AP News in Brief at 11:58 p.m. EST
France IDs top Paris attacks figure, seeks unity to bomb IS
PARIS (AP) - France identified a 27-year-old Belgian who once boasted about killing "infidels" and fought for the Islamic State group in Syria as the mastermind of the Paris attacks, and President Francois Hollande vowed Monday to forge a united coalition capable of defeating the jihadists at home and abroad.
Addressing lawmakers after France observed a minute of silence honoring the 129 people killed and 350 wounded, Hollande said the victims came from at least 19 nations, and the international community, led by the United States and Russia, must overcome their deep-seated divisions over Syria to destroy Islamic State on its home turf.
"Friday's acts of war were decided and planned in Syria. They were organized in Belgium and perpetrated on our soil with French complicity with one specific goal: to sow fear and to divide us," Hollande told Parliament in a rare joint session convened at the Palace of Versailles.
"Syria has become the biggest factory of terrorism the world has ever known and the international community is still too divided and too incoherent."
As he spoke, thousands gathered around candlelit memorials at the Place de la Republique square and beneath the Eiffel Tower, which like many top attractions in one of the world's most-visited cities reopened for business Monday in a defiant spirit. The tower was bathed in red, white and blue floodlights of the French tricolor, with the city's centuries-old slogan - "Tossed but not sunk," suggesting an unsinkable city braving stormy seas - projected in white lights near its base.
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US refugee quandary: Immigrant legacy vs 9/11-era fears
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Paris attacks are rapidly weakening U.S. support for bringing in thousands more Syrian refugees, as pressure grows in Congress and the Republican presidential campaign to reverse course and governors once open to resettlement try to shut their states' doors.
President Barack Obama held firm to current plans Monday, appealing to Americans to "not close our hearts" to Syria's victims of war and terrorism and denouncing calls from Republican candidates to favor Syrian Christians over Muslims in the refugee influx. His remarks, at a summit of world leaders in Turkey, seemed aimed at heading off a wave of anti-Muslim sentiment reminiscent of the 9/11 era, as much as keeping open the pathway for refugees.
America's vision of itself as a welcoming destination for the displaced was colliding with its recent memories of devastation caused by terrorists, all part of a quandary over what to do about the masses of people escaping the brutality of the Syrian conflict, perhaps with radicals in their midst.
On Monday:
- Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered his state's refugee resettlement program not to accept any more Syrians, and some other Republican governors - including two GOP presidential contenders, John Kasich of Ohio and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana - announced or suggested they were suspending cooperation with Washington on the program, at least until assured the newcomers were being vetted effectively for security risks. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, also a presidential candidate, said not even "orphans under 5" should be let in because the government can't be trusted to check people properly.
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Stories of those who died in the Paris attacks
French President Francois Hollande said Monday the attacks in Paris targeted "youth in all its diversity," killing at least 129. Here are some of their stories:
- Fanny Minot went straight from her job at a TV newsmagazine show to the Bataclan on Friday night. By Sunday, the show's host, Ali Baddou, would be mourning her death on-air.
Minot, 29, was an editor at the show, "Le Supplement." Artistic and free-spirited, she enjoyed making independent movies - and above all, enjoyed new experiences, her friend Stephen Fox told The Associated Press. He got to know Minot purely by chance, when she and a friend of hers were traveling in the U.S. about four years ago and came to stay with him and his then-roommate, courtesy of a free-stay website for self-declared couch-surfers.
Despite their different backgrounds, the guys from Shelbyville, Kentucky, and their visitors from France became such fast friends that the travelers stayed two extra days, and then the hosts drove six hours to Memphis, Tennessee, to spend another day with them. And a few months later, Fox went to France to visit Minot over New Year's Eve.
"She was such a loving, compassionate person, with such an adventurous view on life," said Fox, 27, who credits her energetic outlook with inspiring him to get his post-college life in gear by going to nursing school. "She was a very motivated, hardworking person, and she just loved life."
