Saudi Extends Detention Of Women Drivers

Loujain al-Hathloul Shows her driving towards the United Arab Emirates - Saudi Arabia border before her arrest on Dec. 1, 2014, in Saudi Arabia

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Two Saudi women detained nearly a week ago for violating the kingdom's female driving ban were ordered held for 25 more days on Sunday, a relative told The Associated Press.

The women, who were arrested Dec. 1 after driving into Saudi Arabia from the United Arab Emirates, are supporters of a grassroots campaign launched last year to oppose the ban. The two women have a combined Twitter following of more than 355,000.

Organizers behind the Oct. 26 campaign say the ban on women driving underpins wider issues regarding guardianship laws in Saudi Arabia that give men powerful sway over women's lives. Loujain al-Hathloul, 25, set out to defy the kingdom's ban on women driving by crossing into her country from the UAE.

The kingdom's hardline interpretation of Islam holds that allowing women to drive encourages licentiousness. No such ban exists in the rest of the Muslim world, including Saudi Arabia's conservative Gulf neighbors.

In a video uploaded to YouTube Nov. 30, al-Hathloul filmed herself driving toward the Saudi border in what she said was "an effort to sustain the campaign for women's driving." "She wanted to highlight the absurdity" of not being allowed to drive into her own country, an activist said on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisal.

Saudi border guards confiscated al-Hathloul's passport and kept her at the border for nearly 24 hours. Maysa al-Amoudi, 33, arrived the next day to deliver food, water and a blanket to al-Hathloul, her sister Hannah al-Amoudi said.

Human Rights Watch said both women were then detained apparently for driving, though it is not clear if they will face criminal charges. Al-Amoudi said authorities notified the family on Sunday that they were extending her sister's detention another 25 days. They did not provide the legal reasons for holding her.

Al-Hathloul is in a correctional facility for juveniles and al-Amoudi is in a prison. The women have been interrogated without the presence of an attorney, but were allowed to see relatives and speak to relatives on the phone.

There was no official Saudi comment on the arrests. .

House Intelligence Chief: Report Will Spur Attacks

House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., questions witnesses during a full committee hearing on the threat posed by Islamic extremists, on Capitol Hill in Washington.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Foreign governments and U.S. intelligence agencies are predicting that the release of a Senate report examining the use of torture by the CIA will cause "violence and deaths" abroad, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said Sunday.

Rep. Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican, is regularly briefed on intelligence assessments. He told CNN's "State of the Union" that U.S. intelligence agencies and foreign governments have said privately that the release of the report on CIA interrogations a decade ago will be used by extremists to incite violence that is likely to cost lives. The 480-page report, a summary of a still-classified 6,000 page study, is expected to be made public next week.

On Friday, Secretary of State John Kerry urged the senator in charge of the report to consider the timing of the release, though Obama administration officials say they still support making it public. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat and chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has not responded to reports of the Kerry call, though she told the Los Angeles Times in a story published Sunday that "We have to get this report out."

A congressional aide noted that the White House has led negotiations to declassify the report since April, and that both the president and his director of national intelligence have endorsed its release. The government has taken steps to beef up security at American posts around the world, said the aide, who was not authorized to be quoted by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The report amounts to the first public accounting of the CIA's use of torture on al-Qaida detainees held in secret facilities in Europe and Asia in the years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

U.S. officials who have read it say it includes disturbing new details about the CIA's use of such techniques as sleep deprivation, confinement in small spaces, humiliation and the simulated drowning process known as waterboarding. President Barack Obama has acknowledged, "We tortured some folks." The report also says the torture failed to produce life-saving intelligence, a conclusion disputed by current and former intelligence officials, including CIA director John Brennan.

Rogers questioned why the report needed to become public, given that the Justice Department investigated and filed no criminal charges. Feinstein told the Los Angeles Times that the harsh interrogations undermined "societal and constitutional values that we are very proud of. Anybody who reads this is going to never let this happen again."

