In brief: Pentagon to seek prison funding

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba – The Pentagon’s Southern Command intends to seek $69 million from the Republican-controlled Congress to build a new prison for high-value former CIA detainees after President Barack Obama leaves office.

The current high-value prison, Camp 7, is a bit of a mystery. Reporters can’t see it and the public can’t know how much the Bush administration spent to build it for the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and more than a dozen other men brought here in 2006 as suspected senior terrorists.

China, Japan warm on diplomatic front

BEIJING – China and Japan reached agreement to ramp up high-level contacts, the strongest indication yet of a possible meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at next week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

The Chinese and Japanese foreign ministries said Friday the two sides agreed to “gradually resume political, diplomatic and security dialogues.”

Yemen’s ex-leader faces U.N. sanctions

UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions on Yemen’s former president and two leaders of the powerful Shiite Houthi rebels late Friday for threatening the peace, security and stability of the country.

The council ordered a freeze of all assets and a global travel ban on former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has allied with the Houthis, the rebel group’s military commander Abd al-Khaliq al-Huthi and the Houthi’s second-in-command, Abdullah Yahya al Hakim.