| Senate approves William Barr as Donald Trump's new attorney general Posted: 14 Feb 2019 10:34 AM PST  The US Senate has approved President Donald Trump's attorney general nominee William Barr, putting the veteran Republican lawyer in charge of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe of any ties between Mr Trump's campaign and Russia. The vote was 54-45, primarily on a party-line basis with most Republicans backing the 68-year-old and most Democrats opposed. Democrats had expressed concern over Mr Barr's nomination out of concern he might not fully make public Mr Mueller's findings. But with the Senate controlled by the Republicans, Mr Barr's confirmation was always assured. Previously attorney general from 1991 to 1993 under President George HW Bush, Mr Barr has won praise from lawmakers in both parties for his expertise and grasp of the workings of the Justice Department, which he will now head. He is the third man in barely two years to occupy that post, replacing acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, who replaced Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Mr Trump ousted Mr Sessions last November after criticising him repeatedly. Mr Mueller is investigating meddling by Russia in the 2016 US presidential election and whether Moscow colluded with Mr Trump's campaign to try to tilt the election in Mr Trump's direction, as well as possible obstruction of justice. Mr Trump denies any collusion. The Kremlin denies any meddling. Before being nominated, Mr Barr wrote a 19-page legal memo, which he shared with Mr Trump's legal team and Justice Department officials. It called Mr Mueller's probe "fatally flawed." Mr Barr has said he will not let himself be bullied by Mr Trump and will protect the integrity of Mr Mueller's investigation and make public as many of its findings as he can. However, Mr Barr has not promised to release Mr Mueller's final report in its entirety. He has warned he may not be allowed to reveal the identities of people who escape prosecution. That stance troubles many Democrats, who say Mr Barr's expansive views of executive power might lead him to suppress parts of the report. Despite Democrats' opposition, many are still anxious to have Mr Barr installed quickly so that he can replace Mr Whitaker, whose tenure has been fraught with controversy since the president installed him in November. Critics have alleged Mr Whitaker's appointment was unlawful. Democrats fear Trump installed him to undermine Mr Mueller's probe because Mr Whitaker had criticised it when he was a conservative pundit. Mr Barr is widely expected to back many of Mr Trump's tough immigration policies. He will also be under the microscope for how he implements a new law that eases prison sentences for non-violent criminals, after he advocated for the opposite, tough-on-crime approach for decades.
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| Venezuela Supreme Court orders prosecution of new oil boards Posted: 14 Feb 2019 05:44 PM PST  Venezuela's Supreme Court on Thursday ordered that executives appointed to boards affiliated with state oil firm PDVSA -- in a bid for control by opposition leader Juan Guaido -- face criminal prosecution. The court -- packed with Maduro loyalists -- ordered legal action against 15 executives that the National Assembly, headed by Guaido, named on Wednesday to form four new executive boards for PDVSA and its US-based affiliate Citgo.
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| Fairfax accuser speaks out on abuse at Stanford #MeToo panel Posted: 13 Feb 2019 11:45 AM PST  STANFORD, Calif. (AP) — A college professor avoided talking directly about her accusation that Virginia's lieutenant governor sexually assaulted her, but she talked in detail about her research and thoughts on the growing number of women reporting abuse.
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| No more A380s? Why Airbus' bet on 'superjumbo' jets failed Posted: 14 Feb 2019 09:04 AM PST ![No more A380s? Why Airbus' bet on 'superjumbo' jets failed]( "No more A380s? Why Airbus' bet on 'superjumbo' jets failed") It's official: Airbus will pull the plug on its A380 double-decker jet. The latest A380 is now expected to roll off the assembly line in 2021.
