By Alberto Dabo BISSAU (Reuters) -Polls closed in Guinea-Bissau's parliamentary elections on Sunday as voters sought some stability more than

A Texas cheerleader who was shot after her friend opened the door of the wrong car has opened up about the traumatising ordeal. Payton Washington, 18, was shot allegedly by 25-year-old Pedro Tello Rodriguez in an act of random violence in the city of Elgin on 18 April. Before the violence unfolded, Payton had parked in a grocery store parking lot which serves as a carpool pickup spot for members of their cheerleading team. Heather Roth, one of four team members transferring rides in the lot after practice, told authorities she got out of a friend’s car and into a car she thought was her own, but there was a stranger in the passenger seat. She said she panicked and got back into her friend’s car, but the man got out of his vehicle, pulled out a gun and opened fire. Speaking to ABC’s Good Morning America, Ms Washington, who suffered three gunshot wounds to her lower back and leg, said the recovery process has been physically and emotionally challenging but added that she is coping as best she can. Ms Washington said she only realised where she had been shot after her friend pulled over and she saw blood on her own seat. She then began coughing up blood on the side of the road and had to be airlifted to a hospital in Austin to treat life-threatening damage to her stomach, spleen, diaphragm and pancreas. “I knew somewhere, I was bleeding, but I had so much to juggle, I didn’t know where,” Ms Washington recalled in the interview aired on Friday. “And then, whenever we pulled over ... I was throwing up blood and I was like, ‘Oop, that is not normal.’” Ms Washington said that she was texting and eating Twizzlers when the suspect opened fire on her and her friends. Mr Rodriguez has been charged with engaging in deadly conduct, a third-degree felony. He reportedly surrendered to police and was released after his bail was lowered from $500,000 to $100,000. An attorney for Mr Rodriguez told Insider that his client was an employee at the grocery store. Mr Rodriguez claimed through his lawyer that he had previously been robbed at gunpoint while inside his vehicle and feared that a similar situation was unfolding when the teen entered the car by mistake. “I didn’t see him, honestly. I was still looking at my phone,” Ms Washington told GMA. “I kind of heard what was going on in the background but I didn’t think it’d be as big of a deal as it was. [Ms Roth] just kept saying, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Ms Roth was grazed by a bullet as one of the other three teens who were inside the vehicle drove away in a desperate attempt to escape the shots being fired at the group. “I was just telling myself to breathe, it was hard to breathe because of my diaphragm,“ Ms Washington recounted. “I was just trying to stay as calm as possible for the other people in the car. I could tell how sad and scared they were.” The accomplished athlete said she had struggled in the aftermath of the shooting to come to terms with her new temporary physical limitations amid an intensive and arduous recovery. “My spleen was shattered. My stomach had two holes in it. And my diaphragm had two holes in it. And then they had to remove a lobe from my pancreas. I had 32 staples,” she recounted. “It was hard. It hurting to walk or stand when a week before I was doing a bunch of flips, running, the track ... can’t get out of bed by yourself, can’t roll off the couch, can’t stand by yourself ... it was hard.” Ms Washington, who graduated last week, said she is determined to make a full recovery and go back to cheerleading soon. “You can literally do anything if you push and you persevere,” she told GMA. “Don’t doubt yourself ever because you can do anything as long as you’re putting your 120 per cent into it.” Read More Funeral held for teen shot by gas station owner over false shoplifting claims as community shares outrage Life is weirder than ever for LGBT+ people – and I think I know why Federal court reinstates death penalty order for Missouri inmate convicted of killing jailers

Marjorie Taylor Greene has blamed liberal philanthropist George Soros and supposed concerns for Capitol security for abruptly reversing her position on releasing footage of the January 6 riot. After previously calling for the tapes of the insurrection to be shared publicly, the Georgia congresswoman said on Friday that it could endanger the safety at the Capitol and of those who were present during the rioting but did not commit any crimes. “If we released these video tapes just widely for the public — number one, we put the security of the Capitol at risk, because there’s over 1,700 video cameras,” she said in an interview with the right-wing Real America’s Voice channel. “We also endanger many Americans that were simply standing on the Capitol grounds, maybe never even walked through the Capitol or committed any crimes, but they could have just walked further than where the barrier was simply because the barrier was torn down by the time they got there,” she added. Ms Greene claimed that “Soros groups” would scour the tapes using facial recognition technology to compile evidence and hand it over to the FBI. She added that those who committed violent crimes against law enforcement should be punished, but those that simply attended the rally didn’t deserve to be persecuted. In a later tweet, she wrote: “Sedition Hunters would spend every second of every day analysing the videos in order to hunt innocent people that just stood on Capitol grounds on J6.” As recently as a month ago, Ms Greene said she supported the unfettered release of footage captured on Capitol security cameras during the riot by an armed mob of Trump supporters. “We need to release the J6 tapes to a public on line source so that everyone knows what did and didn’t happen, we need to restore fair justice, and America can move on,” she said in May. In February, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy handed over 44,000 hours of footage to then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Mr Carlson then produced a much-derided segment which sanitized the extreme violence committed against law enforcement officers, calling it “mostly peaceful chaos”. Then last week, Ms Greene announced the footage would be handed over to right-wing commentator John Solomon, Julie Kelly, a writer at conservative website American Greatness, and a third, unnamed outlet. Meanwhile, nine media companies including CNN, the New York Times and Politico are suing the Department of Justice under the Freedom of Information Act for the tapes to be released. Read More DeSantis news — live: Florida governor defines ‘woke’ and vows to dismantle Biden policies on Iowa visit Marjorie Taylor Greene cryptically says the FBI knows who mystery Capitol pipe bomber is Lauren Boebert confirms former WWE star is not her father after two DNA tests Marjorie Taylor Greene cryptically says FBI knows who mystery Capitol pipe bomber is Gavin Newsom mocks Marjorie Taylor Greene over Target pulling Pride products Marjorie Taylor Greene faces laughter after asking House to follow ‘decorum’

