Massachusetts Town Weighs Nation's 1st Tobacco Ban

Brian Vincent poses in front of a large display of tobacco products at Vincent's Country Store in Westminster, Mass., Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014. Local officials are contemplating what could be a first: a blanket ban 

WESTMINSTER, MASSACHUSETTS. (AP) — The cartons of Marlboros, cans of Skoal and packs of Swisher Sweets are hard to miss stacked near the entrance of Vincent's Country Store, but maybe not for much longer: All tobacco products could become contraband if local health officials get their way.

This sleepy central Massachusetts town of 7,700 has become an improbable battleground in America's tobacco wars. On Wednesday, the Board of Health will hear public comment on a proposed regulation that could make Westminster the first municipality in the United States to ban sales of all tobacco products within town lines.

"To my knowledge, it would be the first in the nation to enact a total ban," said Thomas Carr, director of national policy at the American Lung Association. "We commend the town for doing it." Town health agent Elizabeth Swedberg said a ban seemed like a sensible solution to a vexing problem.

"The tobacco companies are really promoting products to hook young people," she said, pointing to 69-cent bubblegum-flavored cigars, electronic cigarettes and a new form of dissolvable smokeless tobacco that resembles Tic Tac candies. "The board was getting frustrated trying to keep up with this."

Citing a report from the U.S. surgeon general, Swedberg said that if tobacco use continues unabated, 5.6 million American children who are younger than 18 today will die prematurely because of smoking. Change, she said, "has to start somewhere."

Brian Vincent would rather it not start with his family-owned grocery on Main Street. Tobacco products, he said, make up more than 5 percent of sales. A quarter of his customers purchase tobacco, Vincent said, and while they're there, they often pick up a gallon of milk or one of the fresh-baked maple-candied bacon chocolate chip cookies that are displayed by the check-out aisle.

"It's going to send business five minutes this way or five minutes that way — no one's going to quit," said Vincent, who admits to enjoying a cigar himself now and then. Encouraged by the New England Convenience Store Association, Vincent has been asking customers to sign a petition against the proposal. He has gathered more than 800 signatures so far, and other merchants are on track to deliver hundreds more to town officials this week.

David Sutton, a spokesman for Richmond, Virginia-based Altria Group Inc., owner of the nation's biggest cigarette maker, Philip Morris USA, called the proposal a "bad policy" that will harm local employers.

"We believe businesses should be able to choose which products they carry," Sutton said. "If the ban were to be implemented, adult tobacco and e-vapor consumers could shift their purchases to neighboring stores. The proposed regulations, if enacted, would fundamentally alter these businesses and would likely cost Westminster jobs."

So many people have called Town Hall about the proposal, the Board of Health — whose meetings about septic system updates and mosquito control rarely attract an audience — will hold Wednesday's public hearing in an elementary school cafeteria rather than in its usual second-floor conference room.

Colleen Conner, who pops into Vincent's nearly every day to pick up a pack of American Spirits, is among those who signed the petition. Should the measure pass, she said, she'll drive 25 miles north to New Hampshire and buy her cigarettes there in bulk.

"When you're a smoker, you'll quit when you're ready, not because someone told you to," she said. "I think it's going to hurt the store — and I love the store." Swedberg, the town health agent, said the Board of Health hopes that if it enacts the regulation, loyal customers will support local businesses by buying more nontobacco products. And she thinks stores could see another benefit: "For people who are trying to quit, it could be a better place for them to shop, because they wouldn't be confronted with tobacco."

Board members are keeping an open mind and will take public comment into account, Swedberg said. But she remains supportive of the ban and hopes more communities across the country will follow Westminster's example.

It's an admirable goal, said Westminster resident Claudia Kulik, who turned to a hypnotist to quit cigarettes 10 years ago. Yet even she doubts that making it impossible to buy tobacco products in town would make a difference to a smoker seeking a fix. She once went out in an ice storm for cigarettes.

"I would have gone through hell or high water," she said.

AP Tobacco Writer Michael Felberbaum in Richmond, Virginia, contributed to this report.

Hard-Line US Cardinal Loses Another Vatican Job

Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, of the United States, taking part in an anti-abortion march in Rome. American Cardinal Raymond Burke, a fervent opponent of abortion and gay marriage, was removed by Pope Francis 

VATICAN CITY (AP) — American Cardinal Raymond Burke, who championed campaigns to deny Communion to Catholic politicians who support legalized abortion, was removed by Pope Francis from another top Vatican post on Saturday.

The removal of Burke as head of the Holy See's supreme court was widely expected in church circles. While he was archbishop of St. Louis, from 2003-2008, he led fellow American bishops in campaigns to stop giving Communion to Catholic politicians who support legalized abortion. He has also questioned some of the pontiff's pronouncements and approaches.

