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(Aug 5, 2018 11:38 AM CDT) The number of confirmed cases in Congo's new outbreak of the Ebola virus has risen to 13, including three deaths, the health ministry said late Saturday. The World Health Organization has warned that this new outbreak of the deadly virus in North Kivu province poses a particular challenge as the region is a war zone with several active armed groups and thousands of displaced people, the AP reports. The nearby city of Beni and heavily traveled borders with Uganda and Rwanda also complicate efforts to contain the disease, which is spread via contact with the bodily fluids of those infected, including the dead. Congo announced the latest outbreak on Wednesday with four confirmed cases, a week after declaring the end to a previous outbreak in the northwest with 33 deaths.
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(Apr 12, 2018 10:37 AM CDT) Thursday is Holocaust Remembrance Day, and a new survey suggests the day is sorely needed. The results show that many Americans, particularly young adults, lack a basic understanding of the Nazi genocide during World War II. Though 96% of respondents said the Holocaust took place, 31% believe a maximum of 2 million Jews were killed, well under the actual figure of about 6 million, reports the New York Times. The percentage increased to 41% among millennials, defined as those aged 18 to 34. Some 41% of Americans and 66% of millennials had no idea about Auschwitz, the death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland where an estimated 1.1 million were killed, per WFTS. The executive vice president of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, which seeks restitution for Holocaust victims and their heirs and commissioned the February survey of 1,350 respondents, says the gaps in understanding are troubling given that some 400,000 Holocaust survivors are still living. Imagine when there are no longer survivors here to tell their stories, he says, stressing the importance of Holocaust education. He's backed by survey respondents, 93% of whom said it was important to teach about the Holocaust in schools. While experts say there's nothing quite like hearing about the genocide directly from a survivor, museums are preparing for a time when no survivors remain, using holograms and recorded testimony to keep their stories alive, notes the Times.
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(Oct 31, 2012 6:46 AM CDT) Unemployment in the 17-country eurozone hit a record high of 11.6% in September, official figures showed today, a sign the economy is deteriorating as governments struggle to get a grip on their three-year debt crisis. The rate reported by Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, was up from an upwardly-revised 11.5% in August. Spain has the highest unemployment rate in the eurozone at 25.8%. Greece is not far behind at 25.1%, though its figure is from July. Both countries, which are at the epicenter of Europe's three-year debt crisis, have youth unemployment above 50%. While the eurozone's unemployment rate has been rising steadily for the past year, the US has seen its equivalent rate fall to 7.8%. The latest US figures are due Friday. The lowest unemployment rate in the eurozone was Austria's 4.4%, while Germany has a jobless rate of only 5.4%.
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(Feb 22, 2009 5:03 PM) Investigators rummaging around Allen Stanford's Antiguan bank have confirmed media reports that $8 billion is missing, the Times of London reports. The $8 billion you hear about in the media isn't there, one official told customers outside the Stanford International Bank. It appears to be a Ponzi scheme. We will be tracking the money in overseas banks, find a million in one, track another million to another bank, the investigator said. But there is nothing like $8 billion here.
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(Jul 11, 2013 4:48 AM CDT) Clues to what may have caused the Asiana Airlines crash this weekend continue to emerge. The latest: The plane's pilot said that while flying at 500 feet, he was blinded by light, investigators say. It was a temporary issue, says National Transportation Safety Board chair Deborah Hersman, but its cause remains uncertain. We need to understand exactly what that is, she says, per USA Today. She also discussed the plane's apparently delayed evacuation. The pilot told flight attendants not to start evacuating as soon as the plane stopped moving; the evacuation didn't begin until a flight attendant spotted a fire near a door, about 90 seconds later. We need to understand what they were thinking, Hersman says. In two minutes, rescue vehicles were on the scene; a minute later, crews took on the fire, part of which occurred near an oil leak from the right engine. One of the flight attendants who was pinned down by evacuation slides broke her leg, Hersman said, and at least three attendants were ejected from the plane, not two, as previously reported. The disaster has prompted speculation about whether the plane's automatic controls were working, CNN notes, but whether or not they were, there are two pilots in the cockpit for a reason, Hersman says.
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(Sep 28, 2016 8:40 PM CDT) A southwest Florida man has been charged with raping and killing an 11-year-old girl and her babysitter 26 years ago, the AP reports. The Cape Coral Daily Breeze reported Wednesday that Cape Police Chief David Newlan says detectives learned last week that a recent arrestee at the Lee County Jail matched DNA from the old crime scene. State officials confirmed the evidence matches 54-year-old Joseph Zieler. Authorities say the bodies of 11-year-old Robin Cornell and 32-year-old Lisa Story were found in a Cape Coral apartment in May 1990. Robin's mother had been out for the night and discovered the suffocated bodies when she returned the next morning. Investigators didn't immediately know of any prior connection between Zieler and the victims. The victims had both been sexually assaulted, authorities say. The little girl was found, naked, on her bedroom floor; her babysitter was found in bed. The case has been featured on America's Most Wanted more than once. Zieler has been charged with murder, sexual assault, and other crimes.
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(Feb 5, 2013 7:47 AM) Dell has reached a deal to go private, the company has announced. Shareholders will receive some $13.65 per share in a $24 billion deal, the New York Times reports, which marks a 25% premium over Dell's January share price. The privatization deal with Microsoft and private equity company Silver Lake Partners is the biggest since the financial crisis, the Wall Street Journal notes. Once the biggest PC maker on the planet, the struggling Dell is now third; the move comes as founder and CEO Michael Dell hopes to retool his company. The deal incorporates Michael Dell's own 16% stake, some $700 million from his investment company, $1 billion from Silver Lake, and a $2 billion Microsoft investment. In return, Dell will likely work more closely with Windows, as was previously rumored. Meanwhile, four banks are backing the deal with $15 billion in evenly-divided debt. For Michael Dell, the company's floundering image is central to the overhaul, the Journal adds: It's pretty simple: His name is on the door, says a former exec.
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(Oct 10, 2013 12:18 PM CDT) Embattled 49ers star Aldon Smith has been charged with three counts of illegally possessing assault weapons, stemming from a party-turned-shootout at his San Jose-area abode last year. According to prosecutors, Smith, 24, was hosting upward of 100 people at his home last June when someone pulled a gun on the party's bartender, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Smith decided it was time to break up the party--and toward that end, fired a .45 caliber handgun into the air. Far from taking the hint, the partygoers refused to leave; one instead pulled a knife and stabbed Smith twice. Smith's then-teammate Delanie Walker grabbed Smith's gun and fired it in the air again--only this time another person shot back, hitting two guests. When police arrived, they found five guns, including assault rifles, which are illegal in California, and high-capacity magazines. Smith is expected to surrender himself later this month; he's already on an indefinite leave of absence from the 49ers thanks to a drunk driving incident, according to ESPN.
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(Mar 28, 2008 6:47 AM CDT) Bear Stearns Chairman Jimmy Cayne yesterday became the poster boy for the company's fall from grace, selling his one-time $1 billion stake in the investment bank for a mere $61.3 million, reports the Wall Street Journal. Cayne sold 5.7 million shares he'd acquired for $10.84 each, a far cry from the $159 they were worth last April. The share has traded as low as $2.84 in the two weeks since the company agreed to be rescued from almost certain failure by JPMorgan and the Federal Reserve. Cayne is said to have sold for personal reasons: he and his wife are buying a $26-million apartment in the newly renovated Plaza Hotel in New York.
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(Jul 5, 2009 1:53 PM CDT) A 1996 video of Michael Jackson being interviewed by lawyers has surfaced, the News of the World reports. The tape shows the star squirming and groaning in annoyance throughout a barrage of questions from lawyers representing several Neverland employees who sued Jackson after being fired. At one point, the King of Pop states firmly that he is not gay, and that he's proud to be black. What you hear is a lie, Jackson said of rumors about his sexuality. In answer to allegations of child molestation, Jackson cited the Bible, saying that Jesus said to love the children and be like the children--to be youthful and innocent, and be pure and honorable.
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(Jun 5, 2009 9:05 AM CDT) A bombing at a mosque in northwest Pakistan killed about 40 people today, Reuters reports. The attack, which occurred near the troubled Swat Valley, took place as Pakistani leaders urged visiting US envoy Richard Holbrooke to ramp up US aid, notes the AP. Such attacks won't deter the government from its resolve to eliminate this scourge (of terrorism) from the country, said the prime minister.
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(Dec 2, 2011 1:56 PM) You can pencil two new elements onto your periodic table, because prospective elements 114 and 116 have finally gotten names. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry today dubbed the two elements flerovium (Fl) and livermorium (Lv) respectively, MSNBC reports. But do use pencil, because the names aren't entirely official yet--they have to wait through a five-month public comment period first. The two elements have been waiting for their names and abbreviations ever since the IUPAC confirmed them in June. Flerovium was the frontrunner for 114 all along--it's a tribute to Russia's Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions, where the elements were first created. The early rumor was that 116 would be named muscovium because the lab is in Moscow, but it's instead been named in honor of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, where some of the scientists who helped discover it are based.
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(Mar 10, 2017 10:59 AM) Author Robert James Waller, whose best-selling 1992 novel The Bridges of Madison County was turned into a movie starring Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood and a Broadway musical, has died in Texas, according to his literary agency. He was 77. Lucy Childs of Aaron M. Priest Literary Agency said Waller died Thursday or early Friday, the AP reports. Childs did not know the cause but said the author had been ill. In Bridges, which Waller famously wrote in 11 days, a photographer spends four days romancing a war bride from Italy married to a no-nonsense Iowa farmer. Waller's novel reached No. 1 on the New York Times best-seller list and stayed on it for more than three years; the Eastwood-directed 1995 movie grossed $182 million worldwide. Many critics made fun of Bridges, calling it sappy and cliche-ridden. Waller depicts their mating dance in plodding detail, but he fails to develop them as believable characters, Eils Lotozo wrote in the New York Times in 1993. Instead, we get a lot of quasi-mystical business about the shaman-like photographer who overwhelms the shy, bookish Francesca with 'his sheer emotional and physical power.' Readers, however, bought more than 12 million copies in 35 languages. Bridges turned the unknown writer into a multimillionaire and made Madison County, Iowa, an international tourist attraction. I really do have a small ego, Waller said in 2002. I am open to rational discussion. If you don't like the book and can say why, I am willing to listen. But the criticism turned to nastiness. ... I was stunned.
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(Feb 16, 2018 1:30 PM) A former California inmate wrongly imprisoned for nearly 40 years says it was the worst nightmare and that even nearly $2 million in state compensation granted on Thursday can't make up for his lost time. The California Victims Compensation Board granted 70-year-old Craig Richard Coley $140 for each of the 13,991 days he spent in prison before he was pardoned by Gov. Jerry Brown before Thanksgiving, per the AP. Coley spent 39 years behind bars after he was wrongly convicted of killing his former girlfriend, 24-year-old Rhonda Wicht of Simi Valley, and her 4-year-old son in 1978. Simi Valley's police chief and Ventura County's district attorney asked Brown to pardon him because forensic tests showed Coley's DNA was not on the victim's bedsheet, which did contain DNA from an unknown man.
