| U.S. rescue mission for Foley, others failed Posted: 20 Aug 2014 04:36 PM PDT  Troops tried to find James Foley, other U.S. hostages in Syria this summer, but to no avail.
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| Video: Cop in Ferguson shooting was lauded for previous struggle Posted: 20 Aug 2014 11:45 AM PDT  New video turned over by the city of Ferguson shows Police Officer Darren Wilson receiving an award for "outstanding police work" during a struggle with a previous suspect.
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| Officer who pointed gun, cursed at protesters suspended Posted: 20 Aug 2014 03:59 PM PDT  Officials say a police officer who was part of the effort to keep peace during protests in Ferguson has been suspended for pointing a semi-automatic assault rifle at demonstrators, then cursing and threatening to kill one of them.
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| Convicted killer Jodi Arias wins delay in penalty phase retrial Posted: 20 Aug 2014 12:15 PM PDT  Convicted killer Jodi Arias, who could face the death penalty for the murder of her ex-boyfriend at his Phoenix area home more than six years ago, won a three-week delay on Wednesday in the retrial of the penalty phase of the case. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sherry Stephens granted a request by Arias, who is acting as her own attorney in the penalty phase retrial, to push back jury selection until Sept. 29, according to a court spokeswoman. Arias, 34, asked for the delay from Sept. 8 because of problems meeting with a potential witness, the spokeswoman said. The judge's decision came after a closed-door hearing on Wednesday morning and was announced later by the court. A state jury convicted Arias in May 2013 of killing Travis Alexander in a headline-grabbing case that was broadcast live on the Internet and attracted thousands of avid trial watchers nationwide.
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| The other U.S. reporter ISIL is holding Posted: 20 Aug 2014 08:32 AM PDT  Steven Sotloff's family is asking the White House to do everything it can to free him.
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| Afghanistan gives NYT journalist 24 hours to leave country Posted: 20 Aug 2014 01:18 PM PDT  Afghanistan has given a New York Times reporter 24 hours to leave the country, accusing him of not cooperating with an investigation into his reporting, the Attorney General's office said on Wednesday. Matthew Rosenberg, 40, was summoned for questioning on Tuesday after the newspaper ran a story about officials discussing plans to form an interim government and "seize power" if a deadlock over the presidential election failed to break soon. "Due to the lack of proper accountability and non-cooperation, the Attorney General's office has decided that Matthew Rosenberg should leave Afghanistan within 24 hours," the office said in a statement. "We were also never informed of a formal investigation and we do not understand how insisting on the right to a lawyer is not cooperating." Afghanistan is in the midst of a ballot that has dragged on for months, with both candidates claiming victory after the June 14 run-off and allegations of mass fraud threatening to derail the process.
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| Ukrainian fighter plane shot down as clashes kill dozens Posted: 20 Aug 2014 01:35 PM PDT  A Ukrainian warplane was blown out of the sky over rebel-held territory Wednesday as fierce clashes between government troops and pro-Russian insurgents left dozens of civilians dead. Fighting intensified as Kiev appeared to ramp up a deadly offensive to crush the ailing rebellion in the east ahead of a fresh round of diplomacy that will see the presidents of Russia and Ukraine meet next week for the first time in months. Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said a Su-25 jet was shot close to the second-largest insurgent bastion of Lugansk, where government forces claim to have battled back control over several districts in the past few days. Clashes in and around the other major rebel stronghold of Donetsk killed 43 civilians in the past 24 hours, local authorities said.
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| Obama ‘heartbroken’ by Foley beheading Posted: 20 Aug 2014 10:28 AM PDT  But the president vowed to press on with U.S. operations to eliminate ISIL's "cancer."
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| Ferguson cop in Michael Brown shooting had ‘serious facial injury' Posted:  The Ferguson police officer who shot and killed an unarmed teenager reportedly suffered "a serious facial injury" in the altercation before firing the fatal shots.
