| Democrats battle White House over executive power and congressional oversight Posted: 03 Jan 2020 02:37 PM PST  Two hearings in a Washington court brought the battle between the House and the White House into stark relief.
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| In 1978, A Horrific Terror Attack Tore The Shah's Iran Apart Posted: 03 Jan 2020 02:30 PM PST  And reshaped history.
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| Coalition scales back Iraq operations for security reasons: US Posted: 04 Jan 2020 02:03 AM PST  US-led forces helping Iraqi troops fight jihadists have scaled back operations, a US defence official told AFP Saturday, a day after an American strike killed top Iranian and Iraqi commanders. "Our first priority is protecting coalition personnel," the official said, saying the US-led force had "limited" their training and other anti-jihadist operations. The official said the change came after a series of rocket attacks by pro-Iran factions on US troops in recent months.
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| Delta plane slides off taxiway at Green Bay airport Posted: 04 Jan 2020 08:05 AM PST ![Delta plane slides off taxiway at Green Bay airport]( "Delta plane slides off taxiway at Green Bay airport") Airport officials said Flight 1770 was headed for Atlanta when it left the taxiway around 6:15 a.m. No injuries were reported, nor was there any damage to the plane. Conditions were icy at the time of the incident, but Airport Director Marty Piette told the Green Bay Press-Gazette that he wasn't sure if that's what caused the plane to slide off the taxiway.
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| Indonesia Steps Up Sea Patrols to Monitor China Fishing Boats Posted: 03 Jan 2020 07:49 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Indonesia's military has stepped up naval and aerial patrols of the Natuna Sea area because of a rising number of Chinese fishing vessels in the region.The Southeast Asian nation has deployed three ships and two aircraft in the gas-rich North Natuna Sea, and two additional vessels are on the way to join the group, Yudo Margono, commander of the Joint Regional Defense Command, said in statement.The deployment came after Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi said China should comply with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and reiterated Jakarta's position that it will never acknowledge Beijing's nine-dash line, a demarcation it uses to show its claims in the area.Marsudi sent a diplomatic note to Beijing protesting the intrusion of Chinese vessels into Indonesia's special economic zone in the area, according to a statement on the Cabinet Secretary's website.China is in dispute with several Southeast Asian countries over its claim to areas of the South China Sea. On Dec. 12, Malaysia submitted to the United Nation's Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf information on what it believes are its its sovereignty rights in the area.\--With assistance from Arys Aditya and Tassia Sipahutar.To contact the reporter on this story: Harry Suhartono in Jakarta at hsuhartono@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Thomas Kutty Abraham at tabraham4@bloomberg.net, Stanley JamesFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Democratic candidates warn against Middle East escalation after U.S. kills Iranian general Posted: 03 Jan 2020 08:23 AM PST  Many top Democratic presidential candidates cautioned against potential military escalation in the Middle East after a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad killed a top Iranian official, Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
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| A fugitive was on the run for 40 years. Police finally arrested him for public intoxication Posted: 03 Jan 2020 06:56 AM PST  Jose Romero was arrested Saturday in Delaware. He evaded capture in South Carolina in 1979 after being convicted of armed robbery.
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| Some Lebanon banks close over angry clients' demands Posted: 04 Jan 2020 07:51 AM PST  Banks in a region of northern Lebanon were closed until further notice on Saturday, the National News Agency said, after lenders balked at customer anger over a liquidity crisis. Since September banks have arbitrarily capped the amount of dollars that can be withdrawn or transferred abroad, sparking fury among customers who accuse lenders of holding their money hostage. There is also a limit on Lebanese pound withdrawals.
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| The Fed says interest rates are likely to remain at historically low levels — for now Posted: 03 Jan 2020 12:21 PM PST  Federal Reserve officials saw fewer risks to the economy at the end of 2019 and predicted there would be no need to adjust interest rates this year.
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| Global powers warn that the world has become a more dangerous place after U.S. attacks Posted: 03 Jan 2020 05:29 AM PST  Global powers warned Friday that the world has become a more dangerous place and urged restraint after the U.S. assassinated Iran's top general, although Britain and Germany also suggested that Iran shared blame for provoking the targeted killing that dramatically ratcheted up tensions in the Mideast.
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| Train derailment in eastern Iowa leaves mess, slows traffic Posted: 03 Jan 2020 10:57 AM PST  A train derailment Friday morning sent more than a dozen rail cars and tankers off the tracks in the eastern Iowa city of LeClaire, shutting down a nearby highway and sending a hazardous materials team scrambling to the downtown district site. The derailment happened a couple of hundred feet from the banks of the Mississippi River, along U.S. Highway 67, which runs parallel to the tracks. LeClaire police closed the highway in both directions shortly after the derailment and told the public to avoid the area.