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(Mar 31, 2015 10:20 AM CDT) Robin Williams' children are fighting his widow in court over how to divide his belongings--and one of the exhibits in the court battle reveals that Williams protected the use of his image in what the Hollywood Reporter calls an innovative, cutting-edge way that just might become a model for other celebrities preparing for their demise. As part of the Robin Williams Trust, Williams bequeathed the legal rights to his name, image, likeness, and signature to a charitable foundation his own legal reps had set up. The Trust decrees that Williams' right of publicity won't be exploited for 25 years after his death, meaning that the first time you might see an authorized ad featuring the comedian is 2039. It also means you won't be seeing, at least not immediately, a holographic Williams' stand-up routine a la Michael Jackson or Tupac. It's interesting that Williams restricted use for 25 years, says one estate-planning expert. I haven't seen that before. I've seen restrictions on the types of uses--no Coke commercials, for example--but not like this. Meanwhile, Time notes, a peaceful conclusion looks to be in store for the aforementioned court battle: Williams' kids and widow agreed yesterday to private mediation, as well as a transfer of various items in the near future. (Meanwhile, daughter Zelda has posted a statement on Tumblr.)
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(Mar 27, 2013 12:03 AM CDT) A 6.1 magnitude earthquake has struck central Taiwan, killing at least one person and injuring 19 as it damaged buildings on the quake-prone island. Buildings swayed in the capital, Taipei, and sections of the country's high-speed rail service were suspended to be inspected for damage. Emergency officials said a 72-year-old woman became the first known fatality from the quake. She died when a temple wall she was standing next to collapsed and crushed her in the mostly rural county of Nantou, epicenter of a 1999 quake that killed more than 2,500 people.
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(Dec 11, 2014 8:25 AM) The Islamic State couldn't get a ransom for James Foley while he was alive, but now the group wants to collect one for his remains, reports BuzzFeed. The website quotes three sources as saying that ISIS will turn over the American journalist's body for $1 million and provide DNA evidence that the remains are Foley's. BuzzFeed talks to three potential middlemen for the deal, including an official with the Free Syrian Army. US officials say they are trying to confirm the report, and Foley's family chose not to comment. Disgusting, says a US diplomat. Hostage-taking is a major source of revenue for terror groups.
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(Jul 21, 2018 4:30 PM CDT) The New York Police Department has begun disciplinary proceedings against a white officer nearly four years after he was accused in the chokehold death of an unarmed black man who gasped, I can't breathe. A police spokesman says departmental charges were presented Friday to Officer Daniel Pantaleo regarding the July 2014 death of Eric Garner, the AP reports. Police officials had been waiting to see whether federal prosecutors would bring criminal charges but decided to move forward. In a sharp letter, the NYPD's senior lawyer told the Justice Dept. about a disciplinary case that could get Pantaleo dismissed because there is no end in sight in the federal investigation, reports NBC New York.
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(Apr 30, 2012 1:59 PM CDT) Fresh off bashing Mitt Romney's 2007 opposition to hunting Osama bin Laden, Obama 2012 today rolled out a seven-minute video highlighting President Obama's economic record, and in so doing, unveiled the campaign's new slogan you can believe in: Forward. The video unabashedly embraces Obama's record--from ObamaCare and the stimulus to Wall Street reform and ending Don't Ask, Don't Tell--before bashing Republicans as obstructionist, notes the Hill. Romney, meanwhile, clarified today that of course he would have given the order to take out bin Laden, reports CNN. Even Jimmy Carter would have given that order, he said.
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(May 27, 2008 11:11 AM CDT) Jodie Foster has traded in Cydney Bernard--her slightly frumpy, older stay-at-home lesbian partner of 15 years--for a younger hotshot screenwriter, the Daily Mail reports. The 45-year-old Oscar-winner met Cynthia Mort two years ago on a movie set and their families became fast friends. Now they're planning for a new home and negotiating custody of Foster's two boys with Bernard and Mort's twins with her partner. Everyone thought that Jodie and Cydney were forever, an insider said. Mid-life crisis? Well, that would be one way to explain it. Said another source: Mort must have plain bowled Jodie over.
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(Nov 7, 2014 1:49 PM) A parent is always listening, even in the wee hours of the morning. A 5-year-old girl in Sandy, Utah, can be thankful for her mom and dad's aural senses after they heard their front door open around 4:30am Friday; her father jumped out of bed and confronted a man outside who had allegedly dragged his daughter out of the house, KSL reports. Police say 46-year-old Troy Morley broke into the home, went into the basement, and snatched the sleeping child. When the father approached him outside the house, Morley fled without the girl, reports Fox13. Police found Morley in a nearby home that he entered through a dog door--fitting, since he was subsequently subdued by a police K-9. Morley was taken to a local hospital to receive treatment for dog bites and was set to be booked into the Salt Lake County Jail. Officials don't know if Morley actually knew the girl or her folks or if he stumbled onto her during a random break-in, but either way, they're glad that her father was able to successfully intervene. It's probably one of a parents' worst nightmares ... someone trying to abduct their child, especially out of their own home, a police sergeant tells KSL. (A Philly woman was thankfully rescued from her alleged abductor.)
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(Jul 26, 2018 1:15 AM CDT) An 11-year-old girl has quite the fish tale: A rare pacu with human-like teeth chomped down on the worm at the end of her line while she was fishing with her grandparents and brother in an Oklahoma lake. But Kennedy Smith isn't exaggerating when she describes her catch, the AP reports. Caddo County Game Warden Tyler Howser confirms that the fish was a pacu, a relative of the piranha that is native to South America and can grow up to 50 pounds. Kennedy's fish weighed about 1 pound, according to Howser and Kennedy's grandmother, Sandra Whaley.
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(Oct 3, 2008 8:28 AM CDT) California is almost out of cash, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger warned the Treasury Department yesterday, and may need an emergency loan of up to $7 billion from the federal government, the Los Angeles Times reports. California is the largest of several states locked out of the bond market by the credit crunch, and officials said that payments to schools and government agencies could be cut off. Since credit began drying up this year, New Mexico has put off a $500-million debt sale, Massachusetts halted a $400-million bond offering, and Maine is struggling with bond-funded road projects. California needs the money by October 28 to make a $3-billion payment to school districts. It's unclear how today's House vote on the $700 billion rescue will affect frozen credit markets in the immediate-term.
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(Nov 21, 2011 12:59 PM) MF Global's problems might be even bigger than advertised--as in twice as big. James Giddens, the trustee overseeing the case, says the company now appears to be short $1.2 billion in client funds--or twice the roughly $600 million previously believed, the Wall Street Journal reports. What's more, Giddens says that even hitting the goal of paying customers back 60% of their money would cost up to $1.6 billion, or virtually all of the assets under the trustee's control. Giddens says he's working around the clock to find and recover more MF Global funds, but that the effort has been complicated by assets parked overseas. So far, he has handed out the $1.5 billion the firm was holding in collateral, and another $520 million in cash in accordance with a bankruptcy court filing, leaving him just $1.6 billion on hand.
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(Apr 12, 2012 1:36 PM CDT) The good news: Despite the fact that Alec Baldwin went on a Twitter tirade threatening to leave NBC, he is not bowing out of 30 Rock early, Tina Fey assured the ladies of The View today. The bad news? The show, currently in its sixth season, may not be around much longer. We're all in this together 'til the end, she said. I think that he just maybe means that the end of the show--we're in six years--that the end of the show is visible on the horizon. We're all still on the show. Fey and Baldwin are signed for a seventh season, assuming NBC renews 30 Rock, the Huffington Post notes. Entertainment Weekly has predicted the seventh season will be the sitcom's last. We can't do this for 35 years, Fey said. We'd love to keep going and see where everybody ends up, right? But you don't want to see me with a gray stripe, eating a slice of pizza, going on dates.
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(Feb 26, 2009 4:12 PM) A former CIA official who steered contracts toward a friend in the days after Sept. 11, 2001, was sentenced today to 37 months in prison, the Washington Post reports. Kyle Foggo was, at the time, the CIA's executive director, the agency's third-highest position. In exchange for lavish dinners and vacations, Foggo arranged lucrative contracts, including one in which the agency overpaid by 60% for water overseas. A man who exploits a national crisis should be humble enough to not call himself a patriot, one prosecutor said. The judge agreed. You were a good employee for the CIA for over 20 years. But still, this was such a scheme, he said, that a sentence of 37 months is appropriate. Foggo's lawyers had hoped for probation based on his very important role after 9/11.
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(Apr 2, 2012 8:37 AM CDT) Aung San Suu Kyi didn't just win a seat in yesterday's historic election in Burma; her National League for Democracy party won 43 of the 45 parliamentary seats that were up for grabs, the Guardian reports. We hope this will be the beginning of a new era, the oft-imprisoned Nobel laureate told a crowd of thousands at NLD headquarters today. What is important is not how many seats we may have won, but that ... the people participated in the democratic process. But despite the NLD's victory, Suu Kyi says the party will be filing complaints about the rampant irregularities that allegedly took place in yesterday's election. And there's a chance the country's military leaders won't take the results lying down. This is a very scary moment for the current ruling hardliners--this is not the way they wanted to see things go, said exiled opposition leader Nyo Myint. Maybe at this point they will challenge the election results.
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(Feb 24, 2016 10:46 AM) Seven years and $100,000 later, Levi Johnston has emerged victorious from his custody battle with Bristol Palin. E! has the background: In 2009, Johnston sued for joint custody of his son with Palin, claiming that the Palins were keeping him from seeing Tripp, who's now 7. The following year, they came to a custody agreement in which Levi could see his son Saturdays between 9am and 4pm and Wednesdays between 12pm and 6pm, but it was never confirmed by a court and the case was dismissed in 2012. Johnston filed for equal custody, at least, of his son in 2013, but Palin said at the time he owed $66,000 in back child support, Us reports. I'm so happy to have my son in my life, and to put all of this back in forth in the courts behind me, Johnston revealed on Facebook Tuesday. I'm happy now to be successfully co-parenting. It might have taken me 7 years and cost me around $100,000 in lawyer fees, spread out among 3 different lawyers, as well as a lot of patience, but it was all worth it, added Johnston, who also has two daughters, ages 3 and 13 months, with his wife, Sunny Oglesby. Although I do owe some back child support, altogether I have paid $50,000 in child support for Tripp, which is $600 a month, since Tripp's birth so at the end of the day I know I have worked hard to meet my obligations as a father. Despite what some have heard I've always been there for him, and I go to almost every school event that I can and spend all of my free time with my kids. Palin hasn't publicly discussed the agreement, but she did post a quote on Instagram Tuesday reading, The best security blanket a child can have is parents who respect each other. (She's also been responding to conspiracy theories about her new daughter's birthdate.)
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(Sep 19, 2016 4:33 AM CDT) Running through 14 states in 45 days, 22 hours, and 38 minutes may be a long and arduous journey, but as of this week it's also the fastest any person has ever completed a supported thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. Karl Meltzer, a 48-year-old ultrarunner who also holds a world record for winning 38 100-mile runs, beat the record his friend Scott Jurek, six years his junior, set last year by 10 hours, reports Runner's World. To do this he had to endure a grueling regimen of nearly 50 miles in 15 hours every day, so it's not surprising that he ran through 20 pairs of shoes and, unlike the vegan diet kept by Jurek, indulged in bacon, steak, fried chicken, burgers, ice cream, PB&Js, candy, and at the end of each day, beer, reports Running. It's been a long journey, he said, quite literally. The Appalachian Trail winds its way 2,190 miles through often rough terrain from Maine to Georgia--which, as the crow flies, is about the distance from Los Angeles to Washington, DC-- providing runners with almost 465,000 feet of elevation change (that's like summiting Mt. Everest 16 times, minus the thin air). Of the thousands who attempt the thru-hike each year, one in four makes it and most take six months. Meltzer, who the New York Times reports used to be a ski-resort bartender, endured less than seven hours of sleep a night and, in his final push, covered 83 miles nonstop between Saturday morning and 3:38am Sunday. He celebrated by downing a pepperoni pizza and beer and going straight to sleep. (This woman ran the same stretch in 54 days without a support van.)
