1. ENTEBBE, Uganda (AP) — Uganda’s president on Monday signed an anti-gay bill that punishes gay sex with up to life in prison, a measure likely to send Uganda’s beleaguered gay community further underground as the police try to implement it amid fevered anti-gay sentiment across the country.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said the bill, which goes into effect immediately, was needed because the West is promoting homosexuality in Africa.
Museveni may have defied Western pressure to shelve the bill, four years and many versions after it was introduced, but his move — likely to galvanize support ahead of presidential elections — pleased many Ugandans who repeatedly urged him to sign the legislation.
Nigeria’s president similarly signed an anti-gay bill into law just over a month ago, sparking increased violence against gays who already were persecuted in mob attacks. Some watchdog groups warn a similar backlash of violence may occur in Uganda.
2. WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel proposed shrinking the Army to its smallest size in 74 years, closing military bases and making other military-wide savings as part of a broad reshaping after more than a decade of war.
On Monday, Hagel outlined his vision in a speech at the Pentagon, a week before President Barack Obama is to submit his 2015 budget plan to Congress.
Hagel said U.S. forces must adjust to the reality of smaller budgets, even as he asserted that the nation faces a more volatile, more unpredictable world that requires a more nimble military.
“We are repositioning to focus on the strategic challenges and opportunities that will define our future: new technologies, new centers of power and a world that is growing more volatile, more unpredictable and in some instances more threatening to the United States,” he said.
3. MEXICO CITY (AP) — Drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has been formally charged with violations of Mexico’s drug-trafficking laws, starting a legal process that makes swift extradition to the U.S. unlikely, Mexican officials said Monday.
Guzman was charged with cocaine trafficking Sunday inside a maximum-security prison outside the nation’s capital, Mexico’s Federal Judicial Council announced. A judge has until today to decide whether to release him or start the process of bringing him to trial. Mexican authorities said the judge will launch the trial process, a Mexican federal official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter.
Guzman can appeal the judge’s decision, a process that typically takes weeks or months. Mexican officials are also weighing whether to renew a string of other charges that Guzman faces inside Mexico. The decision to bring one local charge against Guzman indicates that President Enrique Pena Nieto’s administration is leaning toward refiling at least some of the others, further delaying any possible extradition.
4. NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Coast Guard says it is conditionally reopening 40 miles of the Mississippi River from New Orleans upriver, but 25 miles remain closed after oil spilled into the river.
Port spokesman Matt Gresham said each vessel’s hull must be certified clean of oil before it can move along the reopened stretch.
About 31,500 gallons of light crude oil spilled from a tank barge that hit a towboat Saturday. The Coast Guard said nobody was hurt, and there have not been any reports of oiled wildlife.
The Coast Guard said 29 vessels are waiting for the river to reopen.
The river had been closed from below the Port of New Orleans to Vacherie, nearly 50 miles west of New Orleans. It’s now closed from Vacherie to near Hahnville, which is 30 miles from New Orleans.
5. CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s interim prime minister announced Monday the resignation of his Cabinet, a surprise move that could be designed in part to pave the way for the nation’s military chief to leave his defense minister’s post to run for president.
Hazem el-Beblawi’s military-backed government was sworn in July 16, less than two weeks after Field Marshal Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, the defense minister, ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi after a year in office. Its ministers will remain in their posts in a caretaker capacity until the president picks a prime minister to form a new Cabinet.
The government’s resignation, announced by el-Beblawi in a live TV broadcast, came amid a host of strikes, including one by public transport workers and garbage collectors. An acute shortage of cooking gas has also been making front page news the past few days.
Egypt’s political system gives most powers to the president. The prime minister usually handles day-to-day economic management, but does not set key policies. Under deposed President Hosni Mubarak, who had ruled Egypt for nearly 30 years until his 2011 ouster, the prime minister was perceived as a scapegoat for government failings.
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