Bono Teams Up With Revo For Eye Care Awareness

Bono of U2 performs at the Innocence + Experience Tour at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif. Bono, who has had problems with his own eyesight, is partnering with a company to provide better eye care to the underprivileged. Bono was diagnosed with glaucoma two decades ago and while he says his eyesight is now ok. But in a statement, Thursday, July 23, he said "tens of millions of people around the world with sight problems don’t have access to glasses, or even a basic eye test." (Photo by Rich Fury/Invision/AP, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Bono, who has had problems with his own vision, is partnering with a company to provide better eye care to the underprivileged.

The "Buy Vision, Give Sight" campaign with eyewear brand Revo is designed to raise $10 million for screening, eyeglasses and other assistance to the impoverished. Revo will donate $10 for each pair of eyeglasses it sells, and the U2 frontman will introduce his own line of Revo sunglasses, which he has been wearing on U2's sold-out tour, in the fall.

Bono, who was diagnosed with glaucoma two decades ago, says his eyesight is OK now. But in a Thursday statement, he said "tens of millions of people around the world with sight problems don't have access to glasses, or even a basic eye test."

He called sight a "human right." The 55-year-old rocker is known for his activism and philanthropy

Kenyan Bombing Victims Appeal For Aid Ahead Of Obama Visit

Douglas Sidialo, a Kenyan who was blinded in the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi that was linked to al-Qaida, visits the Memorial Park that was built at the site of the embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. Kenyan victims of the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi are appealing for financial compensation from the United States ahead of a visit this week by President Barack Obama. (AP)

NAIROBI, KENYA (AP) — Kenyan victims of the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi are appealing for financial compensation from the United States ahead of a visit this week by President Barack Obama.

Obama should consider aid for Kenyan victims on "humanitarian grounds" during his trip to Kenya, the first stop on a two-nation African tour that also includes Ethiopia, said victim Douglas Sidialo. A Kenyan who was blinded in the 1998 attack linked to al-Qaida, Sidialo wears sunglasses and walks with a cane.

"The first black president in America should give us Kenyans a greater consideration on humanitarian grounds to see to it that we can have some kind of livelihood," Sidialo said in an interview with The Associated Press at a Nairobi memorial for the bombing victims.

Stella Mwikali, a bank worker who suffered injuries to her legs and right shoulder, said she later lost her job and has been struggling to get by ever since the attack. She said she deserved compensation because she was "caught in the middle of the battle" between the United States and Islamic militants.

"I was doing my job innocently," she said Thursday. "I'm not a political person. I was just going about my normal duties." Extremists simultaneously attacked the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on Aug. 7, 1998. The Kenya attack killed more than 200 Kenyans and 12 Americans at the embassy. Thousands were injured.

The United States has said it spent tens of millions of dollars to help attack victims and their families. In 2001, several al-Qaida members were convicted in the United States of involvement in the attacks and are serving life sentences.

Associated Press journalist Josphat Kasire contributed.

Obama's Africa Visit Troubles Human Rights Groups

Workers finish installing a large billboard showing Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta, left, and President Barack Obama, right, in downtown Nairobi, Kenya Thursday, July 23, 2015. In his first trip to Kenya since he was a U.S. senator in 2006, Obama is scheduled to arrive in Kenya on Friday, the first stop on his two-nation African tour in which he will also visit Ethiopia. (AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's trip to Kenya and Ethiopia is drawing fresh criticism that the two countries are heavy-handed on human rights and basic democratic freedoms.

Obama will become the first sitting U.S. president to visit Kenya, his ancestral homeland, when he arrives Friday to attend a business summit and meetings with President Uhuru Kenyatta. Obama will become the first U.S. president to travel to Ethiopia when he lands there Sunday to confer with Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and to address the African Union, which is headquartered there.

"While both countries face real security threats, we are concerned by the way in which each government has responded, often with abusive security measures and increased efforts to stifle civil society and the media," Human Rights Watch and other advocacy organizations and analysts said in a letter to Obama. "Many of these initiatives undermine core human rights protections and the rule of law and are also counterproductive when it comes to reducing insecurity."

Obama said one of the themes he will stress during the trip is that the economic growth that Africans seek depends on good governance, including free and fair elections; strong, democratic institutions; freedom of speech and the press; vibrant civic participation and respect for human rights.

"Some African nations have made impressive progress on these fronts," he said in an opinion piece published Thursday by The Root, a website with a largely African-American audience. "Others have not. My trip will be an opportunity to address these issues candidly, both publicly and privately in my meetings with leaders."

The White House says the trip, Obama's fourth to the continent as president, is an important opportunity for him to promote trade and investment with Africa, but to also check in with important Horn of Africa partners in the fight against Islamic extremism. The U.S. and Kenya work together to counter al-Shabab, the Islamic militant group based in neighboring Somalia that has carried out numerous attacks in Kenya, including the mass killing of university students in April, the 2013 attack on the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, the capital, and the bombing of the U.S. Embassy, also in Nairobi, in 1998.