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(Sep 27, 2008 1:09 PM CDT) Ambitious new towers will soon be thrusting into the Paris sky now that the city has decided to drop a ban on tall buildings, the Times of London reports. The Eiffel Tower is likely to remain the city's tallest, but by 2012 it will share the skyline with a 590-foot glass pyramid said to resemble a giant blade or a witch's hat--the first of six innovative towers to be built on the city's outskirts. Architect Jacques Herzog admits it will be tricky to fit the tower into the most perfect city in the world, urbanistically speaking. Almost two-thirds of Parisians remain opposed to the construction of new tall buildings, but officials feel Paris needs them to compete with the likes of London, Berlin, and Barcelona. Some fear the creation of another Montparnasse Tower--a skyscraper considered so ugly that its construction led to the 30-year-long ban on highrises.
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(Oct 10, 2013 12:18 PM CDT) Embattled 49ers star Aldon Smith has been charged with three counts of illegally possessing assault weapons, stemming from a party-turned-shootout at his San Jose-area abode last year. According to prosecutors, Smith, 24, was hosting upward of 100 people at his home last June when someone pulled a gun on the party's bartender, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Smith decided it was time to break up the party--and toward that end, fired a .45 caliber handgun into the air. Far from taking the hint, the partygoers refused to leave; one instead pulled a knife and stabbed Smith twice. Smith's then-teammate Delanie Walker grabbed Smith's gun and fired it in the air again--only this time another person shot back, hitting two guests. When police arrived, they found five guns, including assault rifles, which are illegal in California, and high-capacity magazines. Smith is expected to surrender himself later this month; he's already on an indefinite leave of absence from the 49ers thanks to a drunk driving incident, according to ESPN.
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(Oct 23, 2015 8:50 AM CDT) Martin Shkreli has been hemming and hawing about dropping the price of his company's toxoplasmosis drug since he raised it 5,000% in August, but it may be a moot point: A San Diego drug compounding company is now offering its own version of pyrimethamine for $1 a pill, a far cry from the $750 a pill Shkreli's Turing Pharmaceuticals has been charging for Daraprim, the San Diego Tribune reports. Imprimis Pharmaceuticals also plans on taking on other companies jacking the price up on meds in niche markets with little or no competition, Imprimis CEO Mark Baum tells the AP. While we respect Turing's right to charge patients and insurance companies whatever it believes is appropriate, there may be more cost-effective compounded options for medications such as Daraprim, Baum says in a press release. The Imprimis version of pyrimethamine is combined with leucovorin, a type of folic acid cancer patients take to alleviate chemo's effects, the Tribune notes. There's one caveat, per Baum: The drug's combined form doesn't have FDA approval (which can take years), though the individual ingredients do. As such, the only way the formulation can be legally obtained is via a doctor's prescription for the compound, per Reuters. By avoiding the long FDA approval process--and the millions of dollars that would need to go into that--Imprimis can keep costs low and actually turn a significant profit, the Tribune adds. The company's new Imprimis Cares division will oversee the generic drugs it creates, Baum says, adding, This is the tip of the iceberg. (Does this mean Bernie Sanders would accept a donation from Baum?)
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(Dec 6, 2015 6:00 AM) President Obama will address the nation Sunday night from the Oval Office, using perhaps the best bully pulpit at his disposal to speak about the San Bernardino shootings, as well as the terror threat faced by the United States and steps Uncle Sam is taking to safeguard against it, reports the New York Times. The 8pm televised address is a rare enough tactic, notes Politico--Obama last used an Oval Office address in August 2010 to discuss the end of combat operations in Iraq. Per a White House release: [The president] will reiterate his firm conviction that (ISIS) will be destroyed and that the United States must draw upon our values--our unwavering commitment to justice, equality and freedom--to prevail over terrorist groups that use violence to advance a destructive ideology.
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(Sep 28, 2010 8:47 AM CDT) Home prices rose in July for the fourth straight month, but many cities are bracing for declines in the year ahead. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index increased 0.6% in July from June and 3.2% from a year ago. Twelve cities showed monthly price gains. However, seven cities showed month-over-month declines and the gains in many cities were weaker from the previous month as the boost from government tax credits for homebuyers fades. A record number of foreclosures, job concerns, and weak demand from buyers suggest price declines are coming in the months ahead. Nationally, prices have risen almost 7% from their April 2009 bottom. But they remain nearly 28% below their July 2006 peak.
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(Feb 4, 2016 10:35 AM) George Clooney went on Ellen DeGeneres' show Thursday, where he told the story of how he proposed to his now-wife Amal--and it was a doozy. As Clooney explained, the couple hadn't discussed the idea of getting married, so Amal had no idea what was going on, despite the fact that George had his aunt Rosemary Clooney's Why Shouldn't I? playing and had cooked dinner for Amal. He asked her to reach into a box behind her and grab a lighter to light a candle. He had hidden the engagement ring in the box, and she pulls it out and she looks at it and she's like, 'It's a ring,' like somebody had left it there some other time. Even after Clooney got on one knee and told her he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, she remained baffled. There was a playlist, so we now know how long it actually took, and it's like 25 minutes, Clooney said. I finally said, 'Look, I hope the answer's yes, but I need an answer, 'cause I'm 52 and I could throw out my hip pretty soon.' (Click to see what a gushing George recently had to say about his wife.)
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(Jun 19, 2016 1:38 PM CDT) Lawrence Rubin Montoya was 14 years old when a jury found him guilty of killing a Denver schoolteacher in the early hours of Jan. 1, 2000. Sentenced to life in prison, Montoya served more than 13 years before his conviction was overturned and he was released in 2014. Now Montoya, 31, has filed a $30 million federal lawsuit against Denver and police officers that were involved, saying his civil rights were violated, the Denver Post reports. There was no physical evidence tying Montoya to the murder of 29-year-old Emily Johnson, according to the lawsuit. And despite denying involvement 65 times during a 2 1/2-hour interrogation, the lawsuit alleges, authorities used false evidence ploy, manipulation, minimization, threats, false promises, and other coercive tactics to finally secure a confession from Montoya, ultimately leading to the teen's conviction. At the trial, the Post reported at the time, the jury foreman said jurors didn't buy Montoya's alibi that he was at his girlfriend's house when Johnson was fatally beaten by assailants who showed up at her home to steal her Lexus. And they believed the testimony of Montoya's cellmate, who said the teen told him about the attack. While the lawsuit claims Montoya had no involvement in the murder or car theft, he does admit to being in the Lexus for a 20-minute joyride later in the day and not telling police. Upon his release in 2014, he pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact, for which he was sentenced to time served. At that time, per CBS, Montoya's pro bono lawyer claimed he was falsely accused and wrongfully convicted. The DA disagreed, saying Montoya declined a plea deal in 2000 and took his chances with a jury trial. ( A study warns that tasers can lead to false confessions.)
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(Jan 5, 2017 10:02 AM) Puerto Rico's new rep to the US Congress filed a bill Wednesday that would turn the island into the 51st US state by 2025. The bill is the first step in a renewed quest for statehood that's to include a referendum letting Puerto Rico voters choose between independence and statehood, Resident Commissioner Jenniffer Gonzalez tells the AP. She filed the bill less than a day after she was sworn in as Puerto Rico's first female congressional representative, saying she aims to secure equal treatment for the more than 3 million US citizens living in the US territory. We are treated as second-class American citizens, says Gonzalez, a Republican who once served as speaker of the island's House of Representatives. The bill also aims to relieve a decade-long economic crisis that's sparked a recent exodus of more than 200,000 Puerto Ricans to the mainland. If Congress ultimately accepts Puerto Rico as a state, the island would receive roughly $10 billion in additional federal funds a year, Gonzalez says. Puerto Rico became a US territory in 1898 and gained limited political autonomy when the US approved its constitution in 1952. However, islanders can't vote in presidential elections, and their congressional representative has limited voting powers. Statehood is a top priority for Puerto Rico's new governor, Ricardo Rossello, who has said he plans to hold elections to choose two senators and five representatives to Congress and send them to Washington to demand statehood, a strategy used by Tennessee to join the union in the 1700s.
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(Feb 6, 2018 10:55 AM) In its bombshell report detailing allegations of sexual misconduct against casino mogul Steve Wynn, the Wall Street Journal alleged that a manicurist who said she was forced to have sex with Wynn walked away with a $7.5 million settlement. In a new report, the Journal details just how that payment was allegedly made. It cites the transcript of an October court hearing related to ongoing litigation between the 76-year-old and his ex-wife, Elaine, in which a lawyer for Wynn Resorts makes clear that Entity Y, a limited liability company established in 2005 (which sources say was after the manicurist's claim), was created with the intention of handling settlement money. The Journal's take is that the LLC helped conceal a $7.5 million payment to the manicurist, but a rep for Wynn Resorts disputes any sexual assault correlation: Entity Y was created to receive settlement proceeds, however there would have been no settlement or negotiations if the matter was about an alleged assault. Meanwhile, the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Monday reported that it had spiked a 1998 story detailing misconduct allegations against Wynn, including one woman's claim that he pressured her into having sex after she became a grandmother to see what sex with a grandmother was like. Two of the women took lie detector tests. The journalist behind the story, Carri Geer, is now the paper's metro editor and says she doesn't remember who pulled the story and told her to delete it; she saved a copy.
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(Apr 1, 2014 8:33 AM CDT) Atlanta Archbishop Wilton Gregory has issued an apology after reports that he'd built himself a $2.2 million mansion sparked outrage in the diocese. Gregory bought the mansion with a $15 million posthumous gift from Gone With the Wind heir Joseph Mitchell, who wanted the money spent on general religious and charitable purposes, the AP reports. In a post on the archdiocese' news site, Gregory explains that he was generously selling his old home to a nearby cathedral, and building himself a comparable residence. While my advisors and I were able to justify this project fiscally, logistically and practically, I personally failed to project the cost in terms of my own integrity and pastoral credibility, Gregory writes, adding that Pope Francis has set the bar higher for priestly humility. He promises to consult with other church officials and sell the residence if they advise him to. But that promise didn't mollify one vocal parishioner. He needs to speak with the people in the pews instead, she tells the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Gregory isn't the only bishop being attacked for his luxurious abode. Click for more on a similar fracas in Newark.
