President Obama leads mourners in singing “Amazing Grace” as he delivers a eulogy for the Rev. Clementa Pinckney during funeral services in Charleston, S.C., June 26, 2015. Pinckney was one of nine victims of a mass shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Ever since the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, presidents have been judged on the successes they notch during their first 100 days.
More than two dozen Democratic lawmakers have announced they intend to skip Donald Trump’s inauguration this week to protest the president-elect’s plans for the country. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., told Yahoo News she decided she couldn’t celebrate Trump’s inauguration because of his comments during the campaign about temporarily barring Muslims from entering the country and his vow to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Lee was among a growing handful of Democratic lawmakers who objected last week to the certification of the Electoral College results on the House floor.
Australia said on Monday it was "deeply disappointed" Japan had continued whaling in the Southern Ocean after anti-whaling activists published a photograph of a dead whale, and two days after Australian and Japanese leaders discussed the issue. Australia has long opposed Japanese whaling and the contentious issue was raised in talks between Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Sydney on Saturday, sources familiar with the discussions said. "The Australian government is deeply disappointed that Japan has decided to return to the Southern Ocean this summer to undertake so-called 'scientific' whaling," Australian Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg said on Monday.
Viet Cong veteran Vo Ban Tam remembers the first time he crossed paths with John Kerry on the banks on the Bay Hap river, a day that ended in bloodshed. Almost a half-century later, the now 70-year-old Mekong Delta shrimp farmer locked eyes with the US Secretary of State on Saturday and they warmly grasped hands in mutual respect. Kerry returned to the Vietnam waterway at the end of a visit to the Communist nation, less than a week before he was to leave office, searching for the spot where he won a Silver Star for bravery as a young US Navy lieutenant.
The owners of Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus announced Saturday that they will close the 146-year-old show in May. Kenneth Feld, the chairman and CEO of Feld Entertainment, which owns the circus, said declining attendance combined with high operating costs are the reasons for closing. Ringling Bros. has two touring circuses this season: "Circus Extreme" and "Out of This World." The final show for "Circus Extreme" will be in Providence, Rhode Island, on May 7, and the other will close after a performance in Uniondale, New York, at the Nassau County Coliseum on May 21.
A pendant unearthed at one of the most infamous Nazi death camps may hold a connection to Anne Frank, researchers say. The triangular pendant was discovered by researchers excavating the remains of the Sobibór death camp in Poland, and appears identical to one that belonged to Anne Frank, said officials at Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial on Sunday. Its owner has been identified as Karoline Cohn, a Jewish girl who is thought to have been killed at Sobibór.
Migrants rest by the fire inside a makeshift shelter in an abandoned warehouse in Belgrade, Serbia; a commuter jumps between trains upon arrival at a station, to attend Akheri Munajat, the final supplication during Biswa Ijtema in Tongi, on the outskirts
It's been 8 years of amazing looks from Michele Obama. We'll miss your perfect FLOTUS style!
Elon Musk's SpaceX just proved that they're still one of the best in the rocket launching game. On Saturday, after a more than four month hiatus, SpaceX successfully launched its first Falcon 9 rocket since an explosion in September forced them to ground
Bishop Eddie Long, a controversial megachurch pastor, has died at the age of 63 after a battle with an aggressive cancer, according to his Atlanta church. Long had been reportedly battling health issues for the past few months and In September 2016, Long
Several hundred people have held a rally on behalf of immigrants in Los Angeles, one of many such rallies around the U.S. Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis told them there are 3.6 million immigrants in the county, including a million who may have entered the U.S. illegally.
Isaac Wayne Wilson, 37, was arrested after he was discovered in a parking lot near the Islamic Center of Eastside, where a fire broke out in the middle of the night. Bellevue Police Chief Steve Mylett said Wilson was arrested on suspicion of second degree arson, and on an outstanding warrant for felony first degree malicious mischief in Seattle. Police and fire agencies received several calls alerting them to a fire at the center around 2:45 a.m. Firefighters found heavy fire on the first and second floors, Fire Chief Mark Risen said, adding that firefighters quickly prevented the fire from spreading to other parts of the building.
South Korean prosecutors investigating a major influence-peddling scandal involving impeached President Park Geun-Hye said they would decide on Monday whether to arrest the heir to the giant Samsung group over alleged bribery. Lee Jae-Yong, Samsung Electronics vice chairman and the son of the group's current chairman Lee Kun-Hee, is accused of approving a decision to pay Park's secret confidante Choi Soon-Sil large sums of money to secure favourable decisions. "We will reach a decision on Monday... on whether or not to arrest Lee by taking into account the complexity and the significance of the issue," Lee Kyu-Chul, spokesman for a special team of prosecutors probing the scandal, said Sunday.
