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

TIRANA (Reuters) - The United States urged Albania on Wednesday to avoid "careless language" after its prime minister suggested a single president and single security policy for both his country and neighboring Kosovo in a speech that infuriated Serbia.

Serbia is sensitive to any talk of unification of its former province of Kosovo, which has a majority ethnic Albanian population, and Albania.

Addressing Kosovo's parliament on Sunday on the 10th anniversary of the country's independence from Belgrade, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said: "Kosovo and Albania will have a single foreign policy and not just the same embassies and diplomatic representations, but why not one president, a symbol of national unity, and one national security policy."

Rama later complained that his comments had been taken out of context, but the European Union said they were "not helpful" and Serbia accused the Albanian premier of seeking to build a "Greater Albania" in the region.

The U.S. embassy in Tirana expressed disappointment with Rama's comments.

"Careless language alluding to unification is unhelpful and damaging to Albania's relationships with its neighbours. We call on all leaders to be good neighbours and abandon the divisive language of the past," it said in a statement.

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Iran’s Intensifying War with Israel

The February 10 military clash between Iran and Israel ushered in a new phase of the Syrian war. Iran for the first time challenged Israel directly instead of attacking indirectly through surrogates, such as Hezbollah.

The Syrian civil war—the world’s bloodiest conflict in recent decades—has evolved into a proxy war that could easily escalate into a much broader regional war. Iran’s provocative violation of Israeli airspace with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) set off a chain reaction that is accelerating this transformation. The mission of the Iranian UAV—a Shahed 171, which Tehran apparently reverse engineered from a downed U.S. RQ-170 Sentinel drone that crashed in Iranian territory in 2011—remains unclear. Launched by Iranian Revolutionary Guards from the Tiyas air base in central Syria, the UAV crossed into Israel over the Jordanian border at an unusually low altitude, perhaps to avoid detection.

Although Hezbollah and Hamas have deployed Iranian-made UAVs over Israel in the past, this was the first known attempt by Iran to penetrate Israeli airspace.

The UAV was intercepted and destroyed by an Israeli Apache helicopter, and Israel responded with an airstrike on the Iranian command-and-control trailer in Syria that remotely controlled the UAV.

An Israeli F-16 fighter involved in that operation was shot down by Syrian anti-aircraft missiles and crashed inside Israel, injuring the pilot. It was the first Israeli fighter plane lost in combat since the 1982 war in Lebanon.

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

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A garbage truck was on the tracks despite lowered safety gates when it was struck by a train carrying Republican lawmakers in a fatal crash last month in rural Virginia, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said on Wednesday.

Data from a camera mounted on the front of the chartered Amtrak train showed the gates were down at the crossing at the time of the crash, according to a preliminary NTSB report on the Jan. 31 accident.

The report added that "witnesses to the crash reported that the refuse truck entered the crossing after the gates were down."

A passenger on the garbage truck was killed and two others on the truck were injured. No lawmakers were seriously injured but one lawmaker was taken to a hospital as a precaution and released.

The NTSB said previously that the Amtrak train was traveling at 61 miles per hour (98 km per hour) when the engineer applied the brakes in the crash in Crozet, Virginia.

The train was taking lawmakers from Washington to an annual Republican retreat in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia and had hundreds of passengers on board.

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Pennsylvania GOP Pleads With SCOTUS Again To Let Them Use Gerrymandered Map

Pennsylvania Republicans again asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block Pennsylvania’s new, court-ordered congressional map on Wednesday, marking the latest in a series of attempts to halt a plan that would make congressional elections more competitive in the state by reducing the impact of gerrymandering.

In an emergency application, Pennsylvania House Speaker Michael Turzai (R) and Senate President Pro Tempore Joseph Scarnati (R) asked the Supreme Court to prevent the new map from going into effect. They say the state Supreme Court overstepped its authority by drawing a new congressional map.

The GOP challenge comes just two days after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued a new congressional map for the state to be used in 2018 and 2020 elections. In January, the court said the congressional map in place since 2011, drawn by Republicans, so severely benefited the GOP that it violated the state’s constitution.

The court gave lawmakers three weeks to reach an agreement on a new map, and when the parties couldn’t do so, the court stepped in to draw its own. Several analyses showed the court’s map will make elections more competitive and give Democrats a better chance of winning seats in districts currently held by the Republicans.

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There will never be another Billy Graham, because the world that made him possible is gone

As word of Billy Graham’s death spread on Wednesday morning, commentators observed that since he retired in 2005, no evangelical leader has emerged to occupy his unique place in American society.

But even if there were anyone out there with the same talents that enabled Graham to represent all of evangelicalism, we likely would never know it. The cultural context in which Graham became one of the most important religious figures in American history was radically different than the one that exists today.

“The America that emerged from World War II and the Great Depression was exceptionally unified and cohesive, and possessed of an unusual confidence in large institutions,” Yuval Levin wrote in his 2016 book, “The Fractured Republic.”

“But almost immediately after the war, [America] began a long process of unwinding and fragmenting,” Levin wrote.

And so, the fact that American Christianity hasn’t given rise to a leader like Graham over the last two or three decades isn’t just a result of the fracturing of evangelicalism into different factions — the slick prosperity gospel of Joel Osteen, the strident right-wing triumphalism of Graham’s son Franklin and the theologically precise new Calvinists, to name just a few.

It’s also a story about the fragmentation of American life — arguably a reversion to the norm in American history rather than a departure from it.

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Even Pat Robertson Is Calling For Stricter Gun Control Laws

Arch-conservative televangelist Pat Robertson appears to have had a change of heart about gun control after last week’s mass shooting at a Florida high school left 17 people dead.

“I’ve got no opposition whatsoever to shooting, but for heaven’s sakes, I don’t think that the general population needs to have automatic weapons,” Robertson said on “The 700 Club” on Tuesday.

“Amen,” an off-camera voice answered.

Robertson, who suffered a stroke earlier this month, asked for a ban on “bump stocks,” which allow semiautomatic weapons to fire as rapidly as machine guns. Weapons with bump stocks were used last year by Stephen Paddock during the Las Vegas shooting, which left 58 people dead and hundreds injured.

Robertson also called for more thorough background checks, including a medical check.

“If somebody is seeing a psychiatrist, is on medication, he or she needs to be prohibited from being turned loose on the general population,” he said. “It’s just got to be, y’know, sensible.”

A gun owner and a hunter, Robertson hasn’t exactly been a voice of moderation in the gun control debate. In 2014, he encouraged churches to arm worshippers.

“Blessed are the fully armed,” he said then.

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Christians Wrestle With Billy Graham's Legacy

Rev. Billy Graham, the famous evangelist who died on Wednesday, was a charismatic preacher, a counselor to presidents, and a leading figure in American evangelicalism.

As news of his death spread, many Christians took time to reflect on the 99-year-old pastor’s long life and legacy.

During his more than six decades as an evangelist, Graham invited millions of people to make a personal commitment to Christ during revival meetings around the world, which he called crusades. Thousands responded to his altar call, often to the tune of one of his favorite old hymns, “Just As I Am.”

But the gospel of salvation that Graham preached never invited queer Americans to come the altar just as they were. The pastor also held conservative views about women. And while he opposed racial segregation, he was not as active as other Christian leaders during the 1960s civil rights era.

Still, with his crusades and fiery preaching, he inspired a spiritual revival in the lives of generations of Christians. He’s praised for being nonpartisan about politics, at least later on in his life ― meeting with every president from Harry Truman to Barack Obama.

On Wednesday, many reposted on Twitter a quote attributed to Graham, in which the pastor reveals his beliefs about death.

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Trump: Arm some teachers to 'fire back if a savage sicko came to a school'

President Trump denied on Thursday that he wants to arm teachers with guns, despite seeming to offer that suggestion during a “listening session” about school shootings the day before. In subsequent tweets Thursday, he suggested arming 20 percent of teachers.

“I never said ‘give teachers guns’ like was stated on Fake News @CNN & @NBC,” Trump tweeted. “What I said was to look at the possibility of giving concealed guns to gun adept teachers with military or special training experience — only the best. 20% of teachers, a lot, would now be able to immediately fire back if a savage sicko came to a school with bad intentions. Highly trained teachers would also serve as a deterrent to the cowards that do this. Far more assets at much less cost than guards. A ‘gun free’ school is a magnet for bad people. ATTACKS WOULD END!”

The president added: “History shows that a school shooting lasts, on average, 3 minutes. It takes police & first responders approximately 5 to 8 minutes to get to site of crime. Highly trained, gun adept, teachers/coaches would solve the problem instantly, before police arrive. GREAT DETERRENT! If a potential ‘sicko shooter’ knows that a school has a large number of very weapons talented teachers (and others) who will be instantly shooting, the sicko will NEVER attack that school. Cowards won’t go there…problem solved. Must be offensive, defense alone won’t work!”

