Author: Sunfire

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Four California prisons illegally sterilized 39 women over a six-year period, a damning new report by the California State Auditor reveals.

Of the 144 inmates who underwent bilateral tubal ligations, commonly referred to as having your tubes tied, from fiscal years 2005-06 to 2012-13, auditors found nearly one-third were performed without lawful consent.

In 27 cases, the inmate’s physician – the individual who would perform the procedure in a hospital, or an alternate physician — did not sign the required consent form indicating the patient was of sound mind and understood the permanence of the operation.   Continue reading “Confirmed: 39 women illegally sterilized in California prisons”

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MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly expressed support Sunday for Ukraine’s declaration of a cease-fire in its battle against pro-Russian separatists and called on both sides to negotiate a compromise.

Putin said such a compromise must guarantee the rights of the Russian-speaking residents of eastern Ukraine, who must feel like they are “an integral part” of their own country. Putin’s statement appeared to signal that he sees their future in Ukraine.   Continue reading “Russia’s Putin calls for compromise in Ukraine”

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CAIRO (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday made the highest-level American visit to Egypt since President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi took office as Washington presses the former army chief to adopt more moderate policies.

Economic and security problems are undermining Egypt’s stability, and Kerry’s visit signals an attempt by the Obama administration to thaw a relationship with a longtime Mideast ally that has cooled in recent years during the country’s political turmoil.   Continue reading “US pressing Egypt to adopt more moderate policies”

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NEW YORK (AP) — After years of silence on the issue, India-born U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara has begun to open up about the cultural scorn he has faced over his high-profile prosecutions of South Asian defendants, particularly that of an Indian diplomat that led to one commentator in India to call him an “Uncle Tom.”

In a recent speech at Harvard Law School, he noted the criticisms and countered them with unusual candor. Citing one commentator in India who questioned if he took up the diplomat case “to serve his white masters,” Bharara quipped about who those white masters might be.   Continue reading “Top NY prosecutor confronts criticism from India”

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BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi military officials say Sunni militants have captured two border crossings, one with Jordan and another with Syria, as they press on with their offensive in one of Iraq’s most restive regions.

The officials said the militants on Sunday captured the Turaibil crossing with Jordan and the al-Walid crossing with Syria after government forces there pulled out. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.   Continue reading “Iraqi militants seize 2 more border crossings”

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The Presbyterian Church has narrowly voted to move forward with divestment in various companies in protest of Israeli policies toward Palestinians. The group has now become the most prominent in the US to endorse some form of divestment.

The top US policymaking body for the Presbyterian denomination has opted to sell its stock in Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola Solutions by a vote of 310 to 303, ratifying a move that had failed two years prior. All three companies have been identified as making products used by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territories.   Continue reading “Presbyterian Church votes to divest in protest of Israeli policies”

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A 7,500-gallon storage tank of crude oil has completely drained into the scenic Cache La Poudre, Colorado’s only designated National Wild and Scenic River, southeast of Fort Collins.

Vegetation was covered by an oil slick a quarter-mile downstream, but authorities claim “no drinking water intakes have been affected.”

The environmental disaster occurred at Noble Energy facility near Windsor in northern Colorado, in imminent proximity to the popular Poudre River Trail, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) reported late Friday afternoon.   Continue reading “178 barrels of oil spill into Colorado’s only designated wild and scenic river”

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Anthropologists uncovered a series of mass graves filled with the human remains of immigrants stuffed into shopping and garbage bags in a county-owned section of a cemetery in South Texas. Now, a local politician is calling for an inquiry.

The group of anthropology researchers is made of professors and students from the University of Indianapolis and Baylor University, who are working on the Reuniting Families project. The multi-year project seeks to identify the bodies of the hundreds of undocumented immigrants who died (usually from exposure in the 100-degree-plus heat) while crossing the Texas-Mexico border over the last few years. They resumed work two weeks ago, exhuming 52 plots in a Brooks County-owned section of the Sacred Heart Burial Park in Falfurrias.   Continue reading “Mass graves filled with remains of immigrants discovered in Texas”

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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Hundreds of Afghans protested Saturday against alleged fraud in last week’s presidential runoff, part of escalating tensions over what Western officials had hoped would be a smooth transfer of power as violence across the country killed at least 13 people.

