| Woman, Two Children Found Dead on Sidewalk Outside Boston Parking Garage Posted: 25 Dec 2019 02:51 PM PST  A woman and two children were found unresponsive on a sidewalk outside a Northeastern University parking garage on Christmas Day, prompting a "death investigation," according to authorities.Boston Police confirmed the woman and the two children—both under the age of 5—were found unconscious outside the Northeastern University Renaissance Parking Garage just before 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday. All three, who have not yet been identified, were transported to a local hospital and were pronounced dead on arrival. Video from WCVB showed a black SUV behind police tape on the roof of the garage, though authorities did not comment on how the vehicle was involved.Man Found Guilty of Murdering Two Boston Doctors Inside Their Penthouse Condo"Today is a tragedy," Boston Police Commissioner William Gross said in a press conference, adding the relationship between the three individuals is not immediately known. "At this point, this is a death investigation."Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins said Wednesday her office is leading the investigation and that investigators are in the process of trying to determine the motive behind the incident. She noted that the holiday season can be hard for people."On Christmas and the holiday season where many people are celebrating, it can be a challenging and difficult time," Rollins said, according to CBS Boston. "I feel it imperative that we let people know that there is help.""As a mother, it was incredibly hard, this scene in particular, where there were two children who lost their lives today," Rollins added.Northeastern University did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast's request for comment, but campus police sent an alert to students about police activity near the Ruggles MBTA station and said they should "avoid the area."Estranged Husband, Girlfriend of Missing NYC Teacher Charged With MurderRead more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet 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. Learn more.
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| Nonstop violence as Baltimore nears record homicide rate Posted: 25 Dec 2019 04:24 AM PST  Baltimore could wrap up 2019 with its highest per-capita homicide rate on record as killings of adults and minors alike for drugs, retribution, money or no clear reason continue to add up and city officials appear unable to stop the violence. With just over 600,000 residents, Baltimore's homicide rate would reach approximately 57 per 100,000 residents if the death toll reaches 342. "It's a major concern for me, not just as a hopeful man but as a citizen of Baltimore who grew up in inner city Baltimore," said Carmichael "Stokey" Cannady, a reformed drug dealer turned community activist who wants to be mayor.
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| Game-Changer? Russia's Su-57 Stealth Fighter Is Packing Hypersonic Missiles Posted: 25 Dec 2019 05:00 AM PST  We take a look.
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| Biden tries to win over Iowa seniors enamored with Buttigieg Posted: 24 Dec 2019 06:41 PM PST  Elderly voters say age and experience are positives and negatives for both candidates.
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| Giuliani associate Parnas unable to pay both lawyers, agrees to let one withdraw Posted: 25 Dec 2019 06:33 AM PST  "Since I entered my appearance, Mr. Parnas' apparent ability to fund his defense has diminished," attorney Edward MacMahon Jr said in a filing with the federal court in Manhattan. "It thus would constitute a significant hardship for Mr. Parnas to continue being represented by two attorneys in this matter," MacMahon said, adding that Parnas had agreed to his request to withdraw.
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| Behind the barricades: Hong Kong protesters share what happened during the violent clashes with police on university campuses Posted: 23 Dec 2019 09:25 PM PST  How the protests at Chinese University and Polytechnic University in Hong Kong played out, as told to Insider by protesters involved in the clashes.
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| ‘Kentucky horse killer’ hunted by police as six more bodies found after massacre Posted: 24 Dec 2019 05:29 AM PST  Six more horses have been found fatally shot in Kentucky, according to authorities, as the search continues for the person or people responsible for the massacre.Dumas Rescue, a local animal rescue group, has offered a $20,000 (£15,450) reward for information on the shootings as the total number of dead horses has risen to 20.
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| Christians are being persecuted around the globe. That's the real war on Christmas. Posted: 24 Dec 2019 04:00 AM PST  The next time you get offended when someone wishes you "happy holidays," remember those who won't get to celebrate those holidays at all.