Last year Francis took Burke off the Vatican's powerful Congregation for Bishops, dealing with appointments of bishops worldwide. On Saturday he transferred Burke from the Vatican court job to the largely ceremonial post of Patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, a charity whose activities include hospitals and residences for the elderly around the world.

Burke, at 66, would have still had a good decade to continue serving in high-profile Vatican posts. His strident discourse and preference of fancy, old-fashioned vestments contrast starkly with the informal, chatty tone and simple, almost Spartan style Francis has established for his papacy.

Last month, Burke marshaled conservative criticism against the possibility the Vatican may loosen up rules that ban Communion for divorced, remarried Catholics. Francis has said that church hierarchy should not focus so much on abortion and same-sex marriage but instead concentrate on making the church a more welcoming place. Meanwhile, Burke has said to a Catholic broadcaster that "we can never talk enough" against abortion and same-sex marriage.

He has also questioned Francis' denunciation of excesses of capitalism.

Follow Frances D'Emilio at www.twitter.com/fdemilio

China Seeks West's Help To Fight Graft During APEC

Yu Zhendong, right, a criminal suspect accused of embezzling $485 million from a Chinese state-owned bank, is arrested by Chinese police after he was returned by U.S. authorities under a promise he won't be executed, 

BEIJING (AP) — China's graft busters want foreign help in their "fox hunt" for corrupt officials who have fled the country and stashed their ill-gotten loot abroad, but misgivings about Chinese justice may deter the U.S. and other nations from wholeheartedly joining the chase.

When leaders of Asia Pacific countries meet Monday and Tuesday in Beijing, they are expected to endorse a network for member nations to share information on corruption cases and help recover assets that have been moved across borders illegally.

"We are setting up what is called an anti-corruption and transparency network," said Alan Bollard, APEC's Secretariat executive director. "This group will try and bring together the actual operational people who will share information on particular cases, share information about how to get convictions and prosecutions and, if necessary, assets back as well."

He said Beijing has initiated the plan, which also is backed by the United States. Foreign ministers for the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation grouping endorsed the plan Saturday and referred it to leaders at the summit, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.

It would be a major advance in China's anti-graft campaign, which seeks to cut off the exit route of its corrupt officials. But cooperation with Western countries — especially U.S., Canada and Australia — may remain limited because of the ruling Communist Party's control of the Chinese judicial system, its use of death as penalty for corruption, and doubts about whether extradited suspects will receive fair trials.

The three countries — all friendlier to Chinese emigres than Europe — have yet to sign extradition treaties with Beijing. "So long as China is not a democratic country with transparent and trusted institutions ... this reservation about cooperating with it is likely to linger," Linda Lim of the University of Michigan Ross School of Business said in an emailed response to questions from The Associated Press.

Beijing has estimated that since the mid-1990s, 16,000 to 18,000 corrupt officials and employees of state-owned enterprises have fled China or gone into hiding with pilfered assets totaling more than 800 billion yuan ($135 billion).

Corruption, long pervasive in China, has eroded the public's trust so much that the Communist Party considers it a threat to its grip on power. President Xi Jinping has made fighting corruption a priority.

This year the Chinese authorities launched Operation Fox Hunt, targeting corrupt officials who have absconded abroad. To emphasize that high officials are fair game, Xi has said the campaign would beat "tigers" as well as swatting lower-level "flies."

"We hope we can receive support and coordination from the global community, especially in the process of tracking down fugitives and illegal profits," Foreign Minister Wang Yi said ahead of the APEC conference. "We hope that all relevant parties could support us and not become the safe havens for those fugitives."

By the end of October, the overseas sweep had brought back 180 suspects — mostly from Asia, Africa and South America, the Public Security Ministry said. However, China is seeking more cooperation with the U.S., Canada, and Australia, because they "have the highest concentrations of corrupt officials," said Wang Yukai, an anti-corruption expert at the Chinese Academy of Governance. "So it will be of great significance if China can build cooperative mechanisms with these countries to capture corrupt officials on the run and recover some economic losses."

But these countries are popular among corrupt Chinese officials for a reason. Their robust legal systems and concerns over possible judicial abuses in China have made their governments hesitant to repatriate Chinese citizens, or those who have gained residency or citizenship. The countries have collaborated with China in the past, but only on a case-by-case basis.

Entrepreneur and accused smuggler Lai Changxing was deported from Canada in 2011, but only after a 12-year extradition battle. China, which considers corruption to be a capital crime, agreed not to pursue the death penalty in Lai's case.

In 2004, the United States sent back Chinese bank executive Yu Zhendong, accused of embezzling $485 million with other defendants, on the condition that Yu would not be tortured or given the death penalty, which is common in China even for less serious corruption cases.

