| Disneyland Paris: Man falls in Adventureland lake, spawns 130-person search party Posted: 24 Sep 2019 09:34 AM PDT  A Swiss man went missing after falling into a lake at Disneyland Paris this weekend, spawning a 130-person search party.
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| 'Nothing call.' Trump strikes defiant tone after release of details of call with Ukraine's Zelensky Posted: 25 Sep 2019 09:48 AM PDT  President Trump took a defiant tone Wednesday, dismissing the contents of a controversial call he took months ago with the president of Ukraine.
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| Senator Elizabeth Warren's net worth revealed as the 2020 Presidential Election heats up Posted: 24 Sep 2019 08:11 AM PDT  The 2020 President Election is heating up -- and with taxes and finances being some of the biggest areas, here's a look at Sen Elizabeth Warren's net worth.
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| US sanctions Chinese companies for Iran oil imports: Pompeo Posted: 25 Sep 2019 06:35 AM PDT  The United States on Wednesday announced sanctions on Chinese companies for buying Iranian oil, stepping up pressure despite European attempts to arrange talks between Washington and Tehran. Speaking to a pressure group opposed to the Iranian regime on the sidelines of the United Nations, Pompeo said the actions were in response to violations of unilateral US sanctions. "We're telling China, and all nations -- know that we will sanction every violation of sanctions of all activity," Pompeo told United Against a Nuclear Iran.
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| Evidence laid out against Colorado school shooting suspect Posted: 24 Sep 2019 06:06 PM PDT  A Colorado teenager charged in a school shooting that killed one of his classmates was pressured into participating by a fellow student with a grudge who had recently befriended him, his lawyer said Tuesday. The claim came during a hearing to determine whether Devon Erickson, 19, will stand trial for the May 7 shooting at STEM School Highlands Ranch in suburban Denver. After co-defendant Alec McKinney, 16, insisted he was going to carry out the attack, Erickson went to the school nurse in a failed attempt to avoid it, but McKinney threatened to go ahead anyway and kill his friends and also threatened to hurt him, defense lawyer Julia Stancil said.
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| UPDATE 2-Air strikes in Yemen hit Houthi territory, Houthis fire ballistic missile Posted: 24 Sep 2019 04:17 AM PDT ![UPDATE 2-Air strikes in Yemen hit Houthi territory, Houthis fire ballistic missile]( "UPDATE 2-Air strikes in Yemen hit Houthi territory, Houthis fire ballistic missile") Air strikes blamed on the Saudi-led coalition killed at least 16 people in Yemen's Houthi-controlled Dalea province on Tuesday, two residents and the Houthi-run al-Masirah TV said. The strikes came four days after the Houthis, a group aligned with Iran, said they would stop aiming missile and drone attacks at Saudi Arabia if the Saudi-led coalition targeting Yemen does the same. The coalition spokesman said later on Tuesday that Houthi forces fired a ballistic missile from Amran, northwest of the capital Sanaa, but it fell inside Houthi territory in Yemen.
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| Venezuelans accused of smuggling $5 mn in gold into US Posted: 24 Sep 2019 03:09 PM PDT  Two Venezuelans have been charged in US federal court with allegedly smuggling $5 million worth of gold bars into the United States in a private airplane. Jean Carlos Sanchez Rojas and Victor Fossi Grieco, who piloted the airplane, were arrested on September 20 at Florida's Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport after US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents discovered the undeclared cargo in the airplane's nose.
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| Man named Thomas Cook has wedding ruined by collapse of tour company Thomas Cook Posted: 23 Sep 2019 10:23 AM PDT  Cook, 29, and his fiancee, 27-year-old Amelia Binch, both from Hucknall, England, have been stranded on the Greek island of Rhodes ahead of their wedding.
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| Comey: Trump shouldn't be impeached because the 'American people would be let off the hook' Posted: 24 Sep 2019 05:16 PM PDT  When asked about impeaching Trump, the former FBI director answered "as a citizen, I hope not because I think the American people would be let off the hook."