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| San Francisco cafes are banishing disposable coffee cups Posted: 23 Dec 2019 10:07 PM PST  A new cafe culture is brewing in the San Francisco area, where a growing number of coffee houses are banishing paper to-go cups and replacing them with everything from glass jars to rental mugs and BYO cup policies. Celebrated chef Dominique Crenn, owner of the three-star Michelin restaurant Atelier Crenn, is opening a San Francisco cafe next year that will have no to-go bags or disposable coffee cups and will use no plastic. Customers who plan to sip and go at Boutique Crenn will be encouraged to bring their own coffee cups, says spokeswoman Kate Bittman.
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| 9 Buildings That Prove Sustainable Architecture and High Design Are a Perfect Pair Posted: 25 Dec 2019 05:00 AM PST |
| Mexico accuses Bolivia of more harassment, even as president sees let-up Posted: 24 Dec 2019 05:52 AM PST  Mexico's foreign ministry on Tuesday again accused Bolivian security and intelligence officials of harassing its diplomatic staff in La Paz, despite remarks by the Mexican president earlier in the day that obtrusive surveillance was easing. Mexico on Monday accused Bolivia of intimidating its diplomats in La Paz after a chill in relations since Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador last month gave political asylum to former Bolivian president Evo Morales, a fellow leftist.
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| Russia's most advanced fighter jet crashes, pilot lives Posted: 24 Dec 2019 07:09 AM PST  Russian officials say their most advanced fighter jet has crashed on a training mission but that its pilot bailed out safely.
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| New Christianity Today editorial challenges loyalty to Trump Posted: 24 Dec 2019 06:49 AM PST  Christianity Today has followed up its controversial editorial criticizing President Trump with a second editorial urging fellow Christians to stop being loyal to Trump.The magazine's president, Timothy Dalrymple, asked Christians in the new editorial "to consider whether they have given to Caesar what belongs only to God: their unconditional loyalty." He said embracing Trump means being tied to his "corruption" and "race-baiting."The first editorial by the magazine, which was founded by the late Rev. Billy Graham, accused Trump of "profoundly immoral" conduct and called for his impeachment. A group of more than 100 conservative evangelical Christians responded Monday with a letter calling the magazine's position offensive, per Reuters, saying it questioned the "spiritual integrity" of tens of millions of Christian Trump supporters.More stories from theweek.com 'Fairytale of New York': How a soused Irish punk band created the greatest Christmas song of all time No, Christmas is not secular The unlikely joy of Christmas
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| A paramedic has been charged with poisoning his wife with eye drops to collect a $250,000 life insurance payout Posted: 25 Dec 2019 08:42 AM PST  Joshua Hunsucker has been charged with first-degree murder, allegedly using eye drops to cause his wife's death.
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| What we know: Woman admits to hitting teenage girl with car because girl was 'a Mexican' Posted: 25 Dec 2019 08:39 AM PST  The Des Moines woman faces a hate crime charge from that evening, but not for either of the intentional hit-and-runs.
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| South Korea, Japan, China leaders to promote North Korea-U.S. dialogue Posted: 23 Dec 2019 07:56 PM PST  China, Japan and South Korea have agreed to work together to promote dialogue between the United States and North Korea, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Tuesday following a summit between the three countries in China. North Korea has set a year-end deadline for the United States to change what it says is a policy of hostility amid a stalemate in efforts to make progress on their pledge to end the North's nuclear program and establish lasting peace.
