Author: Sunfire

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BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — President Barack Obama says the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is examining whether the four-state Dakota Access oil pipeline can be rerouted in southern North Dakota to alleviate the concerns of American Indians.

Obama told the online news outlet NowThis that his administration is monitoring the situation closely but will “let it play out for several more weeks.” “As a general rule, my view is that there is a way for us to accommodate sacred lands of Native Americans, and I think that right now the Army Corps is examining whether there are ways to reroute this pipeline,” Obama said an interview Tuesday.   Continue reading “Obama says Army Corps examining Dakota oil pipeline route”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — An increasing number of people from far-flung corners of the world quietly have tried to sneak into the United States among the hundreds of thousands of other, mostly Latin American migrants caught at the Mexican border in the last year, according to arrest data from the Homeland Security Department.

The arrests of more than 8,000 people from India, China, Romania, Bangladesh and Nepal between October 2015 and the end of August is offering a new challenge to immigration agents tasked with fully identifying would-be immigrants and quickly deporting people caught crossing the border illegally.   Continue reading “More migrants from around the world making way to US border”

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BALTIMORE (AP) — Police say a school bus and a commuter bus crashed in Baltimore, killing six people. Baltimore Police tweeted that no children were aboard the school bus that crashed early Tuesday morning.

Baltimore public schools spokeswoman Anne Fullerton says no students are among the fatalities. University of Maryland Medical Center spokeswoman Lisa Clough says the hospital received one patient in critical condition and four others in fair condition.   Continue reading “Police: 6 dead after buses collide in Baltimore”

RT

New York City’s Metropolitan Opera was forced to cancel its Saturday afternoon performance after unidentified powder, allegedly human ashes, was sprinkled into the orchestra pit.

Investigators said the man, whose name has not been disclosed, was in front of the first row of seats when he scattered a dust-like substance into the orchestra pit during the second intermission of Rossini’s William Tell opera on Saturday. Luckily, no musicians were in the pit at the time.    Continue reading “Man scatters ‘friend’s ashes’ in NYC Met Opera prompting evacuation”

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BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s parliament on Monday elected Michel Aoun, an 81-year-old former army commander and strong ally of the militant group Hezbollah, as the country’s president, ending a more than two-year vacuum in the top post and a political crisis that brought state institutions perilously close to collapse.

Aoun secured a simple majority of votes in the house after a chaotic session that saw several rounds of voting because extra ballots appeared in the ballot box each time. He garnered 83 votes out of 127 lawmakers present at the session.   Continue reading “Lebanese parliament elects new president, ending vacuum”

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CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — The trial of a white former police officer captured on dramatic cellphone video shooting an unarmed black motorist began Monday at the county courthouse in Charleston’s historic district.

The first of almost 200 potential jurors began reporting for duty, with individual jury questioning set to begin later in the day. The jurors seated will have to decide if 34-year-old Michael Slager is guilty of murder in the shooting death of 50-year-old Walter Scott as he ran from a traffic stop in April 2015. If convicted Slager faces 30 years to life imprisonment.   Continue reading “Trial of officer seen on video shooting black man starting”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI has obtained a warrant to begin reviewing newly discovered emails that may be relevant to the Hillary Clinton email server investigation, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press.

FBI investigators want to review emails of longtime Clinton aide Huma Abedin that were found on a device seized during an unrelated sexting investigation of Anthony Weiner, a former New York congressman and Abedin’s estranged husband.   Continue reading “Warrant to search newly found emails obtained by FBI”

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BEIRUT (AP) — Airstrikes in Syria killed 17 people, mostly children on Wednesday when warplanes struck a school complex in the northern rebel-held province of Idlib, activists said. The Idlib News network said the strikes hit as the children were gathered outside the school complex in the village of Hass. The activist-operated group put the death toll at 17, and said most of the victims were children.

There were fears the death toll could rise further as some of the wounded were reported to be in critical condition, the network added. Another activist group, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at 22. It said 14 children and a woman were among those killed.   Continue reading “Syria airstrikes kill 17, mostly children, outside school”

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FALMOUTH, Maine (AP) — Rigged elections. Vigilante observers. Angry voters. The claims, threats and passions surrounding the presidential race have led communities around the U.S. to move polling places out of schools or cancel classes on Election Day.

The fear is that the ugly rhetoric of the campaign could escalate into confrontations and even violence in school hallways, endangering students. “If anybody can sit there and say they don’t think this is a contentious election, then they aren’t paying much attention,” said Ed Tolan, police chief in this seaside community, which decided to call off classes on Election Day and put additional officers on duty Nov. 8.   Continue reading “Fearing Election Day trouble, some US schools cancel classes”

RT

Over 60 civilians have been killed and at least 200 injured during three days of US-led coalition airstrikes on residential areas in Mosul, the Russian military reported.

