Author: Sunfire

Mail.com

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea vowed Monday to bolster its nuclear arsenal and gain revenge of a “thousand-fold” against the United States in response to tough U.N. sanctions imposed following its recent intercontinental ballistic missile tests.

The warning came two days after the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved new sanctions to punish North Korea, including a ban on coal and other exports worth over $1 billion. The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley, called the U.S.-drafted resolution “the single largest economic sanctions package ever leveled against” North Korea.   Continue reading “North Korea vows harsh retaliation against new UN sanctions”

Mail.com

PAULDING, Ohio (AP) — A nationwide manhunt is underway for an Ohio rape suspect who overpowered a sheriff’s deputy in a transport van and stole his gun and ammunition. Paulding County Sheriff Jason Landers said Saturday that FBI agents and U.S. Marshals have joined the search for 32-year-old Branden Powell after his escape around noon Friday on an 80-mile (129-kilometer) trip from a psychiatric hospital in Toledo to the Paulding County Jail in northwest Ohio.

According to Landers, Powell was in leg shackles and in handcuffs secured to a belly belt when he jumped over the seat and put the deputy in a headlock, causing the van to crash into a ditch. Powell managed to get the deputy’s gun during a struggle and ordered the deputy at gunpoint to remove his restraints.   Continue reading “Prisoner charged with rape overpowers deputy, steals his gun”

Mail.com

BREWER, Maine (AP) — Changes in the worldwide sushi industry have turned live baby American eels into a commodity that can fetch more than $2,000 a pound at the dock, but the big demand and big prices have spawned a black market that wildlife officials say is jeopardizing the species.

Law enforcement authorities have launched a crackdown on unlicensed eel fishermen and illicit sales along the East Coast. Although not a well-known seafood item like the Maine lobster, wriggling baby eels, or elvers, are a fishery worth many millions of dollars. Elvers often are sold to Asian aquaculture companies to be raised to maturity and have become a linchpin of the sushi supply chain.   Continue reading “As eels grow in value, US government clamps down on poaching”

RT

Female recruits for the Nebraska State Patrol were forced to undergo exams that were “medically unnecessary and sexually invasive” before being hired, according to a lawsuit filed by one trooper.

State Trooper Brienne Splittgerber, 37, filed a civil rights lawsuit against the Nebraska State Patrol, the state of Nebraska, two former patrol heads and various other people, accusing them of permitting and covering up the sexual assault of female candidates, according to the Associated Press.   Continue reading “Nebraska Patrol accused of forcing female candidates to undergo vaginal exams”

Mail.com

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s president defiantly dismissed allegations that official turnout figures for the election of an all-powerful constituent assembly were manipulated, accusing the international software firm behind the claim of bowing to U.S. pressure to cast doubt over a body that he hopes will entrench an even more staunchly socialist state.

In his first meeting with assembly delegates Wednesday night, President Nicolas Maduro not only stood by the official count of 8 million-plus votes cast in Sunday’s divisive election, but proclaimed that an additional 2 million people would have voted if they hadn’t been blocked by anti-government protesters.   Continue reading “Venezuela president disputes vote tampering allegation”

Mail.com

TAUNTON, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts woman who encouraged her boyfriend to kill himself in dozens of text messages and told him to “get back in” a truck filled with toxic gas faces up to 20 years in prison when a judge sentences her on a charge of involuntary manslaughter.

Michelle Carter was convicted in June by a judge who said her final instruction to Conrad Roy III caused his death. Juvenile Court Judge Lawrence Moniz will sentence Carter Thursday. Carter was 17 when the 18-year-old Roy was found dead of carbon monoxide poisoning in July 2014.   Continue reading “Woman to be sentenced in teen texting suicide case”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has embraced legislation that would dramatically reduce legal immigration and shift the nation toward a system that prioritizes merit and skills over family ties.

Trump joined with Republican Sens. David Perdue of Georgia and Tom Cotton of Arkansas to promote the bill, which so far has gained little traction in the Senate. “This legislation demonstrates our compassion for struggling American families who deserve an immigration system that puts their needs first and puts America first,” Trump said during an event Wednesday in the White House’s Roosevelt Room.   Continue reading “GOP plan to slash legal immigration wins Trump’s support”

RT

A US court has ruled that a US citizen who spent more than three years in federal immigration custody can not sue, because his false imprisonment claim was “untimely.” The Jamaican-American was also denied the $82,500 settlement he previously won.

In a 2-1 vote on Monday, the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Davino Watson, a US citizen held in a New York detention center for 1,273 days, could not sue for damages.   Continue reading “US citizen in immigrant detention for over 3yrs has no right to sue, court rules”

Mail.com

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Latest on developments in Afghanistan (all times local): 4:35 p.m. The Taliban have claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing attack earlier in the day on a NATO convoy in southern Afghanistan.

Qari Yusuf Ahmadi, Taliban spokesman in southern Afghanistan, claimed two armored tanks were destroyed and that 15 foreign soldiers were killed in Wednesday’s attack on the outskirts of the city of Kandahar. The insurgents, however, routinely exaggerate their gains and death tolls.   Continue reading “The Latest: Taliban claim suicide attack on NATO convoy”

Mail.com

LONDON (AP) — Three British men who dubbed themselves the “Three Musketeers” were convicted Wednesday of plotting a bomb attack on troops or police inspired by Islamic extremism. Jurors at London’s Central Criminal Court found 29-year-old Naweed Ali, 25-year-old Khobaib Hussain and Mohibur Rahman, 33, guilty of preparing terrorist acts, after a trial that was partly held in secret for national security reasons.