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| The Surveillance State Quietly Lost a Major Court Case Posted: 24 Dec 2019 01:31 AM PST  Republicans are publicly howling at the U.S. surveillance panopticon now that it ensnared Donald Trump's 2016 campaign. But it's hard to believe they'll do much to actually constrain it. When they controlled Congress, whatever Trump-prompted hesitancy Republicans had about the government's broadest and most intrusive activities dissolved when it was time to renew the authorities underlying them for another five years. They joined congressional Democrats in resurrecting those authorities, continuing an act of genuine bipartisanship that ravenously eats away at Americans' freedom.Relief may come instead from the courts. A little-noticed ruling earlier this month from a federal appellate court took a modest step toward curbing the FBI's practice of searching—warrantless—for Americans' data inside the National Security Agency's dragnets ostensibly aimed at foreigners. Congress may be disinclined to close what's known as the "backdoor search provision," but there's a renewed chance the courts might. In September 2011, authorities arrested Albanian citizen and Brooklyn resident Agron Hasbajrami at Kennedy Airport. Hasbajrami had a one-way ticket to Turkey and, prosecutors said, a plan to continue on to Pakistan to pursue jihad. Facing federal charges, Hasbajrami asked prosecutors if evidence against him derived from warrantless surveillance. In secret, they had collected Hasbajrami's emails through surveillance resulting from Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which permits the NSA to collect massive amounts of internet communications and associated data, including from Americans' international conversations, all without judicial approval or individual suspicion. Once obtained, the feds applied for a FISA warrant on Hasbajrami, thereby laundering their illicit surveillance for use in prosecuting him. Send The Daily Beast a TipThe government, following a practice of not revealing how such surveillance impacts criminal prosecutions, deceitfully neglected to tell Hasbajrami how they got his emails in the first place. As a result, Hasbajrami pleaded guilty in 2012 and began serving a 16-year sentence for material support to terrorism. But after the 2013 revelations of mass surveillance Edward Snowden provided to The Guardian and The Washington Post, the Justice Department revealed to Hasbajrami that it had lied to him. Hasbajrami argued that he had been denied critical information underlying his decision to plead guilty—as well as a shot at arguing his prosecution was unconstitutional—withdrew his plea, and sought to suppress the ill-gotten evidence. The case made its way to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, which issued its ruling on Dec. 18. Judges in the case did not deal anything close to a death blow to Section 702. But, in a first for a federal appellate court, the judges found that warrantlessly searching through the NSA's Section 702 databases, as the FBI and the CIA are permitted to do, "could violate the Fourth Amendment, and thus require the suppression of evidence." Considering themselves without sufficient information to rule on the merits, they instructed the district court to investigate whether "such querying was reasonable." That's a far cry from stopping either the NSA's warrantless mass collection of internet data or the FBI's warrantless searches of what the NSA collects. It's uncertain what the district court will ascertain. But the appellate-court ruling is a step toward judicially mandated constraints on, at least, the downstream effects of such surveillance, and those effects include locking people up, so civil libertarians took what they could get. "Critically, the court holds that the government does not have carte blanche to amass Americans' emails and phone calls and search through them at will," noted the ACLU's Patrick Toomey, who submitted a brief in the case. The ruling comes after the secret spy panel known as the FISA Court ruled that the FBI's use of the backdoor search provision is overbroad, abusive and illegal. On one single day in December 2017, according to the court, the FBI conducted 6,800 searches through NSA databases of ostensibly foreign information using Americans' Social Security numbers. More broadly, the FBI's searches, the court found, were not "reasonably designed" to find evidence of crime, but were instead fishing expeditions. The total number of Americans surveilled remains unknown. The revelation that the FBI abused the backdoor-search provision made no political impact, as it concerned millions of Americans not named Donald Trump and its major effects will be felt by Muslims. Along with the Hasbajrami ruling, it highlights how the erosion of Americans' privacy, at scale, occurs with vastly fewer safeguards than the process to surveil Carter Page, a Trump campaign foreign-policy adviser who had been proximate to Russian intelligence for years.The FBI had to detail for the FISA Court why it believed Page was a legitimate target for foreign-agent surveillance and do so every 90 days for as long as it wished the surveillance to continue. In practice, Justice Department inspector general Michael Horowitz found, the applications to the FISA Court on Page contained material flaws, such as