Guantanamo
Two detainees are repatriated to Algeria
The Obama administration said that it has released two prisoners from Guantanamo Bay to Algeria, the first transfers in almost a year. The two Algerians are also the first inmates to leave Guantanamo since President Obama pledged in May to redouble his efforts to close the U.S. military prison. The Pentagon identified the Algerians as Nabil Said Hadjarab, 34, and Mutia Sadiq Ahmad Sayyab, 37.
Alabama
Early release for 1963 church victim's father
One of the first inmates to benefit from the Obama administration's new, less stringent guidelines on the early release of federal prisoners is the father of one of four black girls killed in the 1963 church bombing in Birmingham, Ala. Christopher McNair, 87, a former county commissioner who has served just over half of a five-year sentence for accepting $140,000 in bribes, was released on medical grounds. By evening, he had been released from a federal prison hospital in Rochester, Minn.
Washington, D.C.
No progress to report on budget deal
The Obama administration and a group of Republican senators abandoned efforts to hammer out a budget deal and avoid a showdown over the national debt, saying they had failed to resolve their long-standing dispute over taxes. The end of the talks comes just over a week before Congress is to return from summer break to confront a series of deadlines, including the risk of a government shutdown Oct. 1 and potential default on the national debt.
news services