"For the West, which worships the rule of law, the greatest form of corruption is abusing one's power and infringing on civil rights," wrote Yang Hengjun, a former Chinese diplomat who is now an independent writer in Australia. He noted that corrupt Chinese officials can claim to be victims of political persecution and added that "differing definitions of what constitutes 'corruption'" have complicated cooperation between China and some countries.

Despite the complications, more collaboration is underway. A statement by Australia Federal Police said it assists China in tracing and restraining illicit assets in Australia and works with Beijing to "enhance bilateral cooperation on money laundering, remitters and economic fugitives."

Canada and China are in the process of signing and ratifying an inter-governmental agreement on the sharing of forfeited assets and the return of property, said John Babcock, spokesman for Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development.

In an editorial published Monday on the website of the Chinese-language financial media group Caixin, David Luna, senior director of anti-crime programs at the U.S. State Department, said Washington is willing to work with Beijing on its anti-corruption efforts while U.S. law enforcement cracks down on American companies bribing foreign officials. He suggested that senior anti-corruption officials from member countries meet.

John Ciorciari, assistant professor of public policy at University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, said there will be limits to such cooperation. He said an extradition treaty between China and the U.S. is unlikely "due to abiding U.S. concerns about China's human rights record and due process protections."

The United States can repatriate Chinese citizens in accordance with the U.N. Convention Against Corruption or deport them on violation of immigration rules, "yet the United States is not apt to send back suspects when it believes they will face politicized prosecution and sham trials," Ciorciari said.

"The challenges China faces getting U.S. help for the 'fox hunt' have at least as much to do with a political trust deficit as a lack of legal mechanisms for repatriation," he said.

Associated Press writer Christopher Bodeen and researcher Yu Bing in Beijing contributed to this report.

A Lesson For All Nigerians

Badeh Image Courtesy Of The Burton Wire

NIGERIA  (ELOMBA) --- Mubi, the biggest commercial town in Adamawa state, was thrown into chaos the day Boko Haram descended on them and the people found themselves running for their lives. The terrorists shot sporadically, killing a lot of people while those who could escape jumped into any available car to run to safety. Christians, Muslims, Igbos, Yorubas, Tivs, Hausas and any tribe or religion, jumped onto any vehicle that was headed outside the town. Soldiers scampered onto trucks with civilians, begging to be saved, hundreds of people who could not get a vehicle ran into the hills. In their frantic effort to stay alive, no one paid attention to anybody's religion or ethnicity before asking them for help or helping them to stay alive. It was a community of people, united by their desire to escape the common enemy that hunted them all without discrimination. Ethnicity and religion vanished, all they were left with was their humanity. Those climbing the hills stayed together, helping one another stay on their feet as they all tried to survive.

The most interesting part of the narrative is that the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Badeh is from the same town of Mubi. It has been reported that few hours before the attack, helicopters flew in and evacuated his family members from the town. The chief of Defence staff by the way, is the most senior military officer in Nigeria and he controls the army, navy and air force. Before that sad day, someone from Mubi would have boasted that the Chief of Defence Staff is from their home town. But on the day that it mattered the most, he evacuated only his family members and abandoned everyone else to their fate. It means he had information of the impending attack and as the most senior military commander, he did not fly into the town to lead his men to battle to defend his community. He quietly saved only his family and left even the soldiers without an inspiring commander to motivate them to engage the terrorists and defend his community.

One lesson all Nigerians must learn from this story is that as a people, all we have is our neighbours. When you need some help at home, you knock on the door of your neighbour. The president, governor, senator or minister is not there to help you. Why then should you continue to fight your neighbour because of a man or woman who cares only about his own family? Our elites may deceive us about sharing the same religion or ethnicity with us, but time and again, they have proven that they do not care. We have been fools, killing one another on the basis of religion and ethnicity while they stay united across all the divides and plunder our wealth. The time has come for us to rise, educate one another and unite to fight our biggest common enemy. The politicians are our enemies and not the poor struggling men and women in our neighbourhoods.

What now will the people of Mubi boast about as the gain of having their son as the chief of Defence Staff? If you go to Otueke where Jonathan comes from, there are many people who live in excruciating poverty! There is still a lot of poverty and suffering in the home towns of all our governors, ministers, parliamentarians and former presidents, while they and their families live in scandalous affluence. The minister of petroleum spent over 10 billion Naira on a private jet. That money can end the poverty of several communities in her state. Stella Oduah bought two cars with 120 million Naira while there are people in her home town who can't afford 500 Naira to feed their family in a day. The time to throw away the sentiments is now! Support only a man or woman who has a just heart and will serve everyone and every community regardless of if they come from there or not. The moment anyone begins to talk to you about religion or ethnicity, reject him summarily! We need leaders who will unite us because our shared humanity is greater than any differences between us. And if someone does something wrong or fails in governance, do not support them simply because they're your own.