Post Reporter Charged In Iran After Day In Court

Jason Rezaian, an Iranian-American correspondent for the Washington Post smiles as he attends a presidential campaign of President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran, Iran.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Washington Post reporter detained in Iran for more than four months was formally charged Saturday after a day-long proceeding in a Tehran courtroom, the newspaper reported.

Jason Rezaian, the newspaper's bureau chief in Tehran since 2012, appeared in court almost five months after he was arrested July 22. The charges were the first against him since the arrest, the Post said. He is an Iranian-American who holds dual citizenship.

The newspaper, quoting a source familiar with the case, said the nature of the charges against him were not immediately clear to those not present in the courtroom. The State Department has repeatedly raised the subject of Rezaian and other Americans jailed in Iran during talks with the government about a deal to curb Iran's nuclear capacity and ease international sanctions.

The State Department tweeted early Sunday that Secretary of State John Kerry was "disappointed and concerned" with the latest developments and called on the Iranian government to drop any charges against Rezaian "and release him so he can be reunited with his family."

His detention has been extended to mid-January in recent days because the investigation is continuing, the Post said. His family has hired an attorney for him, but his lawyer has not been permitted to visit him.

The source told the newspaper that Rezaian spent about 10 hours in court Saturday while his case was reviewed by a judge. A translator accompanied Rezaian because he does not read Farsi, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.

It could take as long as a month for the charges to be delivered to the full court, which would then set a trial date, the source said

US Sends 6 Prisoners From Guantanamo To Uruguay

And reviewed by the U.S. military, a soldier stands guard at the front gate entrance to Guantanamo's Camp 6 maximum-security detention facility, at Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, Cuba.

MIAMI (AP) — Six prisoners held for 12 years at Guantanamo Bay have been sent to Uruguay to be resettled as refugees, the U.S. government announced Sunday — a deal that had been delayed for months by security concerns at the Pentagon and political considerations in the South American country.

The six men — four Syrians, a Tunisian and a Palestinian — are the first prisoners transferred to South America from the U.S. base in Cuba, part of a flurry of recent releases amid a renewed push by President Barack Obama to close the prison.

All were detained as suspected militants with ties to al-Qaeda in 2002 but were never charged. They had been cleared for release since 2009 but could not be sent home and the U.S. struggled to find countries willing to take them.

Uruguayan President Jose Mujica agreed to accept the men as a humanitarian gesture and said they would be given help getting established in a country with a small Muslim population. "We are very grateful to Uruguay for this important humanitarian action, and to President Mujica for his strong leadership in providing a home for individuals who cannot return to their own countries," U.S. State Department envoy Clifford Sloan said.

Among those transferred was Abu Wa'el Dhiab, a 43-year-old Syrian on a long-term hunger strike protesting his confinement who was at the center of a legal battle in U.S. courts over the military's use of force-feeding.

The Pentagon identified the other Syrians sent to Uruguay on Saturday as Ali Husain Shaaban, 32; Ahmed Adnan Ajuri, 37; and Abdelahdi Faraj, 39. Also released were Palestinian prisoner Mohammed Abdullah Taha Mattan, 35, and 49-year-old Adel bin Muhammad El Ouerghi of Tunisia.

Uruguayan officials declined comment Sunday on the transfers. Adriana Ramos, a receptionist at a military hospital in Montevideo, the capital, said the six men were being examined there but declined to provide any details.

Cori Crider, a lawyer for Dhiab from the human rights group Reprieve, praised Mujica, a former political prisoner himself, for accepting the men. "Despite years of suffering, Mr. Dhiab is focused on building a positive future for himself in Uruguay," said Crider, who was heading to Montevideo to meet with him. "He looks forward to being reunited with his family and beginning his life again."

The U.S. has now transferred 19 prisoners out of Guantanamo this year, all but one of them within the last 30 days. Saturday's move brings the total number of prisoners still at Guantanamo to 136 — the lowest number since shortly after the prison opened in January 2002. Officials say several more releases are expected by the end of the year.

