| 'Boofing' and 'ralphing' and other doubts about Kavanaugh's testimony Posted: 28 Sep 2018 08:58 AM PDT  Kavanaugh veered from the truth, offering explanations that conflicted with evidence or definitions that were unverifiable.
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| Iran's Rouhani: US headed into isolation after UN meeting Posted: 27 Sep 2018 05:17 AM PDT  TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's president said on Thursday that the U.N. Security Council meeting chaired by President Donald Trump the previous day reflected America's increasing isolation among the international community.
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| Indonesia rocked by powerful magnitude 7.5 earthquake Posted: 28 Sep 2018 04:10 AM PDT  Indonesia was struck by a powerful 7.5 magnitude earthquake Friday, the US Geological Survey said, but there were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries. The country's national disaster agency briefly issued a tsunami warning before cancelling it. The strong quake hit central Sulawesi island at a shallow depth of some 10 kilometres (six miles), just hours after a smaller quake killed at least one person in the same part of the country. The latest quake was a higher magnitude than those that killed hundreds on the island of Lombok earlier this year. Friday's tremor was centred 78 kilometres north of the city of Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi province, but was felt some 900 kilometres south in the island's largest city Makassar. Lisa Soba Palloan, a resident of Toraja, around 175 kilometres south of Palu, said locals felt several quakes Friday. Damage from the 7.5 magnitude earthquake in Donggala, central Sulawesi Credit: AFP "The last one was quite big," she said. "Everyone was getting out their homes, shouting in fear." Indonesia is one of the most disaster-prone nations on earth. The archipelago nation lies on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", where tectonic plates collide and many of the world's volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur. A series of quakes that struck Lombok this summer killed about 500 people and forced hundreds of thousands into evacuation shelters or tents. In 2004, a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 9.3 undersea earthquake off the coast of Sumatra in western Indonesia killed 220,000 people in countries around the Indian Ocean, including 168,000 Indonesians.
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| Plane ditches into Pacific lagoon Posted: 28 Sep 2018 01:18 AM PDT  The Air Niugini Boeing 737-800 was attempting to land at Weno airport in Micronesia but ended up half submerged in Chuuk lagoon after the accident on Friday morning. The airline said the plane, which was involved in a collision with another aircraft earlier this year, had "landed short of the runway". Remarkably, it reported no serious injuries among those on the plane, which was making a scheduled stop on its way from the Micronesian capital Pohnpei to Port Moresby.
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| Pope defrocks priest at center of Chilean sexual abuse scandal Posted: 28 Sep 2018 08:56 AM PDT  Father Fernando Karadima was defrocked by the pope on Thursday, a move the Vatican called "exceptional" and done "for the good of the Church."
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| China, Russia take up globalism mantle as US sheds it at UN Posted: 28 Sep 2018 01:42 PM PDT  UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Days after U.S. President Donald Trump denounced globalism before world leaders at the United Nations, China and Russia positioned themselves Friday as defenders of internationalism that are keeping promises when Washington is backing away from them.
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| Ford cites hippocampus in recollection of alleged assault Posted: 27 Sep 2018 08:53 AM PDT  Christine Blasey Ford's testimony included scientific language to justify her memory about what happened decades ago.
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| Lawyers For Brett Kavanaugh's Alleged Victims Were Uncooperative, Claims Grassley Posted: 27 Sep 2018 09:08 AM PDT  During his opening statement for testimony related to Judge Brett Kavanaugh's
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| Raptor Reborn: Is a Super F-22 Fighter Heading to Japan? Posted: 28 Sep 2018 07:37 AM PDT  Lockheed Marting is pitching the idea to Tokyo.
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| Teacher Acquitted of Having Sex With Student Finds Work as a Waitress Posted: 28 Sep 2018 07:11 AM PDT  She says she is grateful they hired her.
