2018年2月21日星期三

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Yahoo! News: Iraq


White House Press Secretary Dodges Questions On Russia's Election Meddling

Posted: 20 Feb 2018 03:23 PM PST

White House Press Secretary Dodges Questions On Russia's Election MeddlingWhite House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders evaded reporters' questions Tuesday about what the president is doing to address Russian meddling in the 2016 elections.


How Pennsylvania's new districts could impact Congress

Posted: 20 Feb 2018 01:46 AM PST

How Pennsylvania's new districts could impact CongressAfter a lengthy court battle over gerrymandering, Pennsylvania's Supreme Court redrew the state's districts . MSNBC's Steve Kornacki explains how the new map could prove to be a big win for Democrats.


Army Awards Heroism Medal To 3 Junior ROTC Cadets Killed In Florida Shooting

Posted: 20 Feb 2018 11:43 AM PST

Army Awards Heroism Medal To 3 Junior ROTC Cadets Killed In Florida ShootingThree Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps cadets killed during last week's mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida have been awarded the Medal of Heroism by the U.S. Army.


GOP lawmaker's aide fired over offensive claims on Florida shooting survivors

Posted: 21 Feb 2018 10:50 AM PST

GOP lawmaker's aide fired over offensive claims on Florida shooting survivorsA Florida state representative's aide was fired from his position on Tuesday after he sent an email to a reporter alleging that two outspoken survivors of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were "actors."


Police officer shot dead by murder suspect during standoff

Posted: 21 Feb 2018 07:44 AM PST

Police officer shot dead by murder suspect during standoffOfficer Justin Billa, a former officer of the month, was fatally injured in the city of Mobile, after trying to detain a man wanted in connection with a murder. The dead officer joined the force in January 2016 and won the Mobile Police Department's Officer of the Month award in June 2016, Mobile Police Department Chief Lawrence Battiste told reporters, according to the Associated Press. The suspect was identified as Robert Hollie.


Christians Wrestle With Billy Graham's Legacy

Posted: 21 Feb 2018 02:52 PM PST

Christians Wrestle With Billy Graham's LegacyRev. Billy Graham, the famous evangelist who died on Wednesday, was a charismatic preacher, a counselor to presidents, and a leading figure in American evangelicalism.


Truck was on tracks despite gates when struck by Amtrak train: U.S. report

Posted: 21 Feb 2018 10:03 AM PST

Truck was on tracks despite gates when struck by Amtrak train: U.S. reportA garbage truck was on the tracks despite lowered safety gates when it was struck by a train carrying Republican lawmakers in a fatal crash last month in rural Virginia, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said on Wednesday. Data from a camera mounted on the front of the chartered Amtrak train showed the gates were down at the crossing at the time of the crash, according to a preliminary NTSB report on the Jan. 31 accident. A passenger on the garbage truck was killed and two others on the truck were injured.


The Real Face of North Korea Is a Prison State

Posted: 21 Feb 2018 07:37 AM PST

The Real Face of North Korea Is a Prison StateMillions around the globe gathered around their TVs beginning Feb. 8 to watch the 2018 Winter Olympics, which are taking place in Pyeongchang, South Korea, a mountainous rural village, 110 miles east of Seoul. As the world turned its gaze to the Korean Peninsula, it witnessed North Korea and South Korea unified, together under one flag, during the opening ceremony. In 2017, the crisis in North Korea was the most underreported humanitarian issue globally.


U.S. raps ally Albania for 'careless' words on Kosovo

Posted: 21 Feb 2018 11:09 AM PST

U.S. raps ally Albania for 'careless' words on KosovoThe United States urged Albania on Wednesday to avoid "careless language" after its prime minister suggested a single president and single security policy for both his country and neighboring Kosovo in a speech that infuriated Serbia. Serbia is sensitive to any talk of unification of its former province of Kosovo, which has a majority ethnic Albanian population, and Albania. Addressing Kosovo's parliament on Sunday on the 10th anniversary of the country's independence from Belgrade, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said: "Kosovo and Albania will have a single foreign policy and not just the same embassies and diplomatic representations, but why not one president, a symbol of national unity, and one national security policy." Rama later complained that his comments had been taken out of context, but the European Union said they were "not helpful" and Serbia accused the Albanian premier of seeking to build a "Greater Albania" in the region.


