Lloydminster schools under lockdown with sex offender on the run - CTV News

Julia Parrish, CTV Edmonton
Published Wednesday, October 2, 2013 6:32PM MDT
Last Updated Wednesday, October 2, 2013 6:49PM MDT

While police in Lloydminster continue searching for an Edmonton man, considered a high-risk sex offender, who removed his own electronic tracking device earlier this week – schools in the area have been kept under lockdown during the day.

On Tuesday, RCMP said they were searching for Michael Sean Stanley, 48, a man who has been convicted for sexual offences – and is now wanted for breaching conditions.

Police said Stanley left Edmonton for Lloydminster Tuesday morning but police lost track of him in Lloydminster.

Stanley had been under electronic monitoring, but cut off his monitoring unit in Lloydminster – the unit was found on the roof of a business in that city.

The man also had a long history of sexual offence convictions – and had taken children from playgrounds in the past.

As a result, Lloydminster schools have been under lockdown since Tuesday.

"Initially, there was an incredible amount of concern, but as of late last night and early this morning, it's just so reassuring to hear parents so confident that when they send their kids to school that the kids are safe," Doug Robertson with LCSD said.

Police said there are no leads on Stanley's whereabouts, but know that he has no ties to the Lloydminster area.

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Judge rejects mandatory sentence for bullying victim who shot at house - Sun News Network

BRANDON, Man. - A Brandon judge has rejected a mandatory minimum four-year prison sentence for a a bullied man who shot up a Carberry, Man., house.

Such a sentence would constitute "cruel and unusual punishment," Justice John Menzies ruled Wednesday.

Instead, Menzies sentenced Bryce McMillan, 21, to one year in jail, to be followed by two years of supervised probation.

"A four-year term of imprisonment is not required to personally deter Mr. McMillan or to protect society," Menzies said.

"In my opinion, the four-year sentence coupled with the 18 months of house arrest... constitutes a punishment grossly disproportionate to what the accused deserves for this offence."

McMillan previously pleaded guilty to reckless use of a firearm.

He had been subjected to two years of taunts, humiliating public graffiti and physical bullying when, on Sept. 5, 2011, he fired several shots into the home of one of his suspected tormentors, mistakenly believing no one was inside.

None of the three people in the house were injured.

McMillan previously told court police did not respond to his pleas for help.

"A human being can only take so much before they push back, and I was at the end of my rope," he said. "I didn't know what else to do."

Prosecutors did not dispute the bullying allegations but argued the recklessness of the shooting far outweighed the special circumstances of the case. Menzies disagreed.

While bullying cannot be used to justify McMillan's actions, "to ignore the bullying... is to ignore the central underlying cause of this crime," Menzies said.

"There are many ways a victim of bullying may react to prolonged harassment. It should come as no surprise to anyone that lashing out may be one of them."

A psychological assessment filed with the court indicated McMillan developed a "short fuse" when at 16, his best friend was killed in a car accident.

A pre-sentence report concluded McMillan was "truly remorseful" for the shooting and "did not minimize the seriousness of his behaviour."

Both the psychological assessment and pre-sentence report assessed McMillan as a low risk to re-offend.

"As far as rehabilitation for this accused, it is apparent that what is required is a treatment program to assist the accused to come to grips with the loss of his friend and the effects of the bullying he has been and may continue to be subjected to," Menzies said.

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Groups tour historic Kingston Penitentiary where murderers, rapists and horse ... - National Post

About the Kingston Penitentiary

The maximum-security prison for men is located near Portsmouth Harbour, inside the city of Kingston, Ont.

1835 Year prison opened. Was originally called the "Provincial Penitentiary of Upper Canada"

421 Maximum number of inmates

50 Approximate percentage of inmates serving life sentences

346 Number of inmates (April 2010)

465 Number of staff

2 Number of riots: in 1954 and 1971

1990 Year prison was declared a historic site. The original structure was built from local limestone quarried by convict labour

Eager visitors lined up Wednesday as the historic Kingston Penitentiary threw open its doors to the general public for the first time in decades.

