Author: Sunfire

RT

Home Depot has confirmed its payment systems have been hacked at nearly 2,200 stores in US and Canada. The stealing-code used for the breach could reportedly point at a Russian connection in the case.

The US’s fourth-largest retailer announced on Monday it investigates five months of transactions now that the cyber-attack was apparent. While the company officials do not specify the possible scale of the damage done, experts believe it could turn out one of the biggest data breaches in history.    Continue reading “Home Depot confirms data breach, hit by same malware as Target”

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Up to 700 children have been killed, mutilated, or used as suicide bombers in Iraq since the beginning of the year, UN envoy Leila Zerrougui said while briefing the Security Council on violations of children’s rights in armed conflicts worldwide.

“The images that we see through media reporting of indiscriminate and brutal killings of civilians, including children, are leaving us speechless and horrified,” said Zerrougui, the secretary-general’s special representative for children and armed conflict, during a debate at the Security Council on Monday.   Continue reading “Up to 700 Iraqi children killed, maimed or used as suicide bombers this year – UN envoy”

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A US air marshal has been forcefully injected with a syringe at Nigeria’s Lagos Airport and has been taken to hospital amid fears he might have contracted Ebola.

It wasn’t immediately clear what was in the syringe after the incident occurred Sunday. The name of the marshal has not yet been revealed, AFP reported.   Continue reading “Ebola scare as US air marshal attacked with syringe in Lagos Airport”

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MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Human remains discovered in a rural Tennessee county are those of a missing nursing student who disappeared from her home in April 2011, investigators said late Monday.

The remains of Holly Bobo were found Sunday in Decatur County, not far from her home in the town of Parsons, about 110 miles east of Memphis, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director Mark Gwyn told a news conference.   Continue reading “Police: Remains are those of missing Tenn. woman”

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TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — On her 27th day of living in a tiny room at a Tucson church known for pioneering the popular immigrant sanctuary movement in the 1980s, Rosa Robles Loreto swept a courtyard, prayed with a group of parishioners and greeted her uniformed son fresh off his baseball practice.

Robles Loreto is a 41-year-old immigrant who lacks legal status and is facing deportation after getting pulled over for a traffic infraction four years ago. She has vowed to remain in Southside Presbyterian Church until federal immigration authorities grant her leniency.   Continue reading “Immigrant sanctuary gains popularity in Arizona”

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THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was likely struck by multiple “high-energy objects from outside the aircraft,” causing it to break up over eastern Ukraine, a preliminary report into the deadly aviation disaster concluded Tuesday.

The report by the Dutch Safety Board stopped short of saying the Boeing 777 was shot down by a missile, but its findings appear to point to that conclusion. It also did not say who might have been responsible.   Continue reading “Report: Flight 17 likely downed by outside impacts”

RT

The widening gap between America’s richest and the middle and working classes is unsustainable and is unlikely to improve a survey released on Monday by the Harvard Business School has found.

The study which is called “an economy doing half its job” said that while large American companies were showing signs of recovery and were maintaining their competitive edge on the world stage, many middle and working class US citizens were struggling, as were small businesses.   Continue reading “Widening income gap in US ‘unsustainable’ but unlikely to improve”

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The associate athletic director of Robert Morris University says that around 30 athletic and activity scholarships will go to students who play the video game “League of Legends.” The move will likely stretch the definition of what constitutes a sport.

This autumn, the Chicago university will be the first in the US to offer an athletic scholarship to video gamers.

Kurt Melcher has defended the controversial decision, saying that playing a video game is a team sport and that there is strategy involved – although he admitted that “it’s not cardiovascular in any way.”   Continue reading “Video gamers to be offered college scholarships in US”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Summer break over and elections ahead, Congress is beginning an abbreviated September session with must-do tasks of preventing a government shutdown and extending a freeze on taxing access to the Internet.

Lawmakers will find time, too, for votes conveying political messages primed for fall campaigning. Republicans who run the House may have lousy approval ratings, but they are poised to pad their 34-vote majority and determined to avoid mistakes like last year’s partial government shutdown. That fight was over implementation of President Barack Obama’s health care law.   Continue reading “Summer break over, must-do tasks await Congress”

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BAGHDAD (AP) — The Arab League agreed Monday to take urgent measures to combat extremists like the Islamic State group as one of its suicide bombers killed 16 people at a meeting of Sunni tribal fighters and security troops in Iraq.

The resolution, issued after late-night meetings of Arab foreign ministers a day earlier, doesn’t explicitly back American military action against the group. U.S. President Barack Obama is seeking an international coalition to challenge the Islamic State group and is expected to outline his plan Wednesday to the American people.   Continue reading “Arab League agrees to combat Islamic State group”

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ATLANTA (AP) — Chick-fil-A founder S. Truett Cathy died early Monday at 93. The billionaire rose from poverty by building a privately held restaurant chain that famously closes every Sunday but drew unwanted attention for the Cathy family’s opposition to gay marriage.

