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June 25, 2016 at 10:23 pm
New York - Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton regained a double-digit lead over Republican rival Donald Trump this week, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday.
The June 20-24 poll showed that 46.6 percent of likely American voters supported Clinton while 33.3 percent supported Trump. Another 20.1 percent said they would support neither candidate.
Trump had enjoyed a brief boost in support following the June 12 mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, as he doubled down on his pledge to ban Muslims from entering the country, cutting Clinton’s lead to nine points.
But Trump’s rise in popularity appeared to be only temporary, unlike his lasting surge among the Republican field last year after the attacks in Paris and in San Bernardino, Cal...
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June 25, 2016 at 10:22 pm
Jerusalem - The Prime Minister’s Office on Saturday denied that Hamas leader in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh would be given immunity from Israeli attempts on his life as part of the reconciliation deal with Turkey which the cabinet is expected to ratify next week.
The claim was seemingly made by coalition chairman David Bitan, who later said that his comments made at a cultural event in Beersheba on Saturday were misunderstood and taken out of context.
Discussing the pending deal with Turkey and what it means for Haniyeh, Biton stated: “What’s certain is that we can’t do anything to him anymore, he is secured. Not even the prime minister can give the order anymore.”
Biton’s comments prompted an angry...read more at VIN
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June 25, 2016 at 10:21 pm
Is it ethical for Baltimore's top prosecutor, who staked her reputation on charging six police officers in the death of Freddie Gray, to keep trying for a conviction? Legal experts said Friday that State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby is obligated to consider this question.
Mosby seemed devastated after the trial judge found no evidence a crime was committed when the young black man's neck was broken in the back of a police van.
The acquittal of van driver Caesar Goodson on all counts Thursday was more than just a courtroom setback, given the stakes Mosby raised last year when she announced the charges shortly after riots shook the city.
Stressing the ethical demands of her office and repeatedly invoking the civil unrest, Mosby vowed then to represent the aggri...
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June 25, 2016 at 10:08 pm
West Bank - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday retracted his allegation that Israeli rabbis had called for the poisoning of Palestinian water, a remark that had drawn strong condemnation from Israel’s prime minister.
“After it became evident that the alleged statements by a rabbi on poisoning Palestinian wells, reported by various media outlets, are baseless, President Abbas has affirmed that he didn’t intend to harm Judaism or to offend Jewish people around the world,” part of a statement by Abbas’s office said.
The Western-backed Palestinian leader made the remarks in a speech to the European parliament in Brussels on Thursday, as he condemned Israeli actions against Palestinians amid stalled peace talks, which collapsed in 2014.
Ab...
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June 25, 2016 at 9:57 pm
Baltimore's police commissioner and City Council president are criticizing the city's police union for online posts that appeared to celebrate an officer's acquittal in the death of a 25-year-old black man. A judge acquitted Officer Caesar Goodson of all charges Thursday. Goodson drove the van in which Freddie Gray's neck was broken. Goodson was one of six officers charged in Gray's 2015 death. The Baltimore Sun reports the police union sent a tweet Friday night with a photo of actor Leonardo DiCaprio making a toast, with text reading, "Here's to the Baltimore 6 defense team." Another tweet referred to State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby as "the wolf that lurks." The tweets have been deleted. Police Chief Kevin Davis and City Council Presiden...
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June 24, 2016 at 6:36 pm
Turkish President meets Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal as his country is reportedly set to announce normalization with Israel.
Amid reports that Israel and Turkey will announce a deal on normalizing ties this coming Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday met Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Istanbul.
According to the Turkish Anadolu news agency, the two discussed ways to resolve the disagreements among Palestinians as well as Turkish humanitarian assistance.
A source from the Turkish Presidency quoted by the news agency said that Erdogan emphasized during the meeting that Turkey was keen on easing the distress of Palestinians.
The meeting comes following reports in Turkish media that Israel and Turkey are set to announce the normalization of ties, cut after the 2010 M...
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June 24, 2016 at 6:29 pm
ST Louis - Bernie Sanders said Friday he will vote for Hillary Clinton for president, stopping short of a full endorsement of his Democratic presidential rival more than a week after the final primary contests.
The Vermont senator said in an interview with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that he was “pretty good at arithmetic” and understood that Clinton had won more pledged delegates than he had during their lengthy primary.
Asked if he would vote for the former secretary of state, Sanders replied, “Yes,” adding: “I will do everything I can to defeat Donald Trump.”
