Author: Sunfire

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BOSTON (AP) — Charla Nash never served in the military. She was horribly disfigured, not in combat, but in a 2009 attack by a rampaging chimpanzee. The Pentagon, though, is watching her recovery closely.

The U.S. military paid for Nash’s full face transplant in 2011 and is underwriting her follow-up treatment at a combined cost estimated in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, in the hope that some of the things it learns can help young, seriously disfigured soldiers returning from war.   Continue reading “US military hopes to learn from victim of chimp attack”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional Democrats on Tuesday accused Senate Republicans who signed a letter to Iran’s leadership of undermining President Barack Obama in international talks aimed at curbing Tehran’s nuclear program and preventing the need for future military conflict.

In remarks on the Senate floor, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., pronounced the letter reckless, much as it would have been for U.S. lawmakers to “reach out to the Vietnamese” a generation ago. He said he hoped it would not cause the negotiations to fail, adding that an attempt to avoid a nuclear-armed Iran “is something that should not be undermined for political ambition.”   Continue reading “Democrats denounce GOP letter on Iran nuke talks”

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ISLAMABAD (AP) — More than 40 million people in Pakistan do not have access to a toilet, forcing them to defecate in the open, which in turn is a major contributor to stunting in the country, a top UNICEF official said.

“There are 41 million people who do not have access to a toilet in Pakistan and as a result they are defecating in the open. And open defecation has significant health and nutritional consequences,” said Geeta Rao Gupta, deputy executive director at UNICEF. She recently spoke to The Associated Press during a trip to Pakistan to draw attention to the problem.   Continue reading “UNICEF warns lack of toilets in Pakistan tied to stunting”

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SPANISH FORK, Utah (AP) — An 18-month-old girl whose mother crashed their car into a Utah river survived hanging upside down in a car seat for some 14 hours in freezing temperatures before a fisherman found her, authorities said.

The mother, 25-year-old Lynn Groesbeck of Springville, was found dead in the car, and her daughter Lily Groesbeck was in critical but stable condition at a Salt Lake City hospital, police said Sunday.   Continue reading “Toddler found alive 14 hours after car crash in Utah river”

RT

Employees from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection were allegedly told to avoid terms like “climate change” and “global warming” in official communications after Governor Rick Scott took office, according to a report.

“We were told not to use the terms ‘climate change,’ ‘global warming’ or ‘sustainability,’ ” Christopher Byrd, an attorney with the DEP’s Office of General Counsel in Tallahassee from 2008 to 2013, told the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting (FCIR). “That message was communicated to me and my colleagues by our superiors in the Office of General Counsel.”   Continue reading “Florida environment officials told to avoid term ‘climate change’ – ex-employees”

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ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — With its wings stretched wide to catch the sun’s energy, a Swiss-made solar-powered aircraft took off from Abu Dhabi just after daybreak Monday in a historic first attempt to fly around the world without a drop of fossil fuel.

Solar Impulse founder André Borschberg was at the controls of the single-seat aircraft when it lumbered into the air at the Al Bateen Executive Airport. Borschberg will trade off piloting with Solar Impulse co-founder Bertrand Piccard during layovers on a 35,000-kilometer (21,700-mile) journey.   Continue reading “Solar-power plane airborne on historic round-the-world trip”

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NEW YORK (AP) — In 2009 the stock market was filled with panic.

The housing market had collapsed. Lehman Brothers had gone under and General Motors was on the verge of bankruptcy reorganization. The U.S. was in a deep recession, and stocks had plunged 57 percent from their high in October 2007.

Fast forward six years, and investors are enjoying one of the longest bull markets since the 1940s. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index has more than tripled since bottoming out at 676.53 on March 9, 2009. The bull has pushed through a U.S. debt crisis, an escalating conflict in the Middle East, renewed tensions with Russia over Ukraine and Europe’s stagnating economy.   Continue reading “The bull market for stocks turns 6”

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MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Within hours of a white officer shooting an unarmed black man, the police chief of Wisconsin’s capital city was praying with the man’s grandmother, hoping to strike a conciliatory tone and avoid the riots that last year rocked Ferguson, Missouri.

Chief Mike Koval said he knows Madison is being watched across the nation since 19-year-old Tony Robinson’s death Friday evening, and he has gone out of his way to avoid what he once called Ferguson’s “missteps.”   Continue reading “Madison police response to shooting contrasts with Ferguson”

RT

This spring should reward plenty of star-gazers, especially in Britain, which will experience its deepest solar eclipse in 15 years, as well as a Supermoon, all at the same time – an event that will sink the island into twilight for two whole hours.

