Author: Sunfire

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JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A new, 9-meter (29.5-foot) sculpture of Nelson Mandela is billed as the biggest statue of the South African leader. It also has a tiny, barely visible quirk: a sculpted rabbit tucked inside one of the bronze ears.

South African officials want the miniature bunny removed from the statue, which was unveiled outside the government complex in Pretoria, the capital, on Dec. 16, a day after Mandela’s funeral. The department of arts and culture said it didn’t know the two sculptors, Andre Prinsloo and Ruhan Janse van Vuuren, had added a rabbit, said to be a discreet signature on their work.   Continue reading “Quirky bunny on Mandela statue causes stir”

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An Indiana police chief’s day ended with a bang when he accidentally shot himself in the leg on Saturday – the second time in his career that he’s turned his own gun on his body.

David Councellor is running to become Fayette County’s new sheriff, but he chose the wrong way to make headlines when he unintentionally discharged his 40-caliber Glock handgun while perusing other firearms at a local gun shop.   Continue reading “Indiana police chief accidentally shoots himself for the second time”

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Dozens of residents from a rural Texas community traveled to the state capital on Tuesday to demand that regulators act immediately to ban hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, amidst allegations it’s to blame for a spate of recent earthquakes.

The Azle, TX area north of Fort Worth has experienced no fewer than 30 earthquakes since November, and residents say it’s a result of increased fracking activity.   Continue reading “Texans angrily protest fracking after 30 earthquakes hit town”

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KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Thousands of anti-government demonstrators clashed for hours with riot police in Ukraine’s capital Sunday, attacking officers with sticks, stones and flares after new laws were passed to stifle protests. Dozens of people, including more than 20 police, were injured.

The protesters, many wearing hard hats and gas masks in defiance of the new legislation, also used stun grenades and fire extinguishers on officers. A police bus was set on fire, and some activists broke pavement into chunks.   Continue reading “Protesters, police clash in Ukraine’s capital”

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Retail giant Amazon is revolutionizing the way online purchases are made, with a new patent scheme that would see items shipped out, before the customer buys them.

On Christmas eve, Amazon patented the “anticipatory package shipping” process which is expected to expedite shipments through sending specific items to distribution centers near those customers who the company expects to buy them in the near future. The destination will be based on a number of “business variables”, including customer’s purchase history, wish lists, saved searches, and general search data.    Continue reading “Get it before you buy it: Amazon patents ‘anticipatory package shipping’”

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BANNU, Pakistan (AP) — A Taliban bombing inside an army compound in northwest Pakistan killed at least 20 troops Sunday, officials and militants said, in one of the deadliest attacks to target the country’s forces as they battle insurgents in its volatile frontier.

The blast targeted a vehicle in a convoy about to leave a military base in the town of Bannu and drive west to the North Waziristan tribal area, police official Inyat Ali Khan said. Pakistan’s military said the blast wounded 30 troops.   Continue reading “Taliban bombing kills 20 troops in Pakistan”

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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philadelphia police say a boy charged with aggravated assault was expected to surrender Saturday in connection with a shooting that wounded two students at a high school gymnasium.

Police say another boy already in custody in Friday’s shooting at the Delaware Valley Charter High School in north Philadelphia has not been charged yet. Police aren’t identifying either boy because of their age, but say they’ve been in contact with the second suspect’s parents, which is why they expected him to turn himself in.   Continue reading “Police: 2nd Philly school suspect to surrender”

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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The smell lingers — the slightly sweet, slightly bitter odor of a chemical that contaminated the water supply of West Virginia’s capital more than a week ago. It creeps out of faucets and shower heads. It wafts from the Elk River, the site of the spill. Sometimes it hangs in the cold nighttime air.

For several days, a majority of Charleston-area residents have been told their water is safe to drink, that the concentration of a chemical used to wash coal is so low that it won’t be harmful. Restaurants have reopened — using tap water to wash dishes and produce, clean out their soda fountains and make ice.   Continue reading “Many remain wary of W.Va. water as smell lingers”

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CAIRO (AP) — Almost everyone who cast ballots supported Egypt’s new constitution in this week’s referendum, results announced Saturday show, but a boycott by Islamists and low youth turnout suggest the country is still dangerously divided.

Nearly 20 million voters backed the new constitution, almost double the number of those who voted for one drafted in 2012 under the government of toppled Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. Only a narrow sliver of voters — 1.9 percent — voted against the charter, after a massive government-sponsored campaign supporting it and the arrest of activists campaigning against it.   Continue reading “Voters overwhelmingly back new Egypt constitution”

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WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The U.S. Election Assistance Commission found Friday that heightened proof-of-citizenship requirements likely would hinder eligible citizens from voting in federal elections, handing down a ruling that denied requests from Kansas, Arizona and Georgia to modify the registration form for their residents.

The decision came just hours before a court-imposed deadline in a lawsuit filed in federal court by Kansas and Arizona that seeks to force the commission to modify state-specific requirements for registering to vote in those states. Georgia, which has a similar voter registration law, is not part of the litigation but was included in the commission’s decision.   Continue reading “Feds deny state bids to tighten voter registration”

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SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Gunmen killed an Iranian diplomat in a drive-by shooting in Yemen’s capital Saturday, security and medical officials said, the latest attack on Iran’s diplomatic corps in the Middle East in recent months.