Ethiopia shares intelligence with the U.S. as part of the anti-terrorism effort and also has sent troops across the border into Somalia to address instability there. The letter to Obama said he should put the "pressing human rights concerns" in Kenya and Ethiopia "at the forefront of your discussions."

The letter expressed concern that both countries are using national security concerns to stifle the media as well as civic participation and, in Kenya, to crack down on Somali refugees who have fled the instability in their home country. Kenya's deputy president, William Ruto, is also under indictment by the International Criminal Court for alleged links to violence after the 2007 election. The ICC recently dropped similar charges against Kenyatta, an outcome that increased the odds of an Obama visit to the East African nation.

The Ethiopian government earlier this month released several journalists and bloggers who had been arrested in April 2014 on charges of incitement and terrorism, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Ethiopia is known for media oppression and the journalism watchdog group ranks it as the second-worst jailer of journalists in Africa, after Eritrea. The country's ruling coalition also won a sweeping victory in parliamentary elections in May that Western nations criticized as unfair.

"With all the countries in Africa, and a visit to two countries, to pick Ethiopia is a very bad optic, I think," said Jennifer Cooke, director of the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Susan Rice, Obama's national security adviser, said "there is nothing unique" about Obama's visit to Africa. The president often meets with foreign leaders with whom the administration has concerns about how they treat their people, she said Wednesday while previewing the trip for reporters.

Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap

The Latest: Kerry Says US Allies Won't Back Military Force

Secretary of State John Kerry, center, Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, seated second from left, and Secretary of Treasury Jack Lew, seated left, arrive to testify at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Thursday, July 23, 2015, to review the Iran nuclear agreement. (AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The latest in a hearing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is conducting on the agreement the United States and five other world powers struck this month with Iran to rein in its nuclear weapons program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions (asterisk)(all times local):

1:43 The White House says lawmakers who want to know about agreements between Iran and international nuclear inspectors will get a chance to learn about them in classified briefings. Press secretary Josh Earnest rejects characterizations of the agreements between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency as "some sort of side deal." Earnest says they are all a critical part of the agreement with Iran worked out by the U.S. and five other world powers. Earnest says economic sanctions won't be lifted unless Iran gives inspectors with a United Nation's agency (IAEA) all the access and information they need.

But he also says details of how that will work can't be made public because it involves sensitive nuclear information. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is demanding that the administration turn over the text of the agreements between Iran and the nuclear agency.

1:39

Secretary of State John Kerry says exercising a military option to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons would be extraordinarily complicated for the United States and that Washington would be doing it without the support of U.S. allies.

Kerry said: "Not on your life — no way."

However, under questioning from Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, Kerry said that if the nuclear deal is implemented and Iran violates it, the U.S. would have more justification to exercise a military option.

Moreover, Kerry said U.S. allies would support a military response in that circumstance. And he said that because of the additional inspections required under the agreement being reviewed by Congress, there would be more information about the best way to target military weapons to destroy Iranian nuclear weapons capabilities.

1:09 p.m.

Secretary of State John Kerry says he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are still talking despite their serious disagreements over the Iran nuclear agreement that Congress is reviewing.

Kerry tells the Senate Foreign Relations Committee he understands the concerns Israel has with the negotiated deal with Iran, which has threatened to destroy the Jewish state.

Kerry says that he and Netanyahu are "still talking" amid the dispute and that the Obama administration remains convinced that the effect of the deal will make Israel safer.

11:54 a.m.

Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer of California is chiding her Republican colleagues on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for saying Secretary of State John Kerry and representatives of the other world powers that negotiated or approved the nuclear agreement with Iran were "fleeced" and "bamboozled" by Tehran.

Boxer recited a list of nations around the world that back the deal and said her Republican colleagues were being disrespectful.

Boxer told Kerry that if he were "bamboozled, the world was bamboozled."

Republican Sen. Bob Corker, the committee's chairman, said in his opening statement that Kerry was "fleeced" and GOP Sen. James Risch of Idaho said he was "bamboozled."

Kerry praised members of the negotiating team and said nobody "pulled the wool" over their eyes.

11:28 a.m.

Republican Sen. Jim Risch is slamming the Iran nuclear deal.

The Idaho senator says that anyone who believes the accord is a good deal "really joins the ranks of the most naive people on the face of the earth."

Risch says it makes no sense to trust Iran to hold up its side of the deal. He addressed his comments to Secretary of State John Kerry, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, who were seated at the witness stand Thursday on Capitol Hill.

Risch tells the Cabinet secretaries: "With all due respect, you guys have been bamboozled and the American people are going to have to pay for it."

11:18 a.m. EDT

Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew is telling the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the United States' international partners that negotiated the nuclear deal with Iran would "balk" if the U.S. asked them to continue to impose economic sanctions without implementing the diplomatic solution reached with Tehran.

