NATIONAL BRIEFS

ARIZONA / Citizenship proof bill vetoed

Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed Monday a bill to require presidential candidates to prove their U.S. citizenship before their names can appear on the state's ballot. Hawaii has certified President Barack Obama was born there, but so-called "birthers" have demanded more proof. Brewer said she was troubled that the bill empowered Arizona's secretary of state alone to judge the qualifications of all candidates. She also said: "I never imagined being presented with a bill that could require candidates for president of the greatest and most powerful nation on Earth to submit their 'early baptismal circumcision certificates' . . . This is a bridge too far." Meanwhile, the White House said late Monday that Obama plans a meeting in Washington with a bipartisan group Tuesday on immigration reform.

WASHINGTON / Uighurs lose in high court

The five remaining Chinese Muslims being held at Guantánamo Bay lost their latest bid Monday to get the Supreme Court to hear their case. The justices turned away a plea from the five, who have been held at the base for nearly nine years. The detainees had previously declined an offer to be resettled in the tiny Pacific nation of Palau, where six other Chinese Muslims, or Uighurs, have gone to live. The United States has agreed the Uighurs are not enemy combatants. China wants them sent home, but the five argue, and the U.S. agrees, that they could be tortured if sent to China.

FLORIDA / Salvadoran's trial begins

The deportation trial for a former El Salvador defense minister began Monday in Orlando, 30 years after prosecutors said he condoned torture and the killings of four American churchwomen. Gen. Eugenio Vides Casanova was a close U.S. ally when he was the top military official during the 1980s as El Salvador fought Marxist guerrillas. He moved to South Florida when he left his post. Vides Casanova was acquitted of civil charges in the women's murders in 2000. He had authority to stop and prevent the acts, former U.S. Ambassador Robert White said.