| Authorities to release details around death of South Carolina girl Faye Marie Swetlik Posted: 18 Feb 2020 07:50 AM PST  Faye Marie Swetlik was last seen playing in her yard last Monday night before her disappearance. Police found her body days later.
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| Trump threatens to sue his investigators and demands Roger Stone case be 'thrown out' Posted: 18 Feb 2020 06:10 AM PST  Donald Trump is threatening to drop a string of lawsuits against those involved in investigations into his 2016 campaign and presidency, yet again weighing in on a federal criminal case as he thumbs his nose at concerns he is politicizing the Justice Department.The president used several Tuesday morning tweets to suggest the case of his convicted friend and former adviser Roger Stone -- and any other one stemming from probes of all things Trump -- should be "thrown out." The judge in Mr Stone's case, Amy Berman Jackson, has set a Tuesday teleconference hearing with the Stone camp and federal prosecutors to discuss the status of his case.
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| PG&E Union Warns Bernie Sanders Against ‘Bird-Brained’ State Takeover Posted: 18 Feb 2020 05:45 AM PST |
| 'Ghost ship' washes ashore in Ireland after Storm Dennis Posted: 17 Feb 2020 10:32 AM PST  A "ghost ship" drifting without a crew for more than a year washed ashore on Ireland's south coast in high seas caused by Storm Dennis, the Republic's coast guard said. The abandoned 77-metre (250-feet) cargo ship MV Alta ran aground on rocks outside the village of Ballycotton near Cork, Ireland's second city, bringing an end to her months-long voyage. The Alta's odyssey began in September 2018 when she became disabled in the mid-Atlantic en route from Greece to Haiti.
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| Gunmen kill 24 and injure 18 in attack on Burkina Faso church Posted: 17 Feb 2020 02:42 PM PST  Gunmen killed 24 people, including a pastor, in an attack on a church during Sunday Mass in northwestern Burkina Faso, four security sources told Reuters on Monday.
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| This Is Iran's Deadliest Missile (And It Could Someday Carry a Nuclear Weapon) Posted: 17 Feb 2020 04:14 PM PST  Iranian media have broadcast the first-ever footage of an operational Sejjil medium-range rocket in its underground bunker.
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| New Mexico woman who was pregnant with third child still missing three years later Posted: 17 Feb 2020 11:20 AM PST  Elizabeth Brooks Hernandez, 29, was last seen by her boyfriend, Miguel Martinez, who told police he dropped her off at a welfare office in Albuquerque, New Mexico on November 16, 2017. Police suspect foul play, but no arrests have been made. The Albuquerque Police Department is investigating.
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| 'Historic, unprecedented' flooding swamps southern USA; Mississippi and Tennessee hardest hit Posted: 17 Feb 2020 01:26 PM PST  Weeks of heavy rain have inundated a large portion of the southern USA, bringing near-record flooding to Mississippi and Tennessee
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| Watchman sentenced to 16 years in killing of Florida tourist Posted: 18 Feb 2020 05:25 AM PST |
| Ex-taekwondo champ freed in Ukraine-Russia swap says she is captive again Posted: 18 Feb 2020 06:07 AM PST |
| Bloomberg’s Rise in Democratic Race Provides Foil for Sanders Posted: 18 Feb 2020 03:08 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Michael Bloomberg's sudden arrival in the Democratic spotlight has put him under new scrutiny from all of his opponents. But Bernie Sanders has taken him on with unparalleled zeal.Sanders is holding up Bloomberg as the embodiment of everything the democratic socialist rails against. He is a billionaire with ties to Wall Street who is self-funding his campaign. His past comments about policing, women, minorities and farmers are all grist for Sanders' rallies."Mr. Bloomberg, like anybody else, has a right to run for president," Sanders told a rally of more than 6,000 people in Richmond, a city near San Francisco on Monday, drawing boos against Bloomberg. "He does not have a right to buy the presidency. Especially after being the mayor of New York and having a racist stop and frisk policy, especially after opposing — imagine a multibillionaire opposing a raise in the minimum wage."Bloomberg now supports a $15 per-hour federal minimum wage but in 2014 called raising it "one of the most misguided things that we can do." Previous comments have also surfaced suggesting a drop in redlining -- the practice of denying loans to minorities -- for contributing to the 2008 financial crisis, that health care should be denied to very old people, and that farming was easy.(Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)Sanders' jabs at the former New York mayor reflect the new shape of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, with Sanders' riding high as the leader of the party's progressive wing -- and Bloomberg emerging as the most well-funded candidate to stop him from the moderate side of the party. Many establishment Democrats believe Sanders' positions are too extreme to defeat President Donald Trump.But so far, none of the centrists in the race -- Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg or Amy Klobuchar -- have been able to knock Sanders from the top of the polls, leaving a Sanders-Bloomberg battle to lead the Democratic ticket a possibility.Bloomberg qualified for his first debate of the cycle Wednesday in Las Vegas after he reached 19% support in a NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll released Tuesday. It was his fourth poll with more than 10% support, meeting the Democratic National Committee's new threshold for qualification.Sanders won the popular vote in the Iowa caucuses, won the New Hampshire primary and is leading in California, the biggest delegate prize on Super Tuesday, March 3, the first time Bloomberg's name appears on a ballot. Bloomberg has spent more than $400 million advertising across the country, including the Super Tuesday states, where he is staking his candidacy.Sanders has been devoting increasing portions of his speeches to Bloomberg through the weekend as past comments drip out daily on social media, and campaign surrogates like New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and New York Mayor Bill De Blasio have done the same.Bloomberg had so far largely ignored his Democratic rivals in favor of Trump. But Bloomberg fired back at Sanders on Monday and promised he will be more aggressive in responding from now on."Mike is in this race to defeat Donald Trump, and he's the Democratic candidate who can get that done. This campaign will not sit idly by and allow these false attacks to stand without response," campaign manager Kevin Sheekey said in a statement issued Monday afternoon.Bloomberg's campaign posted a digital video showing derogatory online comments posted by so-called "Bernie Bros," the ardent fans of Sanders who sometimes post harassing responses to Sanders critics. The video includes a clip of Sanders saying, "It is vitally important for those of us who hold different views to be able to engage in a civil discourse" -- followed by the words "Really? Really," appearing on the screen.Sheekey also complained that both the Sanders and Trump campaigns took his farming remark out of context by dropping the first sentence when they posted the remark from 2016.The full remark was, "The agrarian society lasted 3,000 years and we could teach processes. I could teach anybody, even people in this room, no offense intended, to be a farmer. It's a process. You dig a hole, you put a seed in, you put dirt on top, add water, up comes the corn. You could learn that," Bloomberg said.It was "shameful" that Sanders and Trump deployed the same tactics, "but the reason is clear," Sheekey said. "At this point, the primary is Bernie's to lose, and ours to win."On Sunday in Carson City, Nevada, Sanders joked that Bloomberg sees the presidency as a rich man's hobby, and likened him to Trump. "He says, 'Hey, I used to be mayor. I have the time now, I know what I want to do, I want to become the president of the United States!'"Other candidates, including Biden and Klobuchar, have also been increasingly focused on Bloomberg as he rises in the polls.Klobuchar, whose campaign has surged after a third-place finish in New Hampshire, has acknowledged Bloomberg's funding advantage but said she's looking forward to debating him on stage."I cannot beat Michael Bloomberg on the airwaves, big surprise, even though we have gotten in millions and millions of dollars," Klobuchar told reporters in Las Vegas last week. "I think he should be on the debate stage, because I can't beat him on the airwaves. But I can beat him on the debate stage."Biden, who referred to Bloomberg as "a former Republican who just turned Democrat," said Monday on MSNBC that Bloomberg "can buy every ad he wants but he can't, in fact, wipe away his record from dealing with stop and frisk to his foreign policy assertions and the like."Bloomberg has responded most to criticism about stop and frisk, which he has said was an attempt to lower the city's murder rate but a court ruled was unconstitutional. He has said he concluded the policy was wrong and apologized for it before he announced his campaign. He has referenced it multiple times since then, even adding a section about it in his stump speech on Saturday.On Monday, Bloomberg released two new television ads highlighting his plans to improve black economic progress and on criminal justice reform. Last week, he launched his "Mike for Black America" outreach in Houston with an extended discussion about stop and frisk and an endorsement from Mayor Sylvester Turner, who is black.Turner introduced Bloomberg the event and said stop and frisk would have been "a non-starter for me," but he accepted Bloomberg's public apology and acknowledgment the policy was wrong. "You judge people by their ability to 'fess up and then work collectively to move you forward," he said.(Updates with Bloomberg qualifying for debate in eighth paragraph)\--With assistance from Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou and Jennifer Epstein.To contact the reporters on this story: Mark Niquette in Columbus at mniquette@bloomberg.net;Emma Kinery in Washington at ekinery@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Craig GordonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Cuba burning tires to power factory as US oil sanctions bite Posted: 17 Feb 2020 12:10 PM PST  The Cuban government has ordered a cement factory to burn old tires to power its operations and save on oil, amid a worsening fuel shortage brought on by US sanctions on the Communist island. On orders of President Miguel Diaz-Canel, the firm Cementos Cienfuegos, located in the center of the country, will receive an increasing supply of used tires to burn, the official daily Granma said Monday. Cuba has been suffering oil shortages since last September, when the administration of President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on ships carrying petroleum to the island from its main fuel supplier Venezuela.
