Alexandria

Boyfriend Of Missing Phoenix Teen Kiera Bergman Arrested

The on-again, off-again boyfriend of Kiera Bergman, a missing Arizona

Could soccer moms swing the House? Democrats hope so.

Remember the “soccer moms”? That 1990s term for politically moderate suburban women has fallen out of usage lately, but they’re still around, and a key voting bloc in the upcoming midterms. Frustrated with Washington and turned off by President Trump, they could deliver Congress to the Democrats in November. Or not.

Alligator Kills Woman Walking Dog In South Carolina: Police

A woman died Monday morning in a suspected alligator attack on Hilton Head

Customers Rally After Yelp Reviewer Calls Cafe's Gay Pride Flag 'Disgusting'

An anti-gay review on Yelp that called a restaurant in Dorchester,

Small plane crashes on Phoenix street; pilot, passenger dead

PHOENIX (AP) — A homemade plane crashed in a Phoenix intersection Monday, killing the pilot and the sole passenger, authorities said.

Argentine Police Officer Breastfeeds Malnourished Baby in Kind Gesture

She went above and beyond the call of duty.

Cause of death sought for 55-foot-long whale washed ashore on Massachusetts beach

A dead, 55-foot-long whale has washed ashore on a Massachusetts beach. The giant fin whale likely died at sea, officials told local news outlets, noting that it had been spotted floating in the water about eight miles offshore before it arrived. It showed no outward signs of trauma, Tony LaCasse, the New England Aquarium’s media relations director, told reporters, adding that facility's marine mammal team and experts from the International Fund for Animal Welfare were still investigating why it died.

Cruise ship survivor plucked out of sea 'a stupid woman' says mother of liner's boss