Trump claims he 'never met' the woman who says he forcibly kissed her at Trump Tower

Posted: 20 Feb 2018 09:46 AM PST

Trump claims he 'never met' the woman who says he forcibly kissed her at Trump TowerPresident Trump turned his Twitter attention Tuesday to previously disclosed claims by Rachel Crooks, who says he forced himself on her at Trump Tower in 2006.


Kushner Doesn't Want To Give Up His Security Clearance As John Kelly Cracks Down: Report

Posted: 20 Feb 2018 09:44 PM PST

Kushner Doesn't Want To Give Up His Security Clearance As John Kelly Cracks Down: ReportWhite House senior adviser Jared Kushner doesn't want to give up the interim security clearance that gives him access to highly classified information, even though his current duties likely don't require him to view top-secret material, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.


Syria's Child Death Toll Prompts Scathing 1-Sentence Statement From UN Agency

Posted: 20 Feb 2018 07:12 PM PST

Syria's Child Death Toll Prompts Scathing 1-Sentence Statement From UN AgencyThe United Nations agency that helps the world's needy children issued a terse statement on Tuesday about the escalating death toll in Syria as pro-government forces hammer rebel-held areas.


Tom Fitton and Sebastian Gorka on the real Russian collusion

Posted: 20 Feb 2018 07:17 PM PST

Tom Fitton and Sebastian Gorka on the real Russian collusionOn 'Hannity,' Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, and Fox News national security strategist Sebastian Gorka discuss the Mueller indictments and the potential legal ramifications for Hillary Clinton.


At Least 5 People Have Been Charged With Copycat Threats Since the Florida School Shooting

Posted: 20 Feb 2018 09:23 AM PST

At Least 5 People Have Been Charged With Copycat Threats Since the Florida School ShootingMany of those arrested are high school students


Florida Shooter's Former Friend Says She Reported Him To School 'Multiple' Times

Posted: 20 Feb 2018 06:15 AM PST

Florida Shooter's Former Friend Says She Reported Him To School 'Multiple' TimesA former friend of Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old who confessed to opening fire on a Florida high school last week, says she told school officials "multiple" times over the last several years that she was concerned about his behavior.


Volcanic blast reshaped summit of Indonesia's Mount Sinabung

Posted: 20 Feb 2018 12:50 AM PST

Volcanic blast reshaped summit of Indonesia's Mount SinabungJAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — The eruption of Indonesia's Mount Sinabung that shot ash 5 kilometers (3 miles) high also blew away much of the mountain's summit.


Hazardous effort to recover bodies from plane crash in Iran mountains

Posted: 20 Feb 2018 07:13 AM PST

Hazardous effort to recover bodies from plane crash in Iran mountains"Deep and dangerous crevices in the area of the crash have made it impossible for helicopters to land," Ghafoor Rastinrooz, director of the regional medical centre, told official news agency IRNA. Aseman Airlines flight EP3704 disappeared from radar as it flew over the Zagros mountain range on Sunday morning, around 45 minutes after taking off from Tehran on a domestic flight.


Netanyahu confidants named as suspects in new corruption probe

Posted: 20 Feb 2018 04:18 AM PST

Netanyahu confidants named as suspects in new corruption probeBy Jeffrey Heller and Tova Cohen JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli police revealed on Tuesday they had arrested the controlling shareholder and CEO of the country's biggest telecoms company, as well as two former officials with close ties to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a corruption case. The arrests in the investigation dubbed "Case 4000" came just days after police recommended Netanyahu himself be indicted for bribery and fraud in other cases, known as "1000" and "2000". Shaul Elovitch, a family friend of Netanyahu's who controls telecoms firm Bezeq through his Eurocom holding company, was arrested along with his wife, his son and Bezeq's CEO Stella Handler.


In photos: Sweden's first three Michelin-starred restaurant Frantzen

Posted: 20 Feb 2018 01:55 AM PST

In photos: Sweden's first three Michelin-starred restaurant Frantzen


School Shooting's Survivors Cry As Florida House Rejects Talks On Assault Weapon Ban

Posted: 20 Feb 2018 04:21 PM PST

School Shooting's Survivors Cry As Florida House Rejects Talks On Assault Weapon BanSurvivors of last week's school shooting in Florida were brought to tears as state lawmakers refused to debate a gun control measure in Tallahassee on Tuesday.