But Sanders has yet to call on his supporters to vote for Clinton and has not said whether he would campaign on her behalf. His latest comments acknowledged the inevitable...
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June 24, 2016 at 6:28 pm
Washington - An Associated Press review of the official calendar Hillary Clinton kept as secretary of state identified at least 75 meetings with longtime political donors, loyalists, Clinton Foundation contributors and corporate and other outside interests that were not recorded or were listed without the names of those she met.
The missing entries raise new questions about how Clinton and her inner circle handled government records documenting her State Department tenure — in this case, why the official chronology of her four-year term does not closely mirror other more detailed records of her daily meetings.
At a time when Clinton’s private email system is under scrutiny by an FBI criminal investigation, the calendar omissions reinforce concerns that she sou...
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June 24, 2016 at 6:26 pm
Washington - Disturbed by Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, U.S. activists have taken out online advertisements, circulated petitions, put up billboards and even chipped in for an airplane banner to try to shame companies into dropping their sponsorships of the Republican National Convention in July.
The campaign, led by the political arm of California-based advocacy group Color of Change, seeks to weaken Trump’s White House bid by pressuring companies to skip the Cleveland convention where he is expected to formally become the nominee.
“The fact of the matter is that any employee of these Fortune 500 companies that are sponsoring the convention, if any of those employees went into their job and said the things Donald Trump is saying, they’d be fired...
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June 24, 2016 at 6:24 pm
Washington - A U.S. Navy captain who was in charge of 10 American sailors briefly held by Iran in January has been relieved of command because of a “loss of confidence in his ability to command,” a Navy statement said on Friday.
Ten U.S. sailors, who were aboard two patrol craft, were detained by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Jan. 12 when they inadvertently entered Iranian territorial waters. They were released the next day after being held for about 15 hours.]
Captain Kyle Moses, commander of Task Force 56, was the second person to be publicly reprimanded so far over the incident. In May, Commander Eric Rasch, who was the executive officer of the coastal riverine squadron that included the 10 sailors, was fired.
Vice Admiral Kevin Donegan...
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June 24, 2016 at 6:23 pm
Fort Lee, NJ - Authorities say they’ve nabbed two New Jersey residents who have racked up about $30,000 in unpaid tolls combined.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey says officers pulled over Englewood resident John Reynolds on Wednesday morning after seeing him pass through the E-ZPass lane of the George Washington Bridge while pretending his cellphone was a transponder.
Authorities say the car had about 300 toll violations, totaling about $19,000.
The next morning, officers stopped North Plainfield resident Lucy Sanchez on the bridge after police say she passed through without paying a toll.
Police say Sanchez didn’t have a driver’s license and had nearly 150 toll violations, totaling about $9,000.
Both are charged with theft of service and evading ...
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June 24, 2016 at 6:22 pm
New York - Stephanie Rodenberg-Lewis wasn’t happy with her insulin pump and finally switched two years ago to another brand. Now her health insurer is pushing her to go back.
UnitedHealth Group Inc. has made a deal with device maker Medtronic that will slash options for diabetics who use the portable pumps, which costs thousands of dollars. The move has angered Rodenberg-Lewis and others who will be limited to three pump choices instead of nine.
Health insurers, big employers and other bill payers have been trying for years to rein in costs and improve care by steering clients to certain doctors and hospitals. They’ve also restricted options for some prescriptions and lined up deals for smaller-ticket items like diabetes test strips or items patients don’t chos...
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June 24, 2016 at 6:22 pm
Charleston, WV - A deluge of 9 inches of rain on parts of West Virginia destroyed or damaged more than 100 homes, knocked out power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses and killed 14 people, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said Friday.
About 500 people were stranded overnight in a shopping center when a bridge washed out, and dozens of other people had to be plucked off rooftops or rescued as waters quickly rose during the storm.
“Our focus remains on search and rescue,” the governor said. He added: “It’s been a long 24 hours and the next 24 hours may not be much easier.”
The deaths included an 8-year-old boy and a 4-year-old boy who were swept away in different counties, authorities said. Greenbrier County Sheriff Jan Cahill described “complet...
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June 24, 2016 at 6:21 pm
London - An intense leadership battle is expected to unfold within Britain’s Conservative Party after its long-standing, passionate split over the country’s role in Europe reached a pinnacle Friday with a vote to exit the bloc and the resignation of the prime minister.
