VEGAS STRIP CLOSED AFTER STANDOFF WITH SHOOTER
Las Vegas Metro police said an armed man surrendered after a three-hour standoff on a two-story bus that closed the Vegas Strip on Saturday. Police said the man shot and killed one person and wounded another.
Police had evacuated the nearby Cosmopolitan hotel and casino floor shortly before 11 a.m. local time Saturday.
Police spokesman Larry Hadfield said it wasn’t a terrorism incident.
Earlier Saturday, three people wearing dress clothing and animal masks robbed a jewelry store inside the Bellagio hotel-casino complex, which is next door, police said.
N.Y., N.J. BOMB SUSPECT’S LAWYER WANTS TRIAL MOVED
A lawyer for the man accused of setting off bombs last year in New Jersey and New York, injuring more than 30 people, is seeking a change of venue for his trial on attempted murder charges stemming from a shootout with police.
Deputy Public Defender Peter Liguori said Ahmad Rahimi can’t get a fair trial in Union County, N.J., citing the media coverage he and the bombings have received.
Rahimi is charged with attempted murder in the Sept. 19 gunbattle with five officers in Linden, N.J. At the time, he was being sought for allegedly planting two bombs in Manhattan and two in New Jersey.
The Union County Prosecutor’s Office declined to comment on the request.
STATE: TILLERSON TO ATTEND NATO SUMMIT AFTER ALL
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will attend a major NATO foreign ministers meeting after all, the department says.
Tillerson had alarmed allies when word emerged that he was skipping the semiannual meeting in Brussels but planned to visit Russia in May. The State Department had said Tillerson had a scheduling conflict and had proposed alternative dates to the 28member bloc for their meeting.
The State Department now says Tillerson will travel to NATO in Brussels next Friday. The brief stop will come after Tillerson travels to Ankara, Turkey, to meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. That meeting comes as the U.S. and Turkey are sharply divided about how to fight the Islamic State in northern Syria.
ERDOGAN: TURKEY MIGHT HOLD VOTE ON JOINING EU
Turkey’s president says the country might pursue a referendum on whether to pursue European Union membership.
Speaking Saturday at a Turkish-U.K. forum in the southern city of Antalya, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made the proposal as tensions escalated between Ankara and European governments ahead of an April 16 referendum to expand the powers of the Turkish presidency.
Erdogan said he would respect whatever the people decided.
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Police in Belarus cracked down hard Saturday on opposition protesters who tried to hold a forbidden demonstration in the capital, Minsk. A human rights group said more than 400 people were arrested, and many were beaten.