Briefly

Cuba: New detainees bring number at Guantanamo Bay to 650

More than two dozen men arrived Friday at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, pushing the number of terror suspects at the naval base to about 650.

The arrivals came a day after the Pentagon reported a recent rise in suicide attempts among detainees at the base, drawing criticism from a human rights group that says U.S. interrogations may be to blame.

About 25 men arrived at Guantanamo on a military cargo plane, said Army Maj. Paul Caruso, a spokesman for the detention mission. Officials refused to give an exact number or say where the plane came from.

There have been 15 suicide attempts among Guantanamo detainees since the United States began holding them about a year ago.

The detainees, treated by the U.S. government as enemy combatants, are being held indefinitely without being formally charged or tried, and they are interrogated without access to lawyers.

Michigan: 72-vehicle pileup shuts down interstate; one dead

A collision between a car and truck in a blinding snowstorm led to a 72-car pileup Friday in western Michigan, killing one person and leaving others trapped in the wreckage.

At least six of the 29 people taken to hospitals were critically injured, hospital officials said. Most of the rest were treated and released.

A car ran underneath a semitrailer on Interstate 94 about 30 miles north of the Indiana line, followed by the fiery crash of a tanker. Before long, dozens of cars were strewn across a half-mile stretch of highway.

“It was like someone put a white handkerchief on your face and you couldn’t see through it,” said Constance Simmons, 52, a passenger in one of the dozens of vehicles involved in the crash. She wasn’t injured.

A 12-mile stretch of I-94, the main thoroughfare connecting Detroit and Chicago, was closed in both directions, then reopened late Friday.

Heavy snow moving eastward off nearby Lake Michigan had been falling for hours before the crash. The interstate had been plowed, but high winds had lowered visibility to “just about zero,” State Police Lt. Joseph Zangaro said.