WASHINGTON, D.C. — Incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer said President-elect Donald Trump is disturbed by President Obama’s decision to commute the prison sentence of convicted leaker Chelsea Manning. “I think the president-elect is troubled by this action,” Spicer said during a Wednesday news conference at Trump’s presidential transition team headquarters. Spicer was also asked if Trump wanted to see WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange make good on a promise to allow himself to be extradited to the United States if Manning was given a deal.
Pressed by Democratic senators for his views on the causes of climate change, the Trump administration’s choice to run the Environmental Protection Agency insisted at his confirmation hearing Wednesday morning that his “personal opinion” was “immaterial” to how he would do his job. Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee questioned Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt closely on his history of suing the agency he has been nominated to lead, his statements questioning mainstream climate science and his close ties to the oil and gas industries. Republicans were much friendlier, mostly lamenting the impact of regulations on fossil-fuel industry jobs, something Pruitt promised to take into account.
Months before his death, Osama bin Laden fretted about the Islamic State group's impatient, violent tactics and the fading of Al-Qaeda, documents released by the CIA Thursday showed. The latest release from the trove of documents found when Navy Seals stormed the Al-Qaeda chief's secret Pakistan compound and killed him in 2011 show bin Laden trying to keep his jihadist followers around the world aligned in his war against the United States.
Ricky Gray was pronounced dead at 9:42 p.m. following a lethal injection at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt. Gray showed no emotion as he was walked into the execution chamber wearing blue jeans and handcuffs. Gray was condemned to death in 2006 for the murders of 9-year-old Stella Harvey and 4-year-old sister Ruby, and sentenced to life in prison for the slaying of their parents, Bryan and Kathryn Harvey.
Alpine rescue teams are scrambling to find survivors of a huge avalanche that struck in Italy's Abruzzo region, burying a four star hotel on Wednesday. Authorities said Thursday that dozens might be buried under the snow as rescuers battled blizzard-like conditions in a bid to pull survivors from the Hotel Rigopiano. "Around 30 people are unaccounted for, between guests and workers at the Hotel Rigopiano in Farindola," Fabrizio Curcio, the head of Italy's civil protection department, told reporters.
ABC News' Charli James stops by the National Mall in Washington, D.C to chat with the riders. From the Washington monument behind me and I am here with officer Jack evil and his horse. Guinness I'm they are part of the United States park police mounted.
By Elaine Lies and Megumi Lim TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese hotelier's denial of a 1937 massacre by Japanese troops in the Chinese city of Nanjing has prompted Chinese social media calls for a boycott of travel to Japan, threatening tourist arrivals days before the Lunar New Year holidays. The furor erupted over books by Toshio Motoya, the president of Tokyo-based hotel and real estate developer APA Group, which contain his revisionist views and are placed in every room of the company's 400-plus APA Hotels. In one, printed in English and Japanese and entitled "The Real History of Japan", he says the "Nanking Massacre story" was "impossible", blaming looting and killings on members of a branch of the Chinese military who had shed their uniforms.
A high-rise building in Tehran engulfed by a fire collapsed on Thursday, killing at least 30 firefighters and injuring some 75 people, state media reported. The disaster struck the Plasco building, an iconic structure in central Tehran just north of the capital’s sprawling bazaar. Iran’s state-run Press TV announced the firefighters’ deaths, without giving a source for the information.
A video of a massive alligator walking through a reserve near Lakeland, Florida, had people speculating earlier this week whether it was a hoax. The video, which was uploaded Sunday to Facebook by Florida resident Kim Joiner, shows the massive reptile appearing out of a nearby bush at the Circle B Bar Reserve in Polk County and then casually walking on the reserve's Marsh Rabbit Run. Officials for the county's natural resources division said that while they appreciate the attention the nature reserve has been getting, they are also worried about the safety of visitors and wildlife.
At his final press conference as president of the United States, Barack Obama defended his controversial decision this week to commute convicted leaker Chelsea Manning’s sentence. Obama was asked if he feared that commuting her sentence might send a message that leaking classified information might send the wrong message to groups like WikiLeaks. The Obama administration has accused Russian hackers of sharing information with WikiLeaks to interfere in the U.S. election.
President-elect Donald Trump is known to have an itchy Twitter finger, and says he plans to continue his use of the social media platform after he takes the oath of office. The survey, conducted Jan. 12 to 15, found a vast majority of Democrats (89 percent) have a negative view of Trump’s use of Twitter. In November, Trump said he would be “very restrained” in his use of Twitter as commander in chief, but will reserve the right to use it as a “method” to combat what he perceives as negative stories about him.
The deep-sea sonar search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 may not have found the plane but will reveal more about how land beneath the Indian Ocean formed over millions of years and where oil fields could lie. National geoscience agency Geoscience Australia will soon release detailed sonar mapping of 120,000 square kilometers (46,000 square miles) of seabed that was searched for the wreckage of the Boeing 777 that vanished with 239 passengers and crew on March 8, 2014. The unique information about plate tectonics would interest geoscientists as well as oil and gas explorers, said Australian National University marine geologist Neville Exon, who has advised Geoscience Australia on the sonar data.