A passenger who survived ten hours in the sea is a “stupid woman” who must have jumped off the ship, the mother of the cruise line’s president has told the Telegraph. Kay Longstaff, 46, an air hostess, was accused of causing massive disruption to fellow passengers while costing Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation. Allegations surfaced on Monday suggesting Miss Longstaff had been arguing with her boyfriend in the hours before she plunged into the Adriatic Sea from the seventh deck of the liner about 75 ft above the water. Fellow passengers expressed anger towards Miss Longstaff and Norwegian Cruise Line for the chaos and disruption her actions had caused. Many also suggested there was no way she could have accidentally fallen from the ship, insisting that the security barriers were simply too too high to topple over. The 83-year-old mother of Andy Stuart, the cruise company’s president and chief executive, said her son had been dismayed by continuing reports that Miss Longstaff’s “fell” off the back of the Norwegian Star. Kay Longstaff being rescued Mr Stuart telephoned his mother at her home in England from his office in Miami, Florida, to complain about Miss Longstaff’s version of events, calling it ‘fake news’. Miss Longstaff, who moved from Cheltenham, Gloucs, to Spain in 2016, had told a Croatian television news channel after being rescued: “I fell off the back of the Norwegian Star and I was in the water for ten hours... I was sitting at the back of the deck.” Where Kay Longstaff went overboard Mr Stuart's mother contacted the Daily Telegraph to protest that her son’s company was being wrongly blamed for the incident. His mother said: “She didn’t fall off. She jumped. This has cost Norwegian Cruise Line $600,000. This stupid woman. “I spoke to Andrew at  lunchtime. He phones me almost every day. What he said was ‘this is fake news’. He said that she couldn’t have fallen. You would have to take steps to climb over the railings. He said she jumped in the water.” Norwegian Star His mother went on: “He [Andrew] doesn’t get upset. But he is annoyed that it has been implied that NCL was at fault. He said NCL went to a lot of trouble. They delayed the progress of the ship and sent for the coastguard. If you think of the cost of the ship being delayed, passengers missing their connections, passengers waiting to embark. That has all amounted to more than $600,000. When you get criticism, it is highly unfair.” Mr Stuart, 55, took up his role in 2015 and had been with NCL for 27 years. He earns a reported £1m a year in salary.   Kay Longstaff falls overboard - Timeline of events According to reports, Miss Longstaff had been caught up in a row with her partner aboard the ship. He was asleep in their cabin when Miss Longstaff fell overboard at 11.45pm on Saturday night. It is understood that CCTV footage captured the incident and has established that no third party was involved. Daniel Punch, who works on the Norwegian Star in promotions, posted on Facebook according to reports: “She didn’t fall, she jumped. It was on my ship. I spoke [to her] throughout the whole week. She was arguing with her fella the whole time.” Miss Longstaff was found by Croatian coastguard at 9.45am on Sunday and taken to hospital for treatment in the Croatian resort of Pula. She said her yoga fitness and singing helped her to survive. Andy Stuart As she was released from hospital yesterday into the care of her partner, Italian sources suggested she had argued with her partner before he went back to his cabin and left her on the deck. "The footage has been viewed and you can clearly see she was there on her own when she fell,” a source told SunOnline. “She was not pushed. The theory we are working on is that she most likely jumped.” Kay Longstaff with Craig Rayment Irena Hrstic, director of Pula’s City Hospital, said Ms Longstaff had refused to release a statement because she “can’t understand why there is so much interest for her”. David Radas, spokesman for Croatian Ministry of Maritime Affairs, said its investigation was continuing. On Sunday night, Mr Radas said that CCTV images had “left a suspicion whether it was a jump or a falling off”. Miss Longstaff has posted photographs of herself on the Costa del Sol in Spain with Craig Rayment, an electrician, who she was dating as recently as June 15. It is not clear if Mr Rayment was on the cruise with her and he declined to comment yesterday. “I’m not interested in talking,” he said. Miss Longstaff’s father Ron Longstaff, 76, a retired chief superintendent with West Midlands Police, said he had no idea how his daughter had ended up in the sea. “She was certainly lucky. I am trying to work out what happened,” said Mr Longstaff. Miss Longstaff after her rescue Bethany Joyce, 21, from Long Island, who was on board with her parents, said her mother planned to claim compensation as they had been forced to spend an extra two nights in Venice before the next available flight home. She told the Telegraph: “The cruise line was very unhelpful with helping us rebook travel plans. The only thing they gave us was 15 minutes of free WiFi to try and rebook travel arrangements. “Disembarkation was also a mess. We had to sit around for hours just waiting for vague instructions.” Passengers said they arrived in Venice at around 2.30pm on Sunday but did not disembark until 5.30pm. Miss Longstaff Scott Bailey, a businessman from Derby, wrote on Twitter: “Just upsets me that she is there smiling away and loving the publicity saying she ‘fell’. “The only way you could get off the ship is by climbing over the protective barriers and then jumping. Someone we spoke to said they had seen her crying earlier on.” Another passenger, who called himself Eddiepal, also complained that he had missed his flights home to Boston meaning his holiday had a “rotten ending”. Responding to suggestions that Miss Longstaff had somehow slipped into the water, he said “Next to impossible...take it from someone on board....” He accused the cruise line of mistreating passengers and leaving them stranded in Venice for several hours. NCL did not respond to requests for comment on passengers' complaints. Mr Stuart declined to comment on the contents of the call with his mother or the incident while an investigation remained ongoing. A former passenger wrote online: “I was on the Star recently and spent quite a long time on that Deck 7 Aft area.. and if this lady departed the ship there it was definitely not an accidental fall. There are no chairs and the side rails are much more than waist high.” Miss Longstaff is thought to have worked for British Airways for some years before working as a flight attendant with a private jet company. She quit the UK to live in Spain in June 2016 posting a photograph on social media, captioned: “My new life.”

Good Samaritans rescue two people, dog from sinking car

Witnesses say the vehicle crashed through a marina railing in Long Beach, California, and into the water.

'National Disgrace!': Trump escalates attack on Mueller as jury mulls Manafort's fate

President Trump on Monday escalated his attack on Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, labeling the special counsel “disgraced and discredited” and Mueller's investigators a “National Disgrace.”

Pregnant Woman Suspected Husband Might Be Cheating Before He Allegedly Killed Her: Friend

A pregnant woman found dead in Colorado last week had suspected her husband,

Missouri Teen Killed On Birthday Just An Hour After ‘I Made It To 17’ Facebook Post

A Missouri teenager was senselessly killed after posting to Facebook about how

Weinstein accuser Asia Argento paid teen who made sex assault claim: report

Italian actress Asia Argento, who became a leading figure in the #MeToo movement after accusing powerhouse producer Harvey Weinstein of rape, paid hush money to a man who claimed she sexually assaulted him when he was 17, The New York Times reported Sunday. The $380,000 payment was made to Jimmy Bennett, an actor and rock musician, who claimed Argento assaulted him in a California hotel room in 2013, according to the Times, which cited documents sent to the paper by an unidentified party. Bennett was two months past his 17th birthday at the time of the alleged encounter, while Argento was 37.

