Author: Sunfire

Mail.com

SPARKS, Nev. (AP) — In less than 10 minutes after his mother dropped him off at school on the morning of Oct. 21, 2013, seventh-grader Jose Reyes and a popular middle school teacher lay on the school yard, dead from gunshot wounds. Two classmates were wounded and a school was in panic.

After seventh months and an exhaustive police investigation that produced a report of 1,300 pages, authorities on Tuesday released an in-depth report about the shooting that painted a picture of bullying, depression and a normal school day turning violent in the matter of minutes. Still, authorities aren’t sure they fully understand what motivated the 12-year-old Reyes to take his parents’ 9mm Ruger pistol and two magazines of ammunition to school that day.   Continue reading “Nevada school shooter left 2 suicide notes”

RT News

Israel is placing more and more Palestinian children in solitary confinement as part of the interrogation process, a new study reveals. The children are often blindfolded, bound and sleep deprived. Neither they nor parents know the reasons for arrest.

“Solitary confinement for detained Palestinian children was used in 21.4 percent of cases in 2013,” says the report released by Defense for Children International Palestine (DCI-Palestine), a national section of the international non-governmental child rights organization and movement. The numbers have shown a 2-percent rise since 2012.    Continue reading “‘Blindfolded & bound’: Israel puts more Palestinian kids in solitary confinement”

RT News

The wreck of the famous flagship Santa Maria, aboard which Christopher Columbus discovered America, has reputedly been found off the coast of Haiti, an underwater discovery that may be one of the most important in history.

“All the geographical, underwater topography and archaeological evidence strongly suggests that this wreck is Columbus’ famous flagship, the Santa Maria,” Barry Clifford, a top underwater archaeological explorer and the leader of an expedition to the site, told the Independent.   Continue reading “The wreck of Columbus’ Santa Maria may be found after 500 years”

RT News

The Department of State is shopping around for hundreds of pounds of plastic explosives and detonator devices, a new report reveals, raising concerns regarding an American agency that usually deals with foreign policy, not dynamite procurement.

Even after several solicitations for explosives were posted publically on the website where federal offices can ask for quotes from contractors, however, representatives at the United States State Dept. have reportedly laughed at questions from reporters wanting to know why the requests have been made.   Continue reading “State Department buying massive cache of explosives, journalists claim”

RT News

A federal fund employed to improve roads, bridges, and ports in the United States is dangerously bare, the Obama administration told Congress.

According to the White House, over 112,000 ongoing projects – that come with around 700,000 jobs – could fall idle without action in Congress to boost the Highway Trust Fund.

US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said the project delays would have a terrible effect on commerce.   Continue reading “Crucial infrastructure funding for roads, bridges is fading – White House”

RT News

A California woman who was pulled over, handcuffed, and forced to kneel while at least four police officers pointed guns at her can sue the police department over their erroneous license plate reader result, a US federal judge ruled Monday.

Denise Green, who works for San Francisco as a municipal driver, first sued the police department for wrongful detention and excessive force after she was accosted in the March 2009 incident. US District Judge Richard Seeborg initially dismissed her suit, asserting that the police reasonably believed Green was a suspected car thief because of the information transmitted on a vehicle-mounted license plate reader.   Continue reading “Driver handcuffed at gunpoint over license plate-reader error”

Mail.com

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Under the guns of their captors, dozens of barefoot girls sat huddled together wearing gray Muslim veils as they chanted Quranic verses in Arabic. Some Christians among them said they had converted to Islam.

“I swear to almighty Allah, you will not see them again until you release our brothers that you have captured,” the leader of the Boko Haram terrorist network threatened, an assault rifle slung across his chest.   Continue reading “Boko Haram demands release of fighters for girls”

Mail.com

BRENTWOOD, N.H. (AP) — Authorities say a New Hampshire police officer was shot to death after he responded to a domestic disturbance at a home that later exploded and burned.

The gunman is presumed dead in the ensuing blaze. Attorney General Joseph Foster says Monday night 48-year-old Steven Arkell of Brentwood was shot to death when he answered the call in a suburban neighborhood.   Continue reading “Authorities: New Hampshire officer shot to death”

RT News

The United States is being hypocritical in its response to the armed clashes between Kiev and pro-Russian groups in eastern Ukraine, former Congressman Ron Paul wrote in a new column.

In the column, published by the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, the former libertarian lawmaker questioned the American role in the conflict unfolding in Ukraine, criticizing the US for blaming recent outbreaks of violence on Russian sympathizers rather than the Ukrainian military.   Continue reading “Ron Paul: Why is US involved in Ukraine?”

RT News

The US Strategic Command, the agency responsible for country’s nuclear arsenal, will hold large-scale war games this week that will include 10 B-52 Stratofortresses and up to six B-2 Spirit bombers, along with other military and government agencies.

