In Brief: Nation & World: 5-2-16

Protests disband after IS group carries out 2nd Iraq bombing

BAGHDAD — Anti-government protesters disbanded at least temporarily Sunday from the heavily fortified Green Zone they had stormed a day earlier after the Islamic State group carried out its second major attack in Iraq in as many days — a pair of car bombs that killed more than 30 people.

The country’s political crisis intensified Saturday when hundreds of supporters of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr tore down walls and poured into the zone that is home to the seat of the Iraqi government and most foreign embassies. Loudspeaker announcements on Sunday evening urged protesters to leave peacefully. When the call came, hundreds calmly packed up and left, carrying flags and overnight bags away with them.

Later in the day, families walked through the compound’s smoothly paved streets and snapped pictures beside its well-watered gardens, and young men bathed in a fountain. Such scenes are entirely divorced from the rest of the city’s crumbling infrastructure and neglected public spaces.

The Green Zone, surrounded by thick blast walls topped with razor wire, is off-limits to most Iraqis because of security procedures that require multiple checks and specific documentation to enter. It has long been the focus of al-Sadr’s criticism that the government is detached from the people.

Supporters of al-Sadr have been holding demonstrations and sit-ins for months to demand an overhaul of the political system put in place by the U.S. following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003. Last summer, demonstrations demanding better government services mobilized millions across Iraq and pressured Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to submit his first package of reform proposals. However, months of stalled progress followed, and in recent months al-Sadr’s well organized supporters took over the protest movement.

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US once again forced to turn to Russia for help on Syria

GENEVA — Scrambling to resuscitate a nearly dead truce in Syria, the Obama administration has again been forced to turn to Russia for help, with little hope for the desired U.S. outcome.

At stake are thousands of lives and the fate of a feeble peace process essential to the fight against the Islamic State group, and Secretary of State John Kerry has appealed once more to his Russian counterpart for assistance in containing and reducing the violence, particularly around city of Aleppo.

“We are talking directly to the Russians, even now,” Kerry said on his arrival in Geneva as he began talks with Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh. “The hope is we can make some progress, but the UN Security Council Resolution calls for a full country, countrywide, cessation and also for all of the country to be accessible to humanitarian assistance. Obviously that hasn’t happened and isn’t happening.”

“These are critical hours. We look for Russia’s cooperation. We obviously look for the regime to listen to Russia and to respond to the international communities’ powerful statement to the UN Security Council.”

Kerry spoke at length on Friday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to that end, and had been hoping to meet with Lavrov soon, according to U.S. officials.

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Elephants perform for final time at Ringling Bros. circus

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — An elephant carrying a performer holding an American flag kicked off the final elephant performance at Ringling Bros. and Barnum &Bailey Circus on Sunday, as the show closes its own chapter on a practice that has entertained audiences in America for two centuries but has come under fire by animal rights activists.

Six Asian elephants were delivering their final performances in Providence, Rhode Island, and five performed in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, earlier Sunday. The last Providence show was streaming live on Facebook and at Ringling.com .

In Providence, after a trip around the ring, the elephant carrying the flag stood at attention during the national anthem. A few minutes later, six elephants entered the ring, each holding the tail of the one in front of her.

Alana Feld, executive vice president of Feld Entertainment, which owns the circus, said the animals will live at its 200-acre Center for Elephant Conservation in Florida. Its herd of 40 Asian elephants, the largest in North America, will continue a breeding program and be used in a pediatric cancer research project.

Elephants have been used in the circus in America for more than 200 years. In the early 1800s, Hackaliah Bailey added the elephant “Old Bet” to his circus. P.T. Barnum added the African elephant he named “Jumbo” to “The Greatest Show on Earth” in 1882.

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Schumer: Probe billboards using phone data to track shoppers

NEW YORK — A U.S. senator is calling for a federal investigation into an outdoor advertising company’s latest effort to target billboard ads to specific consumers.

New York Sen. Charles Schumer has dubbed Clear Channel Outdoor Americas’ so-called RADAR program “spying billboards,” warning the service may violate privacy rights by tracking people’s cell phone data via the ad space.