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(Jul 18, 2019 7:53 AM CDT) Crossing the world on a steamship in 1969, 13-year-old Paul Gilmore decided he'd seek out a new penpal. He now has one, in the form of a 9-year-old boy who discovered Gilmore's message in a bottle on a beach in South Australia. The yellowed note on Sitmar Line stationary, dated November 17, 1969, was one of several notes slipped into bottles Gilmore dropped into the Indian Ocean from the TSS Fairstar as his family traveled from England to Australia in search of a better life almost 50 years ago. He sent about six of them so it's good that one of them has surfaced, sister Annie Crossland tells ABC Australia. She adds Gilmore, now a UK resident, will be chuffed to bits by the news--once he returns from a Baltic cruise. Please reply, Gilmore had written in the letter, which described him as traveling from Fremantle, Australia, to Melbourne--the final stretch in a month-long journey that started in Southampton, England. An oceanographer believes the bottle was probably at sea for a year or two before it was buried on a beach, then exposed by a storm, reports the AP. Jyah Elliott, who found the note while fishing with his father, sent his reply to the address given, but Gilmore's family had moved locally within months of arriving in Australia and returned to England in 1973. ABC was able to trace Gilmore through relatives. It's amazing, absolutely incredible, Crossland tells the outlet. (The world's oldest message in a bottle was also found in Australia.)
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(Aug 1, 2016 2:58 PM CDT) A case in Afghanistan has pitted a religious figure against the outraged parents of a 6-year-old girl, underscoring the ongoing problems surrounding child marriages there. Per Radio Free Europe, Sayed Mohammad Karim, a mullah in the Ghor province said to be in his 50s, was arrested last week and charged with stealing the young girl away and marrying her--allegations he denies. The girl was given to me as a gift and we were married so I could raise her, says Karim, who notes the girl's parents attended their wedding ceremony. But that's not what the parents are saying, per the deputy police commander of Ghor. We spoke to her parents and they strongly deny they attended the wedding, he says. [They] told me their daughter was kidnapped. Complicating things are the sticky rules governing child marriage in Afghanistan: The country's civil law says a girl has to be 16 to be legally married, but citizens may also follow Sharia law, which has been interpreted to allow children to be wed. These early marriages can pose dangerous health hazards for young girls: Human Rights Watch--which cites a 2010 mortality survey that says 53% of Afghan women ages 25 to 49 were wed by the age of 18--notes that early marriage means early pregnancies, which can cause injury and even death if their bodies aren't ready for childbirth or if they're in rural areas with sub-par medical care. But RFE notes that such gifts are common in the country's remotest regions--not only girls, but also cash, property, and livestock--to curry favor with local religious leaders. Perhaps the only bright spot in this story: Karim insists he didn't have sexual intercourse with the little girl, which a local doctor says appears to be true. But despite the doctor's assertion that the examination showed that the girl had endured no physical or psychological harm, the head of the Ghor women's affairs department says, per the Sun: This girl does not speak, but only repeats one thing: 'I am afraid of this man.' (A Nigerian child bride was accused of killing her husband with rat poison.)
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(Apr 11, 2011 3:03 AM CDT) Global military spending hit a new high last year, inching up 1.3% to reach a staggering $1.6 trillion, according to a Swedish think tank. The increase itself, however, is one of the lower hikes in years, a slowdown caused by the economic crisis in many Western nations. US military spending rose 2.8%, reaching $698 billion, a significant climb, but well below 2009's increase of 7.7%. All told, US military spending has soared 81% since 2001, and now accounts for 4.8% of America's GDP. In contrast, spending in Europe fell 2.8% to $382 billion. In many cases, the falls or slower increases represent a delayed reaction to the global financial and economic crisis that broke in 2008, wrote the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute in a statement. China is the No. 2 country for military spending, but expenditures still amount to just one-sixth what the US spends. For the full story, check out the Reuters report.
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(Dec 11, 2015 7:36 AM) A new Malaysian air cargo company said Friday it is the owner of three jumbo jets parked for more than a year at the country's main airport and that it was shocked by authorities' claim that the owner could not be traced. Malaysia's airport operator on Monday took the unusual step of posting photos in two major newspapers of the three Boeing 747-200s. The notice warns owners that the airport has the right to sell or dispose of the planes unless they are collected within 14 days. Swift Air Cargo said it legally bought the planes in June and that it has since been in communication with the operator, Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad, which has demanded more documentation on the purchase. We are dumbfounded and perplexed by Malaysia Airport's move. Swift is the owner and we definitely have not forgotten the planes, said Swift's lawyer, Syed Amir Syakib Arslan. In a brief statement, Malaysia Airports said the claim of ownership could not be satisfactorily verified at this point and that it has asked the owner for more information. It said the newspaper notice was a normal legal process for debt recovery. Syed Amir said Swift has given the airport operator the sale and purchase agreement, a legal declaration from the previous Hong Kong owner of the planes on the sale, as well as other original supporting documents to show ownership of the plane. He said Swift is only liable for parking charges since June and not responsible for previous dues but that it was willing to sit down and negotiate with the airport operator.
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(Nov 3, 2015 1:02 PM) In September, Zerodium announced its Million Dollar iOS Bug Bounty contest, offering a cool mil to anyone who could hack Apple's iOS 9 and expose its security flaws. On Monday the cybersecurity startup tweeted it has a winner--an anonymous team, Digital Tech reports, that was able to set up an attack on a fully updated iOS 9 device ... remotely, reliably, silently, and without requiring any user interaction except visiting a web page or reading a SMS/MMS, per contest rules. That winning jailbreak now gives Zerodium the ability to sell the hack to its choice of customers, which company founder Chaouki Bekrar tells Wired include major corporations in defense, technology, and finance and government organizations in need of specific and tailored cybersecurity capabilities. Bekrar says that two teams were actually neck and neck in racing to achieve the zero-day attack--finding a software vulnerability that the vendor doesn't even know about and then sneaking through that hole to plant a virus or other malware, per Wired-- but only one has made a full and remote jailbreak. ... The other team made a partial jailbreak and they may qualify for a partial bounty. Bekrar also says he has no plans to let Apple in on the specific vulnerabilities so it can work up a patch, though he may do so later (i.e., after his company has profited). Wired points out that while Zerodium selling software exploits isn't technically illegal, companies like it have been blasted as modern-day merchants of death for hawking the bullets for cyberwar, and Bekrar himself has been called an ethically challenged opportunist by a Google security team member. No word from Apple yet, Wired notes. (This man submitted some lame bugs and won a big bounty.)
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(Apr 7, 2020 10:39 PM CDT) Grammy-winning singer-songwriter John Prine died Tuesday of COVID-19 complications, his family says. The 73-year-old folk-country artist was admired by such big-name colleagues as Bob Dylan and Kris Kristofferson, and, as Rolling Stone reports, he helped shape the Americana genre, whose current stars Jason Isbell and Brandi Carlile, among others, were also fans of his. Born in a Chicago suburb to the president of the local steelworkers' union and raised on the stars of the Grand Ole Opry, Prine started writing songs at a young age. After high school, he became a postal worker, an era during which he wrote many of his classics, per Rolling Stone. He was drafted into the army during the Vietnam War, though he ended up in Germany instead. Upon his return home, Roger Ebert discovered him performing at a Chicago club's open mic night. After Ebert's glowing review of that 1970 performance (which you can read in full here), Prine started selling out shows, including one attended by Kris Kristofferson and Paul Anka. They, too, were impressed, which ultimately led to Prine's deal with Atlantic Records. His self-titled debut album was released in 1971. Rolling Stone says he spent much of his career underground, with his songs covered and sung by such luminaries as Bonnie Raitt, Johnny Cash, George Strait, the Everly Brothers, Joan Baez, Carly Simon, and Bette Midler--but his 2018 album, his first one in 13 years featuring original material, was the highest debut of his career and led to some of the biggest shows he'd ever done (and that was after he beat cancer twice). Of his music, the New York Times says he chronicled the human condition in song, telling stories including those of of a drug-addicted war veteran, a lonely elderly couple, and a middle-aged woman stuck in a bad marriage. (Here are seven essential tracks.)
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(Sep 21, 2015 6:58 AM CDT) This isn't the greedy drug company trying to gouge patients, it is us trying to stay in business. It really doesn't make sense to get any criticism for this. The this Martin Shkreli is referring to is the price hike his company instituted after it last month acquired Daraprim, a 62-year-old drug that the New York Times describes as the standard of care for treating those suffering from the potentially deadly parasitic infection toxoplasmosis. The overnight change made by start-up Turing Pharmaceuticals: from $13.50 a tablet to $750 a tablet. USA Today points out that's a 5,000% increase. Shkreli justified the move by saying the overall impact will be a minor one as there are only 12,000 or so prescriptions for the specialized drug a year, and because the proceeds will go toward developing a newer treatment with fewer side effects. A professor of infectious diseases at Emory University isn't so sure about that plan. She tells the Times that while the drug is accompanied by potentially serious side effects, they're manageable. I certainly don't think this is one of those diseases where we have been clamoring for better therapies, says Dr. Wendy Armstrong. The Times charts the drug's price history: Its 2010 acquisition by CorePharma saw its price hiked from $1 a tablet; that raised sales of the drug from $667,000 in 2010 to $6.3 million in 2011. The most recent price increase could push those sales into the hundreds of millions. As for what Daraprim treats, the CDC describes toxoplasmosis as a leading cause of death attributed to foodborne illness in the US. While some 60 million Americans are thought to carry the Toxoplasma parasite, it causes illness in those with weakened immune systems.
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(Apr 3, 2012 8:44 AM CDT) The National Archives wasn't prepared for just how many people would be clamoring to check out its newly released trove of detailed data from the 1940 census. Hordes of curious browsers flooded the site within minutes of its launch yesterday, overwhelming the servers and leaving it essentially unusable, the LA Times reports. In the first three hours, we had 22.5 million hits, an Archives spokeswoman says. We're a victim of our own success. Individual census records are kept sealed for 72 years. Every 10 years that expires for a new census, but this is the first time one has been made available for online search, and armchair genealogists and historians everywhere were eager for a look. It's frustrating, and we share that frustration with the public, the spokeswoman said. We're working as fast as we can to fix the problem.
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(Apr 6, 2017 7:19 PM CDT) Repeating the same phrase 100 times on your college application wouldn't seem, at first glance, to be a winning strategy for gaining acceptance to a highly competitive school. But for Ziad Ahmed, it was part of what got him into Stanford, CBS News reports, with the university calling the 18-year-old a fantastic match. Ahmed, a high school senior in Princeton, NJ, wanted to be authentic when answering one of the college's application questions, which asked him to describe, in 100 words or less, What matters to you, and why? His recurring answer, which stretched down the entire answer field: #BlackLivesMatter, with Ahmed (who describes himself as an unapologetic progressive activist ) noting in an email to CBS that the why part of the question was embodied in the words themselves, and that explaining the hashtag was just inherently problematic. On Saturday, Ahmed tweeted a pic of his answer and the Stanford congrats letter. Not that Ahmed is incapable of using more than three words and a hashtag to explain why this issue is important to him. Declaring the humanity and value of black lives is necessitated by the painful reality that the collective humanity is frequently denied when perpetrators of violence enjoy impunity, he told CBS. Not everyone is impressed, notes Heat Street. No way a black kid could get rewarded for doing the same thing, one commenter tweeted. Ahmed--a Muslim-American who founded a nonprofit to help teens fight stereotypes and who was honored for his efforts by then-President Obama in 2015--says he hasn't decided yet where he's going in the fall: He's also been accepted into Yale and nearby Princeton, per NBC News. (Another New Jersey teen has been accepted into all eight Ivy Leagues.)