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| Mother of boy killed in Sandy Hook shooting pays touching tribute: 'I feared today' Posted: 25 Sep 2019 08:46 AM PDT  The mother of a 6-year-old boy who was killed in a 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook paid a touching tribute to him on Twitter this week.
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| View Photos of the 2020 Audi RS7 Sportback Posted: 24 Sep 2019 03:01 PM PDT |
| Chinese heiress and socialite charged with murdering her ex at a California mansion says he was killed in botched kidnap plot Posted: 24 Sep 2019 01:24 PM PDT  A Chinese heiress and Bay Area socialite charged with murdering the father of her two children at her California mansion has denied the charges.
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| US patience with Iran not inexhaustible, warns Saudi Arabia Posted: 24 Sep 2019 02:35 PM PDT  Saudi minister says military response to attack on oil facilities still being considered 'When push comes to shove there comes a point when even America's patience runs out,' said the Saudi foreign affairs minister, Adel al-Jubeir. Photograph: Amr Nabil/APSaudi Arabia has said that US patience with Iran is not inexhaustible and warned military options are still being considered following the attack on the Aramco oil facilities earlier this month.The Saudi foreign affairs minister, Adel al-Jubeir, also said the UN-commissioned report into the origins of the attack will be available fairly soon, and described the EU's Monday statement ascribing responsibility to Iran as "very significant".His remarks suggest Saudi Arabia is still putting private pressure on Donald Trump's administration not to limit his response to the 14 September attack to further sanctions and the deployment of additional troops to defend the oil facilities.Jubeir said: "We want to mobilise international support, and we want to look at a whole list of options – diplomatic options, economic options and military options – and then make the decision."Speaking on the margins of the UN general assembly in New York, he said: "This action will have consequences and Iran must know this."He added: "When push comes to shove there comes a point when even America's patience runs out – and Iran must be aware of that."The attacks temporarily knocked out over 5 per cent of global oil production and caused petroleum prices to rise.Also at the UN, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said he was hoping for a breakthrough with Iran over the possibility of reopening talks in the coming hours, but the Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, denied he was willing to drop his demand that US sanctions are lifted before talks can begin.Macron told the general assembly: "I am not naive at all and I don't believe in miracles. I believe it takes courage to build peace and that is why it is important for the United States, Iran and the signatories of the agreement to show this courage."But Jubeir set out a series of tough conditions for renegotiating the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, including fresh restrictions on its nuclear program after 2025, a 24/7 inspection regime all over the country and restrictions on its ballistic missile program.The demand, he said was "no nukes, no missiles and no terrorism", adding: "The Europeans were coming round to this being the objective. We believe appeasement does not work with Iran. We believe that when Europeans did not take a strong position after the attacks on the pipelines and oil field in Shaybah (in August), this emboldened and encouraged Iran."Although Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for the attacks on the Abqaiq and Khurais facilities, Riyadh, Washington and the EU have laid the blame on Iran.The US said it had expected Monday's statement by the UK, France and Germany, stating that Iran was behind the attack, because European and US investigators are examining weapons fragments together in Saudi Arabia."I really appreciate that our allies … have come forward and recognised publicly the truth," the US assistant secretary of state for the near east, David Schenker, told journalists."This did not come as a major surprise. The Brits and the French are on the ground with us with the Saudis and the UN, part of the investigative team in Saudi Arabia," Schenker said. "We have been transparent in terms of chain of custody … of all the equipment that we now have from the attack. And we're exploiting it together."Even before we have finished this investigation, the evidence that is emerging is incontrovertible."The US has been insistent that it would not carry out a retaliatory strike, but would beef up Saudi defences and increase other forms of pressure on Iran.Trump on Tuesday called on other nations to join the US in pressuring Iran after the attacks, but said there was still a path to peace.
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| Male model arrested in widely publicized Thai sex case Posted: 25 Sep 2019 03:53 AM PDT  Police in Thailand on Wednesday arrested a male model accused of taking an unconscious woman home, boasting online about his sexual exploits, and leaving her lifeless body in the lobby of his building. Police brought charges of illegal detention leading to death, abduction with intent of committing an indecent act and molestation against 24-year-old Ratchadech Wongtabut in a case that has riveted the attention of the public and press. The victim, Thitima Noraphanpiphat, 25, made a living as a "pretty," the term for young women normally hired for events such as auto shows to pose seductively with products they are promoting.