About two dozen people entered its imposing bluestone limestone walls — the first tour group allowed inside since the last prisoners were moved out last week.

Among the first in line was Laurie Lindop, of nearby Gananoque, who knows people who worked inside the pen and remembers when the institution was hit by the riot of 1971.

The unusual experience left her "drained."

"When you think of all of the suffering by the inmates plus their victims, it's just emotional," Lindop said after the 90-minute tour.

Visitors were curious to get a peek inside the storied penitentiary, which opened in 1835 and had been one of the oldest continuously used prisons in the world.

Led by former warden Monty Bourke, who offered a running commentary, the group walked through the central "dome" with its gloomy concrete and iron staircases to ranges on which some of the country's worst criminals have done hard time.

They touched the segregation cells — little more than cages, not quite wide enough to spread one's arms.

Inside the guards' command post with its thick glass, the lights and surveillance video monitors still glowed. The heavy steel doors clanged shut.

The visitors snapped pictures and chatted quietly, looked up at the walls, topped by barbed wire and punctuated by guard towers.

They strolled some of the lakeside grounds with their manicured lawns where murderers, rapists and horse thieves once walked; they saw the tiny segregation yard where isolation prisoners were allowed to pass an hour a day.

Here was the prison workshop from which bank robber Ty Conn escaped. There was the larger recreation yard from which unhappy inmates a few years ago refused to go back inside — until Bourke literally read them the "Riot Act."

Back outside as a new group waited to enter, Larry Cote, of Kingston, who's driven by the huge stone walls hundreds of times, said it was "amazing" to finally get to go inside.

"Now I've seen it, and I'll tell you: Anybody thinking of doing anything bad and ending up in something like that, I don't know how they would live in there," Cote said.

"You come out of it and you just go wow!"

The federal government opted to close "KP" — and two other penitentiaries — on the grounds that it was outdated and too expensive to maintain.

Correctional Service Canada said the facility's future is uncertain, but the plan is to fully decommission it by 2015.

Some in the community, like Bourke who was warden from 1997 to 2002 and is president of the Friends of the Penitentiary Museum, are hoping to see at least part of the prison become a tourist attraction.

"Our hope is that it's preserved as much as possible," Bourke said.

"It reflects the history of Canada in many ways, the justice system."

The prison will be open for the fundraising tours for the next three weeks — but eager visitors, some from across the country, have already snapped up the available tickets at $20 each, with proceeds going to the United Way charity.

In much earlier times, citizens were allowed into the prison to view the inmates for a few dollars each.

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US, Japan Strengthen Security Alliance - Voice of America

The United States will station a new missile defense radar in Japan and deploy surveillance drones in the Pacific under a deal reached by top U.S. and Japanese officials

The moves are part of renewed mutual defense guidelines signed Thursday by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel, and their Japanese counterparts in Tokyo.

Under the deal, the U.S. will deploy long-range, Global Hawk reconnaissance drones to help monitor maritime activities in the Pacific, where Japan is involved in a territorial dispute with China.

The U.S. will also place an X-band radar system at Kyogamisaki air base on Japan's West coast over the next year to counter the threat of North Korean missiles.

In addition, the deal formalized a decision to relocate 5,000 U.S. Marines from Okinawa to other areas in the Pacific. It stated that Japan will pay a third of the cost of the relocation effort.

The U.S.-Japan security alliance had not been updated in over 15 years, and leaders from both countries said a revision was needed to deal with the changing nature of threats.

Kerry and Hagel are on a multi-day tour across Asia as part of an effort to advance President Barack Obama's new diplomatic and security focus on the Pacific.

Following the Tokyo meeting, Kerry and Hagel head to the Indonesian island of Bali on Friday for a ministerial meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, which Washington sees as a premier forum for boosting regional trade and investment.

President Obama is also scheduled to attend the APEC meeting, as well as a meeting next week of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

But those plans appeared to be in question, after President Obama on Wednesday cancelled the last two legs of his Asia trip to Malaysia and the Philippines in order to deal with the U.S. federal government shutdown.

A White House statement says Kerry will instead lead the U.S. delegation to each country. It said Mr. Obama reaffirmed the close partnership and alliance the U.S. has with Malaysia and the Philippines and committed to travel to both countries later in his term.