President Barack Obama delivered an emotional farewell speech Tuesday to the nation in his hometown of Chicago. (left to right) Malia Obama and her mother Michelle Obama joined President Barack Obama as he delivered
Linguist Zhou Youguang, the man who helped invent the Pinyin system used for writing Chinese worldwide before becoming an outspoken critic of the communist government died on Saturday in Beijing. Zhou, who was probably China's oldest dissenter, died Saturday at his house in the country's capital, a day after having celebrated his 111th birthday, state media said. Zhou is commonly known as the "father of Pinyin", a system for transliterating Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet introduced in the 1950s and now used by hundreds of millions of language learners in China, as well as abroad.
Bahrain on Sunday carried out its first executions since an Arab Spring uprising rocked the country in 2011, putting to death three men found guilty of a deadly bomb attack on police. The executions of the Shiite men drew swift condemnation from human rights groups and sparked intense protests by opponents of the Sunni-ruled government, who see the charges as politically motivated. Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets in several predominantly Shiite communities to protest the executions.
The mind-body connection is more than just a catchphrase: A new study finds that increased levels of stress are indeed linked to greater risk of a heart attack or stroke. Researchers found that the people in the study who had more activity in an area of the brain that regulates the body's response to stress and fear, called the amygdala, were more likely to have a heart attack or stroke than those with less activity in the amygdala, according to the study. "This study identifies, for the first time in animal models or humans, the region of the brain that links stress to the risk of heart attack or stroke," lead study author Dr. Ahmed Tawakol, a cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, said in a statement.
WASHINGTON — You don't need to spend $40 or $50 to get a two-factor authentication (2FA) USB key to help you log into web accounts. Instead, you can build one yourself, or, failing that, buy one for $8 on Amazon. The U2F Zero key. Credit: Conor Patrick
Whether you’re a customer of AT&T, Verizon, Sprint or T-Mobile, you can probably say that at some point you’ve wanted to drive your car through your respective wireless carrier’s front door. Most of us have enough sense to pull ourselves together before we smash the gas pedal, but one Florida woman apparently just couldn’t take it anymore and sped her SUV right through the massive glass wall at a local T-Mobile store. According to an employee of the store next to the T-Mobile outlet, the woman was cruising down the narrow sidewalk in front of the strip of stores before smashing through the glass.
By Timothy Gardner WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump began a long holiday weekend that honors slain black civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. by attacking another rights activist and politician who had said he doesn't see Trump as a "legitimate president". Democratic Representative John Lewis, of Georgia, said on a segment of "Meet the Press" released by NBC on Friday he thought hacking by Russians had helped Trump, a Republican, get elected in November. Lewis said he does not plan to attend Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration, the first time he would miss such an event since being elected to the House in 1986.
Kamiyah Mobley met her birth parents on Saturday at the police department in Walterboro, the South Carolina city where she was raised under a false name, multiple media outlets reported.
A man placed on the FBI's list of 10 most-wanted fugitives after authorities said he killed two men in Milwaukee was arrested Sunday in Texas, the FBI said. Terry A.D. Strickland, 24, was arrested in El Paso and booked into the jail. Authorities said Strickland was among a group of men arguing in front of a Milwaukee home July 17.
From the outside, there's nothing much to say about this nondescript, hulking building in downtown Detroit, once the cradle of American industry. Watches, handbags, appointment books and other accessories carrying the "Made in Detroit" label are turned out here, while the bikes -- made from parts designed in neighboring Wisconsin -- and turntables, a new product, are assembled at the flagship store located nearby. Detroit suffered hugely from the decline of US manufacturing and especially the difficulties facing the "Big Three" -- auto giants General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler.
Eight men own the same wealth as the poorest half of the world's population, a level of inequality which "threatens to pull our societies apart", Oxfam said on Monday ahead of the World Economic Forum opening in Davos. Picked from Forbes' billionaires list, they include Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg who co-founded Facebook, and Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon. Oxfam pointed to a link between the vast gap between rich and poor and growing discontent with mainstream politics around the world.
A lawmaker who has long been critical of Chancellor Angela Merkel's policies says she is leaving the German leader's conservative party, citing discontent over Merkel's approach to migrants. Erika Steinbach, 73, has been a lawmaker for Merkel's Christian Democratic Union since 1990. Steinbach has criticized the most recent Greek bailout and Merkel's welcoming approach to migrants in 2015.