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| George H.W. Bush deputy attorney general says ex-colleague Barr is creating a 'banana republic' Posted: 18 Feb 2020 04:00 AM PST  More than 2,000 former Justice Department officials, current federal prosecutors, and federal judges are urgently concerned about Attorney General William Barr's evident politicization of the Justice Department. Even "Trump voters" should be afraid of "Bill Barr's America," a "banana republic where all are subject to the whims of a dictatorial president and his henchmen," Donald Ayer, a former colleague of Barr's and deputy attorney general under President George H.W. Bush, wrote in The Atlantic on Monday. He elaborated on CNN Monday evening.Barr was Ayer's successor as deputy attorney general before starting his first go as attorney general a year later, in 1991. In the 40 years the two men have known each other, Ayer told CNN, Barr has "always had a very strong view that the executive ought to have a great deal of power. I've never known quite how far it would go, and there was never any reason to test it, because when he was attorney general under George H.W. Bush, George H.W. Bush had no interest in being an autocrat. So now we're faced with a situation where Bill Barr has won the job of attorney general under a president who apparently does want to be an autocrat."In The Atlantic, Ayer writes that "it is not too strong to say that Bill Barr is un-American," and he elaborated on CNN. "The reason that I say that he's un-American is because I think it's fair to say, and I think most people would agree with me, that the central tenet of our legal system and our justice system is that no person is above the law," he wrote. "Bill Barr's vision is quite different. Bill Barr's vision is that there is one man, one person who needs to be above the law, and that is the president. ... He said that before he became attorney general but he's now carried it out in many steps."Ayer elaborated on the ways he thinks Barr is harming America in his Atlantic article, concluding that to prevent this "banana republic," America needs "a public uprising demanding that Bill Barr resign immediately, or failing that, be impeached." Read more at The Atlantic.More stories from theweek.com Mike Bloomberg is not the lesser of two evils William Barr is not the problem What if Trump stopped tweeting?
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| Israel's Iron Dome: A Rocket-Killer or Just Hype? Posted: 16 Feb 2020 11:00 AM PST  It's hard to calculate
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| Boy Scouts of America files for bankruptcy Posted: 17 Feb 2020 10:04 PM PST  The venerable non-profit is following the lead of the scandal-wracked Roman Catholic Church.
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| Chinese police reportedly put a professor under house arrest, cut his internet, and kicked him off social media after he criticized President Xi over the coronavirus Posted: 17 Feb 2020 09:30 AM PST  Xu Zhangrun, a law professor at the elite Tsinghua University, had published a scathing essay on the Chinese government's handling of the coronavirus.
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| Kidnappers prey with ‘total impunity’ on migrants waiting for hearings in Mexico Posted: 18 Feb 2020 12:00 AM PST  Report finds 80% of migrants waiting have been abducted by the mafia and 45% have suffered violence or violationA score or so migrants crouch in the dark corridor of the safe house where they have been waiting for a month. Today, their turn has come to go back on the road again – not across the US border, however, but deeper into Mexico, to save their skins.Outside, a minivan pulls up, driven by Baptist pastor Lorenzo Ortiz to take the migrants to relative safety, and away from kidnap, extortion and violation.This is Nuevo Laredo, in the north-west corner of Tamaulipas state, opposite Laredo, Texas, the world's busiest commercial trans-border hub. The people waiting to board the van have already crossed into the USA, but have been sent back under the Trump administration's so-called Migrant Protection Protocols - known as "Remain in Mexico" – whereby would be asylum seekers must await their appointed hearing south of the border.MPP was rolled out in January last year, since when an estimated 57,000 people now wait south of the border for their asylum hearing date. Tens of thousands more are waiting just for the initial application for asylum.These are the faces behind statistics in a shocking report by Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which found 80% of migrants waiting in Nuevo Laredo under MPP to have been abducted by the mafia, and 45% to have suffered violence or violation. The door of the safe house opens and blinding sunlight beckons those awaiting, as does Pastor Ortiz, who arrives across the border from Laredo each morning to take a vanload to the larger city of Monterrey, Nuevo León.There can be no tarrying, explains another local pastor, Diego Robles, from the First Baptist church. "If they walk to the corner of the block," he says, "they're likely to be kidnapped."Robles knows the risk he runs. Last August, criminals approached Aarón Méndez, a Seventh Day Adventist managing another shelter nearby, demanding he hand over Cubans in his care, whose relatives in the USA might pay high ransoms for their release.He refused – and has not been seen since, joining the 50,000 disappeared in Mexico's undeclared war since 2006. The safe house – its gate kept closed with padlock and chain – is crammed with some 180 people, mostly indoors, some in a back yard enclosed by breeze blocks.Their stories are terrifying and consistent.Moy Eduardo fled his home in El Salvador after members of