- NewsYahoo NewsObama’s ‘favorite general’ wins pardon in leak probe
Retired Marine Gen. James Cartwright. President Obama gave a full pardon Tuesday to retired Gen. James “Hoss” Cartwright, who was convicted of lying to the FBI during an investigation into a leak about American efforts to sabotage the Iranian nuclear program. The pardon followed an intense lobbying campaign on behalf of Cartwright that included expressions of support, relayed by Cartwright’s lawyer, from former President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, according to sources familiar with the effort.
PoliticsAssociated PressDeVos: Won't dismantle public schools as education secretaryIn a sometimes contentious confirmation hearing, education secretary pick Betsy DeVos pledged that she would not seek to dismantle public schools amid questions by Democrats about her qualifications, political donations and long-time work advocating for charter schools and school choice. DeVos said she would address "the needs of all parents and students" but that a one-size-fits-all model doesn't work in education. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont asked DeVos outright if she would have gotten the job had it not been for her family's political contributions.
WorldReutersSpate of strong earthquakes hit snowbound central Italy, one deadBy Philip Pullella ROME (Reuters) - A series of strong earthquakes hit snowbound central Italy on Wednesday, a region devastated by deadly tremors last year, killing one man and forcing schools and rail links to close. Much of the area had already been abandoned after last year's earthquakes. Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said soldiers would help rescue teams get to the affected villages.
WorldAFPUS stealth bombers kill more than 80 IS fighters in LibyaMore than 80 Islamic State jihadists were killed in a US aerial blitz on training camps in Libya, including fighters involved in plotting attacks in Europe, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Thursday. The Pentagon made the highly unusual decision to conduct the air strikes with a pair of B-2 stealth bombers that flew to North Africa on a 34-hour mission from their base in Missouri in America's Midwest. The last time the distinctive, bat-shaped planes were used in Libya was in 2011 during the mission that led to the ouster of longtime leader Moamer Kadhafi.
NewsAssociated PressVirginia man convicted of 2006 slaying of family is executedRicky 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.
- WorldPopular MechanicsFailed MH370 Search Reveals the Secrets of the Sea Floor
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.
- NewsInternational Business TimesGiant Florida Gator Is Not For Tourists, Nature Preserve Staff Warn
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.
WorldReutersJapan hotelier's Nanjing Massacre denial sparks tourism boycott callsBy 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.
BusinessAFPBuffeted by change, US auto workers resigned to uncertaintyDetroit, the once-thriving capital of the US automobile industry, has seen most of its jobs move overseas, leaving the remaining workers at the "Big Three" auto plants wondering about the future. When Janet Parker, 46, learned she would be hired by Ford, she was sure it meant the start of a worry-free working life. The lack of certainty auto workers have in their future is a persistent burden, and efforts by the once-powerful United Auto Workers labor union to stem the tide have borne little fruit.
- NewsYahoo NewsObama: How we talk to our daughters about Trump’s election
President Obama concluded his final press conference as commander in chief the same way his began his candidacy for the office — with a message of hope for the United States’ future. The last question posed to Obama in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room in the West Wing of the White House concerned a popular speech his wife, first lady Michelle Obama, gave in October that put the stakes of the U.S. presidential election in personal terms. Obama was asked how he was interpreting the meaning of former reality TV show host Trump’s startling victory and how he was discussing the issue with his daughters.
PoliticsAssociated PressDeVos pledges not to undo public education, pushes choiceIn a sometimes contentious confirmation hearing, education secretary pick Betsy DeVos pledged that she would not seek to dismantle public schools amid questions by Democrats about her qualifications, political donations and long-time work advocating for charter schools and school choice. DeVos said she would address "the needs of all parents and students" but that a one-size fits all model doesn't work in education. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont asked DeVos outright if she would have gotten the job had it not been for her family's political contributions.
- WorldInside EditionRescuers Fear The Worst After Massive Avalanche Buries Dozens In Italy Hotel
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.
- NewsUPROXXFake News Is Taking Hold In Other Countries In Attempts To Influence Elections And Incite Genocide
Just this week the New York Times documented precisely how a recent graduate of Davidson College made $22,000 off a single fake news story about ballots for Hillary Clinton being discovered in an Ohio warehouse. The most notable current fake news target in the developed world happens to be Germany.
NewsAssociated PressThe Latest: Woman charged in infant kidnapping denied bailThe woman charged with kidnapping a baby 18 years ago and raising the child as her own daughter, appeared briefly in court and was ordered to be held without bail. Gloria Williams, who appeared in a Jacksonville courtroom Wednesday, is charged with kidnapping and other counts related to the 1998 abduction of Kamiyah Mobley, who was just eight hours old. No attorney has been listed for Williams.
- U.S.ABC News VideosUS Park Place Equestrian Team Gets Ready for Inauguration
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.
- WorldYahoo News Photo StaffDeadly fire destroys high-rise building in Tehran, Iran
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.
- WorldReutersArab Israeli and policeman killed in suspected car ramming attack in southern Israel
Police in Israel said an Arab Israeli on Wednesday rammed his car into a group of policemen in the southern Negev region, killing one before being shot dead, though a rights activist who was present disputed it was an attack. Police spokeswoman Merav Lapidot said the suspect was a local teacher who "surged towards the forces intending to kill" and that riots erupted after he was shot.
NewsAFPAnger at skeletal sun bears in Indonesian zooAnimal 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.
- WorldForeign Policy MagazineDonald Trump Is Already Tweeting Us Into War with North Korea
To wit: President-elect of the United States — PEOTUS, sounds like Pee-Otus — might have already Twitter-baited North Korea into testing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of delivering a nuclear warhead all the way to Washington. OK, Donald, you tweeted us into this. First things first: Despite what you might have read in the press, Kim Jong Un did not announce that North Korea would test an ICBM in 2017.
LifestyleNational Constitution CenterWhen presidential inaugurations go very, very wrongAs 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.
- NewsInside EditionWoman Accused of Collecting Donations From Fake GoFundMe for Woman's Dead 1-Year-Old Son
A Pennsylvania woman has been arrested after she allegedly created a GoFundMe account to benefit a Florida mother who lost her 1-year-old son, but kept the money instead. Police said Nicole Leahy, of Lititz, started the campaign in December 2015 and raised $500, but the mother, who said she never authorized anyone to give out family information, said she never received any money. The mom reportedly knew Leahy through a Facebook group “Mothers of Twin Children” of which they were both members.
NewsAssociated PressDeadly waves sweep father, son out to ocean, show dangersOne moment, Jayson Thomas was on the Oregon beach with his 3-year-old son. The next, they were gone, swept away by a "sneaker wave" as his wife looked on. The man and his boy were but the latest to be lost to a sneaker wave, which are prevalent in the Pacific Northwest.
WorldAFPAfrican troops move into Gambia as new president sworn inWest 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.
- SportsRoad & TrackEverything We Think We Know About the Upcoming Ford Bronco and Ranger
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.