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Toronto Mayor Rob Ford 'very surprised' by friend's drug charges - The Globe and Mail

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford said he's "very surprised" that his occasional driver Alessandro 'Sandro' Lisi was arrested on drug and conspiracy charges, calling Mr. Lisi a "friend."

Mr. Lisi, 35, was taken into custody Tuesday night at Richview Cleaners in the city's west end. He was charged with trafficking in marijuana, possession of marijuana, possession of proceeds of crime and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence.

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Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is shown on the U.S. website Gawker.com published Thursday May 16, 2013. Anthony Smith, 21, was shot to death outside a nightclub in the Entertainment District in downtown Toronto. Gawker.com

Video

Video: Toronto Star stands by Rob Ford 'crack' story

"He's a good guy," Mayor Ford said, ignoring questions about how he knows Mr. Lisi.

Mayor Ford made the comments at a gas station just down the street from his Etobicoke home, during a hastily-arranged press conference Wednesday afternoon.

When asked why neighbours of Mr. Lisi's have said they see Mr. Ford frequenting the house, the mayor said, "He's a friend. He's a good guy. I don't throw my friends under the bus."

He described Mr. Lisi again as "on the straight and narrow, never once seen the guy drink. Never once seen the guy do drugs."

Later, when asked if he's worried about police surveillance on Mr. Lisi potentially picking up his communication with him, the mayor simply shook his head and remained silent.

Mr. Lisi was released on $5,000 bail Wednesday after a short court appearance covered by a publication ban. He is scheduled to be back in court on Nov. 12.

Mr. Lisi was ordered not to contact his co-accused, not to possess weapons, not to use illegal drugs and not to possess more than one cellphone. 

Mr. Lisi, who had a scrape on his right cheekbone, scowled at the gallery when he entered court.

He stood with his eyes downcast during most of the hearing, answering the justice of the peace's questions with a short "yes."

Mr. Lisi's lawyer, Courtney Keystone, declined comment.

Also arrested in the Tuesday evening bust was Jamshid Bahrami, 47, of Toronto. He is charged with possession of cocaine, trafficking in marijuana and conspiracy.

Mr. Bahrami was ordered released on $5,000 bail after a short hearing, which was also covered by a publication ban.

Police began an investigation into Mr. Lisi's movements and actions after two media outlets – The Toronto Star and the U.S. website Gawker – reported in May that drug dealers had tried to sell them an alleged video that purportedly showed the mayor smoking crack cocaine.

Toronto police have interviewed at least five former staffers in the mayor's office about attempts by people to retrieve the alleged video, according to sources close to the mayor's office. For his part, the mayor has called into question the existence of the video, and has denied that he uses crack cocaine. "I can't comment on a video that I have never seen or does not exist," he said in May.

Some of the questions police asked of the former staffers, according to sources, focused on Mr. Lisi, a regular companion of the mayor's who was known to ferry him to events and, on one occasion, run interference with reporters.

The morning after the first news reports about the alleged video, Mr. Lisi was seen in his Range Rover, trailing Mr. Ford as he drove away from reporters gathered outside his home. Moments later, Mr. Lisi appeared again, stepping between reporters and the mayor while he made a stop at a Tim Hortons down the road.

It's unclear how Mr. Lisi, almost a decade younger than Mr. Ford, became acquainted with the mayor. But neighbours in Mr. Lisi's upscale west-end neighbourhood told The Globe the mayor is a frequent visitor to the home where Mr. Lisi lives with his parents.

When the mayor first began visiting the street about 10 months ago, one source said, he told neighbours he was there to visit his "friend Sandy."

Mr. Ford has declined to answer detailed questions about his relationship with Mr. Lisi. In an interview with the Toronto Sun, the mayor described Mr. Lisi as "a great guy and straight as an arrow." Mr. Lisi, who goes by the name "Sandro" or "Dro" has no official role at the mayor's office.

Some Ford staffers became aware of Mr. Lisi in February, when he drove the mayor to the Garrison Ball, a military gala event, in his Range Rover.

