Year: 2014

Mail.com

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The two high school buddies loved to shoot hoops and crack jokes with their friends. They both converted to Islam in early adulthood. And both were recruited by terror groups to leave the United States and die for jihadist causes.

It wasn’t immediately clear how Douglas McAuthur McCain and Troy Kastigar were drawn into radicalism after their initial conversion to the Muslim faith or whether they might have influenced one another along the way. But the two best friends went down similar paths and met the same end.   Continue reading “High school buddies followed similar path to jihad”

Mail.com

DEERFIELD, Va. (AP) — The pilot of an F-15 jet that crashed earlier this week in remote Virginia mountains was killed, military officials now say, bringing a sad end to an exhaustive two-day search involving more than 100 local, state and federal officials as well as volunteers.

Col. James Keefe announced the news Thursday at the Massachusetts Air National Guard in Westfield, Massachusetts, home of the 104th Fighter Wing, where the pilot and jet were based. Keefe said his “thoughts and prayers are with the family” of the pilot, whose identity wasn’t disclosed.   Continue reading “Military: Pilot was killed in Virginia F-15 crash”

Yahoo News – by Terry Wade and Anna Louie Sussman

A tanker near Texas loaded with $100 million of disputed Iraqi Kurdish crude has disappeared from satellite tracking, the latest development in a high stakes game of cat-and-mouse between Baghdad and the Kurds.

The AIS ship tracking system used by the U.S. Coast Guard and Reuters on Thursday showed no known position for the United Kalavrvta, which was carrying 1 million barrels of crude and 95 percent full when it went dark.

Several other tankers carrying disputed crude from Iran or Iraqi Kurdistan have unloaded cargoes after switching off their transponders, which makes their movements hard to track.   Continue reading “Disputed Kurdish oil tanker mysteriously goes dark off Texas coast”

Yahoo News

Guatemala City (AFP) – A community of 230 Orthodox Jews from several countries Thursday began leaving the Guatemalan Indian village where they have lived for six years after claims and counterclaims of discrimination and threats.

Their exit from San Juan La Laguna, on the banks of Lake Atitlan and 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the capital Guatemala City, follows a meeting Wednesday in which Jewish and indigenous representatives failed to reach an agreement.

“We are a people of peace and in order to avoid an incident we’ve already begun to leave the village,” Misael Santos, a representative from the Jewish community, told AFP.    Continue reading “Jewish community ‘forced out’ of Guatemalan village”

CBC News 

Justice Minister Peter MacKay says he was showing support for an Afghan veteran when he posed for a photo at a Conservative Party fundraiser wearing a T-shirt bearing the logo of the National Firearms Association, a pro-gun lobby group.

The photo shows MacKay standing with two people and wearing a black shirt with the image of a maple leaf attached to a military-style assault rifle. The NFA’s slogan — “No Compromise” — appears under the logo.    Continue reading “Peter MacKay poses in pro-gun ‘No Compromise’ T-shirt”

Tech Times – by Linda Nguyen

Traumatic events are known to be lasting. People wake up in the middle of the night from a nightmare or everyday things may remind them of the traumatic event. But soon, people may be able to take the negative emotions associated with a memory and change it into a positive emotion.

In a study published in Nature, researchers at MIT show that they are able to change the positive or negative emotions tied to memory in mice, and are optimistic that the findings can be translated to humans.   Continue reading “Scientists switch out bad memories for good in mice: Hope for PTSD?”

CNS News – by Brittany M. Hughes

On the morning of Sept. 22, 2013, Josael Guevara was a 16-year-old sophomore at Klein Forest High School in Houston, Texas. Before that day was over, he was dead, his body found brutally beaten and dismembered in the Sam Houston National Forest.

Cristian Zamora, 22, and Ricardo Campos-Lara, 19, both illegal aliens from El Salvador, were arrested in connection with Guevara’s murder. Both were indicted for the murder by a federal grand jury in June.   Continue reading “FBI Testimony: Illegal Alien Admitted Hitting 16-Year Old With Machete”

USA Today – by Oren Dorell

Israeli police say they have found the body of an American student who went missing last week while hiking and that they do not suspect a crime was involved, media reports say.

Reuters and Israeli media Haaeretz and Jerusalem Post reported that the body of Aaron Sofer, 23, a Jewish seminary student from New Jersey, had been positively identified after being found earlier in the day. He vanished last Friday while walking in woods not far from the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem.   Continue reading “Reports: Body found in Israel is missing U.S. student”

RT

Forty-three United Nations peacekeepers have been captured by armed militant forces in Golan Heights, a UN spokesperson said on Thursday. Islamist militants have been engaged in clashes with the Syrian military.