Chick-fil-A spokesman Mark Baldwin told The Associated Press that Cathy died at home surrounded by members of his family. The company said in a statement that preliminary plans are for a public funeral service at 2 p.m. Wednesday at First Baptist Jonesboro in Jonesboro, Georgia.   Continue reading “Chick-fil-A founder S. Truett Cathy has died”

RT

The Satanic Temple, a New-York-based religious group, is to build its first chapter house in Detroit, where it will perform services such as marriages, including same-sex, and funerals. It says the sacrificing of people or animals will not take place.

Detroit was picked as a location for the flagship chapter house because of its “underdog” reputation and history of nurturing rebellious underground artistic communities, Satanic Temple founder Doug Mesner, aka “Lucien Greaves,” told the Detroit Metro Times.    Continue reading “Devil in Detroit: Satanic group to build temple in Motor City”

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ILOPANGO, El Salvador (AP) — Marvin Gonzalez waves to shopkeepers as he enjoys a morning walk through the sunny, working-class resort of Ilopango. His cellphone rings nonstop with residents seeking his support for anything from dealing with a drunk who won’t pay his bar bill to reporting an attempted rape.

Gonzalez is not a police chief, nor a politician. The 31-year-old plug of a man is the local leader of the Mara Salvatrucha, a gang formed by Central American immigrants in California and now designated by the U.S. as a transnational criminal organization.   Continue reading “Success of Salvador gang truce: Stronger gangs”

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DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) — One civilian was killed in shelling in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol and large explosions were heard near the airport in Donetsk early Sunday, raising fears that a cease-fire signed two days ago is on the verge of collapse.

Blasts from the area near the airport were powerful enough to be heard in downtown Donetsk, the main rebel-held city in eastern Ukraine. A spokesman for Ukraine’s national security council, Volodymyr Polyovyi, said at a briefing in Kiev that rebels appeared to have tried to attack the airport, which has been under the control of government troops since May and has come under unremitting attacks from pro-Russia separatist rebels since then.   Continue reading “Civilian killed in Ukraine shelling despite truce”

RT

A Muslim woman, and human rights lawyer has taken her accusations of NYPD’s abuse and racism to court, following her violent detention over blocking the sidewalk after a pro-Palestinian demonstration in New York.

The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday, with Chaumtoli Huq stating that the policemen used “unreasonable and wholly unprovoked force,” the Telesur media outlet reported.   Continue reading “Muslim lawyer sues NYPD after arrest for ‘blocking the sidewalk’ during pro-Palestinian rally”

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Infectious, deadly diseases and toxins like plague, botulism and ricin have been uncovered at government laboratories in the United States. The discovery also revealed some of the vials had been stored for over 60 years.

The revelations come after officials from the National Institute of Health (NIH) made a sweep of government owned laboratories in July after they found smallpox. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also admitted it had found vials at a lab at the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.   Continue reading “Toxic trail: Forgotten vials of ricin and plague discovered at US govt lab”

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A US publishing company has chosen to teach children about the crimes of the Islamic State group in a coloring book. The company’s co-founder, who spoke to RT’s Gayane Chichakyan, believes the project is justified as it “tells the truth.”

It’s not the first time the US publisher Really Big Coloring Books has addressed the issue of terrorism. Three years ago the company’s graphic 9/11 themed edition – “We Shall Never Forget 9/11: Kids’ Book of Freedom” – ignited a firestorm of controversy, with some only arguing the topic was inappropriate for a coloring book, while others labeled it anti-Muslim propaganda.    Continue reading “‘Terror update:’ Controversial anti-ISIS coloring book featuring tortures hits stores”

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Six vessels fom the Russian North fleet have left their base in Severomorsk in the Barents Sea and set off for the New Siberian Islands, where a military base under reconstruction will start functioning later this year.

“The major goal of the latest expedition of the North fleet ships to the Arctic is to deliver personnel, equipment and property of the North fleet’s tactical group, which starting this year is going to fulfill military service at the New Siberian Islands on a permanent basis,” said the North fleet commander, admiral Vladimir Korolyov.   Continue reading “Russian Navy sends flotilla to Arctic to start permanent service at military base”

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KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — A search-and-rescue operation resumed at first light Saturday off Jamaica’s northeast coast as crews hope to solve the mystery of a small private plane carrying a prominent upstate New York couple who were taken on a ghostly 1,700-mile journey after the pilot was apparently incapacitated at the controls.

Maj. Basil Jarrett of the Jamaica Defense Force said early Saturday that possible wreckage of the high-performance plane was spotted Friday evening by a military aircraft flying off the island’s northeast coast. He said military personnel were trying to recover the floating debris roughly 24 miles off the coastal town of Port Antonio and it was too early to determine whether it was indeed wreckage from the plane.   Continue reading “Mystery shrouds US couple’s crash off Jamaica”

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There were 11.3 million unauthorized immigrants in the US in March 2013, including some 2.6 million living in California ‒ which makes up 10 percent of the state’s workforce, according to two new studies released Wednesday.

Researchers at the University of Southern California’s Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (USC’s CSII), in conjunction with the California Immigrant Policy Center (CIPC), published a study on the contributions of non-citizens in the country’s most populous state. The report includes updated information on demographics, labor force participation, economic contributions, entrepreneurship and the numbers of eligible voters among all immigrants.   Continue reading “Illegal immigrants make 10% of California’s workforce, staying in US longer”