The remains of five children who died at a Pennsylvania boarding school for Native Americans are going to be exhumed and returned to their families who have waited for their return for more than a century, the Office of Army Cemeteries (OAC) has announced.

Giovanni Di Lorenzo has become the first Napoli player to lift the Serie A trophy toward the sky since Diego Maradona

A former Chicago police officer has been accused of lying about getting his vehicle stolen by an ex-girlfriend to get out of paying 44 traffic tickets. Jeffrey Kriv, 56, is facing felony perjury and forgery charges for the alleged scheme that spanned a decade and saved him $3,665, according to an in-depth joint report by The Chicago Tribune and ProPublica. Cook County prosecutors claim Mr Kriv successfully used the same excuse at least 44 times since 2013. The last time he did, in September 2022, Mr Kriv allegedly told a judge that he had a fight with his then-girlfriend the morning the ticket was issued and she went on to steal his car. Like several times before, Mr Kriv showed the court what he claimed was legitimate documentation, including allegedly forged police reports of the supposed theft. “Well, I had her arrested,” Mr Kriv said, according to court transcripts reviewed by the Tribune and ProPublica. “They charged her with a misdemeanour trespassing to a vehicle ... She got, like, three months’ supervision or something like that. It’s kind of a, I don’t want to say the system’s like a joke, but it didn’t really do anything.” The investigative report also uncovered several complaints filed against Mr Kriv from the time he joined the Chicago Police Department in 1996 until his retirement on 17 January of this year. Despite having 20 suspensions totalling 170 days throughout his time in the force, department officials never attempted to fire Mr Kriv until five days before his retirement. The city first became aware of Mr Kriv’s alleged forgery crimes after a tip was sent to the Office of Inspector General last year. The information alleged that Mr Kriv used the same alibi when contesting dozens of tickets in the last decade, which ranged from speeding, running a red light and parking where it was not allowed. Tim Grace, an attorney for Mr Kriv, downplayed the accusations, saying his client’s character has been misconstrued. “Many of the facts you compose are incomplete or not true,” Mr Grace told the Tribune and ProPublica in a statement, noting upwards of 100 recognitions Mr Kriv has reportedly been awarded. “Officer Kriv has served his city with honour for over 25-plus years.” According to the Citizen Police Data Project, Mr Kriv had 76 allegations and 39 use of force reports, more than 99 per cent of other officers. Records show that Mr Kriv had a long disciplinary history during the 27 nearly years he served. According to those reports, Mr Kriv reportedly used a flashlight to break the window of a man’s car during a traffic stop, punched another man who was handcuffed in the back of his car and described a woman as “white trash” in an incident report. Mr Kriv was suspended for 20 days in 2005 for threatening sanitation workers to ticket their cars after a city Streets and Sanitation Department employee rightfully towed his personal vehicle. The next year, he was suspended for 90 days for leaving the scene of a vehicle fire to visit a waitress at a strip club. He went back to work after just 45 days. A woman also told the Tribune and ProPublica that Mr Kriv punched her in the face after arresting her for a domestic fight. The charges against the woman were dismissed and she was paid $100,000 in a settlement after suing Mr Kriv and the city. “I had to have surgery. I had to have plastic implanted under my eye because of this,” the woman told the publications. “My face is not symmetrical anymore. He really messed me up on the outside. And inside it was a really traumatic experience.” Mr Kriv was ordered released on his own recognizance in January. He last appeared in court in March. The Independent has reached out to his attorney. Read More DeSantis defines ‘woke’ after Trump claimed ‘half the people can’t’ At least 15 people killed in Senegal as opposition leader's supporters clash with police Trump news — live: Classified documents grand jury slated to meet as Trump claims trouble in New York case

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Residents of Washington D.C. reported hearing a loud boom across a wide area on Sunday but fire department

The body of a man that had been missing since the partial collapse of a building in Davenport,

A scuba diver made an unexpected discovery while exploring the depths of a south-central Oklahoma lake: a tear gas grenade that turned out to be live, authorities said.

The Denver Nuggets' playoff run has been fueled by the two-man game of Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray

Saudi Arabia said it will make an extra 1 million barrel-a-day production cut in July, taking its production

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 4, 2023--