If that happened, Lew says, the U.S. would be left with neither a nuclear deal, nor any effective sanctions.

He says it is "unrealistic to think that additional sanctions pressure would force Iran to totally capitulate." And he says it's impractical to think the U.S. could marshal a global coalition of partners to impose such sanctions pressure after turning down a deal that the other world powers in the negotiation "believe is a good one."

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz(moh-NEES') is defending the Iran nuclear deal saying it is "pretty hard-nosed" and wasn't what Tehran had envisioned in the final deal.

Moniz tells the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: "This is not what Iran wanted."

He says "the deal is not built on trust. It's pretty hard-nosed." He's seeking to persuade skeptical lawmakers that the deal is in the U.S. national security interest.

Moniz adds that the agreement substantially roll backs Iran's nuclear program.

He says, "The deal is based on science and analysis. I'm confident that this is a good deal for America"

10:45

Secretary of State John Kerry is casting the choice on the Iran nuclear deal in stark terms — an agreement that would limit the Islamic nation's nuclear program, or no deal at all.

Kerry is testifying before a Senate committee as the Obama administration publicly defends the much-debated accord. The administration is facing unified Republican opposition and doubts among some Democrats.

Kerry also argues that if the deal is rejected, the diplomatic support the United States has garnered in recent years would evaporate.

He tells the panel: "It's a question of how do you hold their program back."

10:25 a.m.

The Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee tells Kerry point-blank that "you've been fleeced" by the Iranians in the recently completed nuclear agreement.

Kerry was greeted with applause from anti-war demonstrators as a handful of members from CodePink rose in the hearing room. But the mood turned critical immediately as Sen. Bob Corker, who heads the panel, gaveled the hearing to order.

Corker tells Kerry he's "fairly depressed" after listening to the secretary answer lawmakers' questions Wednesday about the agreement in a classified briefing.

Kerry is testifying with Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz (moh-NEES') and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew about the deal Congress is expected to vote on in September.

AP News Guide To Case Of Woman Found Hanged In Texas Jail

Briosha Lewis, left, Mary Lloyd, center and Nakiya Brown pray at a memorial for Sandra Bland near Prairie View A&M University, Tuesday, July 21, 2015, in Prairie View, Texas. A newly released dashcam video documents how a routine traffic stop escalated into a shouting confrontation between a Texas state trooper and Bland, which led to her arrest. Bland was found hanging in her jail cell three days after the incident. (AP)

HEMPSTEAD, TEXAS (AP) — Dashboard video from a trooper's patrol car shows the traffic stop that led to the arrest of Sandra Bland, a Chicago-area woman found dead in a Texas jail last week.

Authorities say the 28-year-old black woman hanged herself, but family and friends have questioned the official account. Bland was arrested and accused of kicking an officer who had stopped her for failing to signal a lane change.

A breakdown of the case:

WHAT HAPPENED:

Bland, who was from Naperville, Illinois, was stopped on July 10 in Waller County. She was in Texas interviewing for a job at nearby Prairie View A&M University, a historically black college from which she graduated in 2009.

The Texas Department of Public Safety says the state trooper who pulled her over planned to give her a written warning, but she became uncooperative and argumentative. She was arrested and taken to the jail in Hempstead, about 60 miles northwest of Houston.

She was still incarcerated, awaiting posting of bond, when she was found dead July 13 in her cell. A medical examiner ruled her death a suicide caused by asphyxiation.

WHAT THE VIDEO SHOWS:

After the trooper hands Bland the written warning, he remarks that she seems irritated. Bland says she was irritated because she was stopped for changing lanes to get out of the path of the trooper's car.

The conversation turns hostile when the officer asks Bland to put out her cigarette and she asks why she can't smoke in her own car. The trooper then orders Bland to get out of the car. She refuses, and he tells her she is under arrest.

Further refusals to get out bring a threat from the trooper to drag her out. He then pulls a stun gun and says, "I will light you up."

When she finally steps out of the vehicle, the trooper orders her to the side of the road. There, the confrontation continues off-camera but is still audible. The two keep yelling at each other as the officer tries to put Bland in handcuffs and waits for other troopers to arrive.

Out of the camera's view, Bland continues protesting her arrest, repeatedly using expletives and calling the officer a "pussy." At one point, she screams that he's about to break her wrists and complains that he knocked her head into the ground.

WHAT FAMILY AND FRIENDS SAY:

Family members and friends insist Bland was looking forward to a new job at her former school and that she gave no indication she was in such an emotional state that she would kill herself. Family attorney Cannon Lambert says some relatives believe she was killed, and they are seeking more information.

However, Bland had posted a video to her Facebook page in March, saying she was suffering from "a little bit of depression as well as PTSD," or post-traumatic stress disorder. Friend and mentor LaVaughn Mosley of Prairie View believes Bland was just venting after a bad day.