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| Why This 'Atmospheric River' Could Cause Mudslides and 'Roofalanches' in California Posted: 14 Feb 2019 08:13 AM PST  Californians are experiencing some unusually nasty winter weather this week as an "atmospheric river" passes through most of the state, bringing howling winds and heavy rain.The storm arrived on Tuesday night (Feb. 12) in Northern California and continued into Wednesday (Feb. 13), leading the National Weather Service (NWS) to issue warnings of flash flooding, mudslides and high winds in the region. It is forecast to bring "excessive rainfall" to Southern California on Thursday (Feb. 14), according to the NWS.[Weirdo Weather: 7 Rare Weather Events]Atmospheric rivers are huge "rivers in the sky" that cause moisture from the tropics to flow north, from California to Canada. These huge weather systems can carry many times the freshwater that flows through the mighty Mississippi River, local news outlet KQED reported."They're the biggest freshwater rivers on Earth," F. Martin Ralph, the director of the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes in La Jolla, California, told KQED.These atmospheric rivers of condensed water vapor can easily be 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) long and 300 miles (482 km) wide, Ralph said. When an atmospheric river brings moisture from Hawaii to the Western U.S. -- as is the case with the current storm -- it's known as the Pineapple Express.Atmospheric rivers can bring much-needed rain -- or wreak havoc by dumping heavy rain or snow when they make landfall, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). California has recently experienced storms, meaning the current downpour is falling on waterlogged soil. Summer wildfires also scorched the earth in several areas of California, and burn scars can be more prone to flash flooding and debris as well, according to the NWS.On Wednesday morning, 24-hour rainfall totals were as high as 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) in some parts of the Northern Bay Area, with San Francisco receiving about 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) of rain, according to the NWS. Residents along the Bay Area coast and hills may face high winds from 25 to 35 mph (40 to 56 km/h) with gusts up to 60 mph (97 km/h), according to the NWS. Social media was abuzz with reports of downed trees and flash flooding. In the Sierras, the NWS warned that the atmospheric river could cause "roofalanches," or the sudden release of snow from already snow-packed roofs, which can pose a serious hazard.Earlier this month, Ralph and his colleagues developed a new scale to describe the strength of atmospheric rivers. The scale, which was described in the February issue of the journal Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, ranks these weather events using categories "1 to 5," with Category 1 indicating a "weak" storm and Category 5 indicating an "exceptional" one. The ranking is based on the amount of water vapor the storm carries, and how long it dumps moisture on a given area, according to a statement. The scale also indicates the extent to which the storm is likely to be beneficial -- by bringing much-needed rain to replenish reservoirs after a drought, for example -- or hazardous, leading to flooding and mudslides. The current storm is a "Category 3," according to local news outlet CBS San Francisco.Tia Ghose contributed reporting. * 9 Tips for Exercising in Winter Weather * Fishy Rain to Fire Whirlwinds: The World's Weirdest Weather * 10 Surprising Ways Weather Has Changed HistoryOriginally published on Live Science.
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| The Ocasio-Cortez Party Turns Amazon’s NYC Plans Into HQ0 Posted: 15 Feb 2019 04:00 AM PST  Amazon's decision to pull out of a planned mega-campus in Long Island City, Queens, is more than a loss for Cuomo. Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio—two Democrats who rarely agree on anything—brokered a truce to put together a $3 billion tax break for Amazon.com Inc. that helped secure one half of a second headquarters.
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| UK PM May to continue seeking changes to Brexit deal: spokesman Posted: 14 Feb 2019 10:36 AM PST  British Prime Minister Theresa May will continue to seek changes to her Brexit deal, a spokesman for her office said, after she suffered a symbolic defeat in parliament on her strategy. "The government will continue to pursue this with the EU to ensure we leave on time on 29th March," the spokesman said. The spokesman said May believed her Conservative lawmakers still wanted her to renegotiate the deal, but had voted against her on Thursday because they were concerned about the prospect of taking a 'no deal' off the table at this stage.
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| Trump will declare national emergency to build border wall after failing to secure funding Posted: 14 Feb 2019 07:17 AM PST  Donald Trump will declare a national emergency to build a wall along the southern US border after failing to secure funding for the measure through Congress. The president plans on issuing that declaration after he signs the government funding bill that Congress is poised to approve to keep the government funded until the end of the fiscal year and avert a second damaging shutdown in two months. The plan was confirmed by White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders just before the Senate voted in favour of advancing the funding package.
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| Texas Mom Arrested After Kids Found Locked in Dog Cage and Covered in Feces Posted: 13 Feb 2019 01:32 PM PST  The two eldest children were found in a 3 by 3 foot dog cage and the two other children were discovered nearby, covered in urine and feces.
