3,000 Federal inmates released under criminal justice overhaul; NEWS BRIEFING; Staff and news services; Mueller probe witness faces child sex trafficking charge ; Painting stolen by Nazi soldier; is back in a Florence museum ; Trump’s Labor pick Scalia has record of opposing regulations; Trump says he’s trying to help rapper A$AP Rocky ; Police: 9 dead, 16 injured in truck crash; in Philippines

WASHINGTON - More than 3,100 federal inmates were being released Friday by the Bureau of Prisons as part of a criminal justice overhaul signed into law last year.

The First Step Act gives judges more discretion in sentencing, eases mandatory minimum sentences and encourages inmates to participate in programs aimed at reducing recidivism. The Trump administration has promoted the overhaul as a bipartisan effort to address concerns that too many Americans were imprisoned for nonviolent crimes as a result of the war on drugs.

The inmates were walking out of federal prisons and halfway houses across the country. The releases are part of an increase for "good conduct time" under the law. More than 1,600 other inmates have qualified for reduced sentences under a separate provision of the law that allows some prisoners locked up for crack cocaine charges to ask for sentencing reduction.

The Bureau of Prisons declined to provide specific details about the inmates being released, citing privacy concerns. Nearly 900 were to be turned over to other law enforcement agencies because of detainers filed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and local authorities, according to Hugh Hurwitz, acting director of the Bureau of Prisons.

The Justice Department is diverting about $75 million from within the Bureau of Prisons' budget, which was used for care, programming and administrative tasks, in order to put in place the First Step Act. Federal officials say they are working with Congress to ensure additional funding for the coming years.

Mueller probe witness faces child sex trafficking charge

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A businessman who served as a key witness in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation now faces a charge of child sex trafficking in addition to transporting child pornography. An indictment made public Friday charges Lebanese-American businessman George Nader, 60, with transporting a 14-year-old boy from Europe to Washington in February 2000 and engaging in sex acts with him.

That charge comes on top of child pornography charges leveled against him when he was arrested last month.

Nader's name shows up over 100 times in Mueller's report. It details his efforts to serve as liaison between a Russian banker close to Russia's Vladimir Putin and members of President Trump's transition team. Nader also served as an adviser to the United Arab Emirates, a close Saudi ally.

Painting stolen by Nazi soldier

is back in a Florence museum

FLORENCE, Italy - A Dutch painting, stolen by retreating Nazis and sent by a German soldier as a present to his wife, came back to a Florence museum Friday, thanks largely to a relentless campaign by the Uffizi Galleries' director, a German.

The foreign ministers of German and Italy were on hand Friday at Palazzo Pitti, a Renaissance palace that is part of the Uffizi Galleries, for the unveiling of "Flower Vase," a masterpiece by Jan van Huysum, an early 18th-century artist whose still-life works were sought in his day.

Uffizi director Eike Schmidt this year urged his native country to return the work. He had posted on a gallery wall three labels where the painting had hung before being taken during World War II: "stolen," the labels read in Italian, English and German.

Trump's Labor pick Scalia has record of opposing regulations

WASHINGTON - Eugene Scalia has a decades-long record of challenging Labor Department and other federal regulations, as well as a famous last name. The combination proved irresistible to President Donald Trump.

Trump selected Scalia on Thursday to be his new labor secretary. If formally nominated and confirmed, he'll join an administration that has moved aggressively to reverse regulations and work under a president who had repeatedly lauded Scalia's late father, Justice Antonin Scalia.

The president announced the news on Twitter less than a week after his previous secretary, Alexander Acosta, said he would resign amid renewed criticism of how, as a federal prosecutor, he handled a 2008 secret plea deal with wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Trump says he's trying to help rapper A$AP Rocky

WASHINGTON - Urged on by the first lady and celebrities, President Donald Trump said Friday that he is trying to help free rapper A$AP Rocky, who has been held in police custody in Sweden for weeks.

"I will be calling the very talented Prime Minister of Sweden to see what we can do about helping A$AP Rocky," Trump tweeted from aboard Air Force One, where he said he had just spoken with rapper Kanye West about Rocky's situation.

Rocky, a Grammy-nominated artist born Rakim Mayers, has been behind bars since early this month as Swedish police investigate a fight he was allegedly involved in in Stockholm before appearing at a music festival. Videos on social media appear to show a person being thrown onto the ground by Rocky. A defense lawyer has said it was self-defense.

Police: 9 dead, 16 injured in truck crash

in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines - A truck carrying more than two dozen villagers, mostly children on their way to a school festival, lost control Friday on a downhill road and flipped on its side, leaving eight students and an adult dead in the central Philippines, police said.

Police investigator Nelson Saquibal said 16 others, including the driver, were brought to a hospital after the accident in Boljoon town in Cebu province. The students from two village schools were on their way to attend a cultural, health and sports festival in the town center, he said.

Saquibal said some of the students were pinned under the truck.

Deadly road accidents are common in the Philippines because of weak enforcement of traffic laws, rickety vehicles and inadequate road safety railings and signs.

In Ohio: A shipping business in Ohio said two workers died after they were trapped in a silo filled with grain. The workers became trapped Friday morning inside the silo operated by The Andersons in Toledo.

A Toledo fire department spokesman said crews spent nearly two hours trying to reach the men. He said at one point they were able to make contact with one of the workers.

Rescue crews had brought in special equipment to try to stop the grain from collapsing on the men.

A statement released by The Andersons said the company is shaken by the loss of two of its workers. The company said it will work with authorities to probe what happened.

Caption: Protesters demonstrate Friday at the entrance of Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rossello's La Fortaleza residence in Old San Juan, demanding he resign over a series of leaked online chats insulting women, political opponents and the victims of Hurricane Maria.

Joe Raedle/Getty