| GOP Rejects Two Resolutions Affirming Support For U.S. Intelligence Community Posted: 19 Jul 2018 11:30 AM PDT  WASHINGTON ― Republicans on Thursday objected to doing the bare minimum in
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| After rescue, soccer boys pray for protection at Thai temple Posted: 19 Jul 2018 08:59 AM PDT  CHIANG RAI, Thailand (AP) — The youth soccer teammates rescued from a flooded cave began their first day back home with their families Thursday by going to a Buddhist temple to pray for protection from misfortunes.
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| Russian warship ‘carrying £100 billion in gold’ discovered off South Korea Posted: 19 Jul 2018 05:19 AM PDT  A South Korean salvage team has discovered the wreck of a Russian warship that was sunk in a naval battle 113 years ago and is believed to still contain a trove of gold bullion and coins worth 150 trillion won, or £100 billion. The Russian Imperial Navy cruiser Dmitrii Donskoi was discovered at a depth of more than 1,400 feet about one mile off the South Korean island of Ulleungdo. Shinil Group, the company behind the discovery, says it is aiming to raise the ship later this year Credit: Shinil Group A joint team made up of experts from South Korea, Britain and Canada discovered the wreck on Sunday and used two manned submersibles to capture footage of the vessel, with the company behind the discovery promising to use a percentage of the money to fund the construction of a railway line linking Russia and South Korea through North Korea. The video includes images of extensive damage to the vessel caused in an encounter with Japanese warships in May 1905, along with cannons and deck guns encrusted with marine growth, the anchor and the ship's wheel. The identity of the 5,800-ton warship was confirmed when the crew of one of the submersibles were able to read the name on the stern. "The body of the ship was severely damaged by shelling, with its stern almost broken, and yet the ship's deck and sides are well preserved", the Seoul-based Shinil Group said in a statement. Launched in St Petersburg in August 1883, the Dmitrii Donskoi was designed as a commerce raider and fitted with both a full set of sails and a coal-fired engine. The ship spent most of its career operating in the Mediterranean and the Far East and was deployed to Imperial Russia's Second Pacific Squadron after the Japanese fleet destroyed the majority of Russia's naval power in the Far East in the opening salvoes of the 1904 Russo-Japanese War. The Dmitri Donskoii was sunk in 1905 during the Russo-Japanese war Credit: Shinil Group The squadron was intercepted by the Japanese fleet in May 1905 and decimated at the Battle of Tsushima. Assigned to protect the transport ships at the rear of the formation, the Dmitrii Donskoi managed to evade the attacking force, but was later intercepted steaming for the Russian port of Vladivostok. Haul: the Imperial Navy Cruiser Dmitri Donskoii sank more than a century ago with - it is thought - 5,500 boxes of gold bars and coins still on board Credit: Shinil Group Around 60 of the 591 crew were killed and further 120 injured before Captain Ivan Lebedev anchored off the island of Ulleungdo and ordered his men ashore. The following morning, May 29, 1905, the ship was scuttled offshore and the crew were taken prisoner by Japanese landing parties. Captain Lebedev later died of his wounds. There are reports that the Dmitrii Donskoi was carrying the fleet's funds and went down with 5,500 boxes containing gold bars as well as a separate haul of 200 tons of gold coins. The gold was being stored in the ship's holds to stop the Japanese seizing it. Shinil Group estimates the gold would have a total value today of £101.3 billion. Half of any treasure found on board will be handed over to the Russian government Credit: Donskoii The company says it is aiming to raise the ship in October or November. Half of any treasure found aboard the vessel would be handed over to the Russian government, the company said, while 10 percent of the remainder will be invested in tourism projects on Ulleungdo Island, including a museum dedicated to the vessel. A portion of the rest of the treasure will be donated to joint projects to promote development in north-east Asia, the company said, such as a railway line from Russia to South Korea through North Korea.
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| CDC Says Raw Turkey Linked to Salmonella in 26 States — What to Know Posted: 19 Jul 2018 03:34 PM PDT  Cooking it might not be enough.
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| U.S. Interior watchdog probes Zinke over real estate deal Posted: 18 Jul 2018 05:44 PM PDT  By Timothy Gardner WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Interior Department's watchdog said in a letter to lawmakers on Wednesday that it was investigating a Montana real estate deal involving a foundation set up by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and a development group backed by the chairman of oil service company Halliburton. The letter, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, said that the agency's inspector general had launched the probe on July 16 to look into a development deal in Zinke's hometown of Whitefish, Montana, between a group funded by David Lesar, Halliburton's chairman, and the foundation.
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| After Trump's defense of Putin, sighs of resignation — but nobody's resigning (yet) Posted: 18 Jul 2018 09:19 AM PDT  After President Trump's performance in Helsinki, there have been calls for members of his Cabinet to resign. So far, no one has. Why do they stick with the administration?
