Author: Sunfire

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BEIJING (AP) — His head covered in a black hood, lawyer Tang Jitian recalls being taken into a room and hearing the sound of a rope being pulled. The handcuffs behind him were jerked upward and soon he was dangling in the air.

“I got hoisted with my head facing down, feet off the ground and butt in the air,” Tang said in an interview with The Associated Press. “Five or six people were hitting me and kicking me. All I heard was ‘thud, thud, thud,’ throughout.”   Continue reading “Chinese lawyers say they were tortured by police”

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ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Two convicted sex offenders dutifully checked in with police every month and wore their GPS trackers around the clock — the rules of parole that are designed to tip off authorities if a freed felon backslides.

Yet for at least two months last fall, authorities claim, Franc Cano and Steven Dean Gordon were raping and killing at least four women — and probably a fifth — in the seedy prostitution hangouts of Orange County.   Continue reading “Police: Suspected killers wore GPS devices”

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PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — The streets of North Korea’s showcase capital were filled with runners from all over the world on Sunday for the annual Pyongyang marathon, which was open to foreign amateurs this year for the first time.

Tens of thousands of North Koreans lined the streets to applaud, cheer and sometimes high-five the runners, who were followed by a truck blaring patriotic music. They stood and roared as North Korea’s Pak Chol, who completed the men’s event in 2 hours, 12 minutes and 26 seconds, crossed the finish line. Compatriots Kim Hye Gyong and her twin sister, Kim Hye Song, finished first and second in the women’s race. The winning women’s time was 2:27:04.   Continue reading “North Korea’s capital hosts international marathon”

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VALPARAISO, Chile (AP) — Firefighters struggled for a second night early Monday to contain blazes that have killed 12 people, injured 500, destroyed 2,000 homes and forced 10,000 people to flee the densely populated hills that gave this Chilean port city its unique beauty.

Fires they thought were contained 24 hours after they started Saturday kicked up again with Sunday afternoon’s winds and raged out of control, threatening more neighborhoods. With no municipal water or fire hydrants to use, routes to the blazes blocked by narrow streets jammed with abandoned vehicles and countless embers being stoked, fire crews could do little but watch some neighborhoods burn.   Continue reading “Chile fire toll: 12 dead; 2,000 homes destroyed”

RT News

Seventy-one people have been killed and a further 124 injured in two blasts that tore through a bus station on the outskirts of Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, police officials said.

The explosions took place as several hundred commuters were boarding buses to Abuja. Police spokesman Frank Mba told AP that 16 luxury coaches and 24 minibuses were destroyed.   Continue reading “71 people killed, 124 wounded in Nigeria bus station blasts – police”

Mail.com

PLEASANT GROVE, Utah (AP) — A judge has set a $6 million bail for a Utah woman accused of killing six babies she gave birth to over 10 years.

State Judge Steven Hansen set bail at $1 million for each child when Megan Huntsman appeared via video in a Utah courtroom Monday morning. Prosecutors say 39-year-old Huntsman is being jailed on six counts of murder. It appears a seventh baby was stillborn.   Continue reading “Police seek answers after 7 dead babies found”

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PERTH, Australia (AP) — Search crews sent a robotic submarine deep into the Indian Ocean on Monday to begin scouring the seabed for the missing Malaysian airliner after failing for six days to detect any signals believed to be from its black boxes.

Meanwhile, officials were investigating an oil slick about 5,500 meters (3.4 miles) from the area where the last underwater sounds were detected, said Angus Houston, the head of a joint agency coordinating the search off Australia’s west coast.   Continue reading “Robotic submarine deployed in search for plane”

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MIAMI (AP) — Democrats in the nation’s largest swing-state see the question of whether to legalize medical marijuana as a rare source of hope and high voter turnout in this year’s midterm elections.

Party operatives are pushing a constitutional amendment that would make Florida the first state in the South to legalize some pot use. Polls show the measure has widespread public support, and it’s particularly popular among young voters — a critical part of the Democratic coalition with historically weak turnout in non-presidential election years.   Continue reading “Medical pot measure could boost Fla. Democrats”

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DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said Sunday that reports of a poison gas attack in a rural village north of Damascus were so far “unsubstantiated,” adding that the United States was trying to establish what really happened before it considers a response.

Both sides in Syria’s civil war blamed each other for the alleged attack that reportedly injured scores of people Friday amid an ongoing international effort to rid the country of chemical weapons. The details of what happened in Kfar Zeita, an opposition-held village in Hama province some 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of Damascus, remain murky. Online videos posted by rebel activists showed pale-faced men, women and children gasping for breath at what appeared to be a field hospital. They suggested an affliction by some kind of poison — and yet another clouded incident where both sides blame each other in a conflict that activists say has killed more than 150,000 people with no end in sight.   Continue reading “Official: US looking into Syria toxic gas reports”

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NEW YORK (AP) — Jury selection begins Monday in the trial of a disabled Egyptian Islamic preacher extradited from Great Britain on charges he conspired to support al-Qaida, in part by trying to create a training camp in Oregon 15 years ago.

The trial of Mustafa Kamel Mustafa occurs a month after a Manhattan jury convicted Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law and al-Qaida’s spokesman after the 2001 attacks, of charges that will likely result in a life sentence.   Continue reading “Jury to be picked in NY trial of Egyptian preacher”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s the silent enemy in our retirement accounts: High fees.

