MANAFORT TO BE SENTENCED FEB. 8 IN VA.
Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s onetime campaign chairman, is set to be sentenced Feb. 8 in federal court on eight bank and tax fraud crimes.
Judge T.S. Ellis III set the sentencing date during a hearing Friday afternoon. The judge also dismissed 10 counts on which a jury deadlocked at Manafort’s summertime trial.
Legal experts said Manafort is likely to face about seven to 10 years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines. He also faces sentencing in a related case in the District of Columbia, also brought by special counsel Robert Mueller.
Housing official caught up in dispute with Interior Department resigns.
TON» A political WASHIN G appointee who was caught up in a dispute between the departments of Interior and Housing and Urban Development has resigned.
Assistant HUD Secretary Suzanne Israel Tufts was tapped to lead an internal watchdog agency at Interior but instead has left the government.
A HUD official announced her resignation Friday, a week after HUD Secretary Ben Carson said in an email to the staff that she would take over as Interior’s acting inspector general. Tufts would’ve replaced longtime acting inspector general Mary Kendall.
Heather Swift, a spokeswoman for Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, said Thursday that Carson’s email “had false information in it.”
A HUD spokesman said Friday that Carson has accepted Tufts’ resignation and thanks her for her service. HUD blamed a “miscommunication” for the mistaken email sent by Carson.
Afghan elections delayed in Kandahar after top officials assassinated.
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Afghan government on Friday delayed legislative elections by one week in the province of Kandahar after the provincial police chief and intelligence chief were assassinated by a Taliban gunman, leaving a dangerous security vacuum in the region that is home to the insurgents.
A spokesman for President Ashraf Ghani announced just after noon that the National Security Council had decided in an “extraordinary meeting” that Saturday’s polls would be suspended, as recommended by provincial leaders and the National Election Commission.
Thursday’s brazen at tack, which was claimed immediately by the Taliban, was aimed at a meeting of senior U.S. military and Afghan leaders in the city of Kandahar.
Europe’s top court orders Poland to halt a law forcing Supreme Court judges into retirement.
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LIN» Europe’s top court ordered Poland’s government on Friday to halt implementation of a controversial law designed to force nearly two dozen of the nation’s Supreme Court justices into early retirement.
The surprise decision by the European Court of Justice sets up a potential clash between European authorities and the rightwing Polish government, which has been accused of subverting the rule of law by attempting to pack the Supreme Court with sympathetic judges.
Polish officials earlier suggested they might defy the European Court of Justice’s will if the court sought to get involved in what the government sees as a domestic matter.
USC agrees to pay $215 million to settle doctor sex abuse claims.
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The University of Southern California said Friday it would pay $215 million to settle claims of sexual abuse and harassment by a school gynecologist, but lawyers for hundreds of the accusers say it’s not enough money and the university has yet to fully disclose what it knew about the doctor’s behavior.
The tentative settlement, which needs a judge’s approval, will provide compensation ranging from $2,500 up to $250,000 to women who say Dr. George Tyndall abused them between 1988 and 2016, USC interim president Wanda Austin said.
Train mows down crowd at festival; at least 58 dead.
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DELHI» A speeding train ran over a crowd watching fireworks during a religious festival in northern India on Friday, killing at least 58 people and injuring dozens more, police said.
The train failed to stop after the accident on the outskirts of Amritsar, a city in the state of Punjab, said Pratap Singh Bajwa, a politician with the the state’s governing Congress Party. Police Commissioner S.S. Srivastava said police have found 58 bodies so far.
The Press Trust of India news agency said two trains arrived from the opposite direction on separate tracks at the same time giving little opportunity for people to escape. However, the casualties were caused by one of the trains, it quoted officials as saying.