Florida's Republican chair has denied a woman's rape allegation in a case roiling state politics
The chair of Florida's Republican Party is denying a woman's allegation that he raped her in October
2023-12-03 08:59
Trump already taped Tucker Carlson interview that is expected to air on GOP debate night, sources say
Former President Donald Trump has already taped an interview with Tucker Carlson that is expected to be used as counterprogramming for the first GOP primary debate Wednesday, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
2023-08-22 04:25
‘Unabomber’ Ted Kaczynski dies in federal prison
Theodore “Ted” Kaczynski, known as the “Unabomber,” has died in federal prison aged 81, a spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons told The Associated Press. Kaczynski was found dead at around 8am in a federal prison in North Carolina. The cause of death was not immediately known. He was serving life without the possibility of parole following his 1996 arrest at the primitive cabin where he was living in western Montana. Kaczynski pleaded guilty to setting 16 explosions that killed three people and injured 23 others, maiming some permanently, in various parts of the US for 17 years between 1978 and 1995. He had been moved to the federal prison medical facility in 2021 after spending more than two decades in a federal Supermax prison in Colorado for the series of bombings that targeted scientists. The deadly bombs were homemade and sent through the mail — some targeted airlines by including altitude sensors to trigger an explosion mid-flight. One threat in 1995 over the July 4th holiday weekend almost completely shut down air travel on the west coast. He was nicknamed the “Unabomber” because his early targets appeared to consist of universities and airlines. A Harvard-trained mathematician, he railed against advanced technology. His 35,000 word manifesto, Industrial Societ and Its Future, was published by The Washington Post and The New York Times in September 1995. Its publication was backed by federal agencies as he had said he would desist from his campaign of terrorism if it received a national audience. His writing was recognised by his brother David Kaczynski and his sister-in-law, Linda Patrik, who turned him in to the FBI, ending one of the longest and costliest manhunts in US history. When authorities closed in on Kaczynski at his cabin outside Lincoln, Montana, they found it filled with journals, a coded diary, explosive ingredients, and two completed bombs. With reporting from the Associated Press
2023-06-11 01:46
Bodies of 4 killed in Alaska helicopter crash are recovered from lake
Authorities in Alaska say search and rescue divers have recovered the bodies of a helicopter pilot and three state scientists whose aircraft went down in a shallow lake last week
2023-07-24 05:56
'Endless': one Venezuelan's arduous odyssey to the US
At 32, Venezuelan Victor Manuel Atencio had finally had it: The crisis roiling his country, he felt, had ruined all his...
2023-09-25 04:21
Who is Craig Hemsworth? Chris Hemsworth pens heartfelt birthday tribute for dad, 68, as they celebrate in Mykonos
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2023-07-10 13:45
‘Nic left a mark on this world’: Savannah Chrisley pays tribute to her ex-fiance Nic Kerdiles as she resumes work
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2023-10-05 01:19
Russia’s ‘General Armageddon’ removed from post – having not been seen in public since Wagner mutiny
A military commander dubbed “General Armageddon” for his brutality during Syria’s civil war has been removed as the head of Russia’s air force, having not been seen in public since the mutiny by Wagner mercenaries against Moscow at the end of June. Sergei Surovikin, a former commander of Russia’s troops in Ukraine who was previously awarded his nation’s top military honour, has not been publicly sacked – but state media has published sources confirming the move. He was given his moniker in recognition of the brutal tactics he deployed in Syria’s civil war, and was regarded as one of Russia’s most effective commanders. General Surovikin – who is believed to have close ties to Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin – was the most senior military figure to lose his position over the attempted uprising, which took place over a 24-hour period from 23 to 24 June. Russian president Vladimir Putin reacted with fury to the mutiny, which saw Mr Prigrozhin’s forces attempt to march on Moscow in protest at the way in which Moscow’s military top brass were handling the invasion of Ukraine. President Putin said that the revolt – the most significant threat to his leadership in years – could have tipped Russia into civil war. The march on Moscow was eventually halted about 125 miles outside the capital after a deal was brokered between Mr Prigozhin and the Kremlin via Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko. The terms of the arrangement allowed for the Wagner founder and some of his troops to decamp to Belarus and leave combat operations in Ukraine, where they had been involved in some of the fiercest fighting seen in the war so far. Mr Prigozhin has been photographed in St Petersburg and Belarus in recent weeks, and posted a video on Monday that he suggested had been shot in Africa, one of Wagner’s other theatres of combat. The two men Mr Prigozhin had wanted to topple – defence minister Sergei Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the general staff – remain in their posts. General Surovikin’s last public appearance was on 24 June, when he appeared in what looked like a carefully stage-managed video. Visibly strained and without insignia, he urged Mr Prigozhin to abandon his march on Moscow. Since that day, speculation has been rampant about General Surovikin’s fate. Some Russian news outlets and sources have said that the