the MS-13 gang abducted and killed his brother after the family failed to pay sufficient extortion money. He eventually arrived at Nuevo Laredo bus station, only to be forced into a car and taken to a farm some distance from town. There, he was pistol-whipped, while the kidnappers called his cousin in Atlanta and demanded an $8,000 ransom."They said if I didn't pay, they'd hand me over to 'other people in our organisation'," he recalled. Four days later, his desperate relative wired money, and Moy Eduardo was released.He told the story to US authorities when applying for asylum, "but they didn't believe me and sent me back". Moy Eduardo has a court date in April, but is desperate to leave Nuevo Laredo. "I cannot stay here – they said if they saw me again, they'd kill me"."It's become big business," says Pastor Robles "It's a way for the drug cartels to diversify. It is worse in Tamaulipas than other border states, and worse in Nuevo Laredo than anywhere else in Tamaulipas. There's no formula to the abductions and disappearances – they are kidnapped, beaten, women violated; most return, but not all".Nuevo Laredo was for years controlled by the hyper-violent Zetas group, and is now territory of its offshoot, the North-east cartel. But their one-time associate, now rival, the Gulf cartel is knocking at the gates, backed by the Jalisco cartel, eager for access to the city's vast commercial transit routes into the USA. .While the Zetas/North-east cartel control migrant movement within Nuevo Laredo, the Gulf and Jalisco cartels often bring migrants to the city. And each group sees migrants and asylum seekers as a source of easy money."They go after the ones who've been brought here by a rival cartel. They have to pay twice," says Pastor Ortiz "And the Cubans – because they know the Cubans have richer relatives."Inside the safe house, Yaqueline and her daughter Lisbeth, described how she was given a code by their coyote after fleeing gang violence in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.She was told that in Nuevo Laredo, the word "rana" – frog – would ensure safe passage. But when three thugs approached them outside the government migrant registration offices, they were told the word meant they were property of the enemy; mother and child were bundled into an SUV.Relatives north of the border were again contacted. After five days, they were still unable to find the ransom money, and Yaqueline and Lisbeth were released to find their own way to Pastor Robles' church. Asked if she had been maltreated, Yaqueline lowers her eyes, gestures towards the child, and crossed herself. "The gangs were bad in Honduras, but it is even more dangerous here."All these people have US "Notice to Appear" papers for dates months away, when they will re-cross the bridge into Laredo, Texas, and enter a tent court beside the Rio Grande, for a cursory video-link hearing to a judge hundreds of miles away in San Antonio. Less than 1% are granted asylum.Those summoned to court begin gathering on the Mexican side of the bridge before 4am. A group from Cuba and Venezuela assembles first, manifestly nervous.There are 67 on the docket to appear at the tent court, but by 6am, only 29 are shuffled through into the canvas corridor, to plead their case, and await judgment on a screen from 150 miles away. The rest are presumed to have given up and returned home. Reporters have never been admitted into the Laredo tent court."The authorities make no attempt to intervene, says Pastor Ortiz, "the mafia is right there in the open, and there's nothing done to stop them. It's total impunity for the cartels."Local and national governments play down the abduction emergency. Edwin Aceves, the chief investigator for the Office of Disappeared Persons in Nuevo Laredo, said he had received "no reports of kidnapping and extortion of migrants. These are just rumours."Meanwhile, Mark Morgan, acting commissioner for US Customs and Border Protection, told a round-table of reporters last year he was unaware of reports of kidnapping, while Mexico's foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, has said kidnaps were "not a massive number"; his department had information on 20 cases nationally.Mexico's leftwing government cooperates enthusiastically with President Trump's MPP. In contrast to the pastors' buses helping migrants wait in relative safety, government buses chartered depart daily from Nuevo Laredo's state migration centres to take migrants back to the border with Guatemala. Even one of those was hijacked last autumn, surrounded by gunmen aboard pickup trucks, and migrants taken. But here at the safe house, the minivan is ready to take people on a round-trip, to relative safety away from Nuevo Laredo, and then back again to cross the border when their date arrives. The group shuffles out of the front door on to the sidewalk and scrambles onboard. Pastor Robles says a prayer for the road through the front passenger window – and off they go, in the opposite direction to that of their plans, but away from the clutches of the mafia.
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| Mississippi floods appear to hit peak with parts of Jackson under water Posted: 17 Feb 2020 11:32 AM PST  The Pearl River rose to its third-highest point in recorded history after heavy rains last week filled the Ross Barnett Reservoir to capacity, forcing managers on Saturday to begin releasing water into the river just upstream from Jackson. The floods submerged streets in low-lying areas, prompting 16 search-and-rescue operations to pluck stranded people from their homes, Governor Tate Reeves said. Reeves declared a state of emergency on Saturday, one day after the city of Jackson issued a seven-day mandatory evacuation order for low-lying areas.