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| Ronna McDaniel challenges Democrats who support the 'Green New Deal': Put your money where your mouth is Posted: 13 Feb 2019 10:38 AM PST  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wants a vote on the 'Green New Deal,' forcing 2020 Democrats to go on record; reaction from Ronna McDaniel, RNC chairwoman.
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| Frustrated EU wary of May's Brexit brinkmanship Posted: 14 Feb 2019 08:16 AM PST  With just 43 days until Britain is due to leave the European Union, EU leaders increasingly fear Theresa May is playing a dangerous game of chicken. Prime Minister May has made a great show of reopening talks with Brussels, but officials here say she is playing for time until a no-deal divorce is imminent. Then, with the economic consequences of a no deal threatening not just Britain but its trading partners on the continent, they expect May to push her anti-Europe MPs to back a lightly-tweaked accord.
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| The Latest: Arlington diocese says 16 priests on abuse list Posted: 13 Feb 2019 02:29 PM PST  RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The Latest on Catholic dioceses in Virginia releasing lists of priests with credible allegations of sexual abuse of a minor against them (all times local):
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| How Shamima Begum and two other schoolgirls from Bethnal Green became jihadi brides living under a deadly regime Posted: 15 Feb 2019 12:17 AM PST  According to her older sister Sahima, Shamima Begum was like any other 15-year-old girl, with the same hobbies, the same worries and infatuations which preoccupy the minds of most British teens. "She was into normal teenage things," Sahima said. "She used to watch Keeping Up With the Kardashians." At 15, Shamima's young mind was filled with much more than the affairs of the most famous family in Hollywood. Four months before she was due to sit her GCSEs, Shamima — the daughter of Bangladeshi immigrants, by all accounts a "sensible girl" and a "talented and dynamic" student at the high-flying Bethnal Green Academy — was secretly planning to leave her family and the only home she had ever known in London's East End, and travel to Syria to become a jihadi bride. Two of her school friends, Kadiza Sultana, then 16, and Amira Abase, 15, planned to accompany her, with the girls aiming to join another friend, Sharmeena Begum (no relation of Shamima), who had successfully travelled to Syria the year before. In an embarrassment for Scotland Yard, police had pulled a fifth girl from the group off the same flight Sharmeena was on without spotting the other girl. Two months later, it was the turn of the remaining three to make their escape. When CCTV footage emerged of three girls wearing hooded winter coats and thick-rimmed glasses, strolling through Gatwick Airport with smiles on their faces, they appeared so calm and casual they looked as if they might be going on a school trip, not about to board a one-way flight to the most dangerous corner of the world. Their secret plan to leave Britain had been formulated and executed with meticulous precision. The girls stole jewellery from family members which they sold to cobble together the money for flights (it's thought they spent upwards of £1,000 on their one-way tickets — an amount their families said at the time they could have never afforded alone). They bought their tickets from a local travel agent, making sure there was some money left over. They had to make sure there was something left to pay the men who would smuggle them over the border into the Syrian war zone where Isil was carving out its caliphate. The Spring half term began and on the morning of February 17 2015, Shamima, Kadiza and Amira told their families they were going out for the day. One had a wedding, another said she was popping into school to do some work. Instead, they packed a small bag of hand luggage each, and headed to Gatwick, where they would board Turkish Airlines flight TK1966 at 12:40pm to Istanbul. A shopping list found in one of the girls' bedrooms featured a reminder to pack underwear and a mobile phone. British teenagers Kadiza Sultana, Amira Abase and Shamima Begum in Raqqa Under the noses of the counterterrorism police who had spoken to them two months earlier after their friend Sharmeena fled to Syria, the girls began their journey. Four years later, one of them, Kadiza, is now known to have been killed in a Russian airstrike. Shamima, now 19, is alive and preparing to give birth to her third child (her first two died in infancy) in a refugee camp in northern Syria, having escaped Isil's last remaining stronghold. Amira and Sharmeena were last seen alive in June in the remaining pocket of Isil-held territory. Shamima has lost two babies, her fighter husband is in captivity, and though she says she doesn't regret coming to Syria, she has abandoned