Archived threads in /news/ - Current News - 162. page

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The 17-storey Plasco building, which was built more than 50 years ago, set on fire at 8am this morning.

http://metro.co.uk/2017/01/19/iconic-high-rise-building-collapses-in-tehran-after-devastating-fire-6390584/#ixzz4WCCf0OtC

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Can anyone point me towards articles of interest in the newly declassified CIA documents?

https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/collection/stargate

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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/18/edward-snowden-allowed-to-stay-in-russia-for-a-couple-of-years

>Edward Snowden’s leave to remain in Russia has been extended for three years, his lawyer has said, as a Russian official said the whistleblower would not be extradited to the US even if relations improved under the incoming president, Donald Trump.

>Snowden’s Russian lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, told RIA Novosti news agency that the permit had been extended until 2020. He also said that as of next year, Snowden would have the right to apply for Russian citizenship.

>Earlier on Wednesday, Maria Zakharova, a foreign ministry spokeswoman, wrote on Facebook that Snowden’s right to stay had recently been extended “by a couple of years”. Her post came in response to a suggestion from the former acting CIA director Michael Morell that Vladimir Putin might hand over Snowden to the US, despite there being no extradition treaty between the countries.

>Morell wrote a column for the website The Cipher Brief in which he said handing over Snowden could be “the perfect inauguration gift” from the Russian president to Trump.

>Zakharova mocked Morell for not knowing, despite his intelligence background, that Snowden’s leave to remain had been extended. She added that it would be unthinkable for Russia to hand over Snowden.

>“The essence of what this CIA man is suggesting is the ideology of betrayal. You’ve let it slip, Mr Morell, that for your agency it’s quite normal to offer up people as gifts, and to give up those who are seeking protection.”

>The announcement came hours after the outgoing US president, Barack Obama, commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning. The whistleblower, who was serving a 35-year prison term, will go free in May.
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http://denver.cbslocal.com/2017/01/16/maserati-fatal-crash-highlands-ranch-colorado/

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http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/09/business/volkswagen-diesel-emissions-investigation-settlement.html

>The Federal Bureau of Investigation has arrested a Volkswagen executive who faces charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, two people with knowledge of the arrest said on Sunday, marking an escalation of the criminal investigation into the automaker’s diesel emissions cheating scandal.

>Oliver Schmidt, who led Volkswagen’s regulatory compliance office in the United States from 2014 to March 2015, was arrested on Saturday by investigators in Florida and is expected to be arraigned on Monday in Detroit, said the two people, a law enforcement official and someone familiar with the case.

>After a study by West Virginia University first raised questions over Volkswagen’s diesel motors in early 2014, Mr. Schmidt played a central role in trying to convince regulators that excess emissions were caused by technical problems rather than by deliberate cheating. Much of the data presented to regulators was fabricated, officials of the California Air Resources Board have said.

>Mr. Schmidt continued to represent Volkswagen after the company admitted in September that cars were programmed to dupe regulators. He appeared before a committee of the British Parliament in January, telling legislators that Volkswagen’s behavior was not illegal in Europe.

>Lawyers representing Mr. Schmidt did not respond to requests for comment late Sunday. Officials at the Justice Department also declined to comment, as did an F.B.I. spokesman in Detroit.”
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>Lawsuits filed against Volkswagen by the New York and Massachusetts state attorneys general accused Mr. Schmidt of playing an important role in the carmaker’s efforts to conceal its emissions cheating from United States regulators.
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http://www.statesman.com/news/national/person-drives-385k-ferrari-off-bridge-austin-goes-airborne-for-feet-officials-say/oZBu4bmh8MaBlavtLmmLxH/

>A person who was charged with driving under the influence drove a $385,000 Ferrari off a bridge in Austin, Texas, went airborne for 40 feet and crashed into the woods while speeding on Friday night, Austin fire officials said Tuesday.

>The driver and two other occupants had only minor injuries, fire officials said.

>A witness who saw the crash estimated the driver was going over 100 mph, fire officials said. The driver failed to make the turn after passing over the Redbud Trail bridge as he or she headed toward Westlake Drive, officials said.

>Fire officials did not release the driver’s name.

http://keyetv.com/news/local/385k-ferrari-destroyed-in-suspected-drunk-driving-crash-in-west-austin

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http://www.reuters.com/article/us-davos-meeting-inequality-idUSKBN150009?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FbusinessNews+%28Business+News%29

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http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/12/investing/exxon-loses-climate-change-ruling/

>ExxonMobil has lost a key battle in an investigation into whether the oil giant misled the public about the dangers of climate change.

>A Massachusetts judge ordered Exxon (XOM) on Wednesday to hand over more than four decades of the company's climate change research.

