From the Trenches World Report
Enforce our Bill of Rights
Gasoline will no longer be cheaper than water for Venezuelans after President Nicolas Maduro devalued the national currency and raised petrol prices 60-fold.
Caracas has hiked petrol prices for the first time in 20 years, as the oil-dependent Venezuelan economy is no longer able to subsidize its cost at the pumps, selling gasoline to its citizens for next to nothing. Continue reading “Petrol pump pain: Venezuelan gasoline prices jump 6,000%”
CHICAGO (AP) — A woman with a history of sneaking aboard airplanes has been arrested again at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. Chicago police say 64-year-old Marilyn Hartman was arrested Wednesday at an airport bus shuttle center. She’s scheduled to appear Thursday in bond court. Continue reading “Serial stowaway arrested again at Chicago’s O’Hare airport”
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — The National Park Service has outlined a series of actions in response to a federal report that found employees at the Grand Canyon preyed on their female colleagues and retaliated against them for refusing sexual advances.
The agency’s Intermountain Region director, Sue Masica, said employees will be disciplined appropriately and she will push a message of zero tolerance for sexual harassment and hostile work environments. Continue reading “Park Service vows reforms after report on sexual harassment”
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey blamed Kurdish militant groups at home and in neighboring Syria on Thursday for a deadly suicide bombing in Ankara and vowed strong retaliation for the attack — a development that threatens to further complicate the Syria conflict.
The rush hour car-bomb attack on Wednesday evening targeted buses carrying military personnel, killing 28 people and injuring dozens. It came as Turkey is grappling with an array of serious issues, including renewed fighting with Kurdish rebels, threats from Islamic State militants and the Syria refugee crisis. The attack was the second deadly bombing in Ankara in four months. Continue reading “Turkey blames Kurdish rebels, Syria for Ankara attack”
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A college fundraiser fatally shot his niece and her 4-year-old son at their suburban Indianapolis home Wednesday, following a dispute over a family trust worth millions of dollars, before killing himself inside a downtown hotel room, authorities said.
Lucius Oliver Hamilton III fatally shot himself inside a hotel room one block from the Indiana Statehouse just after officers knocked on the door, state police Capt. Dave Bursten said. Hamilton, 61, had been the subject of a manhunt since shortly after the bodies of Katherine Giehll and Raymond Peter Giehll IV were found Wednesday morning in their home in an upscale neighborhood near Zionsville, just northwest of Indianapolis. Continue reading “Authorities: Man kills 2, himself after family trust dispute”
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran on Wednesday snubbed a proposal agreed to by four influential oil producers to cap their crude output if others do the same, with a senior Oil Ministry official saying Tehran has no intention of freezing oil output levels.
Mahdi Asali, Iran’s OPEC envoy, said his country will in fact keep increasing its crude exports until it reaches levels attained before international sanctions were imposed on Tehran over its nuclear program. Continue reading “Iran snubs Doha proposal, won’t freeze on oil output levels”
ATLANTA (AP) — A former Navy crewman is set to be executed Wednesday in Georgia for killing a fellow sailor whose remains were found buried in two states. Travis Hittson, 45, is scheduled to receive an injection of the barbiturate pentobarbital at 7 p.m. at the state prison in Jackson. He was convicted in the April 1992 killing of Conway Utterbeck.
The State Board of Pardons and Paroles, the only entity in Georgia authorized to commute a death sentence, rejected Hitton’s request for clemency after a hearing Tuesday. Hittson’s lawyers have said he was mistreated and neglected as a child and constantly craved the approval of others. That, they said, combined with alcoholism and relatively low intelligence, made it easy for his direct supervisor in the Navy, Edward Vollmer, to manipulate him into killing Utterbeck. Continue reading “Georgia to execute ex-Navy crewman who killed fellow sailor”
BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — Dynel Lane went to extreme lengths to show those closest to her she was expecting a baby, sharing ultrasound images with her daughter and keeping photos of herself appearing pregnant on her cell phone.
She even arranged to meet her husband for a pre-natal appointment the same day prosecutors say she cut open the belly of a pregnant stranger and removed the woman’s unborn baby girl, passing the child off as her own before admitting the March 18, 2015 attack. Continue reading “Trial opens for Colorado woman in case of baby cut from womb”
The world’s two biggest crude producers say they won’t increase oil output. Along with Russia and Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela have agreed to freeze production at January levels, according to Russia’s Energy Ministry.
“A deal will be reached if other producers join the initiative,” said Russian Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak after the meeting with his Saudi counterpart. Continue reading “Russia and Saudi Arabia agree to freeze oil production output”
WASHINGTON (AP) — Eight years after the financial crisis, the world is coming to grips with an unpleasant realization: serious weaknesses still plague the global economy, and emergency help may not be on the way.
Sinking stock prices, flat inflation, and the bizarre phenomenon of negative interest rates have coupled with a downturn in emerging markets to raise worries that the economy is being stalked by threats that central banks — the saviors during the crisis — may struggle to cope with. Continue reading “Danger signs flashing for global economy, years after crisis”
NEW YORK (AP) — Police are investigating a woman’s report that she was assaulted by former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer in a room at The Plaza Hotel, an allegation his attorney said Monday was false, created by someone with “emotional difficulties.”