The Supermoon eclipse, as the phenomenon is known, is an astronomical alignment where the Moon is sent on a trajectory between the Sun and the Earth, depriving us of light. The event will occur on March 20 at around 8:40GMT.   Continue reading “Upcoming ‘Supermoon’ eclipse will dazzle Britain, but hit Europe’s power grids hard”

RT

Israel is suffering the “worst crisis since its creation” under Netanyahu’s leadership, a former Mossad director told a crowd of up to 50,000 in Tel Aviv. The anti-government rally was orchestrated and funded from abroad, said the ruling Likud party.

Delivering his keynote speech, Meir Dagan, the former Mossad director spoke of the government’s lack of vision and inability to properly direct the country surrounded by enemies.   Continue reading “Netanyahu govt more ‘frightening’ than all Israel enemies, ex-Mossad chief tells crowds”

RT

The number of Americans aged 16 and older not participating in the labor force hit 92,898,000 in February, tying December’s record, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Over the longer trend, the labor force participation rate was between 62.9 percent and 62.7 percent from April 2014 through February, and has been hovering around 62.9 percent or lower in 13 of the 17 months since October 2013, the BLS data revealed.   Continue reading “33% of Americans out of workforce, highest rate since 1978”

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KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — If the massive undersea search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 turns up nothing by the end of May, the three countries leading the effort will go “back to the drawing board,” Malaysia’s transport minister said Saturday, a day before the anniversary of the plane’s disappearance.

Liow Tiong Lai told a small group of foreign reporters that he remains cautiously optimistic the Boeing 777 is in the area of the southern Indian Ocean where the search is ongoing. Despite the exhaustive search for the plane, which disappeared last March 8 during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, no trace of the jet has been found. In late January, Malaysia’s government formally declared the incident an accident and said all 239 people on board were presumed dead.   Continue reading “Malaysia: ‘Back to the drawing board’ if jet not found soon”

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MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — The top U.S. general predicts the one-two punch of Iranian-backed militias and Iraqi government troops will prevail over Islamic State fighters in the unfolding battle for Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s hometown.

But U.S. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the expected successful push in Tikrit, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, would not be possible without U.S. airstrikes that have tied down IS elsewhere in the north.   Continue reading “Top US general optimistic about outcome of Tikrit battle”

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BANGKOK (AP) — The towering Danish ship Kobenhavn set sail from Argentina one December day, bound for Australia with five dozen souls aboard. Eight days later, as it traversed the South Atlantic, it radioed a nearby ship. All seemed well.

That was Dec. 22, 1928. The vessel was never heard from again. There were reports of a “phantom ship” spotted through the haze, but searches of the icy waters turned up nothing. A year passed. “Never in the history of shipping has a missing vessel been searched for more thoroughly,” Associated Press correspondent Alex Gerfalk wrote then. “Science has exhausted its resources in an attempt to find a plausible explanation for the complete disappearance of the largest sailing vessel in the world.”   Continue reading “AP Essay: Of a plane still missing, and a planet still vast”

RT

A man from Toledo who spent 19 years in prison is suing the State of Ohio for an apology and massive compensation.

Danny Brown has filed a lawsuit for wrongful imprisonment. He was sentenced to life in 1982 for the murder of 28-year-old mother of three Bobbi Russell, whom he was dating at the time. She had been raped and strangled with an extension cord. The victims’ six-year-old son testified against Brown, landing him behind bars, despite inconsistencies in the boy’s testimony.   Continue reading “$800k + apology: Man sues Ohio over 19yr wrongful imprisonment”

RT

A major vulnerability that allowed French submarine to “sink” aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and most of its escort during drills was apparently revealed by the French Navy and Defense Ministry in blogposts that were quickly wiped out.

Both the French Defense Ministry and the Navy released and then quickly deleted a news post entitled“Le SNA Saphir en entraînement avec l’US Navy au large de la Floride” (“The SNA Sapphire in training with the US Navy off the coast of Florida”) that praised the 34-year-old French nuclear submarine’s success in “sinking” the American aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt along with best part of its escort.   Continue reading “French delete evidence US carrier was ‘sunk’ by sub in drill”

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Clocks are springing forward this weekend, but Friday will still feel like winter for much of the country.

Temperatures of 10 to 30 degrees below average were expected from the South to Northeast, along with heavy snow in the Mid-Atlantic, according to the National Weather Service. The late-winter storm means school is canceled yet again for students in several states, and many households found themselves without power. State offices and legislatures shut down, too. In the Washington area, federal offices were open but on a two-hour delay, and workers were given telecommuting options.   Continue reading “One More Winter Storm: No Relief in the South, Northeast”