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| Schumer calls McConnell proposal on witnesses a 'trap' Posted: 03 Jan 2020 11:25 AM PST  As the standoff over rules for an impeachment trial continues, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell repeated Friday that he would consider a proposal to call for witness testimony — a stance that his Democratic counterpart, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, calls a "trap."
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| U.S. killing of Iran's second most powerful man risks regional conflagration Posted: 03 Jan 2020 09:59 AM PST  The U.S. killing of Qassem Soleimani, Iran's most powerful figure after its supreme leader, is seen by Tehran as an act of war that risks regional conflagration. By ordering Friday's air strike on the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's foreign legions, President Donald Trump has taken the United States and its allies into uncharted territory in its confrontation with Iran and its proxy militias across the region.
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| Border Militia Leader Pleads Guilty to Gun Charge. His Followers Say It’s Fake News. Posted: 03 Jan 2020 11:58 AM PST  His group claimed to be enforcing the law when they rounded up undocumented immigrants at gunpoint. But now after months of contesting charges, militia leader Larry Hopkins has pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm.Hopkins heads the United Constitutional Patriots (UCP), a vigilante group that made headlines this year after it released footage of members ordering migrants to the ground at gunpoint near the El Paso border. Many of the people at the opposite end of their rifles were children. For all his role-playing as an officer, Hopkins had his own criminal history. In April, he was arrested on weapons charges. He pleaded not guilty, and his followers cased him as a martyr for their cause. But on Thursday, he changed his plea, prompting members of his conspiratorial group to falsely claim his guilty plea had been fabricated.Hopkins, 70, is not allowed to own a gun. He has three felony convictions, including a weapons charge in Michigan in 1996, being a felon in possession of a firearm in Oregon in 2006, and impersonating a peace officer around the same time.Border Militias Use Facebook Live to Turn Immigrant Confrontations Into 'Reality TV'That didn't stop him from stockpiling nine guns, along with ammunition in a New Mexico home in 2017, the FBI charged in a criminal complaint earlier this year.Hopkins' UCP is notoriously gun-happy. In videos they uploaded to Facebook, members carry what appear to be semi-automatic rifles while prowling the border. Though U.S. Border Patrol has claimed not to work with the vigilante group, Border Patrol officers sometimes appeared in videos of UCP patrols, and the group claimed to have close relations with the U.S. agency.Hopkins, who promotes far-right conspiracy theories, has also claimed to be in contact with President Donald Trump and allegedly said he was training the UCP to "assassinate" Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama, and liberal megadonor George Soros.His change of plea on Thursday touched off a new wave of false claims from his group, which has maintained that Hopkins is innocent of his weapons charges. In a UCP Facebook group on Thursday, a prominent member (who previously claimed the "deep state" was paying for migrants to "crash the system") claimed Horton had not pleaded guilty, but that all his charges were actually dropped. (They were not.) Other members ordered each other not to share news coverage of Hopkins' guilty plea, which they claimed was not real.Hopkins' lawyer, Kelly O'Connell, confirmed that the guilty plea was legitimate. "It doesn't surprise me" that UCP members claimed his charges were dropped, O'Connell told The Daily Beast. "These guys' minds are all fighting against what they see is this very unjust government police state and everything. I understand the resistance to accepting him changing his plea, but nobody called me from the group to verify anything, or ask why" Hopkins changed his plea.Part of the decision stemmed from Hopkins' health. The militia leader was beat up in jail where he may have been housed with "people he was personally involved with," O'Connell said, adding that Hopkins also claimed to have badly injured his head in a courthouse fall. Hopkins also reported heart and diabetic concerns. "The questions was, you're looking at up to 10 years on a charge that is typically not difficult to prove," O'Connell explained of Hopkins' weapons charge. "Are you gonna fight this out to the end or would you rather take a plea deal?"Hopkins isn't the only UCP member facing charges. Jim Benvie, who previously acted as the group's spokesperson, was charged in June for allegedly impersonating a Border Patrol officer while detaining migrants. The case against him stems from his own Facebook videos. UCP members often uploaded livestreams of their exploits, during which Benvie can be heard to identify himself as "Border Patrol" while ordering people to sit on the ground. In another unrelated case filed in June, Benvie was charged with fraud for allegedly running a cancer charity scam using images of a real child who had been diagnosed with brain cancer. The child's father told The Daily Beast that Benvie falsely claimed to have set up a "trust" for the child, and solicited $50,000 using the boy's pictures.Benvie also faces a felony charge of possessing a stolen vehicle. He's pleaded not guilty.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Is Kim Jong-un Feeling Insecure? Posted: 03 Jan 2020 04:19 AM PST  Why did Kim allow the party plenary report to replace his traditional New Year's Address? As with many things in North Korea, we do not know, forcing us to speculate. At least one possibility is that Kim Jong-un fears that his pattern of failures in 2019 has significantly undermined his position as the god of North Korea.