Families Separated Since Korean War Reunite In North Korea

Families divided during the Korean War tearfully reunited for the first time

Yahoo News explains: What's the other cause impacting global warming?

The authors of the study predict a 58 percent chance that the next few years will be “anomalously warm,” with a 69 percent chance that earth’s oceans will be too. The study found that that warming trend is not just the result of a steady increase in human-made climate change driven by emissions of greenhouse gases. The study used data from 10 climate-change models and found that natural variabilities were the cause of a global warming “hiatus” in the early 2000s.

Pope calls on all Catholics to uproot 'this culture of death' in unprecedented letter on sexual abuse

There will be "no more cover ups" of sexual abuse in the Church, the Pope has vowed in a letter to all Catholics.  In the groundbreaking document, addressed to the "people of God", Pope Francis admitted that the church had "delayed" the implementation of reforms and asked believers to "join forces in uprooting this culture of death".  He said the church had "showed no care for the little ones" and "abandoned them".  The Vatican said it was the first time a pope had written to all of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics about sexual abuse. The Pope's letter, published on Monday, responds to a report published last week by a grand jury which disclosed that more than 1,000 children had been abused by 300 Catholic priests in Pennsylvania over the past 70 years. "Even though it can be said that most of these cases belong to the past, nonetheless as time goes on we have come to know the pain of many of the victims," he said.   "The heart-wrenching pain of these victims, which cries out to heaven, was long ignored, kept quiet or silenced."  It is the first time a pope had written to all of the world's some 1.2 billion Catholics about sexual abuse Credit:  Tony Gentile/REUTERS The report forms part of a growing worldwide crisis surrounding sexual abuse in the church.  Pope Francis has faced criticism for the Church's recent dealings with perpetrators of abuse.  Last year it emerged that he had reduced sanctions against paedophile priest Mauro Inzoli, 67, a decision which was later reversed.  In September Pope Francis said the decision had been a mistake and said he would never sign pardon for any priest who was found to have been an abuser.  Last month, Theodore McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, DC and one of the US Church's most prominent figures, stepped down as a cardinal after accusations that he abused two minors about 50 years ago and later abused adult seminarians. In May, all 34 of Chile's bishops offered their resignation to the pope over a widening sexual abuse crisis there. He has so far accepted five of the resignations. Pope Francis is due to visit Ireland in a two-day stay beginning on Saturday, and it is not yet clear whether he will meet with abuse survivors in the country.  Pope Francis delivers a speech to the faithful prior to the Angelus prayer, on August 19, at St Peter's square  Credit: FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/ AFP The Vatican says it does not put the pope's meetings with victims of sexual abuse on his schedule for trips. The issue is expected to dominate the visit and he is likely to face protests from survivors unhappy with how the Church has reacted to widespread incidents of child sexual abuse. His letter drew criticism from campaigners unhappy at the lack of detailed plans to tackle the problem. Margaret McGuckin, leader of Survivors & Victims of Institutional Abuse, a charity set up to give a voice to victims of historic abuse in Northern Ireland, said: "It is a last-ditch attempt to see what he can do. It is too little too late, nothing will change." Marie Collins, an Irish campaigner and abuse survivor who last year withdrew from the Vatican's commission, set up by the Pope to tackle the problem, said the letter was too vague.  "Statements from Vatican or Pope should stop telling us how terrible abuse is and how all must be held accountable. Tell us instead what you are doing to hold them accountable.  That is what we want to hear.  "'Working on it' is not an acceptable explanation for decades of 'delay,'" she said on Twitter.  Read the letter in full:    LETTER OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS  TO THE PEOPLE OF GOD   “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it” (1 Cor 12:26). These words of Saint Paul forcefully echo in my heart as I acknowledge once more the suffering endured by many minors due to sexual abuse, the abuse of power and the abuse of conscience perpetrated by a significant number of clerics and consecrated persons. Crimes that inflict deep wounds of pain and powerlessness, primarily among the victims, but also in their family members and in the larger community of believers and nonbelievers alike. Looking back to the past, no effort to beg pardon and to seek to repair the harm done will ever be sufficient. Looking ahead to the future, no effort must be spared to create a culture able to prevent such situations from happening, but also to prevent the possibility of their being covered up and perpetuated. The pain of the victims and their families is also our pain, and so it is urgent that we once more reaffirm our commitment to ensure the protection of minors and of vulnerable adults. 