Former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, who is running against Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, a former finance minister, has accused electoral officials and others of trying to rig the June 14 vote against him.   Continue reading “Hundreds protest alleged Afghan election fraud”

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BAGHDAD (AP) — Thousands of heavily-armed Shiite militiamen paraded through several Iraqi cities Saturday as Sunni militants seized two strategically located towns in what appeared to be a new offensive in western Anbar province.

The capture of the two towns — Qaim on the Syrian border Friday and Rawah along the Euphrates River on Saturday— dealt another blow to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government, which has struggled to push back against Islamic extremists and allied militants who have seized large swaths of the country’s north, including the second-largest city of Mosul.   Continue reading “Iraq militia parades as insurgents seize crossing”

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As many as 84 scientists working at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta may have been exposed to the anthrax bacteria after failing to follow safety procedures, the US government said.

According to information released by the CDC earlier on Thursday and first reported by Reuters, the possible exposure to live anthrax began within a high-level bio-security lab. Researchers evidently failed to follow set procedure to inactivate the deadly bacteria.   Continue reading “Dozens of US government employees potentially exposed to live anthrax”

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JENIN REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank (AP) — A lifetime has passed since hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced out their homes in the Mideast war over Israel’s 1948 creation.

Today, those who were uprooted and their descendants number more than 5 million people, scattered across the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. The Palestinian refugee problem is one of the most entrenched in the world, with a solution linked to an elusive Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. About one-third of the refugees still live in camps, or tent cities that have been transformed into crowded urban slums. Some families live in the camps for the fourth generation.   Continue reading “Palestinians in exile dream of return”

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WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Stephanie Kwolek, a pioneering female chemist at DuPont who invented the exceedingly tough fibers widely used in Kevlar body armor, has died, colleagues said Friday. She was 90.

Kwolek died Wednesday at a hospital in Wilmington where she had lived, said her friend Rita Vasta, a chemist who also worked at DuPont. Vasta said Kwolek had been ill about a week though she didn’t know the cause of death.   Continue reading “Stephanie Kwolek, Kevlar inventor, dies at 90”

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BEIRUT (AP) — For the first time since World War II, the number of people forced from their homes worldwide has surged past 50 million, the United Nations refugee agency said Friday.

Syrians fleeing the devastating civil war and a fast-growing web of other world crises accounted for the spike in the displaced, the UNHCR said in its annual Global Trends Report. At the end of last year, 51.2 million people had been forced from their homes worldwide, the highest figure of displacement since World War II, said the UNHCR.   Continue reading “UN: Number of world’s displaced over 50 million”

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NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The weeklong odyssey of a registered sex offender traveling with a missing teenage girl from Florida ended after a sighting by a Louisiana truck stop cashier triggered a lengthy police chase, authorities say.

Officers pursued a pickup truck driven by Steven Myers, 41, for miles, throwing down spike strips that blew out most of the vehicle’s tires, law enforcement agents said. Myers is accused of stabbing the 16-year-old girl and then himself before being subdued, officials said.   Continue reading “Police: Sex offender stabbed missing teen, self”

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BAGHDAD (AP) — The spiritual leader of Iraq’s Shiite majority called for a new, “effective” government Friday, increasing pressure on the country’s prime minister a day after U.S. President Barack Obama challenged him to create a more inclusive leadership or risk a sectarian civil war.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani’s comments at Friday prayers contained thinly veiled criticism that Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, in office since 2006, was to blame for the nation’s crisis over the blitz by Sunni insurgents led by an al-Qaida splinter group that seeks to create a new state spanning parts of Iraq and Syria and ruled by its strict interpretation of Islamic law.   Continue reading “Top Shiite cleric calls for new government in Iraq”

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NEW YORK (AP) — All but closing the books on one of the most lurid crime cases in New York history, the city has agreed to a $40 million settlement with five men who were falsely convicted in the vicious 1989 rape and beating of a Central Park jogger, a city official said Friday.

The official had direct knowledge of the agreement but wasn’t allowed to discuss it publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The deal still needs the approval of the city comptroller and a federal judge.   Continue reading “AP source: Settlement in Central Park jogger case”

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The British parliament was quickly evacuated following a security alert after a suspicious package was found in the visitor center in Westminster Hall.

Witness report that all traffic was at a standstill around Parliament Square, according to UK media.

Police called off the security alert after investigating a suspect device found near the X-ray machines at the entrance to Westminster Hall that was later found to pose no danger.   Continue reading “UK parliament evacuated after suspicious package found”