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(Feb 14, 2014 3:20 AM) The woman accused of killing six people in a horrific crash in California was spotted driving the wrong way on two freeways before she drove her Camaro at 100mph into a Ford Explorer, the California Highway Patrol says. At least 17 witnesses called 911 before the crash to report seeing the vehicle on the 57 and 60 freeways early Sunday morning, reports the Los Angeles Times. They were describing the vehicle, saying it was going the wrong way at a high rate of speed, a CHP spokesman says. But we're still asking for witnesses to call us. The driver, 21-year-old Olivia Carolee Culbreath, is still in hospital and has been charged with six counts of murder. She has a previous drunk driving conviction and was on a girls' night out when the deadly crash occurred. Her two passengers, one of them her sister, were killed along with all four people in the Explorer. The only other survivor of the three-car pile-up escaped with minor injuries, though his car was crushed. While he was trapped in his car, I heard people talking on the outside. They said, 'Oh my God, there are bodies all over the place,' he tells KTLA.
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(Nov 24, 2011 12:51 PM) Like a lot of people, economics professor Robert H. Frank hates that Black Friday is now creeping into Thanksgiving Day itself. Unlike most, he's got a suggestion to stop the madness. With apologies to Herman Cain, he proposes a 6-6-6 plan: a 6% national sales tax on stuff bought between 6pm on Thanksgiving and 6am on Black Friday. It would be on top of already existing local and state taxes, he writes in the New York Times. This plan would leave both stores and consumers free to decide for themselves whether middle-of-the-night shopping is worth it, he writes. Best of all, it would encourage Americans to spend Thanksgiving night where they really want to--in bed.
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(Oct 6, 2018 8:00 AM CDT) If you've been on the waiting list to take Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology out of the Shreve Memorial Library, you're now in luck. That's because a copy that's been missing for 84 years from the library in Shreveport, La., has finally been returned, the Shreveport Times reports. Better late than never, right? the library posted on its Facebook page, noting that a patron brought the book back Monday. It turns out his mom had taken the book out in 1934, when she was 11 years old. Library staffer Jackie Morales tells CNN the man found the book while cleaning out his parents' home. He was surprised that [his mom] still had it in her possession, Morales says. She was very responsible. On paper, a book that was overdue for more than eight decades would spur a charge of more than $1,500--based on the $0.05-per-day late fine--but $3 is the set maximum, and the library didn't even make the man pay that. You'll have to jump back on the waiting list for Spoon River after all, though (and hope the library has more copies): Morales says the binding on the book, which is a first edition, is falling apart, so they won't be putting it back on the shelf.
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(Aug 5, 2010 1:59 PM CDT) Politicians kiss babies all the time, but it's time that they had to kiss their asses, writes Matt Miller for the Washington Post. The best solution to Washington's insistence on selling every 5th-grader's future down the road for the sake of political expediency is to make every politician accountable to the kids. How? Lower the voting age to 10. Kids say the darnedest things, and Miller imagines pols sputtering before pint-sized inquisitors: What will you tell us if you leave behind a scorched planet? 'Sorry, kids, you had to be there--the interest-group politics were really tough' ? And before you dismiss the idea as ridiculous, decide for yourself if the grown-ups really occupy the high ground here. Miller concludes: I'm not saying 10 is the only answer. I want creative litigation brought on behalf of minor future taxpayers. Or anti-debt street protests by 10th-graders eager to redefine community service for their college resumes.
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(Sep 9, 2011 12:07 PM CDT) Heather Lucky Penney was a rookie who'd just finished F-16 training on September 11, 2001, but when the attacks hit, she was one of two pilots who took to the air to defend Washington from United 93. There was just one problem: They didn't have any ammo or weapons. Except, that is, for their own planes. We wouldn't be shooting it down, she tells the Washington Post. We'd be ramming the aircraft. I would essentially be a kamikaze pilot. Back then, the DC Air National Guard had no procedure for scrambling jets; the Pentagon was focused on external threats. That morning, the Guard's F-16s were all loaded with dummy training bullets, and would take a critical hour to reload. Lucky, you're coming with me, her Colonel told her. I'm going for the cockpit. Without hesitating she replied, I'll take the tail. They took off expecting to die--but United 93's passengers brought the plane down for them. I genuinely believed that was going to be the last time I took off, she recalls. If we did it right, this would be it.
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(Sep 10, 2018 12:15 PM CDT) An electrical mishap sent Pete Pyros to hell last week--or what felt like it. The 75-year-old Cleveland man is sharing his story after finding himself trapped in his stiflingly hot 2006 Cadillac for 13 hours. He tells FOX 8 that he pulled into his garage and found that the car's electrical system wasn't working, meaning he couldn't unlock the doors. His key fob was similarly dead, and he didn't have a cell phone on him. He was trapped in the car, screaming and punching the windows, to no avail. Hot is not the word, he says of his experience. Hot is not the word. I felt like I was in hell. A neighbor ultimately heard what sounded like pounding, scaled Pyros' fence, and found him in the fogged-up car; firefighters were able to get him out. FOX 8 spoke with a General Motors rep who says the power lock section of their owners manual explains what to do in the event of a power failure; Pyros was without his manual, so he was unaware there was an emergency lever along the lower frame of the door. He says he may sue over the incident.
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(Aug 30, 2015 5:50 AM CDT) Here's a study to make you get off the couch. Researchers from Japan's Osaka University found that watching more than five hours of TV a day can make you six times more likely to suffer a fatal blood clot, the Telegraph reports. The study, presented to the European Society of Cardiology, shows men and women between the ages of 40 and 79 who watch more than five hours of TV a day are twice as likely to suffer a possibly fatal pulmonary embolism from blood clots than someone who watches less than 2.5 hours of TV a day. But that goes up to six times more likely when looking at people younger than 60. Leg immobility during television viewing may in part explain the finding, says one of the researchers, whose study tracked 86,000 in Japan over 18 years. The danger is that blood clots can form in a leg vein and prevent the flow of blood to the heart. This was the first study to look at prolonged TV watching as it relates to blood clots--important in the age of binge watching, notes the Independent--but researchers say a similar connection is likely with playing video or computer games. In a press release, researchers said binge watchers should follow the same guidelines given to those on long airplane flights: stand up, walk around, and drink plenty of water. (Getting off the couch could also be good for your sperm.)
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(May 29, 2009 7:41 AM CDT) The final battles of the 26-year civil war in Sri Lanka killed more than 20,000 Tamil civilians, most from government shelling, an investigation by the Times of London concludes. The number of casualties is three times higher than the government admitted. Aerial photographs, eyewitness testimony, and confidential UN documents show that an average of 1,000 civilians were killed every day until May 19, when the leader of the Tamil Tigers was killed. Sri Lanka kept journalists from the war zone as it made its final offensive to crush the Tamil rebels, a move one UN source said was intended to create a war without witnesses. The Times was able to take aerial shots while traveling with the UN secretary-general. The photos depict mass graves and air-burst mortars, which suggest that the army and not the relatively weak rebels were responsible for the killings.
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(Jun 4, 2020 3:22 PM CDT) Stocks ended mostly lower on Wall Street after a day of wavering, ending a four-day winning streak for the S&P 500, its longest in nearly four months. The benchmark index slipped 0.3% Thursday. It's still about 8% below its record set in February after being down nearly 34% in late March, per the AP. For the day, the S&P fell 10 points to 3,112; the Dow ticked up 11 points to 26,281; and the Nasdaq fell 67 points to 9,615.
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(Nov 29, 2020 7:33 AM) Tony Hseih, the Zappos visionary who convinced skeptical Americans to buy shoes online without trying them on, paid new employees to quit, and lived in an Airstream, has died at the age of 46 from complications from a house fire, reports the Wall Street Journal. Fire officials in New London, Conn., said they were called to a burning waterfront home at 3:34am on Nov. 18, where they had to force their way inside to remove Hseih and begin CPR; he suffered burns and smoke inhalation. He died Friday. Hsieh was the Harvard-educated son of Taiwanese immigrants who stumbled onto Zappos, saw it through the dot-com bust, and eventually sold it to Amazon for $1 billion in 2009. He continued to run it as a standalone division until he retired from the company in August. Over at Inc.com, Bill Murphy Jr. remembers Hseih for his two-word employment policy: The offer. Basically, after a short time on the job, employees could choose to stay or go. If they chose the latter, Zappos would pay them to leave. It wasn't altruism, writes Murphy. Zappos was better off without employees who didn't want to be there. (That wasn't Hseih's only radical policy.)
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(Mar 5, 2010 9:12 AM) Washington State's Death with Dignity medical suicide law was enacted a year ago today, and in the first 9 months 63 terminally ill patients were prescribed fatal medication and 36 used it to end their lives. Three people attempted to use the drugs but failed; one vomited them back up, and two reawakened after ingesting the powerful barbiturates. To be eligible, a doctor must determine a patient has no more than 6 months to live. A government report on the use of the law covers only 2009, but the Seattle Post-Intelligencer estimates that 82 people have obtained the drugs--a process that can take a month or more--since its inception, and 52 of them have died either from the medication or natural causes. Proponents note the disconnect. A significant number of people are using the law for peace of mind and control, sort of like insurance, says one. One doesn't run out and burn one's home down just because you get fire insurance.
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(Nov 28, 2020 3:50 PM) A 30-yard squib kick, making history? Yep, it happened Saturday when Sarah Fuller kicked for the Vanderbilt Commodores and became the first female player in a Power 5 football game--college ball's top echelon, ESPN reports. Honestly, it's just so exciting, she said of her perfect kick in a 41-0 loss to Missouri. The fact that I can represent all the girls out there that have wanted to do this or thought about playing football or any sport really, and it encourages them to be able to step out and do something big like this, it's awesome. The Washington Post reports that Fuller wasn't even on the team a week ago: After playing in Vanderbilt's SEC soccer championship victory last weekend, and making three saves as goalkeeper, she got an unusual request.
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(May 30, 2019 9:25 AM CDT) A New York woman's quick thinking made quick work of an alleged crime against herself and her three children Tuesday. The woman, her 13-year-old son, and her twin 3-year-olds with autism were being held captive on threat of violence in a car driven by the woman's boyfriend when he pulled into a service station in Roslyn Heights, along the Long Island Expressway, police say. The woman then pressed a note reading, Please call 911, CALL 911, to the front passenger window. A passerby acted as directed, allowing Nassau County Police to stop the vehicle a short distance from the station, per the New York Daily News. The driver, 35-year-old William Jamal Wilkinson, was arrested without incident and arraigned Wednesday on four counts of first-degree unlawful imprisonment, two counts of first-degree endangering the welfare of an incompetent or physically disabled person, endangering the welfare of a child, and criminal possession of marijuana, Newsday reports. He refused to let his girlfriend exit the vehicle by restraining her and her three children by threats of violence, reads a criminal complaint. Ordered held on $50,000 bond or $25,000 cash, Wilkinson is to have no contact with the victim or her children. He's due back in court on Friday. (A veterinarian received a similar note.)