1. If one member suffers… In recent days, a report was made public which detailed the experiences of at least a thousand survivors, victims of sexual abuse, the abuse of power and of conscience at the hands of priests over a period of approximately seventy years. Even though it can be said that most of these cases belong to the past, nonetheless as time goes on we have come to know the pain of many of the victims. We have realized that these wounds never disappear and that they require us forcefully to condemn these atrocities and join forces in uprooting this culture of death; these wounds never go away. The heart-wrenching pain of these victims, which cries out to heaven, was long ignored, kept quiet or silenced. But their outcry was more powerful than all the measures meant to silence it, or sought even to resolve it by decisions that increased its gravity by falling into complicity. The Lord heard that cry and once again showed us on which side he stands. Mary’s song is not mistaken and continues quietly to echo throughout history. For the Lord remembers the promise he made to our fathers: “he has scattered the proud in their conceit; he has cast down the mighty from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty” (Lk 1:51-53). We feel shame when we realize that our style of life has denied, and continues to deny, the words we recite. With shame and repentance, we acknowledge as an ecclesial community that we were not where we should have been, that we did not act in a timely manner, realizing the magnitude and the gravity of the damage done to so many lives. We showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them. I make my own the words of the then Cardinal Ratzinger when, during the Way of the Cross composed for Good Friday 2005, he identified with the cry of pain of so many victims and exclaimed: “How much filth there is in the Church, and even among those who, in the priesthood, ought to belong entirely to [Christ]! How much pride, how much self-complacency! Christ’s betrayal by his disciples, their unworthy reception of his body and blood, is certainly the greatest suffering endured by the Redeemer; it pierces his heart. We can only call to him from the depths of our hearts: Kyrie eleison – Lord, save us! (cf. Mt 8:25)” (Ninth Station). 2. … all suffer together with it The extent and the gravity of all that has happened requires coming to grips with this reality in a comprehensive and communal way. While it is important and necessary on every journey of conversion to acknowledge the truth of what has happened, in itself this is not enough. Today we are challenged as the People of God to take on the pain of our brothers and sisters wounded in their flesh and in their spirit. If, in the past, the response was one of omission, today we want solidarity, in the deepest and most challenging sense, to become our way of forging present and future history. And this in an environment where conflicts, tensions and above all the victims of every type of abuse can encounter an outstretched hand to protect them and rescue them from their pain (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 228). Such solidarity demands that we in turn condemn whatever endangers the integrity of any person. A solidarity that summons us to fight all forms of corruption, especially spiritual corruption. The latter is “a comfortable and self-satisfied form of blindness. Everything then appears acceptable: deception, slander, egotism and other subtle forms of self-centeredness, for ‘even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light’ (2 Cor 11:14)” (Gaudete et Exsultate, 165). Saint Paul’s exhortation to suffer with those who suffer is the best antidote against all our attempts to repeat the words of Cain: “Am I my brother's keeper?” (Gen 4:9). I am conscious of the effort and work being carried out in various parts of the world to come up with the necessary means to ensure the safety and protection of the integrity of children and of vulnerable adults, as well as implementing zero tolerance and ways of making all those who perpetrate or cover up these crimes accountable. We have delayed in applying these actions and sanctions that are so necessary, yet I am confident that they will help to guarantee a greater culture of care in the present and future. Together with those efforts, every one of the baptized should feel involved in the ecclesial and social change that we so greatly need. This change calls for a personal and communal conversion that makes us see things as the Lord does. For as Saint John Paul II liked to say: “If we have truly started out anew from the contemplation of Christ, we must learn to see him especially in the faces of those with whom he wished to be identified” (Novo Millennio Ineunte, 49). To see things as the Lord does, to be where the Lord wants us to be, to experience a conversion of heart in his presence. To do so, prayer and penance will help. I invite the entire holy faithful People of God to a penitential exercise of prayer and fasting, following the Lord’s command.