In Brief: Nation & World: 7-11-16

Dallas suspect taunted police during 2 hours of negotiation

DALLAS (AP) — The suspect in the deadly attack on Dallas police taunted authorities during two hours of negotiations, laughing at them, singing and at one point asking how many officers he had shot, the police chief said Sunday.

The chief and the county’s most senior elected official also said Micah Johnson had larger attack plans and possessed enough explosive material to inflict far greater harm.

“We’re convinced that this suspect had other plans and thought that what he was doing was righteous and believed that he was going to target law enforcement — make us pay for what he sees as law enforcement’s efforts to punish people of color,” Brown told CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Johnson, a black Army veteran, insisted on speaking with a black negotiator and wrote in blood on the wall of a parking garage where police cornered and later killed him, Brown said.

The gunman wrote the letters “RB” and other markings, but the meaning was unclear. Investigators are trying to decipher the writing by looking through evidence from Johnson’s suburban Dallas home, Brown said.

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Texas woman shot while protecting son says she’d march again

DALLAS (AP) — A Texas woman who was wounded when she threw herself over her son during the attack on a Dallas protest march said Sunday she would go to another demonstration to show her boys that she’s not a quitter.

Shetamia Taylor, who attended the march with her four sons, also thanked Dallas police for protecting her in the chaos that erupted Thursday night. She says officers shielded her as bullets whizzed through the air around them.

“They had no regard for their own life. They stayed there with us. They surrounded my son and I,” she said.

Taylor, in a wheelchair with her right leg immobilized, told a news conference at Baylor University Medical Center that she always held police officers “in a very high place” and notes that her youngest son wants to be a cop.

“I never had an issue with police officers,” she said. “If anything it made my admiration for them greater.”

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Obama urges greater respect, understanding after shootings

MADRID (AP) — President Barack Obama on Sunday urged respect and restraint from Americans angered by the killing of black men by police, saying anything less does a “disservice to the cause” of ridding the criminal justice system of racial bias.

He also urged law enforcement to treat seriously complaints that they are heavy-handed and intolerant, particularly toward minorities.

“I’d like all sides to listen to each other,” Obama said in response to a reporter’s question after he met with Spain’s acting prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, during an abbreviated first visit to Spain as president.

Obama’s appeal for greater understanding from opposing sides of the emotionally charged debate over police practices followed the weekend arrests of scores of people in Louisiana and Minnesota who protested the shooting deaths by police of black men in both states last week.

Those deaths were followed by a stunning sniper attack last Thursday in Dallas that killed five police officers and wounded seven others as they watched over a peaceful protest of the week’s earlier shootings.

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Protests continue in Baton Rouge, police block I-10 ramps

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Officers with rifles were blocking the ramps to keep protesters off Interstate 10 in downtown Baton Rouge Sunday, and about 130 people have been taken into custody as marches continue over shootings by police.

Gov. John Bel Edwards said he’s “very proud” of the Louisiana law enforcement response to protests over the fatal shooting of a black man by white police officers in the city.

Flanked by law enforcement leaders, Edwards said he doesn’t believe officers have been overly aggressive by using riot gear to push protesters off a highway.

“The police tactics in response have been very moderate. I’m very proud of that,” said the Democratic governor, who comes from a family of sheriffs.

Tensions between black citizens and police have risen palpably over the past week or so amid police shootings of African-American men in Minnesota and Louisiana and the gunning down of five white police officers by a black suspect in Dallas in apparent retaliation.

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Attacks on police: Inspired or directed by militant groups?

DALLAS (AP) — Police shootings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota were followed by calls from black militant groups and others to seek vengeance against officers. Almost immediately, several officers were attacked, including the five slain by a sniper in Dallas.

Now authorities are investigating whether the Dallas gunman was directed by those groups or merely emboldened by them.

“I think it’s safe to say we’ll leave no stone unturned,” Dallas Deputy Police Chief Scott Walton said.

Police have been tight-lipped about exactly what they’re investigating and what they’ve uncovered so far. Although Micah Johnson was connected to several militant groups on social media, it’s unclear if he was merely a follower or a more active participant.

Similar questions have been raised by international terrorist organizations such as the Islamic State group: How is the network encouraging and directing attacks? Is it a coordinated effort or are the attacks simply a byproduct of hate speech espoused by the groups on social media?

