Cuban migrants climb down from lighthouse near Key West

The 19 Cuban migrants straddled atop the American Shoal lighthouse off Sugarloaf Key have come down and are being processed by immigration officials, Coast Guard officials said Friday afternoon. The migrants climbed down from the 109-foot structure around 5:30 p.m. Earlier in the day, the migrants had swum to the lighthouse after the Coast Guard approached their makeshift boat in the waters off Sugarloaf.

‘Tom Perez has guts’: US labor secretary being eyed as Clinton’s running mate

Perez has spent his years at the helm of the labor department fighting for paid leave, overtime pay and visiting workers on the ground - and he's not done yet On Tuesday night, the White House announced that the Obama administration had finalized a new rule that could potentially expand overtime benefits to 4.2 million more Americans. On Wednesday morning, Perez boarded Air Force Two and with Vice-President Joe Biden and flew to Columbus, Ohio, where they made the official public announcement inside Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams .

EgyptAir crash debris recovered

An engineer stands in front of a C-130 HAUP of the Hellenic Air Force, which took part and is on stand by, in the searching operation of the missing Egypt plane, at the military air base of Kastelli on the southern Greek island of Crete on Friday. CAIRO -- Search crews found human remains, luggage and seats from the crashed EgyptAir jetliner Friday but face a potentially more complex task in locating bigger pieces of wreckage and the black boxes vital to determining why the plane plunged into the Mediterranean.

The US doesn’t need to wait for an Arctic port to boost maritime safety, report says

Even though no one yet is offering to spend money to build a full-service U.S. Arctic port, some steps could - and should - be taken in the next few years to prepare for the potential onslaught of new maritime traffic in the Bering Strait and waters further north, a new federal report says. The report, issued by the U.S. Committee on the Marine Transportation System 's Arctic task force, makes 43 specific recommendations it says would improve safety, communications and information for mariners using the narrow Bering Strait and the Chukchi and Beaufort seas to the north in the near future.

World not safer with the US as its policeman

When Elizabeth Trudeau, director of the US State Department Press Office, read a statement on Tuesday about a US Navy surface ship "exercising the right of innocent passage" while transiting near China's Yongshu Reef that day, she said it was to uphold the rights and freedoms of all states under international law and to challenge the excessive maritime claims of some claimants in the South China Sea. She was soon challenged by an Associated Press reporter about who determines what constitutes an excessive maritime claim.

Mashpee Police Receive Promotions, Recognition

Uniformed officers, along with police from other towns and members of the Mashpee Fire Rescue Department, lined the walls. Among several other positions, Chief Scott W. Carline said that his promotion as police chief-which took place in August, following former chief Rodney C. Collins' acceptance of the Mashpee Town Manager position-created an opening for the title of master officer.

Chinese jets intercept US military plane, Pentagon says :0

Two Chinese fighter jets carried out an "unsafe" intercept of a U.S. military reconnaissance aircraft over the South China Sea , the Pentagon said on Wednesday, drawing a rebuke from Beijing, which demanded that Washington end surveillance near China. The incident, likely to increase tension in and around the contested waterway, took place in international airspace on Tuesday as the U.S. maritime patrol aircraft carried out "a routine U.S. patrol," a Pentagon statement said.

a Us patrol plane was just intercepted by 2 Chinese military…

Two Chinese fighter jets intercepted a US Navy aircraft that was flying in a "routine patrol" over the South China Sea on Wednesday, a US Defense Department spokesman said in a written statement. China has asserted territorial claims over the South China Sea, which has large oil and natural-gas deposits and has also been claimed by Washington has not recognized China's claims to the waters, and has accused Beijing, which is allegedly building islands there , of "militarizing" the area.

US establishes first permanent military base in Israel

For the first time in history, the United States on Monday established an official, permanent military base in Israel: an air defense base in the heart of the Negev desert. Dozens of US Air Force soldiers will call home the new base, located inside the Israeli Air Force's Mashabim Air Base, west of the towns of Dimona and Yerucham.

Former sailor seeks pardon in submarine photos case

A former Navy petty officer, who is imprisoned for illegally taking pictures on a nuclear attack submarine, is seeking a presidential pardon and clemency. On Monday, Jeffrey Addicott, a former Army attorney and director of the Center for Terrorism Law at St Mary's Law School in Texas, submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice petitions for a presidential pardon and for clemency to get Kristian Saucier out of jail.

Iraq War Anniversary: Bombing began 10 years ago

ORG XMIT: PERSPECTIVExxB.JPG METRO Press-Enterprise reporter Michael Coronado, left, receives gas mask training with other journalists in Kuwait before embedding with Marines from the 7th ESB. ORG XMIT: WARxxF.JPG METRO U.S. Marines attached to Engineer Support Battalion of the First Force Service Support Group in Kuwait pratice first aid techniques at Camp Betio to be applied in the battle field.