Isil at the 11th hour in an attempt to protect herself and her unborn child. For four years she has lived the life of a jihadi bride, witnessing the casual brutality of the regime on a daily basis and somehow escaping death herself. Now, she wants the ordeal to be over. She wants to come back home to Britain. Four years ago, almost to the day, the girls arrived in Istanbul and took a bus to the southern town of Gaziantep, close to the Syrian border. CCTV footage taken from a bus station showed them waiting with their bags. Another video, filmed by a smuggler called Mohammed Rashid (an Isil double agent who reportedly passed intelligence to the British and Canadian governments and was subsequently arrested by Turkish authorities), showed the girls clad in long black tunics trudging through a snowy landscape and clambering into a car. Renu, eldest sister of Shamima Begum, 15, holds her sister's photo Credit: PA Calling one of the girls "Sis", Rashid gave them Syrian passports and tested codenames they had apparently been given. "Who is Um Ahmed?" he asked, before telling them to "hurry" and assuring them they would be in Syria in "one hour". They were taken to an illegal crossing point known as Abu Zella, north of Tal Abyad, where they were handed to a Saudi jihadist known as Abu Mohareb al-Jazrawi. He was part of an Isil cell charged with helping transport would-be foreign jihadists into Raqqa. He took the girls to a safe house which was used for new volunteers who had yet to be vetted. There, they checked the girls' papers and confiscated their passports and identity cards. They stayed in the house for a day or two before another Isil smuggler, calling himself Abu Fahad, transferred them to Raqqa. The girls spent their first days in Isil's caliphate under lock and key in an apartment in what was then the jihadists' stronghold city. They were put in the care of a woman handler known as Um Laith — "Mother of the Lion" — tasked with "purifying their Western minds" by instilling the practices of Isil's hardline vision of sharia law. Kadiza Sultana 16, Amira Abase 15 and Shamima Begum 15 Credit: Metropolitan Police In their first weeks in the city the girls were not trusted by Raqqa's Isil rulers, and were forbidden to leave their apartment without their chaperone. An Isil leader confirmed to the Telegraph at the time that they were being kept together and watched. "Until now we don't trust them," he said. Speaking to The Times from the refugee camp where she is now awaiting the birth of her baby, Shamima recalled asking to be taken to the maqar – the female-only communal lodging for unmarried or widowed women where they believed their old school friend was living. "We kept asking his wife 'why are we here?' We want to go to the house of women, we want to see our friend. She didn't say anything to us and then afterwards we found out it was because they suspected we were spies." All three girls were quickly married off. Kadiza is said to have wed a western Isil fighter of Somali heritage, but after he was killed in battle decided to try to return to the UK. Shortly after, however, in May 2016, she was reported killed in a Russian airstrike, aged 17. Amira married an 18-year-old Australian jihadist, Abdullah Elmir, in July 2016. Elmir, who was described in Australian media as the "Ginger Jihadi", was later reported by intelligence agencies to have been killed in coalition airstrikes. Shamima, meanwhile, married a Dutchman who had converted to Islam. For a while, she says, life was "normal". "Like the life that they show in the propaganda videos. It's a normal life but every now and then there are bombs and stuff." She didn't witness any executions, but she did see "a beheaded head in the bin", she told a journalist calmly from the refugee camp on Wednesday. "Yeah, it didn't phase me at all." The young woman who can be heard talking on the interview recording is composed and unemotional. She is asked if it was hard to lose two children. "It came as a shock," she replies, calmly. "It just came out of nowhere, it was so hard." It's why she is "really overprotective of this baby", she says. "I'm scared that this baby is going to get sick in this camp, that's why I really want to get back to Britain because I know it will be taken care of, like healthwise at least." She talks about her school friend Kadiza, who is now known to have died in a Russian airstrike. "Her house was bombed because underground there was some secret stuff going on and a spy had… they figured out that something was going on so her house got bombed. And other people got killed as well." Kadiza's elder sister, Fahmida Khanam refused to discuss her suspected death in an air raid, or the fate of her surviving companions. Abase Hussen, father of Amira, who was last seen in June, said he hoped his daughter was still alive. "She could always make us laugh," he said. "That's how I want to think of her, not what happened after. I hope she is still alive, but I don't really