The still youthful-looking David Cameron announced he would step down after Brits rejected his plea to vote to keep Britain inside the European Union, setting in motion complex divorce proceedings expected to take two years or more to work out.
Speaking in a stoic tone, with his wife Samantha standing nearby, Cameron said Britain needs a new “captain” to manage torturous negotiations with EU officials about how to separate Britain from the 28-nation bloc.
Strong disagreements over Britain&...
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June 24, 2016 at 6:16 pm
Pyongyang, North Korea - The top North Korean official for U.S. relations told The Associated Press on Friday that his country is now a nuclear threat to be reckoned with, and Washington can expect more nuclear tests and missile launches like the ones earlier this week as long as it attempts to force his government’s collapse through a policy of pressure and punishment.
“It’s the United States that caused this issue,” Han Song Ryol, director-general of the department of U.S. affairs at North Korea’s Foreign Ministry, said in his first interview with an American news organization since assuming the post three years ago. “They have to stop their military threats, sanctions and economic pressure. Without doing so, it’s like they are telling...
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June 24, 2016 at 6:15 pm
Washington - Britain’s stunning vote to leave the European Union, buoyed by a frenzy of nationalism and populist anger, was a crushing rejection of the political elite. Republican Donald Trump hopes it is also a preview of November’s U.S. presidential election.
The referendum result reverberated immediately in a U.S. presidential campaign dominated by Trump’s rapid rise to capture the nomination, fueled by a similar brew of anti-establishment and anti-globalization sentiment.
The vote in Britain reinforced the notion that the insurgent campaign launched by the wealthy real estate developer had tapped into a global political movement that might be hard to stop.
“This is a protest vote against globalization and there is one presidential candidate who...
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June 24, 2016 at 6:11 pm
Dallas, TX - More than 30 people who attended an event with motivational speaker Tony Robbins have been treated for burns after Robbins encouraged them to walk on hot coals as a way of conquering their fears, Dallas fire officials said.
Five people were taken to a hospital Thursday night, while the rest were treated at the scene for burns to their feet and lower extremities, Dallas Fire-Rescue spokesman Jason Evans said.
The hot coals were spread outside the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center as part of a four-day Robbins seminar called “Unleash the Power Within.” It’s a regular part of some of Robbins’ seminars; more than 20 people were treated for foot burns after an event in 2012 in San Jose, California.
Paul Gold of West Palm Beach, Florida...
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June 24, 2016 at 5:03 pm
Adamstown, PA - A 91-year-old Pennsylvania man who has for years lectured to school groups and others about what he said were his experiences at Auschwitz now says he was never a prisoner at the German death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.
Joseph Hirt, of Adamstown, made the admission in a letter to LNP newspaper (http://bit.ly/28XFmgJ ) Wednesday. He said he used poor judgment and faulty reasoning in trying to tell the story of those affected by the Nazis.
“I am writing today to apologize publicly for harm caused to anyone because of my inserting myself into the descriptions of life in Auschwitz,” Hirt wrote. “I was not a prisoner there. I did not intend to lessen or overshadow the events which truly happened there by falsely claiming to have been personally in...
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June 24, 2016 at 5:03 pm
Washington - Hillary Clinton’s campaign is calling Donald Trump’s reaction to Britain’s vote to leave the European Union “dangerous and frightening.”
Trump, say her aides, reacted with “pathological self-congratulations,” a lack of understanding about the situation and a focus on his own businesses rather than the economic impact on American families.
Trump “actively rooted” for the United Kingdom to leave the EU and is “rooting for the economic turmoil in its wake,” Clinton adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters.
Trump, in a news conference in Scotland, praised the vote results and drew parallels to the populist anger driving his own presidential campaign.
Clinton’s team argues that the economic downturn li...
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June 24, 2016 at 4:33 pm
A day after flirting with record levels, U.S equity markets on Friday extended a global-market meltdown after the United Kingdom, in a stunning decision, voted to sever its more than 40-year membership in the European Union.
At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 610 points, or 3.39% to 17400. The S&P 500 dropped 76 points, or 3.60% to 2037, while the Nasdaq Composite shed 202 points, or 4.12% to 4707.
The major averages ended just off the lows of the session. During the final hour of trade, the Dow fell 647 points. To illustrate the rush on Wall Street, the Vix, which measures expected volatility over the next 30 days, jumped 44% during the session to 24.92.
“We expect the next several days to be as turbulent as other major market shocks of the...