Democrat trounces Republican in Kentucky state race where Trump won with 72% of vote

Posted: 21 Feb 2018 02:10 AM PST

Democrat trounces Republican in Kentucky state race where Trump won with 72% of voteThe Democrats have emphatically won a state House seat in a Kentucky district where Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton by 49 points in 2016. Linda Belcher's victory in Bullitt County, where she polled more than two-thirds of the vote, is thought to be the Democrats' 37th gain since the presidential election and is the latest sign of the party's momentum ahead of pivotal midterms later this year. Rebecca Johnson had denied the accusations against husband Dan Johnson, claiming he was a victim of "an assault from the left." However, they were backed up by an on-the-record interview from the victim, plus pages of police documents that were published by the Kentucky Centre for Investigative Reporting.


Columbine High shooting survivor: Social media is giving Parkland students the voice we never had

Posted: 21 Feb 2018 08:15 AM PST

Columbine High shooting survivor: Social media is giving Parkland students the voice we never hadA survivor of the Columbine High School shooting has said the reaction of the Parkland victims has renewed her hope of meaningful action finally happening on gun control. Anne Marie Hochhalter said social media had given survivors of mass shootings a platform to call for change that the teenagers of Columbine never had. In recent days students from the Florida school have held emotive rallies and are planning further marches calling for tighter gun regulations after 17 people were gunned down at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine's Day. Ms Hochhalter was left paralysed when she was shot during the 1999 massacre that killed 13 at the Colorado high school. Yet social media has also provided a breeding ground for a perverse subculture that valorises mass shooters, according to the 36-year-old The Telegraph found numerous posts on Facebook and Tumblr glamorising the shooters of Columbine, with people even sharing tattoos they had of the killers stalking the school's cafeteria during the massacre. Anne Marie Hochhalter   Credit: Anne Marie Hochhalter   Ms Hochhalter said she fears such social media posts could help inspire other shooters by holding out the prospect of gaining a form of warped fame. Facebook has since deleted a number of pages flagged to it by this paper. 'Social media gives survivors a voice' Ms Hochhalter had long since given up on the idea that the continued mass shootings in the US would lead to meaningful action on gun control. Yet the sight of Parkland students organising rallies and marches calling for legislation has given her renewed optimism. "Seeing these kids - my heart bursts with pride," she said . "They are speaking up and calling for action from lawmakers and parties. I hope so badly there will be change. David Hogg a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School speaks at a rally calling for more gun control in Fort Lauderdale Credit: Reuters "They can now set the agenda themselves, they have the power and they have a voice. These kids are not going to give up." President Donald Trump is now preparing to ban bump stock devices that modify semi-automatic rifles and is considering other gun control measures in the wake of the tragedy in Florida. In 1999 the narrative around Columbine quickly coalesced around the two shooters being part of a sinister group called the Trenchcoat Mafia, about whether video games and goth culture had desensitised them to violence and whether the attack was two outcasts taking revenge on more popular 'jocks'. It is a narrative that has been debunked in the years following the attack. For instance the Trenchcoat Mafia was group of computer game enthusiasts who met to play the fantasy tabletop role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons. Members said the shooters, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, were rejected from the group for being too strange. The initial explanations for the shooting didn't tally with the experience of many at the school, but Ms Hochhalter said they did not have a platform to challenge them. She said: "We didn't have social media. I did some [media] interviews, but they wanted to focus on the shooters. The focus wasn't on what it should have been." Infamy motive Ms Hochhalter is clear in her mind as to what motivated the Columbine shooters - notoriety. It is the same conclusion that the FBI working with psychiatrists and psychologists came to five years after the shooting. Columbine was not a rash act by two teenagers with ready access to guns. It was calculated operation, methodically planned over a year and the aim was clear. The pair hoped to inflict "the most deaths in US history", as Klebold boasted in one a video. Mass shootings have become more frequent in the US It wasn't even planned primarily as a shooting but as a staggered bomb attack that would kill students during the crowded lunch-rush and then later emergency workers rushing to the scene. Only the shooters' ineptitude as bomb-makers stopped Columbine turning into a slaughter in the hundreds. The FBI concluded that pair's motivation was not just want fame, they wanted posthumous infamy. Perverse online subculture If notoriety was their true aim then Klebold and Harris succeeded to some degree. A measure of their success is the perverse subcultures that have sprung up around them on social media. The Telegraph has seen multiple pages on Facebook glamorising the Columbine shooters and praising their actions. One with more than 2,000 likes described its "mission" as to "never forget and always honor these heroes". The page has shared CCTV stills of the shooters rampaging around the school, as well as fan art of them clutching their sawn-off shotguns, and even tattoos a fan has of them mid-shooting spree. Comments on the page talked of posters "admiring" the shooters, praising their looks, describing them as "idols" and accusing the victims' families of trying to "bury their memories". Some Facebook commenters accused the families of the Columbine victims of trying to "bury" the shooters' memory Credit: AP Facebook has since deleted a number of the pages after being alerted to them by the Telegraph. In a statement the company said: "We condemn the terrible tragedy that took place in Florida and our thoughts are with the families of the victims and those who are injured. "There is absolutely no place on our platforms for people who commit such horrendous acts. We thank The Telegraph for bringing these pages to our attention, which have been removed for violating our Community Standards."  