Obama administration officials had been frustrated that the transfer took so long, blaming outgoing Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel for not approving the move sooner. They said after Mujica had agreed to take the men in January, the deal sat for months on Hagel's desk, awaiting his signature as required by law. The Pentagon didn't send the notification of the transfer to Congress until July.

By then, the transfer had become an issue in Uruguay's political election and officials there decided to postpone it until after the vote. Tabare Vazquez, a member of Mujica's ruling coalition and a former president, won a runoff election on Nov. 30.

Upon taking office, Obama had pledged to close the prison but was blocked by Congress, which banned sending prisoners to the U.S. for any reason, including trial, and placed restrictions on sending them abroad.

The slow pace of releases has created a tense atmosphere inside the prison. A hunger strike that began in February 2013 totaled about 100 prisoners at its peak, including Dhiab and Faraj. The U.S. now holds 67 men at Guantanamo who have been cleared for release or transfer but, like the six sent to Uruguay, can't go home because they might face persecution, a lack of security or some other reason.

Prisoners from Guantanamo have been sent around the world but this weekend's transfer was the largest group sent to the Western Hemisphere. Four Guantanamo prisoners were sent to Bermuda in 2009 and two were sent to El Salvador in 2012 but have since left.

Associated Press writers Nedra Pickler in Washington, Leo Haberkorn in Montevideo, Uruguay, and Luis Henao in Santiago, Chile, contributed to this report.

Berkeley Protesters Smash Windows ; 2 Officers Hurt

Demonstrators lie in the street in Berkeley, California on Saturday, Dec. 6, 2014. Two officers were injured Saturday night as a California protest over police killings turned violent with protesters smashing windows 

BERKELEY, CALIF. (AP) — Two officers were injured as a California protest over police killings turned violent with protesters smashing windows and throwing rocks and bricks at police, who responded by firing tear gas, authorities said.

Several officers were struck, but there were just two reports of injury, Berkeley police spokeswoman Jenn Coats said. A Berkeley police officer received hospital treatment for a dislocated shoulder after being hit with a sandbag, while another sustained minor injuries.

Saturday night's demonstration against police killings of unarmed black men in Missouri and New York began peacefully, the latest of several in the Bay Area in recent days. But Officer Coats said that some protesters later broke away and began throwing rocks, bottles and pipes at officers.

Scores of law officers from several surrounding agencies joined Berkeley Police Department in trying to quell unrest that went on for hours, into early Sunday morning. She said several businesses on University Avenue were vandalized, including Trader Joe's, Radio Shack and a Wells Fargo Bank branch. Some squad cars were also damaged.

"A small splinter group from the original protests continues to march in Berkeley," Coats said in a statement issued around 11 p.m. PST. "Unfortunately this group has become violent and continues to throw objects, including rocks and bricks at officers."

She said officers attempting to get the crowd to depart used tear gas. " Several dispersal orders have been given, and the crowd has ignored the orders. In response to the violence officers have utilized tear gas and smoke in an effort to disperse the crowd," she said.

Some people were still protesting in the streets early Sunday morning, police said. Authorities did not provide further details of any injuries or arrests. "The total number of arrests and injuries is not known at this time," Coats' statement said.

Local media reports said about 300 to 400 people participated in the relatively peaceful demonstration before splinter groups broke off. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that at one point, the marchers were face-to-face with a line of about 100 police in riot gear who turned the crowd back.

The paper said that it wasn't just protesters who were hit by tear gas. Several concerts had let out from downtown sites and concertgoers waiting to pay in a nearby garage were enveloped in a cloud of stinging gas, sending them running into elevators.

KCBS reported that police closed two Bay Area Rapid Transit commuter train stations along the protest route. Protesters had planned to march from the University of California, Berkeley campus to Oakland's Civic Center.

Protest Of Chokehold Death Turns Violent In California

Protesters participate in a "die-in" at Grand Central Station during a demonstration against a grand jury's decision not to indict the police officer involved in the death of Eric Garner, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2014, in New  York.

NEW YORK (AP) — Protests of a grand jury's decision not to indict a white police officer in the chokehold death of an unarmed black man continued around the country, and authorities said a march in California turned violent when masked demonstrators smashed windows and threw objects at police.

