Mail.com

DALLAS (AP) — The owner of a now-closed orphanage in India where a young girl was living before a Texas couple adopted her last year says the child had no difficulty eating despite her adoptive father’s account to police when reporting her missing.

The body of 3-year-old Sherin Mathews was found Sunday in suburban Dallas in a culvert under a road about a half-mile from her parents’ home. Police and volunteers had been searching for the girl since Oct. 7.   Continue reading “Orphanage owner in India: Texas girl had no eating problem”

RT

One of the world’s top energy importers, China, is set to roll out a yuan-denominated oil contract as early as this year. Analysts call the plan, announced by Beijing in September, a huge move against the dollar’s global dominance.

The so-called petro-yuan is a “wake up call” for investors who haven’t paid attention to the Chinese plans, according to the head of Graticule Asset Management Asia Adam Levinson, as quoted by Bloomberg.   Continue reading “China’s launch of ‘petro-yuan’ in two months sounds death knell for dollar’s dominance”

Mail.com

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Three tourists visiting San Francisco two years ago testified Tuesday that they saw a man — now charged with murder — on a popular pier moments after hearing a gunshot that killed a woman and reignited the national debate over illegal immigration.

All three witnesses were called to testify on the second day of the trial of Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, a Mexican national who was arrested an hour after 32-year-old Kate Steinle was shot and killed on July 1, 2015, while walking with her father and a family friend.  Continue reading “Witnesses say they saw suspect leave pier after shooting”

Mail.com

GRAMBLING, La. (AP) — A student and his friend were fatally shot at a university in Louisiana after an altercation that began in a dorm room and ended in a courtyard, authorities said Wednesday. The shooter remained at large. Authorities didn’t immediately release a suspect’s description or identify a possible motive for the shooting.

Lincoln Parish Sheriff’s spokesman Stephen Williams said detectives joined campus police investigating the double homicide at Grambling State University after getting 911 calls starting at 12:04 a.m. The historically black university in northern Louisiana has an enrollment of nearly 5,000 students.   Continue reading “2 killed on Grambling State campus; shooter at large”

RT – by Dan Glazebrook

Exactly six years ago, on October 20th, 2011, Muammar Gaddafi was murdered, joining a long list of African revolutionaries martyred by the West for daring to dream of continental independence.

Earlier that day, Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirte had been occupied by Western-backed militias, following a month-long battle during which NATO and its ‘rebel’ allies pounded the city’s hospitals and homes with artillery, cut off its water and electricity, and publicly proclaimed their desire to ‘starve [the city] into submission’. The last defenders of the city, including Gaddafi, fled Sirte that morning, but their convoy was tracked and strafed by NATO jets, killing 95 people. Gaddafi escaped the wreckage but was captured shortly afterward. I will spare you the gruesome details, which the Western media gloatingly broadcast across the world as a triumphant snuff movie, suffice to say that he was tortured and eventually shot dead.   Continue reading “West eyes recolonization of Africa by endless war; removing Gaddafi was just first step”

RT

Jurors in the trial of an illegal immigrant charged with the 2015 murder of a 32-year-old San Francisco woman were told to ignore both immigration and gun control. The suspect had been deported from the US five times, but kept returning to the “sanctuary city.”

Opening statements in the trial of Jose Ines Garcia Zarate began Monday at the Superior Court of California in San Francisco. Zarate, 54, is accused of killing Katherine “Kate” Steinle as she sat with her father on San Francisco’s Pier 14 in July 2015.  Continue reading “Murder trial begins for illegal immigrant who sparked ‘sanctuary city’ debate”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — The large building at the corner of 22nd and R streets in downtown Washington, D.C., sticks out like a wart in the otherwise upscale neighborhood. Plywood covers the windows, sleeping bags and empty bottles litter the shuttered doorways and head-high weeds sprout through the asphalt of the empty fenced-off parking lot.

For a solid decade, neighbors and local political leaders complained bitterly about the condition of the former Pakistani consulate. But the city remained powerless to do anything as long as the building was classified by the State Department as a diplomatic property.   Continue reading “Down and out in DC: What can be done about diplomatic dumps?”

Mail.com

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Fears of a serial killer have police in Tampa escorting children to school in one neighborhood near downtown, and a city bus changed its usual route. Three people have been shot to death in the past two weeks within a 1-mile (1.6-kilometer) radius in the normally quiet Seminole Heights neighborhood. Police believe the shootings are linked by proximity and time frame, but they don’t have a motive or a suspect.

The three victims did not know each other, but all three rode the bus and were alone when they were shot on the street. None were robbed. “I’m afraid,” said Maria Maldonado, who lives near the scene of two of the shootings, about 300 yards apart. The other was less than a mile away.   Continue reading “Serial killer fears: Area of Tampa on edge after 3 killings”

RT

As one of the world’s most expensive places to own a vehicle, Singapore is to cap the number of vehicles on its streets next year due to lack of space. The move is in conjunction with efforts to improve the nation’s public transport system.

According to the Land Transport Authority (LTA), no more extra vehicles will be allowed in the city-state cutting the current 0.25 percent annual increase in the number of cars and motorcycles to zero. The rate will be reviewed in 2020.   Continue reading “Singapore to limit number of cars on its roads from 2018”

Mail.com

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) — The judge deciding Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s punishment said Monday he is concerned that President Donald Trump’s comments about the case could impact the public’s perception of the military justice system.