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NRA’s Wayne LaPierre: ‘Elites’ don’t care about school safety

On Thursday, Feb. 22, the National Rifle Association’s executive vice president and CEO Wayne LaPierre spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference amid the nation’s heated debate about gun control following the Parkland, Fla., school shooting. During his speech, LaPierre said “elites” don’t care about school safety, and he called for more guns in schools.

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Who is Dana Loesch? The NRA's chosen defender after the Florida shooting

The appearance the NRA spokeswoman at a CNN town hall with Florida shooting survivors signals a change in tactics by the gun lobby
In the days after a mass shooting, the National Rifle Association usually stays completely silent, its social media accounts on lockdown.

Even in less fraught times, the US’s leading pro-gun lobby group usually refuses to participate in most news coverage of the firearms debate, choosing instead to attack the media from a distance.

But as students who survived the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Florida last week continue to speak out publicly against the NRA’s “blood money,” the gun-rights group has announced that it will send spokeswoman Dana Loesch to participate in Wednesday’s CNN town hall conversation with Parkland shooting survivors.

The move comes as the NRA appears to be attempting to dial down attention to the speech that longtime leader Wayne LaPierre is scheduled to give at CPAC later this week. Instead it is putting Loesch in the spotlight.
break the cycle

A longtime conservative talk radio host, Loesch sparked outrage last year for an NRA recruitment ad in which she railed against the left for using “their media to assassinate real news” and said NRA members needed to confront “this violence of lies with the clenched fist of truth”.

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Crews to leave Puerto Rico as $750M Fluor contract nears end

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Crews who are helping restore power in Puerto Rico as part of a $750 million federal contract will leave the U.S. territory soon as nearly a quarter of a million customers remain in the dark more than five months after Hurricane Maria, officials said Wednesday.

Brian Mershon, a spokesman for Texas-based Fluor Corporation, told The Associated Press the contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is ending in part because no further funding is available. He said that after Feb. 25, some 1,600 workers and 1,300 pieces of equipment will remain in Puerto Rico, compared with a peak of 3,000 workers and 2,000 pieces of equipment.

"Crews who will remain in the U.S. territory for upcoming weeks will continue to restore power and complete assignments based on available funding and materials," he said. "This is a normal part of the life cycle of large government projects."

Fluor recently said it has helped restore power to more than 230,000 customers.

Preston Chasteen, a spokesman for the Corps of Engineers, told the AP that the agency and all its contractors still have a total of more than 3,600 workers in Puerto Rico to help restore power after the hurricane hit on Sept. 20. The Category 4 storm damaged two-thirds of the island's power distribution system and caused the longest blackout in U.S. history.

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New York University issues public apology for 'racially insensitive' meal served during Black History Month

New York University has issued a public apology and fired their director of food service after students pointed out the watermelon-flavoured water and collard greens the school was serving during Black History Month were racially insensitive.

College of Arts and Science sophomore Nia Harris noticed the offensive meal when she walked into Weinstein Passport Dining Hall - before alerting the deans of the school and NYU’s President Hamilton of the insensitive and “stereotypical” meal.

In her letter, which she also shared on Facebook, Harris wrote: “It is with great sadness and frustration that I even have to send this email.”

“Not only was this racially insensitive, this was just ignorant. In 2018, there’s no excuse for intentional and deliberate disrespect,” she continued.

Harris then requested the school make a public apology to its black students - and suggested if the school wants to “learn how to celebrate Black history and culture during this month, you can ask the black students at this school instead of patronising us with Kool Aid, watermelon, and ribs.”

Harris’s letter received over 800 reactions on Facebook and was shared close to 300 times - with many commenting that a public apology was in order.

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Autopsy confirms Virginia woman was mauled to death by her own pit bulls

An autopsy has confirmed that a Virginia woman believed to have been mauled to death by her own pit bulls in December did indeed die from "trauma due to mauling by animals."

Goochland County Sheriff Jim Agnew said on Tuesday that the investigation into the death of 22-year-old Bethany Lynn Stephens has been closed in light of her autopsy results.

“The medical examiner’s report substantiated what we observed," said Sheriff Agnew. "I hope that the family can get some peace now. There are going to be those who aren’t going to believe and pick apart all the things that we’ve done, and that’s their prerogative, but unless somebody steps forward with some really strong evidence, we've closed this."

Stephens was found dead in the woods in Goochland County, Virginia, by her father on Dec. 14 at around 8 p.m.

After failing to hear from his daughter that night, the concerned parent called 911 and then went looking for her in an area where she often walked her two dogs, Pac-Man and Tonka.

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Marco Rubio jeered at CNN town hall on school shootings

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., endorsed more gun control legislation after intense questioning from survivors of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Wednesday night.

Rubio faced a hostile crowd at the CNN town hall in Sunrise, Fla., with audience members booing frequently and holding up phones with photos of victims. The former 2016 presidential contender was confronted about accepting over $3 million in donations from the National Rifle Association.

Slideshow: Remembering the victims of the Parkland, Fla., high school shooting >>>

“Senator Rubio, will you tell me right now that you won’t accept a single donation from the NRA?” asked Cameron Kasky, a survivor of the Feb. 14 shooting, which left 17 dead.

The question received a standing ovation, but Rubio defended his record, saying that his position on the Second Amendment had been consistent and that people had agreed with that agenda.

As the audience jeered Rubio, Kasky countered, “You could have said ‘no.’” He offered to raise enough money to match the donations given Rubio by the NRA.

Kasky’s question was complemented by a tweet from fellow survivor and newly minted activist David Hogg, who divided the total of Rubio’s NRA donations by the number killed in last week’s shooting.

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NRA's LaPierre blames FBI, mental illness and security 'failures' for Florida shooting – not guns

The longtime head of the National Rifle Association denounced lawmakers and the media for seeking to “exploit” last week’s deadly mass shooting at a Florida high school.

“As usual, the opportunists wasted not one second to exploit tragedy for political gain,” Wayne LaPierre, NRA CEO and executive vice president, said in a politically charged speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md.

LaPierre, whose organization has opposed almost all gun-control measures in Congress and the states, decried the “breakback speed of calls for more gun control laws and the breathless national media eager to smear the NRA.”

He accused Democrats — including Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. — of trampling the rights of gun owners.

“They hate the NRA,” LaPierre said. “They hate the Second Amendment. They hate individual freedom.”

The “intellectual elites,” as LaPierre called them, “don’t care — not one whit — about America’s school system and schoolchildren.”

“If they truly cared, what they would do is protect them,” he said. “For them, it’s not a safety issue; it’s a political issue. They care more about control, and more of it. Their goal is to eliminate the Second Amendment and our firearms freedoms so that they can eradicate all individual freedoms.”

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Fla. school officer waited outside building for 4 minutes as killings happened, sheriff says

A Marjory Stoneman Douglas school resource officer has been suspended without pay after Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said video shows him taking up a defensive position during the shooting but never entering the school.

Israel announced Thursday that the decision to suspend Deputy Scot Peterson was made after reviewing video from the shooting and taking statements from witnesses and Peterson himself, Israel said.

“He should have went in, addressed the killer, killed the killer,” Israel said.

Peterson was armed and on campus during the shooting Israel said. Since he met the requirements for retirement, Peterson opted to resign after he was told he was being suspended, Israel said.

Israel said that the video shows Peterson arrived at the west side of Building 12, where most of the killing happened. He then took up a position but "never went in."

The video shows that Peterson remained outside the building for upward of four minutes during the shooting, which lasted about six minutes, Israel said. Aside from getting "on his radio," Peterson did "nothing" while standing outside the building, Israel said.

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Legal status of Melania Trump's parents raises questions about 'chain migration'

As President Donald Trump calls for an end to immigration to the U.S. based on extended family ties, the legal status of his mother and father-in-law faces new scrutiny as they move closer toward naturalization and U.S. citizenship.

First Lady Melania Trump's parents Viktor and Amalija Knavs are permanent residents of the United States after emigrating from Slovenia, according to their lawyer Michael Wildes.

“I can confirm that Mrs. Trump’s parents are both lawfully admitted to the United States as permanent residents,” Wildes said in a statement to ABC News. “The family, as they are not part of the administration, has asked that their privacy be respected so I will not comment further on this matter.”

Wildes would not say how the Knavses received green cards to live and work in the U.S.

Immigration experts say the most likely way the Knavses could have become permanent residents is through their daughter’s citizenship — a process the president has referred to as "chain migration".

“The most obvious way that they would have become green card holders is by being the parents of a U.S. citizen – i.e. Melania Trump,” said Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration professor at Cornell Law School.