the omission of evidence that undercut the government's basis for the surveillance. As egregious as the FBI's manipulation of that process was in Page's case, no such process applies for surveillance under Section 702, which affects orders of magnitude more people. The director of national intelligence and the attorney general merely submit annual guidelines to the FISA Court purporting to describe how the mass surveillance will unfold. The government needs neither probable cause nor reasonable suspicion that any of the millions of people caught in the NSA dragnet committed any wrongdoing—only confidence that the supposed "target" of the surveillance is reasonably believed to be a foreigner overseas. Nor does the FBI require any judicial approval for any of its searches for Americans' data in the NSA digital storehouses. The appellate court in the Hasbajrami case called it "programmatic pre-clearance" for surveillance on a scale unthinkable even a generation ago. This sort of surveillance has proven a fixture of contemporary American life, however undetected it typically goes. Attempts at modifying it or abolishing it, launched by the civil-libertarian minorities of both parties, typically fall short. A recent effort at abolishing a highly abused domestic phone-data surveillance program wrapped into the PATRIOT Act was obviated by a Congressional budget deal that kept that and three other expiring PATRIOT provisions alive until March. One of the few consistent congressional opponents of overbroad surveillance is Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat on the intelligence committee who has fought the backdoor-search provision since its inception. "I'm glad some of my pro-surveillance colleagues are now interested in protecting Americans against unnecessary government surveillance. But anyone who has concerns about warrants overseen by a judge should be far more worried by backdoor searches of vast numbers of Americans' communications—searches performed without any court order whatsoever," Wyden told The Daily Beast. "When Sen. [Rand] Paul and I tried to reform this program last year, these same members voted against even modest reforms to protect Americans' rights. Let's be sure that protecting civil liberties applies to all Americans, not just Donald Trump and his cronies."Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet 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. Learn more.
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| At least 11 people have died in the Philippines after drinking coconut wine — a potent beverage about 4 times stronger than regular wine Posted: 24 Dec 2019 11:03 AM PST  Lambanog is made from distilled coconut sap and usually contains between 40% and 45% alcohol, making it much stronger than beer and regular wine.
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| Two strong earthquakes hit central Colombia Posted: 24 Dec 2019 12:48 PM PST  Two strong quakes, of magnitude 6.0 and magnitude 5.8, struck central Colombia, the US Geological Survey has said.Buildings shook as the quakes hit.
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| Indonesia bus crash death toll up to at least 28 Posted: 24 Dec 2019 09:29 PM PST  The number of people killed in a fatal bus crash in Indonesia has risen to 28 including eight children, police said Wednesday as a rescue team continued to search a river. The bus careered into a 150-metre (500-foot) ravine in South Sumatra province just before midnight (1600 GMT) on Monday and ended up in a river, according to police. Local police chief Dolly Gumara said on Wednesday another body was found late on Tuesday, adding up the death toll to 28 from earlier 27.
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| You've sung about figgy pudding since childhood Christmases but do you know what it is? Posted: 24 Dec 2019 04:00 AM PST  People keep clamoring for figgy pudding in Christmas songs. But what the heck is it?
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| Ukraine opens probe over Russia's railway bridge to Crimea Posted: 25 Dec 2019 04:28 AM PST ![Ukraine opens probe over Russia's railway bridge to Crimea]( "Ukraine opens probe over Russia's railway bridge to Crimea") Ukrainian officials opened a criminal probe Wednesday after a passenger train from Russia arrived in Crimea via a new Russian-built bridge, arguing that the train illegally carried people across the Ukrainian border. Earlier this week Russian President Vladimir Putin inaugurated the railway bridge to Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
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| See This Plane? Meet Russia's Very Own 'A-10 Warthog' Posted: 24 Dec 2019 05:00 PM PST  Meet the Su-25
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| Russian court extends detention of ex-Marine Moscow calls a spy Posted: 24 Dec 2019 02:43 AM PST  A Russian court on Tuesday extended by three months the detention of Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine accused by Moscow of spying, a decision his family and U.S. officials condemned as unjust. Whelan, who holds U.S., British, Canadian and Irish passports, was detained by agents from Russia's Federal Security Service in a Moscow hotel room on Dec. 28 last year. Moscow says Whelan was caught red-handed with a computer flash drive containing classified information.