[1] This can awaken our conscience and arouse our solidarity and commitment to a culture of care that says “never again” to every form of abuse. It is impossible to think of a conversion of our activity as a Church that does not include the active participation of all the members of God’s People. Indeed, whenever we have tried to replace, or silence, or ignore, or reduce the People of God to small elites, we end up creating communities, projects, theological approaches, spiritualities and structures without roots, without memory, without faces, without bodies and ultimately, without lives.[2] This is clearly seen in a peculiar way of understanding the Church’s authority, one common in many communities where sexual abuse and the abuse of power and conscience have occurred. Such is the case with clericalism, an approach that “not only nullifies the character of Christians, but also tends to diminish and undervalue the baptismal grace that the Holy Spirit has placed in the heart of our people”.[3] Clericalism, whether fostered by priests themselves or by lay persons, leads to an excision in the ecclesial body that supports and helps to perpetuate many of the evils that we are condemning today. To say “no” to abuse is to say an emphatic “no” to all forms of clericalism. It is always helpful to remember that “in salvation history, the Lord saved one people. We are never completely ourselves unless we belong to a people. That is why no one is saved alone, as an isolated individual. Rather, God draws us to himself, taking into account the complex fabric of interpersonal relationships present in the human community. God wanted to enter into the life and history of a people” (Gaudete et Exsultate, 6). Consequently, the only way that we have to respond to this evil that has darkened so many lives is to experience it as a task regarding all of us as the People of God. This awareness of being part of a people and a shared history will enable us to acknowledge our past sins and mistakes with a penitential openness that can allow us to be renewed from within. Without the active participation of all the Church’s members, everything being done to uproot the culture of abuse in our communities will not be successful in generating the necessary dynamics for sound and realistic change. The penitential dimension of fasting and prayer will help us as God’s People to come before the Lord and our wounded brothers and sisters as sinners imploring forgiveness and the grace of shame and conversion. In this way, we will come up with actions that can generate resources attuned to the Gospel. For “whenever we make the effort to return to the source and to recover the original freshness of the Gospel, new avenues arise, new paths of creativity open up, with different forms of expression, more eloquent signs and words with new meaning for today’s world” (Evangelii Gaudium, 11). It is essential that we, as a Church, be able to acknowledge and condemn, with sorrow and shame, the atrocities perpetrated by consecrated persons, clerics, and all those entrusted with the mission of watching over and caring for those most vulnerable. Let us beg forgiveness for our own sins and the sins of others. An awareness of sin helps us to acknowledge the errors, the crimes and the wounds caused in the past and allows us, in the present, to be more open and committed along a journey of renewed conversion. Likewise, penance and prayer will help us to open our eyes and our hearts to other people’s sufferings and to overcome the thirst for power and possessions that are so often the root of those evils. May fasting and prayer open our ears to the hushed pain felt by children, young people and the disabled. A fasting that can make us hunger and thirst for justice and impel us to walk in the truth, supporting all the judicial measures that may be necessary. A fasting that shakes us up and leads us to be committed in truth and charity with all men and women of good will, and with society in general, to combatting all forms of the abuse of power, sexual abuse and the abuse of conscience. In this way, we can show clearly our calling to be “a sign and instrument of communion with God and of the unity of the entire human race” (Lumen Gentium, 1). “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it”, said Saint Paul. By an attitude of prayer and penance, we will become attuned as individuals and as a community to this exhortation, so that we may grow in the gift of compassion, in justice, prevention and reparation. Mary chose to stand at the foot of her Son’s cross. She did so unhesitatingly, standing firmly by Jesus’ side. In this way, she reveals the way she lived her entire life. When we experience the desolation caused by these ecclesial wounds, we will do well, with Mary, “to insist more upon prayer”, seeking to grow all the more in love and fidelity to the Church (SAINT IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA, Spiritual Exercises, 319). She, the first of the disciples, teaches all of us as disciples how we are to halt before the sufferings of the innocent, without excuses or cowardice. To look to Mary is to discover the model of a true follower of Christ. May the Holy Spirit grant us the grace of conversion and the interior anointing needed to express before these crimes of abuse our compunction and our resolve courageously to combat them. Vatican City, 20 August 2018 FRANCIS

