World/Nation Briefs October 6, 2014

Paul Revere of Raiders rock band dies at 76

LOS ANGELES - Paul Revere, the organist and leader of the Raiders rock band, has died. He was 76.

Roger Hart, manager for Paul Revere and the Raiders, said he died Saturday at his home in Garden Valley, Idaho, from cancer. Revere was born in Harvard, Neb., Hart said.

"He'd been quiet about it for some time," Hart said. "Treated at the Mayo Clinic, Paul stayed on the road as long as he could, then retired recently back to Idaho, where he and his wife, Sydney, always kept a home."

Revere, born Paul Revere Dick, became known as "the madman of rock and roll" for his theatrical colonial wardrobe and infectious onstage persona with the band.

"From Day 1, we've always been a party band that accidentally had some hit records and accidently got on a hit television series," Revere told The Associated Press in a 2000 interview.

The group became popular in 1963 with its rendition of Richard Berry's "Louie, Louie" before releasing its own hits, such as "Kicks," ''Hungry" and "Good Thing." The band's biggest smash came in 1971 with "Indian Reservation."

Paul Revere and the Raiders served as the house band for the Dick Clark TV show "Where the Action Is" and made an appearance as themselves in the "Batman" TV series starring Adam West.

While the band's line-up changed over the past 50 years, Revere remained a constant presence with the group and he continued touring until earlier this year.

Hong Kong protesters remove some barricades

HONG KONG - Hong Kong's pro-democracy activists agreed Sunday to remove some barriers blocking roads and sidewalks ahead of the government's deadline to scale back their protests. But the demonstrators appeared to be divided, and others refused to budge, with only hours to go.

An alliance of students said it had tried but so far failed to reach agreement with officials on a plan to begin talks on their demands for wider political reforms. The group vowed to continue protests until details of the talks might be worked out.

"If the government uses force to clear away protesters, there will be no room for dialogue," Lester Shum, one of the group's leaders, told reporters.

Earlier in the day, students occupying the area just outside city government headquarters agreed to remove some barricades that were blocking the building's entrance, after the government said it would do whatever was necessary to ensure 3,000 civil servants would have full access to their offices today.

The partial withdrawal appeared to be part of a strategy to regroup in another part of town, as protesters were urged to shift from other areas to Hong Kong's Admiralty shopping and business district, a central location near the government's main offices that has served as an informal headquarters for the protests.

Poll: We don't feel safe from range of threats

WASHINGTON - Americans lack confidence in the government's ability to protect their personal safety and economic security, a sign that their widespread unease about the state of the nation extends far beyond politics, according to the latest Associated Press-GfK poll.

With Election Day about a month away, more than half those in the survey said Washington can do little to effectively lessen threats such as climate change, mass shootings, racial tensions, economic uncertainty and an unstable job market.

"I think what we've got going on here in America is the perfect storm of not good things," said Joe Teasdale, 59, who lives in southwest Wisconsin and works as an assistant engineer at a casino.

For many of those questioned in the poll, conducted before doctors in Texas diagnosed a Liberian man with the Ebola virus, the concern starts with the economy.

The poll found that 9 in 10 of those most likely to vote in the Nov. 4 election call the economy an extremely or very important issue. Teasdale is among those who say the slow recovery from the recession is a top concern.

Supreme Court faces legacy-defining cases

WASHINGTON - A Supreme Court term that is starting with a lack of headline-grabbing cases may end with a blockbuster that helps define the legacy of the court under Chief Justice John Roberts.

While same-sex marriage is not yet on their agenda, the justices appear likely to take on the issue and decide once and for all whether gay and lesbian couples have a constitutional right to marry.

When the justices formally open their new term today, Roberts will be beginning his 10th year at the head of the court, and the fifth with the same lineup of justices. He has been part of a five-justice conservative majority that has rolled back campaign finance limits, upheld abortion restrictions and generally been skeptical of the consideration of race in public life.

But his court has taken a different path in cases involving gay and lesbian Americans, despite his opposition most of the time.

Authorities find mass graves, burned bodies

IGUALA, Mexico - Security forces investigating the role of municipal police in deadly clashes with protesters have found burned human remains in mass graves on the edge of this city in southern Mexico, a lawyer for the families of 43 missing students said Sunday.

Attorney Vidulfo Rosales told The Associated Press the remains were still unidentified and belonged to an undetermined number of people. There were six graves in the burial area near Iguala, which is about 120 miles south of Mexico City.

- The Associated Press