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The Latest: Dallas judge calls attack ‘crime of opportunity’

DALLAS (AP) — The Latest on the shooting of police officers in Dallas (all times local):

5:45 p.m.

A top elected official in Dallas says it appears Thursday’s attack on a protest march was a “crime of opportunity.”

Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins says authorities believe the gunman, Micah Johnson, had been practicing and training for a long time, learned of the protest and knew there would be a lot of police to protect protesters.

Jenkins says Johnson had material for explosives in his home and talked of using IEDs during the police standoff. He says that indicates he could have done more damage with more time, but used the protest in Dallas to strike in a more limited, albeit deadly, fashion.

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NAFTA a sore spot for some Democrats on Clinton in Michigan

MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. (AP) — Michigan is trickier than it may appear for Hillary Clinton, a Democrat whose party’s presidential nominees have carried the struggling manufacturing hub for decades.

Bernie Sanders beat her in the state’s Democratic primary by railing against the North American Free Trade Agreement. Republican Donald Trump is more popular with Michigan’s working-class white voters than past GOP candidates, and has pledged to back out of the treaty some blame for the loss of countless Rust Belt jobs.

While Clinton’s history of supporting free trade may not cost her the state, it is costing campaign staff and money to defend its 16 electoral votes.

“It’s an issue that Sanders used to his advantage in the primary and obviously was successful,” said Michigan Democratic organizer Amy Chapman, who was Barack Obama’s state director in 2008 and a senior adviser in 2012. “Obviously, it’s something they need to figure out as they figure out what it takes to win Michigan.”

Trump last week blasted the pact signed by President Bill Clinton and predicted that backing out would restore millions of vanished factory jobs.

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US frees Yemeni prisoner from Guantanamo, sends him to Italy

MIAMI (AP) — A Yemeni prisoner at Guantanamo Bay was released and sent to Italy after more than 14 years in custody, the Pentagon said Sunday.

The release of Fayiz Ahmad Yahia Suleiman reduced the number of men held at the U.S. base in Cuba to 78. He was among about two dozen low-level Guantanamo prisoners expected to be released in the coming weeks.

“The United States is grateful to the Government of Italy for its humanitarian gesture and willingness to support ongoing U.S. efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility,” the Defense Department said in a statement.

Military records show Suleiman, who is about 40, was suspected of fighting with al-Qaida against U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan. He was never charged, and officials cleared him for release in 2010. But the U.S. does not send Yemeni prisoners to their homeland because of instability there and had to find another country to accept him for resettlement.

The U.S. transferred two Guantanamo detainees to Italy in November 2009.

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Portugal stuns host France to win cup despite Ronaldo injury

SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) — Portugal overcame the loss of injured captain Cristiano Ronaldo to beat France 1-0 in the European Championship final on Sunday, with a goal in extra time from substitute Eder securing their country’s first football title.

Just as the final looked destined for a penalty shootout, Eder cut through the French defense and struck a low shot from 25 meters (yards) past goalkeeper Hugo Lloris in the 109th minute at the Stade de France.

Twelve years after losing to Greece on home soil in their last appearance in the final, it was Portugal’s turn to spoil the host nation’s party. And they achieved it after winning only one of their seven games at Euro 2016 inside 90 minutes, and after losing the inspirational Ronaldo midway through the first half.

“It was tough because we lost our main man and we had all our hopes pinned on him because he’s a player who can score a goal at any minute,” Portugal defender Pepe said. “When he said he couldn’t go on, I tried to tell my teammates that we have to win it for him. That we were going to fight for him.”

And they did.

Abe Within Striking Distance of Upper House Super Majority

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s conservative coalition scored a convincing upper house election win, putting it on course for a two-thirds majority that would allow Abe to press ahead with plans to revise the country’s pacifist constitution.

The Liberal Democratic Party secured 56 of the 121 seats in contention, public broadcaster NHK said, while junior coalition partner Komeito had 14. Alongside others who support Abe’s view on constitutional revision, plus uncontested seats, the prime minister is set for a super majority, it said.

The results raise questions over whether Abe will switch his focus to altering the postwar U.S.-imposed constitution, a potentially time-consuming process that could expend his political capital and distract the government from its economic program. Abe vowed during the campaign to focus on policies aimed at expanding the size of the economy to 600 trillion yen ($6 trillion) from 500 trillion yen.