WHAT AUTHORITIES SAY:

Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis says the case is being examined as thoroughly as a murder investigation.

He said no cameras were in the jail cell where Bland was found dead. A video from a camera monitoring the hall outside her cell shows no one entered or left it between the time she last spoke with deputies through an intercom system, asking about making a phone call, and when her body was discovered about an hour later. The hard drive containing the original video has been turned over to the FBI to examine for any manipulation.

The Texas Department of Public Safety says the trooper who pulled Bland over violated traffic-stop procedures and the department's courtesy policy. The trooper is on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation.

The trooper said in an affidavit that after handcuffing her for becoming combative, Bland swung her elbows at him and kicked him in his right shin.

In the affidavit, trooper Brian Encinia said he then used force "to subdue Bland to the ground," and she continued to fight back. He arrested her for assault on a public servant.

WHAT'S NEXT:

The Texas Rangers and the FBI are investigating. The county district attorney has said the matter will be turned over to a grand jury, which does not meet again until August.

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING:

Bland's death comes after nearly a year of heightened national scrutiny of police and their dealings with black suspects who have been killed by officers.

The case has resonated on social media, with posts questioning the official account and featuring the hashtags #JusticeForSandy and #WhatHappenedToSandyBland. Others referred to #SandySpeaks, the hashtag Bland used in monologues she posted on Facebook in which she talked about police brutality and said she had a calling from God to speak out against racism and injustice.

This story has been corrected to show that Mathis, not Bland, said it was not a model traffic stop.

Father Of Slain California Woman Urges Immigration Changes

Liz Sullivan and Jim Steinle, parents of Kathryn Steinle, killed on a San Francisco Pier by a man previously deported several times, walk out after a Senate Judiciary hearing in Washington, Tuesday, July 21, 2015. The family told Congress they support changing the laws that allowed her alleged killer to remain in the United States despite being deported several times. (AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The family of a California woman shot and killed while walking along a San Francisco pier told Congress Tuesday they support changing the laws that allowed her alleged killer to remain in the United States despite being deported several times.

Jim Steinle told the Senate Judiciary Committee that Congress should push forward with efforts to close legal loopholes that currently allow local authorities to decide if they will cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

Steinle's daughter, Kathryn Steinle, was killed earlier this month as she and Jim Steinle walked along a San Francisco pier. The man who allegedly shot her, Juan Francisco Lopez Sanchez, has several felony convictions and had been deported five times before the shooting.

He was last released by authorities in San Francisco, a city with a "sanctuary" policy of minimal cooperation with federal authorities on immigration issues. Jim Steinle testified alongside several other relatives of people allegedly killed by immigrants living in the country illegally.

Steinle's killing and the disclosure that San Francisco authorities released Sanchez despite a request from federal officials to keep him in custody prompted an outcry from lawmakers. The House will take up a bill this week blocking federal funding for jurisdictions that resist turning over immigrants to federal authorities. A similar proposal has been advanced in the Senate, but it's unclear how far it will go.

Steinle's father said Tuesday that reform could save lives. "I feel strongly that some legislation should be discussed, enacted and changed to take these undocumented immigrants off ours streets," he told lawmakers. "If Kate's law saves one daughter, one son, a mother, a father, Kate's death won't be in vain."

Associated Press reporter Erica Werner contributed to this report.

Court Overturns Some Blagojevich Senate Seat Convictions

Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, center, walks with attorneys as he arrives at the Federal Correctional Institution Englewood in Littleton, Colo., to begin serving his 14-year sentence for corruption. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned some of the corruption convictions of the imprisoned former Governor in a ruling released Tuesday, July 21, 2015, saying prosecutors did not prove Blagojevich broke the law as he appeared to try to auction off an appointment to President Barack Obama's old Senate seat. (AP)

CHICAGO (AP) — A federal appeals court Tuesday overturned some of the most sensational convictions that sent former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich off to a lengthy stint in prison, ruling that the Democrat did not break the law when he sought to secure a Cabinet position in President Barack Obama's administration in exchange for appointing an Obama adviser to the president's former U.S. Senate seat.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago also ordered the resentencing of Blagojevich, offering the 58-year-old a ray of hope that he could end up serving less than his original 14-year term. The three appellate judges dismissed five of 18 corruption counts against Blagojevich, while affirming 13 counts. In a blow to the defense, the panelists also suggested the original sentence wasn't necessarily extreme, even when factoring in the newly tossed convictions.

Speaking outside the Blagojevich family home in Chicago, his wife, Patti, told reporters her husband had expressed disappointment the court didn't hand him a clear legal victory. "He's disappointed, of course," she said, the couple's 18-year-old daughter at her side. She added more optimistically, "Possibly this is a step in the right direction of getting Rod home to his family."

Several onlookers stood nearby, including a small child holding up a sign that read, "Free Blagojevich." The court's unanimous ruling addressed a key question: Where is the line between legal and illegal political wheeling and dealing? The panel's answer: When it came to Blagojevich's attempt to land a Cabinet seat, he did not cross the line. His attempts to trade the Senate seat for campaign cash, however, were illegal, the court concluded.

