Obama: U.S. a 'Pacific power'
CANBERRA, Australia, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- President Obama repeated his promise for greater U.S. military involvement in the Pacific in a speech Thursday to the Australian Parliament.
Obama said the move would occur as the United States phases out its presence in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"The United States is a Pacific power, and we are here to stay," Obama said in an address to the Australian Parliament.
The U.S. president said Asia will be "critical" to achieving his "highest priority," creating jobs for Americans.
"With most of the world's nuclear powers and nearly half of humanity, this region will largely define whether the century ahead will be marked by conflict or cooperation, needless suffering or human progress," Obama said.
"As president, I've therefore made a deliberate and strategic decision -- as a Pacific nation, the United States will play a larger and long-term role in shaping this region and its future, by upholding core principles and in close partnership with allies and friends.
"As we consider the future of our armed forces, we have begun a review that will identify our most important strategic interests and guide our defense priorities and spending over the coming decade. And here is what this region must know. As we end today's wars, I have directed my national security team to make our presence and missions in the Asia Pacific a top priority. As a result, reductions in U.S. defense spending will not -- I repeat, will not -- come at the expense of the Asia Pacific."
Before his arrival at Parliament House, the president went to the Hall of Memory where he laid a wreath on the grave of an unknown Australian soldier killed during World War I. After the speech, he met with a group of 18 journalism students at Campbell High School in Canberra.
Child killer executed in Texas
HUNTSVILLE, Texas, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- A man convicted of raping and murdering a 7-year-old girl in 1999 was executed Wednesday in Texas.
Guadalupe Esparza, 46, was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m. at the Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville, the San Antonio Express-News reported.
"To the family of Alyssa Vasquez, I hope you will find peace in your heart. My sympathy goes out to you," he said to the victim's family while strapped to the gurney awaiting his execution. "I hope you find it in your heart to forgive me. I don't know why all of this happened."
Members of Vasquez's family were present, including her mother Diana Berlanga. Three of Esparza's siblings who were on the list to be present at the execution did not attend.
"He's going to get what he deserves," Berlanga said as Esparza died.
A babysitter returned to Berlanga's home in 1999 to discover Vasquez missing as her two older brothers slept. The 7-year-old's half-naked body was found by police hours later behind a nearby meat market.
DNA tests revealed Esparza's sperm was found on the girl's mouth, and her DNA was found beneath his fingernails.
Esparza had previously become friends with Berlanga, but the relationship ended after friends warned her about the man's criminal record. Esparza's is the 13th and final execution this year in Texas.
Ex-jailer admits stunning prisoners
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Nov. 16 (UPI) -- A former jailer in Tuscaloosa, Ala., pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal charges she used a stun gun to punish three prisoners.
Former Tuscaloosa Sheriff's Sgt. Althea Mallisham, 52, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Birmingham to three counts of assault with a dangerous weapon while acting under color of law for wrongfully using a Taser during three separate incidents over a four-month period in 2008, the U.S. Justice Department said in a release.
Mallisham admitted she shocked three different pre-trial detainees while they were either in handcuffs or securely locked in a cell. The detainees did not pose a physical threat to any officers or other detainees when they were electro-shocked, prosecutors said.
"This correction officer deliberately inflicted significant pain on those entrusted to her care for no legitimate law enforcement purpose," said Thomas E. Perez, an assistant attorney general for civil rights.
Mallisham is to be sentenced March 15. She faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, for each count.
Guards arraigned in Pa. prison abuse case
PITTSBURGH, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- Six Pennsylvania prison guards have appeared in court to face charges they assaulted inmates or failed to report inmate abuse.
At least three of the six made bail and were released after Tuesday's arraignment in state court in Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
Five of the guards are charged with assaulting inmates at a state prison in Pittsburgh, prosecutors say. The sixth allegedly knew of the abuse, did not report it and on one occasion urinated on an inmate's bed and then ordered him to get into it.
The scandal began in September when another guard, Harry Nicoletti, was charged with sexually assaulting inmates. Nicoletti faces 92 separate counts involving about 20 prisoners.
Martin Horn, a former head of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the prison scandal is similar to the one at Penn State. Horn now teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.
"What we saw at Penn State is a culture that turned away from what one of the members of the club is accused of doing," Horn said. "Why should we be surprised when it happens in a correctional institution, when it's even more insular?"