Also present that night in the Rover was Bruno Bellissimo, whom The Globe has identified as a childhood friend of the mayor. A month later, after Mr. Bellissimo was charged with assaulting his parents, Mr. Ford made an after-hours visit to the Toronto West Detention Centre and asked to see Mr. Bellissimo.

Mr. Ford was urged to leave the February gala by another city councillor, Paul Ainslie, who described the mayor as "incoherent" in a letter to the gala's organizers. (The mayor has called the suggestion he was intoxicated "an outright lie.")

Since the Garrison Ball, Mr. Lisi has been a fixture at Mr. Ford's side during late-night events, according to one former staffer.

The dry cleaning shop was closed on Wednesday morning, and there was no sign of activity inside.

The owner of the jewelry shop next to  Mr. Bahrami's said that his neighbour is from Iran, and suffers from permanent health issues, including problems with his spine. He said that Mr. Bahrami had a medical marijuana license which he showed him once, but had never seen any signs of any other drug activity.

A police cruiser was parked in the parking lot, as officers went from business to business asking for surveillance activity.

Councillor Doug Ford, the mayor's brother, had no comment on Wednesday morning. "I've never met this person. I don't know him," he said at city hall. "I've never talked to the guy and I support the police investigation."

Asked about Mr. Lisi's role as an occasional driver for the mayor, he said, "That's what you guys say. Rob doesn't have a driver, he doesn't have security."

With files from Elizabeth Church and Jill Mahoney

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Republican moderates hold key to ending government shutdown - Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON — For most of the last two decades, Republicans such as Rep. Patrick Meehan, who represents a politically competitive district near Philadelphia, have been the odd men out in a House caucus dominated by conservatives such as those aligned with the tea party.

But with Congress' deadlock resulting in the first government shutdown in more than 17 years, Meehan and like-minded colleagues may be the ones who decide how — and when — the standoff ends.

"This whole Congress has been on Cruz control for the last two or three weeks," said Meehan, referring to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a tea party favorite. "To a certain extent, you have to let some air out of the balloon."

No matter how legislative standoffs start, they almost always end the same way: One side or the other suffers defections that force its leadership to back down. In any such fight, each side tries to find fault lines in the other's support and see whether pressure can break those fissures open.

In the current battle, conservative Republicans have forced votes on issues they hoped would cause Democratic senators from Republican-majority states to break with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada).

Democrats have hoped to divide suburban moderates such as Meehan from hard-line conservatives, who have repeatedly tried to tie money for government agencies to measures aimed at delaying or dismantling President Obama's healthcare law.

On Tuesday, as the shutdown took hold and more Republicans questioned their party's strategy, the gaps on the GOP side were clearly widening. But the party's less conservative members have shown little willingness in the past to fight the right wing. Whether they will now could determine how long the shutdown lasts.

The Republican leadership adopted a new plan to at least buy time — offering three measures that would reopen specific, popular parts of the government, including parks and veterans services.

Democrats quickly circled the wagons against the idea, and the White House threatened a veto.

"This shutdown isn't about spending or deficit or budgets," the president said at the White House. "This shutdown is about rolling back our efforts to provide health insurance to folks who don't have it. This, more than anything else, seems to be what the Republican Party stands for these days."

"People shouldn't have to choose between help for our veterans and cancer research," said Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). "And we shouldn't have to choose between visiting our national parks or enrolling kids in Head Start."

The GOP's bills, which came up in the House under rules requiring a two-thirds majority to pass, each failed as Democrats voted lopsidedly against them.

A striking degree of Democratic unity has confounded Republican strategies so far. In the Senate, Democrats have remained outwardly unworried about a Republican tack targeting their most politically vulnerable colleagues.

At a House GOP rally after an attempt last month to stop the healthcare law, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) singled out Democratic senators who were up for reelection in 2014 in red states.

"I want to know where Sen. Pryor stands on protecting the middle class from the consequences of this horrific bill," he said, referring to Mark Pryor, the Democratic senator from Arkansas, as Republican lawmakers assembled behind Cantor cheered.