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(Jul 28, 2020 5:06 PM CDT) It could be the Holy Grail Alzheimer's researchers have been looking for: This blood test very, very accurately predicts who's got Alzheimer's disease in their brain, including people who seem to be normal. That's how an Alzheimer's disease researcher not involved with a new study summed up that study's findings, which were published Tuesday in JAMA. As the New York Times explains, the blood test was almost as accurate as the current most accurate method of diagnosis: an autopsy after death. The study involved 1,402 people in Arizona, Sweden, and Colombia and measured a type of tau protein called p-tau217, per the AP. The test managed to establish whether patients who had dementia were suffering from Alzheimer's with 96% accuracy, and was also effective when tested on the largest group of relatives known to have genetic early-onset Alzheimer's. They live in Colombia, and 600 family members (about 10% of the extended family's total) were tested. Dementia symptoms typically set in midway through their 40s for those who develop Alzheimer's and the test managed to identify those who did and did not have the mutation at age 25. The Arizona component of the test compared the brain autopsies of 81 people with testing on blood that was taken before their death to establish accuracy. As for timing, we could potentially be as little as 2 or 3 years away from the rollout of such a test, following more clinical trials on more diverse populations and a review by federal regulators. Dr. Maria Carrillo, chief science officer at the Alzheimer's Association, sounds bowled over: I mean, really, five years ago, I would have told you it was science fiction.
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(Sep 23, 2010 3:34 AM CDT) A pair of dinosaur species discovered in Utah rank among the horniest beasts ever to walk the Earth, researchers say. One, Kosmoceratops, had 15 full-sized horns on its head, which was roughly 6.5 feet long. Researchers believe the impressive display helped the dinosaur compete for mates, much like peacock feathers or deer antlers, the Guardian reports. The other species, Utahceratops, had fewer horns but its skull was over 7 feet long. Both species, ancestors of Triceratops, are basically oversized rhinos with a whole lot more horns on their heads, explains a researcher. They had huge heads relative to their body size. The bones were found in southern Utah at the tip of what was once a long island called Laramidia. Researchers expect the region to yield many more new finds.
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(May 31, 2011 12:34 PM CDT) Why is it that we struggle to remember events from before we were 3 or 4 years old? Canadian researchers found that 4- to 6-year-olds remembered events from age 2 or younger as their earliest memories, but two years later had largely forgotten them and named a different memory as their earliest. Kids over 10, on the other hand, mentioned the same earliest memories at both the start and end of the study. That suggests those memories are crystallized by age 10, says an expert. But despite more than a century of study, scientists still aren't sure why we can't recall earlier moments. Some say it's because we need language to cement memories; others say younger kids lack the sense of self required to formulate long-term memories. The way adults talk to kids about their memories may also have a lot to do with it: parents can reinforce memories of a child's actions by discussing those actions and experiences extensively. Calling up memories repeatedly can strengthen neural traces, which are weak in young kids. For more, including tips on building up your own memories, head to the Wall Street Journal.
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(Nov 21, 2019 12:01 AM) As he moves toward a presidential announcement, New York billionaire Michael Bloomberg is rolling out plans to spend an estimated $15 million to $20 million on a voter registration drive designed to weaken President Trump's reelection chances in five battleground states. News of the large investment, confirmed by Bloomberg's team on Wednesday, comes less than a week after the former New York City mayor unveiled a $100 million online advertising campaign attacking Trump in four general election swing states. The new effort will target 500,000 voters from traditionally underrepresented groups that typically lean Democratic, including African-Americans, Latinos, Asians, young voters, and those living in some rural communities, the AP reports.
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(Mar 18, 2014 9:11 AM CDT) A new survey offers a look at Americans' retirement savings, and two somewhat conflicting points stand out: Some 36% of us have less than $1,000 saved for our golden years, yet a higher proportion are feeling very confident they can retire in comfort. That $1,000 doesn't factor in respondents' primary residences or any set benefit plans (like pensions), USA Today notes. But what's really striking is that 73% of those without a retirement plan, such as an IRA, 401(k) or 403(b), have less than $1,000 in savings and investments, says the survey's co-author. Some 60% have less than $25,000 saved up, and just 44% have even calculated how much they'll need in retirement. The cost of daily life is holding people back from saving, they say. Still, confidence figures are improving. Last year, just 13% felt very confident about retiring comfortably, the Los Angeles Times reports. But this year, the figure climbed to 18%, with 37% feeling somewhat confident. The upshot, per the survey authors: This increased level of confidence does not appear to be founded on improved retirement preparations. In the aggregate, worker savings remain low, and only a minority appear to be taking basic steps to prepare for retirement. USA Today has detailed results from the survey of 1,000 workers and 501 retirees.
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(Apr 7, 2010 8:43 AM CDT) Former New York Giant Tiki Barber not only dumped his wife for a 23-year-old--he dumped his 8-months-pregnant-with-twins wife for a 23-year-old. After 11 years of marriage, Ginny and I have decided to separate, Barber said yesterday, after sources told the New York Post about the affair. The Today show correspondent met Traci Lynn Johnson when he was hired by NBC in 2007; she was an intern there at the time. Ginny, who has two sons with Barber, learned of the affair late last year when he moved out. Johnson was photographed with Barber at his documentary screening last month; sources believe she was with him during filming of it in Senegal, while his wife was three months pregnant, and she may have also been with him at the Winter Olympics. Click here to see a photo of Johnson.
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(Mar 11, 2011 12:37 PM) Ever since 18 men and boys were busted in the gang rape of an 11-year-old girl, there have been hints of a blame the victim mentality emerging--and last night, some residents crossed from hints to explicitly blaming the 11-year-old girl. She lied about her age. Them boys didn't rape her. She wanted this to happen. I'm not taking nobody's side, but if she hadn't put herself in that predicament, this would have never happened, said one resident. Many others who attended a town meeting also told reporters the 11-year-old had consented to sex with those accused, the AP reports via the Houston Chronicle. The meeting was supposedly held to discuss concerns about the investigation, but many in attendance used it to voice claims that the 11-year-old was to blame because of the way she dressed, or to hypothesize that she lied about her age. Others opposed those views, noting that Texas's age of consent is 17, and that even if the girl did claim to be older, an 11-year-old simply cannot legally give consent. Quanell X, the Houston activist who led the meeting, said he did not come here this evening to jump on an 11-year-old girl, but also questioned why the girl didn't report the attack herself. Earlier, a New York Times story on the attack sparked controversy--click for more on that here and here.
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(Mar 21, 2010 4:34 PM CDT) Louis Dale scored 26 points, Ryan Wittman added 24, and No. 12 seed Cornell upset fourth-seeded Wisconsin, 87-69, today in Jacksonville, becoming the first Ivy League team since Penn in 1979 to advance to the round of 16.The Big Red (27-8) will play top-seeded Kentucky in the East Regional semifinal Thursday in Syracuse, about an hour from Cornell's Ithaca campus. The Big Red controlled things from the opening tip, picking apart Wisconsin's vaunted defense the same way it controlled Temple in the opening round. Cornell had a 12-point lead early, a 20-point lead late, and very few moments of concern in between. The game was so unsuspenseful the CBS switched to Michigan State's 85-83 victory over Maryland, which Korie Lucious sewed up with a 3-pointer at the buzzer. The Spartans will face tourney Cinderella Northern Iowa, which eliminated overall No. 1 seed Kansas yesterday.
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(Jun 20, 2012 3:29 AM CDT) The House has issued a rare apology for an anti-Chinese law it passed 130 years ago. The Chinese Exclusionary Act of 1882 banned immigration from China, and barred existing Chinese residents--who numbered close to 100,000 at the time--from citizenship and voting. The act remained in place until 1943. The resolution, which expressed regret for the law, passed the House unanimously on Monday, reports CNN. A similar resolution--which made it clear that the apology would not open the door to compensation claims--was passed by the Senate last year. Democratic Rep. Judy Chu, the resolution's sponsor, described how her grandfather was denied citizenship and lived under the threat of deportation for decades. It is for my grandfather and for all Chinese-Americans that we must pass this resolution, for those who were told for six decades by the US government that the land of the free wasn't open to them, she said on the House floor. We must finally and formally acknowledge these ugly laws that were incompatible with America's founding principles. A recent Pew Research Center report found that Asians are now the largest group of new US immigrants.
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(Jun 16, 2013 5:29 AM CDT) All those missed shots added up to one big blown opportunity for the Chicago Blackhawks. They couldn't bury the Boston Bruins in the early going and paid for it in the end. Now, home-ice advantage is gone. So is their lead over the Bruins in the Stanley Cup finals. Daniel Paille fired a shot past Corey Crawford's glove to give the Bruins a 2-1 overtime victory last night and tie the series at 1-1 with Game 3 coming up tomorrow night in Boston. You've got to kind of swallow this one and move on, said Patrick Sharp, who scored his ninth goal of the postseason. We know what's on the line in this series and going into Boston's going to be tough, but we're ready for the challenge. The Blackhawks squeezed out a 4-3 triple-overtime thriller in Game 1 but couldn't pull this one out. Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane were quiet again, just as in the opener. Looking tired late in the game, the Blackhawks made a series of blunders, including a turnover that led to Paille's winning goal. They outshot Boston 35-28 for the game and really came out firing in the early going, blistering the Bruins 19-4 in the first period, but all they had to show for it was Sharp's goal. Tuukka Rask was simply outstanding in net again for the Bruins, getting through that early siege and finishing with 33 saves.
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(Jan 21, 2018 11:25 AM) Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle outdid another weekend's worth of newcomers to top the North American box office for the third straight weekend, making the surprise hit the fifth-highest grossing film of all time for Sony Pictures. Jumanji sold $20 million in tickets, according to studio estimates Sunday, bringing its five-week domestic total to $317 million, per the AP. Landing in second is Warner Bros.' war drama 12 Strong, starring Chris Hemsworth. It grossed $16.5 million in its debut weekend. The heist thriller Dean of Thieves slots in at third place with an opening weekend of $15.3 million. The STXfilms release stars Gerard Butler and Curtis 50 Cent Jackson.
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(Mar 10, 2009 3:18 PM CDT) Bernard Madoff's lawyer told a judge today his client will plead guilty later this week to 11 counts including money laundering, perjury and securities, mail and wire fraud. Prosecutors say the disgraced money manager will face up to 150 years in prison on the charges. The hearing at a Manhattan courthouse was called to resolve several potential conflicts of interest between Madoff and his lawyer, Ira Sorkin. Sorkin and his family invested more than $900,000 with Madoff. After questioning Madoff, the judge ruled that Sorkin may continue representing Madoff. Asked by the judge if Madoff would plead guilty Thursday, Sorkin said: I think that's a fair expectation.
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(May 11, 2012 1:51 AM CDT) JPMorgan Chase has stunned the financial world by disclosing trading losses of $2 billion since the beginning of April, caused by what CEO Jamie Dimon calls errors, sloppiness and bad judgment. The losses came from bad trades made by a unit that was supposed to help America's biggest bank hedge against risk. A single trader, nicknamed the London whale, made huge bets in the derivatives market that backfired, the Los Angeles Times reports. The bank says it could lose another $1 billion from the portfolio in the next quarter. These were egregious mistakes, says Dimon, who admits that the huge loss will probably lead to calls for greater banking regulation. We have egg on our face, and we deserve any criticism we get. Asked if other banks would have similar problems, Dimon said: Just because we were stupid, doesn't mean anyone else was, but the market is reacting differently, notes the Wall Street Journal. JPMorgan shares sank more than 6% in after-hours trading, and Citigroup, Goldman, BofA, and Morgan Stanley all fell more than 2%.
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(May 14, 2011 10:08 AM CDT) American astronomers are searching for signs of alien life on 86 possible Earth-like planets deemed the likeliest to harbor life. The massive Green Bank radio telescope in rural West Virginia will home in on each of the 86--chosen from 1,235 possible planets located by NASA's Kepler telescope--and collect 24 hours of data from each one, reports the AFP. The mission is part of the SETI project, which was forced to close down a major part of its efforts last month because of budget cuts. We've picked out the planets with nice temperatures--between zero and 100 degrees Celsius--because they are a lot more likely to harbor life, a veteran SETI researcher says. The project, expected to take up to a year, will be aided by a million volunteers who will help process the data on their home computers. (And in other planetary news...)