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| An oxygen leak forced Lufthansa passengers heading to Brazil to take an 8-hour flight from Frankfurt to Frankfurt Posted: 03 Jan 2020 02:21 AM PST  Lufthansa Flight 500 to Rio de Janeiro turned back to Frankfurt while off the coast of West Africa, with passengers in the air for over eight hours.
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| What is pansexuality and how does it compare with bisexuality? Posted: 04 Jan 2020 10:12 AM PST  Layla Moran, a British Liberal Democrat politician, has recently revealed that she identifies as pansexual. In an interview, Moran told how she had started a relationship with a woman six months ago, a development she described as "surprising" in terms of her sexual identity.
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| Peru prosecutors seek 12-year term for Kenji Fujimori Posted: 04 Jan 2020 04:38 PM PST  Peruvian prosecutors are seeking a 12-year prison term for former lawmaker Kenji Fujimori on charges of attempting to buy votes in a plot to keep ex-president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski from being impeached. Prosecutor Bersabeth Revilla accused the son of jailed ex-president Alberto Fujimori of bribery and influence-peddling. Also charged are former lawmakers Guillermo Bocangel and Bienvenido Ramirez.
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| Carnival Elation spills 'gray water' at Florida port due to valve problem Posted: 03 Jan 2020 07:43 AM PST  The Carnival Elation spilled "gray water" from its plumbing and shower systems while docked at Port Canaveral in Florida on Thursday.
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| Mom tearfully recounts moments before star player's suicide Posted: 02 Jan 2020 08:32 PM PST  "I could feel the pain in his soul and it was breaking my heart," she said in a video
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| Trump tells evangelicals that God is 'on our side' Posted: 03 Jan 2020 03:47 PM PST  Launching a political coalition called "Evangelicals for Trump" at a Florida megachurch on Friday, President Trump declared his belief that God supports his agenda.
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| Was the drone attack on Iranian general an assassination? Posted: 03 Jan 2020 09:34 PM PST  After Friday's targeted killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, newsrooms struggled with the question: Had the United States just carried out an assassination? Although the United States and Iran have long been adversaries and engaged in a shadow war in the Middle East and elsewhere, the U.S. has never declared formal war on Iran.
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| Fresno mass shooting: police arrest six suspects in deadly November attack Posted: 03 Jan 2020 10:03 AM PST  Authorities say that gang members targeted an event where they believed rival gang members were gatheredPolice in Fresno, California, have arrested seven suspects in a mass shooting that left four dead in November, alleging gunmen targeted a backyard where they believed rival gang members were gathered.Police in the central valley city said this week that seven gang members were responsible for the 17 November shooting at a watch party for a Sunday afternoon football game. The suspects opened fire at a party in retaliation for a recent gang-related killing, authorities said, but the victims were not gang members and not part of the group that the suspects meant to target.All four men killed were of Hmong descent, part of the vibrant community of families who came to California as refugees after fleeing war and violence in south-east Asia. The tragedy devastated Hmong people across the globe, and families of the victims were initially outraged at law enforcement's suggestions that their loved ones may have had ties to gangs.Police alleged Tuesday that Mongolian Boy Society gang members were behind the killing, and that two gunmen with semiautomatic weapons attacked the home because they thought it was a party of a rival Asian Crips gang. But the investigation revealed only one person watching the football game had a connection with Asian Crips,and was "not an active gang member", said Andy Hall, Fresno's police chief. The department has said there was no evidence suggesting the four fatal victims were gang members.A police spokesman said there were some people who left the party who have not been identified.The victims were Xy Lee, 23, a well-known Hmong singer; Kou Xiong, 38, a chef at a local restaurant; Phia Vang, 31, a musician who worked at a local lab; and Kalaxang Thao, 40, who worked at an Asian grocery store. Six other people were injured.On 17 December, police arrested Billy Xiong, a 25-year-old Fresno resident, on suspicion of mail theft and located one of the guns used to kill the four men, authorities said. The mass shooting was allegedly retaliation for the killing of his brother, Randy Xiong, 16 hours earlier. Police also eventually arrested Anthony Montes, 27; Jhovanny Delgado, 19; Pao Vang, 19; Porge Kue, 26; Johnny Xiong, 25; and Ger Lee, 27.Hall alleged the men were "self admitted" Mongolian Boy Society members and that they all planned the shooting, but police have not said who shot the men in the backyard. Lee, Montes, Kue and Billy Xiong were charged Thursday in state court with murder, conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder and a gang charge. The other three men were charged in federal court with conspiracy to