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IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — A top Iraqi commander told The Associated Press that the operation to retake the city of Mosul from the Islamic State group could be complete in three months or less. “It’s possible” that Mosul will be liberated in in that time frame, Lt. Gen. Talib Shaghati said in an interview with the AP on Tuesday evening. However, he warned it is difficult to give an accurate estimate of how long the operation will take because it is not a conventional fight.   Continue reading “Top Iraqi commander: Mosul could be liberated in 3 months”

RT

Prisoners defying orders to return to their cells have caused the evacuation of correctional officers from a unit of Souza Baranowski Correctional Center, a maximum-security prison in Massachusetts. Crisis negotiators engaged, and no injuries were reported.

On Monday, police responded to a situation at the Souza Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, Massachusetts, where 51 inmates refused to be locked back in their cells.   Continue reading “51 inmates refuse orders to return to cells at Massachusetts max security prison”

Mail.com

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — The assault on Emanuel AME Church left a total of 12 victims: Nine who were killed that June night and three who survived the hail of bullets in the basement of the beautiful, historic structure in downtown Charleston.

Now, after hearing testimony from relatives of those slain in the 2015 attack during a Wednesday night Bible study, the focus in Dylann Roof’s trial again switches to a new set of 12 people: the jury.   Continue reading “Roof’s fate soon will rest in hands of 12 federal jurors”

Mail.com

DALLAS (AP) — A white Texas policeman was suspended without pay for 10 days, but will not be fired, after an incident in which he was caught on video wrestling a black woman and her daughter to the ground, Fort Worth Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald announced Monday.

Fitzgerald said the officer, identified by department officials as William Martin, violated policy, is sorry for his behavior and is eager to resume active duty at the end of the suspension. He said he has asked Martin, who will also be required to undergo additional training, to go back into the same community when the suspension ends “to repair relationships.”   Continue reading “Policeman suspended but not fired after video incident”

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ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Orlando’s law enforcement community is mourning the fatal shooting of an Orlando Police Department sergeant who was killed as she approached a fugitive outside a Wal-Mart store and an Orange County Sheriff’s Office deputy who died in a traffic accident more than two hours later while responding to a manhunt for the suspect in the officer’s slaying.

Master Sgt. Debra Clayton, 42, was killed outside a Wal-Mart store in northwest Orlando early Monday, and Orange County Sheriff’s Office Deputy First Class Norman Lewis was killed in a crash while responding to a manhunt for 41-year-old Markeith Loyd.   Continue reading “Orlando mourns deaths of 2 law enforcement officers”

RT

The problem with the upcoming Syria peace talks is whether “the real opposition” will be represented, Syrian President Bashar Assad told French media, following a visit by French MPs to the liberated city of Aleppo.

Assad said that a Syrian government delegation is ready to leave for the Russian and Turkish-brokered negotiations in Astana, Kazakhstan, as soon as is necessary.   Continue reading “Assad on Syria peace talks: ‘We’re ready to discuss anything, but who will be on other side?’”

RT

A man arrested in the biggest “drug bust of the year” in Harris County, Texas, has been cleared after police realized it was kitty litter and not methamphetamine that they had arrested him for.

Police had pulled Ross LeBeau over for a traffic violation in December when they discovered what they thought was a large, half pound stash of methamphetamine hidden in a sock in his car.   Continue reading “‘Bust of the year’: Texas cops mistake kitty litter for meth, hold suspect for 3 days”

Mail.com

ATLANTA (AP) — Congressional Republicans’ drive to repeal the 2010 health care law has financial and political repercussions for GOP leaders in the states and gives Democrats potential openings as they struggle to reclaim power lost during President Barack Obama’s tenure.

Some Republican governors, in particular, are wary about what their Washington colleagues might do with Obama’s signature law, exposing a fissure in a party that has consolidated control in the nation’s capital and dozens of statehouses around the country in accompaniment with President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in November.   Continue reading “State GOP wary as Republicans push repeal of health law”

Mail.com

KARAK, Jordan (AP) — Bullet marks on the thick walls of a Crusader fortress and shattered windows of nearby tourist restaurants — damage from a recent shooting rampage — bear witness to Jordan’s vulnerability to attacks by Islamic extremists.

Some say the assault on Karak Castle by Jordanian followers of the Islamic State group could signal a more aggressive campaign to destabilize the pro-Western kingdom. A senior security official said the Karak attackers had planned multiple attacks in Jordan on New Year’s Eve.   Continue reading “Castle attack exposes Jordan’s vulnerability to IS threat”

RT

A veteran Detroit Police Officer is being investigated for calling residents of the city ‘garbage‘ and for boasting about using physical violence against children.

Officer Daniel Wolff made the inflammatory statements on Facebook under an article published on the Motorcity Muckraker website which revealed that a record number of Detroit police now live outside of the city.   Continue reading “Detroit police officer calls citizens ‘garbage’, brags about hitting ‘kids’”

RT

A B-52 Stratofortress bomber lost one of its eight engines while conducting a training flight off Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota.

