World/Nation Briefs August 20, 2013

Court raises possibility of freeing Mubarak

CAIRO - A court ruling Monday raised the possibility of jailed ex-president Hosni Mubarak walking free soon, a move that would fuel the unrest roiling the country after the autocratic leader's successor was removed in a military coup.

Underscoring the growing anger over Mohammed Morsi's ouster, suspected Islamic militants ambushed two minibuses carrying off-duty policemen in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, forcing the men to lie on the sand and shooting 25 of them dead.

"They were marked in advance by the attackers," said Ashraf Abdullah, who heads the police branch the victims belonged to. He said the assailants checked the IDs of the men, who were not in uniform, to ensure they were policemen before opening fire.

The brazen daylight attack raised fears that the strategic desert region bordering Israel and the Gaza Strip could be plunged into a full-fledged insurgency.

In a separate development early on Tuesday, police detained the supreme leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group from which Morsi hails, according to security officials and state television.

New Wall Street rules slow in being enforced

WASHINGTON - Three years after President Barack Obama signed a sweeping overhaul of lending and high-finance rules, execution of the law is behind schedule with scores of regulations yet to be written, let alone enforced. Meeting privately with the nation's top financial regulators on Monday, Obama prodded them to act more swiftly.

The president's push comes as the five-year anniversary of the nation's financial near-meltdown approaches. The law when passed in 2010 was considered a milestone in Obama's presidency, a robust response to the crisis, which led to a massive government bailout to stabilize the financial markets.

But the slow pace of implementation has prompted administration concern that banks could still pose potentially calamitous risks to the economy and to taxpayers. Obama hoped to convey "the sense of urgency that he feels," spokesman Josh Earnest said before the president convened the meeting with the eight independent regulators in the White House Roosevelt Room.

Lehman Brothers collapsed into bankruptcy on Sept. 15, 2008, and the administration has wanted to use that dubious milestone to look back on the lessons of the crisis and progress so far to prevent a recurrence. In a statement at the conclusion of the meeting, the White House said Obama commended the regulators for their work "but stressed the need to expeditiously finish implementing the critical remaining portions of Wall Street reform to ensure we are able to prevent the type of financial harm that led to the Great Recession from ever happening again."

Partner's arrest won't silence Snowden writer

RIO DE JANEIRO - An American journalist who has written stories based on documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden said Monday he'll publish with more fervor after British authorities detained his partner.

London police detained David Miranda under anti-terror legislation as he arrived at Heathrow Airport in London airport Sunday. Miranda, who is in a civil union with reporter Glenn Greenwald, arrived Monday in Rio de Janeiro, where he lives with the journalist.

A defiant Greenwald, who reports for the Guardian newspaper in Britain, promised he was going "to write much more aggressively than before" about government snooping.

"I'm going to publish many more things about England, as well," he said in Portuguese at Rio's international airport when Miranda arrived. "I have many documents about England's espionage system, and now my focus will be there, too. I think they'll regret what they've done."

In Washington, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the U.S. government was tipped off by British counterparts that Miranda would be detained, but the U.S. had not requested the action. The spokesman didn't respond to a question about whether U.S. officials may have discouraged British officials from stopping Miranda.

Obama to face full work load after vacation

WASHINGTON - Fresh from a weeklong vacation, President Barack Obama has to confront such issues as the crisis in Egypt and federal spending before getting back out on the road to sell his economic proposals.

Obama returned Sunday night from the Massachusetts island of Martha's Vineyard. On Thursday, the president sets out on a two-day bus trip through upstate New York and Pennsylvania to lay out ideas to help make a college education more affordable for the middle class.

Stops include the State University of New York at Buffalo and Henninger High School in Syracuse. On Friday, Obama plans to answer questions at a town hall-style event at SUNY-Binghamton before a stop at Lackawanna College in Scranton, Pa. He is to be joined there by Vice President Joe Biden, a native of the northeastern Pennsylvania city.

Obama has a private meeting Monday with various financial regulators to discuss ongoing efforts to strengthen the financial system, including the implementation of the Dodd-Frank law revamping the nation's financial system and the Consumer Protection Act.

Obama spoke publicly just once during his vacation, against the violence in Egypt that left scores of people dead.

- The Associated Press