A deadline for ethnic Serbs to sign up for Kosovo license plates has been postponed by 2 weeks
Kosovo’s government has postponed a deadline by two weeks for ethnic Serbs living in the country to register their vehicles with Kosovo license plates instead of Serbian ones
2023-12-01 02:19
176 world leaders and Nobel laureates urge Bangladesh to halt legal cases against Peace Prize winner
More than 170 global leaders and Nobel laureates are urging Bangladesh to suspend legal proceedings against Muhammad Yunus, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for pioneering the use of microcredit to help impoverished people
2023-08-31 11:18
Switzerland's glaciers lose 'mind-blowing' 10% of their volume in just two years
Glaciers in Switzerland are shrinking at a "mind-blowing" rate. A total of 10% of their ice volume has disappeared over a period of just two years as a combination of low snowfall and soaring temperatures cause unprecedented melting, according to figures released Thursday.
2023-09-28 18:54
Death toll from floods in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia rises to 130
At least 130 people have died in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia following heavy rains that triggered what aid agencies describe as flooding seen only once every 100 years
2023-11-17 23:45
Heligoland: 'Several missing' after British ship sinks in North Sea
The British Verity has reportedly sunk after it crashed into the Bahamian Polesie on Tuesday morning.
2023-10-24 17:55
Dee Snider — rocker, actor, DJ and now writer — draws on Long Island childhood in 1st novel 'Frats'
Dee Snider has been a heavy metal singer, a Broadway actor, a radio DJ, and a TV voice-over artist
2023-06-22 20:46
IShowSpeed announces retirement following Sidemen Charity Match performance during Kai Cenat's livestream
This decision follows IShowSpeed's recent misfortune in the Sidemen Charity Match, where he had an unfortunate incident with a penalty kick
2023-09-12 16:29
‘Cult mom’ Lori Vallow is convicted of murders of children and conspiracy to kill Chad Daybell’s wife
“Cult mom” Lori Vallow has been convicted of murdering her two youngest children and conspiring to murder her new husband Chad Daybell’s first wife in a shocking doomsday plot that has horrified the nation for the last three years. The 49-year-old mother-of-three was found guilty of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and grand theft over the deaths of her daughter Tylee Ryan, 16, and son Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 7, in Ada County Court in Boise, Idaho, on Friday. She was also found guilty of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the death of Mr Daybell’s first wife Tammy Daybell, 49. Dressed in a black suit, with her blonde hair down in waves around her shoulders, Vallow stood between her two attorneys as the verdict was read out. She showed no reaction as she learned that the jury had returned a verdict of guilty on all charges. JJ and Tylee vanished without a trace back in September 2019, with their mother refusing to reveal their whereabouts to both authorities and the children’s desperate family members. One month later, Tammy – an otherwise healthy 49-year-old – also died suddenly. Her death was initially ruled natural causes. This bizarre spate of disappearances and death came just months after Vallow’s fourth husband Charles Vallow was shot dead by Vallow’s brother Alex Cox in Arizona in July 2019. With Vallow’s children and both of their spouses then out of the way, she and Mr Daybell embarked on a new life together – flying to Hawaii to get married in a fairytale wedding on the beach. But, with months passing since the last signs of life of Vallow’s children, concerns continued to grow, prompting authorities to exhume Tammy’s body. A subsequent autopsy revealed that she had died by asphyxiation. In June 2020 – nine months after they were last seen alive – Tylee and JJ’s remains were found buried on the grounds of Mr Daybell’s property in Rexburg, Idaho. JJ, who had autism, had been smothered with a plastic bag taped over his face, his little body still dressed in a pair of red pyjamas. Tylee’s cause of death meanwhile has been impossible to establish as the teenager’s dismembered, charred bones and body parts were found scattered in the ground on Mr Daybell’s pet cemetery. Jurors in Ada County Court in Boise, Idaho, took almost seven hours to find Vallow guilty on all charges over the three murders after a grueling 27-day trial where the panel heard harrowing details about the doomsday mom’s path of deadly destruction and were shown graphic images of the murdered children’s remains. The state called over 60 witnesses to lay out its case that Vallow was motivated by both her doomsday cult beliefs but also lust for Mr Daybell and financial greed when she conspired with him and her brother Cox to kill the three victims. In a bombshell move – that may now have proven fatal – the defence shocked the court on Tuesday when Vallow’s attorneys announced that they would not present any defence case or call any witnesses, paving the way for closing arguments to begin earlier than anticipated. During closing arguments on Thursday, prosecutors argued that Ms Vallow had been driven by “money, power and sex” to kill the three victims. Ms Vallow and Mr Daybell met at a religious conference in October 2018 when they were both married and began an affair. As their romance grew, so too did their cult beliefs and conspiracy to kill. Jurors heard how the doomsday couple believed that they were on a religious mission to gather the 144,000 and that there was a “rating system of light and dark” for the spirits of the people around them. In the weeks and months before the murders, Ms Vallow allegedly told friends that JJ and Tylee had become “demons”. Prosecutors said that Ms Vallow used these beliefs to “justify” the murders of her children and love rival. The state argued that the murders were “premeditated” and “planned” – pointing to evidence including the stash of burner phones the three alleged accomplices had, Cox’s practice at a shooting range prior to a botched attempt on Tammy’s life and a deliberate plan for Ms Vallow to be in Hawaii at the time of Tammy’s murder. Days before each child was killed, Ms Vallow then allegedly altered their Social Security payments so that the money would be paid directly into her account. Prosecutor Rob Wood told jurors that Ms Vallow was the ringleader of the murderous plot, and that she “groomed” and “manipulated” both Mr Daybell and Cox to commit the murders. “They used religion as a tool to manipulate others. Lori