“A person’s cellphone should not become a James Bond-like personal tracking device for a corporation to gather information about consumers without their consent,” Schumer, a Democrat, said in a statement ahead of a planned news conference Sunday in Times Square, where the company operates billboards.

But the company, which operates more than 675,000 billboards throughout the world, argues that characterization of its program is inaccurate, insisting it only uses anonymous data collected by other companies.

In a statement, company spokesman Jason King said the RADAR program is based on a years-old advertising technique that “uses only aggregated and anonymized information” from other companies that certify they’re following consumer protection standards.

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Longtime chef: Prince fought throat, stomach pains recently

MINNEAPOLIS — On stage, Prince was still captivating audiences at recent performances in Australia and California. He hosted a pop-up party at his Paisley Park studio, and there were few outward signs in his final months that anything was wrong.

But off stage, something was different. Prince began wanting meals that were easier to digest and was fighting off waves of sore throats and frequent upset stomachs, the musician’s personal chef told The Associated Press.

A law enforcement official has told the AP that investigators are looking into whether Prince, who was found dead at his home on April 21, died from an overdose and whether a doctor was prescribing him drugs in the weeks beforehand. The official has been briefed on the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Ray Roberts, who cooked for Prince nearly every day for almost three years, said in an interview that wasn’t the man he saw nearly every night, “not even a hint. Not at all.” But Roberts did start noticing changes in Prince’s diet — he was eating less and drinking less water, and looked like he was losing weight.

“It felt like he wasn’t himself probably the last month or two,” Roberts said. “I think he was just struggling with being sick a lot.”

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Trump gets outside help for potential GOP convention battle

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump has a Plan B if he’s faced with a contested convention, and it involves the sort of outside groups that he’s called “corrupt.”

While the billionaire businessman might lock up the Republican presidential nomination in the next five weeks of voting, he and his allies are simultaneously undertaking a parallel effort in case he falls short.

Outside groups, including one led by longtime Trump political ally Roger Stone, and a loose collection of colorful supporters such as “Bikers for Trump” are organizing ahead of the July convention in Cleveland.

They’re soliciting money to pay for their transportation and housing, and they’re already trying to influence the mood of the convention with a social media campaign saying that anything short of a Trump nomination would be “stealing.”

“Our principle focus right now is Cleveland,” Stone said of his group, called Stop the Steal. “We want to bring as large a contingent as possible to demonstrate the breadth of Trump’s appeal so that the party can see graphically what they’re going to lose if they hijack the nomination from him.”

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1st cruise from a US port in decades leaves Miami for Cuba

MIAMI — Passengers set sail Sunday from Miami on an historic cruise to Cuba, the first in decades to depart from a U.S. seaport for the communist island nation.

Carnival Corp.’s 704-passenger Adonia left port at 4:24 p.m., bound for Havana. Carnival’s Cuba cruises, operating under its Fathom brand, will also visit the ports of Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba on the seven-day outing. Several Cuba-born passengers, among hundreds of others, were aboard, it said.

The cruise comes after Cuba loosened its policy banning Cuban-born people from arriving to the country by sea, a rule that threatened to stop the cruises from happening.

Restarting the cruises was an important element of a bid by President Barack Obama’s administration’s to increase tourism to Cuba after the Dec. 17, 2014, decision to restore diplomatic relations and move toward normalization.

The most recent such cruise, from another U.S. port, was in 1978.

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Jazz fest’s last day kicks off, storm ends some sets early

NEW ORLEANS — A day after thunderstorms forced the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival to close early, thousands of umbrellas bobbed as their owners listened or danced in puddles to a 70-minute tribute to the late Allen Toussaint.

Leslie Goldberg, a Chicagoan living in New Orleans, swayed to strains played by Dr. John as a light rain fell on the last day of the seven-day celebration of food, art, crafts and, of course, music.

“He was a legend,” she said. “I like to see how all the musicians who came to Jazz Fest interpret his music.”

An earlier downpour turned parts of the Fair Grounds Race Course into swimming pools for geese and forced several of the last day’s acts to end their sets early.

Other performances in big tents were not affected, festival spokesman Matthew Goldman said.