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APEC leaders condemn Paris attacks in planned statement
MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Leaders gathering for a regional summit in the Philippines plan to condemn the Paris attacks, according to a draft of their declaration seen Tuesday by The Associated Press.
The 21-member Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum that includes the United States and China says in the draft statement that the attacks "demand a united voice from the global community."
"We stand in solidarity with the people of France and all victims of terrorism elsewhere," it says.
Friday's attacks in Paris by suspected Islamic State group extremists killed 129 people and wounded 350 others. The victims came from at least 19 nations, according to French President Francois Hollande.
The APEC meeting, which focuses on trade and economic issues, is being overshadowed by the Paris attacks and China's disputes in the South China Sea with its Asian neighbors.
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Obama arrives in Asia with eyes on Middle East
MANILA, Philippines (AP) - President Barack Obama landed in Southeast Asia Tuesday for string of summits with Asian leaders, a visit he had hoped would highlight progress in his seven-year charm offensive in the region - but was instead overshadowed by the fight against Islamic terrorism in the Middle East.
The terrorist attacks in Paris and talk of reprisals against the Islamic State threatened to cloud Obama's good-news tour to the Philippines and Malaysia this week. While Obama was ready to talk up his freshly inked trade deal and military cooperation in Asia, the rest of the world was looking for leadership on the Islamic State's relentless terror spree.
It was hardly the first time the Middle East has kept Obama from making the pivot his administration once imagined would be central to his foreign policy legacy. Instead of ending under Obama's watch, old conflicts in the Middle East have morphed into new, equally intense ones. Instead of gradually moving to center stage, Obama's agenda in Asia has had to compete for time and attention.
The White House was determined this week to show it would keep a steady focus despite the tragedy that consumed European allies. Obama left Washington as scheduled just hours after the night of violence in Paris left 129 people dead and hundreds more injured. He has not changed his plans for the nine-day trip that began Sunday at the Group of 20 summit in Antalya, Turkey.
Still, at a press conference before he departed for Manila, Obama was asked only about his strategy for countering Islamic terrorism.
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Minneapolis mayor seeks federal investigation into shooting
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - The mayor of Minneapolis on Monday asked for a federal civil rights investigation into the weekend shooting of a black man by a police officer during an apparent struggle.
Mayor Betsy Hodges said she wrote to the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice and to the U.S. attorney for Minnesota seeking the investigation in the "interest of transparency and community confidence." The state's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is already conducting a criminal investigation, but Hodges said the city needs "all the tools we have available to us."
Authorities have released few details about the shooting, which has angered some community members after witnesses said the man was handcuffed when he was shot. Police said their initial information showed the man, a suspect in an assault, was not handcuffed. He was taken to a hospital after the shooting, and his family says he is on life support.
The incident sparked protests Sunday and an overnight encampment at the north Minneapolis police precinct near the site of the shooting. Community members and activists called for a federal investigation, as well as for authorities to release video of the incident and the officer's identity.
Protests continued Monday, with a few hundred people gathering at an evening rally outside the same precinct, beating a drum and chanting for justice. At least eight tents were set up outside, and a handful of protesters were sitting behind glass doors in the foyer, including one who was knitting.
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Transplant gives new face, scalp to burned firefighter
NEW YORK (AP) - A volunteer firefighter badly burned in a 2001 blaze has received the most extensive face transplant ever, covering his skull and much of his neck, a New York hospital announced Monday.
The surgery took place in August at the NYU Langone Medical Center. The patient, 41-year-old Patrick Hardison, is still undergoing physical therapy at the hospital but plans to return home to Senatobia, Mississippi, in time for Thanksgiving.
The surgery has paved the way for him to regain normal vision, and in an interview last week he said that will let him accomplish a major goal: "I'll start driving again."
More than two dozen face transplants have been performed worldwide since the first one in France in 2005. Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez, who led the surgical team that did Hardison's transplant and recently wrote a review of the field, said Hardison's is by far the most extensive performed successfully in terms of the amount of tissue transferred.