commit murder in the aid of racketeering.Lawyers for the suspects could not immediately be reached."It is bittersweet," said Bobby Bliatout, a local Hmong community leader. "We are happy that they were caught … so we can have some closure and move on."He said the initial suggestion by police that the killings were gang-related had overshadowed the horror of the losses: "It's a terrible tragedy … in minority communities, we are targeted right away with the word 'gang' or 'criminals'."Nou Xiong, a reporter for the local Hmong TV Network, who is also one of the victim's cousins, said many in the Fresno Hmong community were surprised to learn police had made arrests: "They thought it was going to be another cold case or just disregarded as another 'gang shooting'. That's what they do with minority communities."Vong Mouanoutoua, a local councilman, said it was clear "innocent lives were taken", adding that people shouldn't dwell on the gang label."A gang member's life is not less important than a non-gang member's life. It's always a loss," he said, noting that the men arrested were all very young. "Their lives are changed forever."Kou Lee, the 31-year-old brother of Xy Lee, the famous singer killed in the attack, told the Guardian after the shooting that he was "distraught" about the word gang being tied to his brother, who was well known and celebrated in Fresno: "Everybody fell in love with him when he sings."Xy Lee's community was other artists and musicians, said Mitch Herr, another Hmong community leader, who had lunch with the singer a week before he was killed: "Anyone that came to know him loved him, because he was always there for the community, always there for his friends … The future was so bright for him."
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| Revealed: Iran Secretly Built A New Corvette Loaded With Missiles Posted: 03 Jan 2020 03:07 AM PST  The two-year effort underscores Iran's effort to build up its ship-construction capabilities -- and could weigh on Tehran's ambitious plan to develop a new class of destroyer.
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| The Quadrantids brings bright fireball meteors to the sky this weekend. Here's how to catch the first meteor shower of the decade. Posted: 03 Jan 2020 10:07 AM PST  Every year, our planet passes through cosmic detritus left over from an asteroid called EH1. For people on Earth, that means an epic meteor shower.
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| Argentine Fighter Wins $1 Million in NYC, Won’t Bring Prize Money Home Posted: 03 Jan 2020 12:44 PM PST ![Argentine Fighter Wins $1 Million in NYC, Won't Bring Prize Money Home]( "Argentine Fighter Wins $1 Million in NYC, Won't Bring Prize Money Home") (Bloomberg) -- Emiliano "He-Man" Sordi, an Argentine martial arts fighter, won a $1 million purse in New York City. If he has his way, that's just where the money will stay."I'm not going to be so stupid as to take even one dollar back to Argentina," Sordi wrote Thursday on Twitter after battering Jordan Johnson into submission to win the Professional Fighters League's light heavyweight title at Madison Square Garden.Read More: Hottest Job in Argentina Is Helping the 1% Hide Their Cash Abroad Many Argentines stash their savings outside the country, upwards of $300 billion according to government figures, because they've lost heavily during past crises in the troubled South American nation. In the late 1980s there was hyperinflation, and in the early 2000s the government turned dollar savings into pesos at an unfavorable exchange rate. More recently, there have been sudden currency devaluations.Sordi, 28, said in a television interview that the uncertainty -- and the prospect of taxes as high as 50% -- made him want to keep his prize in the U.S. Efforts to reach him Friday were unsuccessful.The fighter, who is 6-foot-2, about 205 pounds and sports the requisite complement of tattoos, has a record of 22 wins and eight losses. Growing up in Rio Cuarto, his father was a lathe operator and money was short -- when he began training he had to borrow gloves. Now, he splits his time between Argentina and San Diego, California.Mariano Sardans, founder of wealth management firm FDI in Buenos Aires, said in an interview that Sordi may be obliged to bring the dollars home and face an unfavorable exchange rate and taxes. President Alberto Fernandez has tightened currency controls to stem capital flight and increased export taxes to boost fiscal revenues."They talk about socialism but with other people's money," Sordi said on television. "It's really easy that way."\--With assistance from Jorgelina do Rosario.To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Gilbert in Buenos Aires at jgilbert63@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Juan Pablo Spinetto at jspinetto@bloomberg.net, Stephen Merelman, Robert JamesonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Uganda's Museveni begins jungle march to highlight liberation struggle Posted: 04 Jan 2020 10:45 AM PST  Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Saturday began a six-day march through the jungle to re-trace the route through which his guerrilla forces seized power three decades ago, which critics dismissed as a bid to rally support ahead of 2021 elections. Museveni is one of Africa's longest-ruling leaders, having seized power in 1986 after taking part in rebellions to end the brutal rule of Idi Amin and Milton Obote, and is expected to seek a sixth term in office in the next elections.