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| TikTok reportedly wants a new HQ outside China to distance itself from its Chinese roots Posted: 24 Dec 2019 01:46 AM PST  Locations under consideration for TikTok's new headquarters include Singapore, London, and Dublin, sources told the Wall Street Journal.
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| Former Hawaii governor says Tulsi Gabbard should resign Posted: 24 Dec 2019 02:24 AM PST  Neil Abercrombie said the Democrat's run for president is interfering with her job in Congress.
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| Durham Surprises Even Allies With Statement on FBI's Trump Case Posted: 24 Dec 2019 12:29 PM PST  WASHINGTON -- Whether investigating charges of torture by the CIA, rolling up an organized crime network or prosecuting crooked government officials, John H. Durham, the veteran federal prosecutor named by Attorney General William Barr to investigate the origins of the Russia inquiry, burnished his reputation for impartiality over the years by keeping his mouth closed about his work.At the height of the Boston mob prosecution that made his name, he not only rebuffed a local newspaper's interview request, but he also told his office not to release his resume or photo.That wall of silence cracked this month when Durham, serving in the most politically charged role of his career, released an extraordinary statement questioning one key element of an overlapping investigation by the Justice Department's inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz.Horowitz had found that the FBI acted appropriately in opening the inquiry in 2016 into whether the Trump campaign wittingly or unwittingly helped Russia influence the election in Donald Trump's favor. In response, Durham, whose report is not expected to be complete for months, released a caveat-laden rebuttal: "Based on the evidence collected to date, and while our investigation is ongoing, last month we advised the inspector general that we do not agree with some of the report's conclusions as to predication and how the FBI case was opened."The statement seemed to support comments made half an hour earlier by Barr, who assailed what he called "an intrusive investigation of a U.S. presidential campaign," based "on the thinnest of suspicions." Durham's decision to go public in such a politically polarized environment surprised people who have worked with him. They found it out of character for him to intervene in such a high-profile way in an open case."It's fair to characterize what John did as unusual in terms of his past practice and I don't know what the rationale was," said Kevin J. O'Connor, a former U.S. attorney for Connecticut who supervised Durham for several years in the early 2000s. "But I know John well enough to know that he did it because he -- not the AG or anyone else -- thought he had an obligation to."Others have been less willing to give Durham the benefit of the doubt, and it is clear he has placed his reputation for impartiality on the line by accepting this latest assignment.Durham's decision to speak out seemed to supply political fuel to Trump, who has repeatedly blasted the Russia inquiry as a "hoax" and a "witch hunt." At a campaign rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania, the day after Barr and Durham issued their statements, Trump called FBI agents involved in the Russia inquiry "scum.""I look forward to Bull Durham's report -- that's the one I look forward to," added Trump, who appointed Durham as the U.S. attorney for Connecticut in 2017.The inspector general's report makes no substantive reference to Durham's investigation. But before the report's release, Durham got into a sharp dispute with Horowitz's team over a footnote in a draft of the report that seemed to imply that Durham agreed with all of Horowitz's conclusions, which he did not, according to people familiar with the matter. The footnote did not appear in the final version of the report.A former Justice Department investigator who knows both Barr and Durham, a Republican, said that while the men were aware of each other's professional reputations, they are in no way close. Barr, who was unfamiliar with Durham's recent work, made quiet inquiries before appointing him to lead the investigation, this person said.The potential explosiveness of Durham's mission was further underscored by the disclosure that he was examining the role of John O. Brennan, the former CIA director, in how the intelligence community assessed Russia's 2016 election interference.Durham is known in New England's close-knit law enforcement community for working long days on his cases, and