A Berkeley police officer received hospital treatment for a shoulder injury, while another sustained minor injuries after some of the protesters threw rocks and other projectiles, spokeswoman officer Jenn Coats said.

She said several businesses were looted and damaged during the march, and officers attempting to get the crowd do disperse used tear gas. There have been no reports of any arrests. Thousands of demonstrators have protested peacefully in New York and elsewhere since the announcement Wednesday that a grand jury would not indict a white officer in the death of Eric Garner, a black man who gasped "I can't breathe" while he was being arrested for selling loose, untaxed cigarettes. The decision closely followed a Missouri grand jury's choice not to indict a white officer in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old.

The scope of the demonstrations and the lack of violence were moving to Garner's mother and widow, they said Saturday. "It is just so awesome to see how the crowds are out there," said Eric Garner's mother, Gwen Carr, who added that she ended up stuck in her car after protests shut down traffic.

"I was just so proud of that crowd," Carr said. "It just warmed my heart." Garner's widow, Esaw Garner, said she saw demonstrators from her apartment window and told her son, "Look at all the love that your father's getting."

Officers have said the outcry over the grand jury decision has left them feeling betrayed and demonized by everyone from the president and the mayor to throngs of protesters who scream at them on the street.

"Police officers feel like they are being thrown under the bus," said Patrick Lynch, president of the police union. Garner's family members joined the Rev. Al Sharpton later Saturday as Sharpton laid a wreath at the site on Staten Island where Garner died July 17 in a confrontation that started when police tried to arrest him.

An amateur video seen by millions showed Garner gasping, "I can't breathe" during the fatal encounter. "All we're concerned about is justice from the police," said Garner's stepfather, Benjamin Carr, who wore a T-shirt with the words, "Enough is enough."

Protests continued in New York City for a fourth day with several dozen people lying down on the floor of Grand Central Terminal and marching into stores in Times Square. There were no reports of arrests.

Protests have also been held in Philadelphia, Chicago, Miami, Las Vegas and a number of other cities. In Seattle, several hundred people marched downtown to police headquarters Saturday. Authorities said a group then split off from the main protest and tried to get onto a roadway. Police say some protesters threw rocks at officers who blocked them from entering it. Seven were arrested.

Sharpton announced plans this week for a march in Washington, D.C., next Saturday to protest the killings of Garner, Brown and others and to press for change at the federal level

Pakistan Says Top al-Qaida Militant Killed In Raid

Adnan Shukrijumah. The Pakistan military issued a statement Saturday Dec. 6, 2014 saying Adman Shukrijumah was killed in a raid in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal area.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistani soldiers killed a top al-Qaida operative Saturday who was indicted in the U.S. for his alleged involvement in a plot to bomb New York's subway system, the military said in a statement.

The death of Adnan Shukrijumah is the latest blow to the terror organization still reeling from the 2011 killing of leader Osama bin Laden and now largely eclipsed by the militant Islamic State group. It also marks a major achievement for the Pakistani military, which mounted a widespread military operation in the northwest this summer.

The military announced Shukrijumah's death in a statement, saying that he was killed along with two other suspected militants in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal area early Saturday. South Waziristan is part of the mountainous territory bordering Afghanistan that is home to various militant groups fighting both in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"The al-Qaida leader, who was killed by the Pakistan army in a successful operation, is the same person who had been indicted in the United Stated," said a senior Pakistani army officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to journalists.

As al-Qaida's head of external operations, the 39-year-old Shukrijumah occupied a position once held by Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The FBI lists Shukrijumah, a Saudi national, as a "most wanted" terrorist and the U.S. State Department had offered up to a $5 million reward for his capture.

Federal prosecutors in the U.S. allege Shukrijumah had recruited three men in 2008 to receive training in the lawless tribal region of Pakistan for the subway attack. The three traveled to Pakistan to avenge the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan but were persuaded by al-Qaida operatives to return to the United States for a suicide-bombing mission against a major target such as the New York Stock Exchange, Times Square or Grand Central Terminal.

