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TEHRAN, Iran (AP) —
All 10 U.S. Navy sailors detained by Iran after their two small boats allegedly drifted into Iranian territorial waters around one of Iran's Persian Gulf islands a day earlier have been freed, the United States and Iran said Wednesday.
The sailors' swift release quickly diffused what could have escalated into an international crisis days before Iran is expected to meet the terms of last summer's nuclear deal with world powers. The deal gives Iran significant relief from painful economic sanctions.
The nine men and one woman were held at an Iranian base on Farsi Island after they were detained nearby on Tuesday. The tiny outpost has been used as a base for Revolutionary Guard speedboats as far back as the 1980s.
The Navy said there were no indications they had been harmed while in custody. Iranian state television aired later Wednesday dramatic sunset images of the moment the Revolutionary Guard forces boarded the American vessels and captured the sailors, showing them all kneeling on the deck, their hands on their heads.
After their release, the sailors departed the island at 0843 GMT aboard the boats they were detained with, the Navy said. They were picked up by Navy aircraft and other sailors took control of their boats for the return voyage to Bahrain, where the U.S. 5th Fleet is based.
The sailors will be taken ashore somewhere in the region so that they can receive support to reintegrate with their unit, said 5th Fleet spokesman Cmdr. Kevin Stephens. He declined to say where they were traveling to or provide details on their identities. Stephens said the priority now is "determining ... how exactly these sailors found themselves in Iran. And that's something we're going to be looking at."
The Revolutionary Guard's official website published images of the detained U.S. sailors before their release, showing them sitting on the floor of a room. They look mostly bored or annoyed, though at least one of the sailors appears to be smiling. The sole woman had her hair covered by a brown cloth. The pictures also showed what appeared to be their two boats.
"After determining that their entry into Iran's territorial waters was not intentional and their apology, the detained American sailors were released in international waters," a statement posted online by the Guard said Wednesday.
Vice President Joe Biden, speaking later to "CBS This Morning," denied that Americans made any apology.
"There's nothing to apologize for," Biden said. "When you have a problem with the boat you apologize the boat had a problem? No, and there was no looking for any apology. This was just standard nautical practice."
Gen. Ali Fadavi, the navy chief of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard, was quoted earlier Wednesday by Iranian state TV as saying that an investigation had shown the Americans entered Iranian territorial waters because of "mechanical problems in their navigation system."
U.S. officials also blamed mechanical trouble for the incident. They had said on Tuesday that Tehran assured them the crew and vessels would be returned safely and promptly.
Fadavi said the American boats had shown "unprofessional acts" for 40 minutes before being picked up by Iranian forces after entering the country's territorial waters. He said Tehran did not consider the U.S. Navy boats violating Iranian territorial waters as an "innocent passage."
The sailors were nonetheless allowed to make contact with the U.S. military, based on Iran's "responsibilities and Islamic mercy" late Tuesday, he said.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who forged a personal relationship with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif during the three years of nuclear negotiations, called his Iranian counterpart immediately on learning of the incident, according to a senior U.S. official. Kerry "personally engaged" with Zarif on the issue, said the official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Kerry later issued a statement saying he wanted to express his "gratitude to Iranian authorities for their cooperation ?in swiftly resolving this matter."
Fadavi said Zarif "had a firm stance" during the telephone conversation with Kerry about the sailors' presence in Iran's territorial waters and "said they should not have come and should apologize."
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said he was pleased with the sailors' release and he thanked Kerry for his diplomatic efforts. "Around the world, the U.S. Navy routinely provides assistance to foreign sailors in distress, and we appreciate the timely way in which this situation was resolved," Carter said.
The quick resolution stood in contrast to Iran's March 2007 seizure of 15 British sailors and marines who were searching for a merchant ship in the Persian Gulf. Then, Iran held the British troops for 13 days in what the captives later described as cold stone cells, saying they were blindfolded, feared being executed and were coerced into falsely saying they had entered Iranian waters.
The Britons' detention at the hands of the Revolutionary Guard came under hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. A day after the naval team was seized, the U.N. Security Council imposed more sanctions on Iran for refusing to halt uranium enrichment.
The Guard's 200,000-strong force is different from the regular Iranian military and is charged with protecting the ruling system. Its naval forces are heavily dependent on armed speedboats that can be used in teams to swarm much larger vessels.
The incident came amid heightened tensions with Iran, and only hours before President Barack Obama gave his final State of the Union address to Congress and the public. It set off a dramatic series of calls and meetings as U.S. officials tried to determine the exact status of the crew and reach out to Iranian leaders.
Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told The Associated Press late Tuesday U.S. time that the sailors' boats were moving between Kuwait and Bahrain when the U.S. lost contact with them.
The sailors were part of Riverine Squadron 1 based in San Diego and were deployed to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet in Bahrain. When the U.S. lost contact with the boats, ships attached to the USS Harry S Truman aircraft carrier strike group began searching the area, along with aircraft flying off the Truman.
The Riverine boats were not part of the carrier strike group, and were on a training mission, the officials said. The craft are not considered high-tech and don't contain any sensitive equipment, so there were no concerns about the Iranians gaining access to them, they added. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the sensitive incident publicly.
In an earlier incident, in late December, Iran launched a rocket test near U.S. warships and boats passing through the narrow Strait of Hormuz, the route for about a fifth of the world's oil.