---------Elombah

Released From Prison After 20 Years, SoCal Man Finds Calling In Counseling Troubled Teens

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A Southern California man released from prison after 20 years is using his second chance to counsel teens, hoping to steer them away from a path he wishes he never traveled.

KCAL9’s Leyna Nguyen spoke with John Hawkins, who by 25 has established himself as a successful entrepreneur with a flourishing business.

“I was already at a place in my life where I had more money than I ever dreamed I’d have. I got more attention than I should have gotten, and it went to my head,” he remembered.

It was 1988, and Hawkins had a chain of 22 stores, mostly in Ohio, called Just Sweats, which sold workout clothing.

“I thought I was on top of the world, but I was a guy with a lot of character flaws,” he said.

Those flaws eventually led to a twisted plot to fake his business partner’s death and file a false life insurance claim.

Hawkins would cash in on the insurance, and his partner would cash out of the business.

“We were approached by a company that had, like, I think it was 500 or 800 shoe stores all across the country. And they wanted to be our venture capital investor,” he recalled.

When the national shoe company wanted to invest, Hawkins says, his business partner wanted to sell his shares for nearly $2 million. But he didn’t have the money to buy him out.

“He was going to get all the money. And I was going to get his shares in the company,” Hawkins said.

That’s when he found Richard Boggs, a Harvard-educated Los Angeles doctor, to help commit the fraud.

“The doctor would purchase a cadaver from a medical school or a teaching hospital, identify the body as my business partner, sign the death certificate ‘natural causes’ and send the body to a mortuary. My role was to have the body cremated, scatter the ashes at sea and collect the insurance money,” Hawkins said.

But there was no cadaver. Instead, Boggs picked up a man at a North Hollywood bar and killed him, telling officials it was Hawkins’ business partner, who had died of natural causes.

Hawkins flew to California, arranged for the cremation and cashed the insurance payment.

But, Hawkins claims he didn’t even know there was a murder until the insurance company realized the dead man was not the business partner and contacted authorities.

“At that point, I pressed the panic button and ran,” he said.

Hawkins fled to Europe with $400,000, bought a boat and stayed on the run for three years using several aliases, still partying and still quite the ladies’ man.

A rerun of “America’s Most Wanted” resulted in Hawkins’ arrest in Italy.

He was returned to Los Angeles to face charges, but few people remember the case because it was going on while all eyes were on the O.J. Simpson trial.

“We were housed in the same place. I used to see him every day on my way to the shower,” he said.

Hawkins was convicted of conspiracy and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. It was there he says he found his calling: counseling troubled teens.

“It was for me an opportunity to give back and make amends,” Hawkins said.

Letters of praise and recommendations from those teens, their parents and school officials helped win Hawkins a second chance. He was paroled after more than two decades behind bars.

“There was no reason for this crime to even happen. It was senseless,” he said.

Now living in an RV with his aging mother in San Diego, it’s as if time stood still while he was in prison. Twenty years ago, there weren’t iPhones and Facebook or Twitter.

Now 55, Hawkins is trying to make up for lost time and learning to live in a world almost foreign to him.

The transition has been difficult, but he continues to counsel teens, hoping to steer them away from a path he wishes he never traveled.

“I just feel very blessed to have a second chance,” Hawkins said.

Boggs and Hawkins’ business partner Melvin Hanson were convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Boggs died in 2003.

Hanson is 72. He’s incarcerated at the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo.

Published November 3, 2014

Brittany Maynard Galvanizes Right-To-Die Efforts

Provided by TheBrittanyFund.org, Brittany Maynard, a terminally ill woman who plans to die under Oregon's law that allows the terminally ill to end their own lives, and her husband Dan Diaz pose at the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. Sean Crowley, spokesman from the group Compassion & Choices, said late Sunday, Nov. 2, 2014, that Maynard was surrounded by family Saturday when she took lethal medication prescribed by a doctor and died. She was weeks shy of her 30th birthday.

PORTLAND, OREGON. (AP) — Brittany Maynard's last days started a national conversation about whether it's OK for a terminally ill person to end their own life.

Now that she has died, it's time to see whether the millions of clicks and views she generated online trigger more than just talk. Advocates for expanding right-to-die laws beyond a handful of states expect attention from the young woman's story to carry into the new year, when state legislatures go into session.

"Up and down New England, the East Coast, and then in the West, too," said Peg Sandeen, executive director of the Death with Dignity National Center. "I think on both coasts we're going to see legislative action."

