Nation & World Watch
vWashington: Free press is essential, McCain says
Sen. John McCain says a free press is vital “to preserve democracy as we know it.” And he cautions about efforts to muzzle a free press, saying “that’s how dictators get started.”
The Arizona senator was asked in an interview for NBC’s “Meet the Press” how he felt about President Donald Trump’s tweet criticizing “the fake news media,” which he said “is the enemy of the American people.”
“The fact is we need you,” McCain said. “When you look at history, the first thing dictators do is shut down the press.” McCain said he isn’t saying Trump is trying to be a dictator, but “we need to learn the lessons of history.”
vChicago: ICE arrests man who escaped prison in ’03
A man who escaped from an Illinois prison in 2003 while serving an eightyear sentence on a drug charge has been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at his Atlanta home.
Jorge Soberanis-Rumaldo was taken into custody Friday as part of an immigration enforcement that targeted criminals, according to an ICE news release. Authorities said Soberanis-Rumaldo is a Mexican national in the U.S. illegally.
Soberanis-Rumaldo was convicted in March 2003 of a felony charge of cocaine possession. Authorities say he escaped while on a work detail in June 2003.
vIndonesia: US deploys carrier to South China Sea
The United States has deployed aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson to patrol the increasingly contentious South China Sea, despite Beijing’s warnings not to challenge its sovereignty in the resourcerich sea. The Navy described Saturday’s launch as the beginning of “routine operations” in the South China Sea. China claims most of the sea as its own, despite overlapping territorial and jurisdictional claims from the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei.
Last week, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman denounced advance news of the deployment and said China urged the U.S. to “refrain from challenging China’s sovereignty and security” in the sea.
vSomalia: Car bombing in busy marketplace kills 34
Somalia’s new president visited victims wounded by the Mogadishu car bomb Sunday that killed 34. President Mohamed Abdulahi Mohamed offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of those who planned the blast.
The explosion hit a busy marketplace in the western part of the capital, said police Capt. Mohamed Hussein.
The blast from a car parked near a restaurant went off when shoppers and traders were gathered inside the market, district commissioner Ahmed Abdulle said.
vColombia: Bomb blast near bullring kills officer
A homemade bomb exploded near Bogota’s bullring Sunday, killing a police officer and injuring as many as 31 bystanders.
The artifact, whose loud explosion shattered windows in nearby apartment buildings, appeared to have been left in a sewer outside a new youth hostel popular with foreign backpackers. It was detonated just a few hours before a scheduled bullfight, as police in riot gear were congregating ahead of a demonstration by animal rights activists.
Authorities did not give a motive for the blast and said they had no evidence it had anything to do with the resumption of bullfighting at the ring.
Last month, police fired tear gas and arrested scores of youth demonstrators to control mobs that attacked spectators attending the first bullfight in the capital in four years.