The transplant extends from the top of the head, over Hardison's skull and down to the collarbones in front; in back, it reaches far enough down that only a tiny patch of Hardison's original hair remains - its color matched by the dark blond hair growing on his new scalp. The transplant includes both ears.
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Here we go again: Paris attacks may renew encryption debate
NEW YORK (AP) - The deadly attacks in Paris may soon reopen the debate over whether - and how - tech companies should let governments bypass the data scrambling that shields everyday commerce and daily digital life.
So far, there's no hard evidence that the Paris extremists relied on encrypted communications - essentially, encoded digital messages that can't be read without the proper digital "keys" - to plan the shooting and bombing attacks that left 129 dead on Friday. But it wouldn't be much of a surprise if they did.
So-called end-to-end encryption technology is now widely used in many standard message systems, including Apple's iMessage and Facebook's WhatsApp. Similar technology also shields the contents of smartphones running the latest versions of Apple and Google operating software. Strong encryption is used to protect everything from corporate secrets to the credit-card numbers of online shoppers to intimate photos and secrets shared by lovers.
That widespread use of encryption, which was previously restricted to more powerful desktop or server computers, is exactly what worries members of the intelligence and law enforcement communities. Some are now using the occasion of the Paris attacks to once again argue for restrictions on the technology, saying it hampers their ability to track and disrupt plots like the Paris attacks.
"I now think we're going to have another public debate about encryption, and whether government should have the keys, and I think the result may be different this time as a result of what's happened in Paris," former CIA deputy director Michael Morell said Monday on CBS This Morning.
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Sheen to make 'revealing' announcement on 'Today,' NBC says
NEW YORK (AP) - NBC says actor Charlie Sheen is set to "make a revealing personal announcement" on NBC's "Today" show on Tuesday.
The network said Monday it would not comment on the specifics of the announcement, which it said will occur during an interview with "Today" anchor Matt Lauer.
Drug and alcohol use have marred Sheen's personal and professional life in recent years: He was kicked off CBS' "Two and a Half Men" in 2011 after an explosive meltdown that included calling the show's producer a "contaminated little maggot" and, lawyers for producer Warner Bros. Studio said, for allegedly providing cocaine to others.
His escapades have also included the revelation that he spent more than $50,000 as a client of "Hollywood Madam" Heidi Fleiss' prostitution ring.
The "Today" show airs at 7 a.m. EST.
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Review: Game over in the dreary 'Mockingjay Part 2'
"The Hunger Games" movies have unfolded in a relative blitzkrieg - four movies in four years - and in a fan-fueled fever that has masked some seriously silly political allegory with the thrill of survival games and the awesome star power of Jennifer Lawrence. In the final installation, "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2," the game is over.
Having left behind the "arena" - a wooded realm where teenagers from across the districts of the totalitarian Panem are set against each other in a televised kill-or-be-killed death match - at the conclusion of 2013's "Catching Fire," ''Mockingjay" moves into a greater war, where Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), the reluctant participant plucked out of the mining region of District 12, discovers a wider network of like-minded rebels.
In part two, the march toward the Capitol takes on an air of inevitable victory as the revolution, led by President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore), contemplates power after the expected fall of the dictator Coriolanus Snow (Donald Sutherland). Wary of replacing one corruption with another, an increasingly grave Katniss discovers the truth of that old maxim: revolution is easy; democracy is difficult; and stretching the thin conceits of "The Hunger Games" into four films is even harder.
The pop pleasures of the early installments (the best of which was "Catching Fire") are gone in the gray-and-gloomy part two of "Mockingjay." All the color and vibrancy of the series has been drained away; a sizable chunk of action takes place in the sewer as Katniss and a band of rebels, navigating various traps, stealthily storm toward Snow, with plans to assassinate him.
From the start, though, it's clear "Mockingjay Part 2" is neither intended for critics nor newcomers. It's for the fans of Suzanne Collins' books, to which the franchise has slavishly sworn its fidelity. "Mockingjay Part 2," directed by Francis Lawrence (who has helmed all but the first film) and penned by Danny Strong, Peter Craig and Collins, picks up where the last film left off, with barely a glance backward.