The Knavses theoretically could have applied for green cards through the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program or through an employee sponsorship, but that is unlikely Yale-Loehr says, as they are retired and 65 percent of green cards are given out through various family programs.

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Trump predicts NRA will back raising age limit on gun purchases

Amid a national debate over U.S. gun laws in the wake of last week’s deadly school shooting in Parkland, Fla., President Trump on Thursday pledged action and laid out his ideas for school safety — even as the National Rifle Association is resisting calls for change.

“No better time to discuss it than right now,” Trump said during a meeting with state and local officials at the White House. “I think we’re making a lot of progress.”

The president said he saw “a great feeling, including at the NRA,” and among legislators of both parties, in favor of action.

Specifically, he endorsed increasing the minimum age, which is currently 18, for buying certain firearms.

“It should all be at 21,” Trump said. “And the NRA will back it.”

The NRA has yet to signal for any changes to current gun laws. On Wednesday, the gun lobby said it opposed any new legislation increasing the age requirement on firearm purchases.

The president said he was not concerned.

“They’re ready to do things, they want to do things,” Trump said. “You know, they’re good people. They’re patriots. They love this country.”

The president said lawmakers must tackle the issue of mental health, calling the suspected gunman in the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School a “sicko.”

Trump said he is pledging to take action on guns, “unlike” his predecessor, President Obama.

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NRA's Dana Loesch: 'Many In Legacy Media Love Mass Shootings'

National Rifle Association spokeswoman Dana Loesch said Thursday that the media exploits mass shooting to capitalize on ratings.

“Many in legacy media love mass shootings,” Loesch said after walking on stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference to a standing ovation. “I’m not saying you love the tragedy, but you love the ratings. Crying white mothers are ratings gold.”

Her comments echoed a video that NRATV released Wednesday, which slammed the mainstream media for being the “casting call for the next mass shooting.” Loesch also said she is debuting a one-hour show on NRATV next month to combat the mainstream media.

Her comments at CPAC were also reminiscent of some President Donald Trump has made. The president regularly claims that news outlets such as CNN and NBC News spread mistruths about him and his administration in order to boost ratings.

“A failure of law enforcement is not a failure of the law, it is a failure of enforcement,” she said, blaming the FBI for “dropping the ball” by not acting on a tip it had received about the suspect in last week’s massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

“We have resources available at anyone’s disposal if they want to reinforce their schools, but I’ll say it again loud and clear: We’re parents too,” she said.

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2019 Porsche 911 GT3 RS: First Look

When Andreas Preuninger, head of GT cars at Porsche, talks about the new 911 GT3 RS he mimes out the motions of steering a car with fingertips. Showing off the car in the cold and snowy north of Finland, Preuninger doesn't even really want to talk about the engine, quickly explaining its 20-hp increase before moving on. What gets him going on the new RS is the suspension.

Porsche Motorsport began development of the new 911 GT3 RS not long after it started working on the GT2 RS, and it shows. Spring rates have been upped from 45 Nm/mm front and 120 Nm/mm in the rear from the previous GT3 RS, to 100 Nm/mm and 160 Nm/mm in the front and rear, respectively. Ball joints with solid mountings replace traditional units with rubber bushings, just like on the GT2 RS too.

There are helper springs in the front and rear, along with new adaptive dampers and new manually adjustable sway bars, all set up with track duty in mind. As with all previous GT3 RSes, ride height, camber, caster, toe can be adjusted manually.

"The first-generation [991 GT3 RS] is really a masterpiece of precision, but this is even better," Preuninger tells me. "It has less roll, and less yaw, so it’s really like a race car."

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Stephen Colbert Gets Serious: Time To Tell Do-Nothing Pols That Their Time Is Up

Stephen Colbert is calling out do-nothing politicians who refuse to act on gun control.

In his first new “Late Show” episode since last week’s mass shooting at a Florida high school, Colbert said it’s clear that kids have now become leading voices on the issue of gun control and that “the adults aren’t cutting it anymore.”

“I hope these kids don’t give up, because this is their lives and their future,” Colbert said Tuesday. “Someone else may be in power, but this country belongs to them.”

Colbert also put lawmakers on notice for failing to take action, saying the rapid rise of the Me Too movement shows how quickly change can happen.

“This is an election year,” Colbert said. “So if you want to see change, you have to go to the polls and tell the people who will not protect you that their time is up.”

See his full comments in the clip above.

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

Florida state lawmakers have rejected a bill that would ban assault rifles, less than a week after 17 people were killed in a shooting at a Florida high school.

The Florida House voted 36-71 against a motion to consider legislation to outlaw assault rifles and large capacity magazines, effectively killing the bill for the time-being, according to the Associated Press.

The vote came as members of Congress, state legislators, governors and student survivors of the Parkland shooting called for tougher gun control laws.

Armed with a legally purchased AR-15-style assault rifle, a gunman last Wednesday attacked Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, about 45 miles north of Miami.

Students from the high school had travelled to the State House in Tallahassee to watch the vote. They looked on from the gallery as their lawmakers voted against considering the bill, according to Local10 News.

Democratic State Representative, Carlos Guillermo Smith, who has sponsored the assault weapon ban in Florida for the past two years, said the vote was the first time in two years the legislature held a vote on the proposed legislation.

He said the House had a moment of prayer, which he decided to sit out, before lawmakers voted not to bring the bill to the floor.

“For two years I have sponsored the assault weapons ban in the Florida legislature, and this afternoon we were finally given our first vote on whether to discuss the bill, and Republicans refused to even debate it,” Mr Smith told The Independent. “They could’ve voted it down.

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Polish minister sees 'catharsis' in new Holocaust law

WARSAW (Reuters) - Patryk Jaki, the politician behind Poland's new Holocaust law, wants to end what he calls a misleading culture of shame surrounding his country's treatment of Jews in World War Two.

The 32-year-old deputy justice minister is a polarizing figure in Polish politics. He opposes what he sees as the Islamization of Europe and once said immigrants from Africa and the Middle East will only enter the country "over his dead body".

He also loves football, dotes on his young son who has Down's syndrome and prides himself on his lowly origins in the Soviet-era tower blocks that still house millions of his compatriots.

Many Poles like his anti-elitist posture, which chimes with a strain of populist right-wing thinking in parts of Eastern Europe that has alarmed some Western capitals.

But the law making it a crime to suggest Poland was complicit in the Holocaust has proved even more controversial, sparking a crisis in Warsaw's relations with Israel and the United States. For Jaki it marks a moment of national catharsis.

Jaki, who steered the legislation through parliament, says young Poles like him have been taught to feel ashamed, not proud, of their nation's wartime behavior by successive liberal governments.

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Florida Shooting Survivors Are Being Targeted by Conspiracy Theories. Here's What to Know

After surviving a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 17 people dead, many of the student survivors have become vocal advocates for gun control and changes in mental health care and school safety.

Just days after they lived through the worst high school shooting in U.S. history, they’re being targeted by hoax conspiracy theories that claim they are paid “crisis actors.”

Other, more mainstream conservatives are questioning whether the survivors are little more than pawns manipulated by Democrats, gun-control activists and even the FBI.

The conspiracy theories are being promoted by fringe right-wing media outlets and social media accounts. An aide to Florida state Rep. Shawn Harrison was fired on Tuesday after he falsely told a Tampa Bay Times reporter that two Stoneman Douglas students were actually actors “that travel to various crisis when they happen,” using a conspiracy video to back up his claim.

Some claims are threatening to go mainstream because of attention from President Donald Trump’s son. Donald Trump Jr. liked two tweets spreading a conspiracy theory about student David Hogg, accusing him of working with the FBI to criticize the president.

As students, politicians and tech companies continue to respond to the conspiracy theories, here’s what to know about the controversy:

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Polish opposition wants to amend disputed Holocaust bill

Warsaw (AFP) - Poland's main opposition party Tuesday tabled an amendment to the government's controversial Holocaust bill, which was meant to defend Warsaw's image abroad but instead stoked tensions with Israel, Ukraine and the US.

However, the liberal Civic Platform (PO) party's proposal has no chance of being adopted since the governing right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party controls both houses of parliament.

"The political crisis triggered by clumsy and disastrous diplomacy, by thoughtless remarks, has brought us to a point where we politicians are forced to react," Platform leader Grzegorz Schetyna told reporters.

"We are proposing a draft amendment that should correct the mistakes."

The Holocaust legislation, which takes effect next week, penalises statements attributing Nazi German crimes to the Polish state with a jail sentence of up to three years.

But Israel sees it as a bid to deny the participation of individual Poles in the extermination of Jews, an accusation rejected by Warsaw.

Critics also worry that because of vague wording the legislation could open the door to prosecuting Holocaust survivors for their testimony.

