News in brief

By The Associated Press

Arkansas court orders state to count abortion-rights signatures

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. | The Arkansas Supreme Court on Tuesday night ordered the state to begin counting signatures submitted in favor of putting an abortion-rights measure on the ballot — but only ones collected by volunteers for the proposal’s campaign.

The one-page order from the majority-conservative court left uncertainty about the future of the proposed ballot measure. Justices stopped short of ruling on whether to allow a lawsuit challenging the state’s rejection of petitions for the measure to go forward.

The court gave the state until 9 a.m. Monday to perform an initial count of the signatures from volunteers.

Puerto Rico finalizes details of upcoming referendum

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico | Plans to hold a nonbinding referendum on Puerto Rico’s political status came under scrutiny Wednesday for its multimillion-dollar cost as election officials announced the order and description of choices on the upcoming ballot.

The $1.3 million referendum that critics have described as “inconsequential” will feature three choices in the following order: independence with free association; statehood and independence. Under the free association option, issues like foreign affairs, U.S. citizenship and use of the U.S. dollar would be negotiated.

The order of options was set following a televised drawing held Wednesday that was supervised by judges at Puerto Rico’s elections commission.

Canadian park rangers search for evacuation stragglers

GRAND PRAIRIE, Alberta | Park rangers scoured the Canadian Rockies’ largest national park in helicopters Wednesday to look for stragglers still inside despite a mass evacuation aiming to move 25,000 visitors and residents away from two large wildfires.

Searchers looking through the backcountry trails of Jasper National Park already had picked up 245 people, and they continued the search Wednesday in two helicopters, Parks Canada Incident Commander Katie Ellsworth said.

As many as 15,000 people were believed to be in the park and 10,000 in the neighboring town of Jasper late Monday when authorities issued an alert asking everyone in the area to evacuate. Residents and visitors streamed out by the thousands late Monday and Tuesday, and officials said Wednesday the evacuation of Jasper was complete.

—From AP reports