The nation in brief

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Usually what happens in Savannah is everything stops immediately when you first see a snowflake.”

Phil Sellers, who leads walking tours of the Georgia city, where residents were preparing for snow and ice that hit other areas of the South on Tuesday Article, 1A

In struggle, police shoot boy at school

HONOLULU - A police officer shot a 17-year-old runaway in the wrist Tuesday morning at a Hawaii high school after the teen cut one officer with a knife and punched two others, authorities said.

State Department of Education spokesman Donalyn Dela Cruz said the boy showed up at Roosevelt High School near downtown Honolulu, and officials there recognized him as a runaway and called police. The boy had been a student at the public school before but wasn’t registered for classes there this semester, she said.

Honolulu Police Maj. Richard Robinson said officers arrived at the school and tried to take the boy into custody, but he lunged at them.

The teen attacked one of the officers with a knife, leaving him with a minor cut on his torso, Robinson said. He also hit two other officers, but neither suffered serious injuries.

One of the officers then fired two shots, hitting the boy once in the wrist. The teen was taken to a hospital in serious condition, EMS spokesman Shayne Enright said. His injuries were not life-threatening.

The incident prompted a lock down at Roosevelt, which has an enrollment of nearly 1,400.

Ambassador pick vows rigor with China

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration’s choice to be the next American ambassador to China on Tuesday signaled a tougher public stance on simmering commercial and security disputes, pledging to tell Beijing, “Uh-uh, we won’t be taken advantage of.”

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said he will make it clear that the United States wants trade, engagement and international cooperation with China but will stand firm on principles of human rights, intellectual property, free trade and freedom of navigation in the South and East China Seas.

“It’s the old thing in life: be fair but firm,” Baucus told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, describing his posture toward China’s growing list of territorial disputes with neighboring nations and challenges to the United States on the high seas.

Baucus, 72, would replace Gary Locke, a Chinese-American former governor and commerce secretary who had a strained relationship with Chinese leadership and announced plans to leave his post earlier than expected.

Detainee asks to farm; U.S. calls him peril

ARLINGTON, Va. - A Guantanamo detainee portrayed by his U.S. jailers as almost certainly a former al-Qaida member pleaded through his lawyer Tuesday to be freed from the Navy-run prison in Cuba, where he has been held without charges for 12 years.

Abdel Malik al-Rahabi, 34, only wants to rejoin his Yemeni family, attend college, teach and start an agricultural business, Yemen Milk and Honey Farms Ltd., attorney David Remes told a review panel whose proceedings, for the first time, were partly open to the public.

The government countered in a detainee profile that al-Rahabi reportedly was a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden and fought on the front lines. Before his arrest, he “associated closely with extremists who are now active in Yemen,” according to the document, which was read aloud during the public portion of Tuesday’s hearing.

Both sides made their presentations to the Periodic Review Board, a panel composed of representatives from six U.S. government agencies. The panel now must reach a consensus on whether al-Rahabi poses any lingering threat to the United States, a process that could take weeks.

Farmers to do no time in listeria deaths

DENVER - Two Colorado cantaloupe farmers linked to the nation’s deadliest outbreak of food borne illness in a quarter-century were sentenced Tuesday to probation and home detention, but the judge said he decided against prison time so they could work to pay off $150,000 each in restitution.

Before they were sentenced, Eric and Ryan Jensen read statements apologizing to the victims of the 2011 listeria outbreak, which killed 33 people and sickened 147 in 28 states, according to federal health authorities.

Both brothers pleaded guilty to federal charges of introducing adulterated food into interstate commerce. They could have faced six years in prison and fines of $1.5 million each.

Each will serve five years of probation and six months of home detention and perform 100 hours of community service.

Front Section, Pages 3 on 01/29/2014