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| Airstrike kills wife, child of Hamas commander Posted: 20 Aug 2014 12:53 PM PDT  JERUSALEM (AP) — Hamas' shadowy military chief escaped an apparent assassination attempt that killed his wife and 2-year-old son, the militant group said Wednesday as Israeli premier: 'We will not stop' Gaza operation
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| Calif. patient tested for possible Ebola exposure Posted: 20 Aug 2014 10:19 AM PDT  Blood samples from a patient at a Northern California hospital, who is suspected of having been exposed to the deadly Ebola virus, will be tested by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, officials said. There have been no confirmed cases of Ebola in the United States, though two American relief workers who contracted the disease in Liberia were flown back to America for treatment earlier this month. In the latest case, a patient admitted to South Sacramento Medical Center in California's state capital may have been exposed to the Ebola virus, Kaiser Permanente, the company that operates the hospital, said in a statement Tuesday.
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| Marine killed in crash on surprise visit to little brother Posted: 20 Aug 2014 09:44 AM PDT  FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) — A Colorado Marine killed in a crash in Utah last week was on his way home to surprise his little brother on the first day of school.
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| China, Russia, Egypt scold US on aftermath in Ferguson Posted: 20 Aug 2014 08:50 AM PDT  By Angus MacSwan LONDON (Reuters) - Governments scolded by the United States over their human rights records have seized on racial unrest and a police crackdown in the Missouri town of Ferguson to wag their fingers back in disapproval. Adversaries and uneasy allies from Russia and Iran to China and Egypt have accused the United States of hypocrisy as images of police brandishing lethal weapons and tear-gassing protesters have been shown around the world. Many of the countries draw criticism of their own democratic credentials from independent rights group as well as the U.S. Nonetheless, activists say the events in Ferguson, where the shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white policeman has provoked 11 nights of protests, undermine the United States' credibility in criticizing others.
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| Highest US authorities: ISIS video authentic Posted: 20 Aug 2014 08:47 AM PDT  Analysis of video showing journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff indicates it's for real.
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| Zombie fungus has horrific way of spreading Posted: 20 Aug 2014 07:50 AM PDT  A fungus that turns worker ants into zombie henchmen has a surprisingly clever strategy to recruit new hosts. The parasitic fungus in question, Ophiocordyceps camponoti-rufipedis, is named for the species of carpenter ant that it inhabits, Camponotus rufipes.
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| Ashamed Jackie Chan apologizes for son's drug bust Posted: 20 Aug 2014 07:22 AM PDT  BEIJING (AP) — Jackie Chan apologized to the public Wednesday over his son's detention on drug charges in Beijing, saying he's ashamed and saddened.
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| Chicago hostage standoff ends, 4 freed Posted: 20 Aug 2014 04:33 PM PDT  Two suspects captured ending deadlock that lasted more than 20 hours.
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| Macy's settles racial profiling suit to tune of six-figure sum Posted: 20 Aug 2014 08:29 AM PDT  The retailer will also adopt new policies on police access to its security camera monitors.
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| Big mistake leads wanted man right into cops' hands Posted: 20 Aug 2014 06:28 AM PDT  SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Authorities say a wanted man has been arrested after he rear-ended a Spokane, Washington, detective's car.
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| More weapons heading for Iraq's kurds, from unlikely source Posted: 20 Aug 2014 05:52 AM PDT  BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany is prepared to send arms to Kurdish security forces in northern Iraq fighting Islamic State militants, Germany's foreign and defence ministers said on Wednesday. Military equipment such as helmets and security vests would be sent immediately, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said, adding that Berlin had agreed also to send weapons. "We can imagine providing further equipment, including weapons. Great Britain, Italy and France have decided to send such goods and we are prepared to do so too," he told reporters. ...
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| Massive humanitarian airlift to N. Iraq starts Posted: 20 Aug 2014 06:49 AM PDT A humanitarian airlift to northern Iraq began on Wednesday, kicking off a 10-day operation to provide tents and other aid to half a million displaced people who are struggling for survival, the United Nations' refugee agency UNHCR said. "This is a massive logistics operation ... to help the hundreds of thousands of desperate people who have fled suddenly with nothing but their lives and are now struggling to survive in harsh conditions," said U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres. Hundreds of thousands have fled their homes since the militant Islamic State group swept through much of the north and west of Iraq in June, threatening to break up the country. Iraq's escalating crisis means that the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq is now hosting more than 600,000 internally displaced civilians, including more than 200,000 people who fled the Sinjar area since early August, the UNHCR said. In all, an estimated 1.2 million people have been uprooted in Iraq so far this year, including half a million in the western Anbar region, it said. |
| UK searches for info on Foley's killer Posted: 20 Aug 2014 05:33 AM PDT  British government "urgently investigating" identity of hooded, apparently British executioner.
