Nation and World briefs for June 29

Man destroys new Ten Commandments statue at Arkansas Capitol

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A man yelled “Freedom!” as he crashed his vehicle into Arkansas’ new Ten Commandments monument early Wednesday, nearly three years after he was arrested in the destruction of Oklahoma’s monument at its state Capitol, authorities said.

The privately funded Arkansas monument had been in place outside the state Capitol in Little Rock for less than 24 hours before it was knocked from its plinth and smashed to pieces.

Michael Tate Reed, 32, of Van Buren, Arkansas, was booked in the Pulaski County jail shortly after 7:30 a.m. on preliminary charges of defacing objects of public interest, criminal trespass and first-degree criminal mischief. An arrest report lists his occupation as “unemployed/disabled.”

Authorities did not know whether he had an attorney who could speak on his behalf. A video arraignment was set for Thursday morning, a Pulaski County sheriff’s spokesman said. A call to the number listed for Reed on a police report went straight to voicemail.

Arkansas Secretary of State’s Office spokesman Chris Powell said officials believe a Facebook Live video posted on a Michael Reed’s account that depicted the destruction is authentic.

Little progress evident as GOP hunts health bill votes

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell explored options for salvaging the battered Republican health care bill Wednesday but confronted an expanding chorus of GOP detractors, deepening the uncertainty over whether the party can resuscitate its bedrock promise to repeal President Barack Obama’s overhaul.

A day after McConnell, short of votes, unexpectedly abandoned plans to whisk the measure through his chamber this week, fresh GOP critics popped forward. Some senators emerged from a party lunch saying potential amendments were beyond cosmetic, with changes to Medicaid and Obama’s consumer-friendly insurance coverage requirements among the items in play.

“There’s a whole raft of things that people are talking about, and some of it’s trimming around the edges and some of it’s more fundamental,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La. “Right now, they’re still kind of, ‘Can we do it?’ and I can’t answer that.”

Yet while this week’s retreat on a measure McConnell wrote behind closed doors dented his reputation as a consummate legislative seer, no one was counting him out.

“Once in Glacier National Park I saw two porcupines making love,” said Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan. “I’m assuming they produced smaller porcupines. They produced something. It has to be done carefully. That’s what we’re doing now.”

Iraqis fight house to house for costly victory in Mosul

MOSUL, Iraq (AP) — Gunfire echoes through the pockmarked streets as Maj. Ihab Jalil al-Aboudi’s soldiers fight block by block for the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, occasionally pausing to help terrified families flee to safety across the rubble.

Associated Press reporters accompanied his forces for three weeks in May as they battled Islamic State militants in neighborhoods around Mosul’s Old City, part of a massive offensive launched in October that Iraqi commanders hope to finally complete in the coming days.

Driving the Islamic State from Iraq’s second largest city would hand a major defeat to the extremist group three years after it swept across much of northern and central Iraq. But victory has come at a heavy cost for Mosul’s residents and the soldiers fighting to liberate them from the extremists’ rule.

On a hot afternoon, al-Aboudi helped a group of civilians — men, women and children — navigate a narrow escape corridor opened up by his forces.

“Thank God for your safety,” he said, over and over again, as he handed them bottles of water. “Lift your veils!” another soldier called out, signaling to the women that they were no longer bound by the IS group’s harsh interpretation of Islamic law.

Venezuela: Helicopter strafes court in ‘terrorist attack’

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Oscar Perez is a cop, pilot, action movie star and dog trainer. He’s now also a fugitive, accused of strafing two key Venezuelan government buildings from a helicopter in a quixotic attempt to set off a revolt against President Nicolas Maduro.

Authorities on Wednesday conducted a nationwide manhunt for Perez a day after the government charged that he stole the police chopper and directed grenades and gunfire against the Supreme Court and Interior Ministry in what Maduro called a “terrorist attack.”

No one was injured, and there was no sign of damage at the buildings. But the episode added another layer of intrigue to a 3-month-old political crisis that has left at least 75 people dead and hundreds more jailed or injured in clashes between security forces and protesters seeking Maduro’s removal.

Did Perez act alone? Are other military uprisings in the works? Or was it an elaborate ruse clumsily orchestrated by the government to distract public attention or justify a tougher crackdown on the opposition?

National Assembly President Julio Borges expressed doubts about Maduro’s version of events but cautioned that he and the rest of the opposition were still analyzing what happened.

China frees 3 activists who probed Ivanka Trump supplier

GANZHOU, China (AP) — The three Chinese investigators who went undercover at a factory that made Ivanka Trump shoes walked out of a Chinese police station Wednesday after a month behind bars, but face an uncertain future and threat of a trial.

Chinese authorities released the three on bail after allegedly breaking the law by using secret cameras and listening devices. It is extremely rare for individuals to be freed on bail if they had been criminally detained, a possible sign that they won’t be formally charged and put on trial.

Political dissidents and other activists who are released in China typically face restrictions on what they can do and say, including comments to the media.

“This is a way of keeping people under pressure, under police control, without subjected them to actual confinement,” said Jerome Cohen, a law professor at New York University and a Chinese human rights expert. “Whether they are prosecuted depends on how they behave.”

One of the activists, Hua Haifeng, was clearly relieved as he held his 3-year-old son outside the police station in Ganzhou, a city in southeastern Jiangxi province. But he was unwilling to talk much.

UK charges 6 in Hillsborough stadium tragedy that killed 96

LONDON (AP) — Prosecutors charged a former senior police commander with manslaughter Wednesday in the 1989 Hillsborough stadium disaster that left 96 people dead — long-awaited vindication for the families of the victims after authorities spent years blaming fans for the catastrophe.

The charges announced against former Chief Superintendent David Duckenfield and five others were met with applause from victims’ relatives who had waged a decades-long quest for justice for their loved ones after the deaths were ruled accidental — a decision that was overturned in 2012 after a wide-ranging inquiry found a cover-up by police.

The disaster, in which many victims were crushed against metal fences, prompted a sweeping modernization of stadiums across Britain, where standing-room-only sections like the one that contributed to the trampling of fans in the overcrowded stadium were commonplace. Top division stadiums were largely transformed into safer, all-seat venues, with fences around the playing surface torn down to avoid further tragedies.

Last year, a new inquest found that all 96 fans had been unlawfully killed and an independent police investigation asked prosecutors to consider criminal charges in the case. The Crown Prosecution Service announced its highly anticipated decision on Wednesday, filing charges against four police officers, a lawyer and an official of the team whose stadium was the venue for the April 15, 1989 match.

Barry Devonside, whose 18-year-old son, Christopher, was among those killed, pumped his fist after the indictments were made public.

Airstrike kills at least 15 in eastern Syria

BEIRUT (AP) — At least 15 people were killed in an airstrike in eastern Syria on Wednesday, activists said, in the second attack in three days reported to kill civilians in the Islamic State-held Euphrates River valley.

Two Syrian monitoring groups, Deir Ezzor 24 and Justice For Life, said an unidentified jet dropped a cluster bomb on the village of Doblan. Russian, Syrian, and U.S.-led coalition aircraft are all known to operate in the area.

Cluster bombs are designed to spread small bomblets across a wide area, but many fail to explode, endangering civilians long after the fighting has ended.

Omar Abou Layla, the head of Deir Ezzor 24, said 15 bodies, including those of women and children, were recovered in the village. He said residents expect to find many more killed.

Ali Rahbe, of Justice For Life, said local informants counted at least 35 dead in the village, which is between the IS strongholds of al-Mayadeen and Boukamal.