In Brief | Nation & World

Ariz. sheriff’s legal troubles aren’t over

PHOENIX — The federal abuse-of-power investigation into America’s self-proclaimed toughest sheriff may have been closed without criminal charges but Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s legal troubles are far from over.

A civil case brought by a small group of Latinos who accuse Arpaio’s office of systematic racial profiling is awaiting a verdict from an Arizona-based federal judge.

The U.S. Department of Justice has also sued the sheriff for alleged constitutional violations including racial profiling, retaliating against Arpaio critics, punishing Latino jail inmates with limited English skills for speaking Spanish and failing to adequately investigate a large number of sex-crimes cases. No trial date in that case has been set.

The Justice Department announced late Friday it would not pursue criminal charges against the sheriff or his office, or against former Maricopa County top prosecutor Andrew Thomas and a top Thomas aide, Lisa Aubuchon, for abuse of power.

Thomas and Aubuchon were disbarred by the state Supreme Court earlier this year after an ethics panel decided they brought criminal charges against two county officials and a judge in December 2009 with the purpose of embarrassing them. The cases were investigated by Arpaio’s now-closed anti-public corruption squad.

Islamist rebels
gain ground in Mali

BAMAKO, Mali — Islamic extremists seized control of the strategic town of Douentza on Saturday, moving much closer to government-held territory in central Mali, according to witnesses in the town and a rebel spokesman.

Residents said that early in the morning, a convoy of pickup trucks carrying bearded men entered the town, located about 500 miles northeast of the capital, Bamako. While far from the capital, Douentza is 120 miles from Mopti, which marks the line-of-control held by the Malian military.

Islamist leader Oumar Ould Hamaha told The Associated Press by telephone that the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (known by the French acronym MUJAO) had seized Douentza after a brief standoff with the local self-defense militia, which formerly controlled the town. The head of the militia could not be reached, and his phone went straight to voicemail.

The Malian military lost control of the northern half of the country in April, including the town of Douentza. But up until now, the Islamists didn’t have a presence in the town either, relying instead on an agreement with the local militia, which patrolled the area.

New U.N. Syria
envoy puts
pressure on regime

BEIRUT — The U.N.’s new envoy to Syria told President Bashar Assad’s regime on Saturday that change is both “urgent” and “necessary” and it must meet the “legitimate” demands of the Syrian people, words that will not win the seasoned Algerian diplomat and international troubleshooter any friends in Damascus.

On his first day on the job, Lakhdar Brahimi also called on both sides to end violence in Syria, but said Assad’s government bears more responsibility than anyone else to halt the bloodshed. These remarks were seemingly intended to push the Damascus government to ease off on military operations to create a better atmosphere for his peace mission.

His comments, made in New York, came as activists said rebels captured an air defense facility in the east of the country near the border with Iraq. The battle for control of Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, meanwhile intensified, with government warplanes and ground forces pounding it with bombs and mortar rounds as rebel fighters fought off troops in the narrow alleys of the city’s old quarter.

The latest violence in Aleppo shows that government forces are still struggling to regain full control of the city from the lightly-armed rebels nearly five weeks after they stormed their way into the city in a surprise offensive.

By wire sources