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| At least 228 police officers died by suicide in 2019, Blue H.E.L.P. says. That's more than were killed in the line of duty Posted: 03 Jan 2020 09:11 AM PST  More police officers died by suicide in 2019 than were killed in the line of duty, advocacy group Blue H.E.L.P. reports.
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| Man Captured on Doorbell Camera Footage Confessing to Murder Posted: 03 Jan 2020 05:22 AM PST  A man was captured on home security camera footage confessing to the murder of his sister Friday, shortly after she was stabbed to death in a Texas home, authorities said.The woman, Jennifer Chioma Ebichi, 32, had been stabbed at least a dozen times when authorities found her on the kitchen floor at the home in Pflugerville, according to documents provided by the Travis County District Clerk's Office. Her younger brother, Michael Egwuagu, 25, was arrested on a murder charge.An arrest affidavit said one witness saw Egwuagu "exit the residence smiling and with a bloody kitchen knife in his hand stating, 'I killed Jennifer.' Michael's clothing was covered in blood."It added that footage from a doorbell camera at the home corroborated the witness testimony.The episode is one of several recent examples of doorbell cameras -- increasingly affordable and popular security tools that can be connected to home Wi-Fi systems -- yielding footage that becomes useful to local authorities."Every time there is more surveillance and more captured of the lived experience, that will be helpful for police investigators," said Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, a law professor and author of "The Rise of Big Data Policing: Surveillance, Race, and the Future of Law Enforcement.""The consequences are an erosion of privacy and security at our homes and in our private moments," he added. "The trade-off is one that is hard, but also one I'm not sure citizens have fully understood when they decided to buy a little extra security for their home."One of the best-known doorbell camera brands is Ring, which makes a doorbell that doubles as a security camera and was acquired by Amazon in 2018. According to data shared publicly by the company, it now has partnerships with more than 700 local police and sheriff's departments, including the Travis County Sheriff's Office.Authorities can access footage via Ring's Neighbors app, which people can use to share videos and monitor criminal activity in their neighborhood. When the police seek videos from a certain location, Ring asks users in the area if they are willing to share their footage.Users can refuse, but the police can still obtain footage using other legal avenues, such as obtaining a warrant."Ring will not disclose user videos to police unless the user expressly consents or if disclosure is required by law, such as to comply with a warrant," the company said in a statement Thursday. "Ring objects to overbroad or otherwise inappropriate legal demands as a matter of course."It was unclear whether a Ring camera was involved in the Pflugerville case; other popular home security camera brands include Wyze and Nest. The sheriff's department declined to say which brand of camera had filmed Egwuagu on Friday.The murder charge captured additional attention because Egwuagu had been known as a star football player at the University of Texas, San Antonio. He was a safety who tried out for National Football League scouts in 2017 and 2018.After Egwuagu left the residence in Pflugerville, an Austin suburb, around 5 p.m. Friday, witnesses said he knelt down in the street as though he were praying, then removed his clothing and placed it in a trash can, the arrest affidavit said. The arrest affidavit also said that Ebichi's two children were present at the time of her death.An autopsy showed that Ebichi had been in her first trimester of pregnancy when she died. Dr. J. Keith Pinckard, chief medical examiner in Travis County, estimated that she had sustained one dozen to two dozen stab wounds, according to the arrest affidavit.Egwuagu is being held on a $500,000 bond. A statement from the office of Krista A. Chacona, a lawyer representing Egwuagu, said: "We do not have any comment at this time except to say that this is a very painful and difficult time for the family. We would ask that people please respect their privacy and allow them time to grieve."In recent weeks, home security cameras have raised concerns about data leaks and hacking. Executives at Wyze, the company behind a budget-friendly home security camera, said this week that the information of 2.4 million of their customers had been exposed to the public because of an employee error.And last month, there were reports of at least four individual cases of camera security systems being hacked; in one case involving a Ring security camera, a man was able to speak to an 8-year-old girl whose bedroom was being filmed. He used a racist slur and said he was Santa Claus.On Wednesday, a violent episode that had been captured on home surveillance footage was posted on YouTube by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. The footage shows a woman who appears to be trying to escape from a man. He can be seen running after her, kicking her down some stairs and dragging her toward a white car. The police posted the video to seek help from the public in identifying the man and the woman."Police are going to see new opportunities, and they're going to seize those opportunities because more information is obviously better for them," Ferguson said. "But it all comes at a cost to a certain sense of personal privacy, and also the collective privacy of your neighborhood and your community and who's surveilling whom in particular neighborhoods."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Trump does not have authority to go to war with Iran: Schumer Posted: 03 Jan 2020 09:50 AM PST  The top Democrat in the U.S. Senate said on Friday that President Donald Trump does not have the authority to go to war with Iran without congressional authorization, and said he should have consulted with top congressional leaders before the U.S. killed a top Iranian commander. "It is my view that the president does not have the authority for a war with Iran," Senator Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor.
