- NewsInside EditionMom and Boyfriend Charged in The Murder and Rape Of Her 14-Year-Old Adopted Daughter
Sara Packer and her boyfriend Jacob Sullivan have been charged for the rape and murder of Packer’s 14-year-old adopted daughter, in an attack the couple allegedly planned for more than a year. Packer and Sullivan reportedly tried to commit suicide on Dec 30. “This was a sexual fantasy that was shared between Jacob Sullivan and Sara Packer, and Grace Packer was the object of that rape-murder fantasy,” Bucks County District Attorney Matthew D. Weintraub said.
- WorldReutersEntering Mosul from north, Iraqi army faces gruelling urban combat
By Isabel Coles NORTH OF MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - In the morning, spirits were high among Iraqi troops battling Islamic State for control of Mosul as they advanced on the northern edge of the city, helped by a salvo of rockets fired by the U.S.-led coalition. "It's that time of day," said an American adviser as his Iraqi counterparts rushed to make contact with their men on the ground via walkie-talkie following the blast. Vastly outnumbered and overpowered, Islamic State militants have adopted the strategy of waiting for Iraqi forces to reach their target before launching a counterattack when their enemy is worn out after a day's fighting.
- EntertainmentThe DriveHigh-Performance Drones Sound Like the Future That Star Wars Promised Us
Since the 1960s, the sounds of science fiction have helped to conjure a sense of otherworldly performance. All of a sudden, a couple hundred miles an hour in the real world, across the Bonneville Salt Flats or around the high banking at Daytona, didn't seem so fast. Compared to Star Wars, the growl of a piston engine or the whine of a jet just didn't cut it anymore. But it wasn't real.
- NewsAssociated PressFlorida airport victims: World travelers, a social butterfly
At least four of the five people killed in the Fort Lauderdale airport shooting were on vacation, headed for cruises that promised sun, sand and fun. An official list of victims had not been released by Saturday afternoon. Tragedy struck an Ohio family when Shirley Timmons was slain and her husband critically injured during the airport attack.
NewsAFPNine things Obama will be remembered forIf historians were to write only one thing about Barack Hussein Obama, they would likely note that -- 143 years after slavery was abolished -- a young Illinois senator became the first black president of the United States. In office, Obama sometimes struggled to turn that poetry into the prose of governance. Outgoing president George W. Bush and the Federal Reserve had kicked off the government's first panicked efforts at containment, but Obama faced down ideological opposition to large fiscal stimulus, extending government spending by $831 billion and providing ballast to the economy.
- WorldInternational Business TimesBeijing Announces New Measures To Tackle Smog
Notorious for its high pollution levels, China’s sprawling capital Beijing has been covered under a thick layer of smog for over a week now. Cai Qi, acting mayor of Beijing, addressed the press and Beijing residents during a three-hour meeting and promised tougher measures to tackle the problem, including setting up an environment police force to ensure compliance with the law.
WorldAssociated PressTurkey dismisses more civil servants in post-coup purgeTurkey has dismissed more than 8,000 civil servants for alleged ties to terror organizations, in the latest purge under a state of emergency imposed following the failed July 15 coup attempt. The latest dismissals were announced on the Turkish government's Official Gazette late Friday. Turkey's crackdown through dismissals and the arrest of some 41,000 people was begun to root out followers of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.
- WorldReutersNigeria militants say readying fighters to hit 'enemy' in Niger Delta
A Nigerian militant group, which has claimed a wave of attacks on oil pipelines in the Niger Delta, said on Friday that it had asked its fighters to prepare to fight the "enemy" as authorities were not ready for dialogue. The Niger Delta Avengers had declared a ceasefire last year after staging major attacks on oil facilities crippling the OPEC member's oil output in a fight for more oil revenues to give dialogue with authorities a chance. The government has been holding talks for more than six months with Niger Delta leaders to address grievances of poverty and oil pollution in the southern region but former militants have complained that no progress has been made.