American cuts second U.S.-China flight on fuel cost, rivalry

The service is not sustainable with high fuel costs, Vasu Raja, American's vice president of network and schedule planning, said in a statement. "We have opportunities to be successful in other markets." American, the largest U.S. carrier by passengers, cut a flight from Chicago to Beijing in May. Hawaiian Airlines [HAII.UL] also said on Tuesday it would suspend its thrice-weekly nonstop service between Honolulu and Beijing. China's aviation regulator said in May it would ease its near decade-old "one route, one airline" policy for Chinese airlines, allowing increased competition on long-haul international routes.

Barack Obama Shares Five of the Best Books He Read This Summer

Looking for something to read? Former President Obama has a few suggestions

Tweeters Erupt Over Donald Trump's 'Racist' Praise Of Border Patrol Agent

President Donald Trump faced yet more accusations of racism on Monday after he

2 detained after shots are fired at US Embassy in Turkey

ISTANBUL (AP) — Shots were fired from a moving car at the U.S. Embassy in Turkey before dawn Monday, an attack that came during heightened tensions between the two NATO allies. Officials said two people with criminal records were detained.

58 people shot in Chicago over weekend as police hit out at 'cowardly' violence

Chicago police have hit out at "cowardly" and "senseless" gun crime after at least 58 people were shot in another violent weekend across the city. Six people were killed from the shootings that took place from Friday to Sunday night, Chicago Police Department (CPD) Superintendent Eddie Johnson said at a press conference. Tom Ahern, the assistant director of news affairs and communications at CPD reported that a three-year-old boy was among those wounded as a result of the shootings from the weekend.

France's Total has officially left Iran: oil minister

French energy giant Total has officially quit its multi-billion-dollar gas project in Iran, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said on Monday, following the reimposition of US sanctions. "Total has officially left the agreement for the development of phase 11 of South Pars (gas field)," he told parliament's news agency ICANA, adding that it had been more than two months since the French firm announced it would leave. Zanganeh also appeared before parliament to underline the dire state of Iran's oil and gas facilities, which he said were "worn out" and in need of renovation that Iran could not afford.

Elizabeth Warren’s Far-Reaching New Bill Aims To Actually Drain The Swamp

WASHINGTON ― Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) unveiled a sweeping plan on

Flash flood kills 10 hikers in Italian mountain gorge as rescuers say it hit like 'a tsunami'

An eight-year-old girl survived a devastating flash flood in a canyon in southern Italy but was found next to a body that rescuers believe may be one of her parents. The girl, named as Chiara, was semi-conscious, covered in thick mud and suffering from hypothermia when she was found in the gorge in Calabria after it was hit by a “tsunami” of muddy water following a severe storm. The seven-mile-long canyon, located in Pollino national park, has 2,300ft-high sheer rock walls which in some places are just 13ft apart. At least two groups of hikers were caught up in the disaster on Monday. While some were able to scramble to higher ground, others were engulfed by the flash flood and drowned. Ten people were killed, with some bodies washed up to three miles downstream by the force of the torrent. Eleven people were injured, five of them seriously. Four children lost either one or both of their parents. A rescue helicopter in the gorge that was hit by a flash flood Credit: Francesco Arena/Ansa “She was semi-conscious but clearly in a state of shock. We found her next to a corpse and from what we know, her parents are almost certainly among the victims,” said Pasquale Gagliardi, a doctor with the local helicopter rescue service. The little girl, who had swallowed mud and debris, was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Naples, hundreds of miles to the north. A girl is helped by a member of the National Alpine and Caving Rescue Squad as they (right) descend the gorge Credit: ANSA/AP “You’re going to make it, little one,” Dr Pasquale wrote on Facebook under a photograph of the girl’s hand, covered in mud, on the shoulder of an alpine rescue specialist. The hand of the eight year old girl on the shoulder of an alpine rescue specialist Credit: Twitter The victims included a volunteer rescue worker who helped pull people alive from a hotel in central Italy that was hit by a deadly avalanche in January 2017. Antonio De Rasis, 32, was guiding hikers through the gorge when it was hit by the 8ft-high wall of water. “With his experience, he would definitely have tried to help the group as much as possible,” said Antonio Carlomagno, the mayor of the town where Mr De Rasis came from. The flash flood also claimed the lives of two models, Miriam Mezzolla, 27, and Claudia Giampietro, 31, who were said to be inseparable and shared a passion for burlesque dancing. Rescuers work in the gorge of the Raganello stream in Civita Credit: WENN.com  An investigation has been launched into the disaster, with questions asked about why people were allowed into the gorge when bad weather was forecast. “It was a real tsunami. These are events that happen once in a lifetime,” said Giacomo Zanfei, a senior official with the mountain rescue service. Italy has experienced strange weather this summer, with torrid heat building up in the mornings and then giving way to thunder, lightning and torrential rain. Rescuers and citizens wait in the central square of Civita, a village in the Italian Calabria southern region  Credit: AFP Climate experts say the summer is becoming less dry and more “tropical”, with higher rainfall than before. “It is a shocking tragedy, linked to the terrible weather we’ve had this summer,” said Mimmo Lo Polito, a local mayor. The canyoning disaster comes just a week after the collapse of the Morandi bridge in Genoa, which killed 43 people. Raganello gorges in Pollino National Park, Calabria Credit: DEA/V. GIANNELLA  "Italy is tired of crying for the dead. Enough," said Sergio Costa, the environment minister, during a visit to the scene. "If what happened is the result of negligence, sloppiness or a lack of awareness of the risks, we are facing a serious situation that we need to get to the bottom of." “The whole country is deeply saddened by this new tragedy, which has caused many deaths and injuries in Pollino national park,” said Sergio Mattarella, Italy’s president.