A fourth defendant, Tahir Aziz, was convicted of the same charge. Prosecutors say the 38-year-old was brought into the plot in its later stages. Ali, Hussain and Rahman met while serving prison terms for terrorism offenses, prosecutors said. They later set up a group on a messaging app called the “Three Musketeers.”   Continue reading “4 UK men convicted of plotting attack on soldiers, police”

Mail.com

Older people are dying on the job at a higher rate than workers overall, even as the rate of workplace fatalities decreases, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal statistics. It’s a trend that’s particularly alarming as baby boomers reject the traditional retirement age of 65 and keep working. The U.S. government estimates that by 2024, older workers will account for 25 percent of the labor market.

Getting old — and the physical changes associated with it — “could potentially make a workplace injury into a much more serious injury or a potentially fatal injury,” said Ken Scott, an epidemiologist with the Denver Public Health Department.   Continue reading “Older people dying on job at higher rate than all workers”

RT

Ukrainian state-owned energy firm Centrenergo has signed a contract with America’s Xcoal Energy & Resources to supply 700,000 tons of coal to Ukraine this year.

“This contract was signed in fulfillment of the agreements between the presidents of Ukraine and the United States reached during our president’s visit to America in June,” said Centrenergo head Oleg Kozenko.   Continue reading “Ukraine signs deal to buy American coal”

Mail.com

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Two of Venezuela’s leading opposition figures were taken from their homes in the middle of the night by state security agents on Tuesday in President Nicolas Maduro’s government’s first moves against prominent enemies since a widely denounced vote granting the ruling party nearly unlimited powers.

The Venezuelan Supreme Court said in a statement that Leopoldo Lopez and Antonio Ledezma had violated the terms of their house arrest by criticizing the government in messages released on social media in recent days.   Continue reading “Court says 2 Venezuela opposition leaders back to prison”

Mail.com

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A former St. Louis police officer’s murder trial that begins this week is expected to hinge on videos and DNA evidence that have raised questions about the officer’s actions after the shooting and the weapon recovered by police.

Jason Stockley, who’s white, is charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the 2011 shooting death of Anthony Lamar Smith, a black 24-year-old. Charges were filed last year after then-Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce cited unspecified new evidence. The trial, the latest of several across the U.S. involving the fatal police shootings of black men, begins Tuesday and is expected to last two weeks.   Continue reading “Videos, DNA evidence may be key in St. Louis officer’s trial”

Mail.com

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A dozen inmates escaped from an Alabama jail by using peanut butter to change the numbers above a door and trick a new employee into opening another door that led outside, a sheriff said Monday.

The inmates changed the number above a cell to the number that identified the door leading outside the jail. So when an inmate asked a young, inexperienced jailer to let him into his cell, the jailer was fooled into opening the outside door instead.   Continue reading “Jailbreak: Inmates used peanut butter to fool guard”

RT

Outback Steakhouse is being accused of running a satanic cult after its chain of restaurants was found to be suspiciously located in several cities across the country.

The restaurant chain’s controversial association was uncovered by one inquisitive Twitter user who, with the help of Google maps and Microsoft Paint, showed that the restaurants were geo-located in the shape of a pentagram in New York, Indianapolis, Phoenix and Atlanta.   Continue reading “Bizarre ‘satanic cult’ accusations levelled at restaurant chain”

Mail.com

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California has as many homeless sex offenders now as it did 2½ years ago, when a state Supreme Court ruling that overturned restrictions on where they could live was seen as a way to increase housing options and allow law enforcement to better track them.

Sex offenders must register with the state and provide new addresses when they move. Those who are homeless are less apt to keep their locations updated and more likely to commit new crimes. The number of homeless offenders more than tripled after voters banned sex offenders from living near schools and parks a decade ago, and it was thought the number would fall with the Supreme Court’s March 2015 decision.  Continue reading “California seeks solutions to homeless sex offender rate”

Mail.com

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s socialist government claimed a popular mandate to dramatically recast the country’s political system even as the United States pledged potentially devastating oil sanctions on Monday and condemnations of the process poured in from governments around the world and the opposition at home.

Electoral authorities said more than 8 million people voted Sunday to create a constitutional assembly endowing President Nicolas Maduro’s ruling party with virtually unlimited powers — a figure widely disputed by independent analysts.   Continue reading “Venezuela defiant as US moves to sanction oil industry”

Mail.com

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — An official crucial to running Kenya’s presidential election next week has been found tortured and killed, the electoral commission chairman said Monday, as concerns grew that the East African nation’s vote again would face dangerous unrest.

Wafula Chebukati helped identify the body of Christopher Msando at the city morgue and said he had injuries to the neck and head. Mssando had been reported missing a few days ago. “This is a brutal murder of our employee and we are demanding to know who killed him and why,” Chebukati said. “We are demanding government provide security to all IEBC (electoral commission) staff.”   Continue reading “Kenya election official tortured, killed days before vote”