Eventually, the men settled on a plot to blow themselves up at rush hour, according to testimony in federal court. Attorney General Eric Holder has called that New York plot one of the most dangerous since 9/11.

Adis Medunjanin, originally from Bosnia, was sentenced to life in prison in November 2012 for his role in a foiled 2009 plot. Najibullah Zazi and Zarein Ahmedzay cooperated with the government in the hopes of getting a reduced sentence.

After the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Shukrijumah was seen as one of al-Qaida's best chances to attack inside the U.S. or Europe, captured terrorist Abu Zubaydah told U.S. authorities. Shukrijumah studied computer science and chemistry at a community college in Florida and is thought to be the only al-Qaida leader to have once held a U.S. green card. He lived in Miramar, Florida, with his mother and five siblings.

He had come to South Florida in 1995 when his father, a Muslim cleric and missionary trained in Saudi Arabia, decided to take a post at a Florida mosque after several years at a mosque in Brooklyn. But at some point in the late 1990s, the FBI says Shukrijumah became convinced that he must participate in "jihad," or holy war, to fight perceived persecution against Muslims in places like Chechnya and Bosnia. He eventually went to a training camp in Afghanistan where he studied the use of weapons, explosives and battle tactics.

When the FBI showed up to arrest him as a material witness to a terrorism case in 2003, he had already left the country. In 2004, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft called Shukrijumah a "clear and present danger" to the United States. Experts said what made him so dangerous was his firsthand knowledge of the United States. There was no immediate comment from the U.S. to the news of Shukrijumah's death.

Spokesmen for the New York Police Department and the U.S. attorney's office for the Eastern District of New York did not respond Saturday to emails seeking comment on the report of Shukrijumah's death.

The Pakistani military said that Shukrijumah had recently moved from the North Waziristan tribal area to South Waziristan to avoid a military operation the Pakistanis launched in June in North Waziristan. The military said he was hiding in a compound when he was killed but gave few other details about the raid. One Pakistani soldier was killed and another seriously wounded during the assault, the military said.

Pakistan's army spokesman, Maj. Gen. Asim Saleem Bajwa, said on Twitter that five "terrorists" also were detained in the raid. The United States has been pushing Pakistan for years to launch an operation in North Waziristan, the last area of the tribal region bordering Afghanistan where the Pakistani military had not forcefully moved to root out militants. The military says they have killed 1,200 militants in the North Waziristan operation and cleared 90 percent of the territory.

Shukrijumah's death is a significant success for Pakistan's military, Pakistani security analyst Zahid Hussain said. "They seem to have developed a strong intelligence networks in the tribal areas," he said.

Associated Press writer Rebecca Santana contributed to this report.

Azerbaijan Jails Investigative Journalist

Azerbaijani Khadija Ismayilova, a reporter for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, in Baku, Azerbaijan. 

BAKU, AZERBAIJAN (AP) — Azerbaijan has detained a prominent investigative journalist whose reporting has often featured the business dealings of top politicians in the country.

A court in Baku, the capital, ordered the jailing on Friday of Khadija Ismayilova, a reporter for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which is funded by the United States government. She must remain behind bars pending a trial on charges of driving a man to suicide, a crime that carries up to seven years in prison.

The treatment of Ismayilova — who also has reported on alleged corruption and human rights abuses, including the persecution of opposition figures in Azerbaijan — has sparked widespread condemnation from rights groups abroad. Amnesty International condemned it as a "move to silence independent media voices in the country."

Nenad Pejic, the editor-in-chief of Radio Free Europe, said: "The arrest and detention of Khadija Ismayilova is the latest attempt in a two-year campaign to silence a journalist who has investigated government corruption and human rights abuses in Azerbaijan."

Ismayilova has been targeted for her reporting before. In 2012, after a series of damaging articles on the ruling family's role in lucrative construction projects, she was warned in a letter that her reputation could be compromised, and later a video of her having sex with her boyfriend was published online.