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| As Trump Gives Up on ‘Endless Wars,' Russia, China, and Iran Move In Posted: 18 Feb 2020 12:42 AM PST  JERUSALEM–Two decades of expanding operations against what United States Special Operations Command called a "global insurgency of state and non-state actors" has led to fatigue at home and questions abroad about U.S. strategy. Trump, Afghanistan, and 'The Tweet of Damocles'The latest Trump administration deal with the Taliban, challenges to the U.S. role in Syria and Iraq, and a potential reduction of forces in Africa point to a global trend in how the U.S. will deal with counter-insurgency in the future. What we're looking at is a global drawdown in U.S. forces committed to counter-terrorist operations at the same time President Donald Trump is demanding other countries, including NATO allies, do more. The idea is for the U.S. to focus on using technology, such as drones, while local forces do the fighting on the ground.This long-term shift has long-term consequences that mean countries such as Iran, China and Russia, which the U.S. sees as adversaries, will have a larger footprint in places where the U.S. is reducing its role. Outsourcing counter-terrorism to these countries may not have been the plan, but it is likely one outcome.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo began a tour of Africa on Feb. 16 in Senegal where the Flintlock 2020 exercise is underway with neighboring Mauritania. Some 1,600 soldiers from 30 African states and western allies are participating in the annual drill from February 17-28. The U.S. says it is the year's "premier special operations" exercise that strengthens security across a swath of countries through what's called the Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Partnership. The concept, pushed in 2018 via an act of Congress, was to improve the capabilities of countries to fight terror.But the picture is bleaker than past U.S. statements have indicated. Funding to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars to fight terror spread across Niger, Mauritania, Mali, Nigeria and a dozen states from Senegal to Somalia hasn't reduced terror and has resulted in Washington's decision to reconsider what comes next. The U.S. pulled forces out of Libya in 2019 and three Americans were killed in an attack on a base in Kenya by Somalia's Al-Shabab in January.The Other Attack on Americans That Has U.S. Forces Unnerved: KenyaAlthough Pompeo says that "we'll get it right" in terms of U.S. commitment to a swath of African states, reports indicate the U.S. is reducing the footprint on the ground. Washington has "downgraded" efforts against extremists, the New York Times reported in mid-February. France, which sent hundreds more troops to the Sahel region recently, has warned this is a bad idea. The overall numbers could mean cutting in half the U.S. presence of 5,000 troops in a dozen locations.Changes in Africa strategy are only the tip of the iceberg of a much larger policy shift. On the one hand the U.S. National Defense Strategy wants to move away from counter-insurgency to competing against large states like Iran, China and Russia. The Pentagon believes that "inter-state strategic competition, not terrorism, is now the primary concern in US national security." Since U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) expanded from 47,000 in 2007 to 80,000 today, it might be argued that the U.S. has reached peak strength in fighting terror and now can move on successfully. The problem is that from Afghanistan to the Philippines to Niger there has not been a major success.In Afghanistan, where the U.S. has been fighting the Taliban for almost 20 years, some sort of peace deal is in the works. President Donald Trump has sought to end such "endless wars," and Democrats running to replace him also want to end this one. In Iraq and Syria the U.S. appears to be reducing its role as well. Trump twice announced a withdrawal from Syria only to relent and keep troops to protect "oil" while slowly walking away from America's anti-ISIS partners in the Syrian Democratic Forces.Plans to use bases in neighboring Iraq to "watch Iran" have not panned out and the U.S. finds itself pressured to leave most of Iraq after tensions with Iran boiled over in January following U.S. decision to blow away near Baghdad airport Iran's Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.Meanwhile, rocket fire has targeted U.S. bases and forces near the U.S. embassy almost every week since October 2019.The long-term result in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, and across Africa can be seen symbolically in what is already happening in the Philippines. For two decades Washington and Manila worked closely against extremist groups. Now Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte wants to scrap the Visiting Forces Agreement amid increasingly friendly relations with China.For a more isolationist-inclined American public that may not matter, but it does mean China and other countries will aid the Philippines in the fight against Islamist insurgents. That has implications across Asia and the Pacific. In Africa, Russian President Vladimir Putin has set his eyes on a larger role that includes priority access to vital mineral resources. He held a summit in October with African diplomats. Russia's Wagner group and other contractors play an increasing role in Sudan, the Central African Republic, Libya and Mozambique.In each place where the U.S. seeks a smaller footprint there will be a competition to fill the vacuum.France will try to fill it in Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Burkina Faso, the G5 countries it works with in the Sahel. But in many cases there won't be NATO powers that share U.S. values doing the heavy lifting. Instead it will be Russia, Iran, China, Turkey, and even Saudi Arabia or India playing a bigger role. That means counter-insurgency that looks more like Riyadh's campaign in Yemen, Russia's in Syria and Chechnya, China's in Xinjiang, Turkey's in Afrin, or India's in Kashmir. While that may fit the bill of a Trump administration that wants to spend less American treasure abroad and wants others to do more of the work, in the long term it means a fundamental change in the international role of the United States. It also means that in an attempt to shift resources to confronting major states, the U.S. will provide a vacuum for some of those states—China, Russia and Iran—to play a greater role in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. 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| Turkey’s Erdogan Joins In on Vilification of Soros Posted: 18 Feb 2020 04:23 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- An Istanbul court acquitted prominent businessman Osman Kavala of charges of plotting to overthrow the government during mass protests that shook the country in 2013.Nine defendants were cleared, and arrest warrants for others living abroad have been rescinded. Others accused in the case include actor Mehmet Ali Alabora and journalist Can Dundar, who have both left the country.Kavala spent two years in jail while his case was tried. He was the only defendant to be incarcerated.President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has alleged that Kavala was the "local collaborator" of a foreign conspiracy led by billionaire George Soros to divide Turkey by backing the demonstrations against a planned development in Istanbul's Gezi Park.The protests quickly morphed into the biggest challenge to the rule of Erdogan, then a powerful prime minister.\--With assistance from Ercan Ersoy.To contact the reporter on this story: Fercan Yalinkilic in Istanbul at fyalinkilic@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Onur Ant at oant@bloomberg.net, Amy Teibel, Mark WilliamsFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Tennessee inmate moved to death watch as execution looms Posted: 18 Feb 2020 09:09 AM PST |
| Mike Bloomberg just made the debate. Can he keep his cool? Posted: 17 Feb 2020 06:46 PM PST  The former New York mayor knows his opponents are coming after him at Wednesday's debate in Las Vegas — and he's been preparing for weeks.