>The court rejected Exxon's emergency motion to kill the demand from Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, who is investigating allegations the company ignored internal scientific research going back to the 1970s.

>The ruling came on the same day that longtime Exxon boss Rex Tillerson was being grilled by Congress about the company's climate change tactics at his secretary of state hearing. Tillerson, who stepped down last month as CEO after a decade in charge, repeatedly ducked questions about the issue from U.S. Senators.

>Asked if he lacks the knowledge to respond or is simply refusing to answer, Tillerson said, "A little of both."

>Last April, Massachusetts demanded Exxon turn over documents going back to 1976 related to the company's study of carbon emissions and the effects of those emissions on the climate.

>This week Suffolk County Superior Court Judge Heidi Brieger upheld the attorney general's demand.

>"Exxon must now end its obstructive tactics and come clean about whether it misled Massachusetts consumers and investors about what it knew about climate change, its causes and effects," the Massachusetts attorney general's office said in a statement.

>However, Exxon didn't immediately signal whether it's going to comply with the order.

>"We are reviewing the ruling to determine next steps," Exxon said in a statement.
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> https://ca.news.yahoo.com/vaccine-race-amid-fears-terrorists-could-unleash-airborne-black-death-105126900.html
> Of the pneumonic plague, Dr Chopra, working to create a vaccine with America’s Department of Defense, said:
> Terrorists can EASILY grow the bacteria and make the strains resistant to antibiotics.
> The pneumonic plague is very contagious and very hard to treat. It could kill millions.

Sure, go ahead, tell the dangerous, brain-dead terrorists how they can more "easily" kill people with less effort (though he may only be exaggerating to get funding, and likely is). And then, I'm repeating it here myself, so...

So, isn't it a good thing they're brain dead or they could cause a lot more damage than they do now (poisoning water supplies, etc). Not that society isn't doing a good job of global destruction and suicide itself, because it is. It's probably the one thing in which society excels at the most. But then, it's not as if anyone has the answer to sustainability or peace on earth, how to help all the brain-damaged, far less deal with all the brain-dead terrorists.

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http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/17/politics/haley-un-confirmation-hearing/

>South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to be UN ambassador, will question whether the US's funding of the world body is worth it in her opening testimony Wednesday at her Senate confirmation hearing.

>Haley is expected to rap the UN for its treatment of Israel and indicate that she thinks the US should reconsider its contribution of 22% of the annual budget.

>"Are we getting what we pay for?" she asks in a copy of her opening statement obtained by CNN.

>"The UN and its specialized agencies have had numerous successes," Haley is set to say. "However, any honest assessment also finds an institution that is often at odds with American national interests and American taxpayers ... I will take an outsider's look at the institution."

>In her opening statement, Haley focuses largely on one international issue: Israel.

>She said a December UN Security Council resolution that calls on Israel to stop settlement construction in Palestinian areas is "damaging" and a reflection of the UN's "long-history of anti-Israel bias." That resolution passed when the US abstained from voting.

>"Nowhere has the UN's failure been more consistent and more outrageous than in its bias against our close ally Israel," Haley will say. "Last month's passage of UN Resolution 2334 was a terrible mistake, making a peace agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians harder to achieve."
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http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2017/01/16/youtube-restores-influential-conservative-websites-channel.html

>The YouTube channel of influential conservative politics and law website Legal Insurrection, which was controversially removed by the video sharing service last week, has been restored.

>YouTube had cited copyright infringement claims when it took the channel down on Jan.12.

>Legal Insurrection founder and publisher and Cornell University Law Professor William Jacobson told FoxNews.com that YouTube had restored the channel Sunday.

>"While I'm glad our YouTube channel is restored, the fact remains that we were removed without any prior notice or chance to defend ourselves against what we believe are unjustified copyright claims,” he told FoxNews.com, via email. "We intend to fight the copyright claims if they are pursued in court."

>On Friday the publisher received notification from YouTube that the copyright claims were filed by the Modern Languages Association (MLA) based on audio posted of a recent MLA vote on a resolution to boycott Israeli universities. The boycott resolution at the MLA Delegate Assembly failed.

>The audio of the MLA vote has not been restored to the YouTube channel. Legal Insurrection has filed a “counter-notification” with YouTube contesting the copyright claims, according to Jacobson, who says that the MLA has 10-14 business days to seek relief in court. “If they don't, or if they are unsuccessful, then YouTube will restore the contested items,” he added.
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http://www.npr.org/2017/01/10/509176361/alaskan-village-citing-climate-change-seeks-disaster-relief-in-order-to-relocate

>The tiny village of Newtok near Alaska's western coast has been sliding into the Ninglick River for years. As temperatures increase — faster there than in the rest of the U.S. — the frozen permafrost underneath Newtok is thawing. About 70 feet of land a year erode away, putting the village's colorful buildings, some on stilts, ever closer to the water's edge.