Poland's opposition suggests replacing the bill's controversial passage with penalties against "anyone who publicly and contrary to the facts attributes to the Polish state responsibility or co-responsibility for the German Third Reich's creation of concentration and death camps, as well as for the genocide that took place there, or who minimises to a flagrant degree the responsibility of the real authors of these crimes by using the terms 'Polish death camps' and 'Polish concentration camps'."

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Philippines Duterte extends term of top cop leading his deadly war on drugs

MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Tuesday he would extend the tour of duty of the country's police chief "a little bit longer" to carry out reforms in a law enforcement agency at the forefront of his war on drugs.

Ronald dela Rosa, director-general of the Philippine National Police (PNP), was supposed to step down upon reaching the retirement age of 56 in January but Duterte had asked him to stay on for three more months until April.

But the president said he would keep the stocky, fiercely loyal general, nicknamed "Bato" (Rock), beyond that date.

"I still have to institute continuing reforms with the police, and police has always been a problem," Duterte said in a speech at an event with businessmen.

He said there were "scoundrels and scalawags in every organization" and he needed dela Rosa to finish the job of cleaning up the police.

"Because he enjoys my trust and confidence, I will extend his term for a little bit longer," he said, without saying how much longer.

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US 'deeply concerned' about attacks on Syria rebel enclave

Washington (AFP) - The United States said Tuesday it was "deeply concerned" about the escalating Syrian and Russian attacks on the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta, which have left more than 250 civilians dead in two days.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert blamed the Assad regime's "siege and starve tactics" for adding to the humanitarian disaster in the Damascus district, and endorsed the United Nations' call for a monthlong halt to violence.

"The United States is deeply concerned by the escalating violence in the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta," Nauert told reporters. "The escalation is exacerbating the already grave human suffering of nearly 400,000 people.

"The cessation of violence must begin now, and those needing emergency assistance should be allowed to evacuate immediately," she added.

Eastern Ghouta is home to more than 400,000 people living under crippling government siege, with little access to food or medical resources.

Syrian and Russian air strikes slammed the area earlier, adding 100 civilian deaths to the toll since Sunday and putting another hospital out of service.

The rebel-held district is nominally included in a "de-escalation" deal meant to tamp down violence, but President Bashar al-Assad is apparently preparing troops for an imminent ground assault to retake the area.

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Seventh-grader who shot himself in school bathroom dies

MASSILLON, Ohio (AP) — A seventh-grader who died a day after shooting himself inside a middle school restroom had fireworks and extra ammunition in his backpack, police said on Wednesday.

Investigators were reviewing cellphones and other electronics found at the boy's home, but it was too early to know whether the shooting was intentional or if the 13-year-old had other plans, said Jackson Township Police Chief Mark Brink.

"We can make assumptions," he said. "I'm not willing to do that."

The boy shot himself on Tuesday just before classes began at Jackson Middle School, near Massillon, police said. No other students were injured.

He died at a hospital on Wednesday, according to the Summit County Medical Examiner's Office.

The boy took the .22-caliber long gun from his mother's house and managed to conceal it under his clothes while he rode a bus to school, Brink said. Others who saw him that morning didn't notice he was hiding anything.

Investigators looked through his backpack after the shooting and found bottle rockets, batteries and ammunition, Brink said. He earlier described the items as devices meant to cause a distraction.

He also said the investigation so far has not uncovered any warning on social media.

Some parents complained that they waited hours before they could take their children home, but Brink said authorities first needed to make sure the building was safe because "we didn't know exactly what we were dealing with."

Source: Yahoo News

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Report Alleges Rampant Sexual Misconduct At Dallas Mavericks

A Sports Illustrated report detailing widespread workplace sexual misconduct in the Dallas Mavericks organization that involved its former CEO is sending shock waves through the league and drawing sharp criticism.

The exposé, published on Tuesday, alleges that the team’s former president and CEO, Terdema Ussery, was widely known as a “serial sexual harasser.” He once asked a female employee if her weekend plans included getting “gang-banged,” the magazine reported.

“Actually, I’m going to the movies with friends,” the woman reportedly replied, to which Ussery then reportedly told her, “you’re definitely getting gang-banged.”

Ussery was part of a larger Mavericks culture of abuse that included sexual harassment and assault, as well as domestic violence, and retaliation against those who tried to report offenses, the magazine reported. Ussery denies all the allegations.

“It was a real life Animal House,” one former employee told the publication. “And I only say “was” because I’m not there anymore. I’m sure it’s still going on.”

You can read the full Sports Illustrated report here.

None of the team’s athletes are accused of misconduct, nor is the team owner, billionaire Mark Cuban. But Sports Illustrated suggested that Cuban, who told the publication he was “embarrassed ... that it happened under my ownership,” let some behavior slide. Cuban  denied knowledge of the behavior, telling the magazine,“this is all new to me .... the only awareness I have is because I heard you guys were looking into some thing.”

Source: Yahoo News

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Harley-Davidson Releases Two Fancy New Sportsters

The modification-friendly and custom-inspired market has been making a lot of motorcycle companies a lot of money in recent years. BMW experienced impressive sales-numbers with its R nineT range, Triumph’s Bonneville Bobber has broken multiple sales records, one-quarter of Ducati’s sales last year were bikes from its Scrambler lineup, and Indian Motorcycle's Scout Bobber is an unqualified success. With sales dropping year after year, Harley-Davidson is looking to the custom-inspired market to get those numbers back up with the introduction of two new Sporster models—the new Forty Eight Special and the Iron 1200.
Was This What We Asked For?: Let’s All Tell Harley What To Do

Both models sports tank graphics that, according to the press release, were “originally popular in the 1970s”. In addition to the disco-tastic paint, the bikes are loaded down with a myriad of pieces from H-D’s parts and accessories catalog. All this factory custom goodness encases a package powered by black or chromed-out versions of the Motor Company's torquey Evolution 1200 engine. The US MSRP for the Iron 1200 is $9,999, while the Forty Eight Special’s US MSRP has been listed at $11,299. Like the Scout and Bonneville Bobber models, the new pair of Sportster variants are expected to be further customized by owners, something Harley’s press release says is relatively easy thanks to the bikes' design.

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'Black Panther' Is Breaking An Insane Number Of Box Office Records

The King of Wakanda is still conquering the box office.

“Black Panther” made an astounding $242 million domestically over the Presidents Day weekend. Not only did this number clobber its estimate of $165 million, but it makes the film the second-highest four-day opening in movie history, just after “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” ($288 million).

The superhero movie that premiered in the middle of Black History Month has a black director (Ryan Coogler) and an almost entirely black cast. It also made $426 million worldwide and has yet to premiere in several major markets.

And “Black Panther” has hit other high marks as well.

According to Box Office Mojo, the opening of “Black Panther” is the fifth-largest of all time. The site also says that it is the new record holder for largest February opening weekend ($202,003,951), the largest winter season opening weekend ($202,003,951), the largest Presidents Day weekend opening and the largest Thursday preview gross in the month of February ($25.2 million) — robbing the previous title holder, “Deadpool,” of all four honors.

It’s the highest Monday and second-highest-grossing Sunday opening in history. It also snagged the honor of the second-highest-grossing film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for a Tuesday, according to Variety.

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Democrats Flip Kentucky State House Seat Where Trump Won Overwhelmingly

Democrats flipped a GOP-held Kentucky state House seat on Tuesday, handing the party its 37th state legislative pickup nationwide since Donald Trump won the presidency.

Democrat Linda Belcher, a former public school teacher and state lawmaker, defeated Republican Rebecca Johnson, 68 percent to 32 percent.

Belcher’s “lifelong commitment to bettering her community and her door-to-door campaign showcased her dedication to standing up for Kentuckians,” Jessica Post, executive director of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, said in a statement. “She will work hard on behalf of working families, students, and the people of Bullitt County.”

Belcher is no stranger to the 49th District, which is in Bullitt County, just south of Louisville. Belcher represented the district from 2009 to 2012 and again from 2014 to January 2017, after being defeated in the 2016 election by a narrow margin.

Belcher’s victory is nonetheless symbolically important since Trump defeated Democratic rival Hillary Clinton among the district’s voters, 72 percent to 23 percent.

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In honor of Rihanna's birthday, we're sharing our favorite Fenty Beauty products

It's hard to believe that it was over 10 years ago when we first heard 'Pon de Replay' on the radio by an 'unknown' Rihanna at the time. Today, the eight-time GRAMMY winner turns 30 and we can't think of a better way to celebrate her birthday than to share all our must-have Fenty Beauty products.

Launched in September of 2017, the singer's makeup line recorded over $72 million in earned media value in one month. Exclusively sold at Sephora, beauty gurus have fallen in love with the line ranging from foundations to lipsticks and blotting sheets. Not only are a majority of the products best-sellers on Sephora.com (the long wear foundation has racked up over 7k reviews and has 280k 'loves'), the line is also all under $40.