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| China replaces its top official in protest-riven Hong Kong Posted: 04 Jan 2020 04:27 AM PST  China replaced its top official in Hong Kong on Saturday, state media said, as anti-government protests in the semi-autonomous territory enter their eighth month. Luo Huining, the former Communist Party chief for Shanxi province, has been appointed to head China's liaison office in Hong Kong, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
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| Terry Gilliam: 'I'm tired, as a white male, of being blamed for everything' Posted: 04 Jan 2020 09:42 AM PST  Former Monty Python star Terry Gilliam responded to the #MeToo movement, labelling it "a witch hunt," saying he is "tired, as a white male, of being blamed for everything that is wrong with the world."
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| Precision Guided Munition Stockpiles Could Decide Israel's Next Conflict Posted: 03 Jan 2020 11:00 PM PST  Win or lose?
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| Cops in Missing Siblings Case Search Doomsday Writer’s Home Posted: 03 Jan 2020 05:39 PM PST  Idaho police and FBI agents investigating two missing children swarmed a home owned by their stepfather and his mysteriously deceased first wife.Fremont County Sheriff Len Humphries told East Idaho News that investigators developed probable cause for a search warrant of the Salem house. Officers with rakes and metal detectors could be seen scouring the snow-covered backyard."This has been in the works for several days," Humphries told the news site. "When you are doing an investigation, you have to accumulate evidence, and the process takes time."The home is where Tammy Daybell was found dead on Oct. 19. Her husband, doomsday writer Chad Daybell, soon married Lori Vallow, whose own husband had died just a few months earlier.The newlyweds attracted the attention of law-enforcement when Vallow's extended family reported they had not heard from her two children, 17-year-old Tylee Ryan and adopted 7-year-old Joshua "J.J." Vallow.According to authorities, the couple said the kids were with family in Arizona, a claim which turned out to be a lie. Then Daybell and his new bride fled the state, police said.Doomsday Writer's Friend Says He Prophesied Wife's Mysterious DeathThe search for the children soon expanded to include other mysteries.Tammy Daybell's body was exhumed so investigators could conduct the autopsy that her husband had rejected when she died of supposedly natural causes.Officials are also looking into the death of Charles Vallow, Lori's first husband, who was reported shot to death by her brother, Alex Cox, on July 11. Cox died of unspecified causes on Dec. 12, leaving Tylee and J.J. the only other witnesses to Charles' death.Also under scrutiny is Chad and Lori's interest in doomsday scenarios and near-death experiences. Both were contributors to a website called Preparing a People that says its goal is to "help prepare the people of this earth for the second coming of Jesus Christ." Vallow's family members have said they believe the couple was in a cult, but Preparing a People's owners have denied that and said it is a media company with no religious affiliation.Idaho Cops Blast Doomsday Parents of Missing KidsPolice earlier this week put out an appeal to Daybell and Vallow to come forward and reveal the whereabouts of the children."It is astonishing that rather than work with law enforcement to help us locate her own children, Lori Vallow has chosen instead to leave the state with her new husband," they said in a statement.A week earlier, a local lawyer retained by the couple had put out a statement denying any wrongdoing."Chad Daybell was a loving husband and has the support of his children in this matter. Lori (Vallow) Daybell is a devoted mother and resents assertions to the contrary. We look forward to addressing the allegations once they have moved beyond speculation and rumor," lawyer Sean Bartholick said.Bartholick said this week he had no further comment.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Google suspends Xiaomi integration with its home products after a user reported seeing footage from random people's homes, including a sleeping baby Posted: 03 Jan 2020 03:50 AM PST  Xiaomi said the issue was caused by a software update.