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| Skripal 'hitman' unmasked as GRU colonel awarded Russia's highest military honour by Vladimir Putin Posted: 27 Sep 2018 02:11 AM PDT  One of the trained assassins wanted for poisoning Sergei Skripal is a decorated colonel in Russian military intelligence given the country's highest award by Vladimir Putin. The real identity of one of the wanted men in the nerve agent attack - named by counter-terrorism police as Ruslan Boshirov - can be disclosed as Colonel Anatoliy Vladimirovich Chepiga. The 39-year-old, who has served in wars in Chechnya and Ukraine, was made a Hero of the Russian Federation by decree of the President in 2014 in a ceremony shrouded in secrecy. The disclosure, uncovered by investigative journalist organisation Bellingcat in conjunction with The Telegraph, exposes as lies Mr Putin's claims that the Skripals' would-be killers were innocent "civilians". A spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry dismissed the claims, saying they are part of an "information campaign". Chepiga, posing as Boshirov, and a second man identified as Alexander Petrov, have insisted they were on holiday in Salisbury and had no connection with the attack, using weapons-grade Novichok nerve agent. Video: Salisbury poison suspects claim they were tourists The true identity of his accomplice Alexander Petrov remains unclear, but The Telegraph has established that he was travelling under his real first name and had only changed his surname to an alias. Counter-terrorism police and the security services are understood to know his real name. A former senior Russian military officer said Col Chepiga's high rank and experience strongly suggested that "the job was ordered at the highest level". The source claimed an attempted assassination of less importance would have been carried out by a lower ranking officer. A Tory minister said: "This is further embarrassment for Putin and Russia. This is the latest in a series of cock-ups by the GRU. It will have the opposite effect he will have wanted. It shows an inept capability that has been exposed. "There is no doubt that the Salisbury poisoning was part of a wider plan of Putin reaffirming Russia as a superpower and letting people know what Russia is capable of. This was a message to the West and his own people - cross me and there are consequences. He has learned that he simply won't get away with it." Boris Johnson, the former Foreign Secretary, said: "Utterly predictable news that GRU behind Skripal atrocity. What have you got to say, Putin? And I hope we hear real condemnation from Corbyn." Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga - aka Ruslan Boshirov - is believed to be pictured back row, far right with a group of fellow military graduates in Chechnya The revelations come as Theresa May told the UN's security council that Russia should not "be in any doubt" that if it did not "rejoin the international consensus against the use of chemical weapons" then the UK and its allies would be forced to take action. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova dismissed the new claims, highlighting how they had been published as Mrs May appeared at the UN. She wrote on Facebook: "There is no evidence, so they continue the information campaign, the main task of which is to divert attention from the main question: 'What happened in Salisbury?' "The question is: when will there be any evidence of the involvement of anyone, as London tells us, of poisoning in Salisbury?" European arrest warrants and Interpol red notices have been issued for the pair, who are accused of the murder of Dawn Sturgess, a local woman inadvertently poisoned by a discarded Novichok bottle, and the attempted murder of Col Skripal, 67, and his daughter Yulia, 33. Both men - under the aliases Boshirov and Petrov - have been charged with the poisoning of the Skripals by the Crown Prosecution Service. Video: Novichok suspects named by British authorities After Scotland Yard released its evidence - including CCTV showing the men close to Col Skripal's home on the day he was poisoned - the pair appeared on Russia TV, on the order of Mr Putin, to claim that they worked in the fitness industry and their sole reason for visiting the UK was to see the historic sites of "wonderful" Salisbury. Theresa May had publicly accused them of being members of the GRU. It can now be revealed that Col Chepiga has been fighting in an elite special forces unit - Spetsnaz - under the command of the GRU for 17 years and working undercover for at least nine years. He has been given more than 20 awards and a Hero of the Russian Federation medal, though, unlike most of the other recipients, there is little public information available about Col Chepiga. The medals are normally awarded by the president personally, and are only given to a handful of people each year. A