On the social media site, Tumblr, which is popular with teenagers, a quick search turned up scores of posts about the shooters, showing quotes from them, gifs from their homemade videos and even a post advertising T-shirts printed with CCTV stills from the massacre. Tumblr is yet to respond to a request for comment. No Notoriety campaign Ms Hochhalter fears that social media pages and posts that valorise mass shooters could help inspire the next tragedy. She said: "The motivation is different for each shooter but these people are in some sort of emotional pain. They want to inflict that pain on others and they want to go out in a blaze of glory". As well as calling on social media platforms to ban pages dedicated to lionising mass killers, Ms Hochhalter also backs the No Notoriety campaign, which has been set up by the victims mass shootings. This calls for a media blackout on the names of mass shooters in an effort to dampen down the infamy they seek. CNN anchor Anderson Cooper doesn't name mass shooters when reporting  Credit: Kevin Mazur In the US, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper has backed such an approach by refusing to name shooters on air. Other sections of the US media have argued that journalists have a duty to report the full story when such incidents occur. Yet Ms Hochhalter sees the recent pattern of mass shooters not committing suicide, such as those of Parkland and of the Aurora theatre massacre in 2012, as evidence of them wanting to see the reaction to their crimes. She said: "They are not killing themselves as much now as they want to survive and see the attention afterwards. "So with Parkland with that photo of him being arrested he is looking right at the camera - that is exactly what he wants." April 20, 1999 As the debate over gun control and how to prevent the next mass shooting continues after Parkland, the small Florida community is just beginning to try and come to terms with what happened. For Ms Hochhalter and dozens of other ex-students of Columbine High, it is a "rough road" they have been treading for nearly two decades. Ms Hochhalter was sitting with her friends and enjoying the sun on a grassy knoll outside the school on April 20, 1999, when the first shots rang out. Initially the 17-year-old Ms Hochhalter assumed it was senior students playing a prank. Columbine students and a police office taking cover behind a car Credit: AP She said: "I was eating outside with friends and I heard the shots behind me. I thought they were paintball guns and as I didn't want to believe what was happening. "Before I knew what was happening I was shot in the back and that was the bullet that paralysed me. "My friends had run away but came back and dragged me to relative safety then I was hit again. That bullet hit a bunch of internal organs and my friends had to leave me as there were bullets flying around everywhere." She lay bleeding for 45 minutes before paramedics reached her. They only go to her due to a mix-up in communications with police, who were holding back from the school due to confusion over how many shooters there were. Swat police storming Columbine School Credit: AP Had the paramedics held off with the police Ms Hochhalter would have been the 14th Columbine fatality. Klebold and Harris turned their guns on themselves before the police could reach them. The aftermath After she woke from surgery, Ms Hochhalter's family tried to shield her from the full scale of the horror of Columbine by not telling how many had died and asking friends not to share details with her when they visited her in hospital. It wasn't until she was interviewed by the police a month after the shooting that she learned 13 had died, including a close friend. Anne Marie Hochhalter as a teenage student at Columbine High In the weeks that followed she threw herself into her rehabilitation, convincing herself she would one day walk again, despite what the doctors said. But six months after the shooting Ms Hochhalter's mother, who had a history of depression, committed suicide. With the trauma of the shooting and tragedy of losing her parent, she said she went to "a daze". For two years she had counselling but stopped and described lapsing into a process of repeatedly burying her feelings and the trauma deep down for the next 18-years. Las Vegas Over the years Ms Hochhalter learned to avoid certain sounds and sights that could trigger flashbacks of that day in April 1999. She has since been unable to go to live firework displays and can be traumatised by other loud bangs such as cars backfiring. She also breaks down if she sees young people wearing trench coats - as the shooters wore. When she saw news of other mass shootings she adopted a coping mechanism of suppressing her feelings. The mechanism worked for 18 years until October 2017 when Stephen Paddock opened fire with a modified semi-automatic rifle from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel on a country music festival on the Las Vegas strip, killing killing 59 and wounding over 400. Victims fleeing from the Las Vegas shooting in October  Credit: Getty Hours after the Las Vegas shooting happened smartphone footage was being broadcast around the world showing visceral scenes of the carnage. Ms Hochhalter said: "The metaphor I use for all of us involved at Columbine is we shoved our emotions in a suitcase. With Las Vegas it was like 'I will do my usual coping mechanism again and shove it in the suitcase'. But the locks broke and everything popped out. "It was the vantage point, the shooter was up high and with Columbine they were up high. It was the screams and the sounds". Ms Hochhalter wasn't the only Columbine survivor to be affected badly by Las Vegas, she said it caused a number to have breakdowns and seek counselling. She says Las Vegas was the starting point of her resuming professional help and really starting to deal with the trauma of the shooting. Parkland A week has passed since 17 people were killed and 14 seriously wounded in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The quiet Floridan suburb of Parkland remains a focus of national and international attention as the political fallout over gun control continues. But Parkland will still be dealing with the events of last week long after the tragedy has ceased to dominate the headlines. Mourners grieving at a candlelight vigil for victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting Credit:  AFP Ms Hochhalter said: "Now it seems that these shootings are becoming more common. People around the world will forget in two weeks and the people of Parkland will be left to pick up the pieces. It will be difficult and they will think 'why have people stopped caring?' "But not the people of Columbine. We will always be there, even when the whole world has moved on." She urged the teenagers now just starting to process the trauma they experienced that day not to take the same approach she and other Columbine survivors did. "I would say to them don't go through this alone," said Ms Hochhalter. "It is going to be a rough road but it is imperative that you have a strong support network with friends and family. "My advice would be don't do what we did and shove it deep down. Don't delay with counselling."