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| Scientists answer whether the popular CBD oil trend is legitimate (and legal) Posted: 25 Sep 2019 06:28 AM PDT  Culture has dubbed CBD oil a miracle — you can now find it in lattes, food and creams — but is it effective? And is it legal?
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| Fatal NYC helicopter crash video shows passengers struggling, NTSB report says Posted: 23 Sep 2019 08:08 PM PDT ![Fatal NYC helicopter crash video shows passengers struggling, NTSB report says]( "Fatal NYC helicopter crash video shows passengers struggling, NTSB report says") Passengers struggled to escape safety harnesses as a sightseeing helicopter sank in New York City's East River last year, according to new documents.
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| Juul boss exits in vaping crisis as Philip Morris, Altria end merger talks Posted: 25 Sep 2019 07:38 AM PDT  Juul, in which tobacco giant Altria Group owns a 35% stake, is facing intense scrutiny in its home market as teen use of e-cigarettes surges. Philip Morris International and Altria, announcing the end of their talks, said they would instead focus on the joint launch of tobacco-heating product iQOS in the United States.
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| Meet the F-4 Phantom: This 60-Year-Old Fighter Jet Won't Stop for Anyone Posted: 23 Sep 2019 09:54 PM PDT  The story of the legendary F-4 Phantom II.
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| Meghan Markle shares 'Cinderella moment' with teenager in South Africa: Watch! Posted: 24 Sep 2019 03:17 PM PDT  Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle made light of a potentially awkward situation during an engagement in Cape Town.
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| Pelosi orders impeachment probe: 'No one is above the law' Posted: 24 Sep 2019 07:02 PM PDT  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi launched a formal impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump on Tuesday, yielding to mounting pressure from fellow Democrats and plunging a deeply divided nation into an election-year clash between Congress and the commander in chief. The probe focuses partly on whether Trump abused his presidential powers and sought help from a foreign government to undermine Democratic foe Joe Biden and help his own reelection. The impeachment inquiry, after months of investigations by House Democrats of the Trump administration, sets up the party's most direct and consequential confrontation with the president, injects deep uncertainty into the 2020 election campaign and tests anew the nation's constitutional system of checks and balances.
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| Man's brain tumor was misdiagnosed as mental illness for six years Posted: 24 Sep 2019 09:55 AM PDT  A New Zealand man who was told he had a mental illness learned that he, in fact, had a brain tumor.
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| Seized British tanker Stena Impero still in Iran: Stena Bulk CEO Posted: 24 Sep 2019 02:08 AM PDT  British-flagged tanker Stena Impero, detained by Iran in July, is still in the country despite Iranian officials saying it was free to leave, Stena Bulk CEO Erik Hanell said on Tuesday. Iran's ambassador to the United Kingdom, Hamid Baeidinejad, said on Twitter on Monday the Swedish-owned vessel was free to leave after legal hurdles had been cleared. "She has moved during her time there to get fresh water, among other things, but is still in Bandar Abbas," Hanell said in a text message, adding he had no information as to why the ship had not left Iran.
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| Rashida Tlaib argues with pro-vaping witness during hearing: 'Are you a conspiracy theorist?' Posted: 24 Sep 2019 02:33 PM PDT  "Are you a conspiracy theorist?" Rashida Tlaib asked the witness. "I think my politics are entirely irrelevant to this hearing," Vicki Porter replied.
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| NRA: Universal background checks would do nothing to stop mass shootings Posted: 24 Sep 2019 04:15 PM PDT  President Trump is calculating which policies would actually work, writes Jason Ouimet, executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action
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| F-15s, F-22s and F-35s Are Training to Refuel and Rearm Fast (All Thanks to China?) Posted: 24 Sep 2019 10:00 PM PDT  The U.S. Air Force on Sept. 12, 2019 practiced refueling and rearming F-15E fighter-bombers at an austere location. Any guesses as to why?