On Thursday, the Azerbaijan government released a lengthy memo criticizing the modern-day "colonialism" of the United States and accusing journalists at Radio Free Europe's local service of working to promote foreign interests in the country. Azerbaijan has been a staunch military ally of the U.S. and contributed troops to missions in Afghanistan and Iraq.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf declined to comment on the specific case, but said Friday that the United States is "deeply troubled by restrictions on civil society activities, including on journalists in Azerbaijan."

Many activists and independent journalists in this energy-rich Caspian Sea nation have been jailed since the country's independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, including two rights activists in August.

AP correspondent Matthew Lee contributed from Washington.

American, South African Killed In Yemen

Luke Somers, 33, an American photojournalist who was kidnapped over a year ago by al-Qaida, uses a camera during a demonstration demanding the release of Yemeni detainees in Guantanamo Bay prison.

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — An American photojournalist and a South African teacher were killed Saturday during a high-risk, U.S.-led raid to free them from al-Qaida-affiliated militants in Yemen, a turbulent Arab country that is a centerpiece of U.S. counterterrorism efforts in the region.

The predawn raid was the second rescue attempt in as many weeks to free Luke Somers, a 33-year-old freelance photographer and editor kidnapped just over a year ago in Yemen's capital. South African Pierre Korkie, abducted 18 months ago with his wife in the city of Tazi, also was killed by militants as U.S. forces descended upon the militants' compound in southern Yemen. A South African aid group trying to negotiate Korkie's release said he was a day from freedom after a deal late last month that included a "facilitation fee" to the kidnappers. The relief organization had told Korkie's wife that "the wait is almost over."

President Barack Obama said he ordered the raid because Somers was believed to be in "imminent danger." The president, in a statement, condemned Somers' killing as a "barbaric murder," but did not mention the 56-year-old Korkie by name, offering condolences to the family of "a non-U.S. citizen hostage." The South African government said it was informed that Korkie died during the mission by American special forces.

"It is my highest responsibility to do everything possible to protect American citizens," Obama said. "As this and previous hostage rescue operations demonstrate, the United States will spare no effort to use all of its military, intelligence and diplomatic capabilities to bring Americans home safely, wherever they are located."

About 40 American special operations forces were involved in the rescue attempt, which followed U.S. drone strikes in the area, U.S. officials said. The rescuers, backed by Yemeni ground forces, advanced within 100 meters of the compound in Shabwa province when they were spotted by the militants. A firefight ensued.

Amid the fighting, U.S. forces saw a militant briefly enter a building on the compound. U.S. officials believe it was then that Somers and Korkie were shot. When Americans entered the building, they found both men alive, but gravely wounded.

Officials said that based on the location where Somers and Korkie were being held, there was no possibility that they were struck by American gunfire. U.S. forces pulled Somers and Korkie onto V-22 Ospreys, and medical teams began performing surgery in midair. One hostage died during the short flight; the second died after the Ospreys landed on the USS Makin Island, a Navy ship in the region.

The raid was over in about 30 minutes. U.S. officials disclosed details of the mission on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the raid. Saturday's operation was the second rescue attempt by U.S. and Yemeni forces to bring Somers home alive. On Nov. 25, American special operations forces and Yemeni soldiers raided a remote al-Qaida safe haven in a desert region near the Saudi border.

Eight captives, including Yemenis, a Saudi and an Ethiopian, were freed. Somers was not at that location. He and five other hostages had been moved days earlier, officials later said. Roughly a dozen people are believed held by al-Qaida militants in Yemen.

On Thursday, al-Qaida militants released a video showing Somers and threatening to kill him in three days if the United States did not meet the group's unspecified demands or if another rescue was attempted.

U.S. officials said that threat prompted Obama to move quickly. Using information obtained during the first raid, U.S. officials believed Somers was being held Shabwa province, a stronghold of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the terrorist group's Yemeni branch. Officials believed a second hostage was there, too, but did not know it was Korkie.

