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JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii (AP) — The military and a private organization have brought home the remains of 36 Marines killed in one of World War II’s bloodiest battles.

A group called History Flight recovered the remains from the remote Pacific atoll of Tarawa, the U.S. Marine Corps said. A ceremony was held Sunday in Pearl Harbor to mark their return. History Flight has started identifying the remains, and the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency will complete the effort, the Marines said. The Marines plan to return the remains to their families after they’ve been identified.   Continue reading “Remains of 36 unidentified Marines from WWII battle return”

RT

Damning new figures reveal the scale of training deaths across the armed forces, with 125 soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen killed since 2000 in shooting, crushing and drowning incidents.

The army proved to have the worst record for training fatalities with 86 deaths. The Royal Navy, which includes the Royal Marines, have suffered 22 deaths during exercises in the last decade and a half.   Continue reading “Shot, crushed, drowned: Military training deaths revealed by MoD”

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DALLAS (AP) — A woman whose death in a Texas jail has raised suspicions about the official conclusion that she hanged herself told a guard during the booking process that she had tried to kill herself in the past, according to the county sheriff.

Waller County Sheriff Glenn Smith said Wednesday that two jailers interviewed Sandra Bland after her arrest. He said the 28-year-old black woman from Illinois told the second interviewer that she was not depressed but was upset about her arrest, which occurred following a confrontation with a white officer who stopped her for a minor traffic violation.   Continue reading “Sheriff: Inmate told Texas jailer of prior suicide attempt”

RT

Troy Goode’s family said police hogtied him face down on a stretcher and wouldn’t let his wife accompany him to hospital, where he died hours later. Authorities said the man was on LSD at the time of arrest and probably died from a heart condition.

The 30-year-old chemical engineer from Memphis, Tennessee died two hours after his detention by Southaven police, who were called to respond to a disturbance near a shopping complex. A video shot by a bystander showed Goode being wheeled on a stretcher to an ambulance. He was lying face down with his hands and legs tied behind his back. Leg irons and handcuffs were used.   Continue reading “Mississippi police ‘hogtie’ asthmatic man who dies later in hospital”

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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A teenage boy lured a 12-year-old neighbor girl out of her Utah home by asking for help looking for his lost cat, then strangled her and left her body in a field with a shirt around her neck, prosecutors said.

The 15-year-old boy tried to entice another girl with a similar ruse at another girl’s house in suburban Salt Lake City about 20 minutes before he knocked on the door of victim’s Kailey Vijil’s home, according to the charging documents.   Continue reading “Utah teenager charged with aggravated murder in girl’s death”

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HEMPSTEAD, Texas (AP) — Police dashcam video shows a Texas state trooper tried to pull Sandra Bland out of her car, then drew his stun gun and threatened her after the woman who authorities say later killed herself in a jail cell refused to follow his orders.

The roadside encounter swiftly escalated into a shouting confrontation, the video released Tuesday shows, as the officer attempted to drag 28-year-old Sandra Bland from her vehicle, with the officer at one point saying, “I will light you up,” as he held the stun gun.   Continue reading “Dashcam video shows confrontational Texas traffic stop”

RT

BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) has opened for operations in Shanghai, and will seek to deploy its $50 billion initial capital to fund infrastructure and sustainable development projects.

Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei, Shanghai Mayor Yang Xiong and NDB chief Kundapur Vaman Kamath  attended the ceremony, China Radio International reported.   Continue reading “BRICS bank opens for operations in Shanghai”

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JOINT BASE LANGLEY-EUSTIS, Va. (AP) — Screaming through the air along southern Virginia’s coast, the Air Force’s F-22 Raptor routinely puts on a dazzling show of loops, dives and combat maneuvers designed to bedevil and defeat opponents before they ever know it’s there.

But in its first months of combat in the skies above Iraq and Syria, the stealthy jet’s contribution has been more of an escort role, using its high-tech sensors and communications to guide and protect other fighters that are actually dropping the bombs.   Continue reading “Stealthy jet ensures other war-fighting aircraft survive”

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HEMPSTEAD, Texas (AP) — A Texas prosecutor says there are many unanswered questions about the death of a black woman whose family disputes authorities’ finding that she hanged herself in a jail cell three days after a confrontational traffic stop, and that the case is being examined as thoroughly as a murder investigation.

Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis said at a news conference Monday that a Texas Rangers investigation the death of Sandra Bland is being supervised by the FBI. Authorities have said the 28-year-old woman from Naperville, Illinois, hanged herself with a plastic garbage bag July 13.   Continue reading “DA: It’s too early to know how woman died in Texas jail cell”

RT

At least 28 people have been killed and over 100 injured in an explosion that struck a cultural center in the town of Suruc, southeastern Turkey, near the Syrian border, in what the authorities called a “terrorist attack.”

