*/ brief
Trump restores some Cuba penalties, rejecting ‘oppressors’
MIAMI — U.S. President Donald Trump declared Friday he was restoring some travel and economic restrictions on Cuba that were lifted as part of the Obama administration’s historic easing.
He challenged the communist government of Raul Castro to negotiate a better deal for Cubans and Cuban-Americans. Announcing the rollback of Barack Obama’s diplomatic opening during a speech in Miami, Trump said Cuba had secured far too many concessions from the U.S. in the “misguided” deal but “now those days are over.”
He said penalties on Cuba would remain in place until its government releases political prisoners, stops abusing dissidents and respects freedom of expression. “America has rejected the Cuban people’s oppressors,” Trump said in a crowded, sweltering auditorium. “They are rejected officially today — rejected.”
Brazilian sale of tear gas angers Venezuela opposition
CARACAS, Venezuela — A Brazilian company has acknowledged it’s supplying Venezuela’s security forces with large amounts of tear gas to control anti-government protests — prompting outrage from the Venezuelan opposition.
Rio de Janeiro-based Condor Non-Lethal Technologies confirmed Friday that it’s fulfilling two contracts in Venezuela after opposition leaders presented what they said was a document showing the armed forces had purchased 78,000 tear gas canisters in April.
Opponents of President Nicolas Maduro say they’ve asked Brazilian authorities critical of the crackdown by Venezuela’s government to block delivery of the gas.
Texas bounty hunters killed in shootout offered $3K payment
GREENVILLE, Texas — Two bounty hunters killed in a point-blank shootout with a Minnesota fugitive at a Texas car dealership were offered $3,000 to apprehend the felon.
A police report obtained by The Dallas Morning News shows private investigators Fidel Garcia Jr. and Gabriel Bernal would have collected the payout if they had succeeded in taking 49-year-old Ramon Michael Hutchinson into custody.
Instead, the three men exchanged about 20 shots May 30 inside a glass office at the Nissan showroom, leaving the two private investigators and their target dead.
Teen cadets take cruisers, patrol L.A. until caught
LOS ANGELES — Three teenagers in a program for those who may want to become officers stole three Los Angeles Police Department vehicles and went on patrol around the city before leading authorities on wild pursuits that ended with crashes, Chief Charlie Beck said.
The trio — two boys and a girl ages 15, 16 and 17 — “gamed the system” and used a vacationing sergeant’s name to sign out stun guns and radios and drive the cars right out of a stationhouse parking lot, Beck said.
Police are investigating whether the teens impersonated officers and pulled over drivers.
The three were arrested Wednesday after two pursuits ended with crashes in South Los Angeles.
A third police car was later recovered around the corner from a police station.
The Associated Press