World/Nation
Jungle camps contained 139 suspected graves
WANG KELIAN, Malaysia - Malaysian authorities said Monday a cluster of abandoned jungle camps used by human traffickers contained 139 suspected graves as well as barbed-wire pens likely used to cage migrants, shedding more light on a regional trade that preyed on some of Southeast Asia's most desperate people.
National police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said forensics experts were exhuming the suspected graves found at 28 vacated camps in the hilly jungle area on the border with Thailand where trafficking syndicates were known to operate.
"It is a very sad scene," Khalid told reporters at a police outpost in the town of Wang Kelian several miles from the camps, one of which appeared large enough to hold about 300 people. "I am shocked. We never expected this kind of cruelty."
At one forest camp, police found several parts of a decomposed body inside a wooden pen. The parts were placed into white bags and brought to Wang Kelian, and district police chief Rizani Ismail said they would be examined by forensics experts. Police said they would begin digging up other suspected graves - mounds of earth, covered with leaves and marked by sticks - on Tuesday.
Women lured to marry for their EU identity cards
LONDON - Klara Balogova was 18, penniless and heavily pregnant when she rode thousands of miles from Slovakia to England to marry a man she had never met.
She knew he did not want her, or her child. He wanted her European identity card. The marriage was arranged so the 23-year-old Pakistani groom could gain the right to live and work in Europe.
Balogova was promised a clean place to stay in Britain and maybe even some money. But she says within days of arrival, she was moved from Manchester to Glasgow in Scotland, where she was kept in an apartment with her future husband. When he wasn't around, his younger brother would stand over her, and her identity documents were taken away.
"He didn't let me out at any time. He told me it was not possible to go out there," said Balogova, a shy, petite Gypsy woman who spoke reluctantly, never making any eye contact when she was interviewed. "Once a week we went out together. I was never allowed to go alone."
Each year, dozens of women like Balogova from the poorer corners of eastern Europe are lured to the West for sham marriages.
Biden reinforces U.S. support for Iraqi fighters
WASHINGTON - Vice President Joe Biden reassured Iraq's government on Monday of U.S. support in the fight against the Islamic State group, telephoning Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi with thanks for "the enormous sacrifice and bravery of Iraqi forces" one day after Defense Secretary Ash Carter questioned the Iraqi military commitment.
Biden's call followed harsh criticism from Iraqi and Iranian quarters after Carter questioned Iraqi forces' "will to fight" the surging Islamic State group.
A White House statement on Monday describing Biden's call said the vice president welcomed an Iraqi decision to mobilize additional troops and "prepare for counterattack operations." Biden also pledged full U.S. support to "these and other Iraqi efforts to liberate territory from ISIL," the statement said, using an acronym for Islamic State.
In reaction to Carter's remarks, which were aired Sunday in a TV interview, a spokesman for Iraq's prime minister suggested the defense secretary had "incorrect information," while Gen. Qassim Soleimani, the head of the elite Quds forces in Iran's Revolutionary Guard, offered his own critical assessment of U.S. forces.
Cleveland settles with government over policing
WASHINGTON - The city of Cleveland has reached a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department over a pattern of excessive force and civil rights violations by the police department, and the agreement could be announced today, a senior federal law enforcement official said.
The official was not authorized to speak publicly of the settlement ahead of the official announcement and spoke Monday on condition of anonymity.
News of the settlement comes days after a white police officer was acquitted of manslaughter for firing the final 15 rounds of a 137-shot police barrage through the windshield of a car carrying two black, unarmed suspects in 2012. The suspects' backfiring vehicle had been mistaken for a gunshot, leading to a high-speed chase involving 62 police cruisers.
- The Associated Press