know whether she is." Islamic State losing its grip on Syria Mr Hussen has said before that he cannot understand his daughter's descent into radicalisation, telling MPs in 2015 that he could think of "nothing" to explain the change in her. After she travelled to Syria, video emerged of Mr Hussen beside a burning US flag at the front of a rally organised by the hate preacher Anjem Choudary. In June 2015, Amira spoke to an undercover reporter from a Sunday newspaper after 30 Britons were shot dead by an Isil jihadist in Tunisia, mocking the victims. She appeared to be grooming the reporter, giving tips on how to reach Syria and what to bring. Last summer her mother, Fetia Hussen, said she had lost contact with her and feared she had died, but Shamima has confirmed to The Times that she was seen alive last June, along with Sharmeena Begum. On Wednesday night, Shamima's sister Renu — who in 2015 said her sister was "young" and "vulnerable", and she hoped she had gone to Syria to bring back Sharmeena, not to join Isil herself — pleaded with the government to allow her to come home. "She's pregnant and vulnerable, and it's important we get her out of al-Hawl camp and home as soon as possible," she said. "We hope the British Government will help us bring her home to us where she belongs. "I'm so relieved that my sister has been found, safe and sound. We are aware that she has been trying to get out. We lost contact with her for the longest of time. We are happy to know that she is okay." The father of Sharmeena Begum told the Telegraph yesterday [THURS] that his family had been left distraught by her decision to travel to join Isil. Mohammad Nizam Uddin said he had been unable to reconcile himself to her disappearance from home. Speaking from his flat on the top floor of a tower block overlooking London's East End, the 42-year-old told The Telegraph: "We have heard nothing from her since she left. We do not know where she is. "As a father I urge the British Government to let these girls back into the country. Please let them come back. I want to see my daughter again. It is terrible she is not here, it is terrible for us." Mr Uddin added: "I think they should be allowed to come home. When they went to Syria they were not mature and they had been radicalised." They travelled out to Syria together, but as Isil loses its remaining grip on the region, just one of the girls from Bethnal Green is living in relative safety. Taken on a coach filled with fleeing Isil families to the camp in al-Hawl, Shamima is now waiting to deliver her third baby, and to learn of her fate, desperate to return to Britain. "The caliphate is over," she says. "There was so much oppression and corruption that I don't think they deserved victory." Her friends would be "ashamed" of her if they are alive and have learnt that she has fled. "They made their choice as single women. For their husbands were already dead. It was their own choice as women to stay." Now, she says, her priority is her baby. "I know what everyone at home thinks of me as I have read all that was written about me online. But I just want to come home to have my child. That's all I want right now. I'll do anything required just to be able to come home and live quietly with my child."
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| Photos of the New 2019 Subaru Ascent Touring Posted: 14 Feb 2019 09:09 AM PST |
| Apple ramps up self-driving program as Waymo says its tech improves Posted: 13 Feb 2019 12:00 PM PST  Apple Inc has sharply increased its efforts to test self-driving cars on public roads but lags far behind market leader Waymo on a key safety metric, according to data released on Wednesday by the California Department of Motor Vehicles. Apple, which has kept details of its self-driving program under wraps, put in 79,745 miles (128,337 km) of testing in California in 2018, still far short of 10 million miles of testing on roads around the world by Alphabet Inc's Waymo. The data was part of California regulators' annual so-called "disengagement reports," which track how often a human safety driver must intervene to take control from a self-driving system during testing on public roads.
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| Trump Venezuela envoy interrogated by Ilhan Omar over his role in Iran-Contra scandal Posted: 14 Feb 2019 06:20 AM PST  Donald Trump's envoy to Venezuela was left flustered and visibly angry following an interrogation by Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar over his controversial political past. Elliot Abrams was appointed special envoy to Venezuela last month to help lead the US response to the political crisis in the South American country, which is seeing widespread hunger and violence following the collapse of its economy. On Wednesday, Mr Abrams, who served in the Reagan administration, testified in front of the House foreign affairs select committee, where he was subjected to a fierce line of questioning by Ms Omar.