WorldAFPSuspects arrested in Tunisia not linked to Berlin attackThe nephew of the prime suspect in last month's Berlin market attack and three others arrested in Tunisia were not linked to the carnage, a prosecution spokesman said Saturday. Days after the December 19 attack, Tunisia's interior ministry announced the arrest of the nephew of Anis Amri, the suspected Berlin attacker, and two others. Prosecution spokesman Sofiene Sliti told AFP on Saturday that a fourth man had been also arrested.
- NewsInside EditionMom Charged With Capital Murder After Allegedly Stabbing 5-Year-Old Daughter to Death
A mother has been charged with capital murder after she allegedly stabbed her 5-year-old daughter to death in their Texas home on Thursday, according to police. The Hays County Sheriff’s office said they received a 911 call reporting an aggravated assault to the home and when they arrived they found 58-year-old Eustorgio Arellano-Uresti in the driveway with multiple stab wounds and a 10-inch knife in his back pocket, according to the report. Arellano-Uresti told officers that at around 11 a.m. he walked into the kitchen to make lunch when he saw Villanueva take a knife to a back bedroom.
- WorldChristian Science MonitorJerusalem attack spurs fraught questions about young soldiers' response
A Palestinian attack on Israeli soldiers Sunday broke months of relative calm in Jerusalem and underscored a raw debate about how best to protect the state. In the Sunday attack, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said was most likely inspired by the self-declared Islamic State, a Palestinian truck driver mowed down a crowd of soldiers who had just arrived for a tour at a popular overlook in East Jerusalem. "I do not know why 40 soldiers did not open fire," said Eitan Rond, an armed guide who unloaded his 9-mm pistol, though to little effect.
- HealthLiveScience.comCancer Death Rates Fall as Prevention, Treatment Advance
Deaths from cancer in the United States have dropped 25 percent since hitting a peak in 1991, a new report finds. The drop means that 2.1 million fewer people died from cancer between 1991 and 2014 than would have died if cancer death rates had remained at their 1991 level, the researchers said. In the report, the researchers attributed the drop in death rates to reductions in smoking and advances in early detection and treatment.
- WorldReutersTrafficker leaves migrants in freezing German motorway car park
A people smuggler left 19 migrants, including five children, at a motorway parking area in freezing temperatures in southern Germany and fled the scene, police said on Sunday. Police said the temperature was -20 degrees Celsius (-4 degrees Fahrenheit) on Saturday when they found the migrants, one of whom had approached two other people at the parking area to raise the alarm after their driver left them. The migrants, who were not carrying passports, said they came from Iraq, Iran and Syria.
U.S.Elle VideosMichelle Obama Gave Her Final Speech as First Lady FridayToday Michelle Obama honored high school counselors from across the country at the White House—and made her final speech as first lady.
- ScienceInternational Business TimesReal-Life ‘The Day After Tomorrow’?
In what seems to be a leaf out of a fiction movie, one that’s already been made 12 years ago, climate scientists have issued a warning that could have severe ramifications for the world at large, and the Atlantic rim countries, especially those in Europe, specifically. According to a paper published this week in the journal Science Advances said most climate models wrongly assume the relative stability of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). This circulation system carries warm surface water toward Greenland, which sinks as it cools and then flows back toward the equator closer to the seafloor.
PoliticsAssociated PressPaul: Trump backs health repeal, replacement at same timeA Republican senator who challenged Donald Trump for the White House nomination says the president-elect "fully supports" repealing President Barack Obama's health law only when there's a viable alternative to replace it. Republican leaders in the GOP-controlled Congress are moving toward a vote on repeal legislation in coming weeks, but they anticipate a transition period of months or years to a replacement. Some Republican lawmakers are expressing reservations about scrapping the law, which now covers 20 million people, without a near-term replacement.