“During a period of increased fighting beginning yesterday between armed elements and Syrian Arab Armed Forces within the area of separation in the Golan Heights, 43 peacekeepers from the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) were detained early this morning by an armed group in the vicinity of Al Qunaytirah,” the U.N. press office said in a statement.   Continue reading “43 UN peacekeepers in Golan Heights seized by militants”

The Organic Prepper

Over the past couple of weeks, I haven’t been around my computer much.

That’s because we are working hard to live a more agrarian lifestyle. And to do that, you have to “make hay while the sun shines.”

That little proverb was first recorded in 1546, in John Heywood’s “A dialogue conteinyng the nomber in effect of all the prouerbes in the Englishe tongue” (This is the updated version    Continue reading “The Austerity Diaries: Making Hay While the Sun Shines”

Yahoo News – by GEOFF MULVIHILL

STRATFORD, N.J. (AP) — A man shot and killed his hospitalized wife on Wednesday and then tried to kill himself, prompting investigators to search their home, where their son was found fatally shot, authorities said.

The Camden County prosecutor’s office was investigating whether the same handgun was used in the two deaths and in the man’s suicide attempt.

Raymond Wychowanec signed in at Kennedy University Hospital in Stratford, a Philadelphia suburb, at about 9:25 a.m. to visit his wife, officials said.   Continue reading “Police: Man kills wife at hospital, son also dead”

The Weather Channel – by Jess Baker

New features, including cracks and sinkholes, were spotted Wednesday night in the ice that encases Iceland’s Bardarbunga volcano, ratcheting up concern that an eruption is near.

The volcano, which has been on orange alert for days, sits several miles under the Dyngjujökull glacier.   Continue reading “Icelandic Bardarbunga Volcano Update: Fractures, Sinkholes Spotted During Research Flight”

You’re probably not interested in used farm equipment, but you might enjoy this ad taken from Craig’s list.

Fifty-year old manure spreader. Not sure of brand. Said to have been produced in Kenya.

Used for a few years in Indonesia before being smuggled into the US via Hawaii.   Continue reading “Fifty Year Old Manure Spreader $1 (Washington,DC)”

Burlington Free Press – by Mike Donoghue

The Vermont State Police say there is no evidence that drugs or alcohol were a factor in former FBI director Louis Freeh’s crashing his SUV in Barnard on Monday.

Freeh, 64, of Wilmington, Del., was back in surgery Tuesday at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., where he remains under armed guard, the authorities said. He received serious injuries in the wreck.   Continue reading “Louis Freeh in surgery Tuesday after wreck”

AOL

More than 12, 500 people in “Saint John the Baptist” parish are at risk: A brain-eating amoeba was detected in the water system there. People in Reserve, Garyville and Mount Airy are advised to take precaution.

A water sample taken two weeks ago by the department of health and hospitals tested positive for the potentially deadly bacteria.

They also found the parish drinking water was not in compliance with state-mandated disinfectant levels.   Continue reading “Deadly, brain-eating amoeba found in Louisiana water system”

Mail.com

WINSLOW, Ariz. (AP) — A dusty, barren field in the shadow of a busy Arizona interstate was for decades a place where children played freely, teenagers spooked themselves on Halloween and locals dumped trash, seemingly unaware of the history beneath them.

Inside cotton sacks, burlap bags and blankets buried in the ground are the remains dating back to the 1930s of stillborn babies, tuberculosis patients, and sick and malnourished Native Americans from Winslow and the nearby Navajo and Hopi reservations.   Continue reading “Woman unearths past of forgotten Indian cemetery”

Mail.com

BEIRUT (AP) — The Islamic State group killed more than 150 troops captured in recent fighting for a string of military bases in northeastern Syria, shooting some and slashing others with knives in the past 24 hours in the latest mass killing attributed to the extremists, activists said Thursday.

In southern Syria, gunmen detained 43 U.N. peacekeepers during fighting on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, the United Nations said. It added that another 81 peacekeepers were trapped in the area by the heavy clashes between rebels and Syrian troops.   Continue reading “Islamic State group kills captured Syrian soldiers”

RT

The head of the Centers for Disease Control in the United States warned this week that the situation in west Africa remains grim following the deaths of more than 1,500 people due to the Ebola virus.

“I wish I didn’t have to say this, but it is going get worse before it gets better,” CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden told the Associated Press this week upon completion of a trip to Liberia — one of four west African countries where the fatal disease continues to claim lives amidst one of the worst outbreaks ever of its kind.   Continue reading “US officials: Ebola outbreak to worsen”