’s family, said there were no updates in the search on Saturday.

Airports seeing rise in security screeners calling off work

NEW YORK

The federal agency tasked with guaranteeing U.S. airport security acknowledged an increase in the number of its employees calling off work during the partial government shutdown .

Employees of the Transportation Security Administration are expected to work without pay during the shutdown because their jobs are considered essential.

The TSA said in a statement Friday that call outs that began over the holiday period have increased. The agency did not say how many of its employees have called out, but it said the call outs have had “minimal impact given that there are 51,739 employees supporting the screening process.” The statement said wait times “may be affected” but so far “remain well within TSA standards.”

“TSA is closely monitoring the situation,” the agency statement said. “Security effectiveness will not be compromised.”

The Department of Homeland Security and President Donald Trump pushed back Saturday on suggestions that the absences represented a “sickout” that was having significant consequences on U.S. air travel.

US sends troops for possible ‘violent’ Congo vote protests

KINSHASA, Congo

On the eve of the first expected results of Congo’s long-delayed presidential election, President Donald Trump said military personnel had deployed to Central Africa to protect U.S. assets from possible “violent demonstrations,” while the country’s powerful Catholic church warned of a popular “uprising” if untrue results are announced.

Congo faces what could be its first democratic, peaceful transfer of power since independence from Belgium in 1960, but election observers and the opposition have raised concerns about voting irregularities as the country chooses a successor to longtime President Joseph Kabila.

The first results are expected today, and the United States and the African Union, among others, have urged Congo to release results that reflect the true will of the people. The U.S. has threatened sanctions against those who undermine the democratic process. Western election observers were not invited to watch the vote.

While Congo has been largely calm on and after the Dec. 30 vote, Trump’s letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said about 80 military personnel and “appropriate combat equipment” had deployed to nearby Gabon to support the security of U.S. citizens and staffers and diplomatic facilities.

France: Year’s 1st yellow vest event brings tear gas, fires

PARIS

French security forces fired tear gas and flash-balls after a march through picturesque central Paris went from peaceful to provocative Saturday as several thousand protesters staged the yellow vest movement’s first action of 2019 to keep up pressure on President Emmanuel Macron.

A riverboat restaurant moored below the clashes on the Left Bank of the Seine River caught fire. Smoke and tear gas wafted above the Orsay Museum and the gold dome of the French Academy as riot police, nearly invisible at the start of the demonstration, moved front and center when protesters deviated from an officially approved path.

Police boats patrolled the river while beyond the Seine, motorcycles and a car were set on fire on the Boulevard Saint Germain, a main Left Bank thoroughfare. Riot police and firefighters moved in, and barricades mounted in the middle of the wide street also glowed in orange flames.

Trump aide trying to allay Israeli concerns on Syria pullout

TEL AVIV, Israel

The White House has sent national security adviser John Bolton on a mission to allay Israel’s concerns about President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria.

The pullout announced before Christmas was initially expected to be completed within weeks, but the timetable has slowed as the president acceded to requests from aides, allies and members of Congress for a more orderly drawdown.

Bolton planned to meet with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and other officials today before traveling to Turkey. Israeli officials have expressed alarm that a swift withdrawal of the roughly 2,000 troops could enable Iran to expand its influence and presence in Syria, wracked by a yearslong civil war and the Islamic State militancy.

Trump’s move has raised fears about clearing the way for a Turkish assault on Kurdish fighters in Syria who have fought alongside American troops against IS extremists. Turkey considers the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, a terrorist group linked to an insurgency within its own borders.

Russia: Too early to consider exchange of US spy suspect

MOSCOW

Russia’s deputy foreign minister brushed back suggestions Saturday that an American being held in Moscow on suspicion of spying could be exchanged for a Russian citizen.

Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine, who also holds Canadian, British and Irish citizenship, was detained in Moscow in late December. His arrest has led to speculation that Russia could be using him to bargain for a Russian who pleaded guilty to acting as a foreign agent in the United States.

But Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that discussing a possible swap involving Whelan and Maria Butina would be premature because Whelan hasn’t been formally charged, according to Russian news agencies.

“As to the possibility of exchanges of one sort of another, it’s impossible and incorrect to consider the question now when an official charge hasn’t even been presented,” Ryabkov was quoted as saying by state news agency RIA-Novosti.

“Charges will be presented in the near future,” he said, according to the Interfax agency.

Poland: Fire kills 5 girls locked in home-based escape room

WARSAW, Poland

A faulty heating system appeared to have caused a fire at a house in northern Poland where five teenage girls died while locked inside a recreational escape room that was installed in the rented dwelling, investigators said Saturday.

Firefighters in the city of Koszalin found the bodies of the 15-year-old victims Friday after they extinguished a fire in a room adjacent to the one the girls had entered while celebrating a birthday.

Autopsies showed the girls died of carbon monoxide asphyxiation, prosecutors said, using a technical term for smoke inhalation.

A 26-year-old man employed at the location was hospitalized with burns.

Associated Press