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(Jun 30, 2009 7:00 AM CDT) A Swedish software company has purchased file-sharing site Pirate Bay for $7.7 million after the site was fined $3.6 million, the Register reports. We would like to introduce models which entail that content providers and copyright owners get paid for content that is downloaded via the site, said the CEO of Global Gaming Factory X, which is set to take over the site next month. In order to live on, The Pirate Bay requires a new business model, which satisfies the requirements and needs of all parties, content providers, broadband operators, end users, and the judiciary, said the CEO. It's time to invite more people into the project, in a way that is secure and safe for everybody, Pirate Bay said on its site. Otherwise, the site will die. And letting TPB die is the last thing that is allowed to happen!
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(Apr 23, 2008 9:32 AM CDT) Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez and his wife welcomed the birth of their second daughter Monday in Miami, People.com reports. The couple, who did not release the newborn's name, already has daughter Natasha, 3. We are thrilled with the birth of our second daughter and the blessing of having two beautiful, healthy children in our lives, the happy father said in a statement. The 7lb, 2 oz tyke's arrival couldn't be more timely--dad's been benched to recover from a strained quadricep.
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(May 13, 2009 1:56 AM CDT) An incredibly foul stench from long-forgotten lunches forced hundreds of people out of a California office complex yesterday, the San Jose Mercury News reports. Fire crews and a hazmat team were dispatched to the building and 28 people were treated for vomiting and nausea. San Jose emergency workers traced the smell to a room where a worker--who lost her sense of smell after nasal surgery--was using a combination of chemicals to clean rotten food out of a fridge.
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(Oct 11, 2013 11:28 AM CDT) One perk of being a multibillionare: You can buy privacy--and buy your neighbors out of their homes. That's what Mark Zuckerberg has done, spending $30 million on four houses next to his own Palo Alto abode, the San Jose Mercury News reports. He doesn't have any crazy plans for the properties though--he won't, for example, be building a $60,000 greenhouse to match the one at his San Francisco mansion. Instead, the billionaire will lease the homes back to the families who already live there. The plan came about after he learned a developer was interested in buying up a nearby property and marketing it with a be Zuckerberg's neighbor pitch. (Click to see the swanky housing complex being developed for Facebook employees.
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(Sep 17, 2015 3:18 PM CDT) Stocks ended mostly lower after a volatile day as traders tried to figure out what was next for US interest rates. The bumpy trading today came after the Federal Reserve decided to keep interest rates low, citing weakness in the global economy and unsettled financial markets. Bond prices rose, sending yields lower, as traders reacted to the Fed's prediction that inflation will remain subdued. The dollar fell against other currencies. The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 65 points, or 0.4%, at 16,674. It rallied shortly after the Fed's statement came out, then drifted lower for the rest of the day. The Standard & Poor's 500 gave up five points, or 0.3%, to 1,990 and the Nasdaq rose four points, or 0.1%, to 4,893.
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(Mar 14, 2012 9:38 AM CDT) Last night, British PM David Cameron enjoyed his very first taste of March Madness, compliments of President Obama. At tonight's state dinner, he'll likely enjoy some American wine as well--but don't expect too many details about the winery, year, or appellation. That's because Obama put a stop to the tradition of revealing said info after his third state dinner ... following a brouhaha over the price tag. In honor of Hu Jintao's visit, the Chinese president was served a 2005 Quilceda Creek Cabernet Sauvignon from Washington state that garnered a 100-point Robert Parker rating. The White House didn't say how much it paid per bottle, but it originally retailed for $115, and was selling for $300 and up by the time of the Jan. 19, 2011, dinner. So when Angela Merkel was honored at a state dinner in June, the released menu said nothing more than an American wine will be paired with each course. Ditto for South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak's Oct. 13 menu. And while the move may ostensibly make sense ( they're probably sensitive to displays of wealth at a time when the economy is not firing on all cylinders, says one wine expert), many argue the move hurts, instead of helps. Promoting top winemakers is good for America, says one wine editor, and Bloomberg notes that state dinners provide a prime opportunity to show China and other new big wine importers what the US has to offer. To wit, Quilceda Creek saw a pretty significant uptick in Asia after Hu's dinner.
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(Oct 16, 2010 4:05 PM CDT) Barbara Billingsley, who gained the title supermom for her gentle portrayal of June Cleaver, the warm, supportive mother of a pair of precocious boys in Leave it to Beaver, has died at age 94. She had suffered from a rheumatoid disease. Billingsley acted in a number of roles in movies from the mid-1940s to the mid-1950s, but it wasn't until Leave it to Beaver that she became a star. When the show debuted in 1957, Jerry Mathers, who played Beaver, was 9, and Tony Dow, who portrayed Wally, was 12. Billingsley's character, the perfect stay-at-home 1950s mom, was always there to gently but firmly nurture both through the ups and downs of childhood. We knew we were making a good show, because it was so well written, she once said. But we had no idea what was ahead. People still talk about it and write letters, telling how much they watch it today with their children and grandchildren.
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(Dec 25, 2018 10:11 AM) A man awaiting execution on California's death row insists he's innocent in a gruesome 1983 murder case, and newly ordered DNA tests might finally resolve the matter. Gov. Jerry Brown, in one of his final acts in office, ordered authorities to test a T-shirt, towel, and hatchet collected as evidence after the murders of Doug and Peggy Ryen, their 10-year-old daughter Jessica and 11-year-old neighbor Christopher Hughes, reports the Sacramento Bee. The Ryens' 8-year-old son survived the attack in Chino Hills. Kevin Cooper, now in his 60s, was convicted, but he and supporters including New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof maintain that police framed him. I take no position on Mr. Cooper's guilt or innocence at this time, said the governor. But colorable factual questions have been raised about whether advances in DNA technology warrant limited retesting of certain physical evidence. Cooper's legal team think police planted Cooper's blood on the evidence, and they hope the DNA test will turn up the blood of another person, perhaps someone in the state's criminal database, reports the AP. In Kristof's piece from several years ago, he wrote: It appears that an innocent man was framed by sheriff's deputies and is on death row in part because of dishonest cops, sensational media coverage and flawed political leaders. Among those he called out were Kamala Harris, then the state attorney general. Now a senator, Harris supports the new DNA tests.
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(Oct 22, 2017 10:10 AM CDT) The Los Angeles Times is out with a potentially damning story about film director James Toback. The paper spoke with 38 women, 31 on the record, who say the longtime writer/director sexually harassed them on movie sets, during interviews, and even on the street, using his Hollywood credentials as a way to get them into abusive situations. Several of the women say Toback, who directed indie movies like Black & White and Two Girls and a Guy, would approach them on the street, brag about his friendship with Robert Downey Jr. or his Oscar nomination for writing the 1991 Warren Beatty film Bugsy, and then invite them somewhere under the auspices of interviewing them or having them read for a part in an upcoming film. Once they were alone, the women say Toback would quickly become inappropriate. One woman recounts walking down the street with Toback in Manhattan as he questioned her about masturbation and pubic hair. Many of the women describe experiences of Toback demanding they get naked and of him rubbing up against them to the point of ejaculation. These incidents stretch back decades, and other publications had previously published victims' accounts of Toback's behavior, including Gawker. But several of the women interviewed by the Times say they were inspired to come forward after news broke of the allegations against Harvey Weinstein. Louise Post, who says she was abused by Toback in 1987, told the paper, Today, I cried for the first time since then about it. I was crying for the 20-year-old woman who lost something vital that day--her innocence.
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(Apr 13, 2014 12:13 PM CDT) The latest man to write his own obituary kept things about as short as possible: It read simply, I am dead. Swedish 92-year-old Stig Kernell gave his funeral home instructions before he died on April 6, and the funeral home followed through, publishing the 3-word obituary in two newspapers on Saturday. But the short-and-sweet obit made headlines, The Local reports, leading newspapers to publish a few more details of Kernell's life--and ultimately leading Kernell's sons to write up a more traditional, longer obituary. They simply didn't want the world to think there was any bitterness surrounding Kernell's death. Rather, the short obituary is reflective of their father's sense of humor, says one son. And it has helped us to cope with the loss of him, in that he was not at all scared of death, he adds. He was a special man with a lot of humor and a twinkle in his eye. Kernell was an aerospace historian and transport technician with a pilot's license and a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for largest collection of aviation literature. (More uplifting obituaries here, here, here, here, here, and here.)
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(Dec 14, 2012 4:45 AM) The Pentagon says it will send Patriot air defense missiles and 400 troops to Turkey as part of a NATO force meant to protect Turkish territory from potential Syrian missile attack. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta signed a deployment order today en route to Turkey from Afghanistan, a rep says. The order calls for 400 US soldiers to operate two batteries of Patriots at undisclosed locations in Turkey. Turkey is a founding member of NATO and requested that the alliance provide Patriots. They will be sent by NATO members Germany and the Netherlands as well as the US for an undetermined period. During a brief stop at Incirlik Air Base, some 60 miles from the Syrian border, Panetta told US troops that Turkey might need the Patriots, which are capable of shooting down shorter-range ballistic missiles as well as aircraft. He said he approved the deployment so that we can help Turkey have the kind of missile defense it may very well need to deal with the threats coming out of Syria, he said. Panetta did not mention how soon the two Patriot batteries will head to Turkey or how long they might stay.
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(Nov 2, 2020 7:23 AM) Some good news amid tragedy as two girls in Turkey were rescued from the rubble left by Friday's earthquake in the Aegean Sea, nearly three days after the powerful temblor shook that country and Greece. Per CNN, a 3-year-old girl identified as Elif Perincek was pulled alive Monday out of the debris of her collapsed apartment in Izmir, Turkey's third largest city, after 65 hours of being buried. Elif, said to be the 106th person rescued after the disaster, was taken to a hospital near where she was found in the Bayrakli district, the Anadolu news agency reports, via Al Jazeera. There was dust on her face, her face was white, Muammer Celik, a member of Istanbul's search and rescue team, told the Turkish channel NTV, via US News and World Report, adding that he initially thought the girl was dead. When I cleaned the dust from her face, she opened her eyes. I was astonished. Celik, who calls Elif's rescue a miracle, said Elif clung to his hand during the entire rescue. I am now her big brother, he added. Elif's mother, 10-year-old twin siblings Ezel and Elzem, and 7-year-old brother Umut had been retrieved from the rubble less than 24 hours after the quake hit. Unfortunately, Umut didn't survive. Just hours before Elif's rescue, 14-year-old Idil Sirin was rescued from the rubble of her own apartment. She was found after being buried for 58 hours with her 8-year-old sister, Ipek, who sadly died in the collapse. The two girls were found just one day after 70-year-old Ahmet Citim was rescued, telling rescuers, I never lost hope. Dozens died in the quake--US News & World Report puts the death toll at 85 so far--with nearly 1,000 injured. The US Geological Survey has recorded the magnitude of the quake at 7.0, though Turkish agencies measured it as slightly less.