That optimism, however, will be met with the political reality that such legislation has been pushed for years, often unsuccessfully. "Suicide is never a good solution, regardless of the situation that one is confronting," said Judie Brown, president of the American Life League, a Catholic group.

Maynard, terminally ill with brain cancer, was in the national spotlight for about a month after publicizing that she and her husband, Dan Diaz, moved to Portland from Northern California so that she could use the Oregon law to end her life on her own terms. Maynard told journalists she planned to die Nov. 1, and followed through on Saturday. She was 29.

She approached the advocacy group Compassion & Choices during the summer in hopes that telling her story would lead to political action in California and across the nation. Whether that happens is an open question. Maynard, however, succeeded in raising awareness about an issue that was trending on Facebook and Twitter after her death.

"Younger people support death with dignity at really high levels, but it's not necessarily relevant or salient to their lives," Sandeen said. "I think the Brittany Maynard story makes it real." Vermont last year became the first state to legalize aid in dying through legislation — Oregon and Washington did so by referendum; in Montana and New Mexico, it was effectively legalized through court decisions.

In New Jersey, the state Assembly considered but failed to pass an aid-in-dying bill in June. Democratic Assemblyman John Burzichelli, who authored the bill, said he is hopeful it can pass the state's lower chamber before the end of the year. If that happens, he expects the Senate to pass it soon after, he said.

"It's very clear to me that the majority voice in New Jersey want another choice," Burzichelli said. Republican Gov. Chris Christie has said he opposes the measure. Compassion & Choice is spending about $7 million a year to protect the practice in states where it has been authorized and passing legislation in states where it has not, said Mickey MacIntyre, the group's chief program officer.

The group said its website has had more than 5 million unique visitors over the past month. Maynard's two videos, meanwhile, have been viewed more than 13 million times on YouTube alone. "The incredible number of people who have been inspired by Brittany's story, we hope to translate that into action in moving toward legislative change in this coming session," MacIntyre said.

Of course, not everyone who viewed the videos is a fan. Social conservatives have sharply criticized Maynard's decision, and it's unlikely any Republican-controlled legislatures will be considering right-to-die laws.

A leader of a legislative committee that handles health issues in Wyoming said she believes there's no chance the state would enact a law allowing doctor-assisted suicide. "My sense is Wyoming would reject it out of hand, it would just be a flat 'no,'" said State Rep. Elaine Harvey, adding that people in the state have said consistently that they value life.

"That's my personal values as well: we don't get to pick," Harvey said. "The big guy upstairs chooses when we go and when we stay." Maynard's relatives asked for privacy Monday and have not released information about funeral arrangements. A spokesman for Compassion & Choices said she died peacefully, surrounded by family and friends in the bedroom of her Portland home.

Oregon was the first U.S. state to make it legal for a doctor to prescribe a life-ending drug to a terminally ill patient. Through June 30, just over 800 people had used the law since it took effect shortly after the November 1997 election.

Those who take the drug typically fall asleep shortly and die within a half-hour. Willi Moelzer, 74, a retired high school teacher from Eugene, died last year after obtaining a life-ending prescription from his doctor.

"For my husband it was very peaceful," said Janet Moelzer, who now volunteers for Compassion & Choices. "He was looking forward to it," she said Monday. "We had a little party honoring him beforehand and then he went back to the bedroom at the time we had decided on. He drank his orange juice with the medicine in it, and went to sleep."

Ben Neary contributed from Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Michael Catalini contributed from Trenton, New Jersey.

Follow Steven DuBois at http://twitter.com/pdxdub

Celeb-Packed Funeral Held For Oscar de la Renta

Annie Leibovitz arrives at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola on Manhattan's Upper East Side before a private funeral for fashion designer Oscar De la Renta, Monday, Nov. 3, 2014, in New York.

NEW YORK (AP) — From Hillary Rodham Clinton to Hugh Jackman to Mikhail Baryshnikov, luminaries of the fashion, entertainment and media worlds packed a Manhattan church on Monday for the private funeral of legendary fashion designer Oscar de la Renta.

Clinton and her daughter, Chelsea, joined actors Jackman and Matthew Broderick, newswomen Barbara Walters, Diane Sawyer (with husband Mike Nichols) and Andrea Mitchell, dance great Baryshnikov, and designers Diane von Furstenberg, Ralph Lauren, Michael Kors, Donna Karan and Tommy Hilfiger at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola on Manhattan's Upper East Side, along with Vogue editor Anna Wintour, photographer Annie Leibovitz, and supermodel Karlie Kloss.

De la Renta died on Oct. 20 at his Connecticut home at the age of 82, following a battle with cancer. Jerry and Syd Shaw, who attended the funeral, said de la Renta worked until the end. "That was his life. He loved it. He loved working. He loved people," Jerry Shaw said following the service.