The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is a long-range, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bomber built to carry nuclear weapons.   Continue reading “US starts countrywide nuclear drill after similar war games in Russia”

Mail.com

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — One of the two officers at the U.S. Embassy in Yemen who shot and killed a pair of suspected al-Qaida gunmen was getting a haircut at a barbershop when the attempted abduction took place, Yemeni security officials said Sunday.

The attempted kidnapping April 24 is the latest evidence of al-Qaida’s expanding presence in the capital, a serious challenge to the authority of the already weak central government. It also could strain ties between Yemen and the U.S., which has launched an aggressive campaign of drone strikes against suspected al-Qaida fighters in the country.   Continue reading “Americans in Yemen shooting were getting haircuts”

RT News

Fracking requires twice or three times as many truck trips per well as older oil and gas extraction techniques. That could be reason for drilling areas in US witnessing a significant spike in traffic fatalities, new analysis suggests.

The Associated Press has studied traffic death figures and US census data in six drilling states, and discovered that increased traffic fatalities is one side-effect of fracking, a controversial drilling technique, which means water, chemicals and sand are injected deep underground to break up rocks to free oil and natural gas there.    Continue reading “Fracking’s unexpected side-effect: Traffic deaths on the rise”

Mail.com

DOSWELL, Va. (AP) — A second body was recovered Saturday from the crash of a hot air balloon carrying three people that drifted into a power line and burst into flames in front of horrified spectators. The bodies were discovered just under a mile apart.

More than 100 searchers were called in to scour the woods and fields of the central Virginia site of the crash for the third victim and any remnants of the balloon or its basket, state police said. None of the victims has been identified by authorities.    Continue reading “Search Continues for 3rd Body in Va. Balloon Crash”

Mail.com

NEW YORK (AP) — The unidentified remains of those killed on Sept. 11 returned to the World Trade Center site in a solemn procession on a foggy Saturday morning.

The remains left the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner on Manhattan’s East Side shortly before 7 a.m. in three city vehicles. They were accompanied by police and fire department vehicles with lights flashing but no sirens.    Continue reading “9/11 remains returned to World Trade Center site”

RT News

When a teenager called the police to say he didn’t want to live at his house anymore, a local police officer jumped into action. But instead of bringing Child Protective Services, he brought friendship and a bed.

Cameron Simmons, a 13-year-old in Sumter, SC, called police after fighting with his mom and said he was upset and that he didn’t want to live with his family anymore, WIS-TV reports.    Continue reading “Cop’s act of kindness goes viral on the internet”

RT News

A new breakthrough in “self-healing” plastics has scientists looking forward to a future in which broken smartphones, utility pipes, and even satellites can repair themselves.

Developed by researchers at the University of Illinois, the new polymer is 100 times stronger then previously designed self-repairing plastics, making it capable of fixing holes as wide as 3 cm.   Continue reading “Scientists create ‘self-healing’ plastic inspired by human vascular system”

Mail.com

HOMS, Syria (AP) — Hundreds of Syrians, some snapping photographs with their cell phones, wandered down paths carved out of rubble in the old quarters of Homs on Friday, getting their first glimpse of the horrendous destruction that two years of fighting inflicted on rebel-held parts of the city.

The scenes that greeted them were devastating: City blocks pounded into an apocalyptic vista of hollow facades of blown-out buildings. Dust everywhere. Streets strewn with rebar, shattered concrete bricks, toppled telephone poles and the occasional charred, crumpled carcasses of cars.   Continue reading “Syrians return to damaged homes after rebels leave”

Mail.com

FOLSOM, Calif. (AP) — “Hi, baby,” Catherine La France cooed as she swept granddaughter Arianna into her arms and danced around the prison yard with the 3-year-old.

She pulled her two daughters into a bear hug, and the girls burst into tears. La France hadn’t seen Arianna’s mother, 18-year-old Samantha La France, in six months, and she last saw Summer La France, 14, nearly three years ago.   Continue reading “Kids reunite with locked-up moms near Mother’s Day”

Mail.com

CINCINNATI (AP) — A man in Iraqi custody has confessed to killing a U.S. soldier whose remains were found in 2008, four years after he was kidnapped by insurgents and a video showed him surrounded by armed captors, an Army spokeswoman told The Associated Press on Friday.

A hearing in the case is set for Tuesday in an Iraqi court, though it’s unclear if the man who confessed to killing Sgt. Matt Maupin will attend. Maupin, of Batavia in southwestern Ohio, was captured when insurgents with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms ambushed his fuel convoy near Baghdad on April 9, 2004.   Continue reading “Man confesses to killing US soldier in Iraq”

RT

The House Judiciary Committee voted 32-0 to advance legislation that would put a halt to the National Security Agency’s controversial bulk collection of internet and telephone records, exposed last year by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Amendments to the USA Freedom Act aim to block the NSA’s ability to siphon and store the so-called metadata on domestic and international communications, instead keeping the information in the hands of telephone and internet companies.    Continue reading “Anti-spying NSA bill wins first round in US Congress”