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| Muslim girl ‘forced to remove hijab’ before flight, lawsuit says Posted: 24 Sep 2019 06:05 AM PDT  A Muslim girl who plays for the US national squash team was forced to remove her hijab in public before boarding a flight, a lawsuit claims.Fatima Abdelrahman, who was 12 at the time, was allegedly made to remove the head covering by Air Canada workers at San Francisco International Airport – despite having already been through security.
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| Palestinian president to pledge elections at UN: official Posted: 24 Sep 2019 05:57 PM PDT  Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will renew a pledge to hold fresh parliamentary elections in a speech to the UN General Assembly on Thursday, a senior official said. Abbas will say that "after he returns to Palestine he will call parliamentary elections and specify a date and begin formal preparations," Ahmed Majdalani, a senior Palestinian official and Abbas aide, told AFP on Wednesday.
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| Amputee woman recreates iconic Cinderella scene with gorgeous glass prosthetic arm Posted: 25 Sep 2019 08:11 AM PDT  A woman who is missing part of her arm became fed up with a lack of amputee representation in media, so she decided to create her own.
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| Senate Republicans Back Trump in Impeachment Row Posted: 25 Sep 2019 06:40 AM PDT  Senate Republicans continue to stand by President Trump in the wake of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's announcement of a formal impeachment inquiry on Tuesday."If you want to impeach him, stop talking," said Senator John Kennedy (R., La.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over the impeachment process. "Do it. Do it. Go to Amazon, buy a spine and do it."Kennedy predicted that the public would look upon the impeachment inquiry as "more harassment."Senator Rand Paul (R., Ky) concurred, saying "I think the Democrats have made this such a partisan exercise that I think most of the public has discounted the idea of it."While certain prominent Senate Republicans have questioned the political utility of pursuing impeachment, they have not moved to block Democrats' oversight efforts. Senate Republicans joined Democrats in unanimously approving a resolution demanding that the Trump administration release the whistleblower complaint at the center of the impeachment inquiry.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would be required to initiate impeachment proceedings in the Senate if the House passes articles of impeachment, but 67 votes are required to secure a conviction in the upper chamber.The prospective difficulties in furthering the impeachment process through the Senate have led Republicans to warn that Democratic impeachment efforts will backfire."I know they're under a lot of pressure to do it, but if you're the leadership over there, you got to think long and hard about what the implications are if it looks like you're overreaching," said Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R., S.D.).Meanwhile, the Trump reelection campaign and the Republican National Committee began a fund-raising initiative Tuesday based on the threat of Trump's impeachment.Party officials said that over the course of the day they raised over $1 million with the initiative.
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| Deported Army veteran returns to US in bid to become citizen Posted: 24 Sep 2019 08:34 PM PDT  Federal immigration authorities granted Miguel Perez Jr. a two-week parole into the U.S. for an immigration hearing, according to his attorney. The 41-year-old Perez has a green card as a permanent U.S. resident, but after serving time for a 2008 non-violent drug conviction was deported last year. Then last month, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued a pardon , erasing the conviction and reviving Perez's chances to become a citizen.
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| Texas to execute man convicted of stabbing wife, stepsons to death in 2007 Posted: 25 Sep 2019 03:00 AM PDT ![Texas to execute man convicted of stabbing wife, stepsons to death in 2007]( "Texas to execute man convicted of stabbing wife, stepsons to death in 2007") A 45-year-old man convicted of stabbing his wife and two stepsons to death and sexually assaulting his two stepdaughters in their home in 2007 saying he believed his spouse was poisoning him is scheduled to be executed in Texas on Wednesday. Robert Sparks is set to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. (2300 GMT) at the state's death chamber in Huntsville. A Dallas jury convicted Sparks of capital murder in 2008 in the deaths of his wife Chare Agnew and his two stepsons Harold, 9, and Raekwon, 10.