The funeral, Syd Shaw said, truly reflected de la Renta's life. "I think he would be overwhelmed because he had all kinds of people from all parts of his life," she said. The Dominican-born designer, famous for glamorous garments that combined intricate workmanship with luxurious materials, was as admired on Hollywood red carpets as he was at socialites' soirees. Most recently, Amal Alamuddin wore a de la Renta-designed dress when she married George Clooney at a lavish wedding in Venice.

Monday's service lasted about one hour. According to the printed program, honorary ushers included the designer's son, Moises de la Renta; TV newsman Charlie Rose, and singer Julio Iglesias. Readings were to be given by Clinton, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, among others.

World Trade Center Reopens, 13 Years After 9/11

One World Trade Center dominates the lower Manhattan skyline, Monday, Nov. 3, 2014 in this view from Jersey City, N.J. Thirteen years after the 9/11 terrorist attack, the resurrected World Trade Center is again opening for business, marking an emotional milestone for both New Yorkers and the United States as a whole. Publishing giant Conde Nast will start moving Monday into One World Trade Center, a 104-story, $3.9 billion skyscraper that dominates the Manhattan skyline.

NEW YORK (AP) — The silvery, 1,776-foot skyscraper that rose from the ashes of 9/11 to become a symbol of American resilience opened for business Monday, as 175 employees of the magazine publishing giant Conde Nast settled into their first day of work in their new offices.

One World Trade Center's official opening marked a symbolic return to some sense of normalcy for the site where the towers toppled more than 13 years ago. "The New York City skyline is whole again," says Patrick Foye, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns both the building and the 16-acre World Trade Center site.

Steps away from the new tower are two memorial fountains built on the footprints of the decimated twin towers, a reminder of the more than 2,700 people who died in the terrorist attack. Conde Nast, publisher of Vogue, The New Yorker and Vanity Fair, is expected to move in about 3,000 more employees by early next year, eventually occupying 25 floors of the $3.9 billion, 104-story tower, the nation's tallest building.

Amid Monday's celebratory tour of parts of 1 World Trade Center, Conde Nast officials declined to comment on employees' possible fears about working in the new building. Foye counters that it's "the most secure office building in America." And its chief architect, T.J. Gottesdiener, said the high-rise was built with steel-reinforced concrete that makes it as terror attack-proof as possible — much stronger than the original towers that collapsed on themselves when the hijacked planes hit.

The stairwells are built with a hardened concrete core, and wider to allow firefighters to move while people exit. The building's mechanical systems are also encased in hardened concrete. "If my son told me he had a job in the trade center Tower 1, I would have no qualms about him being there," Gottesdiener said.

After 9/11, he said, architects took pains to figure out new ways to make a high-rise safer, working with the New York Fire Department, buildings officials and police, while learning from new techniques from construction in cities worldwide.

Finally, computerized simulations were used to calculate what would happen with people in the building. One World Trade Center is 60 percent leased, with another 80,000 square feet going to the advertising firm Kids Creative, the stadium operator Legends Hospitality, the BMB Group investment adviser, and Servcorp, a provider of executive offices.

The government's General Services Administration signed up for 275,000 square feet, and the China Center, a trade and cultural facility, will cover 191,000 square feet. The space is at the top of the global price range, at $69 per square foot below the 63rd floor, and $80 to $100 going up.

The eight-year construction of the skyscraper came after years of political, financial and legal infighting that threatened to derail the project. The bickering slowly died down as two other towers started going up on the southeast end of the site: the now completed 4 World Trade Center whose anchor tenant is the Port Authority, which started moving in last week, and 3 World Trade Center, which is slowly rising.

The area has prospered in recent years. About 60,000 more residents now live in the area — three times more than before 9/11 — keeping streets, restaurants and shops alive even after Wall Street and other offices close for the day.

Still, it's a bittersweet victory, one achieved while haunted by the past. "The city and the world were watching us, and we had to do it right, to do it better than before," Gottesdiener said. "And we did it, we finally did it."

Al-Qaeda Fighters Push Offensive In Northern Syria

Provided by the U.S. Navy, an F-18 lands on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson in the Persian Gulf. The aircraft carrier and aircraft are deployed as part of operations targeting Islamic State group 

BEIRUT (ASSOCIATED PRESS) Al-Qaida-linked militants pressed an offensive Monday against Western-backed rebels in northern Syria, closing in on a vital border crossing with Turkey and exposing the weakness of mainstream opposition groups that the U.S. hopes to forge into a fighting force to take on Islamic extremists.

The Nusra Front's recent surge has overrun strongholds in Syria's Idlib province of two prominent rebel factions that proved unable to repel the assault despite getting arms and training from the U.S. The opposition groups' collapse marks a significant setback to Washington's plan of partnering with more moderate brigades to fight the Islamic State group and other radicals.

