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ByRebeccaBoone and Brian Melley The Associated Press BURNS, ORE. Father-and- son ranchers convicted of setting fire to federal graz- ing land reported to prison Monday as the armed anti- government activists who have taken up their cause maintained the occupation of a remote Oregon wildlife preserve. Federal authorities made no immediate attempt to re- take the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in the re- mote high desert of east- ern Oregon, which about two dozen activists seized over the weekend as part of a decades-long fight over public lands in the West. There appeared to be no urgent reason for federal of- ficials to move in. No one has been hurt. No one is be- ing held hostage. And be- cause the refuge is a bleak and forbidding stretch of wilderness about 300 miles from Portland, and it's the middle of winter, the stand- off is causing few if any dis- ruptions. Meanwhile, the armed group said it wants an in- quiry into whether the gov- ernment is forcing ranchers off their land after the fa- ther and son were ordered back to prison for arson on federal grazing lands. The group calling itself Citizens for Constitutional Freedom demanded a gov- ernment response within fivedaysrelatedtotheranch- ers' extended sentences. Ammon Bundy — one of the sons of rancher Cliven Bundy, who was involved in a 2014 Nevada standoff with the government over graz- ing rights — told reporters that Dwight Hammond and his son, Steven Hammond, were treated unfairly. The Hammonds were convicted of arson three years ago for fires on federal land in 2001 and 2006, one of which was set to cover up deer poaching, according to prosecutors. They said they lit the fires to reduce the growth of invasive plants and protect their property from wildfires. The men served their original sentences —three months for Dwight and one year for Steven. But an appeals court judge ruled the terms fell short of min- imum sentences that re- quire them to serve about four more years. Their sentences have been a rallying cry for the group, whose mostly male members said they want federal lands turned over to local authorities so peo- ple can use them free of U.S. oversight. The father and son re- ported to a federal prison Monday in California, said Harney County, Oregon, Sheriff David Ward. He pro- vided no other details. The Hammonds have dis- tanced themselves from the protest group and many lo- cals, including people who want to see federal lands made more accessi- ble, don't want the activ- ists here, fearing they may bring trouble. Schools in the small town of Burns, about 30 miles from the refuge, were closed for the week out of concern for student safety. For the moment, the fed- eral government was doing nothing to remove them, but the FBI said it was mon- itoring the situation. The White House said President Obama was aware of the sit- uation and hopes it can be resolved peacefully. The refuge was estab- lished in 1908 by President Theodore Roosevelt to pro- tect bird populations that had been decimated by plume hunters selling feath- ers for the hat industry. It sits in a wide snow-cov- ered valley rimmed by dis- tant mountains and con- tains lakes and marshland. The preserve has grown over the years to about 300 square miles and surrounds the ranch Dwight Ham- mond bought with his fa- ther in 1964. Dwight Ham- mond said his family has resisted pressure to sell the ranch as the federal govern- ment chipped away at his grazing allotments and in- creased fees on other lands. The refuge contains about 10 small buildings, some of which had been entered by the occupying group. Other members of the group blocked the en- trance to the headquarters. The takeover prompted an outcry far beyond Ore- gon from both those who want to see federal lands opened to more ranching and logging and others who were astounded that private citizens with guns could seize government property without any intervention by law enforcement. The tactics of the group were condemned by Demo- crats and Republicans alike. Sen. Harry Reid, a Ne- vada Democrat who is fa- miliar with the Bundys from their standoff in his state, said the group could not continue breaking the law, but that everyone should remain patient. "These people say we want to return (the land) to the people," Reid said. "The people have it right now." Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said he hoped the group would "stand down peaceably" with no vio- lent confrontation "sooner rather than later." Ammon Bundy said his group had sent a demand for "redress for grievances" to local, state and federal of- ficials. The group, which in- cluded a couple of women and some boys and girls Monday, did not release a copy of its demands. Bundy would not say what the group would do if it got no response. The dispute harkens back to a long-running struggle over public lands between some Westerners and the federal government, which owns nearly half the land in the West. In the 1970s, during the "Sagebrush Rebellion," Nevada and other states pushed for local control over federal land. Support- ers of that idea want to open more land available for cattle grazing, mining and timber harvesting. Opponents say the fed- eral government should ad- minister lands for the wid- est possible uses, including environmental and recre- ational. Bundy said the group plans to stay at the refuge as long as it takes. Keith Landon, a long- time resident of Burns who works at the Reid Country Store, said he sympathizes with the Bundys' frustra- tions. Landon was a logger until the federal govern- ment declared the spotted owl a protected species in the 1980s — a decision that hurt the local logging in- dustry. "It's hard to discredit what they're trying to do out there," he said. "But I don't want anybody hurt." OREGON STANDOFF Rancherswhoinspiredoccupationreporttoprison PHOTOSBYRICKBOWMER—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Ammon Bundy, center, one of the sons of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, walks off a er speaking with reporters during a news conference at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters Monday near Burns, Ore. A members of the group occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters, walks to one of its buildings on Monday near Burns, Ore. By Bernard Condon The Associated Press NEW YORK The new year got off to an inauspicious start on Wall Street as stocks tumbled Monday in a global sell-off triggered by new fears of a slowdown in China and rising tensions in the Middle East. The Dow Jones industrial average clawed back from a steep early decline but still ended the day down 1.6 percent, its biggest drop in two weeks. Markets in Asia and Europe suffered heavier losses. The wave of selling on the first trading day of 2016 served as a reminder that the global worries that weighed on financial mar- kets last year are not going away anytime soon. "It's going to be a turbu- lent year," said Kevin Kelly, chief investment officer of Recon Capital Partners. "This isn't a blip." The trouble started in China, the world's second- largest economy, where signs of manufacturing weakness sent the Shanghai Composite Index plunging 6.9 percent before Chinese authorities halted trading by using a new "circuit- breaker" mechanism for the first time. Investors were also un- nerved by heightened ten- sions between Saudi Ara- bia, a huge oil supplier, and Iran. Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic relations over the weekend in a dispute over the Saudis' execution of a Shiite cleric. In the U.S., the Dow slumped 276.09 points to 17,148.94. It was down as much as 467 points earlier in the day. The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 31.28 points, or 1.5 percent, to 2,012.66. The Nasdaq composite fell 104.32 points, or 2.1 per- cent, to 4,903.09. The selling in China spread quickly across mar- kets in other Asian coun- tries, then to Europe. Key indexes fell anywhere from 2.2 percent to 4.3 percent in Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Germany, France and Britain. Huang Cengdong, an analyst for Sinolink Secu- rities in Shanghai, said he expects more turmoil in the Chinese stock market ahead of corporate earn- ings reports. "There will be heavy selling in the near fu- ture," Huang said. The immediate trigger of the sell-off was a report that showed that manufac- turing in China fell in De- cember for the 10th straight month. The slowdown is worri- some around the globe be- cause China's manufactur- ers are huge buyers of raw materials, machinery and energy from other coun- tries. Also, many automak- ers and consumer goods companies are hoping to sell more to increasingly wealthy Chinese house- holds. In the U.S., slow over- seas growth already ap- pears to be hurting Amer- ican manufacturers. A re- port issued Monday by the Institute for Supply Man- agement showed manu- facturing contracted last month at the fastest pace in more than six years as factories cut jobs and new orders shrank. 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