Russian passport application in the name of Anatoliy Chepiga in 2003 The website of the Far-Eastern Military Command Academy, where Col Chepiga studied, lists all of their alumni who have received the award with a detailed description of the acts that resulted in the recognition. In his case it simply says: "Anatoly Vladimirovich Chepiga was awarded the honourary title of Hero of the Russian Federation by order of the president of the Russian Federation." His name also appears on a monument in honour of the alumni of the Far-Eastern Military Command who have received their Hero medal at its base on the border with China. The secretive nature of Col Chepiga's award, combined with the timing in 2014, suggests that it was for actions in Ukraine. The name Anatoliy Chepiga - aka Ruslan Boshirov - is bottom right under a 'gold star honour list' on an honours wall at the Far Eastern Military Command School In 2014 Russia was not engaged in fighting in either Chechnya or Syria and his unit - number 74854 of the 14th Separate Brigade of Special Forces (Spetsnaz) - was pictured on the eastern border of Ukraine that year. Involvement in Ukraine would explain the secrecy around his award, which is also noted by a veterans' group. The group writes on its website: "You can become a hero even in our seemingly peaceful times." "Anatoliy Vladimirovich Chepiga, a native of the village of Nikolayevka and 2001 graduate of the Far-Eastern Military Command Academy, was deployed to Chechnya three times and has more than 20 awards and medals. "In December 2014, Colonel Chepiga was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation for carrying out a peacekeeping mission." From Nikolaevka to Salisbury – The journey of Anatoliy Chepiga from schoolboy to trained assassin Col Chepiga was born in a small village with 300 residents near the border with China in 1979. At the age of 18, he enrolled in the Far-Eastern Military Command Academy in Blageoveschensk, less than an hour from his home. The academy is an elite training ground for marine commandos and officers in the Spetsnaz. At the time Col Chepiga was a student, it was known for training officers involved in overseas clandestine operations. He graduated in 2001 and joined his unit. He served with it in Chechnya where he was deployed three times. Salisbury attack step-by-step timeline puff Bellingcat and the Insider Russia have uncovered a file from 2003 in which Col Chepiga applies for a passport in his real name that lists his address as the military unit in Khabarovsk. The soldier, who is married with a teenage son, then moved to Moscow, where he can next be traced in 2012. Experts believe that because of his rank as colonel, the same as Col Skripal, and the nature of his work he may have studied at the Military Diplomatic Academy, also known as the "GRU Conservatory", following his move to Moscow. Passport records show that he was given the alias Ruslan Boshirov in 2009 at the latest.
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| Search team finds body of skydiving instructor lost in jump Posted: 28 Sep 2018 04:46 PM PDT ![Search team finds body of skydiving instructor lost in jump]( "Search team finds body of skydiving instructor lost in jump") LEBANON, Maine (AP) — Authorities in Maine on Friday found the body of a skydiving instructor who became separated from his student during a tandem jump.
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| Abused Hong Kong maid Erwiana 'rises again' Posted: 28 Sep 2018 07:25 AM PDT  She was once the face of abused maids in Hong Kong -- imprisoned, starved and beaten so badly she lost control of her bodily functions. Erwiana completed a degree in economics this month -- the culmination of a dream that brought her to Hong Kong in 2013 before her life was turned upside down. "Before I went to Hong Kong, I had been dreaming I could make enough money to study," the 27-year-old told AFP from her home in Indonesia's cultural capital Yogyakarta.
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| Accuser blasts pope silence, 'slander' over cover-up claims Posted: 28 Sep 2018 06:27 AM PDT  VATICAN CITY (AP) — The former Vatican ambassador who accused three popes and their advisers of covering up for a disgraced American ex-cardinal has challenged the Vatican to say what it knows about the scandal and accused Pope Francis of mounting a campaign of "subtle slander" against him.
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| Brett Kavanaugh Questioned By Senate About Fourth Sexual Misconduct Allegation Posted: 26 Sep 2018 06:18 PM PDT  Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh answered questions about another
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| Deadly South Carolina plane crash Posted: 28 Sep 2018 03:16 AM PDT  A plane overshoots a runway and crashes into a fence, killing two. ABC News' Kendis Gibson reports.