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| Ghosn lawyer feels betrayal, sympathy over tycoon's Japan escape Posted: 04 Jan 2020 04:40 PM PST  A lawyer for former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn said Saturday he felt betrayed by his client's escape from Japan but still understood his act, claiming it resulted from Japan's inhumane justice system. "But anger was turning to something else as I recalled how he was treated by the country's justice system," Takano said. Ghosn is thought to have taken a private jet from Kansai Airport in western Japan, heading for Istanbul.
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| 'We're not going to cower': Small Jewish communities prepare for increasing anti-Semitic attacks Posted: 04 Jan 2020 05:31 AM PST  With anti-Semitic attacks on the rise, Jewish leaders grapple with how to create welcoming environments while keeping their congregation safe.
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| 7-ton titan washes ashore hundreds of miles from home Posted: 03 Jan 2020 10:00 PM PST  Mother Nature delivered a belated Christmas gift to New Smyrna Beach, Florida, on Dec. 26, with residents gathering to see the metal behemoth that washed ashore.The "gift" was a bright red, 21-foot-long, 8-foot-wide buoy with a white "8" near the top. Previously used as a channel marker to guide ships, it had traveled over 300 miles from Port Royal Sound off the coast of South Carolina after being torn loose from its mooring after Hurricane Dorian, the U.S. Coast Guard said.But this wasn't the first time the buoy had gone rogue. In 2017, it had been uprooted from Charleston, South Carolina, and washed ashore Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. The Daytona Beach News-Journal reported that this occurred during Hurricane Irma.Until the U.S. Coast Guard clarified the story of the two separate occurrences, there were reports that the buoy had been lost at sea for two years after Hurricane Irma and had recently washed ashore for the first time."The buoy broke away in 2017 and was recovered shortly thereafter," spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard Sector Jacksonville Petty Officer 2nd Class Ryan Dickinson told the outlet. "Then, after Hurricane Dorian rolled through, (Coast Guard Sector Charleston) did an inspection of all the buoys."It has not yet been determined exactly how the buoy broke loose from its mooring in either occurrence.Although Hurricane Irma's path took it up the west Florida coast and into Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee, impacts from the powerful storm did stretch to the coasts of the Carolinas.Charleston, South Carolina, received 8 inches of rain, strong winds and a battering surf from the storm.> GOES16 captured this imagery of Irma from landfall yesterday up until mid-morning 9/11. Get the latest info @ https://t.co/cSGOfrM0lG pic.twitter.com/DgLLqijRiM> > -- NOAA Satellites (@NOAASatellites) September 11, 2017Like the red jeep that Dorian had stranded on Myrtle Beach, the red buoy attracted a crowd of beachgoers. A few even took to climbing the marker as it sat precariously tilted in the sand.But on Thursday, Volusia County contractors came to transport the buoy. The temporary tourist attraction will be taken to Jacksonville to evaluate whether it can be used again, officials told The Associated Press.
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| Ilhan Omar Implies Trump Ordered Soleimani Killing as ‘Distraction’ from Impeachment Posted: 03 Jan 2020 08:23 AM PST  Representative Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) implied on Thursday that President Trump may have ordered the killing of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani to distract the public from impeachment proceedings."So what if Trump wants war, knows this leads to war and needs the distraction?" Omar wrote on Twitter. "Real question is, will those with congressional authority step in and stop him? I know I will."Analysts from several news outlets echoed the assumption. CNN analyst Karen Finney wrote that "today's air strike feels like attempt to create a distraction from impeachment and build support for Trump," while MSNBC contributor Joyce Alene said it was "highly possible then timing of tonight's attack was meant as a distraction."President Trump ordered an airstrike on a convoy near Baghdad International Airport carrying Soleimani on Thursday evening. As head of the Quds Force, a U.S.-designated terror group, Soleimani led intelligence and counterespionage efforts for the IRGC. Also killed in the strike was Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, an Iraqi militia leader who led a days-long siege against the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.The U.S. State Department issued a warning to American citizens to leave Iraq in the wake of the attack."Due to heightened tensions in Iraq and the region, we urge U.S. citizens to depart Iraq immediately," the agency wrote on Twitter. "Due to Iranian-backed militia attacks at the U.S. Embassy compound, all consular operations are suspended. U.S. citizens should not approach the Embassy."Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on CNN on Friday that Trump had ordered the strike due to an "intelligence-based assessment" warning of an "imminent attack" by Iranian forces in the region.
