AP News in Brief at 11:59 p.m. EST
Louisiana picks Democrat as next governor, rejecting Vitter
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Democrat John Bel Edwards won the runoff election for Louisiana governor Saturday, defeating the once-heavy favorite, Republican David Vitter, and handing the Democrats their first statewide victory since 2008.
Edwards, a state lawmaker, will take over the office from term-limited Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal in January.
Voters' rejection of Vitter was a stunning turn of events for the U.S. senator, who has been a political powerhouse in the state for years and started his campaign nearly two years ago as the race's front-runner. Edwards' win offered a rare pick-up of a governor's seat for Democrats in the conservative Deep South.
After his loss, Vitter immediately announced that he wouldn't seek re-election to the U.S. Senate next year, creating a new competition for what had been a safe GOP seat.
Edwards painted the race as a referendum on Vitter's character and integrity and suggested the U.S. senator didn't measure up in such a competition. Edwards focused on his West Point degree and military resume, and he pledged a bipartisan leadership style.
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The Latest: Vitter says won't run for US Senate in 2016
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The latest news in the 2015 Louisiana election (all times local):
9:43 p.m.
Republican David Vitter says he is not going to run again for the U.S. Senate after losing in an upset race for governor to Democrat John Bel Edwards.
Vitter made the announcement during an appearance to campaign supporters in the New Orleans suburbs Saturday evening after it became apparent that he would not win the governor's race.
Vitter, who has one year left in his second U.S. Senate term, told supporters that before entering the governor's race, he and his wife had decided that he would not seek another term in the Senate.
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SE Asia creates Economic Community, but challenges remain
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - Thirteen years after the idea was mooted, Southeast Asian leaders on Sunday formally created a unified economic community in a region more populous and diverse than the European Union or North America, and with hopes of competing with China and India.
The 10 leaders in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations signed a declaration during their summit establishing the ASEAN Economic Community, as part of a larger ASEAN Community that aims for political, security, cultural and social integration.
Summit host Prime Minister Najib Razak of Malaysia hailed the ASEAN Community as a "landmark achievement," and urged members to accelerate integration. "The region is primed to expand exponentially," he said.
The community, known by its acronym AEC, is already a reality and many of its fundamentals have been applied in the region such as removal of tariff barriers and visa restrictions among others. It has also led to greater political and cultural cooperation.
AEC will bolster income and employment, and provide the region with stronger economic muscle in facing the other giants, said Michael G. Plummer, a professor of international economics at the Europe Center of Johns Hopkins University, based in Bologna, Italy.
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Brussels hunkers down amid warning of Paris-style threat
BRUSSELS (AP) - Belgian authorities closed down Brussels' subway system and flooded the streets with armed police and soldiers Saturday in response to what they said was a threat of Paris-style attacks.
The decision to raise the threat alert to the highest level in the Belgian capital came as the manhunt continued for a suspect missing since the carnage in neighboring France. It was taken "based on quite precise information about the risk of an attack like the one that happened in Paris," said Belgium's Prime Minister Charles Michel.
The tip authorities received suggested that an attack would involve "several individuals with arms and explosives launch actions, perhaps even in several places at the same time," he said.
The U.S. Embassy in Belgium urged Americans in the country "to shelter in place and remain at home" while the U.S. European Command issued a 72-hour travel restriction for U.S. military personnel on travel to Brussels - a city of more than 1 million that is home to the headquarters of the European Union, the NATO alliance and offices of many multinational corporations.
On Saturday night, a relative calm descended on the city center, where restaurants and beer bars would usually be teeming with business. On Brussels' central square, the Grand Place, tourists snapped selfies as a green army truck full of soldiers pulled up next to a lit Christmas tree. Some restaurants and bars shuttered their doors, while others remained open, defying advice from the mayor to close for the night.
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Paris attacks rooted in Brussels bring question: Why Belgium
BRUSSELS (AP) - The family homes of the suspected mastermind of the Paris attacks and one of the suicide bombers stand only a few blocks apart in the Belgian capital's Molenbeek neighborhood. After a string of attacks in recent years linked to its grimy streets in central Brussels, a key question arises: Why Belgium?
The tiny nation renowned for beer, chocolates and the comic book hero Tintin is now suddenly infamous for Islamic extremism - and the easy availability of illegal weapons.
Belgium has a central location in Europe; few border controls; a common language with prime jihadi target France; and a political divide between French and Dutch speakers that has long created bureaucratic disarray in justice and security.
From the prime minister down, there is widespread acknowledgment of a complicated and disjointed national structure that hampers the fight against extremism. "We have to do more and we have to do better," Prime Minister Charles Michel told legislators on Thursday, as he announced a slew of fresh measures to fight Islamic extremism.
For years, there have been calls for more funds to boost the ranks of judges and police, but progress has been slow as rival political camps bickered and austerity measures set in. Meanwhile, the splintering of municipal authority in Brussels and judicial authority nationwide means there's little sense of who's in charge of what in security matters.