providing sought-after guidance on others'.Wearing gunmetal-frame glasses and a drooping goatee, he rises early and dresses in the dark, often mismatching his suit jackets and pants. His reputation for discretion, on top of a long record of successful high-profile prosecutions, are among the reasons he has been a go-to person when Washington -- under Republicans and Democrats alike -- needs someone to handle sensitive tasks.O'Connor, who was associate attorney general in 2008, was among those who recommended Durham lead an inquiry into the CIA's destruction in 2005 of videotapes depicting the torture of two operatives of al-Qaida.That investigation, started under an administration that had supported the use of so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, continued into the Obama administration, which brought a very different agenda to the issue. After President Barack Obama took office, Durham's brief was expanded to include a criminal investigation into the CIA's role in the deaths of two detainees overseas, based on allegations of mistreatment by their interrogators.Durham completed the torture investigation in 2012. The Justice Department, under Attorney General Eric Holder, declined to prosecute anyone, saying that "the admissible evidence would not be sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt."John A. Rizzo, the CIA's former acting general counsel, was questioned for more than eight hours in the investigation.Durham "didn't personally question me, but he did the agency people who had contemporaneous knowledge of the plan to destroy the tapes, and he was very tough with them," Rizzo, who retired from the CIA in 2009, said in an interview.Despite the political uproar at the time, "there were no leaks and he certainly didn't issue any public statements," Rizzo recalled. "I just don't see him bending to political pressure, so I was surprised he made a statement here."Those who know him portray Durham as the consummate straight arrow who is unlikely to have bowed to pressure from Barr or anyone else in his current assignment. Durham declined to be interviewed for this article."He believes in four things: his family, his profession, his religion and the Boston Red Sox," said Hugh F. Keefe, a Connecticut defense lawyer who says Durham is so by the book, he once asked Keefe whether he had reported a free Red Sox ticket to the IRS. "If anyone thinks they can lead him like a horse to water, they're mistaken."Last year, Durham, a staunch Catholic, delivered rare public remarks at the University of St. Joseph in West Hartford, Connecticut.The topic was his prosecution of John Connolly Jr., an FBI agent jailed for racketeering, obstruction of justice and murder stemming from his collaboration with Boston's notorious Winter Hill gang, led by James (Whitey) Bulger, an FBI informant.In a preface to his presentation, Durham said, "It is as important for the system for prosecutors to protect the secrecy of proceedings, not because we want them to be secret, but because we're not always right." He added: "Maybe accusations that are lodged against somebody are untrue. And again, we can destroy the person or persons if that information gets out."Durham was born in Uxbridge, Massachusetts, and received his law degree at the University of Connecticut in 1975. After a stint providing free legal advice to the Crow Indian tribe as part of what is now AmeriCorps, he worked as an assistant state's attorney in Connecticut until 1982, when he began a 35-year career as an assistant U.S. attorney, serving in a range of roles leading organized crime and public corruption prosecutions.He won 119 convictions from 1983 to 1989, including against associates of the Genovese, Gambino and Patriarca crime families, and provided evidence instrumental in convicting the Gambino boss John Gotti in New York.In 1989, fishermen found the body of William (The Wild Guy) Grasso, the Patriarca state boss from New Haven, Connecticut, dead of a gunshot wound in weeds near the Connecticut River.Durham, who colleagues said "could hear grass grow" on surveillance recordings, led a prosecution that linked mobsters in Connecticut and Rhode Island, even unveiling the first recorded mob-induction ceremony. Durham secured a raft of racketeering convictions against men linked to Grasso's murder, gutting the Providence, Rhode Island, based Patriarca mob. His doggedness, even after a note with his home address on it was found in a mobster-occupied Hartford, Connecticut, jail cell, earned him the nickname "Bull."In 1999, Attorney General Janet Reno appointed Durham to lead an investigation into corrupt links, rumored for years, between FBI agents