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| Pilot stuck in trees for hours after small plane crashes in NJ Posted: 24 Sep 2019 07:10 PM PDT  Police in New Jersey located the plane entangled in trees about 75 feet off the ground. The pilot was taken to a hospital for observation.
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| Can Someone Be Fired for Being Gay? The Supreme Court Will Decide Posted: 24 Sep 2019 05:01 AM PDT  ATLANTA -- The Supreme Court has delivered a remarkable series of victories to the gay rights movement over the last two decades, culminating in a ruling that established a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. But in more than half the states, someone can still be fired for being gay.Early in its new term, on Oct. 8, the court will consider whether an existing federal law, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, guarantees nationwide protection from workplace discrimination to gay and transgender people, even in states that offer no protections right now.It will be the court's first case on LGBT rights since the retirement last year of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who wrote the majority opinions in all four of the court's major gay rights decisions. And without Kennedy, who joined four liberals in the 5-4 ruling in the marriage case, the workers who sued their employers in the three cases before the court may face an uphill fight."Now that we don't have Kennedy on the court, it would be a stretch to find a fifth vote in favor of any of these claims that are coming to the court," said Katherine Franke, a law professor at Columbia and the author of "Wedlocked: The Perils of Marriage Equality."She added that lawyers working to expand gay rights might have focused too narrowly on the right to marry. "The gay rights movement became the marriage rights movement," she said, "and we lost sight of the larger dynamics and structures of homophobia."Other experts said the court should have little trouble ruling for the plaintiffs."Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans continue to face widespread job discrimination because of their same-sex attraction or sex identities," said William N. Eskridge Jr., a law professor at Yale and the author of an article in The Yale Law Journal on Title VII's statutory history. "If the justices take seriously the text of Title VII and their own precedents, LGBT Americans will enjoy the same job protections as other groups."The Supreme Court's earlier gay rights rulings were grounded in constitutional law. Romer v. Evans, in 1996, struck down a Colorado constitutional amendment that had banned laws protecting gay men and lesbians. Lawrence v. Texas, in 2003, struck down laws making gay sex a crime. United States v. Windsor, in 2013, overturned a ban on federal benefits for married same-sex couples.And Obergefell v. Hodges, in 2015, struck down state bans on same-sex marriage, ruling that the Constitution guarantees a right to such unions.The new cases, by contrast, concern statutory interpretation, not constitutional law.The question for the justices is whether the landmark 1964 law's prohibition of sex discrimination encompasses discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Lawyers for the gay and transgender plaintiffs say it does. Lawyers for the defendants and the Trump administration, which has filed briefs supporting the employers, say it does not.The common understanding of sex discrimination in 1964 was bias against women or men, Solicitor General Noel J. Francisco wrote. It did not encompass discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity."The ordinary meaning of 'sex' is biologically male or female," he wrote. "It does not include sexual orientation."In response, lawyers for one of the plaintiffs, Gerald Bostock, wrote that "a person's sexual orientation is a sex-based classification because it cannot be defined without reference to his sex."Bostock, who spent a decade building a government program to help neglected and abused children in Clayton County, Georgia, just south of Atlanta, said his story illustrated the gaps in protection for gay workers."Everything was going amazingly," he said in an interview in his home. "Then I decided to join a gay recreational softball league."He played catcher and first base for his team, the Honey Badgers, in the Hotlanta Softball League. A few months later, the county fired him for "conduct unbecoming a county employee."Bostock's case is at an early stage, and the reason for his dismissal is contested. His former employer has said it fired him after an audit indicated he had misused county funds, which Bostock denies.In an email, Jack R. Hancock, a lawyer for the county, said, "Mr. Bostock's sexual orientation had nothing to do with his termination."The justices will decide whether Bostock is entitled to try to make his case to a jury. The county insists that Title VII allows it to fire workers for being gay, meaning that the case should be dismissed at the outset."When Congress prohibited sex discrimination in employment approximately 55 years ago," Hancock wrote in a brief, "it did not simultaneously prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation."Bostock, 55, grew up in southern Georgia, where he said he "learned the three F's