TERROR ATTACK IN WEST AFRICA SPURS BATTLE
ouagadougou, burkina faso » Al- Qaeda terrorists late Friday struck an upscale hotel and nearby cafe that are popular withWesterners in Burkina Faso’s capital, taking an unknown number of hostages and forcing others to hide as gunfire and explosions rang out. TheWest African country’s troops, backed by French forces, were still trying to retake control of the building eight hours later.
It was not immediately known how many people may have been killed during the siege, although a survivor told hospital director Robert Sangare he estimated the toll could be as high as 20. At least 15 other people were seriously wounded by bullets and undergoing treatment at the Yalgado Ouedraogo hospital, he said.
The local al- Qaeda affiliate, known as AQIM, claimed responsibility online as the attack was ongoing in downtown Ouagadougou at the 147room Splendid Hotel, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.
Penn says interview “failed.” Actor Sean Penn
said theMexican government’s assertions that his interview with Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman led them to the fugitive drug kingpin are false and intended to make him a potential cartel target.
In an interview scheduled to air Sunday on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” Penn emphasized that Guzman’s eventual capture took place far from the site of their meeting. Penn said his interview with Guzman was a failure because he wanted it to start a conversation about the war on drugs.
“I have a regret that the entire discussion about this article ignores its purpose, which was to contribute to this discussion about the policy in the war on drugs,” Penn said, according to a transcript of the interview with Charlie Rose.
“Let me be clear. My article has failed.”
Ex- CIA operative: No “stand down” order at Benghazi B
washington » It is the most fateful moment in a movie that purports to present a searingly accurate account of the 2012 attacks that left four Americans dead in Benghazi, Libya: a scene in which the highest- ranking CIA operative at a secret agency compound orders his security team to “stand down” rather than rush off to rescue U. S. diplomats under siege less than a mile away.
According to the officer in charge of the CIA’s Benghazi base that night, the scene in the movie is entirely untrue.
“There never was a stand- down order,” said the base chief known as Bob, speaking publicly for the first time. “At no time did I ever second- guess that the team would depart.”
Nor, he said, did he say
Michigan seeks federal aid for Flint B
detroit » The needs of Flint, Mich., “far exceed the state’s capability,” Gov. Rick Snyder said in a request for a federal disaster declaration and millions of dollars that could pay for clean water, filters and cartridges for residents whose water system has been contaminated by lead.
Snyder’s letter to President Barack Obama paints a bleak picture of the troubled city, describing Flint as an “impoverished area” that has been overwhelmed by the release of lead from old pipes— the result of using the Flint River as the city’s drinking water for 18 months.
Code Talker, 92, dies in Utah B
salt lake city » A Navajo man who helped stump the Japanese during WorldWar II using a code based on his native language has died in suburban Salt Lake City.
Ernest Yazhe’s daughter Melissa said her 92- yearold father died of renal failure Tuesday.
Yazhe joined the Marines when he was 19 and became one of the hundreds of Code Talkers who played a vital combat role by transmitting battlefield messages in an unbreakable Navajo- based radio code.