Blagojevich floated the idea of a Cabinet job in exchange for appointing Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett to Obama's vacant Senate seat. After Blagojevich's arrest, the seat went to Roland Burris, who served less than two years before a successor was elected.

In its ruling, the appeals court pointed to allegations that President Dwight Eisenhower named Earl Warren to the U.S. Supreme Court after Warren offered Eisenhower key political support during the 1952 campaign. The judges said that under the logic used to charge Blagojevich, Eisenhower and Warren might have been convicted.

"If the prosecutor is right, and a swap of political favors involving a job for one of the politicians is a felony, then ... both the President of the United States and the Chief Justice of the United States should have gone to prison," the ruling says.

Still, the ruling was by no means a resounding win for Blagojevich. The appellate judges upheld allegations that he sought to sell the Senate seat, saying the evidence against him was strong. Blagojevich had argued he didn't break the law because he never stated explicitly that he was willing to trade an appointment for campaign cash. The panel balked at the notion that crimes are crimes only if they are overtly stated.

"Few politicians say, on or off the record, 'I will exchange official act X for payment Y,'" the opinion says. "Similarly persons who conspire to rob banks or distribute drugs do not propose or sign contracts in the statutory language."

Defense attorney Leonard Goodman sharply criticized the court for not quashing more counts. He said he would urge his client to challenge the panel's finding, by possibly by asking the full appeals court to rehear the case.

"My advice to him is that we fight on," he said. "It is not justice in my view." As for prosecutors, they could choose to retry Blagojevich on the dropped counts, though prosecutors often decline to retry a case if most counts are upheld. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office declined to comment on the ruling.

The two-term governor proclaimed his innocence for years — on television and on the stand at his decisive retrial in 2011, where a sometimes-tearful Blagojevich said he was a flawed man but no criminal.

Eleven of the counts jurors convicted him on dealt with allegations that he tried to swap an appointment to the Senate seat for campaign cash or a job. Other pay-to-play schemes he was convicted of included the attempted shakedown of the Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago for a campaign contribution.

After his December 2008 arrest, Blagojevich became the butt of jokes on late-night TV, including for his well-coiffed hair and his foul-mouthed rants on FBI wiretaps. The most notorious excerpt was one where he crows about the Senate seat: "I've got this thing and it's f------ golden. And I'm just not giving it up for f------ nothing."

Blagojevich began serving his sentence at a prison near Denver on March 15, 2012, and has served more than three years so far. Before the appeal, his estimated release date was 2024; he would be 67.

This story has been corrected to reflect that appeals court said that sentence was not too high.

Associated Press writers Tammy Webber, Don Babwin, Sophia Tareen, Herbert McCann and Sara Burnett contributed to this report.

Follow Michael Tarm on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mtarm.

Chad Ex-Dictator Rejects Trial; Judge Commands Attendance

People stand in line before entering the court building, rear, where the trial of former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre is taking place in Dakar, Senegal, Monday, July 20, 2015, The trial of former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre, accused of overseeing the deaths of thousands, had a chaotic beginning Monday as security forces ushered the ex-leader into and then out of the Senegal courtroom amid protests by his supporters. (AP)

DAKAR, SENEGAL (AP) — Former Chad dictator Hissene Habre on Monday denied the legitimacy of the special court set up to try him in Senegal for the deaths of thousands during his rule, but the head of the tribunal said he would be compelled to participate.

Habre's lawyers said he was forced to attend the first day of his trial for crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture — an unprecedented case of one African country trying the former leader of another — but he was quickly ushered back out after he and a few supporters in the court caused chaos.

"This is not a trial, this is a masquerade!" the white robed Habre shouted as he was taken away. "There is no trial. There are no lawyers. This is a false trial. Down with colonialism." The Extraordinary African Chambers, a special tribunal, was created to try him in Senegal for the alleged crimes during his 1982-1990 rule.

Habre later issued a statement saying he had been illegally detained and would "not respond to the court." Tribunal head Gberdao Gustave Kam read the statement, adjourned proceedings until Tuesday and said Habre would be made to attend.

Lawyers for Habre have threatened to boycott the trial and one of them, Cire Cledor Ly, removed his legal robes in protest and took a seat in the court audience. "They talk of international justice in Africa?" said Cledor Ly. "This is theater."

Habre was first indicted by a Senegalese judge in 2000, according to Human Rights Watch, but twists and turns, arrests and releases over more than a decade brought the case to Belgium, and then finally back to Senegal, where Habre fled after being overthrown in 1990.

Under a new president, Senegal's national assembly adopted a law to create the special tribunal. It is the first trial in Africa of a universal jurisdiction case, in which a country's national courts can prosecute serious crimes committed abroad, by a foreigner and against foreign victims, said Human Rights Watch. It is also the first time the courts of one country are prosecuting the former ruler of another for alleged human rights crimes.