And now a new study finds that the typical 401(k) fees — adding up to a modest-sounding 1 percent a year — would erase $70,000 from an average worker’s account over a four-decade career compared with lower-cost options. To compensate for the higher fees, someone would have to work an extra three years before retiring.   Continue reading “High fees eroding many 401(k) retirement accounts”

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MOSCOW (AP) — Ukraine’s ousted president has accused the CIA of being behind the new Ukrainian government’s decision to deploy armed forces to quash an increasingly brazen pro-Russian insurgency.

Speaking late Sunday on Russian state television, Viktor Yanukovych claimed that CIA director John Brennan had met with Ukraine’s new leadership and “in fact sanctioned the use of weapons and provoked bloodshed.”   Continue reading “Ukraine’s ousted president puts blame on CIA”

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SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio (AP) — A man accused of harassing a neighbor and her disabled children for the past 15 years sat at a street corner Sunday morning with a sign declaring he’s a bully, a requirement of his sentence.

Municipal Court Judge Gayle Williams-Byers ordered 62-year-old Edmond Aviv to display the sign for five hours Sunday. The judge selected the wording for it: “I AM A BULLY! I pick on children that are disabled, and I am intolerant of those that are different from myself. My actions do not reflect an appreciation for the diverse South Euclid community that I live in.”   Continue reading “Ohio man sits at corner with ‘I AM A BULLY!’ sign”

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SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — A large forest fire raging in the Chilean port city of Valparaiso has killed at least four people and destroyed 500 homes, officials said Sunday. Thousands of people have been evacuated, including more than 200 female inmates at a prison.

Firefighters were having difficulty combating the blaze because of the topography of the city, which is surrounded by dozens of steep hills where most people live. “This is the worst disaster I have seen,” regional governor Ricardo Bravo said. “Now we fear that the fire will spread to the center of the city, which would increase the severity of the emergency.”   Continue reading “4 dead in Chile forest fire; 500 homes destroyed”

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SLOVYANSK, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian special forces exchanged gunfire with a pro-Russia militia in an eastern city Sunday, according to the interior minister, who said one Ukrainian security officer was killed and five others wounded. It was the first reported gunbattle in east Ukraine, where armed pro-Russia men have seized a number of law enforcement buildings in recent days.

Arsen Avakov said in a Facebook post that a Security Service officer was killed in Slovyansk, where the police station and local Security Service office were seized a day earlier by camouflaged armed men. He also reported an unclear number of casualties among the militia.   Continue reading “Ukraine officer killed in gunbattle in east”

RT News

China’s rejection of shipments of US corn containing traces of unapproved genetically modified maize has caused a significant drop in exports. According to a new report, US traders have lost $427 million in sales.

Overall, China has barred nearly 1.45 million tons of corn shipments since last year, the National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA), an American industry association, said Friday.   Continue reading “US corn exports to China drop 85 percent after ban on GMO strains – industry report”

Mail.com

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran has no plans to name a new diplomat to the United Nations, its Foreign Ministry said Saturday, after the United States blocked its pick in a rare rebuke that could stir fresh animosity at a time when the two countries have been seeking a thaw in relations.

The Obama administration said Friday that the U.S. had informed Iran it would not grant a visa to Hamid Aboutalebi, a member of the group responsible for the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. While U.S. officials had been trying to persuade Iran to simply withdraw Aboutalebi’s name, the announcement amounted to an acknowledgement that those efforts had not been successful.   Continue reading “Iran says has no plans to substitute UN envoy pick”

Mail.com

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Phoenix woman accused of throwing a shoe some 60 feet toward Hillary Rodham Clinton appeared aware during questioning by U.S. Secret Service agents of the allegation against her, authorities said Friday.

Alison Michelle Ernst, 36, was given a misdemeanor disorderly conduct summons and freed after she was booked at the Clark County jail, according to a Las Vegas police arrest report. “Ms. Ernst appeared to be in an agitated state but aware of what she had just done,” the report said.   Continue reading “Woman accused of tossing shoe at Clinton released”

Mail.com

SLOVYANSK, Ukraine (AP) — Several dozen armed men seized a police station in a city in eastern Ukraine and hoisted the Russian flag above the building Saturday as tensions in the country’s Russian-speaking regions intensify.

The city of Slovyansk is about 90 kilometers (55 miles) north of the regional center, Donetsk, where pro-Russian protesters have occupied a government building for nearly a week. About 20 men in balaclavas armed with automatic rifles and pistols were guarding the entrance to the police station in the city of about 120,000 people, and another 20 were believed to be inside. They wore St. George’s ribbons, which have become a symbol of pro-Russian protesters in eastern Ukraine. The ribbons were originally associated with the Soviet Union’s victory in World War II.   Continue reading “Armed men seize eastern Ukraine police station”

Mail.com

HOUSTON (AP) — A Houston woman was sentenced to life in prison Friday for fatally stabbing her boyfriend with the 5½-inch stiletto heel of her shoe, striking him at least 25 times in the face and head.

Ana Trujillo was convicted of murder Tuesday by the same jury for killing 59-year-old Alf Stefan Andersson during an argument last June at his Houston condominium. Defense attorneys argued that Trujillo, 45, was defending herself from an attack by Andersson, who was a University of Houston professor and researcher.   Continue reading “Woman gets life in prison in stiletto heel slaying”