By Thursday evening, the Pentagon had sent the White House a proposed plan, which Obama approved the following day. Officials alerted Yemen's President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who gave his support. Hadi has been a critical U.S. partner in seeking to undermine Yemen's dangerous al-Qaida affiliate. With the permission of Yemen's government, the U.S. has for years launched drone strikes against militant targets in the country and provided Yemen with hundreds of millions of dollars in security assistance.

When Obama announced U.S. airstrikes this year against militant targets in Syria and Iraq, he held up the Yemen effort as a comparable model. Yemen's highest security body, the Supreme Security Committee, issued a rare statement Saturday acknowledging that the country's forces had carried out the raid with "American friends." The committee said all the militants holding the hostages were killed in the operation.

No American forces were killed or sustained serious injuries in the raid. Yemen's government said four of its forces were wounded. Korkie was abducted in May 2013 along with his wife, Yolande, who was doing relief work. She was released in January without ransom as a result of negotiations by the South African relief group, Gift of the Givers.

But al-Qaida militants demanded a $3 million ransom for Korkie's release, according to those close to the negotiations. Although that demand was dropped, the kidnappers did insist on the "facilitation fee," according to the aid group. The undisclosed amount was raised by Korkie's family and friends, according to the South African Press Agency.

"A team of Abyan (Yemeni) leaders met in Aden this morning and were preparing the final security and logistical arrangements, related to hostage release mechanisms, to bring Pierre to safety and freedom," said Imtiaz Sooliman, the aid group's founder. "It is even more tragic that the words we used in a conversation with Yolande at 5:59 this morning was: 'The wait is almost over.'"

The U.S. government has a policy against paying ransoms to win the release of hostages. Korkie was a dedicated teacher, a family friend said. "Teaching was his life. His heart took him to Yemen. He loved teaching the poor," said Daan Nortier, who is acting as a family spokesman.

Lucy Somers, the photojournalist's sister, told The Associated Press that she and her father learned of her brother's death from FBI agents just after midnight Saturday. "We ask that all of Luke's family members be allowed to mourn in peace," she said from near London.

Somers was kidnapped in September 2013 as he left a supermarket in Sanaa, according to Fakhri al-Arashi, chief editor of the National Yemen, where Somers worked as a copy editor and a freelance photographer during the 2011 uprising in Yemen.

Before her brother's death, Lucy Somers released an online video describing him as a romantic who "always believes the best in people." She ended with the plea: "Please let him live." In a statement, Somers' father, Michael, also called his son "a good friend of Yemen and the Yemeni people" and asked for his safe release.

Fuad Al Kadas, who called Somers one of his best friends, said Somers spent time in Egypt before finding work in Yemen. Somers started teaching English at a Yemen school but quickly established himself as a one of the few foreign photographers in the country, he said.

"He is a great man with a kind heart who really loves the Yemeni people and the country," Al Kadas wrote in an email from Yemen. He said he last saw Somers the day before he was kidnapped. Al-Arashi, Somers' editor at the National Yemen, recalled a moment when Somers edited a story on other hostages held in the country.

"He looked at me and said, 'I don't want to be a hostage,'" al-Arashi said. "'I don't want to be kidnapped.'"

Pace reported from Washington. Associated Press writers who contributed to this report include Maamoun Youssef, Sarah El Deeb, Maggie Michael and Jon Gambrell in Cairo; Robert Burns in Kabul, Afghanistan; Ken Dilanian in Washington; Adam Schreck and Fay Abuelgasim in Manama, Bahrain; Andrew Meldrum in Johannesburg and Yusof Abdul-Rahman in London.

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

No Strings Attached: Brazil Nudists Get Rio Beach

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

DECEMBER 5, 2014

Erica Menezes de Oliveira prepares a drink as her husband Carlos Eduardo grabs some ice on Abrico beach, recently designated as nudist after a 20-year-battle, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2014. The city renown worldwide for its wild Carnival celebrations featuring near-naked samba dancers has finally gotten its first official nudist beach.

Abrico beach, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of central Rio, was officially made a nudist beach last month. While Brazilian beachwear may be as close as one can get to being nude while ostensibly clothed, for Brazilians those tiny spandex triangles covering private parts make all the difference.
Nudism outside of Carnival parades is widely frowned upon in Brazil. On the more than 7,400 kilometers (4,600 miles) of coastline, there are just eight official nudist beaches, now including Rio's Abrico.