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| Fears Ebola has spread to another African country Posted: 20 Aug 2014 06:19 AM PDT  Democratic Republic of Congo has sent its health minister and a team of experts to the remote northern Equateur province after several people died there from a disease with Ebola-like symptoms, a local official and a professor said on Wednesday. "An illness is spreading in Boende but we don't know the origin," said Michel Wangi, a spokesman for the governor's office. "The government has sent a team of experts from the INRB(National Institute of Biomedical Research) this morning led by the health minister (Felix) Kabange Numbi and acting governor Sebastian Impeto." A professor accompanying the delegation in the presidential plane confirmed that they were en route this morning to find out "the exact nature of the illness that caused the Boende deaths". An Equateur resident who asked not to be named said that around ten people had died, including four health care workers, after suffering from fever, diarrhoea and bleeding from the ears and nostrils - all symptoms of the deadly Ebola virus.
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| What happens when an old, dead oil well gets 're-fracked'? Posted: 20 Aug 2014 02:29 PM PDT  Hydraulic fracturing, which has upended global energy markets by lifting U.S. Canada's Encana Corp invested $2 million to refrack two wells in Louisiana's Haynesville shale formation earlier this year, after seeing its production in the area dip 27 percent from 2012 levels. "There were a significant number of wells that we considered understimulated," said David Martinez, Encana's senior manager for Haynesville development. Using minuscule plastic balls, known as diverting agents, pumped at high speeds with water into the old wells, most of which are three to five years old, Encana blocked some the older fractures, or cracks. "The thought is that the diverting agent will go to the cracks with the least amount of pressure," bypassing cracks with higher pressure and boosting the pressure of the entire well so output climbs, Martinez said. He said the process can't be as precisely controlled as an initial round of hydraulic fracturing, in which water, chemicals and sand into are blasted into rock to unlock oil and gas.
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| North Korea insults John Kerry over his looks Posted: 20 Aug 2014 12:33 AM PDT  SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — In its latest personal attack on a prominent official from a rival country, North Korea on Wednesday called U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry a wolf with a "hideous lantern jaw."
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| Remembering James Foley, killed by ISIS Posted: 20 Aug 2014 12:43 PM PDT  Journalist "gave his life trying to expose the world to the suffering of the Syrian people," says mother.
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| Disaster hits Hiroshima, 36 dead Posted: 20 Aug 2014 04:36 AM PDT  By Toru Hanai HIROSHIMA (Reuters) - At least 36 people, including several children, were killed in Japan on Wednesday, when landslides triggered by torrential rain slammed into the outskirts of the western city of Hiroshima, and the toll could rise further, police said.
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| Stunning sight above Moscow angers Kremlin Posted: 20 Aug 2014 04:45 AM PDT  A Ukrainian flag was unfurled on the top of a Moscow skyscraper within sight of the Kremlin on Wednesday, officials said, as fighting in eastern Ukraine has frayed bilateral ties. The Soviet star crowning the Stalin-era skyscraper, located just a kilometre (half a mile) from the Kremlin, was also painted in the yellow and blue colours of the national flag. "The flag was attached by unidentified criminals to the top of the Kotelnicheskaya Embankment skyscraper," a spokesman for the Russian emergencies ministry, Roman Kilkeyev, told AFP. Tensions between Moscow and Kiev have soared since Viktor Yanukovich was chased from power in Ukraine and replaced with a pro-Western government in February.
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| Ferguson protests smaller, more subdued Posted: 20 Aug 2014 04:28 PM PDT  Despite some clashes, the overall scene was more restrained than the past five nights.