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(Oct 24, 2008 4:16 PM CDT) YouTube is abandoning its 10-minute video limit to show movies and full-length TV episodes, starting with Star Trek, MacGyver, and Beverly Hills, 90210. The Google-owned juggernaut is responding to competition from Hulu and other sites, reports USA Today. It's also adding pre-roll advertisements that play before a video rather than embedded links that allowed users uninterrupted viewing. Although Google says YouTube is profitable, one analyst says advertisers prefer network-owned sites. If you're an advertiser, where will you put your money? he says. In front of content you're not sure about, or behind a series like 30 Rock, a known brand? Still, YouTube remains by far the most popular video site, with 5.3 billion views in September to second-place Yahoo's 264,266.
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(Jan 13, 2010 5:00 AM) The niece of Britain's defense minister has been sentenced to 15 years for fatally slashing a man she picked up at a bar for sex. I do not even dare ask forgiveness from Olivier's family,' Jessica Davies told a French court yesterday, referring to her 24-year-old victim. What I did terrifies me. I will never again touch a drop of alcohol. Investigators believe the murder in a French apartment may have been inspired by the gruesome stabbing death of Meredith Kercher in Italy just days earlier. The prosecutor said yesterday that Davies, who has the devil's beauty, was in the habit of using men as pure sex objects on which to inflict her distress. Psychiatrists had reported that Davies has a troubled, borderline personality. She claimed to only have a spotty memory of slashing her lover's throat, then stabbing him in the chest. I wanted to cut him a bit and it went right in, she told police. She was sentenced to a year longer than the term requested by the prosecution.
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(Nov 1, 2011 7:58 AM CDT) When it comes to Herman Cain's sexual harassment mess, many conservatives are crying racism. Not so, Karl Rove. In an appearance on Fox News last night spotted by the Hill, Monica Crowley asked the Republican if Cain should be prepared for more of this because he is a black conservative? No, said Rove: He should be prepared for things like this because he's a serious presidential candidate. And as a serious contender, Rove had a bone to pick with the way Cain and his team are handling things. What gets me is, look, I've talked to people in the news business today and they say this has been going around for at least 10 days. I find it hard to believe that the campaign didn't know that this was coming and was as badly prepared as they were. You'd rather be where you're going to be at the beginning rather than be drawn there by the events, he noted. But right now he has a good answer, acknowledges Rove, that he was falsely accused, but that's going to require then for the National Restaurant Association to respond to the media by laying out the details.
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(May 24, 2009 3:58 PM CDT) Helio Castroneves won his third Indianapolis 500 today, beating 2005 winner Dan Wheldon by 1.981 seconds and leaving Danica Patrick in third, the best finish by a woman at Indianapolis. With 10 laps to go, Castroneves' lead was 1.38 seconds, and he continued widening the gap the rest of the way. Townsend Bell was fourth and Will Power fifth. Last year's winner, Scott Dixon, finished sixth. Castroneves, who started from the pole, had a half-second lead over teammate Ryan Briscoe before a hard crash by Vitor Meira and rookie Raphael Matos brought out the yellow caution with 26 laps to go in today's race. But Briscoe had to come in for fuel, moving Wheldon up to second and Patrick third. The green came out after 183 of the 200 laps, and Castroneves began pulling away for good.
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(May 4, 2015 6:30 PM CDT) The girl is 10 years old, 22 weeks pregnant with the child of the stepfather who raped and impregnated her even after he was reported to social services. And she's the subject of a fierce debate among adults over the moral, legal, physical, and psychological implications of whether she should carry the child to term or be allowed an abortion. The girl lives in Paraguay, reports the Guardian, which bans abortion except in the case of a threat to the mother's health, and the government has thus far denied the girl's mother's request to grant an abortion. Right now, there is no reason to interrupt the pregnancy, says a public health rep, adding that given the stage of the pregnancy, it's even more dangerous for the girl to abort. The facts of the case: The child's mother reported the stepfather's sexual abuse in January 2014, and authorities took no action. They did, however, arrest the mother when she brought the girl to the hospital with a swollen belly late last month and the pregnancy was discovered, reports CNN. The stepfather is on the run. That girl is now alone, says a feminist activist, and the Paraguayan state has a clear responsibility for that. Amnesty International is among other groups that have jumped in, claiming that the girl's age alone should trigger an exception. The physical and psychological impact of forcing this young girl to continue with an unwanted pregnancy is tantamount to torture, says a rep. But, counters the government rep, She has no complications at all. If any complication appears, we will proceed based on that. (An 11-year-old girl in Chile two years ago caused a similar debate.)
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(Oct 13, 2011 9:26 AM CDT) Herman Cain is being dishonest in touting his 9-9-9 plan, positioning it as some kind of tax cut, when in reality tens of millions of lower income Americans would face tax increases, Washington Post fact checker Glenn Kessler has concluded, giving Cain three out of four Pinocchios. The plan would replace the tax code with a 9% corporate tax, 9% income tax and 9% federal sales tax, which would amount to a big tax cut for the wealthy, who spend little of their income, but a big tax increase for most other families, since it eliminates the deductions they rely on. Just like it would be wrong to claim pizza is a low-calorie meal, Cain's description of the plan's impact on working Americans is highly misleading, Kessler concludes. The plan was dealt another blow yesterday when one of Cain's own consultants told Politico that, contrary to Cain's assertions in the debate, the plan was not practical, because it's so alien to the current system that it would be a great shock, and that while it was a fine plan economically, it wouldn't be the one I picked.
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(Oct 23, 2011 11:02 AM CDT) A powerful 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Turkey today, killing at least 60 people as it collapsed buildings into piles of twisted steel and chunks of concrete. Desperate survivors dug into the rubble with their bare hands, trying to rescue the trapped and injured. State-run TRT television reported that 45 people were killed and 150 injured in the eastern town of Ercis, and 15 others died in the provincial center of Van. Turkish scientists estimated that up to 1,000 people could already be dead, due to low housing standards in the area and the size of the quake. Ercis, a city of 75,000 in the mountainous province of Van close to the Iranian border, was the hardest hit. It lies on the Ercis Fault in one of Turkey's most earthquake-prone zones. As many as 80 buildings collapsed in Ercis, including a dormitory, and 10 buildings collapsed in Van, the Turkish Red Crescent said. Some highways also caved in, CNN-Turk television reported. There are so many dead. Several buildings have collapsed. There is too much destruction, Ercis mayor Zulfikar Arapoglu told NTV television. We need urgent aid. We need medics.
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(Jun 26, 2012 4:16 PM CDT) Tired of FarmVille? Never fear: Amid reports of departing users, Zynga is releasing three new potential addictions. The Ville, by the guy who brought you CityVille and FarmVille, is a lot like the Sims doused in Facebook updates. ChefVille offers a restaurant environment, and FarmVille 2 takes the franchise 3-D, USA Today reports. In what the company calls its biggest overhaul yet, it's also diving further into mobile gaming. As part of the effort, Zynga is teaming up with developers such as Atari as it plans other new games. CEO Mark Pincus says social gaming is at a turning point, much like search engines were in 1999. Social gaming, on a daily basis, could be as important as email and text messaging, he says. But all is not well in ZyngaVille, says an analyst: The company shed daily active users for two games last month, with Hidden Chronicles dropping 1.8 million such users, leaving 3.3 million, while CityVille lost 1.7 million, sinking to 4.5 million. The company's stock price has fallen about a third since its December IPO. Still, the new game Bubble Safari garnered 5.7 million daily active users in its first four weeks.
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(Sep 17, 2016 9:27 AM CDT) Canadian novelist WP Kinsella, who blended magical realism and baseball in the book that became the smash hit film Field of Dreams, has died, the AP reports. He was 81. His literary agent Carolyn Swayze said in a statement that Kinsella's death on Friday in Hope, British Columbia, was doctor-assisted. Details about his health were not disclosed. Assisted deaths became legal in Canada in June. In the 1982 novel Shoeless Joe, a farmer hears a voice telling him to build a baseball diamond in his corn fields. When he does, Shoeless Joe Jackson and other baseball players of yesteryear come to play. It became the blueprint for the 1989 Oscar-nominated movie, which starred Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones, and Ray Liotta. Kinsella, a bona fide baseball junkie, loved Field of Dreams and said he had tears in his eyes when he first saw it. Thanks to the movie, key turns of phrases in his book-- If you build it, they will come and Go the distance --have taken their place in popular culture. I wrote it 30 years ago, and the fact that people are still discovering it makes me proud, Kinsella said in 2011. Much of Kinsella's work touched on baseball. He published almost 30 books of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry and won the Order of Canada, one of the country's highest honors. He was a dedicated story-teller, performer, curmudgeon, an irascible and difficult man, Swayze said. His fiction has made people laugh, cry, and think for decades and will do so for decades to come.
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(Sep 5, 2011 12:32 PM CDT) When Cynthia Daily, her partner, and their son vacation with other families, it's wild, she says. The kids all look alike. That's because Daily turned to a sperm donor seven years ago; using the number assigned to her donor, she later searched an online registry for her son's half-siblings, some of whom her family now holidays with. Turns out there are 150 of these kids, and that number is growing. While Daily's son's clan is one of the biggest groups of brothers and sisters to share one donor dad, it's becoming less of an anomaly, reports the New York Times, which says 50-plus-member groups are appearing more frequently in online registries. The concerns are growing in number, too. Some worry of the potential for rare genetic diseases to spread throughout the population. Others fear the real possibility of accidental incest, as unwitting half-brothers and half-sisters often live near the same sperm bank--and each other. My daughter knows her donor's number for this very reason, says the mother of one teen. She's had crushes on boys who are donor children. It's become part of [her] sex education. Critics are clamoring for a legal limit to be imposed on how many kids one donor can father, and some blindsided donors may agree.
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(Feb 7, 2019 4:16 AM) While 2018 was the fourth-warmest year on record, British meteorologists are predicting the next five years will be much hotter, maybe even record-breaking. Two US agencies, the United Kingdom Met Office, and the World Meteorological Organization analyzed global temperatures in slightly different ways, but each came to the same conclusion Wednesday: 2018 was the fourth-warmest year on record behind 2016, 2015, and 2017. The US government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said 2018's average temperature was 58.42 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 1.42 degrees warmer than the 20th-century average. Records go back to 1880.
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(Nov 8, 2011 8:46 AM) Ah, the finer things in life: marijuana, booze, sex, cockfighting, exotic birds--if you live in Acapulco, all this and more can be found at a prison near you. Mexican authorities conducted a surprise search of the Acapulco penitentiary yesterday morning and found 19 prostitutes, two sacks of marijuana, 100 fighting cocks, dozens of televisions, and, yes, two peacocks, amidst other contraband, the AP reports. The peacocks were pets, according to a state spokesman, who didn't explain how they wound up inside in the first place.
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(Mar 6, 2013 1:23 PM) The UN Security Council has strongly condemned the detention of more than 20 peacekeepers monitoring the ceasefire between Israel and Syria by armed members of the Syrian opposition and demanded their immediate and unconditional release. Russia's UN Ambassador, the council president, says talks are underway between UN officials and the captors. The Golan Heights peacekeepers were detained by approximately 30 armed fighters today. The UN observers were on a regular supply mission when they were stopped near an observation post that sustained damage and was evacuated last weekend following heavy combat. The rebels, according to a report, accuse the peacekeepers of assisting the Syrian regime in redeploying in an area near the Golan which the fighters had seized a few days ago in battles that led to the death of 11 fighters and 19 regime forces. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the peacekeepers will not be released until regime forces withdraw from a village called Jamla.
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