Last February, Iran sank a replica of a U.S. aircraft carrier near the strait and has said it is testing "suicide drones" that could conduct kamikaze missions on naval ships. It has also challenged foreign cargo ships operating in the Gulf, opening fire on at least two in April and May.
In one of those incidents, Iran temporarily seized a Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship over what it said was a commercial dispute before releasing it with its crew more than a week later.
Meanwhile, Iran was expected to satisfy the terms of last summer's nuclear deal in just days. Once the U.N. nuclear agency confirms Iran's actions to roll back its program, the United States and other Western powers are obliged to suspend wide-ranging oil, trade and financial sanctions on Tehran. Kerry recently said the deal's implementation was "days away."
NEW YORK (AP) —
CNN's "Guns in America" town hall meeting with President Barack Obama was seen by 2.4 million viewers Thursday night, according to early data from the Nielsen rating company.
The 75-minute special, hosted by Anderson Cooper, fell short of Fox News Channel's audience of 3 million viewers, but outpaced MSNBC, seen by slightly fewer than 1 million.
However, CNN took first place in both the 25-54 and 18-34 demos, outperforming the combined audience for those two rivals.
Among 25-54 viewers, CNN averaged 845,000 viewers, far ahead of Fox News' 463,000 and MSNBC's 227,000 viewers. In the 18-34 demo, CNN had 277,000 viewers, while Fox News trailed with 73,000 and MSNBC had 40,000.
WASHINGTON (AP) —
Better cut down on sugar, especially those 16-ounce drinks, and limit your salt. But you might not need to worry quite as much about eggs.
The Obama administration's latest dietary guidelines, released Thursday, seek to help Americans reduce their likelihood of disease and obesity through a more healthful diet. The newest guidance comes down hard on sugar that's added to food and drinks but says lean meat is a healthy protein and more eggs may be OK, despite years of advice to the contrary.
Released every five years, the guidelines inform everything from food package labels to subsidized school lunches to your doctor's advice. And the main message hasn't changed much over time: Eat your fruits and vegetables. Whole grains and seafood, too. And keep sugar, fats and salt in moderation.
The government says people should figure out what healthy eating style works for them while still hewing to the main recommendations. The Agriculture Department, which released the guidelines along with the Department of Health and Human Services, is also putting out a tweaked version of its healthy "My Plate" icon to include a new slogan: "My Wins."
"Small changes can add up to big differences," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
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LEAN MEAT IS OK
After a significant backlash from the meat industry and Congress, the administration ignored several suggestions from a government advisory panel. That panel had suggested calling for an environmentally friendly diet lower in red and processed meats and de-emphasized lean meats in its list of proteins that are part of a healthful diet.
As in previous years, the government says lean meat is part of a more healthful diet. Buried deeper in the report, though, is language that suggests teenage boys and adult men should reduce meat and eat more vegetables. Government data show that males from 14 to 70 consume more than recommended amounts of meat, eggs and poultry, while women are more in line with advised amounts.
Dr. Richard Wender of the American Cancer Society said the report ignores extensive science on a link between cancer and diet.
"By omitting specific diet recommendations, such as eating less red and processed meat, these guidelines miss a critical and significant opportunity to reduce suffering and death from cancer," Wender said.
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CUT OUT THE SUGARY SODAS
One new recommendation is that added sugar should be no more than 10 percent of daily calories.
That's about 200 calories a day, around the amount in one 16-ounce sugary drink. The recommendation is part of a larger push to help consumers isolate added sugars from naturally occurring ones like those in fruit and milk.
According to the guidelines, sugary drinks comprise 47 percent of the added sugars that Americans drink and eat every day.
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TOO MUCH SALT
Americans also need to lower salt intake, the government says. New figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show around 90 percent of people eat too much. The average person eats 3,400 milligrams of sodium a day, and the guidelines say everyone should lower that to 2,300, or about a teaspoon.
Lowering sodium intake was the major push of the 2010 guidelines, and that document recommended that those most at risk of heart disease, or about half the population, lower their intake to 1,500 mg. The new guidelines delete that lower amount as part of the top recommendations. Later on, though, the report says those with high blood pressure and prehypertension could benefit from a steeper reduction.
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CHOLESTEROL CONFUSION
After years of doctors saying that Americans shouldn't eat too many eggs, recommendations for cholesterol have also shifted.
The 2010 guidelines made a key recommendation that Americans consume less than 300 mg a day of dietary cholesterol, or about two small eggs. That recommendation is gone, following increasing medical research showing the amount of cholesterol in your bloodstream is more complicated than once thought. Several more recent studies have shown little relationship between heart disease and dietary cholesterol, focusing more on the kinds of fats consumed.
Still, egg lovers aren't completely off the hook. Discussion of cholesterol deeper into the document says "individuals should eat as little dietary cholesterol as possible while consuming a healthy eating pattern."
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FOOD POLITICS
While the guidelines always have been subject to intense lobbying by food industries, this year's version set off unprecedented political debate, fueled by Republicans' claims the administration has gone too far in telling people what to eat.
Congress got involved, successfully encouraging the administration to drop the recommendations based on environmental impact but unsuccessfully proposing to set new standards for the science the guidelines can use.
"It's clear to me and my colleagues that the administration wisely listened to the science and dismissed the interests of political activists," said Alabama Rep. Robert Aderholt, the Republican chairman of the subcommittee that oversees Agriculture Department spending.