The Nusra Front — a bitter and bloody rival of the Islamic State group despite their shared extremist ideology — was massing its fighters Monday in the town of Sarmada near the Bab al-Hawa border crossing after sweeping through rebel-held towns and villages over the weekend. As the extent of the rout became apparent, reports also emerged that some rebels had pledged allegiance to the al-Qaida affiliate.

The fighting takes place against the backdrop of U.S.-led airstrikes to roll back and destroy the Islamic State group, which has seized huge chunks of territory spanning Syria and Iraq. That effort has recently focused on the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani on the Turkish border, where fighting has raged since September.

The two primary targets of the Nusra Front's attack are the Syria Revolutionaries Front and Harakat Hazm. While both rebel groups have received U.S. support, it never reached the levels that either deemed necessary to make significant advances against President Bashar Assad's forces in Syria's 3½-year-old civil war. At the same time, the link to the Americans also earned them the enmity of radical groups.

"The Nusra Front is deeply suspicious of both the SRF and Harakat Hazm because they receive support from the U.S.," said Aron Lund, editor of Syria in Crisis, a website run by the Carnegie Endowment. "The U.S. is also quite open about training rebels to take on both the Islamic State and al-Qaida, to which the Nusra Front belongs. So from the Nusra Front's perspective, these groups aren't just troublesome rivals, they're a pro-Western fifth column that are slowly being readied for a purge of jihadis."

Tensions between the groups worsened after the U.S. bombed Nusra Front bases in Idlib province on the opening night of its air campaign focused primarily on the Islamic State group. Those airstrikes won the Nusra Front, which has largely focused on fighting Assad's forces, the sympathy of many in opposition-held areas.

Mainstream rebel groups maintain a presence in parts of northern Syria and are also active in the south along the Jordanian border. But the quick defeat of two groups previously considered among the stronger factions in Idlib province "shows that ... the moderates are weaker than what we have been led to believe, despite increased funding from the West," said Charles Lister, a visiting fellow the Brookings Doha Center.

It was unclear how far the Nusra Front intended to take its offensive in Idlib. In recent days, the group's fighters have been gathering in the town of Sarmada in northern Idlib province, about 4 miles (6 kilometers) from Bab al-Hawa, said Assad Kanjo, an anti-Assad activist based in the province.

Rami Abdurrahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said Nusra fighters had flowed into Sarmada, but said there was no indication they had advanced on the crossing, which is held by a rebel alliance known as the Islamic Front. Bab al-Hawa serves as an important supply route for Western-backed fighters as well as aid groups in northern Syria.

Lister said he did not believe Nusra fighters would attack the crossing, saying they were unlikely to directly challenge the Islamic Front, a collection of hard-line and moderate Muslim groups. He said that likely would create new, unnecessary enemies for the group.

"Most likely, they will seek to consolidate their influence in the area around Bab al-Hawa," he said. Either way, the group's advances have dealt a sharp blow to Harakat Hazm and the Syria Revolutionaries Front.

Harakat Hazm emerged earlier this year, and online videos have showed its fighters using Western-donated weapons, including U.S. anti-tank weapons in the spring. It has made modest advances in Idlib. The Syria Revolutionaries Front, meanwhile, has sought to present itself as a force against extremists like the Islamic State. The group's leader, Jamal Maarouf, has emerged as a wily commander who has gotten the support of Western backers. He presents himself as a moderate but has used sharp sectarian language to refer to the Syrian army.

In an online video posted Saturday after his forces were pushed out of parts of Idlib, Maarouf accused Nusra fighters of "occupying" Idlib and compared them to Assad's forces. In the messy alliances that have characterized the Syrian war, the Nusra Front has fought alongside other rebel groups against Assad's forces. But it has particularly poor relations with Maarouf's men. They had fought in summer over what appeared to be the rights to smuggling Syrian fuel to Turkey.

Officials: Islamic State Group Kills 50 In Iraq

Militants from the Islamic State parade in a commandeered Iraqi security forces armored vehicle on a main street in Mosul, Iraq. 

BAGHDAD (AP) — Islamic State group extremists lined up and shot dead at least 50 tribesmen, women and children in Iraq's Anbar province Sunday, officials said, the latest mass killing committed by the group.

The attack against an Anbar Sunni tribe took place in the village of Ras al-Maa, north of Ramadi. There, the militant group killed at least 40 men, six women and four children, lining them up and publicly killing them one by one, Sheikh Naim al-Gaoud, a senior figure in the targeted Al Bu Nimr tribe, told The Associated Press. Another 17 people were kidnapped by the militant group, he said.

