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SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Criminal justice reform has become a hot topic around the nation amid a conversation about easing three-strikes sentencing laws, scaling back mandatory sentencing laws and focusing on rehabilitation.

That’s not the case in New Mexico, where lawmakers assembled last week for a new legislative session. Lawmakers and the governor are pushing a tough-on-crime agenda in response to the killings of two police officers and a 4-year-old girl who was shot during a road-rage dispute. The agenda is reminiscent of a wave of 1990s anti-crime laws that are being reversed in some states just as New Mexico takes them up.   Continue reading “New Mexico weighs anti-crime laws as other states ditch them”

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — It was a daring and elaborate escape: cutting through metal, crawling through plumbing tunnels, climbing a roof, rappelling four stories to freedom using ropes made from bedsheets.

But this wasn’t a Hollywood movie; it was a real-life breakout that left authorities struggling to find three escapees — one a suspected killer — and put together the pieces of how they managed to escape a Southern California maximum-security jail.   Continue reading “Authorities struggling to piece together daring jail escape”

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AMSTERDAM (AP) — The European Union on Monday launched a new law enforcement center to coordinate the fight against violent extremism, saying Europe faces the most significant terrorist threat in over 10 years.

“There is every reason to expect that IS (the Islamic State organization), IS-inspired terrorists or another religiously inspired terrorist group will undertake a terrorist attack somewhere in Europe again, but particularly in France, intended to cause mass casualties among the civilian population,” Europol, the EU-wide agency for law enforcement cooperation, said in a report. “This is in addition to the threat of lone-actor attacks, which has not diminished.”   Continue reading “EU opens new counterterrorism center”

RT

Two men traveling from Nevada to Montana with over 20 pounds of marijuana got so incredibly stoned they handed themselves over to police in a bout of paranoia. The resulting recording obtained by East Idaho News had YouTubers in stitches.

The men – Leland Ayala-Doliente, 22, and Holland Sward, 23 – were driving across the Nevada-Idaho border almost exactly a year ago when fear struck so deep it completely paralyzed their ability to reason.   Continue reading “2 young dopes with 20 pounds of weed get so paranoid they call cops on themselves”

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CHISINAU, Moldova (AP) — Thousands of people held an anti-government protest Thursday in the Moldovan capital, a day after the legislature approved a new pro-European government.

Protesters gathered outside government offices and Parliament in Chisinau to protest Prime Minister Pavel Filip, the former technology minister and ex-candy factory manager, who presented his Cabinet of politicians and specialists to President Nicolae Timofti late Wednesday.   Continue reading “Unrest for 2nd day: 7,000 hold anti-govt protest in Moldova”

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BAGHDAD (AP) — Two powerful Shiite militias are top suspects in the abduction of three Americans last weekend in a southern neighborhood of the Iraqi capital, an Iraqi police commander and a Western security official in Baghdad said Thursday.

The Americans were abducted in Dora, a mixed neighborhood that is home to both Shiites and Sunnis, on Saturday. It was the latest in a series of brazen high-profile kidnappings undermining confidence in the Iraqi government’s ability to control state-sanctioned Shiite militias, which have grown in strength as Iraqi security forces battle the Islamic State group.   Continue reading “Officials name top suspects in Iraq abductions of Americans”

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OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A former Oklahoma City police officer is set to find out whether he will spend the rest of his life in prison for raping and sexually victimizing eight women on his beat.

Daniel Holtzclaw, 29, will be sentenced Thursday. He faces up to 263 years in prison after last month’s convictions on 18 counts — four counts of first-degree rape, plus additional counts of forcible oral sodomy, sexual battery, procuring lewd exhibition and second-degree rape. He was acquitted on 18 other counts.   Continue reading “Ex-Oklahoma officer to be sentenced for rape, sex crimes”

RT

US markets dropped even more early Wednesday after oil plunged to its 2003 low of $27 a barrel. Massive sell-offs continued through all the stocks led by the energy sector.

Dow Jones industrial average plunged nearly 400 points (2.6 percent) Wednesday morning, piling on even more woe to the worst beginning of a year in stock market history. Similarly, the S&P 500 lost 51 points (2.7 percent) and Nasdaq Composite lost 3 percent before a minor rebound.   Continue reading “Dow falls to new low as oil plunges to $27 a barrel”

RT

A suicide car bomb explosion struck near the Russian embassy in Kabul, the embassy confirmed to RT. Four people have died in the attack, according to Afghan officials.

Four people have been killed and 24 injured, Afghan Deputy Minister of Interior Muhammad Ayoub Salangi tweeted.   Continue reading “4 dead after suicide car bomb explodes near Russian embassy in Kabul”

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IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — The oldest Christian monastery in Iraq has been reduced to a field of rubble, yet another victim of the Islamic State group’s relentless destruction of ancient cultural sites.

