


NEWS BRIEFING
Blaming Iran for missile, Saudis tighten Yemen blockade

The move threatens to worsen an already devastating humanitarian crisis in the country, where fighting has killed more than 10,000 civilians and displaced 3 million.
The military coalition, which has been at war with Yemen’s Houthi rebels for more than two years, has tightened an air, land and sea blockade in response to the missile launch, which was intercepted near Riyadh but marked the rebels’ deepest strike into Saudi territory.
The kingdom has accused Tehran of supplying the missile fired toward Riyadh’s international airport Saturday night. Iran, which supports the Houthis but denies arming them, says it had nothing to do with the attack.
Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, urged the Security Council to hold Iran accountable for a missile she said it had supplied to the Houthis in July. Haley said the missile used Saturday may also have been Iranian.
“The United States is committed to containing Iran’s destabilizing actions and will not turn a blind eye to these serious violations of international law by the Iranian regime,” she said. The U.S. supports the Saudi-led coalition.
Human Rights Watch described the indiscriminate targeting of a predominantly civilian airport as an “apparent war crime.”
Official says Puerto Rico needs ‘unprecedented’ federal help
Natalie Jaresko, executive director of the federal control board, told Congress that the U.S. territory needs emergency and restoration funds “on an unprecedented scale” to restore housing, water and electric power.
While conditions have improved since the Sept. 20 storm, nearly 60 percent of the island is without electricity, thousands remain in shelters and tens of thousands of houses do not have roofs.
The island suffered $45 billion to $95 billion in damage. So far, Congress has approved nearly $5 billion in aid.
JFK files: FBI concerned with growing Latino political power
Among the thousands of documents released last week was a memo from an FBI informant who kept watch on a Dallas chapter of the G.I. Forum — a moderate group of Mexican American veterans who spoke out against discrimination.
According to the 1963 document, the informant closely followed a chapter meeting where members expressed concerned about the revival of a similar organization, the League of United Latin American Citizens.
The G.I. Forum members feared a public fight with LULAC over membership might make both groups “powerless.”
10 held in French, Swiss raids over alleged Islamic State plot
A Colombian woman and Swiss man, both targets in a Swiss probe of the Islamic State, were among suspects detained. Investigators detained nine people in France between 18 and 65 and one person in Switzerland, according to a French judicial official.
The suspects were being questioned following searches of properties in the Paris suburbs and in southeastern France. The Swiss suspect, among those arrested in France, allegedly had ties to a 13-year-old who was arrested earlier on suspicion of plotting a knife attack.
Apollo 12 astronaut who circled moon dies at 88
Richard “Dick” F. Gordon Jr. was a test pilot chosen in NASA’s third group of astronauts in 1963. He flew on Gemini 11 in 1966, walking in space twice.
During Apollo 12 in November 1969, Gordon circled the moon in the command module Yankee Clipper while Alan Bean and Charles Conrad landed and walked on the lunar surface.
He retired from NASA in 1972.
In a 1997 NASA oral history, Gordon said people would often ask if he felt alone while his two partners walked on the moon. “I said, ‘Hell no, if you knew those guys, you’d be happy to be alone.’?”
NASA seeking nickname for tiny, icy world beyond Pluto
NASA is seeking a nickname for a tiny, icy world on the edge of the solar system that’s the next destination for New Horizons, the spacecraft that surveyed Pluto.
New Horizons whipped past Pluto two years ago. Now it’s headed for 2014 MU69 — gobbledygook to even the most die-hard scientists.
To lighten the mood as New Horizons aims for a 2019 flyby, the research team is holding a naming contest. The deadline is Dec. 1.
MU69 is 4 billion miles away and may actually be two objects, either stuck together or orbiting one another. If so, two nicknames would be needed. The nicknames will be temporary.
NASA said that a formal name will come after the flyby.