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BOSTON (AP) — Dozens of billboards with Muslim themes are sprouting nationwide, proclaiming what organizers say is the true message of Islam and its prophet, Muhammad: peace and justice, not extremism and violent jihad.

The New York-based Islamic Circle of North America has erected 100 billboards over the summer that feature statements such as: “Muhammad believed in peace, social justice, women’s rights” and “Muhammad always taught love, not hate; peace, not violence.” Also listed are a website and a phone number people can call for more information.   Continue reading “US Muslims hope new billboards reclaim Islam’s message”

Bankrate – by Chris Kahn

Kristen Heinzinger’s future brightened as soon as she moved into her parents’ basement.

A bed next to the family laundry machine wasn’t exactly what she’d envisioned a few years after college, especially with her publishing career gaining momentum in Manhattan. But at 26, with $150,000 in student loan debt, this was the only sensible choice, Heinzinger says. By cutting rent out of the equation, her life was finally starting to pencil out.   Continue reading “Are millennials smiling all the way to the poorhouse?”

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GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina has resigned in the face of a corruption scandal that has brought his government to the brink, a spokesman said early Thursday.

Spokesman Jorge Ortega said Perez Molina submitted his resignation at midnight Wednesday local time after a judge issued an order to detain him in the customs fraud case, which already has led to the jailing of his vice president, and the resignation of several cabinet ministers who withdrew their support for the president.   Continue reading “Guatemala president resigns amid corruption probe”

RT

“Almost all of the population” is destitute in the Gaza Strip. Wars and economic blockades have all but destroyed its entire economy, a UN conference has warned. If the trend continues, the territory may become “unlivable” in five years.

The report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) says that the Israeli war in the Gaza Strip last year drove the country deep into recession and this time recovery may fail to come.   Continue reading “Gaza set to become uninhabitable by 2020, UN body warns”

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THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A Congo militia leader known as The Terminator pleaded innocent Wednesday to 18 charges, including murder, rape and sexual slavery, as his long-awaited trial started at the International Criminal Court.

Bosco Ntaganda, who for years was a symbol of impunity in Africa before turning himself in to the court in 2013 as his powerbase crumbled, looked on impassively as the court’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, called him a “notorious and powerful” military leader who commanded troops who slaughtered hundreds of civilians in the resource-rich Ituri region of eastern Congo in 2002 and 2003.   Continue reading “Congo warlord Bosco Ntaganda goes on trial at ICC”

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GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemalan prosecutors wasted no time in pressing their corruption investigation of President Otto Perez Molina, persuading a judge to bar him from leaving the country just hours after a historic congressional vote to strip his immunity from prosecution.

Prosecutor Thelma Aldana called the travel ban a “precautionary” measure and said the president is suspected of illicit association, bribery and customs fraud in a corruption scandal that has already toppled his vice president and various Cabinet ministers. The next steps could include summoning Perez Molina to appear before a court or seeking a warrant for his detention.   Continue reading “Immunity lifted, prosecutors close in on Guatemala president”

RT

A man who was killed by sheriff’s deputies in San Antonio last week appeared to have his hands raised when officers delivered the fatal shots, according to newly released video footage.

When the video begins, 41-year-old Gilbert Flores is seen running shirtless in the front yard of a house. Moments after he appears to put his hands up, two shots can be heard. Flores doubles over and falls to the ground. He died later in hospital.   Continue reading “Video suggests Texas man had hands raised when officers shot him dead”

RT

The main railway in Budapest got closed for an “undetermined time” for migrants Tuesday after hundreds of them attempted to board a train to Vienna, the latest event in the spiraling migrant crisis that’s engulfing Europe.

Hundreds of refugees – most of them from conflict areas like Syria – are now waiting at the station, with the entrance blocked by police, and are demonstrating, urging the authorities to let them in, shouting “Germany, Germany.”   Continue reading “Hungary bans refugees from main railway station as hundreds attempt to ride Vienna train”

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BERLIN (AP) — The German economy has room to accommodate refugees, the labor minister said Tuesday, but the government will need to spend billions of extra euros (dollars) to cover language courses, benefits and their integration into the labor market.

Labor Minister Andrea Nahles’ comments came after official data underlined the strength of Europe’s biggest economy, showing the national unemployment rate at 6.4 percent in August. That compares with higher jobless rates in many other European countries, topping 20 percent in Greece and Spain.   Continue reading “Germany: up to $3.7B needed next year to integrate refugees”

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ST. LOUIS (AP) — The latest on the scheduled execution of Missouri inmate Roderick Nunley, who was convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing a 15-year-old girl in Kansas City in 1989 (all times local):

1 a.m. Missouri prison officials are preparing to execute a man convicted of killing a 15-year-old girl more than two decades ago in Kansas City. Fifty-year-old Roderick Nunley is scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. Tuesday for the kidnapping, rape and stabbing death of Ann Harrison. Investigators say the girl was randomly targeted while waiting in her driveway for the school bus on the morning of March 22, 1989.   Continue reading “Supreme Court weighs appeals of death row inmate”

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — It’s hard enough to redefine a genre once in a career, but horror virtuoso Wes Craven managed to do it twice.