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Seized, but not ceased: Banned charities pose challenge for Pakistan

RAWALPINDI/MURIDKE, Pakistan (Reuters) - The vast network of Islamist charities taken over last week by Pakistan's government includes a horse-breeding stable, a fleet of 4x4 trucks, a swimming academy, martial arts classes and tens of thousands of staff and volunteers.

Islamabad hopes that by seizing control of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF) charities, which the United States says are terrorist fronts, it can stave off being included this week on a global watchlist of country's deemed to be doing too little to curb militant financing.

But the sheer scale and diversity of the charities founded by Hafiz Saeed, who is designated a terrorist by the United Nations, shows how difficult it will be for the government to even run the network, let alone track and take control of all their sources of income and funding.

Reuters visited three of JuD's main facilities - protected by close-circuit TV cameras, huge iron gates and stout-built, bearded guards - including a sprawling 200-acre headquarters in Muridke just outside the eastern city of Lahore.

A few government representatives were on site and new signs hung to rename the facilities, but little else appeared to have changed since the government announced it was banning the charities on Feb. 14.

Officials said they have not yet drawn up plans on how to run the network, which includes more than 300 seminaries, schools, hospitals, a publishing house and ambulance services.

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Russia blamed as key clinic in Syria enclave bombed out of service

Beirut (AFP) - A key hospital in Syria's rebel-held Eastern Ghouta was put out of service on Tuesday, a medical group said, with a monitor blaming Russian air strikes.

"The Arbin hospital was hit twice today and is now out of service," said Moussa Naffa, country director in Jordan for the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), which supported the clinic.

The news came as the United Nations said six hospitals had been hit in Eastern Ghouta in the past 48 hours, in addition to the one reported by SAMS.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Arbin hospital was hit by a pair of Russian air strikes, in what would be the seventh hit in the past two days.

According to the Britain-based war monitor, it is the first time in three months that Russia has conducted raids on Eastern Ghouta, which it had designated last year as a "de-escalation" zone.

An AFP photographer in Arbin saw a Russian Sukhoi Su-34 fighter jet soaring overhead on Tuesday.

The United Nations said Tuesday that six hospitals have been struck in the past 48 hours in Eastern Ghouta, putting three out of service and killing several people.

"I am appalled and distressed by reports of the horrifying attacks against six hospitals in East Ghouta over the past 48 hours," said Panos Moumtzis, the UN's regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis.

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7th-grader with distraction device shoots himself at school

MASSILLON, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio seventh-grader who brought a gun to school and shot himself inside a restroom just before classes began on Tuesday also had a device in his backpack meant to cause a distraction, police said.

While investigators said the device was not an explosive that would have harmed anyone, they also would not describe it in detail.

The student, who suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound, was being treated at a hospital, but police and school officials said they did not know his condition.

No other students were hurt in the shooting at Jackson Middle School, near Massillon.

It was not immediately clear whether the shooting was intentional or how the boy, who rode the bus to school, managed to sneak the .22-caliber long gun into the building, said Jackson Township Police Chief Mark Brink.

Authorities said they also did not know where the boy got the gun or if anyone else was involved.

Bomb-sniffing dogs searched the building, investigators said.

"They wouldn't tell us what was going on. I thought there was a school shooting. There was a lot of waiting," eighth-grader Alex Garcia told The Independent. "I didn't have any idea there was someone with a gun until I was released."

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Man who died in Yellowstone was looking for hidden treasure

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

Billings, Montana, news station KULR-TV reports that Jeff Murphy of Batavia, Illinois, was looking for the treasure that antiquities dealer and author Forrest Fenn said he stashed somewhere in the Rocky Mountains several years ago.

The investigation by Yellowstone officials into Murphy's death was kept private, but KULR-TV obtained it through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The investigative report reveals Murphy's wife told park authorities that Murphy was looking for the treasure when she called to report him missing.

Murphy's body was found June 9, 2017. He had fallen about 500 feet (152 meters) down a steep slope.

The report ruled the death an accident.

The lure of the treasure, which is said to be worth nearly $2 million, has prompted thousands to comb areas of New Mexico, Yellowstone National Park and elsewhere.

Murphy is one of at least several people who have died while looking for the treasure. Two Colorado men died in New Mexico while searching for it.

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Malaysia holds Filipinos seeking to set up extremist cell

Ten suspected Islamic militants who were trying to establish a Malaysian cell of a Philippine kidnap-for-ransom group have been arrested in Borneo island, police said Wednesday.

The alleged extremists, mostly Filipinos, are also accused of trying to help fighters linked to the Islamic State (IS) group travel to the Philippines to join up with militants there, they said.

The southern Philippines has long been a pocket of Islamic militancy in the largely Catholic country. A long siege in Marawi, the country's main Muslim centre, sparked fears IS was seeking to establish a foothold in the region.

Malaysian police made the arrests in January and early February in Sabah state on the Malaysian part of Borneo, not far from the southern Philippines. Borneo is a vast island shared between Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.

Seven of those detained were Filipinos, including several senior members of Philippine extremist group Abu Sayyaf which has been behind the kidnappings of numerous foreigners, Malaysian national police chief Mohamad Fuzi Harun said in a statement.

"Early information obtained from the 10 suspects caught in Sabah revealed an attempt by the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group to set up a cell in Sabah," he said.

Source: Yahoo News

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Nigeria And Jamaica Just Made Winter Olympics History

Bobsledders from Nigeria and Jamaica made history at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, on Tuesday.

In the two-women bobsleigh event, Nigeria’s Seun Adigun and Akuoma Omeoga became the first bobsled team to represent an African nation. Alongside skeleton athlete Simidele Adeagbo, they are also the first athletes from their country to compete in a winter olympiad.

Jamaica’s Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian and Carrie Russell, meanwhile, became the Caribbean island’s first Olympic female bobsledders — following a tricky week in which their coach, Sandra Kiriasis, resigned and put their competition into jeopardy after she threatened to take the team’s bobsled.

They follow in the footsteps of Jamaica’s bobsled team at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada. Their story inspired the movie “Cool Runnings.”

Team USA’s Elana Meyers Taylor and Lauren Gibbs led the two-woman bobsleigh field after the first heat. Jamaica secured joint 17th place out of 20. Nigeria finished last.

But both teams won new fans around the world:

    Big congrats to Nigeria !! Making Olympic Games history!!

Source: Yahoo News

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

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders evaded reporters’ questions Tuesday about what the president is doing to address Russian meddling in the 2016 elections.

A federal grand jury empaneled by special counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russians and three Russian entities Friday, and it provided evidence that foreign nationals interfered in the 2016 election and boosted the candidacy of President Donald Trump.

Sanders said Tuesday that the president had repeatedly “acknowledged” the meddling took place but asserted that “it didn’t have an impact” and that the Trump campaign did not aid Russia in its covert operation.

But asked why the Trump administration has refused to impose the sanctions against Russia that Congress had passed, the press secretary answered indirectly: “Well, there’s a process that has to take place, and we’re going through that process.”

The Trump administration said in January that it would not immediately impose additional sanctions on Russia, even after Congress almost unanimously passed a measure last year designed to punish Moscow’s meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. The administration insisted that the legislation was already working by “deterring Russian defense sales,” making additional action on Trump’s part unnecessary.

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Pennsylvania Republicans ask Supreme Court to block new congressional map

(Reuters) - Pennsylvania Republicans on Wednesday filed an emergency appeal asking the U.S. Supreme Court to block a new congressional map drawn by the state's top court from taking effect ahead of this year's mid-term elections.

The Supreme Court rejected a similar petition from the state's Republican legislative leaders earlier this month, paving the way for a new map for the state's U.S. congressional districts.

The new map, which the court released on Monday, is widely seen as giving Democrats a far better chance of capturing multiple seats in U.S. House of Representatives in the November elections. Republicans have held 13 of the state's 18 U.S. House seats since 2011, despite Pennsylvania's status as a closely divided bellwether state.

Democrats need to win 24 seats nationally to retake control of the House from Republicans.

Pennsylvania's Supreme Court in January invalidated the existing congressional lines, which were created in 2011 by the Republican-controlled legislature, as an unconstitutional gerrymander that marginalized Democratic voters.

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R. Kelly Evicted From Atlanta Homes For Unpaid Rent

We’re not tryin’ to be rude, but ... singer R. Kelly has been evicted from two Atlanta homes for unpaid rent.

Feb. 13 filings in Fulton County magistrate court indicate that Kelly owes more than $31,000 to SB Property Management Global, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on Monday. The filings indicate that Kelly rented two homes in Saint Devon Crossing Old Homestead Trail, for $3,000 and $11,542 a month.