Attorney Adam Kaufmann said the allegations concerned a woman Spitzer has known “for a period of time.” He said she phoned him from California where she had been living to say she was returning to her native Russia via New York. The two agreed to meet at The Plaza Hotel mid-afternoon Saturday. Continue reading “Lawyer for ex-Gov. Spitzer says no assault took place”
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s president warned Tuesday that rival North Korea faces collapse if it doesn’t abandon its nuclear bomb program, an unusually strong broadside that will likely infuriate Pyongyang.
President Park Geun-hye, in a nationally televised parliamentary address defending her decision to shut down a jointly run factory park in North Korea, said South Korea will take unspecified “stronger and more effective” measures to make North Korea realize its nuclear ambitions will result only in speeding up of its “regime collapse.” Continue reading “South Korea’s leader warns of North Korea collapse”
A New Yorker has filed an angry complaint to Nike, saying the footwear giant forbid him from putting the words “Muslim” or “Islam” on its customizable sneakers, while allowing expressions like “KKK,” “Daesh,” and “Al Qaeda.”
In a letter on his Facebook page, 40-year-old Nabeel Kaukab wrote to the company, saying that the word “Muslim” does not fit into any of the categories of banned words for NikeiD. Continue reading “‘Muslim’ and ‘Islam’ banned, but ‘Al Qaeda’ and ‘KKK’ OK in Nike’s guidelines for custom sneakers”
The terrorist attack in Paris happened because perpetrators used encrypted Internet communications that intelligence services couldn’t break, CIA director John Brennan said.
There were indicators of an imminent attack before the Paris attack, but the intelligence community failed to identify the threat, he told CBS News’ 60 Minutes program. Continue reading “CIA chief invokes Paris attack to justify breach of privacy”
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died of natural causes and no autopsy was necessary, a judge has told The Associated Press.
Chris Lujan, a manager for Sunset Funeral Homes in Texas, said the 79-year-old jurist’s body was taken from the El Paso facility late Sunday afternoon and was to be flown to Virginia, although he had no details. Scalia’s family didn’t think a private autopsy was necessary and requested that his remains be returned to Washington as soon as possible, Lujan said. Continue reading “Scalia’s body being flown back; he died of natural causes”
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert started serving a 19-month prison sentence for bribery and obstruction of justice on Monday, becoming the first Israeli premier to be imprisoned and capping a years-long legal saga that forced him to resign in 2009 amid the last serious round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Olmert walked into the Maasiyahu prison in central Israel hours after he released a video making a last-minute plea to Israelis meant to salvage his legacy. In the video, he appealed to the nation to remember his peace-making efforts as leader and denied any wrongdoing in the bribery conviction against him. Continue reading “Israel’s Olmert becomes first Israeli PM to go to prison”
MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) — A prison riot that left 49 inmates hacked, beaten or burned to death opened searing questions about gang rule, extortion and human rights violations in Mexico’s overcrowded prisons, where people merely awaiting trial are mixed in with some of the world’s most hardened killers.
Those questions were not abstract for Victoria Casas Gutierrez, a cleaning lady who had waited for hours Thursday for news of her 21-year-old son, Santiago Garza Casas, who was facing trial for allegedly acting as a lookout for a criminal gang. Continue reading “Fear pervasive after Mexican prison riot that killed 49”
NEW YORK (AP) — A rookie police officer who shot an unarmed man dead in a darkened public housing stairwell was convicted Thursday of manslaughter in a case closely watched by advocates for police accountability.
The courtroom audience gasped and Officer Peter Liang, who had broken into tears as he testified about the 2014 shooting of Akai Gurley, buried his head in his hands as the verdict came after 17 hours of jury deliberations. Liang is the first New York City police officer convicted in an on-duty death since 2005. Continue reading “NYC officer convicted of manslaughter in stairwell shooting”
A bill headed for President Barack Obama this week includes a provision that would ban U.S. imports of fish caught by slaves in Southeast Asia, gold mined by children in Africa and garments sewn by abused women in Bangladesh, closing a loophole in an 85-year-old tariff law that has failed to keep products of forced and child labor out of America.
An expose by The Associated Press last year found Thai companies ship seafood to the U.S. that was caught and processed by trapped and enslaved workers. AP tracked fish and shrimp from people locked in cages and factories to supply chains of top retailers and restaurants, from supermarket chains like Wal-Mart and Whole Foods to restaurants including Red Lobster. The companies all said they strongly condemn labor abuse and are taking steps to prevent it. Continue reading “Congress bans import of forced labor products”
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A judge cleared the way Thursday for a New Mexico teenager who shot and killed his parents and three younger siblings to be sentenced as a juvenile and released from state custody by the time he turns 21 after the teen’s attorneys argued he could be psychologically rehabilitated.
Nehemiah Griego was 15 when he opened fire in his family’s home south of Albuquerque, killing his mother as she slept and then his 9-year-old brother and two sisters, ages 5 and 2, authorities said. Griego’s father was the last to die: The teen waited in a bathroom and ambushed the gang member turned pastor after he returned home, sheriff’s officials said. Continue reading “Teen who killed 5 family members to be sentenced as juvenile”