“Earlier today, a B-52 dropped an engine while in flight,” a US Air Force spokesperson told Military.com in an email on Wednesday. “The aircraft landed safely with no injuries.”

The engine broke up and debris landed in an unpopulated area, the report said. No immediate information of injuries or damage on the ground was available.   Continue reading “B-52 loses engine over North Dakota”

Mail.com

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — Days after Donald Trump won the White House vowing to deport millions of people in the country illegally and fortify the Mexican border, California farmer Kevin Herman ordered nearly $600,000 in new equipment, cutting the number of workers he’ll need starting with the next harvest.

Herman, who grows figs, persimmons and almonds in the nation’s most productive farming state, said Trump’s comments pushed him to make the purchase, larger than he would have otherwise. “No doubt about it,” Herman said. “I probably wouldn’t have spent as much or bought as much machinery as I did.”   Continue reading “Trump’s deportation vow spurs California farmers into action”

Mail.com

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Much of Northern California and the Sierra Nevada braced for potential flooding into the weekend as a winter storm that dumped more than 2 feet of snow around Lake Tahoe made its way toward Utah and the Rockies.

Stiff winds toppled a towering evergreen tree into an Oregon home, killing an 8-year-old girl, while blizzard conditions closed major highways and triggered a small avalanche in the Sierra on Wednesday as wet, windy storms pummeled much of the West.   Continue reading “Wet, winter storms pummel West; headed for Rockies”

Mail.com

SEATTLE (AP) — Dungeness crab could be harder to come by if hundreds of fishing boats remain tied up at docks from California to Washington state by a dispute between crabbers and seafood processors over the price of the sought-after crustaceans.

Crab fleets that have been fishing in parts of Oregon and near San Francisco are now anchored, and other vessels in Washington state and northern California have opted not to go out as their season gears up, said John Corbin, a commercial crab fisherman in Warrenton, Oregon, and chairman of the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission.  Continue reading “Crab boats tied up as strike extends up and down West Coast”

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TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — An Israeli soldier was convicted of manslaughter on Wednesday in the deadly shooting of an incapacitated Palestinian attacker, capping a nine-month saga that has deeply divided the country.

The verdict, which marks an extremely rare case of an Israeli military court siding against a soldier over lethal action taken in the field, threatened to deepen the rift. Military commanders have condemned the soldier’s conduct while much of the public, along with leading members of the nationalist ruling coalition, have rallied behind him.   Continue reading “Israeli soldier convicted in death of Palestinian assailant”

Mail.com

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (AP) — Mass murderer Charles Manson was taken from his California prison cell to a hospital, according to several news reports. A prison official would only confirm that the 82-year-old Manson was alive and gave no other information.

Manson was convicted of orchestrating the 1969 murders of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six others. The cult leader attracted disaffected young people who lived in in a commune, followed his orders and were ultimately turned into killers.   Continue reading “Official: Charles Manson alive amid report he’s hospitalized”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump warned congressional Republicans on Wednesday against letting Democrats dodge blame for problems with President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, even as the GOP-led Congress takes initial steps toward dismantling the law.

“Massive increases of ObamaCare will take place this year and Dems are to blame for the mess,” the president-elect said in three tweets, using the statute’s nickname. “It will fall of its own weight — be careful!”   Continue reading “Obama, Pence to Capitol as health care overhaul fight begins”

RT

Swiss police say they have located the gunman who shot two policemen during a house search in Rehetobel in the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden.

The police said in a new statement that “there is no danger to the population” and “that is not a terrorist act.”   Continue reading “Armed & ‘dangerous’ gunman located in Switzerland after shooting 2 policemen”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — Members of the 115th Congress will be sworn in at noon Tuesday, setting off an aggressive campaign by Republicans who control the House and Senate to dismantle eight years of President Barack Obama’s Democratic policies.

The first and biggest target is Obama’s health care law, which Republicans have long sought to gut and blamed as a primary cause for a lackluster economic recovery. But decades-old programs that millions of Americans rely on every day, such as Social Security and Medicare, also will be in the crosshairs as congressional Republicans seek to shrink both the size of the federal budget and the bureaucracy in Washington.   Continue reading “Republicans primed for push to dismantle Obama’s policies”

Mail.com

At least five people have been killed as severe storms moved across the Southeast, bringing heavy rain and strong winds. The line of severe thunderstorms spawned several possible tornadoes, and the threat continued into Tuesday moring for southern Alabama, southwest Georgia and the Florida Panhandle.

Four people were killed Monday evening when a tree fell on their mobile home in Rehobeth, Alabama, said Kris Ware, a spokeswoman for the Dothan Houston County Emergency Management Agency. Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley said in a statement on social media that the Houston County sheriff had told him about the deaths and he offered “prayers for those impacted.”   Continue reading “South bracing for more severe storms, rain”