Mississippi Town Rejects 'Historic' LGBTQ Pride Parade Despite Local Support

Posted: 21 Feb 2018 01:37 PM PST

Mississippi Town Rejects 'Historic' LGBTQ Pride Parade Despite Local SupportLocal leaders in Starkville, Mississippi, denied a request to host what would have been the town's first gay pride parade.


15-year-old shot 5 times protecting classmates from gunfire

Posted: 20 Feb 2018 07:33 PM PST

15-year-old shot 5 times protecting classmates from gunfirePARKLAND, Fla. (AP) — A 15-year-old student who was shot five times during last week's massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is credited with saving the lives of at least 20 other students.


Congressman Booed at Town Hall as People Demand Action on Guns

Posted: 21 Feb 2018 08:36 AM PST

Congressman Booed at Town Hall as People Demand Action on GunsA Colorado congressman was met with boos at a town hall on Tuesday night as he repeatedly declined to back an assault-weapons ban.


Duterte slammed for barring Philippine news site from his events

Posted: 20 Feb 2018 09:01 PM PST

Duterte slammed for barring Philippine news site from his eventsPhilippine President Rodrigo Duterte's move to ban a critical news website from covering the presidential palace is a threat to press freedom, rights and media groups said on Wednesday. Rappler, set up in 2012, is among a clutch of Philippine news organisations that have sparred with Duterte over their critical coverage of his drug war which the government says has claimed the lives of nearly 4,000 suspects. Human rights groups charge that thousands more have been killed by shadowy vigilantes.


