News on the go: Aug. 25, 2014
Authorities in Pennisula are asking experienced paddlers on the Cuyahoga River to be on the lookout for any out-of-the-ordinary items amid the search for a woman whose car was found in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Thirty-year-old Hillary Sharma of Eastlake was last seen Tuesday and was reported missing by police on Thursday. Authorities have used search dogs, horse patrols, boats and a helicopter to look for her. The search will resume Monday.
President Barack Obama is sending three White House aides to the funeral of Michael Brown, the young black man whose fatal shooting by a white police officer sparked days of racial unrest in Ferguson, Missouri. Leading the group for Monday’s service will be the chairman of the My Brother’s Keeper Task Force, Broderick Johnson. My Brother’s Keeper is an Obama initiative that aims to empower young minorities.
An American journalist kidnapped and held hostage for nearly two years by an al-Qaida-linked group in Syria was released Sunday, less than a week after the horrific execution of American journalist James Foley by Islamic militants. The freed American is 45-year-old Peter Theo Curtis of Massachusetts. Foley was beheaded by Islamic State militants who released a video last week blaming his death on U.S. airstrikes against their fighters in Iraq.
Islamic State fighters captured a major military air base in northeastern Syria on Sunday, eliminating the last government-held outpost in a province otherwise dominated by the jihadi group, activists and state media said. Tabqa airfield — home to several warplane squadrons, helicopters, tanks, artillery and ammunition bunkers — is the third military base in the area to fall to the extremists since last month.
Information is from the Associated Press