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| Judge rules that ex-Trump aide Manafort broke plea deal Posted: 13 Feb 2019 06:21 PM PST  Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort could face a much longer prison sentence than expected after a Washington judge ruled Wednesday that he had broken his plea deal with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. Federal district judge Amy Berman Jackson agreed with prosecutors that Manafort had "intentionally" lied to investigators about his contacts with a suspected Russian operative, Konstantin Kilimnik in 2016 and 2017, despite having pledged to cooperate as part of his September plea agreement. Jackson also ruled that Manafort had lied about a secretive payment he made to a law firm, and lied on another occasion when investigators queried him about a separate, still secret investigation related to the Mueller probe.
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| America Wants to Talk About Iran, But Europe Doesn’t Posted: 13 Feb 2019 01:30 PM PST  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- When Secretary of State Mike Pompeo first described this week's big international conference in Warsaw, he left little doubt about its purpose. At the meeting, he said last month, America and its allies would discuss "how it is we together can get Iran to behave like a normal nation."
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| Ocasio-Cortez takes a victory lap after Amazon scraps plans to build in New York Posted: 14 Feb 2019 12:12 PM PST  The Democratic phenom scores a victory over the "richest man in the world."
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| White supremacist sentenced for killing black man with sword Posted: 13 Feb 2019 11:38 AM PST  NEW YORK (AP) — A white supremacist who killed a black man with a sword wanted to ignite a worldwide race war, a prosecutor told a judge who sentenced the man Wednesday to life in prison without parole.
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| United Airlines: Three new routes for fast-growing Denver hub Posted: 15 Feb 2019 07:17 AM PST ![United Airlines: Three new routes for fast-growing Denver hub]( "United Airlines: Three new routes for fast-growing Denver hub") United Airlines will add three new domestic routes at its Denver hub, all of which will go head-to-head against budget rival Frontier Airlines.
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| New migrant caravan forming could be largest caravan yet Posted: 13 Feb 2019 08:07 PM PST  Guatemalan Intelligence Secretary Mario Duarte weighs in on the latest caravan and what Guatemala is doing to protect and control the movement of these migrants.
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| The 2019 Bentley Bentayga Speed Is Faster but Cannot Crush the Lamborghini Urus Posted: 14 Feb 2019 11:20 AM PST  Still, it's the fastest 12-cylinder SUV anywhere.
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| Florida governor calls for grand jury over Parkland school shooting Posted: 13 Feb 2019 03:31 PM PST  Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Wednesday called for a state grand jury to investigate the 2018 school massacre in Parkland in which 17 people died, pledging accountability for any local failures that led to the deadliest U.S. high school shooting. DeSantis, a Republican elected last fall after campaigning on the issue, petitioned the Florida Supreme Court for the investigation the day before the first anniversary of the Valentine's Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
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| Modi says Pakistan will pay 'huge price' for Kashmir bombing Posted: 15 Feb 2019 09:50 AM PST  India's Prime Minister has accused Pakistan of carrying out Thursday's suicide car bombing that killed at least 44 people in Kashmir, saying the country has made a "huge mistake" for which it will pay a "huge price". Speaking after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security, Narendra Modi said that the "forces behind the attack and the people who are responsible for it, will definitely be punished for their crimes". He added that India's security forces had been given "full freedom" to respond to the attack. Mr Modi was reacting to claims from the Pakistan-based Islamist militant group, Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), that it carried out the attack on a paramilitary convoy on the outskirts of Kashmir's summer capital, Srinagar. India's foreign office demanded that Islamabad take "immediate and verifiable action" against the JeM. New Delhi has also withdrawn trade privileges extended to Pakistan under their long-standing Most Favoured Nation (MFN) agreement as part of "diplomatically isolating" Islamabad, said senior federal minister Arun Jaitley. Pakistan, however, has dismissed all Indian charges of any involvement in the bombing, which it said was a "matter of grave concern". Police detain a demonstrator during a protest against the attack on a bus that killed 44 CRPF personnel in south Kashmir on Thursday Credit: Reuters Over 2,700 Central Reserve Police Force paramilitary personnel were travelling to Srinagar in a 78-vehicle convoy when a 22-year old suicide bomber, identified as Adil Ahmad