Last year, BuzzFeed reported that the R&B singer held 19-year-old Joycelyn Savage against her will and was running a “cult” of kept women in his various properties. Many of the claims in that report were corroborated by Dallas radio DJ Kitti Jones, who spoke out against Kelly in October. Jones also alleged that she’d been in an abusive relationship with him.

The Atlanta properties that evicted Kelly do not appear to be the ones mentioned in the BuzzFeed report.

The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office said last week that it would review a file from Johns Creek police in connection with the cult allegations.

Source: Yahoo News

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Police: Officer shot, killed intervening in domestic dispute

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

The suspect in the officer's shooting was later shot and killed by police after a chase.

Prince George's County police Chief Hank Stawinski said Officer Mujahid Ramzziddin was confronted by a man with a shotgun when he left his home in suburban Maryland to help a woman who lived a few doors away and knew Ramzziddin was a police officer.

"He stood his ground," Stawinski said at a press conference. "He saved her life by giving his own."

The man who shot Ramzziddin, identified by police as Glenn Tyndell, 37 of Brandywine, then fled the scene in a vehicle. Stawinski said the chase carried briefly into neighboring Charles County, and ended when the suspect was shot and killed by two Prince George's County officers.

State Route 210, a major highway in southern Maryland connecting Prince George's and Charles counties, was closed for several hours Wednesday near the scene of where the suspect was shot and killed, several miles (kilometers) from where Ramzziddin was shot.

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The Latest: Sweden, Kuwait call for UN vote on Syria

Sweden and Kuwait are calling for a vote Thursday on a U.N. resolution ordering a 30-day cease-fire in Syria to enable the delivery of humanitarian aid to millions in acute need and the evacuation of the critically sick and wounded.

The Security Council resolution would exempt attacks directed at extremists from the Islamic State group, al-Qaida and the Nusra Front.

The proposed resolution expresses "outrage at the unacceptable levels of violence" and attacks on civilians, particularly in Idlib governorate and the rebel-held Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta.

The U.N. human rights office said Wednesday that at least 346 people have been killed in eastern Ghouta since the Syrian government and its allies escalated an offensive on Feb. 4.

Russia, a key Syrian ally, has called for a Security Council meeting Thursday on eastern Ghouta.

Whether Russia uses its veto or abstains in a vote on the resolution remains to be seen.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Wednesday that the council should be realistic, saying "Cessations cannot be established by putting a word in the resolution."

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Florida school shooting: Conspiracy theory about victims heads to the top of YouTube

One of YouTube’s most popular videos is pedalling a conspiracy theory about the deadly Parkland school shooting.

The post – currently at the top of YouTube’s “Popular Right Now” playlist – shows David Hogg, one of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students who has led the push for gun reform in the wake of the shooting at the school. It suggests that he is an “actor”.

Mr Hogg became well-known in the wake of the shooting when it emerged he had interviewed class mates while the shooting was taking place, and gave an interview where he looked into the camera and called for politicians to bring change.

The video is part of a conspiracy theory that claims Mr Hogg and the other people representing themselves as students are actually paid actors, being used by gun control advocates to push for their policies. While the video simply re-posts an old video of Mr Hogg, its description says “DAVID HOGG THE ACTOR”, making clear why it is being uploaded and shared.

The video is notable because it includes another time that Mr Hogg was part of a news story. It is a re-post of a news report about the fact that Mr Hogg had filmed a confrontation between a lifeguard and a surfer – and that the video he had uploaded had since gone viral.

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Chris Cornell's Widow Says Singer Would 'Never Have Ever Left This World'

Vicky Cornell, the widow of rock singer Chris Cornell, believes a prescribed medication is the reason her husband of 13 years killed himself in a Detroit hotel room last May.

Officials ruled the Soundgarden singer’s death a suicide and found that drugs did not play a role in his death, though he had previously battled addiction for many years. The rock legend had a prescription for the anti-anxiety medication Ativan, according to “Entertainment Tonight.”

Vicky Cornell told Robin Roberts on “Good Morning America” Wednesday that her husband had called her the night he died and told her he “may have taken an extra Ativan or two.”

She believes that medication may have affected Cornell’s judgment before he died.

“He wanted to be there for his family, for his children. He loved his life. He would never have ever left this world,” Vicky told Roberts. “I don’t think that he could make any decisions because of the level of impairment.”

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The public role of psychoanalysts in the Trump era: 'We live in ominous times'

In our highly politicized times, how can psychoanalysts contribute to the national discourse in ways that are both ethical and effective?

Prominent practitioners recently addressed this question and the implications of commenting on public figures — most notably President Trump — at the American Psychoanalytic Association’s (APsaA) 2018 national meeting. Their open-ended discussion last week encouraged psychoanalysts and their organizations to take an active role in contemporary political matters.

“How do we get psychoanalysts to have an impact on society in a way beyond the day-to-day work with patients and help the public understand a range of psychological phenomena, not just the behavior and psychology of a president, but of those who support him?” Kerry J. Sulkowicz, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, told Yahoo News. “I think mental health professionals certainly have something to contribute.”

The role of psychoanalysts in the public domain attracted attention after a series of misleading reports and conflated terms came to public attention. To recap, STAT News published an article in July 2017, saying that APsaA had told its members they could defy the “Goldwater Rule” against commenting on the mental health of people they have not evaluated.

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U.S. health officials reverse stance on AstraZeneca's flu vaccine

(Reuters) - AstraZeneca Plc said on Wednesday an advisory committee of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the use of its FluMist Quadrivalent vaccine in the upcoming flu season, reversing its earlier position.

In 2016, the agency advised doctors not to use the nasal spray citing data that demonstrated it was not effective at preventing influenza. (http://reut.rs/2sJavQ5)

The latest recommendation follows results from a U.S. study in young children that showed vaccines containing a 2017-2018 strain of H1N1 flu virus performed better than the 2015-2016 strain that had shown decreased effectiveness, AstraZeneca said.

The announcement arrives in the midst of the most severe flu season the country has experienced in decades. As of Feb. 3, 63 infants died this season, the CDC reported earlier, adding outbreaks were likely to linger for several weeks and cause more deaths.

The company said limited quantities of the vaccine continue to be available for the current season.

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

THE FIRST SCANDAL THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION COULDN’T SQUASH WITH AN ‘ALTERNATIVE FACT’ HuffPost reporter S.V. Date breaks down how the photo of an ex-wife’s bruised eye and the #MeToo movement forced the White House on the defensive. And even Sen. Orrin Hatch has reportedly apologized to Rob Porter’s ex-wives for defending his former chief of staff. [HuffPost] [Tweet | Share on Facebook]

THE FLORIDA SHOOTING SUSPECT WAS REPORTEDLY ABLE TO BUY 10 GUNS IN THE LAST YEAR And passed a background check immediately. At the funeral of a teacher who died protecting his students, his fiancee revealed he told her what to say in case he died in a school shooting. The New York Post and Anderson Cooper both slammed Trump for golfing this weekend amid funerals for the Florida school shooting victims. And a White House official called the shooting a “reprieve” from the onslaught of bad coverage for the Trump administration. [HuffPost]

THE PLOT THICKENS WITH PAUL MANAFORT As a new BuzzFeed report alleges he’s under scrutiny for over $40 million in “suspicious” transactions. [BuzzFeed]

IF YOU DIDN’T WATCH THE FINALE FOR OLYMPIC ICE DANCING LAST NIGHT You missed out on not only an incredible display, but Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir winning gold and becoming the most decorated figure skaters in Olympic history. Their performance was nothing short of breathtakingly unbelievable. [HuffPost]

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Duterte slammed for barring Philippine news site from his events

Manila (AFP) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's move to ban a critical news website from covering the presidential palace is a threat to press freedom, rights and media groups said on Wednesday.

Rappler, set up in 2012, is among a clutch of Philippine news organisations that have sparred with Duterte over their critical coverage of his drug war which the government says has claimed the lives of nearly 4,000 suspects.

Human rights groups charge that thousands more have been killed by shadowy vigilantes.

Duterte's spokesman said the president had decided to bar Rappler journalists from covering his events due to a "lack of trust".

US-based watchdog Human Rights Watch said the move "threatens media freedoms".

"It could portend a broader assault on journalists and news organizations, whose critical watchdog role has magnified the government's poor human rights record," it said in a statement.

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Man Assaults Gas Station Cashier With Hot Dogs After Refusing to Let Him Buy Beer: Cops

Cops in Florida have detained a man they say assaulted a convenience store attendant with a barrage of high-calorie snacks.

The Marion County Sheriff's Office released bizarre footage from a Petro Gas Station outside Gainesville that they claim shows 35-year-old Cavan McDaniel as he unleashes his fury in the form of hot dogs.