Iranian state television announced that Ali Asghar Asadi, Iran’s economic attaché in Sanaa, was “martyred.” The broadcast said Asadi was attacked while driving and suffered four gunshot wounds to the chest and stomach. It did not elaborate.   Continue reading “Officials: Iranian diplomat killed in Yemen”

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NEW YORK (AP) — Actor Russell Johnson, who became known to generations of TV fans as “The Professor,” the fix-it man who kept his fellow “Gilligan’s Island” castaways supplied with gadgets, has died. He was 89.

Johnson died Thursday morning at his home in Washington State of natural causes, said his agent, Mike Eisenstadt. Johnson was a busy but little-known character actor when he was cast in the slapstick 1960s comedy about seven people marooned on an uncharted Pacific island.   Continue reading “Russell Johnson, ‘Gilligan’ professor, has died”

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The Pentagon is cutting its order for Littoral class warships for the US Navy to 32 from the original 52 due to budget cuts and the poor performance of the vessel. One top Pentagon official has said the ship was “not expected to be survivable” in combat.

The decision was announced in a Jan. 6 memo from acting Deputy Secretary of Defense Christine Fox after the Pentagon received its final fiscal year 2015 budget guidance from the White House. The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program was one of many acquisition decisions put on hold as budget considerations were being finalized, according to Navy Times.   Continue reading “Pentagon cuts order for Navy warship critics call ‘unsurvivable’ in combat”

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Security researchers have discovered the first broad Internet-of-Things cyberattack, targeting household gadgets and appliances, including at least one refrigerator.

Proofpoint, a vendor that offers data protection services, said Thursday it had uncovered an unprecedented hack that encompassed “more than 750,000 malicious email communications coming from more than 100,000 everyday consumer gadgets such as home-networking routers, connected multi-media centers, televisions and at least one refrigerator that had been compromised and used as a platform to launch attacks.”   Continue reading “Beware the fridge? Hackers targeting ‘smart’ home appliances”

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JERUSALEM (AP) — An Israeli draft law that would criminalize the use of the word Nazi in most cases has sparked a debate on freedom of speech in a state that was founded out of the ashes of the Holocaust.

Seven decades later, memories of the extermination of millions of Jews during World War II permeate virtually every aspect of life in Israel. Public figures and interest groups frequently invoke the World War II genocide to score political points, and the word and Nazi symbols have slipped into Israeli discourse over the years.   Continue reading “Israeli bill to outlaw the word Nazi sparks ire”

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The former US Army intelligence analyst who was found guilty of releasing the largest set of classified documents in US history will be honored in absentia for her role in exposing the dark nature of civilian casualties in Iraq.

Chelsea Manning (formerly Bradley Manning), currently incarcerated at Leavenworth Prison, will be recognized at a ceremony in absentia at Oxford University’s prestigious Oxford Union Society “for casting much-needed daylight on the true toll and cause of civilian casualties in Iraq; human rights abuses by U.S. and “coalition” forces, mercenaries, and contractors; and the roles that spying and bribery play in international diplomacy,” according to the press release, published by activist and author David Swanson.   Continue reading “Chelsea Manning awarded 2014 Sam Adams Prize for Integrity in Intelligence”

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BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The family of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was captured more than four years ago in Afghanistan, says a new video of the soldier believed to have been taken in the last month has bolstered its resolve to bring him home safely to Idaho.

U.S. officials confirmed Wednesday they’d received the video several days ago. They said it shows Bergdahl, now 27, in poorer health than previous footage taken in the years since he went missing in Afghanistan on June 30, 2009.   Continue reading “Video sparks hope for captured soldier’s family”

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SPARKS, Nev. (AP) — State wildlife officials are trying to figure out why all the fish have died in a northern Nevada marina where the stocked fishery has flourished since the man-made lake was created nearly 15 years ago.

An estimated 100,000 trout, bass and catfish have died over the past month in the Sparks Marina along U.S. Interstate 80 east of Reno, apparently the result of a dramatic, unexplained drop in dissolved oxygen levels, Nevada Department of Wildlife spokesman Chris Healy said Wednesday.   Continue reading “Thousands of fish dead in Nevada marina mystery”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Jackie Nussbaum knew her son liked playing DragonVale on the family iPad — a colorful game with soothing music and chirping birds where kids raise adorable baby dragons. What she didn’t realize was that he was buying virtual gems — with real money — to build his dragon park as part of the game.

When she opened her credit card statement, she saw a slew of charges from Apple, totaling $600 in one day. “I thought it was a mistake, that someone had stolen my credit card,” said Nussbaum, a mother of two children in Westerville, Ohio. Apple told her the charges were valid purchases from the game DragonVale.   Continue reading “Apple agrees to refund $32.5M for kids’ purchases”

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Biotech titan Monsanto has made significant advances in the development of herbicide-tolerant wheat, the company announced recently, and could have the first-of-its-kind crop ready for farming in just a few years’ time.

Genetically-modified wheat isn’t legally approved anywhere in the world, but the billion-dollar St. Louis, Missouri-based agriculture company has for years been determined to develop the first GMO variety of the cash crop. Now Monsanto’s chief technology officer thinks the company is on the right track with regards to research.   Continue reading “Monsanto readies first-ever GMO wheat”