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| Missy Franklin to swim freestyle, test sore back Posted: 20 Aug 2014 04:54 PM PDT  GOLD COAST, Australia (AP) — Multiple Olympic and world champion Missy Franklin will swim in the 200-meter freestyle to test her sore back in the first event at the Pan Pacific championships.
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| Calgon Take Me Away: Sad Leopard Print Bath Has Been Having Bad Day Since the 80s Posted: 20 Aug 2014 04:54 PM PDT  From the street, all is well with the placid white late-late Victorian duplex on Arguello Boulevard in the Inner Richmond. Inside, however, the bathroom appears to be in the throes of a midlife crisis. And judging from the wear...
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| Brazil Socialists name presidential candidate after Campos death Posted: 20 Aug 2014 04:53 PM PDT  Brazil's Socialist party named popular environmentalist Marina Silva as presidential candidate Wednesday, replacing her late running mate Eduardo Campos after his plane crash death last week. Campos's death has radically shaken the electoral landscape ahead of the October vote, possibly setting up his former vice presidential candidate Silva to unseat incumbent Dilma Rousseff in a runoff, according to the latest poll. PSB president Roberto Amaral said party leaders had chosen Silva unanimously to replace her late running mate at the top of the ticket.
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| U.S. military tried, but failed to rescue journalist Foley, other hostages Posted: 20 Aug 2014 04:51 PM PDT  The unsuccessful rescue operation "involved air and ground components and was focused on a particular captor network within ISIL," the Pentagon said in a statement, using a different name for the militant group. "Unfortunately, the mission was not successful because the hostages were not present at the targeted location." President Barack Obama authorized the mission "earlier this summer," Lisa Monaco, Obama's top counter terrorism aide, said in a separate statement. Foley, 40, was executed by an Islamic State militant in a video that surfaced on the Internet on Tuesday.
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| Giants win protest, rain-shortened game to resume Posted: 20 Aug 2014 04:50 PM PDT  CHICAGO (AP) — The San Francisco Giants have won their protest filed with Major League Baseball, and will now get to resume a rain-shortened game the Chicago Cubs thought they had won.
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| New to Market: 1910 Train & Williams Craftsman in HLP Asking $1.2 Million Posted: 20 Aug 2014 04:50 PM PDT  There seems to be quite a bumper crop of pedigreed Craftsmen hitting the market of late. Joining the fun this week is a rather lovely bungalow designed in 1910 by the firm...
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| All Tips Are Appreciated: Oh boy, do we love our... Posted: 20 Aug 2014 04:50 PM PDT  Oh boy, do we love our tipsters something fierce. We appreciate every single tidbit that you send in via the tipline. Remember, we work for you, so thanks and keep the good dirt coming! For those of you who might...
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| JPMorgan, BofA to raise junior banker pay by 20 percent: sources Posted: 20 Aug 2014 04:49 PM PDT  By David Henry and Peter Rudegeair NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co and Bank of America Corp are planning to hike salaries of junior employees by at least 20 percent, people familiar with the proceedings said. JPMorgan executives are determined to pay competitively with other banks and are looking at salary increases of at least 20 percent for some junior employees, a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. Junior bankers at Bank of America Corp will also receive a raise of at least 20 percent, according to a person familiar with the matter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc is also planning to raise pay for junior bankers by 20 percent next year, the New York Post reported on Wednesday.
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| ABC Developing 'Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth' as TV Sitcom Posted: 20 Aug 2014 04:46 PM PDT  Astronaut Chris Hadfield's down-to-Earth advice is now the basis for a television sitcom. ABC on Tuesday (Aug. 19) committed to the production of a pilot episode for a family comedy inspired by Hadfield's best-selling book, "An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth" (Little, Brown and Co., 2013), Deadline Hollywood reports. Hadfield returned to Earth in May 2013 after a five-month stay on board the International Space Station. His cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" was watched more than 20 million times on YouTube.
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| Photographer sues Bieber over Hawaii altercation Posted: 20 Aug 2014 04:45 PM PDT  LOS ANGELES (AP) — A photographer sued Justin Bieber and one of his bodyguards Wednesday for assault and infliction of emotional distress over an altercation on Hawaiian beach late last year.
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