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| Missing Milwaukee woman, two daughters found dead in garage Posted: 17 Feb 2020 09:04 AM PST  Amarah Banks, 26, Zaniya Ivery, 5, and Camaria Banks, 4, were discovered after the arrest of Banks' boyfriend, Arzel J. Ivery, in Memphis, Tennessee, authorities said.
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| Airlines, officials trace path of couple diagnosed with coronavirus that flew from Hawaii Posted: 17 Feb 2020 10:50 AM PST  Delta and Hawaiian AIrlines are working with the CDC to trace the path of a couple who were diagnosed with coronavirus after returning from Hawaii.
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| Millions Slaughtered: Asia Will Never Get Over The Horror Of The Korean War Posted: 17 Feb 2020 03:00 AM PST  Over three million people died.
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| U.S. mulls cutting Huawei off from global chip suppliers, with TSMC in crosshairs Posted: 17 Feb 2020 01:28 PM PST |
| A group of federal judges will hold an emergency meeting over Trump's role in the DOJ's sentencing recommendations for Roger Stone Posted: 18 Feb 2020 07:36 AM PST  The emergency meeting comes after DOJ leadership intervened in the prosecution of Trump ally Roger Stone to recommend a lower sentence.
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| IMF Cuts Nigerian Growth Forecast on Coronavirus Oil Impact Posted: 18 Feb 2020 12:15 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Sign up to our Next Africa newsletter and follow Bloomberg Africa on TwitterPlunging oil prices stemming from the coronavirus outbreak led the International Monetary Fund to cut its estimate for Nigerian economic growth, highlighting the difficulties Africa's top crude producer faces reviving and diversifying its economy.The forecast was lowered to 2% from 2.5%, the lender said in a statement Monday after concluding an Article IV consultation. Nigeria needs a major policy overhaul to reduce vulnerabilities including widening current-account and budget deficits that jeopardize the economy, it said."Under current policies, the outlook is challenging," the IMF said. "The mission's growth forecast for 2020 was revised down to 2% to reflect the impact of lower international oil prices."The spread of the coronavirus virus has curbed demand in China, driving oil prices down nearly 13% this year, and below the $57-a-barrel the Nigerian government forecast in its 2020 budget. Nigeria, which depends on crude for 90% of its exports, has struggled to rebound from a plunge in prices that dragged its economy into its first annual contraction in 25 years in 2016.To stoke the economy, which together with South Africa account for almost half of sub-Saharan Africa's gross domestic product, President Muhammadu Buhari has forced private banks to hand out more loans. The IMF said that lending policy should be revisited given concerns about deteriorating asset quality.READ: An Unpredictable Central Bank Has Nigerian Lenders GuessingThe government also needs to urgently raise income beyond the oil sector to close the widening fiscal gap and lower debt-service costs that consumes 60% of its revenues, the IMF said.The lender welcomed the central bank's move to raise cash reserve requirements in January, but called for more tightening through conventional monetary policy to counter quickening inflation, which has been above the target range for more than four years. Consumer-price growth accelerated to 12.1% in January, the highest level in 21 months.(Updates with additional IMF comments from sixth paragraph)To contact the reporter on this story: Alonso Soto in Abuja at asoto54@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Benjamin Harvey at bharvey11@bloomberg.net, Paul Richardson, Rene VollgraaffFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Cab driver intervenes and saves passenger from falling for a $25,000 scam Posted: 17 Feb 2020 10:37 PM PST  When a Northern California cab driver realized that his 92-year-old passenger was about to become the victim of a scam, he quickly devised a plan to save her.Two weeks ago, Roseville Cab owner Raj Singh picked the woman up from her home, and she directed him to drive her to the bank. While on the way, the woman told Singh that she received a call from someone who told her she owed the IRS $25,000, and she was on her way to withdraw the money. Immediately, Singh determined that she had been targeted by a scam artist, but the woman didn't believe him.Singh suggested the pair stop by the police station in Roseville, where an officer could talk more about the scam with her. The woman agreed, and Singh went inside to explain what was happening. An officer came out to the cab, and the woman shared more details about the call. After talking with the officer, she agreed that the call was not from the IRS, and Singh drove her back home. The woman's money remains safely in the bank."We love this story because several times throughout, Raj could have just taken his customer to her stop and not worried about her well-being," the Roseville Police Department said on Facebook. "He took time from his day and had the great forethought to bring the almost-victim to the police station for an official response."More stories from theweek.com Mike Bloomberg is not the lesser of two evils William Barr is not the problem What if Trump stopped tweeting?