>Now, in an unprecedented test case, Newtok wants the federal government to declare these mounting impacts of climate change an official disaster. Villagers say it's their last shot at unlocking the tens of millions of dollars needed to relocate the entire community

>Usually, the president, with input from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, declares a disaster after a specific catastrophic event. But Newtok is asking for the declaration based on mounting damage from erosion and thawing permafrost over the past decade.

>The ultimate decision on whether to declare a disaster lies with the president. Newtok's leaders hope to get an answer before President Obama leaves office next week.

If you look at pic-related you can see the temperatures are rising more in the north than elsewhere. So while most of the US has only experienced mild warming so far, parts of Alaska have experienced pretty significant warming already which will continue to get worse.

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http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/11/politics/pena-nieto-donald-trump-mexico-wall/

>Washington (CNN)Mexico's president reiterated his nation will not pay for a wall along the US-Mexico border just hours after President-elect Donald Trump doubled-down on his campaign pledge to force the country to do so.

>Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto made his comments at the end of a speech at an annual gathering of senior Mexican diplomats at the National Palace Wednesday. While stressing his desire for a positive relationship between the two countries and naming several issues on which he said they could cooperate, Peña Nieto assured his nation they would not be footing the bill for Trump's wall.

>"It is evident that we have some differences with the new government of the United States, like the topic of the wall, that Mexico of course will not pay," Peña Nieto said in the address.

>In the days following Congress coming back into session, reports have emerged saying Trump has moved to break with part of his signature campaign pledge -- telling members of Congress that US taxpayers would pay for the border wall and not Mexico. But at his news conference on Wednesday, Trump vociferously denied these reports in part.
"Reports went out last week, 'Oh, Mexico is not going to pay for the wall because of a reimbursement.' What's the difference? I want to get the wall started," Trump said.

>He said the US would move to build the wall quickly, using US money to fund the project at first before getting Mexico to reimburse the US. As for the mechanism he would use to force Mexico's hand, Trump was noncommittal outside of pledging it would indeed occur.

>"We're going to build a wall. I could wait about a year-and-a-half until we finish our negotiations with Mexico, which we'll start immediately after we get to office, but I don't want to wait," Trump said.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/us-goldman-sachs-protest-idUSKBN15202G

>Dozens of protesters gathered outside of Goldman Sachs Group Inc headquarters on Tuesday to rally against President-elect Donald Trump's picking several former executives of the Wall Street bank for top jobs in his administration.

>Some of the 50 or so protesters wore swamp-monster masks in reference to Trump's pledge to "drain the swamp" that he said Washington has become and get rid of special interests. About 20 of them brought sleeping bags, intending to camp outside 200 West Street until Trump's inauguration on Friday.

>Goldman Sachs security guards sent employees and guests to entrances on the north side of the building on the rainy evening as protesters unrolled green sleeping bags on the southwest corner.

>In an emailed statement, Goldman Sachs spokeswoman Tiffany Galvin said the bank respects "every individual's rights to assembly and free speech."

>She declined to comment on the protesters' objections to Trump's nominations of ex-Goldman employees including Steve Mnuchin, Trump's pick to lead the U.S. Treasury Department. Others include Gary Cohn, who had been chief operating officer before becoming Trump's economic adviser, and Dina Powell, who left her position as Goldman's head of philanthropic investing to do the same.

>Goldman Sachs had long been viewed as Wall Street's most prestigious and profitable bank with so many executives leaving for high-profile government positions it earned the nickname "Government Sachs." But in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, Goldman instead found itself blamed by politicians and activists for profiting from the implosion of the mortgage market.

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>Connecticut politician who was arrested for grabbing a woman's crotch insists the 'little pinch' was a 'playful gesture'
>Christopher von Keyserling was charged with sexual assault on Wednesday
>The 71-year-old said he 'loved' not having to be 'politically correct' anymore
>He called the woman a 'lazy, bloodsucking union employee' before pinching her
>The incident occurred December 8, 2016, in Greenwich, Connecticut
>He has served on the local Town Meeting board since 1985

>a surveillance camera captured the interaction that was consistent with the victim's sequence of events.

>His lawyer, Phil Russell, said the exchange was 'jocular' and his client would be pleading not guilty, according to the Greenwich Time.
>He said to the paper: 'There was a playful gesture, in front of witnesses. It was too trivial to be considered anything of significance.
>'To call it a sexual assault is not based in reality.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4123160/Connecticut-politician-arrested-grabbing-woman-s-groin-insists-little-pinch-playful-gesture.html