Dar, rammed his car packed with over 125bs of plastic explosives into one of the stationary busses. Police officials said Dar, a school dropout who had earlier worked in a sawmill near Srinagar, was reported missing since late last year. The JeM has been active in Kashmir since its founding in 2000 and India holds it responsible for attacking its parliament building in New Delhi in 2001, an assault that brought the nuclear-armed neighbours to the brink of war. The JeM has been designated a 'terrorist' organisation by the UN, UK and the US, and even, under foreign pressure, proscribed in Pakistan since 2002. But its founder, cleric Masood Azhar, freely roams the country, holding public meetings and fund-raising drives. Indian efforts to have Azhar designated an international terrorist have long been been blocked by Pakistan's close strategic ally China. India claims Pakistan, which seized a third of Kashmir after independence in 1947 and lays claim to the rest, fuels the disputed province's 30-year Muslim insurgency for an independent homeland in which over 70,000 people had died. Students hold candles during a vigil for the dead paramilitary police Credit: Reuters Pakistan denies Indian allegations, saying it only provided Kashmiri separatists' moral and diplomatic support for their cause. The two neighbours have fought two of their three wars since independence over Kashmir. And in 1999, soon after both became nuclear weapon states, their two armies clashed in Kashmir's Himalayan Kargil region for 11-weeks resulting in 1,200 soldiers dying on both sides. Meanwhile, India's principal Opposition Congress Party, virulently opposed to Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party government, has offered its unequivocal support to the administration to deal with the crisis posed by the terror strike. The authorities have also imposed curfew in Kashmir's winter capital Jammu following violent protests that erupted in the city over the terror attack. Several cars were set alight and the authorities have suspended Internet services in Jammu to prevent rumours spreading over social media.
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| Former US Air Force agent charged with defecting to Iran Posted: 13 Feb 2019 12:06 PM PST  The US Justice Department charged a former Air Force intelligence official Wednesday with spying for Iran, saying she exposed a fellow US agent and helped the Revolutionary Guard target her former colleagues for cyber attacks. US officials said Monica Witt, 39, who worked a decade in Air Force counterintelligence, had an "ideological" turn against her country and defected in 2013, turning over information on US espionage operations against Tehran. "It is a sad day for America when one of its citizens betrays our country," said Assistant Attorney General John Demers, announcing the indictment.
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| U.K. Spy Warns Against Triumphalism Over Islamic State Collapse Posted: 15 Feb 2019 05:00 AM PST ![U.K. Spy Warns Against Triumphalism Over Islamic State Collapse]( "U.K. Spy Warns Against Triumphalism Over Islamic State Collapse") "We are not triumphant because I think from triumphant you get to hubris," MI6 Chief Alex Younger told reporters in Munich on Friday. Younger said Islamic States's so-called caliphate was now in its "end game," with the extremist militants clinging to the last square mile of land they hold in the village of Baghuz in eastern Syria. Meanwhile the U.K. is debating the case of Shamima Begum, a 19-year-old from east London who wants to come home despite expressing no regrets over becoming a so-called jihadi bride with Islamic State in Syria at the age of 15.
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| PR push for white officer accused of killing armed black man Posted: 14 Feb 2019 03:59 PM PST ![PR push for white officer accused of killing armed black man]( "PR push for white officer accused of killing armed black man") NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The attorney for a white police officer charged with fatally shooting an armed black man in Tennessee is calling for legal discovery documents to be sealed from members of the public.
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| Nasa's Mars rover is officially dead, space agency says Posted: 14 Feb 2019 03:20 AM PST  Nasa's Opportunity rover is officially dead, the space agency has said, after it disappeared in a dust storm on Mars. Clearly emotional Nasa staff, standing in front of a life-sized replica of the rover, said they had not heard back from the rover and that the mission would come to an end. "I am standing here with a sense of deep appreciation and gratitude," said Nasa associate administrator Thomas Zurbuchen, before he announced that the Opportunity mission is now considered complete.
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| Southwest Airlines passes key FAA test, schedules more Hawaii test flights Posted: 14 Feb 2019 08:43 AM PST ![Southwest Airlines passes key FAA test, schedules more Hawaii test flights]( "Southwest Airlines passes key FAA test, schedules more Hawaii test flights") The airline, which needs FAA approval for long overwater flights, has scheduled a test flight on Thursday from Oakland to Honolulu.