"How about Kay Hagan in North Carolina?" he demanded to more cheers. "What about Mary Landrieu of Louisiana? ... Mark Begich of Alaska?"

Those senators all have stood with their party during the current budget impasse, knowing their earlier votes to pass the healthcare law would be used against them in next year's campaigns regardless of their votes today.

"A group of folks thought that they saw the potential to change some Democrats in the Senate. I was gung-ho to try that. We tried that a couple of times," said Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.). "I wish it had worked. That unfortunately was not the case. So now we need to take a step back and figure out how we move forward."

By contrast, the split among Republicans appears to be widening.

On Tuesday, Meehan was one of several who publicly urged the party leadership to pass a simple, short-term spending bill — a continuing resolution, or CR, in legislative jargon — without controversial add-ons, as the Senate did.

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White House: Israel's skepticism about Iran is 'entirely justifiable' - Jerusalem Post

Prime Minister Netanyahu and US President Obama meet at the Oval Office, September 30, 2013. Photo: Koby Gideon/GPO

Israel's skepticism about Iran and its intentions is "entirely justifiable," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said on Tuesday, following Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's speech at the UN General Assembly.

"As the President has said, we understand, and it is entirely justifiable, that Israel is skeptical about Iran and Iran's intentions. After all, this is a country whose leadership, until recently, was pledging to annihilate Israel. So their security concerns are understandable. Their skepticism is understandable," Carney said.

Carney said the United States shares Israel's concerns, and empathized that the US and Israel share the same goal and the same policy - that Iran cannot be allowed to have nuclear weapons.

Having said that, Carney, who was unable to watch Netanyahu's speech, did not share his aggressive stance, and stressed the need to continue pursuing diplomacy between Iran and the P5+1 nations.

"We believe, and the President and the Prime Minister discussed this [on Monday], that we ought to pursue this diplomatic opening because the window of opportunity remains open. We've said all along that it won't remain open forever, but this opportunity is here," he said.

Carney credited the harsh sanctions imposed as Tehran as the reason to Iran's willingness to engage in talks with the international community "in a more serious way than we've seen in recent years."

"We believe that the Iranian leadership has, very publicly... changed their approach to resolving this issue with the international community," he said.

He stressed however that the seriousness of Iran's intentions will be tested in the P5+1 negotiations and whether "they meet all their obligations, and demonstrate in a convincing, verifiable, transparent way that they are not pursuing a nuclear weapon."

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Bangladesh MP Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury to hang for war crimes - BBC News

1 October 2013 Last updated at 05:12 ET

An MP for Bangladesh's main opposition party has been sentenced to death by a war crimes court for charges including murder and genocide during the 1971 war of independence with Pakistan.

Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, the first member of the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) to be tried by the court, was found guilty of nine out of 23 charges.

The BNP has consistently argued that the trial is politically motivated.

Previous verdicts against Islamist leaders have been followed by protests.

The war crimes tribunal was set up by the Awami League-led government in 2010 and opposition parties have accused it of pursuing a political vendetta against its opponents.

Human rights groups have also said the tribunal falls short of international standards.

Continue reading the main story

• Civil war erupts in Pakistan, pitting the West Pakistan army against East Pakistanis demanding autonomy and later independence
• Fighting forces an estimated 10 million East Pakistani civilians to flee to India
• In December, India invades East Pakistan in support of the East Pakistani people
• Pakistani army surrenders at Dhaka and its army of more than 90,000 become Indian prisoners of war
• East Pakistan becomes the independent country of Bangladesh on 16 December 1971
• The war was devastating in its brutality but there are a range of estimates for the exact number of people killed - government figures estimate as many as three million died. Other studies suggest 300-500,000 perished.

"We will do whatever we need to do to show the world that this is a farce," the Reuters news agency quoted Chowdhury's wife, Farhat Quader Chowdhury, as saying immediately afterwards.

Security was tight in Dhaka where the verdict was heard in a packed courtroom. Chowdhury is expected to appeal against it.

But troops were also deployed to Chittagong, the home district of Chowdhury where he has been re-elected six times - and where there is likely to be anger at the verdict.