According to a police statement on the arrest, witnesses told deputies that McDaniel was upset because the gas station attendant would not sell him beer.

The victim then told deputies that McDaniel threw hot dogs at her and poked her in the face with a corn dog stick, police said.

The entire incident was caught on the store's surveillance video and cops believe it confirmed the victim's story.

"The victim was left with a red mark under her eye due to the corn dog stick attack," the police statement read.

McDaniel was arrested and charged with battery-touch or strike and a probation violation.

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The Latest: Group says Syria death toll tops 100 for the day

A monitoring group says the death toll from government shelling and airstrikes outside Damascus has exceeded 100 people for the second straight day.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says 106 people have been killed under the government's ferocious bombardment of the capital's rebel-held Eastern Ghouta suburb region.

It says the toll from two days of shelling and airstrikes has reached 250 killed and over 1,000 maimed and wounded.

The Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations, which runs hospitals and clinics in Syrian opposition areas, says it has recorded 115 deaths from the onslaught on Tuesday.

Ahmad al-Dbis, an official at the Union, says ten hospitals have been damaged by airstrikes or shelling in 48 hours.

Turkey's president says Turkish artillery fire has pushed back a convoy of pro-Syrian government forces from an enclave in northern Syria.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested Tuesday that the Shite fighters who entered the enclave of Afrin in a convoy of a dozen vehicles were acting alone. He warned that Turkey would not allow "such (a) wrongful step" in the future, adding that those who do "would pay a high price."

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Some Conservatives Are Trying To Discredit Outspoken Florida Shooting Survivors

WASHINGTON ― After what seems like a never-ending stream of deadly mass shootings, many gun reform proponents fear that Americans have become too desensitized to bloodshed to demand action to end gun violence. This time may be different, in part because of the unusual visibility of some school shooting survivors from Parkland, Florida.

A number of teenagers who survived last week’s massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in which 17 people died, have been outspoken in their calls for stricter gun legislation. They’ve appeared on cable news shows to plead with lawmakers to take action to address gun violence. They’ve used social media platforms like Twitter to rebut lawmakers’ arguments on gun control in real time. And one group is organizing a nationwide march next month to demand that politicians make ending gun violence a priority.

But their outspokenness has drawn criticism from some conservatives, who have sought to discredit arguments in favor of gun control by targeting the students themselves.
Student survivors are really tools of a left-wing conspiracy

Former Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) suggested on Tuesday that left-wing organizations ― like the one run by billionaire and liberal activist George Soros, a favorite boogeyman of the right ― were using the students who survived the Parkland shooting to advance their gun reform cause.

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The 10 Best Beaches In The World In 2018, Revealed

Need some travel inspo for your upcoming beach vacation? These beach bums have some recommendations.

The travel experts at TripAdvisor just unveiled their annual Traveler’s Choice Awards for the best beaches in the world for 2018, and the results make us want to jet-set to stunning locations like Isla Mujeres, Mexico, and Fernando de Noronha, Brazil.

Topping the list for the first time since 2016 are the photo-ready palm trees and white-sand beaches of Grace Bay in Turks and Caicos. The destination reclaimed the No. 1 spot after ranking second in last-year’s roundup.

Clearwater Beach in Clearwater, Fla., took the No. 7 spot as the only U.S. destination to make the cut this year. The winners are determined using millions of reviews and opinions left on TripAdvisor’s site over a 12-month period.

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Trump, inexplicably, says he has 'been much tougher on Russia than Obama'

President Trump declared on Tuesday, without evidence or explanation, that he has been “much tougher on Russia” than President Obama.

It’s not clear which facts Trump is referring to. In December 2016, Obama issued unprecedented sanctions against Russia for Moscow’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, ordering 35 Russian diplomats to leave the U.S., and the closure of two Russian compounds.

“Russia’s cyberactivities were intended to influence the election, erode faith in U.S. democratic institutions, sow doubt about the integrity of our electoral process, and undermine confidence in the institutions of the U.S. government,” the Obama White House said in a statement. “These actions are unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”

Trump repeatedly rejected the assertions by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia was behind the hacking. And the president has still has not put into effect new sanctions — passed by large majorities in Congress last year — that were designed to punish the Kremlin and deter it from interfering in the 2018 midterms. And in October, the Trump administration missed a deadline to publish a list of Russian entities and individuals in the military and intelligence sectors subject to sanctions.

Earlier Tuesday, Trump pointed to comments his predecessor made less than a month before the 2016 election: “There is no serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even rig America’s elections,” Obama said in October 2017, responding to Trump’s repeated claims that the vote would be “rigged” in favor of the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton.

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Ancient Mayan bones uncovered in Mexico at world's largest underwater cave

Archaeologists exploring the world's biggest flooded cave in Mexico have discovered ancient human remains at least 9,000 years old and the bones of animals who roamed the earth during the last Ice Age.

A group of divers recently connected two underwater caverns in eastern Mexico to reveal what is believed to be the biggest flooded cave on the planet, a discovery that could help shed new light on the ancient Maya civilization.

The Yucatan peninsula is studded with monumental relics of the Maya people, whose cities drew upon an extensive network of sinkholes linked to subterranean waters known as cenotes.

Researchers say they found 248 cenotes at the 347-km (216-mile) cave system known as Sac Actun, near the beach resort of Tulum. Of the 200 archaeological sites they have discovered there, around 140 are Mayan.

Some cenotes acquired particular religious significance to the Maya, whose descendants continue to inhabit the region.

Apart from human remains, they also found bones of giant sloths, ancient elephants and extinct bears from the Pleistocene period, Mexico's Culture Ministry said in a statement.

Sistema Sac Actun

The cave's discovery has rocked the archaeological world.

"I think it's overwhelming. Without a doubt it's the most important underwater archaeological site in the world," said Guillermo de Anda, researcher at Mexico's National Anthropology and History Institute (INAH).

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

Local leaders in Starkville, Mississippi, denied a request to host what would have been the town’s first gay pride parade.

LGBTQ support group Starkville Pride planned the parade for March 24, but on Tuesday the Starkville Board of Aldermen voted 4-3 to deny the request. Sixteen people spoke in support of the event and two spoke against it, according to the Starkville Daily News.

Resident Dorothy Isaac told The Associated Press she was against the parade because “God created Adam and Eve.”

“Do not turn our city into a sin city,” Isaac said. “It should not be this.”

Bailey McDaniel, an organizer with Starkville Pride, said she wished the city could have “been a part of this historic event for Starkville, but they’re not,”  the Daily News reported.

“All I can say is that this isn’t the last they will hear from us specifically about this issue,” she said.

McDaniel told the publication she has plans to reach out to organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union, the Human Rights Campaign and the Southern Poverty Law Center to take “action against this.”

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Iran teams carry plane crash dead down from mountain

Tehran (AFP) - Emergency teams on Wednesday began recovering bodies from a plane crash in Iran's Zagros mountains but the operation had to be suspended due to bad weather, officials said.

Aseman Airlines flight EP3704, carrying 66 people, disappeared from radar on Sunday morning around 45 minutes after taking off from Tehran on a domestic flight. No survivors have been found.

Search helicopters located the crash site after a break in the weather on Tuesday at a height of around 4,000 metres (13,000 feet) in the Dena range.

Helicopters were unable to land but officials said a recovery operation had begun on Wednesday, with emergency personnel carrying bodies on their backs to a road at the foot of the mountain.

The Iranian Red Crescent later said the operation had to be suspended as the bad weather returned, news agency ISNA reported.

It was unclear how many bodies had been recovered. One official reported seven bodies recovered but the Red Crescent said 32 "packages" had been brought down from the mountain and that these were not necessarily entire bodies.

A local rescue official told news agency ILNA that it should be possible to identify most of the remains.

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Police officer shot dead by murder suspect during standoff

A police officer in Alabama has been shot and killed after a stand-off with a murder suspect, who also lost his life in the incident.

Officer Justin Billa, a former officer of the month, was fatally injured in the city of Mobile, after trying to detain a man wanted in connection with a murder. The suspect was also killed, though reports said it was unclear whether he was killed by police or else took his own life.

The dead officer joined the force in January 2016 and won the Mobile Police Department’s Officer of the Month award in June 2016, Mobile Police Department Chief Lawrence Battiste told reporters, according to the Associated Press. The suspect was identified as Robert Hollie.

Reports said the incident began when a woman, Fonda Poellnitz, was found dead in the middle of the road on Tuesday night. Police had identified the woman’s husband, Robert Hollie, as a person of interest.

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Mueller Catches Lawyer Lying, Brings New Charges

Rachel Maddow reviews recent Ukrainian political history by way of explaining new charges in Robert Mueller's Trump Russia investigation against a lawyer who is also the son-in-law of a Ukrainian-Russian oligarch, Alex van der Zwaan.

