Author: Sunfire

Mail.com

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt said Wednesday that a French ship has picked up signals from deep under the Mediterranean Sea, presumed to be from one of the black boxes of the EgyptAir plane that crashed last month, killing all 66 passengers and crew on board.

The development raised hopes the plane’s flight data and cockpit voice recorders, known as the black boxes, could be retrieved and shed light on the aircraft’s tragic crash. In Cairo, the Civil Aviation Ministry cited a statement from the committee investigating the crash as saying the vessel Laplace received the signals. The French Navy confirmed the Laplace arrived on Tuesday in the search area and picked up the signals “overnight.”   Continue reading “Egypt says signals picked up from doomed plane’s black box”

RT

The much-publicized US electromagnetic railgun is an example of the Americans aimed at dragging Russia into a new arms race, Russian senator Franz Klintsevich said. He added that Moscow will not have to respond symmetrically, despite having similar weapons in the works.

Klintsevich, first deputy chairman of Russia’s Senate committee for defense and security, has accused Washington of trying to impose a new Cold War-style arms race while saying the “supergun,” dubbed a potential game-changer by the Pentagon, is not yet an effective technological breakthrough.   Continue reading “Futuristic US railgun too expensive to use, similar projects in Russia – senator”

Mail.com

BEIJING (AP) — A former tycoon wanted on allegations of embezzlement and fraud in Taiwan has died in a car accident in California, the island’s foreign ministry confirmed on Tuesday. He had been hiding for years in the United States.

The official Central News Agency said Wang You-theng, former chairman of the China Rebar Group, was killed in a Friday morning crash on a highway in West Covina, California. His wife was injured but was in stable condition, the report said.   Continue reading “Wanted Taiwanese fugitive dies in car accident in California”

Mail.com

CAMP TARIQ, Iraq (AP) — Iraqi forces battling their way into Fallujah repelled a four-hour counterattack by the Islamic State group on Tuesday, a day after entering the southern part of the militant-held city with the help of U.S.-led airstrikes.

A leading aid group meanwhile raised alarm over the unfolding “human catastrophe” in Fallujah, where an estimated 50,000 people remain trapped, and renewed calls on warring parties to open up safe corridors for civilians to flee.   Continue reading “Heavy clashes as Iraqi forces push into IS-held Fallujah”

RT

Three-quarters of federal agencies’ IT budgets go on operation and maintenance rather than upgrades, and some legacy technologies, such as floppy disks used by the Pentagon for nuclear missiles, are over 50 years old.

The overview of how the US government continues to use archaic technologies in some vital areas was given in a report released on Wednesday by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The report said that the budget for IT modernization has fallen by $7.3 billion since 2010 while operations costs continued to grow. Of approximately 7,000 IT investments reviewed, the majority (5,223) do not spend a penny on upgrading their systems.   Continue reading “US still uses floppy disks to control nuclear bombers & ballistic missiles”

RT

Divers off the coast of the Italian island of Sardinia have located the sunken wreck of a British World War II submarine more than 70 years after it disappeared without a trace with 71 crew on board.

The Royal Navy T-class submarine – the legendary, HMS P 311 – was discovered by Genoa-based wreck hunter Massimo Domenico Bordone and his team in 100 meters of water off the northeast coast of Sardinia. Continue reading “WWII ‘ghost’ submarine with crew on board discovered off Italian coast”

Mail.com

BANGKOK (AP) — A Thai man is recovering from a bloody encounter with a 3-meter (10-foot) python that slithered through the plumbing of his home and latched its jaws onto his penis as he was using a squat toilet.

Attaporn Boonmakchuay was smiling as Thai television stations interviewed him in his hospital bed about the intimate intrusion, and doctors said he would recover. But photos of his blood-splattered bathroom in Chachoengsao province, east of Bangkok, were testimony to his ordeal.  Continue reading “Thai man bloodied but unbowed after intimate attack by snake”

Mail.com

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Michelle Obama plans to address 105 Native American high school graduates Thursday during a commencement speech that comes as she tries to spotlight the plight of tribal youth in the final months of her husband’s presidency.

The first lady’s commencement address at Santa Fe Indian School is being delivered as part of an Obama initiative that aims to remove “barriers to success” for Native American youth — a group the White House says make up the nation’s “most vulnerable population.”
Continue reading “Michelle Obama set to speak at Native American commencement”

RT

California’s inability to introduce a statewide voter registration system, despite it being mandatory, means that 212 people who are officially dead in LA County, could vote in next month’s primary elections following an investigation by CBS2/KCAL9.