The prolific writer-director, who died Sunday at age 76, ushered in two distinct eras of suburban slashers, first in the 1980s with his iconic “Nightmare on Elm Street” and its indelible, razor-fingered villain Freddy Krueger. He did it again in the 1990s with the self-referential “Scream.”   Continue reading “Horror movie director Wes Craven dies at 76”

I knew Donna See personally, please keep comments respectful.

WPXI

Saturday morning for allegedly killing his girlfriend and burying her body in the backyard of his home in Shaler Township, police said.

George Biegenwald is charged with criminal homicide and abuse of a corpse in the death of Donna See, of McKeesport, according to authorities. See had been reported missing Wednesday by her landlord.   Continue reading “Man accused of killing girlfriend, burying body in Shaler Township backyard”

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FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — A woman who was stranded in the rugged Sierra Nevada for nine days while suffering from some broken bones survived by using a water filter to drink from a creek, authorities said.

Miyuki Harwood, 62, was found Saturday morning in a remote area of the Sierra National Forest after she used a whistle to get the attention of a search and rescue team who were looking for her, Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims said at a news conference.   Continue reading “Missing hiker found alive after 9 days lost in Sierra Nevada”

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ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Marvin Mandel, a former Maryland governor whose 26-year career in state government ended with his 1977 conviction on political corruption charges, has died. He was 95.

According to a statement from his family, Mandel passed away Sunday afternoon after spending two days with family in St. Mary’s County celebrating the 50th birthday of his stepson Paul Dorsey. The cause of death is not yet known.   Continue reading “Gov. Marvin Mandel, who fell from political grace, has died”

RT

A judge in Tennessee ruled that the state’s use of lethal injections for executions is constitutional. The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by death row inmates arguing the state’s method violated the Eighth Amendment.

Judge Claudia Bonnyman of David County said Wednesday that the 33 prisoners and their attorneys had not proven during the trail that the state’s protocol posed a risk to the plaintiffs’ constitutional protections.   Continue reading “Lethal injection ruled constitutional in Tennessee”

RT

Maryland has become the first state to adopt rules against police profiling. Police will be banned from using race, religion, or sexual orientation as factors in making routine stops, and can’t stop everyone in a neighborhood when a crime is reported.

“Police do a dangerous, difficult job, and they do it well. But experience shows that improper profiling by police does terrible damage,” said Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh while unveiling the new guidelines in a nine-page memorandum on Tuesday.   Continue reading “Maryland first state in US to issue guidelines on police profiling”

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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Wal-Mart will stop selling the AR-15 rifle and other semi-automatic weapons at its stores because fewer people are buying them, a spokesman said Wednesday.

The AR-15 rifles and other modern sporting rifles were being sold at less than a third of the company’s 4,600 U.S. stores. Company spokesman Kory Lundberg said Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will remove the remaining inventory as stores transition from summer to fall merchandise, which should take a week or two to complete.   Continue reading “Wal-Mart to stop selling AR-15s and similar weapons”

RT

The Indian state of Gujarat has been hit by mass protests led by a powerful high-caste clan that is demanding an end to positive discrimination by the authorities. The national government replied by deploying paramilitary forces and imposing a curfew.

The protests took place in the western city of Ahmedabad, about 450 kilometers north of Mumbai. Around half a million people gathered, who were members of the Patidar, or Patel, community. They were demanding that the Indian government, which in their opinion unfairly favors groups at the lower end of India’s caste system, should make changes.   Continue reading “Half-million members of powerful Indian clan clash with police, demand end to affirmative action”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — A man suspected in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers residence at a U.S. military base in Saudi Arabia has been captured, a U.S. official said Wednesday.

Ahmed al-Mughassil, described by the FBI in 2001 as the head of the military wing of Saudi Hezbollah, is suspected of leading the attack that killed 19 U.S. service personnel and wounded almost 500 people. The June 25, 1996, bombing at Khobar Towers, a military housing complex, was the deadliest such attack targeting U.S. forces since the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marines’ barracks in Beirut that killed 241 American servicemen.   Continue reading “Suspect in 1996 Khobar Towers bombing arrested”

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HOUSTON (AP) — Dr. James “Red” Duke, a trauma surgeon who attended to Texas Gov. John Connally on the day of the Kennedy assassination before going on to become a familiar television doctor, died in Houston on Tuesday at age 86.

In a statement, Dr. Richard Andrassy, surgery department chairman at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, said Duke died of natural causes at Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, where he was on staff.   Continue reading “Dr. James ‘Red’ Duke, once-familiar TV doctor, dead at 86”