Russia says U.S. refusal to rebuild Syria a ploy to slow refugee return

Russia will help Lebanon return refugees to neighboring Syria, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday, accusing the United States of impeding the general repatriation process by declining to assist in Syria's reconstruction. Lavrov also called on opposition groups in the rebel-held Syrian province of Idlib to distance themselves from the Nusra Front group, formerly the local branch of al Qaeda.

Famously Thicc, High-Maintenance Cat Finds New Human As Extra As He Is

Bruno is off the market, guys.

Melania Trump's Anti-Cyberbullying Tweet Does Not Go Over Well

Melania Trump's "Be Best" campaign continues to receive an icy reception.

A Mexican Official Says a Man Detained in the U.S. While Taking His Pregnant Wife to the Hospital Is Wanted for Murder

His lawyer says authorities might have mistaken him for his brother

ConocoPhillips says PDVSA agreed to pay $2 bn to settle dispute

Venezuela has agreed to pay a $2 billion settlement to US oil giant ConocoPhillips, to stop the seizure of the South American nation's assets, the American firm announced Monday. PDVSA, the state oil company once the crown jewel of Venezuela's now imploding economy, will make initial payments of $500 million over the next 90 days, ConocoPhillips said in a statement. In return, ConocoPhillips said it agreed to halt the seizure of PDVSA's oil and assets in the Caribbean -- which it took over after Caracas failed to honor an April 25 ruling by an international arbitrator.

2 employees dead, including suspect, in workplace shooting at food warehouse in Missouri City

Officials say the woman walked into the Missouri City warehouse and started firing, killing a manager and wounding another employee.

More Russian Hacking Uncovered Ahead Of Midterms — This Time Targeting Conservatives

Microsoft announced Tuesday that it had uncovered -- and thwarted -- fresh

Exclusive: Iraq to ask U.S. for exemptions on some Iran sanctions

U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from an international deal aimed at limiting Iran's nuclear program earlier this year and reimposed trade sanctions. Washington has said there will be consequences for countries that do not respect the sanctions. Baghdad is in a difficult position.

Pope addresses Catholic Church sexual abuse report in open letter: ‘We showed no care for the little ones'

Pope Francis has condemned the “atrocities” of child sex abuse and cover-ups by the clergy in an open letter to the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics. Addressing a US Grand Jury report revealing decades of alleged sexual abuse inside the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania, the Pontiff described allegations against the Church as “crimes that inflict deep wounds of pain and powerlessness” in victims, their families and the religious community. The report detailed at least 1,000 cases of alleged sexual abuse committed by 300 “predator” priests in Pennsylvania — and what was a systematic cover-up by Church officials.

Trump Implies Taking Away Security Clearances Is Punishment For Criticizing Him

President Donald Trump on Tuesday continued to lash out at former top

APNewsBreak: Alaska Natives believed whale hunt was legal

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Indigenous hunters in Alaska initially believed they were legally hunting a beluga whale when they unlawfully killed a protected gray whale with harpoons and guns after the massive animal strayed into a river last year, a federal investigative report said.

Mollie Tibbetts' Father Reluctantly Returns Home After a Month

Law enforcement encouraged the Tibbetts family to return to their regular lives.

2 Teens Found Dead in a Field Are Latest Victims of Chicago Violence

They were missing for days and were found shot to death in a field on Chicago's South Side

Angel mom slams media coverage of illegal immigrants

Mary Ann Mendoza, whose son was murdered by an illegal immigrant, says victims' stories are being silenced by the press to support their anti-ICE agenda.

Tears as North and South Koreans meet after decades

With tears and cries, dozens of elderly and frail South and North Korean family members met on Monday for the first time since the peninsula and their relationships were torn apart by war nearly 70 years ago. Many of the North Korean women were clad in traditional dresses, known as hanbok in the South and joseon-ot in the North, and all had the ubiquitous badges of the North's founder Kim Il Sung or his son and successor Kim Jong Il, while the Southerners wore their best suits. As soon as 99-year-old South Korean Han Shin-ja approached their table, her two daughters -- aged 69 and 72 -- bowed their heads deeply towards her and burst into tears.