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| Cars submerged, vineyards flooded as storm slams California Posted: 13 Feb 2019 03:55 PM PST  Among the hardest hit areas was northern California, with rain driven by winds of up to 75 mph (120 kph) pounding parts of Sonoma County's wine country. In the Sacramento Valley, flood warnings were in effect from Chico to Stockton as the warm "Pineapple Express" tropical system brought rain to the mountains, melting snow and swelling creeks. A woman was injured when a tree fell on a home in Carmel, and falling trees knocked out power to houses in Atherton near Palo Alto, according to tweets from the National Weather Service (NWS) and local authorities.
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| 2020 Vision: Buckle up America! It’s gonna be a long, crowded campaign Posted: 15 Feb 2019 07:13 AM PST  If this week was a preview, the 2020 presidential cycle will make the last one seem tranquil.
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| The U.S. Navy Just Bought Four Giant, Robot Submarines from Boeing Posted: 14 Feb 2019 08:00 PM PST  Orca could help to fill a yawning gap in the American submarine fleet. In December 2016, the U.S. Navy announced it needed 66 nuclear-powered attack subs, or SSNs, to meet regional commanders' needs.
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| USS Hornet has been found on the floor of the South Pacific, 76 years after it was sunk by the Japanese Posted: 14 Feb 2019 07:39 AM PST  Tim Gray interviewed the last surviving pilot from the 1942 Doolittle Raid that took off for Japan from the USS Hornet.
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| The Latest: Robbery shooting suspect charged with murder Posted: 13 Feb 2019 04:41 PM PST  NEW YORK (AP) — The Latest on the fatal shooting of a New York Police Department detective (all times local):
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| Denver teachers to end strike after school officials agree to raise pay Posted: 14 Feb 2019 05:56 AM PST  The strike, which cost Denver Public Schools about $400,000 per day, came to an end early Thursday.
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| Amazon drops New York headquarters plan amid protests Posted: 14 Feb 2019 01:38 PM PST  Amazon abandoned plans for a new headquarters in New York City on Thursday, blaming opposition from community leaders angry at the huge subsidies being offered to one of the world's most successful companies. The online retail giant had promised the sprawling complex in the borough of Queens would create 25,000 jobs in exchange for nearly $3 billion in state and city incentives -- which had riled some New Yorkers. "While polls show that 70 percent of New Yorkers support our plans and investment, a number of state and local politicians have made it clear that they oppose our presence and will not work with us to build the type of relationships that are required to go forward with the project," Amazon said in a statement.
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| New 2020 Porsche Taycan EV Details Revealed in Spy Photos Posted: 15 Feb 2019 06:46 AM PST |
| Parkland shooting: How the NRA is more vulnerable than ever after a year of protests and a wave election Posted: 14 Feb 2019 09:56 AM PST  One year after gunfire began in the freshman building of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the movement those bullets sparked has swept through the US and opened a new chapter on guns in America. Guns have come to dominate political debate this past year in way unseen previously in the US, with massive protests from March for Our Lives attracting headlines and major news coverage — and virtually all Democrat presidential candidates supporting stricter gun control. Meanwhile, dozens of states have moved to pass new gun control laws in an historic effort, as communities across America continue to be scarred by gun violence.
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| Ilhan Omar Clashed With Venezuela Envoy Elliott Abrams Over Washington's Role in Latin America. Here's the History Behind Her Claims Posted: 14 Feb 2019 10:34 AM PST  The Iran-Contra Affair and the El Mozote massacre were among the darkest chapters of U.S. intervention in the region
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| Rush to Disband Princess-Backed Party Evokes Thai Bloodshed Posted: 14 Feb 2019 12:19 AM PST  The Constitutional Court on Thursday accepted a case calling for the party, Thai Raksa Chart, to be dissolved for hostility toward the constitutional monarchy. The accusation reached the court five days after King Maha Vajiralongkorn sunk the party's shock bid to make his sister a candidate for prime minister. "If parties linked to Thaksin keep being disbanded, the conflict will never end, and will intensify," said Punchada Sirivunnabood, an associate professor at Mahidol University's Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities near Bangkok.
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