The casualty toll in the attack was given to AP by phone the Turkish prime minister’s office.   Continue reading “At least 28 killed, 100 injured in ‘terrorist attack’ on Turkish town near Kobani”

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Saying they felt a “deep sense of ethical responsibility for a past tragedy,” executives from a major Japanese corporation gave an unprecedented apology Sunday to a 94-year-old U.S. prisoner of war for using American POWs for forced labor during World War II.

At the solemn ceremony hosted by the Museum of Tolerance at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, James Murphy of Santa Maria, California, accepted the apology he had sought for 70 years on behalf of U.S. POWs from executives of Mitsubishi Materials Corp.   Continue reading “70 years after WWII, Japanese company apologizes to US POWs”

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — All traffic along a major freeway connecting California and Arizona was blocked indefinitely when a bridge over a desert wash collapsed during heavy rain, and the roadway in the opposite direction suffered severe damage, authorities said.

The collapse on Interstate 10 in southeastern California Sunday afternoon left one driver injured, stranded numerous motorists and complicated travel for countless thousands for what officials warned could be a long time.   Continue reading “California I-10 bridge collapse: Travel woes that could last”

RT

With the stroke of a pen, Wisconsin’s governor passed a two-year spending bill which also strikes down a key wage protection law. The prevailing wage law ensured government contract workers were paid comparable rates in any given industry.

“With this budget, taxpayers come first,” said Republican Governor Scott Walker announcing the passage of his $72.7 billion biennial budget.   Continue reading “Wisconsin governor strips workers’ wage protections”

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FLAT GAP, Ky. (AP) — Kevin Johnson stood weeping among the rubble of this devastated town, weighing an impossible decision.

A wake is scheduled Thursday afternoon for his 74-year-old mother, killed when a flash flood destroyed her trailer three days ago and swept her away. But his son, who tried to save her, remains missing.   Continue reading “Heartache, fatigue amid search for Kentucky flood victims”

RT

An Alabama woman has filed a lawsuit against local police alleging a stun gun was used on her epileptic daughter three times while the teen was suffering from seizures at a concert in Rainbow City. Police also tased the girl’s mother, she alleges.

The 32-page lawsuit, filed earlier this month in US District Court, accuses at least five Rainbow City officers and three officers from neighboring Gadsden, who were allegedly handling security for a January 16 hip-hop concert, of excessive force, torture “and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment,” Alabama Media Group reported.    Continue reading “Alabama mother says cops tased epileptic teen girl 3 times”

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — The police dashboard cameras that captured officers shooting Ricardo Diaz-Zeferino only depict part of the tragedy of his death in a Los Angeles suburb two years ago.

Video released by a federal judge Tuesday after news media organizations argued the public had a right to see the footage showed Diaz-Zeferino disobeying orders to keep his hands up, but with his palms open by his waist.   Continue reading “Video released shows police killing unarmed man in LA suburb”

RT

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is not bound by the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, adding that it will always defend itself against Tehran, which “continues to seek its destruction.”

“From the initial reports received, it is already possible to say that this agreement is a historic mistake for the world,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded Tuesday when asked about the agreement reached in Vienna.   Continue reading “‘Stunning historical mistake’: Netanyahu says Israel is not bound by Iran nuclear deal”

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A disbarred Harvard-educated lawyer was charged with kidnapping a California woman who said attackers broke into her home, took her and held her for ransom, a twist that came months after police called the abduction a hoax.

Federal prosecutors charged Matthew Muller of Orangevale, California, with kidnapping last month after he was arrested in a separate home-invasion robbery in the San Francisco Bay Area that had similarities to the abduction, the FBI said in an affidavit unsealed Monday.   Continue reading “Man accused in Calif. abduction that had been called a hoax”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama heralded a historic nuclear agreement with Iran Tuesday as an opportunity for the longtime foes to move in a “new direction,” while sharply warning Congress that it would be irresponsible to block the accord.

“No deal means a greater chance of more war in the Middle East,” Obama said in early morning remarks from the White House. Obama, accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden, spoke shortly after negotiators in Vienna announced the landmark deal aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear program for more than a decade in exchange for billions of dollars in international sanctions relief. The president said the agreement, hammered out through nearly two years of negotiations, would cut off all of Iran’s pathways to a bomb and give the international community unprecedented access to the country’s nuclear facilities.   Continue reading “Obama warns Congress not to stand in way of Iran deal”

RT

New Orleans city council has started legal proceedings to remove four Confederate landmarks from the city, including a 131-year-old statue of General Robert E. Lee, which many black residents consider offensive.

The council passed a unanimous motion to begin a two-month period of consultations with various city agencies on whether to declare the controversial landmarks “nuisances” and have them removed.   Continue reading “New Orleans set to remove Confederate landmarks”