Trauma of independence

Analysts say the tribunal's verdicts have exposed profound divisions in Bangladeshi society.

Last month when the Supreme Court gave the death penalty to a senior leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, Abdul Kader Mullah, there were demonstrations both for and against the decision.

The sentences handed down to its leaders over the last few months have unleashed a wave of unrest, pitting supporters of Jamaat against pro-government groups.

But this rupture goes back to the very origins of Bangladesh when some groups, including Islamist groups like Jamaat, opposed the struggle for independence from Pakistan.

The special court was set up in 2010 by the current Bangladeshi government to deal with those accused of collaborating with Pakistani forces who attempted to stop East Pakistan (as Bangladesh was then) from becoming an independent country.

It is trying nine Jamaat leaders and two members of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party - they have always denied any role in war crimes committed by pro-Pakistan militias then.

Chowdhury is the first of those BNP members - and the first sitting MP - to be sentenced.

Prosecutors accused him of genocide, abduction, committing atrocities against Hindus and forcefully converting a number of Hindus to Islam.

During the war his father was an influential politician who worked to prevent Bangladesh breaking away. The prosecution also said that his father's residence in Chittagong was turned into a torture cell at that time.

Bangladesh government figures estimate more than three million people were killed during the war. Other researchers put the figure at between 300,000 and 500,000.

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Venezuela expels top US diplomat, 2 other envoys - Times of India

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP): President Nicolas Maduro announced on Monday the expulsion of the top U.S. diplomat in Venezuela and two other embassy employees for allegedly conspiring with the political opposition to sabotage the economy and power grid.

Maduro made the announcement during a live TV appearance and said they had 48 hours to leave the country.

"Out of Venezuela,'' the leftist leader said, then added in English: "Yankees go home.''

He did offer any details on the diplomats' alleged transgressions but said they had met with opposition and labor leaders in the southwestern state of Bolivar, is home to a number of troubled state-owned foundries and Venezuela's main hydroelectric plant.

"I don't care what actions the government of Barack Obama takes,'' Maduro said. "We're not going to permit an imperialist government to come and bring money and see how essential companies can be halted and see how to take away electricity and shut down all of Venezuela.''

The expulsions come as Venezuela's economy looks increasingly troubled during the approach to Dec. 8 municipal elections. Annual inflation is at more than 45 percent and the government is running short of foreign currency.

In naming the three diplomats, Maduro pronounced clearly the name of Kelly Keiderling, the charge d'affaires who is the top US diplomat in the country. The other two diplomats' names were less clearly enunciated.

The US embassy had not yet been officially informed of the expulsions when Maduro announced them, said Gregory Adams, its acting deputy chief of mission.

Venezuela and the United States have been without ambassadors since 2010, when the late President Hugo Chavez refused to accept a newly named US ambassador. In 2008, Chavez expelled then-US Ambassador Patrick Duddy in "solidarity'' with Bolivia, which was booting the U.S. ambassador there, but allowed him to return the following year.

Keiderling arrived at the embassy in July 2011 as deputy chief of mission after previously working in embassies including in Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Botswana, the Dominican Republic and the U.S. Interests section in Cuba.

The oil-rich OPEC member country has been plagued by worsening power outages since 2010. The opposition blames neglect and poor maintenance, while it alleges mismanagement and corruption at troubled state-owned aluminum, iron and bauxite foundries in Bolivar.

Maduro blames sabotage by the "extreme right'' for the blackouts and food shortages, but has provided no evidence. Like Chavez, he has a history of making unsubstantiated accusations against the United States and his political opponents.

Last week, Maduro said he had canceled a planned trip to New York to address the U.N. General Assembly due to an unspecified US plot. Since his April election, Maduro has claimed five attempts to assassinate him have been foiled. In no instance did he provide evidence.

The last time Venezuela expelled US diplomats was on March 5, when it ejected two military attaches for allegedly trying to destabilize the nation. That move came several hours before Maduro announced that Chavez had died of cancer.

Chavez governed Venezuela for 14 years, solidifying control of all branches of government as he won solid backing from the poor with generous social spending and blamed the United States for an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow him in 2002.