Seas to rise about a meter even if climate goals are met - study

Posted: 20 Feb 2018 08:07 AM PST

Seas to rise about a meter even if climate goals are met - studyBy Alister Doyle OSLO (Reuters) - Sea levels will rise between 0.7 and 1.2 meters (27-47 inches) in the next two centuries even if governments end the fossil fuel era as promised under the Paris climate agreement, scientists said on Tuesday. Early action to cut greenhouse gas emissions would limit the long-term rise, driven by a thaw of ice from Greenland to Antarctica that will re-draw global coastlines, a German-led team wrote in the journal Nature Communications. Sea level rise is a threat to cities from Shanghai to London, to low-lying swathes of Florida or Bangladesh, and to entire nations such as the Maldives in the Indian Ocean or Kiribati in the Pacific.


Some Conservatives Are Trying To Discredit Outspoken Florida Shooting Survivors

Posted: 20 Feb 2018 11:30 AM PST

Some Conservatives Are Trying To Discredit Outspoken Florida Shooting SurvivorsWASHINGTON ― After what seems like a never-ending stream of deadly mass shootings, many gun reform proponents fear that Americans have become too desensitized to bloodshed to demand action to end gun violence.


Israel's Syria Strikes Revealed Its Red Lines

Posted: 20 Feb 2018 04:22 PM PST

Israel's Syria Strikes Revealed Its Red LinesThe strikes in Syria demonstrate to Iran, Assad, Hezbollah and any other anti-Israel party that Israel has red lines it will enforce. During a trip to the Israel-Syria border in the Golan Heights on February 6—after commiserating with the Israeli military officers defending the frontier and inspecting the equipment—Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a warning through the press to the Iranians, the Assad regime, Hezbollah, the Islamic State and any other actor on the Syrian battlefield that sought to challenge the Jewish state.


A U.S. Postal Worker Has Been Found Fatally Shot Inside a Mail Truck in Texas

Posted: 19 Feb 2018 06:08 PM PST

A U.S. Postal Worker Has Been Found Fatally Shot Inside a Mail Truck in TexasInvestigators are treating the case as a homicide


The 10 Best Beaches In The World In 2018, Revealed

Posted: 21 Feb 2018 06:00 AM PST

The 10 Best Beaches In The World In 2018, RevealedNeed some travel inspo for your upcoming beach vacation?


Man who died in Yellowstone was looking for hidden treasure

Posted: 20 Feb 2018 03:31 PM PST

Man who died in Yellowstone was looking for hidden treasureBILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A 53-year-old Illinois man who fell to his death in Yellowstone National Park last year was looking for a supposed hidden cache of gold and jewels that has inspired thousands to hunt in vain across remote corners of the Western U.S., according to a report by park authorities.


Florida lawmakers refuse to consider assault weapons ban despite call for tougher gun control laws

Posted: 20 Feb 2018 01:31 PM PST

Florida lawmakers refuse to consider assault weapons ban despite call for tougher gun control lawsFlorida state lawmakers have rejected a bill that would ban assault rifles, less than a week after 17 people were killed in a shooting at a Florida high school. The Florida House voted 36-71 against a motion to consider legislation to outlaw assault rifles and large capacity magazines, effectively killing the bill for the time-being, according to the Associated Press. The vote came as members of Congress, state legislators, governors and student survivors of the Parkland shooting called for tougher gun control laws.


Japanese 'baby factory' man wins custody of 13 kids born to Thai surrogates

Posted: 19 Feb 2018 08:19 PM PST

Japanese 'baby factory' man wins custody of 13 kids born to Thai surrogatesA Bangkok court on Tuesday granted a Japanese man "sole parent" rights to 13 children he fathered through Thai surrogate mothers, a ruling that paves the way for him to take custody of the group. Mitsutoki Shigeta caused a "baby factory" scandal in 2014 after Thai police said DNA samples linked him to nine infants found in a Bangkok apartment, plus at least four other babies born by surrogates. The murky case threw the spotlight on Thailand's then unregulated rent-a-womb industry, and helped push authorities to bar foreigners from paying for Thai surrogates in 2015.