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| Sanders doesn't think Bloomberg should be in next debates Posted: 17 Feb 2020 07:22 PM PST  Sanders has been critical of Bloomberg using his wealth to run for president since he entered the race.
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| German far right arrests reveal 'shocking' mosque attack plot Posted: 17 Feb 2020 03:57 AM PST  Members of a German extreme right group arrested last week were believed to have been plotting "shocking" large-scale attacks on mosques similar to the ones carried out in New Zealand last year, a government spokesman said Monday. Officials said that investigations into 12 men detained in police raids across Germany Friday had indicated they planned major attacks, following media reports over the weekend the group aimed to launch several simultaneous mass-casualty assaults on Muslims during prayers. "It's shocking what has been revealed here, that there are cells here that appear to have become radicalised in such a short space of time," interior ministry spokesman Bjoern Gruenewaelder told reporters at a Berlin press conference.
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| 6-year-old girl attacked by mountain lion in California Posted: 17 Feb 2020 10:57 AM PST  One of the adults the girl was with pushed the mountain lion off her and into the bushes, a ranger said.
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| Quarantine ruling: Russia sends woman back after she escapes Posted: 17 Feb 2020 04:21 AM PST  A Russian court on Monday ordered a woman who escaped from a virus quarantine to return back to the hospital she fled and stay under quarantine for at least two more days. The ruling underlined the chaotic public health approaches being taken to stop the spread of the new coronavirus from China. Alla llyina was admitted to the hospital in the northern Russian city of St. Petersburg on Feb. 6 with a sore throat and was tested for the new virus because she had returned from China five days earlier.
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| Presidents' Day Celebration! Meet the 6 Best U.S. Presidents Ever Posted: 17 Feb 2020 01:00 AM PST  Did Trump make the list? Obama? Lincoln? Here is the list.
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| China-led $280 million Kyrgyzstan project abandoned after protests Posted: 18 Feb 2020 03:56 AM PST |
| Obama’s childhood home hits the market for $2.2m Posted: 18 Feb 2020 08:34 AM PST  A seemingly unremarkable house in Honolulu is priced at a premium due to the part it played in the formative years of the 44th president of the United States.The property was home to Barack Obama between the ages of three and six, from 1964 to 1967. His mother attended the nearby University of Hawaii during that time.
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| Bloomberg Vows Tougher Wall Street Rules, Transactions Tax Posted: 18 Feb 2020 08:40 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Michael Bloomberg is proposing a financial transactions tax of 0.1% and merging Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as part of proposal for regulating Wall Street for a financial system "strong enough to weather crises without harming the broader economy or requiring taxpayer bailouts."The former New York mayor said he would work with Congress to introduce the tax on all transactions, including stocks, bonds and payments on derivative contracts, and that it would be phased in gradually starting at 0.02%, according to the proposal released Tuesday. He would also support measures such as setting a speed limit to curb harmful types of trading.Bloomberg is calling for the reversal of Trump administration rollbacks by toughening Volcker Rule restrictions, setting higher capital requirements at financial firms and strengthening stress tests meant to ensure banks can withstand an economic downturn, according the plan.The proposal calls for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which have been under U.S. control since the 2008 financial crisis, to be merged into a single government-owned entity "to ensure that taxpayers are fully compensated for the risks they are assuming" and that lower-income households are served.(Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)The proposal to tax financial trades represents a tack to the left for the Bloomberg campaign. Similar plans have so far been backed by more progressive candidates, including Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.Proponents of the tax say it could help curb high-frequency trading and speculative betting, which can lead to chaotic swings in the market. Supporters also point to the significant revenue it could generate: a 0.1% tax could raise nearly $777 billion over a decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office.Cowen & Co. Senior Policy Analyst Jaret Seiberg said in a note to clients on Tuesday that the Bloomberg proposal is a plan that seems to be designed to appeal to mainstream Democratic voters."It is inconceivable that a candidate could win without endorsing many of the ideas in the plan," Seiberg wrote. "The key with Bloomberg for financials is that he is a pragmatist who understands how financial markets work. We believe that is more important that any specific plan he might endorse."The plan is likely to elicit criticism from pro-business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Modern Markets Initiative. The Chamber has said financial transaction taxes would cause mortgage fees to rise and would increase the cost of hedging transactions that farmers, energy firms and transportation companies use to reduce risk. The Modern Markets Initiative has called financial transactions