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| US midterm elections 2018 poll tracker: Who will win the Congress? Posted: 27 Sep 2018 01:38 AM PDT  On November 6, America will go to the polls to elect members for each of the 435 House seats and 35 of the 100 Senate seats in Congress. Donald Trump and the Republicans will hope to maintain their majority in both houses during the midterm elections, but with the Democrats having a healthy lead in the polls, it is believed that they have a decent chance of taking the House of Representatives. A Democrat victory in either chamber would grant powers to open investigations into President Trump, so the stakes are high. The latest polling and forecasts indicate that Donald Trump and the Republicans could hold onto both houses, although the House of Representatives looks the more likely to fall to the Democrats. But the Republican president, who has faced tough weeks after his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was found guilty of eight charges in his fraud trial, is reportedly planning 40 days of campaigning for the elections, and so the polls are likely to move further before election day. US mid term elections header General ballot between Republicans and Democrats The latest polls show that the Democrats are around eight percentage points ahead of the Republicans, standing at an average of 48.2 per cent compared to the Republicans' 40.6 per cent. This is an average of the last eight polls, and has indicated a consistent lead for the Democrats on a national level. While the Democrats are ahead in the general ballot, both the House of Representatives and the Senate are decided by a series of local elections, which means that the Republicans may still hold both houses. The Democrats need 24 seats to flip the House of Representatives, and two to flip the Senate. But to make matters harder, the Democrats are defending 26 of the 35 seats up for election in the Senate this time. US mid term elections poll tracker House of Representatives forecast: Democrats knocking on the door Of the 435 seats up for re-election in the House of Representatives, the Democrats need to flip 24 seats - something that should be within reach for the party. The latest forecast, from the Cook Report, has the Democrats on a likely 204 seats and the Republicans on 201. This means that the remaining 30 "toss-up" seats, which are too close to call, will be incredibly important for the outcome of the election. House of Representatives forecast Senate forecast: A tough Republican nut to crack Only needing two seats to take the Senate, it would at first seem that the Democrats should be able to take control. But there is an issue with this: Of the 35 seats up for election, 26 are currently defended by the Democrats. That means that the Democrats need to claim two seats from the remaining eight Republican-defended seats. According to the Cook Report forecast, this seems unlikely, as there are only 44 seats that are marked as "leaning" Democrat or stronger. To claim a majority, the party would have to pick up a further seven seats that are either toss-ups or leaning towards the Republicans Senate forecast Key seats to watch In the 2016 presidential election, Trump won big in rural and working class communities. This helped him flip - albeit with small margins - traditionally Democrat states in the rust belt, including Wisconsin and Michigan. If the Democrats are to have hope of taking the House of Representatives from the Republicans, they need to ensure that they retain seats in these areas, before moving onto Republican territory in others. US cartogram map - House seat forecasts A series of both Republican and Democrat seats are currently classed as a "toss-up" by the Cook Report, indicating that there could be turnovers for both parts in the mid terms. The Republicans will hope to hold onto their under siege seats in places like Tennessee and West Virginia, while making inroads in Democrat areas that Trump claimed with huge majorites in the 2016 presidential election. Seats in Indiana and North Dakota are among those places where the Republicans will hope that Trump's base will help them flip seats. Key seats to watch in the Senate Does President Trump's approval rating matter? Donald Trump's approval ratings are at relatively healthy and stable levels as the mid-terms according to The Telegraph's poll tracker. The tracker, which takes an average of the last eight polls, puts Trump's approval rating on 41 per cent in mid-September. While this level is quite high for Trump, it is relatively low for sitting presidents - and this is important, as presidential approval ratings are a good indicator of net losses at mid term elections. Only two presidents - Truman (1946 and 1950), and Bush (2006) - had a lower approval rating than Trump when going into their respective mid term elections. All three of these ended up losing over 28 seats in the House of Representatives and over five in the Senate. Presidential approval matters, and Trump's is lower than most The Telegraph's poll tracker takes an average of the last eight polls in order to take a full picture of the broad movements in the polling environment and not put too much weight on individual polls. Polls used are nationally representative with adequate sample sizes.