very quickly: family, faith and football." But he found his own calling, he said, when he was assigned to recruit volunteers to represent children from troubled homes in juvenile court."It was my passion," he said. "My employer loved the job I was doing. I got favorable performance reviews. We had great success."Things took a turn, he said, when he became more open about his sexual orientation."When I joined the gay softball league in January of 2013, that's when my life changed," he said. "Within months of that, there were negative comments about my sexual orientation." In particular, he said, he was criticized for recruiting volunteers for the program from the gay community in Atlanta.Bostock said he would attend the Supreme Court arguments in his case, Bostock v. Clayton County, No. 17-1618. "I hope they give me the right to have my day in court, to come back to Georgia and clear my name and have the truth come out," he said.The justices will also hear a companion case, Altitude Express v. Zarda, No. 17-1623. It was brought by a sky diving instructor, Donald Zarda, who said he was fired because he was gay. His dismissal followed a complaint from a female customer who had expressed concerns about being strapped to Zarda during a tandem dive. Zarda, hoping to reassure the customer, told her that he was "100% gay."Zarda sued under Title VII and lost the initial rounds. He died in a 2014 sky diving accident, and his estate pursued his case. His lawyers told the justices that the case could be decided "without ever using the term 'sexual orientation' or 'gay.'""The claim could accurately be framed entirely in terms of sex and nothing else: Zarda was fired for being a man attracted to men," they wrote. "That is sex discrimination pure and simple."Most federal appeals courts have interpreted Title VII to exclude sexual orientation discrimination. But two of them, in New York and Chicago, have ruled that discrimination against gay men and lesbians is a form of sex discrimination.Last year, a divided 13-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in New York, allowed Zarda's lawsuit to proceed. Writing for the majority, Chief Judge Robert A. Katzmann concluded that "sexual orientation discrimination is motivated, at least in part, by sex and is thus a subset of sex discrimination."Hancock, in his brief for Clayton County in Bostock's case, urged the justices to be wary of what he called a novel interpretation of an old law. "One would expect that, if Congress intended to enact a statute of such magnitude -- socially, culturally, politically and policy-wise -- as one prohibiting employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation," he wrote, "Congress specifically would have so stated in the text of Title VII."The Supreme Court has ruled that it is race discrimination to fire a worker for being a member of an interracial couple. Lawyers for Zarda said the same principle should apply to same-sex couples."Just as firing a white employee for being married to an African American person constitutes discrimination because of race," they wrote, "so firing a male employee for being married to another man constitutes sex discrimination."Francisco, in his brief for the administration, wrote that the analogy did not hold."An employer who refuses to hire an applicant in an interracial relationship would rightly be branded a racist," he wrote. "But no ordinary speaker of English would call an employer who refuses to hire an applicant in a same-sex relationship a sexist."At bottom, the cases may turn on whether the justices focus on the words of the statute or their sense of what the lawmakers who voted for it in 1964 understood they were doing. In a 1998 decision in a Title VII case, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that it was the words that matter."Statutory prohibitions," he wrote, "often go beyond the principal evil to cover reasonably comparable evils, and it is ultimately the provisions of our laws rather than the principal concerns of our legislators by which we are governed."If nothing else, Franke said, the cases will explore divisive and difficult issues. "Sex," she said, "is a confounding term in our culture, in our language and certainly in the law."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Iran's Most Dangerous Weapon of War? Posted: 24 Sep 2019 04:19 AM PDT  Hopefully, America will never have to find out.
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| Jessica Simpson has lost 100 lbs in 6 months: 'Yes, I tipped the scales at 240' Posted: 24 Sep 2019 11:49 AM PDT  During her third pregnancy, Jessica Simpson 'tipped the scales at 240,' but she's spent the last six months getting back on track.
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| Skeletal elephant dies in Sri Lanka weeks after parade outcry Posted: 25 Sep 2019 12:13 AM PDT  An emaciated 70-year-old elephant that caused a social media outcry after being forced to take part in an annual Buddhist pageant in Sri Lanka has died, officials said Wednesday. The government has ordered an autopsy for Tikiri, a domesticated Asian elephant that died Tuesday night in Kegalle, 80 kilometres (50 miles) east of the capital Colombo, a wildlife department official said. Elephant expert Jayantha Jayewardene said the jumbo had been ill-treated.