"This is a first in Africa, and we must extend congratulations for this," said Mbaye Gueye, a neutral legal representative who addressed the court and called for a fair trial. Many have argued that the International Criminal Court unfairly targets African leaders, so a fair trial with a credible verdict could support the argument that Africans can try their own.

Habre's government was responsible for an estimated 40,000 deaths, according to a report published in May 1992 by a 10-member truth commission formed by Chad's current President Idriss Deby. The commission singled out Habre's political police force for using torture.

Jacqueline Moudeina, the lead counsel for the civil parties, made a plea in the name of more than 4,000 victims and urged the court to give them justice on Monday. "The world watches you, it watches us. This process touches humanity ... a humanity that was not afforded to these victims," she said in her opening statement.

Survivors of the abuse have been the main advocates for justice, working toward this trial for about 15 years. About 100 are expected to testify during hearings that are likely to last three months. Clement Abaifouta, president of the main victims' association and a detainee who was forced to bury fellow prisoners, said his memories continue to haunt him.

"I hope for the condemnation of Habre because he now cannot escape," he said prior to the trial.

Associated Press writer Babacar Dione contributed to this report from Dakar.

5 Decades Later, US-Cuba Diplomatic Ties Restored

Members of the media cover workers from Eastern Shores Flagpoles raising a flagpole at the Cuban Interest Section in Washington in preparation for re-opening of embassies in Havana and Washington. Cuba's blue, red and white-starred flag is set to fly Monday, July 20 outside the country's diplomatic mission in the United States for the first time since the countries severed ties in 1961. (AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States and Cuba restored full diplomatic relations Monday after more than five decades of frosty relations rooted in the Cold War.

The new era began with little fanfare when an agreement between the two nations to resume normal ties on July 20 came into force just after midnight Sunday and the diplomatic missions of each country were upgraded from interests sections to embassies. When clocks struck 12:00 in Washington and Havana, they tolled a knell for policy approaches spawned and hardened over the five decades since President John F. Kennedy first tangled with youthful revolutionary Fidel Castro over Soviet expansion in the Americas.

Without ceremony in the pre-dawn hours, maintenance hung the Cuban flag in the lobby of the State Department alongside those of other nations with which the U.S. has diplomatic relations. The historic shift will be publicly memorialized later Monday when Cuban officials formally inaugurate their embassy in Washington and Cuba's blue, red and white-starred flag will fly for the first time since the countries severed ties in 1961. Secretary of State John Kerry will then meet his Cuban counterpart, Bruno Rodriguez, and address reporters at a joint news conference.

The U.S. Interests Section in Havana plans to announce its upgrade to embassy status in a written statement on Monday, but the Stars and Stripes will not fly at the mission until Kerry visits in August for a ceremonial flag-raising.

Shortly after midnight, the Cuban Interests Section in Washington switched its Twitter account to say "embassy," one of a series of similar changes being made to the two country's social media accounts.

In Havana, the U.S. Interests Section uploaded a new profile picture to its Facebook account that says US EMBASSY CUBA. And, Conrad Tribble, the deputy chief of mission for the United States in Havana, tweeted: "Just made first phone call to State Dept. Ops Center from United States Embassy Havana ever. It didn't exist in Jan 1961."

And yet, though normalization has taken center stage in the U.S.-Cuba relationship, there remains a deep ideological gulf between the nations and many issues still to resolve. Among them: thorny disputes such as over mutual claims for economic reparations, Havana's insistence on the end of the 53-year-old trade embargo and U.S. calls for Cuba to improve on human rights and democracy. Some U.S. lawmakers, including several prominent Republican presidential candidates, have vowed not to repeal the embargo and pledged to roll back Obama's moves on Cuba.

Still, Monday's events cap a remarkable change of course in U.S. policy toward the communist island under President Barack Obama, who has sought rapprochement with Cuba since he first took office and has progressively loosened restrictions on travel and remittances to the island.

Obama's efforts at engagement were frustrated for years by Cuba's imprisonment of U.S. Agency for International Development contractor Alan Gross on espionage charges. But months of secret negotiations led in December to Gross's release, along with a number of political prisoners in Cuba and the remaining members of a Cuban spy ring jailed in the United States. On Dec. 17, Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro announced they would resume full diplomatic relations.

Declaring the longstanding policy a failure that had not achieved any of its intended results, Obama declared that the U.S. could not keep doing the same thing and expect a change. Thus, he said work would begin apace on normalization.

That process dragged on until the U.S. removed Cuba from its list of state sponsors of terrorism in late May and then bogged down over issues of U.S. diplomats' access to ordinary Cubans. On July 1, however, the issues were resolved and the U.S. and Cuba exchanged diplomatic notes agreeing that the date for the restoration of full relations would be July 20.