That's compared to over 200 nude recreation areas in the U.S. under the care of the American Association for Nude Recreation, and even more common nudism in Europe. "It's still very taboo. Most people here continue to mix up nudism and free love," said Ribeiro, as he strolled the sand in his birthday suit, accessorized with a cap to shield his head from the sun. "In Rio, you have Carnival celebrations with nude or nearly nude people parading in the samba schools. But Rio residents only accept that during Carnival."

Surrounded by tropical vegetation, Abrico is isolated from neighboring beaches by outsized rock formations. Because of its seclusion, Abrico has been drawing nudists since the late 1950s, Ribeiro said.

The municipal law passed last month requires police to patrol the beach. But so, far none have showed up, according to Ribeiro. "Back when it was illegal to go naked here, the cops were here all the time, threatening people and shaking them down," he said. "Now that we need them here, they're nowhere in sight."

Claudio da Silva, a 53-year-old who was one of a handful of people defying the overcast weather to let it all hang out on Abrico this week, said that "unfortunately, Brazilians are not yet psychologically prepared for nudism."

"These attitudes don't change overnight," said Silva, sporting just sunglasses. "But I believe this law shows we're slowly, slowly making progress."

Asked About Marijuana, Paul Says 'I Made Mistakes'

In this Nov. 21, 214 file photo, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. speaks in Highland Heights, Ky. Paul hinted in an interview Friday, Dec. 5, 2014, that he smoked marijuana in his youth, adding that voters should not confuse his push for reduced criminal penalties for drug offenses as an endorsement of drug use.

HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, KENTUCKY. (AP) — Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul hinted in an interview Friday that he smoked marijuana in his youth, adding that voters should not confuse his push for reduced criminal penalties for drug offenses as an endorsement of drug use.

Paul, who announced plans this week to seek re-election to the Senate in 2016 and is actively exploring whether to run for president, said he "wasn't a choir boy" when asked by Louisville television station WHAS if he had used marijuana while in college.

"Let's just say I wasn't a choir boy when I was in college and that I can recognize that kids make mistakes, and I can say that I made mistakes when I was a kid," Paul said in an interview broadcast Friday night.

"I think drugs, marijuana included, aren't good for you," Paul said. "I don't want to be someone who is seen as being this person advocating for drug use. I think they're not a good idea." The recreational use of marijuana is legal in two states and voters in two more plus the District of Columbia have approved legalization as well. Paul told a group of law students at Northern Kentucky University last month he would not support lifting the federal ban on marijuana use, but said he did not want the federal government to try and overturn state laws that have made the drug legal.

Paul told WHAS he has focused on reducing criminal penalties for some nonviolent drug offenses, which he said have been administered unfairly and disproportionally impact the nation's minorities. He noted that the past three presidents "either admitted or skirted around the issue" of using illegal drugs in their youth.

"If they had been poor or lived in poverty or lived in one of our big cities where there are a lot of (police) patrols, there's a good chance none of them would have ever excelled," Paul said. "So I have a great deal of personal sympathy for people who have made mistakes as a young person."

Paul said in the interview a decision on whether to run for president was still months away. However, he said any potential presidential campaign would include Jesse Benton, his 2010 Senate campaign manager, who resigned from Sen. Mitch McConnell's re-election campaign earlier this year after an Iowa state senator pleaded guilty to federal charges stemming from Paul's father's 2012 presidential campaign.

Benton, who served as former Rep. Ron Paul's campaign manager in 2012, has denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged. In that case, former Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorensen allegedly accepted thousands of dollars to switch his support to Ron Paul before the 2012 Iowa caucuses and lied to federal investigators about the money.

"Jesse is married to my niece and was a big help in the Kentucky election here in 2010 and a big help for Sen. McConnell. Yes, he'll help us," Rand Paul said, adding he did not think Benton "did anything wrong."