“There were numerous attacks of the US-led coalition targeting residential areas, schools, and other civilian objects both in Mosul and in other parts of the Iraqi Nineveh Governorate,” Gen. Sergey Rudskoy, head of Operations in the Russian General Staff, told journalists on Tuesday.   Continue reading “60 civilians killed, 200 injured as US-led coalition strikes Mosul residential areas – Russian MoD”

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QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Militants wearing suicide vests stormed a Pakistani police academy in the southwestern city of Quetta overnight, killing 61 people, mostly police cadets and recruits, and waging a ferocious gunbattle with troops that lasted into early hours Tuesday.

The four-hour siege — one of the deadliest attacks on Pakistan’s security forces in recent years — also wounded 123, mainly police trainees but also some paramilitary troops, according to Wasay Khan, a spokesman for the elite Frontier Corps. Some of the wounded were reported to be in critical condition.   Continue reading “Militants attack Pakistan police academy, killing 61”

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Members of Congress and veterans leaders on Monday called for federal action to absolve the debts of nearly 10,000 soldiers in California alone who have been ordered by the Pentagon to repay enlistment bonuses a decade after they signed up to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Lawmakers from California expressed outrage, including Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer; House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Republican; and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat.   Continue reading “Guard seeks federal aid for soldiers told to return bonuses”

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OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Authorities have been hunting for more than 24 hours for an Oklahoma man they say posted live videos to social media while running from police during a violent rampage that included shooting two police officers, armed car thefts and killing his aunt and uncle, apparently attempting to cut off their heads.

Michael Dale Vance Jr., a 38-year-old man from Chandler, Oklahoma, is wanted on multiple charges, including two counts of first-degree murder. Police say he was last seen early Monday about 30 miles from the Texas border in western Oklahoma — 165 miles away from where the manhunt began Sunday night in Wellston.   Continue reading “Man on lam after attempted decapitations, violent rampage”

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HINDMAN, Ky. (AP) — Jim Justice, a coal billionaire running for West Virginia governor, owes millions in back taxes to some of Appalachia’s most impoverished counties, including one in Kentucky that is struggling to pay the debt on a new rec center and has turned the lights off in its parks and reduced hot meals for senior citizens.

Many of these counties have been devastated by the collapse of the coal industry over the past few years, and their financial struggles are not all Justice’s fault. But county officials say things would be a lot easier if he paid up.   Continue reading “West Virginia candidate for governor owes millions in taxes”

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BARTELLA, Iraq (AP) — Iraqi forces fought their way into two villages near Mosul on Monday as the offensive to retake the extremist-held city entered its second week and a rights group urged a probe into a suspected airstrike that hit a mosque, killing over a dozen civilians.

Iraqi special forces began shelling IS positions before dawn near Bartella, a historically Christian town to the east of Mosul that they had retaken last week. With patriotic music blaring from loudspeakers on their Humvees, they then pushed into the village of Tob Zawa, about 9 kilometers (5 ½ miles) from Mosul, amid heavy clashes.   Continue reading “Iraqis push toward Mosul; group calls for airstrike probe”

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PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (AP) — A maintenance crew had slowed down traffic on a California highway through the night, and the work had gone on for hours without problems. Then a tour bus returning to Los Angeles from a casino trip slammed into the back of a semi-truck. Passengers who were asleep on the bus woke up to loud screams and the sound of crushing metal.

The gambling jaunt ended in one of the deadliest wrecks in California history with 13 people killed and 31 others injured. Authorities said the bus was going much faster than the truck, causing it to plow about 15 feet into the truck on Interstate 10 just north of the desert resort town of Palm Springs.   Continue reading “NTSB to investigate bus crash that left 13 dead, 31 injured”

RT

Russia insists two Belgium warplanes flying from an Air Force base in Jordan attacked a village in Syria, citing radar data. Belgium denies conducting any airstrikes.

Brussels’ continued denial of the jets movements in the area is Belgian Defense Minister Steven Vandeput “deliberately deceiving people in Belgium and elsewhere in the world, or his subordinates and the Americans are lying to the leadership of Belgium,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman General Igor Konashenkov said.   Continue reading “Radar data proves Belgian F-16s attacked village near Aleppo, killing 6 – Russia”

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ALTURAS, Calif. (AP) — A deputy responding to a disturbance call in Northern California was shot to death — the state’s fourth law enforcement officer to die in the line of duty in two weeks. Modoc County sheriff’s Deputy Jack Hopkins, 31, was fatally shot after deputies were called to a rural area near the Oregon border. A suspect was detained shortly afterward, authorities said. No other details were immediately released.

Hopkins joined the force last year, the sheriff’s office said. His death comes after two Palm Springs police officers were shot and killed Oct. 8 during a domestic disturbance call and after a Los Angeles County sheriff’s sergeant was gunned down Oct. 6 in the high desert town of Lancaster while answering a burglary call.   Continue reading “Deputy’s death marks 4th California officer slain in 2 weeks”