LAS VEGAS – Two defendants became the first to plead guilty Thursday to federal charges in an armed confrontation with U.S. officials over grazing rights near cattleman and open-range advocate Cliven Bundy's ranch in Nevada.
Gerald "Jerry" DeLemus and Blaine Cooper each admitted to conspiring with others who engaged in a tense gunpoint standoff with federal Bureau of Land Management agents in April 2014 near Bundy's property about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas.
Both told U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro they weren't physically present for the standoff. But they acknowledged interfering with the execution of federal court orders by recruiting and organizing armed gunmen to support Bundy and sons Ammon, Ryan, Mel and Dave Bundy in efforts to prevent the roundup of Bundy cattle from the scenic Gold Butte area.
Their plea deals call for sentences of six years in federal prison, although their defense attorneys can seek leniency at sentencing Dec. 1.
DOVER, Del. – A woman who fell 35 feet to her death from a zip line platform had disconnected herself from the safety system, the attraction's operator said Thursday.
Delaware State Police investigators are investigating how Tina Werner tumbled off the platform at the Go Ape Tree Top Adventure attraction in Lums Pond State Park on Wednesday.
Participants at Go Ape courses are equipped with climbing harnesses and two sets of ropes with carabiners that they unclip and clip to safety wires in sequence as they move through the trees.
Werner, 59, of Felton, had completed the required safety training, and was nearing the end of the course when she fell, said Jeff Davis, a spokesman for Go Ape.
"Participant witnesses have stated that at the time of the accident, the participant had unfortunately disconnected herself from the safety system," Davis said in an email.
An inspection found that all of the course and associated safety equipment was in sound operating condition, and that "nothing was broken or unserviceable," Davis wrote.
WASHINGTON – Turkey says the United States is legally bound by a treaty to immediately hand over Fethullah Gulen, the U.S.-based Muslim cleric it accuses of plotting to overthrow Turkey's government.
The U.S. government says it can't comply until Turkey can convince a judge its allegations against Gulen are legitimate.
Any solution lies in the murky world of extradition, where the U.S. criminal justice system overlaps with diplomacy and international law.
Unable to agree about the process, Turkey and the U.S. are feuding over Gulen, who denies involvement in the thwarted July 15 coup attempt.
During Vice President Joe Biden's visit to Ankara this week, the disagreement played out in unusually sharp and open fashion. Both Turkey's prime minister and president publicly badgered Biden and said the U.S. was harboring a terrorist, while Biden tried simultaneously to show sympathy and defend U.S. legal traditions.
Iranian naval vessels veered close to American warships this week in a series of incidents that American officials described as harassing maneuvers risking dangerous escalation, defense officials said Thursday.
The first incident occurred Tuesday, when Iranian ships made provocative maneuvers around a U.S. destroyer in the Strait of Hormuz, officials said. The following day, Iranian vessels came within several hundred meters of other American ships in the Persian Gulf, with one Iranian ship prompting the coastal patrol ship USS Squall to fire warning shots.
"These were incidents that the crews deemed unsafe," Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told reporters. "These are incidents that carry a risk of escalation, and we don't desire any kind of escalation. Our ships have been operating in that part of the world for years."
The Iranian ships that buzzed the Nitze ignored repeated radio, whistle and flare warnings from the Nitze and slowed their approach only when they were within 300 yards of the U.S. ship, Urban said. He described the Iranian actions as "unsafe and unprofessional."
The Nitze was accompanied by the USS Mason, a guided-missile destroyer, as it made what Urban described as a "routine transit" through an area that is an important international maritime thoroughfare.
Associated Press