For 1,400 years the compound survived assaults by nature and man, standing as a place of worship recently for U.S. troops. In earlier centuries, generations of monks tucked candles in the niches and prayed in the cool chapel. The Greek letters chi and rho, representing the first two letters of Christ’s name, were carved near the entrance.   Continue reading “Oldest Christian monastery in Iraq is razed”

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CHARSADDA, Pakistan (AP) — Islamic militants stormed a university in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing at least 20 people and triggering an hours-long gunbattle with security forces in an attack that echoed a horrifying assault by the Taliban a little over a year ago on a nearby army-run school.

The attack began shortly after classes started at the Bacha Khan University in Charsadda, a town 35 kilometers (21 miles) outside Peshawar, said Deputy Commissioner Tahir Zafar. The school may have been targeted because it is named for a late secular icon.   Continue reading “Militants kill 20 in assault on Pakistani university”

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BEIJING (AP) — China’s economy cooled further in the latest quarter, dragging 2015’s full-year growth to a quarter-century low and deepening a slowdown that has fueled anxiety over its impact on the global economy.

The world’s second-largest economy grew 6.9 percent in 2015, the government said Tuesday, down from 7.3 percent in the previous year. For the October-December quarter, growth inched down to 6.8 percent, the weakest quarterly expansion in six years.   Continue reading “China’s economic growth wanes to 25-year low in 2015”

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HONOLULU (AP) — Teams searching the waters off Hawaii where two Marine helicopters crashed have had no luck so far in their hunt for 12 missing crew members.

Three of the four life rafts aboard the helicopters have been recovered and efforts were being made to retrieve the fourth. Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Sara Mooers said Monday that some of the rafts were inflated, but it was unclear how they got that way.   Continue reading “Still no luck in hunt for 12 Marines after Hawaii crashes”

RT

Three American soldiers and a translator have reportedly been kidnapped by militia in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.

While their identities have not yet been confirmed, Iraqi independent news agency Akad News said a US serviceman and a translator are among those who were captured in the south of Baghdad.   Continue reading “Three Americans kidnapped in Baghdad – reports”

RT

The private spaceflight company SpaceX has launched a reusable rocket that is supposed to deliver a NASA ocean-monitoring satellite into low-Earth orbit. However, the audacious plan to land the rocket on a platform at sea in the Pacific Ocean did not go as smoothly as planned.

SpaceX failed to land the Falcon 9 rocket on the platform, despite the first stages of the launch being successful, the company officials said. The touch-down must have been “hard,” since the rocket’s landing leg broke.   Continue reading “Expectation v reality: Watch Falcon SpaceX rocket fall & explode attempting barge landing”

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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea has launched an estimated 1 million propaganda leaflets by balloon into South Korea amid increased tension between the rivals following the North’s recent nuclear test, Seoul officials said Monday.

A Cold War-style standoff has flared since North Korea’s claim on Jan. 6 that it tested a hydrogen bomb. South Korea resumed blasting anti-North propaganda broadcasts and K-pop songs from border loudspeakers. North Korea quickly responded by restarting its own border broadcasts and floating the balloons over the border carrying anti-South leaflets, according to Seoul officials.   Continue reading “Seoul: North Korea has sent 1 million propaganda leaflets”

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COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Civic leaders, activists, artists and others are celebrating, marching and paying homage Monday to Martin Luther King Jr., marking the 30th anniversary of the federal holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader.

In South Carolina, civil rights leaders planned a march to their state capitol as in past years when their rally highlighted calls to remove the Confederate flag from Statehouse grounds. The King Day at the Dome gathering began in 2000 with that call. Last July, organizers got their wish as South Carolina swiftly removed the flag which had flown at the capitol for more than 50 years after what police said was a racially motivated shooting that claimed nine lives at a church in Charleston.   Continue reading “Confederate flag’s removal turns King Day into celebration”

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JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Attackers set off explosions at a Starbucks cafe in a bustling shopping area in Indonesia’s capital and waged gunbattles with police Thursday, leaving bodies in the streets as office workers watched in terror from high-rise buildings.

Police said five attackers and two civilians were killed, while 10 people were injured in the brazen attacks, which followed several warnings in recent weeks by police that Islamic militants were planning something big. It was unclear if any perpetrators remained at large.   Continue reading “Brazen attacks in Jakarta leave 5 gunmen, 2 others dead”

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HOUSTON (AP) — An Iraqi refugee who is facing charges he tried to help the Islamic State group wanted to set off bombs at two Houston malls and was learning to make electronic transmitters that could be used to detonate explosive devices, a federal agent testified Wednesday.

Omar Faraj Saeed Al Hardan, who came to Houston from Iraq in 2009, was indicted last week on three charges, including attempting to provide support to a designated terrorist organization. He pleaded not guilty to all three charges during a court appearance on Wednesday.   Continue reading “Federal agent says Iraqi refugee wanted to bomb Texas malls”

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CINCINNATI (AP) — No charges will be filed against a man who fatally shot his 14-year-old son after mistaking him for an intruder.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joseph Deters said Wednesday that the man, 72, won’t be charged in the Tuesday morning shooting in the basement of the Cincinnati-area home. The man had watched his son, Georta Mack, walk to the school bus and the boy later called his father to say he was on the bus, Deters said in his statement.   Continue reading “No charges for man who killed son he mistook for intruder”