taxes a "tax on retirement."The Democratic Party first officially embraced financial transaction taxes in its 2016 party platform, but left room for the size and scope of the levy. Public Citizen, an advocacy group for progressive causes, said middle-income families would pay about $13 a year with a 0.1% tax on trades. The top 10% of income earners would see costs related to their retirement accounts increase an average of $155 a year and owe additional taxes ranging from $58 to $288 annually, according to their estimates.The 2008 financial crisis undermined faith in the financial system, and authorities should be doing everything they can to fix the flaws it revealed, Bloomberg said in his proposal."Yet the Trump administration is rolling back what safeguards were put in place, and none of the candidates for president is offering a viable alternative," Bloomberg said in his plan.On Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Bloomberg would work with regulators and Congress to come up with a solution. The Trump administration, which has vowed to free Fannie and Freddie but hasn't ironed out all the details, has pledged to go it alone without the help of Congress if necessary.The plan calls for restoring the Volcker Rule and making enforcement more effective, by focusing on the outcome of speculative trading -- big gains and losses -- rather than trying to discern traders' intent. Regulators appointed by President Donald Trump are in the process of rolling back the Dodd-Frank Act trading curbs with steps including allowing a smoother path for banks to do business with venture capital funds.Bloomberg's plan would also restore payday-lending and mandatory arbitration rules at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and give the agency jurisdiction over auto lending and credit reporting. It also would create a dedicated corporate crime group at the Justice Department and strengthen protections for whistle blowers.Bloomberg's progressive rivals have backed aggressive steps targeting Wall Street. Warren has proposed a 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act aimed at breaking up the big banks and called for overhauling the private-equity industry "so that Wall Street executives can't bleed companies dry and walk away with millions while workers lose their jobs."(Updates with the financial transaction tax details starting in the sixth paragraph. A previous version misspelled Volcker in second paragraph.)\--With assistance from Elizabeth Dexheimer.To contact the reporters on this story: Mark Niquette in Columbus at mniquette@bloomberg.net;Laura Davison in Washington at ldavison4@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Gregory MottFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Ex-S. African president retracts apartheid remarks after backlash Posted: 17 Feb 2020 09:57 AM PST  South Africa's last apartheid-era president, F.W. De Klerk, on Monday apologised and withdrew a controversial statement that apartheid was not a crime against humanity, following an outcry. De Klerk, 83, shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela in 1993 for dismantling white-minority rule and ushering in democracy. "The idea that apartheid was a crime against humanity was and remains an agitprop project initiated by the Soviets and their ANC/SACP allies to stigmatise white South Africans by associating them with genuine crimes against humanity," he said.
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| Indiana professor is suspended for calling police on student who wouldn't switch seats Posted: 17 Feb 2020 01:46 PM PST  "This decision is in the best interest of Dr. Borna and the University," Ball State University said in a statement.
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| Coronavirus 20 times more deadly than the flu? Death toll approaches 2,000 Posted: 18 Feb 2020 09:27 AM PST  The death toll from coronavirus nears 2,000 as a Chinese study says the outbreak is 20 times more deadly than the flu.
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| Watch Russia Test A New Weapon That Can Kill Missiles Posted: 17 Feb 2020 02:00 AM PST  We've got the video.
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| Iran sentences alleged US spies to up to 10 years in prison Posted: 18 Feb 2020 07:03 AM PST  Iran sentenced eight environmental activists, including an Iranian who reportedly also has British and American citizenship, to prison sentences ranging from four to 10 years on charges of spying for the United States and acting against Iran's national security, the judiciary said Tuesday. According to the judiciary spokesman, Gholamhossein Esmaili, an appeals court issued the final verdicts. Two of the activists, Morad Tahbaz and Niloufar Bayani, got 10 years each and were ordered to return the money they allegedly received from the U.S. government for their services.
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| China legal activist who called on Xi to 'give way' arrested: activists Posted: 17 Feb 2020 05:30 PM PST  Chinese authorities have arrested a prominent rights activist and legal scholar who had called on President Xi Jinping to step down over his handling of crises including the coronavirus outbreak, two fellow activists said on Monday. Xu Zhiyong had been on the run since December after attending a gathering in the southern city of Xiamen which focused on discussion of human rights in China, according to Hua Ze, an activist and friend of Xu's. Four others who had attended the gathering in December were arrested previously, Hua told Reuters. Xu was arrested on Saturday night by the Beijing police with assistance by police in Guangzhou, Hua said.
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