Launched in 2008, “The Rachel Maddow Show” follows the machinations of policy making in America, from local political activism to international diplomacy. Rachel Maddow looks past the distractions of political theater and stunts and focuses on the legislative proposals and policies that shape American life - as well as the people making and influencing those policies and their ultimate outcome, intended or otherwise.

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

Survivors of last week’s school shooting in Florida were brought to tears as state lawmakers refused to debate a gun control measure in Tallahassee on Tuesday.

Students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School watched from the gallery as state House members voted down a motion to debate an existing bill that would ban assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition magazines.

HB 219, a bill filed in October, would ban any “selective-fire firearm capable of fully automatic, semiautomatic or burst fire,” as well as several specified rifles including the AR-15 ― the type used in Parkland, Florida, on Wednesday.

Rep. Kionne McGhee (D-Miami) pushed to bring HB 219 out of committee and to the floor.

“I ask that we keep this bill in the conversation about the solution to combat mass shootings alive,” McGhee said, according to the Tampa Bay Times. “While this is an extraordinary procedural move, the shooting at Parkland demands extraordinary action.”

McGhee’s proposal was rejected in a 36-71 procedural vote, the Times reported. A Florida Senate committee, however, endorsed a proposal on Tuesday to put law enforcement officers in every school in the state.

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Aurora borealis turns the sky greener than the ground

These Northern Lights “rainbows” have turned the sky greener than the Earth below. Vitaly Istomin, 26, spent several nights in freezing conditions under the stars in northern Russia’s Khibiny Mountains to capture the aurora’s “rainbows.” (Caters News)

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Even Pat Robertson Is Calling For Stricter Gun Control Laws

Arch-conservative televangelist Pat Robertson appears to have had a change of heart about gun control after last week’s mass shooting at a Florida high school left 17 people dead.

“I’ve got no opposition whatsoever to shooting, but for heaven’s sakes, I don’t think that the general population needs to have automatic weapons,” Robertson said on “The 700 Club” on Tuesday.

“Amen,” an off-camera voice answered.

Robertson, who suffered a stroke earlier this month, asked for a ban on “bump stocks,” which allow semiautomatic weapons to fire as rapidly as machine guns. Weapons with bump stocks were used last year by Stephen Paddock during the Las Vegas shooting, which left 58 people dead and hundreds injured.

Robertson also called for more thorough background checks, including a medical check.

“If somebody is seeing a psychiatrist, is on medication, he or she needs to be prohibited from being turned loose on the general population,” he said. “It’s just got to be, y’know, sensible.”

A gun owner and a hunter, Robertson hasn’t exactly been a voice of moderation in the gun control debate. In 2014, he encouraged churches to arm worshippers.

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Profiles in expediency: 'Dumb' Romney welcomes endorsement of 'con man' Trump

On Feb. 19, President Trump endorsed Mitt Romney’s candidacy for the Senate seat of retiring Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah. Romney accepted, and on its face this seems like a normal exchange of support and gracious acceptance between two prominent politicians: One is the sitting president and the other is a former presidential candidate who is considered an overwhelming favorite. But the relationship between Trump and Romney — who has been criticized for having particularly malleable positions — has followed a long and tortuous path to this point, and more twists and turns likely lie ahead. Here is a timeline of the more head-snapping reversals in recent years:

Feb. 2, 2012: Trump endorses Romney for president. “There are some things that you just can’t imagine happening in your life,” says Romney during a visit to Las Vegas. “This is one of them. Being in Donald Trump’s magnificent hotel and having his endorsement is a delight. I’m so honored and pleased to have his endorsement.”

“It’s my honor, real honor, and privilege to endorse Mitt Romney,” says Trump. “And by the way, this is a great couple. Do you look at this couple?”

March 28, 2012: Fox News floats the idea of Trump as a potential running mate for Romney.

May 29, 2012: Trump hosts a fundraiser for Romney at his hotel and casino in Las Vegas. Trump hosted a fundraiser for the birthday of Romney’s wife, Ann, at his Fifth Avenue home in April, but the joint public appearance is a big deal.

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The Real Face of North Korea Is a Prison State

Millions around the globe gathered around their TVs beginning Feb. 8 to watch the 2018 Winter Olympics, which are taking place in Pyeongchang, South Korea, a mountainous rural village, 110 miles east of Seoul.

As the world turned its gaze to the Korean Peninsula, it witnessed North Korea and South Korea unified, together under one flag, during the opening ceremony.

The symbolic display of unity by the two Koreas has already generated feelings of peace and goodwill on the peninsula. However, the ironic reality is that just 160 miles north of  Pyeongchang is Sariwon City Prison, one of the 30 known political prisons in North Korea.

In 2017, the crisis in North Korea was the most underreported humanitarian issue globally. With an estimated 80,000 to 120,000 North Koreans imprisoned as political criminals, the crisis in North Korea demands the world’s attention.

Prisoners are subject to inhumane living conditions and are subject daily to torture, starvation, rape, and execution.

The labeling of these “political camps” as such is woefully inaccurate. They are essentially death camps, where North Koreans are sent for violations such as being critical of the Kim Jong Un regime or for practicing Christianity.

In his State of the Union address on Jan. 30, President Donald Trump condemned North Korea’s recent threats of nuclear attack, but he also focused on the humanitarian atrocities of the regime as well.

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50 Girls Are Still Missing After Another Boko Haram School Attack

(MAIDUGURI, Nigeria) — About 50 young women remained missing Wednesday after Boko Haram extremists attacked a village in northern Nigeria that is home to a boarding school for girls, provoking fears that they may have met the same fate as those kidnapped from the town of Chibok nearly four years ago.

Abdullahi Bego, a spokesman for the governor in Yobe state, said that authorities had no credible information that those missing from the village of Dapchi were taken by Boko Haram. Some witnesses, however, recalled seeing young girls being taken by the armed militants who also abducted 276 girls from the school in Chibok in April 2014.

“I share the anguish of all the parents and guardians of the girls that remain unaccounted for,” Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari tweeted Wednesday evening. “I would like to assure them that we are doing all in our power to ensure the safe return of all the girls.”

Armed Boko Haram fighters invaded Dapchi on Monday evening, forcing residents, including students of Government Girls Secondary school, to flee into the bushes.

Police and the state ministry of education had initially denied claims that students were abducted.

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

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A garbage truck was on the tracks despite lowered safety gates when it was struck by a train carrying Republican lawmakers in a fatal crash last month in rural Virginia, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said on Wednesday.

Data from a camera mounted on the front of the chartered Amtrak train showed the gates were down at the crossing at the time of the crash, according to a preliminary NTSB report on the Jan. 31 accident.

The report added that "witnesses to the crash reported that the refuse truck entered the crossing after the gates were down."

A passenger on the garbage truck was killed and two others on the truck were injured. No lawmakers were seriously injured but one lawmaker was taken to a hospital as a precaution and released.

The NTSB said previously that the Amtrak train was traveling at 61 miles per hour (98 km per hour) when the engineer applied the brakes in the crash in Crozet, Virginia.

The train was taking lawmakers from Washington to an annual Republican retreat in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia and had hundreds of passengers on board.

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FBI charge British engineer with murdering wife on yacht in Caribbean

A British engineer has been charged by the FBI with murdering his wife after she disappeared at sea as they cruised around the Caribbean on a belated honeymoon.

Lewis Bennett, 41, who holds dual British and Australian citizenship and is originally from Poole, Dorset, was accused of second-degree murder over the death of Isabella Hellmann, 41, on May 15 last year.

He was charged in a Miami court where, according to local television station WPTV, he was also sentenced to seven months in jail for transporting valuable rare coins.

After his wife's disappearance Bennett told investigators she was lost at sea when their 37ft catamaran, Surf into Summer, was struck by an unknown object near the Bahamas.

According to to the FBI Bennett said he had gone below deck and left Ms Hellmann above to keep watch.

He described being woken up at 1am by a jolt and the vessel was taking on water.

Bennett told investigators he could not find his wife and had to abandon ship on a life raft.

In an affidavit FBI special agent James Kelley said the bureau now believed Bennett "knowingly and unlawfully killed" Ms Hellmann.

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

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

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

Benjamin Kelly, an aide to State Rep. Shawn Harrison, R-Tampa, was fired after emailing the Tampa Bay Times' Washington bureau chief Alex Leary to say that David Hogg and Emma Gonzalez, two students who have been extremely vocal about gun laws following the attack, were paid crisis actors.

"Both kids in the picture are not students here but actors that travel to various crisis when they happen," he wrote in his message.

Leary said he had never before spoken to Kelly and that the email was completely unsolicited.

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