Trump Administration Takes Another Step To Roll Back Obamacare

Posted: 20 Feb 2018 06:52 AM PST

Trump Administration Takes Another Step To Roll Back ObamacareRepublican efforts to roll back the Affordable Care Act's insurance reforms continued Tuesday, when the Trump administration proposed regulations that would make it easier for health insurers to sell cheap, short-term policies that leave out key benefits and are available only to people in good health.


Dallas Politician Tells NRA To Get Lost Unless It's Ready To Talk Reform

Posted: 20 Feb 2018 03:58 AM PST

Dallas Politician Tells NRA To Get Lost Unless It's Ready To Talk ReformA gun-owning Dallas politician said he won't support the National Rifle Association holding its annual convention in his city this year after last week's Florida school shooting unless the group will discuss gun law reform.


Stakes rise in Turkey's Afrin assault as pro-Assad militia arrive

Posted: 21 Feb 2018 12:03 PM PST

Stakes rise in Turkey's Afrin assault as pro-Assad militia arriveBy Ellen Francis and Ece Toksabay BEIRUT/ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey warned on Wednesday that pro-Damascus forces would face "serious consequences" for entering Syria's Afrin region to help Kurdish fighters repel a Turkish offensive. The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said Turkish planes bombed a town in Afrin and fighting raged on the ground on Wednesday.


Robert Mueller ‘files new criminal charges in Paul Manafort case’

Posted: 21 Feb 2018 03:10 PM PST

Robert Mueller 'files new criminal charges in Paul Manafort case'Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team has reportedly filed a new charge or charges in its case against a former Trump campaign adviser and his associate. A sealed filing at a clerk's office for a district court in Washington, DC could indicate additional indictments in the case against President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his associate Rick Gates, or it could be a type of charge called a criminal information, which would indicate an agreement between prosecutors and a defendant. Both men were charged last year as part of Mr Mueller's investigation into Russian efforts to meddle in the 2016 election.


The world's best beaches in the world revealed: TripAdvisor

Posted: 21 Feb 2018 05:53 AM PST

The world's best beaches in the world revealed: TripAdvisorThe pristine white sand beaches of Grace Bay in Turks and Caicos top this year's list of TripAdvisor's World's Best Beaches Awards. 


Police: Officer shot, killed intervening in domestic dispute

Posted: 21 Feb 2018 02:34 PM PST

Police: Officer shot, killed intervening in domestic disputeBRANDYWINE, Md. (AP) — An off-duty police officer who answered a neighbor's request for help in a domestic dispute was shot and killed Wednesday in Maryland, officials said.


Polish opposition wants to amend disputed Holocaust bill

Posted: 20 Feb 2018 09:26 AM PST

Polish opposition wants to amend disputed Holocaust billPoland's main opposition party Tuesday tabled an amendment to the government's controversial Holocaust bill, which was meant to defend Warsaw's image abroad but instead stoked tensions with Israel, Ukraine and the US. "The political crisis triggered by clumsy and disastrous diplomacy, by thoughtless remarks, has brought us to a point where we politicians are forced to react," Platform leader Grzegorz Schetyna told reporters. The Holocaust legislation, which takes effect next week, penalises statements attributing Nazi German crimes to the Polish state with a jail sentence of up to three years.


11 Cherry Cobblers That'll Convince You To Switch It Up From Pie

Posted: 20 Feb 2018 11:46 AM PST

11 Cherry Cobblers That'll Convince You To Switch It Up From Pie


Chelsea Clinton Throws Subtle Shade At Donald Trump Jr. Over India Foreign Policy Speech

Posted: 20 Feb 2018 12:34 AM PST

Chelsea Clinton Throws Subtle Shade At Donald Trump Jr. Over India Foreign Policy SpeechChelsea Clinton joined in the criticism of Donald Trump Jr.'s trip to India, with the throwing of some wonderfully subtle shade.


The One Scandal The Trump White House Can't Lie Its Way Out Of

Posted: 20 Feb 2018 04:49 AM PST

The One Scandal The Trump White House Can't Lie Its Way Out OfTOP STORIES (Get this roundup directly in your inbox each weekday ― sign up for The Morning Email here.)


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