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| 'Radical vegans' strike fear into French butchers Posted: 28 Sep 2018 08:04 AM PDT  When the stone slabs crashed into her butcher's shop window last week, Elisabeth Cure became the latest victim of "radical vegans" who are trying to force a change in eating habits in traditionally meat-loving France. The attack in a quiet town of Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines, 50 kilometres (30 miles) southwest of Paris, took place at 3:00 am, startling Cure as she slept above the store. As in other similar incidents around France over the last year, her tormentors left a tell-tale tag scrawled on the shopfront: "End the Repression".
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| China demands U.S. 'dispel obstacles' to military ties and stop slander Posted: 27 Sep 2018 02:56 AM PDT  Trump on Wednesday accused China of seeking to interfere in the Nov. 6 U.S. congressional elections, saying that Beijing did not want him or his Republican Party to do well because of his pugnacious stance on trade. The two countries are already embroiled in an acrimonious trade war and have continued to butt heads over a list of sensitive issues including the disputed South China Sea and self-ruled Taiwan, armed by Washington but claimed by Beijing. On Saturday, China summoned the U.S. ambassador in Beijing and postponed joint military talks to protest Washington's decision to sanction a Chinese military agency and its director for buying Russian fighter jets and a surface-to-air missile system.
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| 8 Dividend Stocks That Can Also Beat the Market Posted: 28 Sep 2018 10:47 AM PDT ![8 Dividend Stocks That Can Also Beat the Market]( "8 Dividend Stocks That Can Also Beat the Market") Dividends are a relatively safe way for investors to get reliable returns, but dividend stocks often struggle to keep pace with the returns of the overall market. Fortunately for dividend investors, a decent dividend yield doesn't necessarily mean investors should give up on share price gains as well. Bank of America's yield advantage model screens for dividend stocks that are also undervalued based on factors such as free cash flow, enterprise value and return on capital.
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| The New Yorker's Latest Cover Is A Nod To Brett Kavanaugh, Women Not Being Heard Posted: 28 Sep 2018 02:18 PM PDT  Next week's cover of The New Yorker is an homage to the testimony given by
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| Dutch raids neutralized extremists' threat, authorities say Posted: 28 Sep 2018 07:27 AM PDT  THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Police who arrested seven men suspected of plotting a major extremist attack somewhere in the Netherlands found large quantities of raw materials for explosives at their homes, prosecutors said Friday.
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| Iran denies Israeli accusation of 'secret atomic warehouse' Posted: 27 Sep 2018 08:39 PM PDT  UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran on Thursday of keeping a "secret atomic warehouse" just outside its capital, despite the 2015 deal with world powers that was meant to keep it from obtaining nuclear weapons. Hours later, Iran dismissed the allegation.
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| F-35 stealth fighter crashes for the first time Posted: 28 Sep 2018 12:53 PM PDT  A US F-35 stealth fighter plane was completely destroyed in a crash during training on Friday, officials said. The Marine Corps said in a statement that a Marine Corps F-35 had crashed around 11:45 am (1615 GMT) outside Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in South Carolina. The Air Force and Navy have their own models.
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| China urges US to stop slander after Trump's meddling claim Posted: 27 Sep 2018 04:23 AM PDT  Beijing urged the U.S. to stop slandering China after President Trump accused the Asian giant of trying to interfere in upcoming American congressional elections.
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| U.S. regulator sues Musk for fraud, seeks to remove him from Tesla Posted: 27 Sep 2018 10:36 PM PDT  NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk on Thursday of fraud and sought to remove him from his role in charge of the electric car company, saying he made a series of "false and misleading" tweets about potentially taking Tesla private last month. In a lawsuit, the regulator described Musk surprising members of his own team and investors with a series of tweets, starting with the Aug. 7 announcement that he was thinking of taking Tesla private. Twelve minutes after the first tweet, Tesla's head of investor relations texted Musk's chief of staff to ask whether Musk's announcement was "legit", the SEC said.