"It's a historic moment," said longtime Cuban diplomat and analyst Carlos Alzugaray. "The significance of opening the embassies is that trust and respect that you can see, both sides treating the other with trust and respect," he said. "That doesn't mean there aren't going to be conflicts — there are bound to be conflicts — but the way that you treat the conflict has completely changed."

Cuba's ceremony at the stately 16th Street mansion in Washington that has been operating as an interests section under the auspices of the Swiss embassy will be attended by some 500 guests, including a 30-member delegation of diplomatic, cultural and other leaders from the Caribbean nation, headed by Foreign Minister Rodriguez.

The U.S. will be represented at the event by Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roberta Jacobson, who led U.S. negotiators in six months of talks leading to the July 1 announcement, and Jeffrey DeLaurentis, the chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana who will now become charge d'affaires.

Although the Interests Section in Havana won't see the pomp and circumstance of a flag-raising on Monday, workers there have already drilled holes on the exterior to hang signage flown in from the U.S., and arranged to print new business cards and letterhead that say "Embassy" instead of "Interests Section." What for years was a lonely flagpole outside the glassy six-story edifice on Havana's seafront Malecon boulevard recently got a rehab, complete with a paved walkway.

Every day for the last week, employees have been hanging hand-lettered signs on the fence counting down, in Spanish, to Monday: "In 6 days we will become an embassy!" and so on. Both interests sections have technically operated as part of Switzerland's embassies in Washington and Havana. The Swiss also were caretakers for the former American Embassy and ambassador's residence from 1961 to 1977, when the U.S. had no diplomatic presence in the country.

Orsi reported from Havana.

Nuclear Deal Has Companies Eyeing Iranian Opportunities Anew

A Renault dealership in northern Tehran, Iran. While it will likely be months before sanctions on Iran ease, business and political leaders are wasting no time in trying to tap into a large and what they hope will be a lucrative Iranian market. Ads for European cars and luxury goods are starting to reappear in Tehran. American firms, though, have to be much more cautious. Deal or no deal, U.S. sanctions not related to the nuclear program will still be in place and bar most American companies from doing business with Iran. (AP)

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (AP) — The nuclear deal is done. Now it's time to talk business.

While it will likely be months before sanctions on Iran ease, business and political leaders are wasting no time in trying to tap into a large and what they hope will be a lucrative Iranian market. Germany is dispatching a large trade delegation to Tehran on Sunday. Spain has a similar trip planned, and France's top diplomat is eyeing a visit too. Ads for European cars and luxury goods are starting to reappear in Tehran. Airlines in Dubai are fast adding new Iran routes to meet growing demand.

American firms, though, have to be much more cautious. Deal or no deal, U.S. sanctions not related to the nuclear program will still be in place and bar most American companies from doing business with Iran.

That means they stand to lose out to European and Asian companies — some that still have business contacts in the country before sanctions were tightened in recent years. "It's easier to say who is at a disadvantage. And that will be U.S. firms," said Torbjorn Soltvedt, principal Mideast analyst at risk advisory company Verisk Maplecroft.

On paper, Iran holds plenty of promise. Two and a half times the size of Texas, it is home to some 80 million people, sits atop the world's fourth-largest oil reserves and the second-biggest stores of natural gas, and has well-established manufacturing and agricultural industries contributing to a $400 billion economy.

London-based Capital Economics estimates the economy could surge ahead by 6-8 percent annually over the next several years as sanctions ease. "Everything is in place for economic growth," said Dominic Bokor-Ingram, portfolio adviser at British asset management firm Charlemagne Capital. His company earlier this year announced a plan to launch Iranian investment funds in partnership with an Iranian company.

"Iran has infrastructure, it has the institutions, it has the education," he added. "It has a lot of highly educated people who will go back to Iran if sanctions are lifted." Tapping the market won't be easy.

The elite Revolutionary Guard is deeply involved in the economy and corruption is such a problem that President Hassan Rouhani lamented late last year that once-secret bribes are now being handed out openly. Iran ranks only 130 out of 189 economies on the World Bank's ease-of-doing-business list.

Assuming the deal goes ahead as planned it will still take at least several months until nuclear-related sanctions are lifted. And those sanctions can quickly be slapped back on if Iran fails to live up to its end of the bargain.

That means many multinationals are unlikely to commit to big investments in the immediate future, though the staggered sanctions relief also gives companies time to gear up their operations, analysts say.

The oil industry is one area where Iran could use outside investment. Fitch Ratings expects it will take years for Iran to get back to the roughly 2.5 million barrels a day it was exporting before 2012, because investment in the sector has been limited under sanctions.

Chevron Corp. spokesman Kurt Glaubitz said the company is reviewing the nuclear deal to understand its implications, but for now it remains "in strict compliance" with U.S. and international laws. Exxon Mobil Corp. declined to comment.

Another area ripe for deal-making is Iran's creaking aviation industry. Sanctions have made it impossible for Iran to buy new Western-made planes and difficult to acquire spare parts for the planes it does operate.