In recent years, however, Venezuela's woes have been compounded by corruption, rampant violent crime, worsening power outages and increasing shortages of food and medicines.

At the same time, Maduro's government has been accused by international human rights and press freedom groups of cracking down on free speech and independent media political activity.

An apparent thaw in US-Venezuelan relations appeared in the offing in early June after Foreign Minister Elias Jaua met with Secretary of State John Kerry.

But Maduro scuttled it after Washington's ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, accused Venezuela of a crackdown on civil society during her confirmation hearing the following month.

Maduro narrowly won election in April over opposition challenger Henrique Capriles, who claims the victory was fraudulent.

In a tweet Monday, Capriles called the expulsion of the US diplomats "pure smoke to mask that he can't handle the country.''

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US government shuts down after political deadlock - CBC.ca

Congress plunged the nation into a partial government shutdown Tuesday as a long-running dispute over U.S. President Barack Obama's health care law stalled a temporary funding bill, forcing about 800,000 federal workers off the job and suspending most non-essential federal programs and services.

The shutdown, the first since the winter of 1995-96, closed national parks, museums along the Washington Mall and the U.S. Capitol visitors centre. Agencies like NASA and the Environmental Protection Agency will be all but shuttered. People classified as essential government employees — such as air traffic controllers, Border Patrol agents and most food inspectors — will continue to work.

The health care law itself was unaffected as enrolment opened Tuesday for millions of people shopping for medical insurance.

Unclear how long standoff will last

The military will be paid under legislation freshly signed by Obama, but paychecks for other federal workers will be withheld until the impasse is broken. Federal workers were told to report to their jobs for a half-day but to perform only shutdown tasks like changing email greetings and closing down agencies' internet sites.

The self-funded Postal Service will continue to operate and the government will continue to pay Social Security benefits and Medicare and Medicaid fees to doctors on time.

The Senate twice on Monday rejected House-passed bills that, first, conditioned keeping the government open to delaying key portions of the 2010 "Obamacare" law that take effect Tuesday, and then delayed for a year the law's requirement that millions of people buy medical insurance. The House passed the last version again early Tuesday; Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the same fate awaits it when the Senate reconvenes Tuesday morning.

"You don't get to extract a ransom for doing your job, for doing what you're supposed to be doing anyway, or just because there's a law there that you don't like," Obama said Monday, delivering a similar message in private phone calls later to Republican House Speaker John Boehner and other lawmakers.

Boehner said he didn't want a government shutdown, but added the health care law "is having a devastating impact ... Something has to be done."

It wasn't clear how long the standoff would last, but it appeared that Obama and Reid had the upper hand.

"We can't win," said Senator John McCain of Arizona, adding that "sooner or later" the House would have to agree to Democrats' demands for a simple, straightforward funding bill reopening the government.

Last shutdowns happened 17 years ago

The order directing federal agencies to "execute plans for an orderly shutdown due to the absence of appropriations" was issued by White House Budget Director Sylvia Burwell shortly before midnight Monday.

Around the same time, Obama appeared in a video message assuring members of the military they'll be paid under a law he just signed and telling civilian Defence Department employees that "you and your families deserve better than the dysfunction we're seeing in Congress."

The underlying spending bill would fund the government through Nov. 15 if the Senate gets its way or until Dec. 15 if the House does.

Until now, such bills have been routinely passed with bipartisan support, ever since a pair of shutdowns 17 years ago engineered by then-speaker Newt Gingrich severely damaged Republican election prospects and revived then-president Bill Clinton's political standing.

Boehner had sought to avoid the shutdown and engineer passage of a "clean" temporary spending bill for averting a government shutdown.

This time tea party activists mobilized by freshman Senator Ted Cruz of Texas mounted a campaign to seize the must-do measure in an effort to derail Obamacare. GOP leaders voiced reservations and many Republican lawmakers predicted it wouldn't work. Some even labelled it "stupid."

But the success of Cruz and other tea party-endorsed conservatives who upset establishment GOP candidates in 2010 and 2012 primaries was a lesson learned for many Republican lawmakers going into next year's election.

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