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| Florida Man Who Killed 3 in Crash Will Only Serve 10 Days in Jail: 'I Feel Disrespected,' Says Victim's Mom Posted: 28 Sep 2018 05:21 AM PDT  He was sentenced to serve a night in jail every year on the anniversary of the crash for a decade.
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| People Are Fed Up With Sen. Chuck Grassley Interrupting Women In Senate Hearing Posted: 27 Sep 2018 12:14 PM PDT  Within the first 30 seconds of Sen. Dianne Feinstein's (D-Calif.) opening
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| Italy's populists challenge EU with plans to boost deficit Posted: 28 Sep 2018 09:26 AM PDT  After tussling with Economy Minister Giovanni Tria for weeks, the four-month old government on Thursday proposed a 2019 deficit that is, at 2.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), three times the previous administration's target. The rub is that Italy has the largest debt among big European Union economies, at 131 percent of GDP, and it is under pressure from the EU to rein in spending amid fears it could sow the seeds of a new debt crisis in the euro zone. In a move certain to raise hackles with the European Commission, which monitors and enforces EU fiscal rules, the government sees the deficit remaining at 2.4 percent for the next three years, rather than progressively declining toward zero as the Commission's recipe prescribes.
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| South Carolina Teen Awakes From Wisdom Teeth Extraction Convinced She's Engaged Posted: 28 Sep 2018 08:58 AM PDT  "I mean, for real? It's my dream ring!"
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| No cutoff date for Canada to join NAFTA 2.0: Mexico president-elect Posted: 28 Sep 2018 02:28 PM PDT  There is no cutoff date for Canada to join the US-Mexican deal meant to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement, Mexico's president-elect said Friday as the text was submitted to legislators. "There is no fatal date, there is still time to reach a deal... to keep (NAFTA) trilateral," said President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who takes office on December 1. Lopez Obrador spoke as the US and Mexican Congresses were due to receive the final text of the two-way deal, moving it a big step closer to becoming reality.
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| Body believed to be missing 6-year-old found Posted: 27 Sep 2018 01:28 PM PDT  Maddox Ritch, who has autism and does not talk, went missing in a park Saturday.
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| Russian trips to Syria hit peak after Putin ordered partial pull-out Posted: 28 Sep 2018 07:42 AM PDT  The data does not include Russian servicemen or explain what the civilians are doing in Syria. The number of Russian civilian trips to Syria grew after President Vladimir Putin announced a partial withdrawal of troops last December, an increase apparently indicating an expansion of Moscow's activities in the country.
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| Jury: Jehovah's Witnesses must pay $35M to abuse survivor Posted: 27 Sep 2018 12:29 PM PDT  HELENA, Mont. (AP) — The Jehovah's Witnesses must pay $35 million to a woman who says the church's national organization ordered Montana clergy members not to report her sexual abuse as a child at the hands of a congregation member, a jury ruled in a verdict.
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| Republicans can do better than Kavanaugh Posted: 27 Sep 2018 02:00 AM PDT  The fact is that at this elite level of the American judiciary, everybody's smart. But not everybody's good, Matt Bai writes.
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| Yankees Pitcher CC Sabathia Gets Ejected, Loses $500,000 Bonus Posted: 28 Sep 2018 09:39 AM PDT  New York Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia was just two innings away from earning a
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| Mom Gives Birth to 3 Healthy Babies After Doctors Advised Her to Abort Posted: 28 Sep 2018 12:14 PM PDT  The miracle pregnancy comes after Christy and Ryan Beck took out a $30,000 loan to pay for IVF.
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| Judge sentences leader of New Mexico religious sect Posted: 26 Sep 2018 06:29 PM PDT  GRANTS, N.M. (AP) — A New Mexico judge sentenced a paramilitary religious sect leader Wednesday to more than seven decades in prison after her conviction in a child sex abuse case that authorities say involved a victim who was taken from Uganda as a baby and mistreated throughout her life.
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| 20 Gifts Every Chocoholic Wants This Year Posted: 28 Sep 2018 01:17 PM PDT |