An earlier interim nuclear agreement gave Boeing Co. and engine-maker General Electric Co. the green light to provide some spare parts for U.S.-made planes in service in Iran since the 1970s. Boeing says it has only sold one spare part along with some service bulletins and other materials since that deal came into force last year.

The latest agreement allows for licenses on the sale of commercial aircraft, and Transportation Minister Abbas Akhoundi has said his country is prepared to spend about $20 billion to purchase some 400 aircraft over the coming decade.

Boeing's Mideast communications head, Fakher Daghestani, said the company is reviewing the deal "but until the U.S. government gives us further direction, it would be premature to comment." GE, which also has U.S. licenses to sell some medical equipment in Iran, said it looks forward "to reviewing the details of the agreement and will watch the regulatory landscape that may unfold."

While the Americans voice caution, Europeans are wasting little time wooing Iran. Although planned some time ago, Germany's three-day trip led by Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel comes less than a week after the nuclear accord was reached.

Spanish Industry Minister Jose Manuel Soria said he will be joined on a September trip by Spain's foreign and development ministers, and he expects good prospects for Spanish companies in industry, energy, telecommunications, tourism and infrastructure.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Wednesday he would be paying a visit to Iran as France looks to explore business opportunities, though he made a point of saying commercial interests were not what drove the deal. A large French business delegation, anticipating a resolution to the nuclear issue, traveled to Tehran last year, rankling U.S. officials.

Switzerland dispatched a business delegation to Iran at the end of April, soon after Iran and world powers reached a framework deal that paved the way for this week's agreement. "There is pent-up enthusiasm to do something" said Martin Johnston, director-general of the British Iranian Chamber of Commerce, a network of politicians and business leaders that hope to promote trade. He said he expected businesses would go to Tehran to examine the opportunities for the time being.

"They are waiting for the structures to be in place to be able to trade, not only the legal arrangements but the suitable banking arrangements," he said. Airlines across the Persian Gulf from Iran are ramping up operations as interest grows.

Discount carrier FlyDubai launched a major expansion to Iranian destinations from its base in the Mideast's busiest airport of Dubai, announcing five new Iranian destinations on top of two it already serves.

Dubai's Emirates, the region's biggest carrier, this month announced flights to Iran's second-largest city of Mashhad. It already flies to Tehran. In some ways, loosening sanctions will mark a return to the way things used to be.

French automaker PSA Peugeot Citroen has an early advantage in Iran thanks to its strong market position in the country — a legacy of its former partnership with domestic automaker Iran Khodro, which assembled Peugeot-branded vehicles from kits.

Other European automakers have good brand recognition in Iran too, as many only officially cut their ties to Iran under pressure earlier this decade. Sergio Marchionne, the chief executive of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, said this week that the Iranian market "will be an opportunity for all of us" if it opens up. Fiat only stopped selling cars in Iran in 2012, following similar moves by Peugeot, South Korean automaker Hyundai and German sports carmaker Porsche.

Ford Motor Co. is taking a more cautious tone, saying it complies with U.S. sanctions and will monitor changes that come out of the agreement. In the meantime, its Chinese partner, Changan, has signed a partnership with Iran's Saipa Automotive Group to jointly develop new vehicles.

Other Asian companies have been making inroads too, meaning increased competition for new and returning Western companies. In May, Brilliance Auto Group became the latest of several Chinese automakers to begin production in Iran, opening an assembly plant west of Tehran with a local partner, Pars Khodro, to make sedans and hatchbacks.

Chinese state-owned manufacturers of subway equipment have found a way around financial sanctions, striking a deal in 2013 to trade 315 train cars in exchange for Iranian oil. South Korean companies have been building market share in Iran, too, after the two countries agreed to let Korean businesses use South Korean currency for financial transactions with their Iranian counterparts.

South Korea's finance ministry said this week that expanding economic cooperation with Iran would be an opportunity for the country, which is a buyer of Iranian crude oil and exported $4.2 billion worth of goods to Iran last year.

Many ordinary Iranians say they welcome the prospect of new foreign investment. Clothing shop owner Nasser Rahmani says he struggles to convince his customers to part with their cash, and that foreign companies "will give them more options and assure them the situation is running smoothly."

For Masoud Ismaeili, 54, who runs a glass-cutting shop, it is about finding work for his three unemployed sons. "God willing, the presence of foreign companies will make the situation better so my sons will find good opportunities," he said.

Associated Press writers Ciaran Giles in Madrid, Frank Jordans in Berlin, Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, Danica Kirka and Jill Lawless in London, Bradley Klapper in Washington, David Koenig in Dallas, Tom Krisher in Detroit, Youkyung Lee in Seoul, Scott Mayerowitz in New York and Joe McDonald in Beijing contributed to this report.

Follow Adam Schreck on Twitter at www.twitter.com/adamschreck.