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Well planned Mali attack took advantage of security lapses
BAMAKO, Mali (AP) - The heavily armed Islamic extremists who shot up a luxury hotel in Mali's capital, killing 19 people, timed their assault for the moment when guards would be the most lax, allowing them to easily blast their way past a five-man security team before turning their weapons on terrified guests, a security guard and witnesses said Saturday.
The timing suggested a well-planned operation that analysts say could be an attempt by al-Qaida to assert its relevance amid high-profile attacks by the rival Islamic State group.
The attack on the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako began at around 7 a.m. Friday morning when two gunmen, approaching on foot, reached the entrance where five guards who had worked the night shift were waiting to be replaced by a new team, said Cheick Dabo, one of the guards.
The guards had just finished the morning prayer and had put their weapons - a shotgun and two pistols - away in their vehicle when the militants struck.
"We didn't see the jihadists until they started firing on us. We weren't concentrating and we didn't expect it," he said.
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Snow piles up beyond expected amounts in Wisconsin, Illinois
People fired up snowblowers and dug out their shovels Saturday after the first significant snowstorm of the season dumped between a few inches and 20 inches of snow across the Upper Midwest, blanketing a swath from South Dakota to Michigan.
The storm created hazardous travel conditions and caused more than 500 flight cancellations. A blast of much colder air was following the storm.
The National Weather Service said the snow, which first fell in South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa on Friday, would head northeast into Canada late Saturday after moving through Illinois, Indiana and Michigan.
In the southern Wisconsin town of Janesville, between 10 and 20 inches of snow had fallen by late Saturday afternoon, the National Weather Service said.
Southside True Value Hardware manager Matt Krienke said business had been good in the days leading up to the storm, but that it had become "very, very, very, very slick."
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Landslide in northern Myanmar kills about 70; 100 missing
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - A landslide near a jade mine in northern Myanmar killed up to 70 people and left more than 100 missing, most of them villagers sifting through a huge mountain of tailings and waste, a community leader and businessman said Sunday.
The collapse occurred Saturday afternoon in Kachin state, said Brang Seng, a jade businessman, describing rows of bodies pulled from the debris.
"There were more than 70," he said. "This is awfully bad."
More than 100 others were missing, said Lamai Gum Ja, a community leader who also has interests in the mining business.
Myanmar only recently started moving from a half-century of dictatorship to democracy. Hpakant, the epicenter of the country's jade boom, remains desperately poor, with bumpy dirt roads and constant electricity blackouts.
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US religious leaders make forceful appeal to admit refugees
In rare agreement across faith and ideological lines, leaders of major American religious groups have condemned proposed bans on Syrian refugees, contending a legitimate debate over security has been overtaken by irrational fear and prejudice.
Top organizations representing evangelicals, Roman Catholics, Jews and liberal Protestants say close vetting of asylum seekers is a critical part of forming policy on refugees. But these religious leaders say such concerns, heightened after the Paris attacks a week ago, do not warrant blocking those fleeing violence in the Middle East.
"The problem is not the Syrian refugees," said Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami, who noted how his state has welcomed a large number of Cuban refugees over the years. "This is falling into the trap of what the terrorists wanted us to become. We shouldn't allow them to change who we are as a people."
About 70 percent of all refugees admitted to the U.S. are resettled by faith groups, according to the U.S. State Department office for refugees. The bulk of the work is done by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services. World Relief, the humanitarian arm of the National Association of Evangelicals, and Church World Service, representing Protestant and Orthodox groups, are each responsible for about 10 percent. The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and Episcopal Migrant Ministries also handle several thousand cases.
The Rev. Russell Moore, head of the public policy agency for the conservative Southern Baptist Convention, the country's largest Protestant group, said screening is crucial and "we should insist on it," but he said evangelicals should not "demagogue the issue as many politicians are doing right now."
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No. 9 Michigan State beats No. 2 Ohio State 17-14 on late FG
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - The last place Michael Geiger, all 5-foot-8 and 185 pounds of him, wanted to end up was at the bottom of a pile of Michigan State football players.
The junior kicker booted through a 41-yard field goal as time expired and then sprinted away from a swarm of celebrating Spartans after No. 9 Michigan State upset No. 2 Ohio State 17-14 on Saturday to snap the Buckeyes' 23-game winning streak.
Geiger remembered what happened the last time Michigan State won a huge game on the final play of regulation.
"I didn't want to pull a Jalen Watts-Jackson," Geiger said, referring to his teammate who ended up with a broken hip after returning a botched punt for a touchdown to beat Michigan in October. "I was trying to stay on my feet as long as possible."
Playing without injured star quarterback Connor Cook on a rainy and windy day at Ohio Stadium, the Spartans (10-1, 6-1 Big Ten, No. 9 CFP) took control of the Big Ten East, barged into the thick of the College Football Playoff hunt and very likely ended Ohio State's chances to repeat as national champions.