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U.S. envoys meet with dissidents in visit to Havana

 
Published Jan. 24, 2015

Cuba

U.S. envoys meet with dissidents in visit to Havana

Following a day of meetings with Cuban officials to iron out the difficulties and formalities of restoring diplomatic relations, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson spent Friday hearing from the other side. In a breakfast meeting with a group of seven prominent political dissidents in Havana, a visit to Cuba's most well-known dissident blogger and independent journalist, and dinner with other opponents of the Cuban government, Jacobson listened to the hopes and concerns of some of those President Barack Obama has said his new opening to Cuba is designed to benefit over the long term. While many were supportive and optimistic, others were doubtful, and faulted the administration for giving legitimacy to the Cuban government while getting little in return. Jacobson repeated that "profound differences" between the two governments remain following Thursday's inaugural talks. But all of those differences do not have to be resolved before diplomatic relations are restored, Jacobson said.

Montgomery, Ala.

Federal judge strikes gay-marriage ban

Alabama became the latest state to see its ban on gay marriage fall to a federal court ruling Friday, as the issue of same-sex marriage heads to the U.S. Supreme Court. U.S. District Callie V.S. Granade ruled in favor of two Mobile women who sued to challenge Alabama's refusal to recognize their 2008 marriage performed in California. The ruling is the latest in a string of wins for advocates of marriage rights. Judges have also struck down bans in several other Southern states, including the Carolinas, Florida, Mississippi and Virginia. The U.S. Supreme Court announced this month that it will take up the issue of whether gay couples have a fundamental right to marry and if states can ban such unions.

France

Gunman in attacks buried outside Paris

Amedy Coulibaly, one of the three attackers in a three-day onslaught in which 17 people were killed in and around Paris, was buried Friday in Thiais, a suburb, police officials said. Coulibaly, a 32-year-old French citizen of Malian descent, died in a police assault on a kosher supermarket on Jan. 9 after he took several hostages, killing four of them, and a day after he fatally shot a police officer in Montrouge, just south of Paris. Coulibaly's funeral took place after the two brothers who killed 12 people at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo were buried last week in cities near Paris.

Denver

Colo. woman gets 4 years in terror case

A 19-year-old suburban Denver woman who tried to go to Syria to help Islamic State militants has been sentenced to four years in prison. Shannon Conley learned her punishment in Denver federal court on Friday as her parents watched. Wearing a black and tan headscarf with her jail uniform, she tearfully told the judge that she has disavowed jihad and that the people who influenced her misconstrued the Koran. Judge Raymond Moore said the sentence was meant to deter others with similar intentions.

Darby, Pa.

Pet ferrets maul newborn's face

Authorities near Philadelphia say a trio of pet ferrets mauled a newborn who was left downstairs in her car seat, chewing off the baby's nose and part of her cheek and lip. Officials say the month-old baby was attacked Thursday by ferrets that escaped from a cloth cage while the girl's mother went upstairs and her father was sleeping. Authorities say the baby was in stable condition Friday after emergency reconstructive surgery at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Police say four other young children have been placed with relatives amid concerns about their parents' ability to care for them. "The parents, I believe, have problems," Darby Borough police Chief Robert Smythe told the Delaware County Daily Times.

Times wires