An official with the Anbar governor's office corroborated the account, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to brief journalists. The militant group killed another 50 members of the Al Bu Nimr tribe late Friday, and at least 48 people on Thursday, according to various officials who spoke to the AP.

The militant Islamist group has overrun a large part of Anbar province in its push to expand its territory across Iraq and Syria. Officials with the Iraqi government, as well as officials with the U.S.-led coalition targeting the extremists, repeatedly have said that Iraqi tribes are key elements in the fight against the Islamic State group since they are able to penetrate areas inaccessible to airstrikes and ground forces.

A number of Iraq's Sunni tribes have been fundamental in stalling the Islamic State group's advance, taking up arms and fighting alongside Iraqi security forces. But other tribes have not been won over, and have allied themselves with the militant group as a means for contesting the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.

The United Nations mission in Baghdad said Saturday that at least 1,273 Iraqis were killed in violence in October, a slight increase compared to last month amid the Islamic State group's assault.

Republican Gains Could Aid Obama's Asia Trade Pact

U.S. Trade Representative Mike Froman speaks in Washington. In a commentary in the November-December 2014 edition of the influential Foreign Affairs magazine,

WASHINGTON (AP) — Big Republican gains on Election Day would be a blow to much of President Barack Obama's agenda, but one stymied item on his to-do list might get a fresh chance to move forward: trade. That could breathe life into Asia-Pacific trade talks essential to his efforts to deepen engagement in the region.

Obama needs special authority, known as fast track, to negotiate trade deals that Congress can accept or reject, but cannot change. It would smooth the way for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is under discussion with 11 nations, and help advance separate negotiations with the 28-member European Union.

Fast-track legislation was introduced in January but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., would not allow a vote. Many Democrats fear that opening markets to countries with lower wages and standards will cost American jobs. Republicans tend to be more supportive, seeing more trade as benefiting the economy.

With Republicans favored to take control of the Senate and expand their House majority, trade could become a rare point of agreement between a Republican Congress and the White House. Yet obstacles would remain.

Many Republicans would hesitate to a Democratic president make progress on his agenda. Among Democrats, there's widespread opposition in the House to the Asian pact. Opposition is less strong in the Senate, but it only takes a few lawmakers to use procedural tactics and try to block the deal.

With or without fast track, there's no guarantee that the TPP nations can reach an agreement. The main players, the U.S. and Japan, appear at loggerheads over access to Japan's heavily protected agriculture market.

When TPP trade ministers met in Australia in late October, they announced significant progress in negotiations but no deal ahead of the Nov. 10-11 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, where leaders of the 12 nations will want to signal the end is in sight.

Having a clear definition of exactly what's in the pact would help trade legislation in Washington, said Jeffrey Schott, an international trade specialist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

"The large majority of the Republican party would support this and would be lobbied hard by the business community to get the legislation through," Schott said. "This is not just a symbolic issue. This is a dollars and cents issue."

But Lori Wallach of the advocacy group Public Citizen said U.S. negotiators have not broached in the TPP negotiations the issue of currency manipulation, despite demands from many U.S. lawmakers that it be included.

"The U.S. Congress will not provide the Obama administration with trade authority in no small part because it has ignored Congress' demands for the deal," Wallach said. Liberal-leaning groups also fear it will lead to Internet censorship and grant more power to corporations, adding to the reluctance among Democrats to support it.

The ambitious talks seek to cut tariffs and set broader rules on issues such as intellectual property and state-owned enterprises, and apply to countries that account for nearly 40 percent of the world economy and one-third of global trade. Besides the U.S. and Japan, the participants are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

The administration views the TPP as strategically important for U.S. outreach to the Asia-Pacific. The main U.S. business advocacy group also views it as an opportunity to expand exports to the region's fast-growing economies.

Christopher Wenk, the senior director of international policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said Republican congressional leaders have said consistently that trade is an area where they are interested to work with the president, but Obama needs to take the initiative.

"We definitely want to see more leadership from the administration and the president himself on trade issues after the elections," Wenk said. Republican advocates for the deal have accused Obama of failing on that count. They include the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, Utah's Orrin Hatch, a co-sponsor of the fast-track legislation and an important voice in the months ahead.

As the negotiations come down to the wire, the importance of getting fast-track authority grows. Without it, other governments will question whether the deal they agree on with the U.S. could be tinkered with by Congress, which could derail it.

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman wrote Foreign Affairs magazine that fast-track authority "would give U.S. trading partners the necessary confidence to put their best and final offers on the table."

Obama is under fire for his handling of foreign policy and he stands little chance of attaining other legislative goals on immigration and raising the minimum wage in a Republican-controlled Congress. Success on trade could burnish his presidency during his final years in office.

"Trade could be a real big achievement of the last couple of years of this president's term," Wenk said.

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