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| Duke of York and Jeffrey Epstein's friendship 'ended in acrimony' over Central Park photograph Posted: 23 Sep 2019 02:14 PM PDT  The Duke of York's friendship with Jeffrey Epstein ultimately ended in acrimony after his wife called the financier a "paedophile" and refused to retract the statement. Sarah, Duchess of York's public comment in 2011 enraged Epstein, who telephoned her publicist and threatened to sue her unless she took it back. James Henderson, the publicist, told CNN he had a "deeply unpleasant" conversation with Epstein that left him hoping he never had to speak to him again. The bitter fallout happened after the Duke and Epstein were photographed together walking in Central Park, New York in late 2010. Publication of the picture in newspapers the following February led to criticism of the Duke over his decision to spend time with Epstein. The businessman had, two years, been convicted of soliciting a minor for prostitution in Florida. Amid the storm the Duke subsequently stepped down from his role as UK trade envoy. Epstein was believed to have seen the Central Park photograph published on the front page of the New York Post, under the headline "Prince & Perv". Epstein took his own life in prison earlier this year Credit: New York State Sex Offender Registry In March, 2011, the month after it was published, the Duchess then gave an interview in which she admitted to having received £15,000 from Epstein. The money went to pay a debt to her former personal assistant, Johnny O'Sullivan. She admitted the payment was arranged by the Duke's office and expressed contrition for a "gigantic error of judgment". The Duchess said in the interview that Epstein had been "rightly jailed" in 2008. She added: "I abhor paedophilia and any sexual abuse of children." That comment reportedly led to Epstein's fury, and he called Mr Henderson, the publicist. Mr Henderson told CNN: "It was so unpleasant that I was left slightly rattled and I saved his number so I'd never have to take a call from him again." A letter from Epstein's lawyer then arrived with the Duchess, threatening legal action and demanding she retract the word "paedophilia". Epstein even went as far as hiring a defamation lawyer in the UK, and proposed options were drawn up for a retraction of what the Duchess had said. The Duchess stood her ground and refused to retract her statement. Epstein's own lawyers then ended up suing him for $71,000 in unpaid bills, CNN reported. The legal feud marked an end to the Duke and Duchess's relationship with Epstein. The Duke has previously expressed regret at his decision to see Epstein in 2010, after his release from prison, calling his own actions a "mistake and an error". Epstein took his own life in jail on August 10 in New York, where he was awaiting trial on new sex-trafficking charges. Virginia Giuffre, 36, one of Epstein's alleged victims, has claimed she had sex with the Duke on three occasions when she was a teenager. She has claimed that included an occasion in Florida she was 17, which would have been under the age of consent in the state. All the allegations about the Duke were struck from the court record in 2015 after being described as "immaterial and impertinent" by a judge. The Duke has always denied the allegations and any involvement.
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| Nancy Pelosi's impeachment waiting game paid off. Americans will turn on Donald Trump. Posted: 25 Sep 2019 09:37 AM PDT  Nancy Pelosi waited to launch an impeachment inquiry because she knew Donald Trump would do something to hang himself. He didn't disappoint.
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| 7 dead, 14 rescued as dragon boat capsizes in Philippines Posted: 24 Sep 2019 11:31 PM PDT  The Philippines coast guard said seven rowers drowned and 14 others were rescued when their dragon boat overturned Wednesday after being lashed by strong waves during a practice run off a popular resort island. Coast guard spokesman Armand Balilo said the accident happened off Boracay island in the central Philippines' Aklan province where a local dragon boat team was practicing ahead of a rowing competition.
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| Former police force partner of Guyger confirms sexual relationship Posted: 24 Sep 2019 06:51 AM PDT  The police force partner of former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger acknowledged that they had a sexual relationship and exchanged sexually explicit text messages and photos the day she shot Botham Jean in his apartment.
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