and their criminal informants in Boston. Prosecutions of Bulger and his accomplice Stephen (the Rifleman) Flemmi uncovered a relationship with FBI agents, a retired Massachusetts state trooper and others, in which the mobsters exchanged cases of wine, a stolen two-carat diamond ring, and money for "the keys to the kingdom of all organized crime information in Boston," Durham told the college audience last year.In late 2000, he uncovered government memos indicating that FBI officials were involved in framing four men for the 1965 murder of a mobster, to protect a hit man who was one of the bureau's informants, a scheme likely known to the bureau's director at the time, J. Edgar Hoover. Durham alerted defense lawyers. Two of the four men had died in prison, but the surviving two were released, and the government paid a $100 million civil judgment in the case.Durham and his team worked amid speculation that the Justice Department would pull the plug on what was becoming a deeply embarrassing prosecution. In 2000, a colleague told The Boston Herald that Durham would rather "pull an Archibald Cox" and resign than submit to pressure.In a Washington Post op-ed this month, Holder cautioned Durham, whom he said he has been proud to know for at least a decade, about joining Barr in disputing the inspector general's findings. "Anyone in Durham's shoes would do well to remember that, in dealing with this administration, many reputations have been irrevocably lost," he wrote.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| McConnell says Republicans haven't 'ruled out' impeachment witnesses Posted: 24 Dec 2019 06:34 AM PST  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Monday that he was not ruling out testimony from new witnesses in Trump's impeachment trial, as a dispute over the rules delays preparations for the trial.Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) wants witnesses who refused to appear during House impeachment hearings to testify in the Senate, The Associated Press reports. McConnell has declined, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has responded by delaying sending the Senate two articles of impeachment the House approved last week."We haven't ruled out witnesses," McConnell told Fox and Friends. "We've said let's handle this case just like we did with President Clinton."Some witnesses testified in that trial, but Republicans have the votes to block anyone requested by Democrats.More stories from theweek.com 'Fairytale of New York': How a soused Irish punk band created the greatest Christmas song of all time No, Christmas is not secular The unlikely joy of Christmas
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| New Zealand suspends search for remaining two bodies believed to be on the island where a surprise volcano eruption killed 19 Posted: 24 Dec 2019 06:55 PM PST  Police on Tuesday called off a search for two missing people presumed dead after one of New Zealand's most active volcanoes erupted earlier this month.
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| Afghan official says Taliban abducted 26 peace activists Posted: 25 Dec 2019 03:52 AM PST  The Taliban ambushed a peace convoy in western Afghanistan and abducted 26 activists, members of a peace movement, a police spokesman said Wednesday. The insurgents staged the ambush in the district of Bala Buluk in Farah province on Tuesday. The Taliban forced the six-vehicle convoy to a halt, then got into the cars and drove them and the activists to an unknown location, said the provincial police spokesman Mohibullah Mohib.
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| Philippine typhoon Phanfone ruins Christmas for travelers, evacuees Posted: 24 Dec 2019 11:19 PM PST  Christmas turned to chaos for many holiday observers in the central Philippines as a typhoon with strong winds and heavy rains destroyed homes, cut off power and stranded travelers, disaster officials said on Wednesday. Typhoon Phanfone, rated category 2 by Tropical Storm Risk, was packing maximum sustained winds of 120 km per hour (75 miles per hour) with gusts up to 150 kph when it made landfall in the eastern province of Samar on Tuesday, weather and disaster officials said. More than 4,000 people have been evacuated in the Eastern Visayas region of the central Philippines, disaster officials said, although no deaths have been reported.
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| 30 of the best environmental photos of 2019 reveal the wonder and anguish of our planet Posted: 25 Dec 2019 06:59 AM PST  These photos show the fascinating phenomena, natural disasters, and ongoing challenges of climate change in 2019.
