Author: Sunfire

Mail.com

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Enraged parents wept and screamed as a judge sentenced a South Korean ferry captain to 36 years in prison Tuesday for negligence and abandoning passengers when his ship sank earlier this year, killing more than 300 people, mostly high school students.

The highly anticipated verdict came on the same day officials called off searches for the final nine victims and reflects the continuing grief and finger-pointing over one of the worst disasters in South Korean history. Victims’ relatives immediately criticized the sentences for Capt. Lee Joon-seok and 14 other crew members as too lenient. Lee was acquitted of a homicide charge, which could have carried a death sentence, because the court said there wasn’t proof that he knew his actions would cause such a massive loss of life.   Continue reading “Grief, rage at 36-year sentence for ferry captain”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — An Army statistician whose research informed battlefield treatment decisions was quietly forced to resign in January after admitting she did not earn the doctoral degree she had been claiming.

Inquiries by The Associated Press revealed that not only did she deceive the Army about her Ph.D., but she didn’t earn the master’s degree on her resume either, something Army officials said they had not realized.   Continue reading “Army trauma expert quit after admitting PhD fraud”

RT

Details of a US federal program known as ‘civil asset forfeiture,’ which enables police to seize the property of suspected criminals without having to prove their guilt, are revealed in a series of video seminars obtained by the New York Times.

“A guy drives up in a 2008 Mercedes, brand new,” says Harry Connelly Jr., the city attorney of Las Cruces, New Mexico, in a taped lecture. “Just so beautiful, I mean, the cops were undercover and they were just like ‘Ahhhh.’ And he gets out and he’s just reeking of alcohol. And it’s like, ‘Oh, my goodness, we can hardly wait,’” he says, describing the 2008 seizure of a car made possible by the policy.   Continue reading “Cops use ‘wish list’ when seizing ‘little goodies’…such as cars or homes”

Mail.com

MILWAUKEE (AP) — The man accused of masterminding the theft of a 300-year-old, $5 million Stradivarius violin that was snatched from a musician in Milwaukee was sentenced Monday to seven years in prison.

Salah Salahadyn, 42, once told an acquaintance that such a theft was his dream crime because of the instrument’s value and the ease of grabbing it from a musician walking down the street. The centuries-old instrument was stolen in January from Frank Almond, a concertmaster at the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, as he walked to his vehicle following a performance. Almond was attacked with a stun gun during the theft.   Continue reading “Man accused in theft of $5M violin gets prison”

Mail.com

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi officials said Sunday that the head of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was wounded in an airstrike in western Anbar province. Pentagon officials said they had no immediate information on such an attack or on the militant leader being injured.

Iraq’s Defense and Interior ministries both issued statements saying al-Baghdadi had been wounded, without elaborating, and the news was broadcast on state-run television Sunday night. The reports came at a time when President Barack Obama said the U.S.-led coalition was in a position to start going on the offensive against the Islamic State militants.   Continue reading “Iraqi officials say IS leader wounded in airstrike”

Mail.com

BEIJING (AP) — An uneasy handshake Monday between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe marked the first meeting between the two men since either took power, and an awkward first gesture toward easing two years of high tensions.

As the two men approached each other, stern-faced, to shake hands in front of cameras, Abe briefly tried to say something to Xi, who gave no response and turned away, appearing distinctly uncomfortable, to fix his gaze toward the cameras for the rest of the handshake.   Continue reading “An awkward handshake: Leaders of China, Japan meet”

Mail.com

NEW YORK (AP) — The residents of Belle Harbor Manor spent four miserable months in emergency shelters after Superstorm Sandy’s floodwaters surged through their assisted-living center on New York City’s Rockaway peninsula.

Now, the home’s disabled, elderly and mostly poor residents have a new headache: The Federal Emergency Management Agency has asked at least a dozen of them to pay back thousands of dollars in disaster aid.   Continue reading “NYC adult home residents asked to repay FEMA aid”

RT

Israel has plans to take 3,176 acres of Palestinian land around a West Bank village near central Jerusalem, according to residents of the village who were handed orders signed by the head of IDF Central Command, Ma’an news agency reports.

Beit Iksa residents told Ma’an that the orders, signed by the Israeli military commander in the West Bank, Nitzan Alon, were distributed Saturday morning by the soldiers. They gave residents of the village until 2017 to evacuate the land.    Continue reading “Israel wants to confiscate over 3,000 acres in West Bank ‘for military purposes’ – report”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President George W. Bush is giving even odds about whether another Bush will try to occupy the White House.

Brother Jeb, a former Florida governor, is “wrestling with the decision” of running for the Republican nomination for president in 2016, George W. Bush says. “I think it’s 50-50,” the former president told CBS’ “Face the Nation.”   Continue reading “George W. Bush gives 50-50 odds Jeb run in 2016”

RT

Beijing says it will spend $40 billion to revive the historic Silk Road and connect China with Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe – but this time, China will be the global power flexing its economic muscles.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said the ambitious project is designed to “break the connectivity bottleneck” in Asia, state media quoted him as saying during a meeting in the Chinese capital with leaders from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan and Tajikistan.    Continue reading “Marco Polo in reverse: China pledges $40bn for new Silk Road”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress members returning to Capitol Hill next week will face a debate over President Barack Obama’s new $5.6 billion plan to expand the U.S. mission in Iraq and send up to 1,500 more American troops to the war-torn nation.