BusinessReutersAutomakers, suppliers team up to share costs of self-driving carsBy Paul Lienert and Alexandria Sage LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Automotive suppliers and automakers are expanding alliances to develop self-driving car technology that can serve multiple automakers, as the race to put such vehicles on the road separates companies that can go it alone from those that need help sharing the financial and technical burdens. While some companies, such as Tesla Motors, General Motors and Ford Motor, are trying to develop proprietary driverless systems, a larger group of automakers appears to have decided it makes more sense to develop self-driving technology in collaboration with suppliers – as many other features such as anti-lock brakes or radar-enabled cruise control already are. "What's going on in the industry right now is like a hyper version of musical chairs - and the music is still playing," said Gill Pratt, chief executive officer of Toyota Research Institute.
- U.S.Yahoo News Photo StaffPhotos of the day - January 7, 2017
Sled dogs pull their musher during an international dog sled race in Werfenweng, Austria; snow begins to fall in Times Square in New York City as a winter storm passed through the area; and Esteban Santiago, the suspect in the deadly shooting at Fort
NewsAFPFlorida airport reopens after five shot deadFlorida's Fort Lauderdale International Airport was open again Saturday after a shooting rampage by an Iraq war veteran that killed five people, wounded eight, and sent thousands scrambling for safety. Police identified the suspect as 26-year-old Esteban Santiago, who was in custody and being questioned by the FBI over the shooting that shut down the airport, a major gateway to the Caribbean and Latin America. Santiago, who earlier complained that the CIA was forcing him to watch Islamic State jihadist videos, allegedly opened fire randomly with a semi-automatic handgun Friday shortly before 1:00 pm (1800 GMT) in the baggage claim area of Terminal 2.
WorldAFPMore UN observers face probe over dancing with Colombian rebelsThe United Nations is investigating more observers for taking part in a New Year's Eve party at which leftist FARC rebels were present, a UN source said Saturday. The news came just two days after four members of the UN monitoring mission for the Colombian peace process were sacked for dancing with FARC rebels at a New Year's Eve party. UN monitors are overseeing the FARC's disarmament as part of a peace deal the leftist guerrillas signed with the government to end a more than five-decade conflict.
ScienceBGR NewsThere’s strange radio waves hitting Earth from space, and scientists just found the sourceA strange burst of radio waves that has puzzled researchers for years has finally been traced to its source, answering one question but generating many, many more. The discovery was made my scientists at Cornell University along with astronomers from around the world. A decade ago, scientists began detecting fast radio bursts in space, or FRBs for short.
LifestyleMarie Claire VideosProof That Blue Ivy is the Coolest Kid EverIn honor of Blue Ivy’s 5th birthday on January 7th, check out her coolest and most adorable moments yet.
- WorldReutersRafsanjani, dead at 82, was one of the titans of post-revolutionary Iran
By Parisa Hafezi ANKARA (Reuters) - Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who died of a heart attack on Sunday in Tehran, was one of the political titans of post-revolutionary Iran and a friend to moderates who have now lost their chief supporter. Analysts said his death at the age of 82 was a blow to Iran's pragmatist President Hassan Rouhani ahead of presidential elections in May as he played a key role in Rouhani's landslide election victory in 2013. A seasoned politician, he headed the Expediency Council, a body which is intended to resolve disputes between the parliament and a hardline watchdog body, the Guardian Council.
- NewsLiveScience.comHow Tilikum the Orca Changed the Conversation About Animals in Captivity
Tilikum, the orca at the center of the 2013 documentary "Blackfish," has died at SeaWorld Orlando, the marine park announced Friday (Jan. 6). According to SeaWorld, Tilikum died early in the morning. The cause of death is officially unknown, but the killer whale had been under long-term treatment for a persistent bacterial lung infection.
NewsAssociated PressFamily: Shooting suspect 'lost his mind' after tour in IraqThe man police say opened fire with a gun from his checked baggage at a Florida airport had a history of mental health issues — some of which followed his military service in Iraq — and was receiving psychological treatment at his home in Alaska, his relatives said Friday after the deadly shooting. "Only thing I could tell you was when he came out of Iraq, he wasn't feeling too good," his uncle, Hernan Rivera, told The Record newspaper (http://bit.ly/2j04ghF ). In recent years, Santiago had been living in Anchorage, Alaska, his brother, Bryan Santiago, told The Associated Press from Puerto Rico.