general, who was often publicly praised by Mr Prigozhin in the run-up to the revolt, was being questioned over possible complicity, and that he was potentially being held under house arrest. General Surovikin’s daughter told the Russian social media channel Baza in late June that her father had not been arrested. US officials have previously told American media that General Surovikin was supportive of Mr Prigozhin, but that Western intelligence did not know with certainty whether he had helped the rebellion in any way. Of the latest move, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, citing an anonymous source, reported that General Surovikin had been replaced as commander of the Russian Aerospace Forces by Colonel General Viktor Afzalov, who heads the main staff of the air force. The agency frequently represents the official position of the Kremlin, through reports citing anonymous officials in Russia’s defence and security establishment. The RBC newspaper reported a defence personnel source saying: “Army General Sergei Surovikin has been relieved of his position in connection with his transfer to a different role ... He is currently on a short holiday.” The television personality Ksenia Sobchak, who is the daughter of a politician with links to Mr Putin, suggested that General Surovikin had not been in touch with his relatives. “They say that he was relieved of his post on 18 August by way of closed decree. The family still has had no contact with him,” she wrote on Telegram. General Surovikin was placed in charge of Russian military operations in Ukraine last October, but in January that role was handed to General Gerasimov while General Surovikin was made a deputy. News of the dismissal of General Surovikin came as another drone attack targeted Moscow, believed to be the sixth such assault in a week. The Ukrainian intelligence agency also claimed it had destroyed a key S-400 surface-to-air missile defence system in Russian-occupied Crimea. Such a loss would be another embarrassing blow for the Kremlin, as Ukraine increasingly targets Russia’s assets far behind the front line in southern and eastern Ukraine. Speaking about the drone attack on the Russian capital, Moscow’s mayor Sergey Sobyanin said that one drone had smashed into a building under construction in Moscow City, a prestigious business complex that has been hit by drones twice before. Several windows were broken in two buildings nearby, and emergency services responded to the incident. Russia’s defence ministry claimed to have downed all of the drones in Moscow and the surrounding area. Earlier, a three-hour night-time drone attack by Russia in Ukraine’s southern region of Odesa overnight on Tuesday caused a blaze at grain facilities, according to the head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration, Oleh Kiper. Elsewhere, a Russian drone attack on the city of Romny in northeastern Ukraine struck a local school, killing the principal, his deputy, a secretary and the school librarian, according to Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs. Three people were also killed in the Belgorod region of Russia on the Ukrainian border during the repeated shelling of a sanatorium, according to the region’s governor. Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report Read More The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin ‘dies in plane crash’ Russia's 'General Armageddon' reportedly dismissed after vanishing in wake of Wagner uprising Wagner chief Prigozhin reappears in first video after mutiny - and he’s recruiting
2023-08-24 01:19
‘We still don’t know if my brother made it’: Armenians fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh worry for missing relatives
The last time Erna heard from her brother was a week ago, in the frantic rush to escape Nagorno-Karabakh as it dissolved around them. In just a few days over 100,000 people - nearly the entire local ethnic Armenian population - fled the separatist enclave, fearing persecution as Azerbaijani forces closed in. Mobile phone networks were down, the only road out was at a standstill and people found themselves separated by the shelling. And so in that chaos people went missing and families lost each other. The United Nations said children were arriving in neighbouring Armenia unaccompanied. There were reports of people being detained by the Azerbaijani authorities and the Armenian healthy ministry said some people, particularly the elderly, died while on the 40-hour journey due to malnutrition and a lack of medicine . “We still don’t know if my brother made it to Armenia, if he is alive,” the school administrator tells the Independent in tears from Goris, a border town which has quickly morphed into a massive refugee camp. Behind her is a flurry of activity: shellshocked families pick through piles of donated clothes, food and supplies as they try to work out how to piece together their lives. “We last heard from him as he was going to get fuel,” Erna’s son David, 18 continues as his mother appears too overwhelmed to continue the story. The family fear he may be among the 170 killed in a massive explosion last week at one of the few petrol stations still operating in the enclave. On Monday desperate refugees had flocked there to secure fuel to get out when the blast occurred. No one knows what exactly happened but it added another layer to the tragedy. They are not alone, says Lusine Barkhudaryan 30, who until last week was deputy minister of infrastructure for Nagorno Karabakh’s self-declared government. Now the former lawyer is camping at a hotel in Goris, having like tens of thousands of others, left everything behind. “One of my colleague’s husband is missing, and two neighbours are also unaccounted for they were separated during the rush to get out,” she tells The Independent, dissolving into tears. “I know of another woman who