Palau Agrees to Take U.S. Detainees

The remote Pacific island nation of Palau said Wednesday it has agreed to a U.S. request to temporarily resettle up to 17 Chinese Muslims now held at the Guantanamo Bay detention center on Cuba. Palau President Johnson Toribiong said the administration of President Barack Obama made the request last week and that his country was "honored and proud" to resettle the detainees from China's Uighur minority as a humanitarian gesture. His archipelago, with a population of about 20,000, will accept up to 17 of the detainees subject to periodic review, Toribiong said in a statement released to The Associated Press.