The station took millions of voting records from the California Secretary of State’s office and compared them with the death records from the Social Security Administration. The results certainly proved to be an eye opener as it found that hundreds of people were voting despite having died.    Continue reading “Over 200 Californians could be voting from the grave in June primaries”

Mail.com

ST. LOUIS (AP) — An 8-month-old boy was shot to death in his mother’s arms Tuesday, and the suspected shooter – the boy’s father – remained at large, St. Louis police said. The deadly shooting occurred shortly after 1 p.m. by an Interstate 270 exit ramp near the city limits, St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson said. The baby, Reign Crockett, was shot once as his mother attempted to escape a slowing car in which two other young sons were passengers, Dotson said. Police believe Diata R. Crockett, 34, was aiming at the mother, Dotson said.   Continue reading “Father sought after boy killed in mother’s arms in St. Louis”

Mail.com

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Afghan Taliban confirmed on Wednesday that their leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in a U.S. drone strike last week and that they have appointed a successor — a scholar known for extremist views who is unlikely to back a peace process with Kabul.

The announcement came as a suicide bomber struck a minibus carrying court employees in the Afghan capital, killing at least 11 people, an official said. The Taliban promptly claimed responsibility for the attack.   Continue reading “Afghan Taliban appoint new leader after Mansour’s death”

Mail.com

MOUNT VERNON, Va. (AP) — It is the unavoidable Achilles’ heel in the reputation of George Washington and so many other Founding Fathers: that men who risked their lives to protect their nation’s liberty were also slaveholders.

That dichotomy will be explored in a new exhibit at Washington’s Mount Vernon estate, in a museum space previously dedicated to exhibitions featuring Washington’s furniture, fineries and his penchant for dining on syrupy hoecakes.   Continue reading “Mount Vernon exhibit looks at Washington as slaveholder”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly a year after the brutal shooting deaths of nine black parishioners at a Charleston, South Carolina, church, the U.S. Justice Department announced Tuesday its intent to seek the death penalty against the man facing federal hate crime charges in the killings.

The decision means that both state and federal prosecutors are seeking the maximum penalty against Dylann Roof, 22, in the June 17 Emanuel AME Church shooting, which contributed to a national conversation about race relations and ultimately led to the removal of a Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the South Carolina Statehouse.   Continue reading “Suspect in Charleston church shooting faces highest penalty”

RT

The Fukushima clean-up team remains in the dark about the exact locations of 600 tons of melted radioactive fuel from three devastated nuclear reactors, the chief of decommissioning told the ABC’s Foreign Correspondent program in an exclusive interview.

The company hopes to locate and start removing the missing fuel from 2021, the Tokyo Electric Power Company’s (TEPCO) chief of decommissioning at Fukushima, Naohiro Masuda, revealed.   Continue reading “600 tons of melted radioactive Fukushima fuel still not found, clean-up chief reveals”

Mail.com

HONOLULU (AP) — Five people died after a skydiving tour plane crashed and caught fire in Hawaii, one of two plane crashes reported Monday in the islands. It happened about 9:30 a.m. on the island of Kauai, the county fire department said. The pilot, two skydive instructors and two tandem jumpers were believed to be on the plane.

Four of them were pronounced dead at the crash site, just outside Port Allen Airport. One man was taken to Wilcox Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The group was believed to have been part of a tour operated by SkyDive Kauai, county firefighters said. The company offers tours from Port Allen.   Continue reading “5 dead after skydiving tour plane crashes in Hawaii”

SF Gate

TOMS RIVER, N.J. (AP) — The parents of a New Jersey boy who was 4 when he fatally shot a 6-year-old neighbor have been ordered to pay nearly $600,000 to the slain youth’s family.

Anthony and Melissa Senatore will also have to pay punitive damages to Brandon Holt‘s parents under the ruling issued Monday. But that amount hasn’t been determined.   Continue reading “Family of boy slain by young neighbor gets nearly $600,000”

SF Gate

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Police are looking for two suspects in a robbery at Newark Liberty International Airport.

Port Authority Police spokesman Joe Pentangelo says two masked men bound two employees and fled with an undetermined amount of cash from the Smart Carte office in the prescreening area inside Terminal B on Sunday.   Continue reading “2 employees bound during robbery at Newark airport”

RT

An NYPD cop was caught on video aiming his gun at someone recording him and punching an innocent bystander after he violently arrested someone using an “illegal” dirt bike.

26-year-old Officer Risel Martinez has been relieved of his firearm and badge while an investigation into his actions is carried out by the Internal Affairs Bureau (IAB), known as the ‘rat squad’ by the ‘boys in blue.’   Continue reading “NYPD ‘thug’ points gun at video witness while arresting ‘illegal’ dirt biker”

RT

In a heist reminiscent of the blockbuster film ‘Ocean’s Eleven,’ some 100 thieves managed to steal $12.7 million from ATMs in Japan in just three hours. The incredible feat is believed to be the work of an international crime syndicate.

The thieves worked together to withdraw the huge sum of money in coordinated withdrawals at 1,400 convenience store ATMs throughout Tokyo and 16 other prefectures, police said, as cited by Kyodo News.   Continue reading “Ocean’s 100: Thieves steal $13mn from Japanese ATMs in just 3 hours”