is looking for her husband, brother and father. They may have died in the petrol station but they don’t know. They are still trying to find them.” With so many unaccounted for in the confusion, The International Committee of the Red Cross together with the Armenian Red Cross have just set up a hotline which people can call to register their missing. “So far we are getting 100 calls a day,” Zara Amatuni, an ICRC spokesperson tells the Independent. “It is difficult to provide credible information for the time being because the situation is evolving so rapidly,” Finding the missing is just one of the nightmares facing Karabakh Armenian families and Armenia itself as it reels from the biggest movement of people in the South Caucasus since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Tens of thousands of now-homeless people are on the move camping in hotels, schools, private homes, in their cars and even the streets after they left their homes and homeland that no longer exists. The Armenian government said they have so far managed to temporarily house some 32,000 people in state facilities but the question of what to do in the long term remains unanswered. No one was prepared because the situation unfurled with such alarming speed after Azerbaijan launched a lightning military campaign against the breakaway forces last week. Baku wanted to take back the majority ethnic Armenian enclave that is internationally recognised as being part of Azerbaijani but has enjoyed de facto statehood for three decades. In the 10 months leading up to the 24-hour blitz, the Azerbaijanis had imposed a blockade strangling food, fuel, gas and water supplies to the area. Weakened by the siege, outnumbered and outgunned by a military bolstered by Turkey, the Armenian separatist forces capitulated almost immediately. Their political leaders said they would dissolve their government by the end of the year, triggering the exodus. Reports of the arrest of senior Karabakh officials - including former ministers and security officials - added to the panic. On Sunday Azerbaijan said it issued an arrest warrant for the head of the enclave Arayik Harutyunyan. Now 80 percent of the 120,000 residents have packed up their lives in a few minutes and crossed into Armenia. There, Armenian officials told The Independent they were struggling to accommodate them. Yerevan has accused Azerbaijan of “ethnic cleansing”. Baku has vehemently denied the accusations saying the families chose to leave of their own accord. “In the 2020 conflict, we had a similar issue but people knew they would return after a ceasefire. That is not the case now,“ Gnel Sanosyan, Armenia’s minister of infrastructure tells The Independent with exhaustion. He is standing by a packed registration centre in Goris, where hundreds of people are being registered by Armenian officials manning dozens of computers. “We are trying to pool all the state institutions together to handle the situation. The Armenian government is trying its best but the international community needs to step up and help”. Pressure is mounting on Armenia. Armenian citizens have taken to the streets demanding Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan resign as they blame him for failing to defend Nagorno Karabakh. The government was already struggling financially and now needs to provide housing, medical care and jobs for tens of thousands of new people that are increasingly scattered across the country. In Vayk, a tiny mountain town dealing with the overflow from Goris, local administrative leader Hayk Avagyan said they quickly passed the capacity of the local hotels and public shelters. “We started sending to private houses,” he says with desperation. “There are many things to think about in the future like jobs and education.” In Goris, families are struggling to work out their future. Luisine Barkhudaryan, the former Karabakh official, says legally Karabakh Armenians do not have the right to social benefits or welfare Armenians do despite being Armenian passport holders. Finding work will be tricky, she adds. “And I didn’t bring anything with me not even a glass from my kitchen to drink water with,” she said. Erna’s family, meanwhile, are still trying to locate family members before they can even get make solid plans for the future. “We are going to the capital Yerevan to hopefully rent a flat,” “What can we do? What should the world do? It’s too late.” Read More Nagorno-Karabakh: Tearful 16-year-old describes ‘bombing’ while she was in school A People lost: The end of Nagorno Karabakh’s fight for independence Azerbaijan issues arrest warrant for former separatist Nagorno-Karabakh leader Almost all of Nagorno-Karabakh's people have left, Armenia's government says Azerbaijan issues arrest warrant for former separatist Nagorno-Karabakh leader Armenia grapples with multiple challenges after the fall of Nagorno-Karabakh Almost all of Nagorno-Karabakh's people have left, Armenia's government says
2023-10-02 02:16
D-backs' Ketel Marte ties postseason record with 17-game hitting streak
Ketel Marte extended his postseason hitting streak to 17 games, tying the major league record shared by Derek Jeter and two others when he laced an RBI double in the World Series opener
2023-10-28 12:53
Germany's Scholz vows a quick resolution to his coalition government's latest standoff
German Chancellor OIaf Scholz is vowing that his coalition government will quickly resolve a dispute over child benefits that has marred attempts to put months of damaging public infighting behind it
2023-08-26 17:48
'Is that Ray Liotta?' Fans claim the 'Goodfellas' star looked 'unrecognizable' before tragic death at 67
Ray Liotta died in his sleep on May 26, 2022, at Zona Colonial Hotel in the Dominican Republic while shooting for his film 'Dangerous Waters'
2023-05-10 19:46
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