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| "I was taken": 7-year-old torn from dad at U.S. border Posted: 24 Dec 2019 09:03 PM PST  CBS News documentary "The Faces of Family Separation" follows the harrowing journey of four migrant families fleeing violence in Central America, only to be split apart after arriving in the U.S.
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| President Trump says he hasn’t ‘thought’ about Roger Stone pardon Posted: 24 Dec 2019 12:01 PM PST  Roger Stone was convicted in November of lying to Congress to protect the president.
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| This tiny transport aircraft is getting a makeover Posted: 25 Dec 2019 08:00 AM PST  Upgrades to the U.S. Air Force's C-21 fleet should wrap up in mid-2020.
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| Pope offers hope against darkness in Christmas Day message Posted: 25 Dec 2019 03:52 AM PST  Pope Francis offered a Christmas message of hope Wednesday against darkness that cloaks conflicts and relationships in large parts of the world from the Middle East to the Americas to Africa. The traditional "Urbi et Orbi'' ("to the city and to the world'') Christmas message has become an occasion for popes to address suffering in the world and press for solutions. Francis was flanked by Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino, president of the papal council for migrants, and Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the pope's official almsgiver.
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| Single Chinese woman sues over egg freezing Posted: 25 Dec 2019 02:05 AM PST  A single woman in China has gone to court challenging rules that forbid unmarried women from freezing their eggs in the first case of its kind in the country. Teresa Xu said she was prompted to take legal action after a top hospital in Beijing declined to freeze her eggs last year, and instead told her to "get married, and have a child soon". "There is a huge demand among young women in China -- whether married or single -- to freeze their eggs as they delay the decision to have a child," Xu told AFP.
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| Jihadists on motorbikes kill 35 civilians in Burkina Faso raid Posted: 24 Dec 2019 04:40 PM PST  An attack by militants in northern Burkina Faso has killed 35 civilians, almost all of them women, the president said, one of the deadliest assaults in nearly five years of jihadist violence in the West African nation. Seven soldiers and 80 jihadists were also killed in the double attack on a military base and the town of Arbinda in Soum province. The morning raid was carried out by dozens of jihadists on motorbikes and lasted several hours before armed forces backed by the air force drove the militants back. The army said the attack was of a "rare intensity". "A large group of terrorists simultaneously attacked the military base and the civilian population in Arbinda," the army chief of staff said in a statement. "This barbaric attack resulted in the deaths of 35 civilian victims, most of them women," President Roch Marc Christian Kabore said on Twitter, praising the "bravery and commitment" of the defence and security forces. Remis Dandjinou, the communications minister and government spokesman, later said that 31 of the civilian victims were women. The president has declared 48 hours of national mourning. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but jihadist violence in Burkina Faso has been blamed on militants linked to both al-Qaeda and Islamic State groups. Burkina Faso, which borders, Mali and Niger, has endured regular jihadist attacks which have left hundreds dead since the start of 2015 when militant violence began to spread across the Sahel region. More than 700 people have been killed and around 560,000 internally displaced by the violence, according to the United Nations. Attacks have targeted mostly the north and east of the country, though the capital Ouagadougou has been hit three times.
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| Pete Davidson: People want to 'punch me in the throat' for dating famous women Posted: 24 Dec 2019 09:47 AM PST  Pete Davidson has joked that people hate him because he's able to date so many "famous women," following speculation that he's seeing model Kaia Gerber.
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| Russia says U.N. chief turns blind eye over U.S. visa delays Posted: 25 Dec 2019 09:20 AM PST ![Russia says U.N. chief turns blind eye over U.S. visa delays]( "Russia says U.N. chief turns blind eye over U.S. visa delays") Russia's Foreign Ministry accused the U.N. secretary general of turning a blind eye to what Moscow says is U.S. delays in issuing visas for Russian officials seeking to travel to the U.N. headquarters in New York. Moscow says Washington has deliberately delayed issuing visas to Russian officials traveling to the U.N. headquarters, a move Russia has said could further damage strained relations.
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