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| Mark Zuckerberg Says Facebook Won't Remove Holocaust Denial Content Posted: 18 Jul 2018 11:53 AM PDT  Mark Zuckerberg got himself into hot water Wednesday after suggesting that
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| Indonesia's 'child' of Krakatoa spews ash and lava Posted: 19 Jul 2018 04:44 AM PDT  An Indonesian volcano known as the "child" of the legendary Krakatoa erupted on Thursday, spewing a plume of ash high into the sky as molten lava streamed down from its summit. Anak Krakatau -- a small volcanic island that emerged from the ocean a half century after Krakatoa's deadly 1883 eruption -- has rumbled back to life in recent weeks, spitting flaming rocks and ash from its crater. No one lives on Krakatau, which forms a small island in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra, but the peak is a popular tourist spot.
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| Israel passes divisive law declaring only Jews have right to 'national self-determination' Posted: 19 Jul 2018 04:14 AM PDT  Israel's parliament has passed a divisive law declaring that only Jews have the right to "national self-determination" in Israel, prompting angry accusations from Arab citizens that the government is formally codifying racism. The law, known as the nation state bill, passed by a narrow 62-55 margin early on Thursday morning after hours of fractious debate between MPs in the chamber of the Knesset. While Israel is known around the world as the only Jewish state, its own laws have never formally classified it as a state for Jews. The nation state bill describes Israel for the first time as "the national home of the Jewish people". "The right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people," the law states. The law downgrades Arabic so it is no longer an official language of Israel and declares that Jerusalem "complete and united" is the country's capital. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and his Right-wing coalition government supported the bill. Mr Netanyahu praised the law's passage as a "pivotal moment in the annals of Zionism and the State of Israel." "This is our state - the Jewish state. In recent years there have been some who have attempted to put this in doubt, to undercut the core of our being," he said. Benjamin Netanyahu praised the law's passage Credit: Ronen Zvulun/Pool via AP Around 20 per cent of Israel citizens are of Palestinian origin, known sometimes as Palestinian citizens of Israel or as Arab-Israelis. Arab-Israeli MPs angrily denounced the bill as "an apartheid law" and tore copies of its text into pieces after it passed. "The state has declared that it does not want us here. It has passed a law of Jewish supremacy and told us that we will always be second-class citizens," said Ayman Odeh, the leader of the mostly Arab Joint List party. Israel's Labour Party and other opposition parties also voted against the bill. The nation state bill will become one of Israel's Basic Laws, legislation that essentially forms the country's constitution. The other Basic Laws describe the structure of the Israeli government but do not weigh in on the country's Jewish character. The bill was significantly watered down from earlier versions and several of its most controversial provisions were changed. One clause would have allowed Jewish towns to refuse to allow Arabs or Muslims to live in them. In practice, segregation of housing is widespread in Israel but it has never been codified in law. Around 20 per cent of Israel's population is of Palestinian origin Credit: REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo Reuven Rivlin, Israel's president, made a rare direct intervention into domestic politics to oppose the housing section, saying it could "harm the Jewish people, Jews throughout the world and the State of Israel". The housing clause was removed shortly before the vote. Arabic and Hebrew were previously both official languages of Israel, a hangover of British law in Palestine which Israel adopted in 1948. The new law says Hebrew is the only official language and downgrades Arabic to "a special status in the state". However, the law also includes a confusing clause saying the legislation "does not harm the status given to the Arabic language before this law came into effect". The law does not declare Judaism as the official religion of Israel. Supporters of the bill said it was similar to legislation in Europe, for example a law that makes French the official language of France. They point to the constitution of Slovenia, which declares the country to be "a state of all its citizens" but is founded on "the permanent right" of the Slovene majority "to self-determination." "[The nation state law] is far milder and more liberal than the constitutional arrangements of even some of the most liberal countries," said Eugene Kontorovich, head of international law at the Kohelet Policy Forum, an Israeli think tank which supported the bill.
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| President Trump Tries a Tougher Stance on Russia Amid Putin Summit Backlash Posted: 19 Jul 2018 01:37 AM PDT  The tough rhetoric marks a stark turnabout from his initial upbeat account
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| Airport Apologizes to Mom After 'Unfortunate' Breastfeeding Encounter Posted: 18 Jul 2018 06:03 AM PDT  Richmond International Airport officials issued an apology to a Richmond mom who was breastfeeding her son at the airport.
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| Thai boys recount cave rescue: Voices in dark, then 'hello' Posted: 18 Jul 2018 04:16 PM PDT  CHIANG RAI, Thailand (AP) — Trapped in the recesses of a flooded cave, the 12 boys and their soccer coach were trying to dig their way out when they heard voices in the darkness. Their coach quickly told everyone to be quiet.
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| Eight arrested over Boko Haram Chibok abduction: police Posted: 18 Jul 2018 07:35 AM PDT  Eight men have been arrested in connection with Boko Haram's abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls from the remote town of Chibok in northeast Nigeria, police said on Wednesday. The eight were among 22 suspected members of the Islamist militant group detained in the remote region after an investigation over the last year. All the suspects were paraded at a news conference in the Borno state capital, Maiduguri.