Democrats Suing To Stop GOP Congressman Calling Himself A ‘Farmer’ On Ballot

A California Democrats group wants to stop Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) from

Taiwan loses third diplomatic ally this year as El Salvador defects to China

Taiwan lost another ally to Beijing on Tuesday when diplomatic ties with El Salvador were severed, in another political victory for China as it attempts to isolate the self-ruled island on the global stage. The break with the Central American nation leaves Taiwan now with formal relations with just 17 countries worldwide, many of them poor nations in Central America and the Pacific like Belize and Nauru.  Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu on Tuesday said his government was refusing to compete with China in buying diplomatic support, condemning what he called Beijing’s campaign of luring away Taiwan’s allies with promises of vast financial aid and investment. “It is irresponsible to engage in financial aid diplomacy or compete with China in cash, or even in providing illegal political money. My government is unwilling to and cannot do so,” he said in comments reported by the AP.  In a separate announcement, Salvador Sanchez Ceren, El Salvador’s president, whose party faces presidential elections in February, announced in a televised speech that the country was switching diplomatic allegiance to Beijing.  Presidents Tsai Ing-wen and Salvador Sanchez Ceren are no longer diplomatic allies Credit: Marvin Recinos/AFP El Salvador is the third country to defect to China this year, and the fifth since President Tsai Ing-wen came to office in 2016. It follows Burkina Faso, the Dominican Republic, Sao Tome and Principe and Panama.  China, which claims the island as its own territory, has aggressively tried to lure or pressure Taipei’s diplomatic allies to cut ties since Ms Tsai’s election, suspicious that her government will try to push for formal independence.  Some analysts believe Beijing’s relentless push to isolate Taipei internationally and exclude it from global forums is part of a determined strategy by Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, to bring Taiwan under his control during his tenure.  Taiwan’s population of 23 million meanwhile operates like any other democratic nation with its own elections, government, currency, military and foreign policy and the majority of citizens identify as Taiwanese. The news broke as President Tsai wrapped up a high-profile trip to Latin America, including stops in the United States that took in an unprecedented visit to Nasa’s space centre in Houston, drawing broad criticism from China. “Taiwan would not bow to pressure. Pressure would only make us more determined and united. It would only boost our determination to go abroad,” she said as she arrived at Taiwan’s international airport late on Monday after the nine-day trip.  The Pacific island of Palau is being punished economically by China for its ties to Taiwan Credit: Farah Master/Reuters Informally, Taiwan still enjoys strong relations with the US, UK and other Western nations, despite a lack of formal recognition. However, both China and Taiwan have engaged in chequebook diplomacy in the competition for official allies over the years, with Taipei offering generous aid and economic development packages, and once paying for a Taiwanese chef to cook for the King of Swaziland. But the island’s recovering economy is now struggling to compete with China’s larger wallet and the considerable political pressure it can exert.  Reports have emerged that tourism on the tiny Pacific island of Palau, one of Taiwan’s allies, has been decimated after Beijing branded it an illegal destination last year and banned tour groups from going there.  Prior to the ban, Chinese tourists accounted for about half the visitors to Palau. Of the 122,000 visitors in 2017, 55,000 were from China and 9,000 from Taiwan, official data showed. “There is an ongoing discussion about China weaponising tourism,” Jeffrey Barabe, owner of Palau Central Hotel and Palau Carolines Resort in Koror told Reuters. “Some believe that the dollars were allowed to flow in and now they are pulling it back to try and get Palau to establish ties diplomatically.” 

Police seek protesters who toppled Confederate statue in North Carolina

Protesters pulled the statue down with rope, cheering as it lay face down in the mud, its head and back covered in dirt. The university system's board chair, Harry Smith, and president, Margaret Spellings, denounced the toppling of the statue in a joint statement. North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat, said in a statement he shared protesters "frustration" over statues but condemned the violent destruction of public property.

Trump Praises Border Patrol Agent Who 'Speaks Perfect English’ At Immigration Event

President Donald Trump introduced a border patrol agent at the White House on

Husband and Wife Die After Being Caught in Riptide off New Hampshire Beach

Michael and Laura Cote were both unconscious when they were pulled from the water at the Seabrook shore about 12:30 p.m. Sunday.

The Latest: Suspect, a 2-year employee, fired on co-workers

MISSOURI CITY, Texas (AP) — The Latest on deadly workplace shooting near Houston (all times local):