Sentencing for Bergdahl on charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy was set to begin Monday, but the judge, Army Col. Jeffery R. Nance, instead heard arguments about a last-minute motion by defense attorneys that recent comments by Trump are preventing Bergdahl from getting a fair sentence. Bergdahl faces life in prison on charges that he endangered comrades by walking off his post in Afghanistan in 2009.  Continue reading “Military judge in Bergdahl case worries about Trump impact”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. John McCain, a former Navy pilot and prisoner of war during Vietnam, issued a veiled criticism of President Donald Trump’s medical deferments that kept him from serving in the U.S. military during the conflict.

In an interview with C-SPAN that aired Sunday, the six-term Arizona lawmaker lamented that the military “drafted the lowest income level of America and the highest income level found a doctor that would say they had a bone spur.”   Continue reading “McCain issues veiled criticism of Trump’s Vietnam deferment”

Mail.com

BEIRUT (AP) — The bodies of at least 67 Syrian civilians, many summarily killed by the Islamic State group, have been discovered in a central town in Syria retaken from IS by government troops over the weekend, the Syrian government and activists said Monday.

A senior Syrian official described the attack as a “shocking massacre,” saying the search and documentation of those killed in the town of Qaryatayn, in Homs province, is still under way. The news of the gruesome find began to emerge first late on Sunday. The number of bodies was likely to climb.   Continue reading “At least 67 civilians found dead in Syria town taken from IS”

RT

Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS, ISIL) and Al-Qaeda terrorists are plotting to take down a plane and carry out a devastating explosion on the scale of 9/11, senior US security official Elaine Duke warns.

“The terrorist organizations, be it ISIS or Al-Qaeda or others, want to have the big explosion like they did on 9/11. They want to take down aircraft, the intelligence is clear on that,” the acting US secretary of homeland security said during a visit to the UK, as cited by British media.   Continue reading “‘Severe threat’: ISIS & Al-Qaeda planning 9/11-style ‘big explosion,’ US security chief warns”

Mail.com

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A judge on Wednesday halted the execution of a man known as the Houston area’s “Tourniquet Killer” so authorities can investigate an alleged scheme in which the inmate says a fellow death row prisoner asked him to confess to another killing.

Anthony Allen Shore was scheduled to be given a lethal injection Wednesday evening, but the judge withdrew the execution warrant at prosecutors’ request just hours before Shore was set to die. His death was rescheduled for Jan. 18.   Continue reading “Texas man’s execution halted amid alleged confession scheme”

Mail.com

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — A white former Oklahoma police officer was convicted of first-degree manslaughter late Wednesday in the off-duty fatal shooting of his daughter’s black boyfriend after jurors in three previous trials couldn’t decide whether to find him guilty of murder.

Jurors deliberated about six hours before finding ex-Tulsa officer Shannon Kepler, 57, guilty of the lesser charge in the August 2014 killing of 19-year-old Jeremey Lake, who had just started dating Kepler’s then-18-year-old daughter, Lisa.   Continue reading “Jury convicts ex-Oklahoma police officer in 4th murder trial”

Mail.com

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — A sweeping multistate manhunt that kept the Mid-Atlantic region on high alert for more than 10 hours ended when law enforcement officers on foot chased down a man they say shot six people, killing three, in two separate shootings.

Radee Prince, 37, of Elkton, Maryland, shot five co-workers early Wednesday at a granite company in Maryland, then drove to Wilmington, Delaware, and shot an acquaintance in the head at a used car lot, police in Maryland and Delaware said.   Continue reading “Police capture shooter they say targeted 6 people he knew”

RT

A US court on Tuesday overturned a judgment against pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson (J&J) in favor of the family of a woman whose death from ovarian cancer they claimed stemmed from her use of the company’s talc-based products.

The Missouri Court of Appeals for the Eastern District said the case over Alabama resident Jacqueline Fox’s death should not have been tried in St. Louis. The decision is based on a recent US Supreme Court decision which limited where personal injury lawsuits could be filed.   Continue reading “Johnson & Johnson wins appeal in $72mn talc cancer risk verdict”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — A chief sponsor of a bipartisan Senate deal to curb the growth of health insurance premiums said Wednesday President Donald Trump called to offer encouragement, a day after the president spoke favorably of the pact but then reversed course.

The mixed signals from the White House have created confusion even as voters face the prospect of dramatic premium spikes absent congressional action. “I think he wants to reserve his options,” Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee told an Axios forum on Wednesday after the president’s call. Alexander said Trump wanted “to be encouraging,” and the senator predicted that his deal would pass “in one form or another” by year’s end.   Continue reading “Health care plan sponsor says Trump offers encouragement”

Mail.com

HONOLULU (AP) — Just hours before President Donald Trump’s latest travel ban was to take full effect, a federal judge in Hawaii blocked the revised order, saying the policy has the same problems as a previous version.

The revised order “suffers from precisely the same maladies as its predecessor,” U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson wrote in his ruling, which prevented the Trump administration from enforcing the travel ban set to go into effect early Wednesday.  Continue reading “Judge: Newest travel ban ‘same maladies’ as previous version”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday said a Florida congresswoman “fabricated” an account of the commander in chief telling the widow of a soldier killed in an ambush in Niger that her husband “knew what he signed up for.”‘

Democratic Rep. Frederica Wilson said she was in the car with Myeshia Johnson on Tuesday on the way to Miami International Airport to meet the body of Johnson’s husband, Sgt. La David Johnson, when Trump called. Wilson said she and others heard part of the conversation on speakerphone.   Continue reading “Trump: Lawmaker ‘fabricated’ account of his talk with widow”