An affidavit, filed with the Orange County Clerk of Courts a day after 41-year-old Markeith Loyd was arrested in an abandoned home, shows authorities want to make sure he remains in custody, as is customary for a fugitive facing murder charges. Loyd was arrested Tuesday night after a manhunt that lasted more than a week. Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi said Wednesday that President-elect Donald Trump had a phone conversation with Clayton's husband.
As Constitution Daily counts down to Inauguration Day, we look back at three presidential ceremonies from the 1800s that ended very badly. Mobs descend on Jackson’s White House. For example, there were constant rumors that Abraham Lincoln would be killed at his 1861 inauguration.
Animal rights activists Wednesday demanded the closure of an Indonesian zoo after skeletal sun bears were pictured begging for food from visitors and eating their own dung. The bears at the zoo in the city of Bandung were shown waving their arms in the air inside their enclosure -- with their ribs visible through their fur -- as people hurled food at them. Bandung zoo came under fire last year after the death of a critically endangered Sumatran elephant.
Startling surveillance video posted to Twitter this week shows a woman in New York being hit by a school bus, which then runs her over. The victim was crossing a Brooklyn intersection when she was struck by a yellow mini-bus. She suffered non-life-threatening
In a discussion of OneWest, the name given to the failed bank IndyMac after Mnuchin and a group of investors took it over, Brown asked during Mnuchin’s Senate confirmation hearing, “Is it true that OneWest’s independent audit firm found it violated the Civil Service Relief Act by initiating foreclosures on 54 active duty military families? Then-Attorney General Kamala Harris — who was elected to the U.S. Senate in November — declined to pursue charges.
By Paola Totaro LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has launched a raft of lawsuits that could see the U.S. billionaire secure full ownership of his island hideaway from local Hawaiian families who retain rights over the land dating back generations. Documents filed on Dec. 30 in the Hawaii State circuit court - and reported in the Honolulu Star Advertiser newspaper - show that three Zuckerberg companies filed the lawsuits under what is known as 'quiet title and partition'. Court papers seen by the Thomson Reuters Foundation reveal that more than 300 people are named in one action alone.
Four strong earthquakes on Wednesday shook the same region of central Italy that suffered deadly temblors last year, sending quake-rattled residents into panic and further isolating towns that have been buried under more than a meter (3 feet) of snow for days. Premier Paolo Gentiloni said it appeared no one was killed, but that it was a "difficult day" for Italy. Several towns and hamlets in the quake zone had already sounded the alarm in recent days that they were without electricity and were isolated from highways due to the unusually heavy snowfall that has blanketed much of central Italy.
Protests erupted both outside and inside a city council meeting in suburban Boston Wednesday night as local officials heard public comments about how police there has treated undocumented immigrants. People gathered outside of city hall with picket signs demonstrating against the prospect of the tony Massachusetts town of Newton becoming a so-called sanctuary city, where the local law enforcement does not coordinate with federal authorities to deport illegal immigrants. Some of the protesters in and outside of city hall could be seen holding signs that read "NO SANCTUARY CITY" as well as American flags.
West African troops entered The Gambia on Thursday to bolster its new President Adama Barrow, as Gambians erupted in celebration at his inauguration to succeed longtime leader Yahya Jammeh, who has refused to quit. Barrow was sworn in at The Gambia's embassy in Dakar in neighbouring Senegal after Jammeh has refused to step down despite international pressure following his December election loss. Dressed all in white, 51-year-old Barrow waved to a crowd of thousands of jubilant Gambians at an inauguration ending Jammeh's 22-year rule.
The man accused of killing an Orlando police officer and his pregnant girlfriend said he plans to represent himself at trial, but not without some choice words for the judge. "Y'all portraying this s--t to the news people like I just went there and shot this girl when there were other guns found on the scene," Markeith Loyd told the judge in an unruly first court appearance Thursday. "A gun was pulled on me first, but y'all acting like I just went there and shot her," he said before he was ordered held without bail on charges he murdered his pregnant ex-girlfriend.
Why swing an ax when you don't have to? From Popular Mechanics
Six carefully selected scientists have entered a man-made dome on a remote Hawaii volcano as part of a human-behavior study that could help NASA as it draws up plans for sending astronauts on long missions to Mars. The NASA-funded project will study the psychological difficulties associated with living in isolated and confined conditions for an extended period. "We're hoping to figure out how best to select individual astronauts, how to compose a crew and how to support that crew on long-duration space missions," said principal investigator Kim Binsted, a University of Hawaii science professor.
Late last year, UAW representative Bill Johnson said something he possibly shouldn't have-the Bronco and the Ranger are coming back. For Ford fans who want a midsize pickup or a competent off-roader, this was huge news. Americans can't get enough trucks and SUVs right now, making it a perfect time for Ford to expand its lineup.