NEWS BRIEFING
U.S., EU officials working out details of aviation laptop ban
Airline passengers have become hooked on their laptops and tablets to get work done or just kill time during long flights. But U.S. aviation-security officials appear determined to ban large electronic devices in the cabin of flights from Europe.
Business travelers are worried about lost productivity, laptops in checked baggage being stolen or damaged, or even leaving the machine home if their employer won’t let them check it on a plane. Parents are pondering how to keep children occupied.
On Wednesday, U.S. and European Union officials exchanged information about threats to aviation, believed to include bombs hidden in laptop computers.
Airline and travel groups are concerned about the possibility that a ban on laptops and tablet computers that currently applies to mostly Middle Eastern flights will be expanded to include U.S.-bound flights from Europe.
The officials agreed to meet again next week.
The airlines are talking to government officials about how a laptop ban would look at European airports. It will require one set of screening rules for U.S.-bound travelers, another for people headed elsewhere.
Nearly 400 flights leave Europe for the U.S. each day, carrying about 85,000 people, according to airline industry and U.S. government figures. The flights are popular with vacationers and critical to many business travelers, who often buy pricier tickets.
Expanding the ban to Europe will hit American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines and their European partners, and it will affect many more travelers.
Manning after gaining freedom: I’m still ‘figuring things out’
“I’m figuring things out right now — which is exciting, awkward, fun, and all new for me,” Manning, 29, said in an emailed statement hours after being released from lockup in Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
Manning’s immediate plans, including living arrangements, remained unclear. President Barack Obama granted her clemency in January.
Manning, who is transgender and was known as Bradley Manning before she transitioned in prison, was convicted in 2013 of 20 counts, including six Espionage Act violations, theft and computer fraud.
Milwaukee sheriff says he will take job at Homeland Security
The tough-talking, cowboy hat-wearing Clarke said in an interview on WISN-AM talk that he will work in the Office of Partnership and Engagement as a liaison to state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies. He will start in June.
Homeland Security has declined to confirm that Clarke will be joining the agency. Clarke was one of the few African-Americans to speak at the GOP convention last year. Clark has been sheriff of Milwaukee County since 2002.
MS-13 gang members targeted in sweep across Los Angeles
Federal prosecutors unsealed a sweeping indictment Wednesday charging dozens of members and leaders of the gang with a variety of crimes.
Acting U.S. Attorney Sandra Brown said the 127-page anti-racketeering indictment targets 44 members and associates of the gang. Three people accused of murder could face the death penalty, she said.
Twenty-one people named in the indictment were arrested in pre-dawn raids across Los Angeles and Brown said warrants were served at more than 50 locations. At least three people were still at large.
Syrian opposition seeks extension in peace talks
Salem Meslet, an opposition spokesman, said it was “not right” that this round is expected to last just four days. The opposition needed time to prepare its response to a “paper” presented by U.N. special envoy Staffan de Mistura on Tuesday, when the sixth round of the talks started.
Meslet, who spoke at a demonstration outside of the U.N. Geneva compound led by female relatives of prisoners held in Syria, said the proposal involved “the constitutional frame” for an eventual transition period in Syria.
Later Wednesday, President Bashar Assad’s top envoy met separately with de Mistura inside the compound.
Puerto Rican nationalist freed from house arrest
Lopez Rivera, 74, left his daughter’s San Juan home escorted by the mayor of Puerto Rico’s capital and New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.
Lopez was considered a top leader of the Armed Forces of National Liberation, or FALN, an ultranationalist Puerto Rican group that claimed responsibility for more than 100 bombings at government buildings, department stores, banks and restaurants in New York, Chicago, Washington and Puerto Rico during the 1970s and early 1980s.
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