In brief: Obama says he first heard of Clinton emails from news

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama said he first learned from news reports that Hillary Rodham Clinton used a private email account while serving as his secretary of State.

“The policy of my administration is to encourage transparency, which is why my emails, the BlackBerry I carry around, all those records are available and archived,” Obama said in excerpts of an interview with CBS News that aired Sunday. “I’m glad that Hillary’s instructed that those emails about official business need to be disclosed.”

Obama’s first comments on the controversy came as a leading Democrat, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, said Clinton should speak publicly about her emails or risk damaging her potential 2016 presidential campaign.

“She is the leading candidate, whether it be Republican or Democrat, to be the next president and I think she needs to step up and come out and state exactly what the situation is,” Feinstein said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I think from this point on the … silence is going to hurt her.”

Clinton’s only comment came on Twitter last week: “I want the public to see my email. I asked State to release them. They said they will review them for release as soon as possible.”

The State Department is reviewing 55,000 pages of her emails to determine whether they can be released to the public.

Feinstein added that the regulations on personal email use were unclear during Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state, from 2009 to 2013.

Colin Powell, who served as secretary of State from 2001 to 2005 under President George W. Bush, told ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” that he didn’t retain any of the work emails he sent from a personal account during his tenure.

A federal law enacted in November requires the preservation of work emails from private accounts of government officials.

U.S. would ‘walk away’ from bad Iran deal, Obama says

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama said the United States would “walk away” from nuclear talks with Iran if there’s no acceptable deal.

Obama said any agreement must allow Western powers to verify that Tehran isn’t going to obtain an atomic weapon, and that even if Iran “cheated,” the U.S. and others would have “enough time to take action.”

The president tells CBS that “if we don’t have that kind of deal, then we’re not going to take it.”

Big gaps remain to bridge if the sides are to reach a deal by the end of March deadline set by negotiators. The next round of talks is set to begin March 15.

Iran said the program is peaceful and exists only to produce energy for civilian use.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is insisting that Congress have a chance to review and vote on any deal, but acknowledges that he doesn’t have the support yet to override a threatened veto by Obama.

“I’m hoping we can get 67 senators to assert the historic role of the Senate and the Congress in looking at matters of this magnitude. Obviously, the president doesn’t want us involved in this. But he’s going to need us if he’s going to lift any of the existing sanctions. And so I think he cannot work around Congress forever,” McConnell told CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

Fraternity to close after racist video posted online

NORMAN, Okla. – A University of Oklahoma fraternity will close and its members will be suspended after the group’s national headquarters said a video of members participating in a racist chant was posted online.

Sigma Alpha Epsilon said Sunday night that an investigation had validated the contents of a video showing multiple people chanting a racial slur against blacks and indicating that blacks would never be admitted to the fraternity. The chant also references lynching.

The national fraternity said in a statement that it was “embarrassed” by the “unacceptable and racist” behavior.

The video was first posted online by a black student group at OU. It wasn’t immediately clear how it was obtained.

The university said earlier Sunday that it was investigating and didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the chapter’s closure.

Toddler survives 14 hours upside-down in car in river

SPANISH FORK, Utah – An 18-month-old girl survived a car crash in a frigid Utah river after being strapped in a car seat upside-down for some 14 hours before being found by a fisherman, officers said.

The condition of Lily Groesbeck was upgraded from critical to stable but critical condition at a Salt Lake City hospital, but her 25-year-old mother, Lynn Groesbeck of Springville, was found dead in the car, police said Sunday.

The fisherman discovered the car on its top about 12:30 p.m. Saturday in the Spanish Fork River, about 50 miles south of Salt Lake City, police Lt. Matt Johnson said.

Investigators believe the wreck occurred about 10:30 p.m. Friday when a resident near the accident scene reported hearing a noise, Johnson said.

The girl was found hanging upside down above the river that flowed through the car, and the water never reached high enough to touch her, Johnson told the Deseret News newspaper. Her mother was found in the driver’s seat.