Obama authorized the deployment of advisory teams and trainers to bolster struggling Iraqi forces across the country, including into Iraq’s western Anbar province where fighting with Islamic State militants has been fierce. His decision comes just three days after bruising midterm elections for his Democratic Party.   Continue reading “Expanded US role in Iraq? Not without Congress’ OK”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two Americans held by North Korea were on their way home Saturday after their release was secured through a secret mission by the top U.S. intelligence official to the reclusive Communist country.

Matthew Miller of Bakersfield, California, and Kenneth Bae of Lynnwood, Washington, were flying back to the West Coast with James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, according to U.S. officials. Clapper was the highest-ranking American to visit Pyongyang in more than a decade.   Continue reading “2 Americans held in North Korea whisked back home”

Mail.com

BERLIN (AP) — Germany on Sunday celebrates the 25th anniversary of the night the Berlin Wall fell, a pivotal moment in the collapse of communism and the start of the country’s emergence as the major power at the heart of Europe.

A 15-kilometer (nine-mile) chain of lighted balloons along the former border will be released into the air early Sunday evening — around the time on Nov. 9, 1989 when a garbled announcement by a senior communist official set off the chain of events that brought down the Cold War’s most potent symbol.   Continue reading “Germany marks 25 years since Berlin Wall’s fall”

Mail.com

NEW LONDON, Conn. (AP) — A World War II pilot whose lost plane has become the target of a stepped-up U.S. recovery effort in Greenland was honored Friday by the Coast Guard Academy, which commended him for heroism shown during daring rescue missions on the frozen tundra before the one that killed him in 1942.

The pilot, Lt. John Pritchard, was inducted into the Hall of Heroes at the academy in New London, where he graduated in 1938. “John was a very friendly, caring person,” said his sister, 91-year-old Nancy Pritchard Morgan, who received an ovation from cadets in dress blue uniforms at the ceremony. “He loved his family, he loved the Coast Guard, he loved flying, he loved life. His actions on the Greenland ice cap read like his whole life.”   Continue reading “Famed rescue pilot honored by Coast Guard Academy”

Mail.com

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s prime minister blamed “militant Islamic incitement” for growing tensions in Jerusalem, especially at a contested holy site that was ringed Friday by hundreds of Israeli riot police as about 15,000 Muslims performed weekly prayers there.

The prayers ended peacefully, though clashes erupted again later in the day between Palestinian stone-throwers and Israeli troops in an Arab neighborhood of Jerusalem, at the main Israeli checkpoint on the outskirts of the city and at several locations in the West Bank.   Continue reading “Heavy security at contested Jerusalem shrine”

Mail.com

SEATTLE (AP) — FBI Director James Comey says an agent impersonated an Associated Press reporter during a 2007 criminal investigation, a ruse the news organization says could undermine its credibility.

In a letter Thursday to The New York Times, Comey said the agent “portrayed himself as an employee of The Associated Press” to help catch a 15-year-old suspect accused of making bomb threats at a high school near Olympia, Washington. It was publicized last week that the FBI forged an AP story during its investigation, but Comey’s letter revealed the agency went further and had an agent actually pretend to be a reporter for the wire service.   Continue reading “FBI says agent impersonated AP reporter”

ABC News

House Speaker John Boehner on Thursday sketched out an agenda for the new, all-Republican Congress, promising approval of the Keystone XL pipeline and changes in the health care law while issuing a warning to President Barack Obama on immigration.

In his first postelection news conference, Boehner cautioned Obama not to act unilaterally to change the immigration system, saying it would poison the well in terms of trying to pass legislation over the next two years on the issue.   Continue reading “GOP in Charge, Eager to Move on Keystone XL, Taxes”

Mail.com

MYIN HLUT, Myanmar (AP) — The small wooden boats leave the shores of western Myanmar nearly every day, overloaded with desperate Rohingya Muslims who are part of one the largest boat exoduses in Asia since the Vietnam War.

Helping them on their way: Myanmar’s own security forces, who are profiting off the mass departure of one of the world’s most persecuted minorities by extracting payments from those fleeing. A report to be released Friday by the Bangkok-based advocacy group Fortify Rights, and reporting by The Associated Press, indicate the practice is far more widespread and organized than previously thought, with Myanmar naval boats going so far as to escort asylum seekers out to sea, where larger ships operated by transnational criminal networks wait to pick them up.   Continue reading “Myanmar aiding Rohingya trafficking”

RT

Against the wishes of the Pentagon, the US Navy SEAL who shot dead Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden at his compound in Pakistan on May 2, 2011, has revealed his identity.

Rob O’Neill, 38, was a commando who played an integral role in Operation Neptune Spear, the nighttime raid on bin Laden’s Abbottabad, Pakistan home. O’Neill reportedly shot bin Laden in the forehead three times. The raid ended with four others killed and no casualties among SEAL Team Six, the Navy SEALs squad charged with executing the mission.   Continue reading “Navy Seal who shot bin Laden reveals himself despite Pentagon fury”