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| Florida man describes shark attack in just two feet of water while surfing with his son Posted: 18 Jul 2018 01:35 PM PDT  A Florida man has described how a shark attacked him in just two feet of water as he was surfing with his son. Dustin Theobald, 30, had been lying on a surfboard at Fernandina Beach on the Atlantic coast of Florida when he said he felt something pull at his foot. "I touched its head, I could feel it was rough skin," he told Fox News, adding: "It wasn't like a fish skin.
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| Watch Barack Obama Joyfully Dancing About 7,000 Miles Away From Trump Posted: 18 Jul 2018 04:47 PM PDT  While President Donald Trump was repeatedly refusing to hold Russian leader
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| Philippines issues new order to expel Australian nun Posted: 18 Jul 2018 05:14 PM PDT  The Philippines issued on Thursday a fresh deportation order for an elderly Australian nun who angered President Rodrigo Duterte, as her lawyers pledged to block her expulsion. Sister Patricia Fox, 71, has been accused of illegally engaging in political activism as the government cracks down on foreign critics on its soil. "We find Fox Patricia Anne, Australian national, in violation of the limitations and conditions of (the Philippines immigration law) and order her deportation to Australia," said the government order shown to AFP by her lawyers.
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| Smoke clogs Yosemite Valley as firefighters battle blaze Posted: 17 Jul 2018 11:51 PM PDT  MARIPOSA, Calif. (AP) — Hot and dry weather on Tuesday hindered efforts to slow the growth of a forest fire near Yosemite National Park that killed a California firefighter last weekend, leading some tourists to cut short their visits although all park trails remained open.
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| U.S. intelligence documents on Nelson Mandela made public Posted: 18 Jul 2018 01:31 PM PDT ![U.S. intelligence documents on Nelson Mandela made public]( "U.S. intelligence documents on Nelson Mandela made public") Thousands of pages of U.S. intelligence documents on Nelson Mandela were made public on Wednesday, revealing that Washington continued to monitor the South African anti-apartheid hero as a potential Communist menace even after he was released from prison, a group that sued to obtain the papers said. The Washington-based group Property of the People released the papers to mark the 100th anniversary of Mandela's birth. "The documents reveal that, just as it did in the 1950s and 60s with Martin Luther King Jr and the civil rights movement, the FBI aggressively investigated the U.S. and South African anti-apartheid movements as Communist plots imperiling American security," the group's president Ryan Shapiro said in a statement.
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| DNI Dan Coats Calls Out Trump's Russia Comments At Aspen Security Forum Posted: 19 Jul 2018 01:10 PM PDT  Dan Coats, President Donald Trump's director of national intelligence, doubled
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| Neanderthal man knew how to make a fire: study Posted: 19 Jul 2018 11:39 AM PDT  Neanderthal man knew how to make a fire by striking stone to create sparks, researchers said Thursday after analysing several tools found at sites in France dating from 50,000 years ago. It was already known that Neanderthals used fire but it was mostly thought to have occurred by natural causes such as lightning or volcanic eruptions, although perhaps they did know techniques for creating a flame. "We present here the first direct artefactual evidence for regular, systematic fire production by Neanderthals," they wrote in the study.
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| Aid group Raices rejects $250,000 from Salesforce over border agency contract Posted: 19 Jul 2018 04:58 PM PDT  Raices has condemned Salesforce's relationship with CBP. A not-for-profit legal aid group for immigrants and refugees has rejected a $250,000 donation from Salesforce over the technology company's contracts with Customs and Border Protection (CBP). "When it comes to supporting oppressive, inhumane, and illegal policies, we want to be clear: the only right action is to stop," wrote Jonathan Ryan, executive director of the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (Raices), in an email to Salesforce published on Twitter.
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| DNI Dan Coats Has 3 Words After Learning Trump Invited Vladimir Putin To White House Posted: 19 Jul 2018 02:01 PM PDT  Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats seemed stunned to learn during a
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| Rep. Jim Jordan interviewed in doctor sex abuse inquiry Posted: 18 Jul 2018 10:09 AM PDT  COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, who used to coach wrestling at Ohio State University, was interviewed by a law firm investigating allegations that a now-dead team doctor sexually abused male athletes there decades ago, his spokesman confirmed Wednesday.
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| Israeli strike kills Hamas fighter in Gaza: ministry Posted: 19 Jul 2018 09:05 AM PDT  An Israeli strike killed a Palestinian Hamas fighter in Gaza on Thursday, officials in the strip said, after Israel said one of its aircraft targeted a group launching balloons carrying firebombs. Three other people were wounded east of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, the health ministry in the enclave said, naming the dead man as Abdul Kareem Radwan. Hamas, the Islamist group that runs the strip, hailed him as a fighter, saying he was killed on a small base near the border.
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