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| Kentucky man claims he killed, skinned dogs to make coat Posted: 03 Jan 2020 11:09 AM PST ![Kentucky man claims he killed, skinned dogs to make coat]( "Kentucky man claims he killed, skinned dogs to make coat") A Kentucky man who claimed to have skinned four of his neighbors' dogs to make a "doggy coat" has been charged with animal torture. Jonathan D. Watkins, 38, was arrested in the Floyd County community of David on Dec. 23 after a neighbor called authorities, news outlets reported. The neighbor said when asked, Watkins said he had been skinning dogs, according to an arrest citation.
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| Pakistan government introduces bill to extend army chief's tenure Posted: 03 Jan 2020 01:31 AM PST  Pakistan's government on Friday introduced legislation to extend the tenure of the army chief in line with a Supreme Court order that it must justify its wish to see the top commander stay on in the job for an extra three years. The government of Prime Minister Imran Khan approved an extension for General Qamar Javed Bajwa in August, citing a worsening national security situation in the region over its rivalry with India.
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| Danger: Should We Fear China's New H-20 Stealth Bomber? Posted: 02 Jan 2020 09:30 PM PST  It's set to fly in 2025.
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| Slain Hubby Claimed Doomsday Mom Threatened to Kill Him Posted: 04 Jan 2020 03:48 PM PST  Lori Vallow, the mother of two Idaho children who have vanished, allegedly threatened to kill her estranged husband five months before he was murdered, according to divorce documents.Charles Vallow said in the papers that Lori was obsessed with doomsday and near-death scenarios and told him in January that she was a "translated being who cannot taste death sent by god to lead the 144,000 into the Millennium."By July, Charles Vallow was dead—allegedly shot by Lori's brother, Alex Cox, who himself died of unknown causes on Dec. 12. A few months later, Lori married Chad Daybell, a doomsday writer whose own wife had died weeks earlier.The newlyweds left Idaho, police said, after investigators began inquiring about the whereabouts of Lori's minor children, 17-year-old Tylee Ryan and adopted 7-year-old Joshua "J.J." Vallow.Doomsday Writer's Friend Says He Prophesied Wife's Mysterious DeathThe children have not been seen since October and Rexburg, Idaho, police said last week they are believed to be in serious danger. Daybell and Vallow are not cooperating with police and the FBI.According to local news outlets that obtained the divorce papers, Charles Vallow filed a divorce petition last February seeking sole custody of J.J. and painting a disturbing portrait of Lori, referred to as "mother" in the documents."Mother believes that she is receiving spiritual revelations and visions to help her gather and prepare those chosen to live in the New Jerusalem after the Great War as prophesied in the Book of Revelations," the petition read.Lori allegedly told Charles that if he got in the way "of her mission she would murder him" and that she "had an angel there to help her dispose of the body."Charles' sister, Kay Woodcock, says she talked to her brother throughout this time and described him as "fearful.""He was sleeping with one eye open," Woodcock told NBC affiliate 12 News. "People I've spoken with said she would just be doing something and say, 'Well, Charles just has to go.'"Idaho Cops Blast Doomsday Parents of Missing KidsCharles obtained an order of protection and unsuccessfully tried to get authorities to put a 72-hour mental health hold on Lori—who had allegedly cleaned $35,000 out of their bank account.Charles' older son helped him move from Chandler, Arizona, to Texas. In July, he went back to Arizona to pick up J.J. and things turned ugly. Cox allegedly shot him dead in what police deemed a case of self-defense.The older son told Fox 10 that his dad would never have gotten violent."I knew my dad was the most passive person. He hated arguing with people. He'd never been in a fight, he was not an aggressive person in any way. I don't believe it at all," he told the TV station.The deaths of both Cox and Charles Vallow are under investigation—along with the death of Chad Daybell's first wife, Tammy.After she was found dead at their Idaho home in July, he declined an autopsy and the cause of death was listed as natural. Then he married Lori, whom he apparently met through a doomsday site called Preparing a People.Cops in Missing Siblings Case Search Doomsday Writer's HomeAfter J.J. and Tylee were reported missing by extended family, authorities exhumed Tammy's body. The results of the autopsy have not yet been made public, but police said Friday that they had developed probable cause to search the Daybell home for evidence related to her death and the disappearance of the kids."I'm terrified for JJ. I'm terrified for Tylee," Charles' older son told Fox 10. "I'm terrified for everyone surrounding them and their safety. I'm terrified for my family's safety."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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