manipulated Alex Cox through religion,” he said. “She manipulated Chad through emotional and sexual control.” Ms Vallow was the “one common thread” tying all the suspects and killings together, he said. Meanwhile, in the defence’s closing statement, Ms Vallow’s attorneys flipped the narrative, arguing that – instead of being the leader – Ms Vallow was the “follower” of her new lover Mr Daybell. In what marked the first time Ms Vallow has turned on her lover in the almost three years for the case to go to trial, her attorney Jim Archibald sought to paint her as a hardworking “good mom” whose life suddenly unraveled when she met Mr Daybell. “One year after meeting Chad, four people are dead,” said Mr Archibald. The defence attorney argued that Ms Vallow was “under the control” of the doomsday author, under the spell of the “craziness” of his cult beliefs. The defence attorney went on to blame the murders of Tylee and JJ squarely on Mr Daybell and Cox saying that there was no evidence placing Ms Vallow on the scene of the three murders or on Mr Daybell’s property when the children were buried there. Ultimately, the panel of 12 jurors disagreed and found the evidence showed, beyond reasonable doubt, that Vallow murdered her children and conspired to murder her love rival. Vallow’s alleged co-conspirators are yet to face justice over the killings. Mr Daybell was due to stand trial with Vallow but the cases were severed weeks before her day in court. He is now due to stand trial in 2024 over the three murders. Meanwhile, the third person accused by state prosecutors as a co-conspirator in the case won’t ever be have his day in court. On 11 December 2019 – hours after Tammy’s body was exhumed – Cox died suddenly at the age of 51. His death was also ruled natural causes, with indications of a blood clot wedged in the arteries of his lungs. However the overdose drug Narcan was also found in his system. Vallow’s own legal troubles are also far from over as she is still facing trial in Arizona on charges of conspiring with Cox to murder Charles Vallow. Read More Lori Vallow trial – live: ‘Cult mom’ refuses to give defence after court sees poolside video following murders Cult beliefs, hazmat suits and charred remains: Key revelations from Lori Vallow’s murder trial What we know about the Lori Vallow Daybell ‘doomsday cult’ murder trial
2023-05-13 03:19
Niger: President Mohamed Bazoum calls on US for help after coup
Writing in the Washington Post, President Mohamed Bazoum says he is writing "as a hostage".
2023-08-04 07:51
UN chief Guterres visits gang-ravaged Haiti
By Harold Isaac and Michelle Nichols PORT-AU-PRINCE/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited Haiti on Saturday to shine
2023-07-01 22:50
Donald Trump wants classified documents trial delayed until after 2024 election
Donald Trump is now seeking to have his federal criminal trial delayed until after the 2024 election, citing his status as a candidate for president and other legal arguments which experts say lack any grounding in actual law. In a court filing in Miami late on Monday, Mr Trump’s lawyers asked the judge to indefinitely delay his trial on charges over his handling of classified documents, saying that due to the extraordinary nature of the case it would not be possible to try it before the presidential election. In the 12-page filing, they called the government’s case against him “extraordinary” and claim it “presents a serious challenge to both the fact and perception of our American democracy” because Mr Trump is seeking his party’s nomination to run against the incumbent president who defeated him in 2020, Joe Biden. “The Court now presides over a prosecution advanced by the administration of a sitting President against his chief political rival, himself a leading candidate for the Presidency of the United States. Therefore, a measured consideration and timeline that allows for a careful and complete review of the procedures that led to this indictment and the unprecedented legal issues presented herein best serves the interests of the Defendants and the public,” they said. While prosecutors had asked Judge Aileen Cannon to set a trial date of 11 December, the former president has opposed that request on the grounds that to “begin a trial of this magnitude within six months of indictment is unreasonable, telling, and would result in a miscarriage of justice” for him and his co-defendant, longtime aide Walt Nauta. In a brief order issued shortly after Mr Trump’s arraignment last month, Judge Cannon set a trial date for 14 August, but Special Counsel Jack Smith later asked for the four-month delay the ex-president and his co-defendant now oppose. Instead, Mr Trump is seeking an indefinite delay to the proceedings against him. “Based on the extraordinary nature of this action, there is most assuredly no reason for any expedited trial, and the ends of justice are best served by a continuance,” his attorneys wrote in Monday’s filing. “The Court should, respectfully, before establishing any trial date, allow time for development of further clarity as to the full nature and scope of the motions that will be filed, a better understanding of a realistic discovery and pre-trial timeline, and the completion of the security clearance process,” they said, adding later that the trial should also be delayed because Mr Trump’s presidential campaign “requires a tremendous amount of time and energy,” and makes trial preparation too difficult. Mr Trump’s attorneys also say that the case poses “significant” legal questions that could see the case dismissed long before trial, and suggest in their filing that they plan to argue that Mr Trump declassified the documents at issue, challenge the constitutionality of the Classified Information Procedures Act — the law used to allow classified evidence in criminal trials — and they further suggest that it would be impossible to select an impartial jury during the 2024 election. “Proceeding to trial during the pendency of a Presidential election cycle wherein opposing candidates are effectively (if not literally) directly adverse to one another in this action will create extraordinary challenges in the jury selection process and limit the Defendants’ ability to secure a fair and impartial adjudication,” they said, citing a Justice Department policy that “cautions against taking prosecutorial action for the purpose of affecting an election or helping a candidate or party” even though that policy pertains only to investigations and indictments, not the conduct of criminal cases that have already been brought. The ex-president’s lawyers later suggested that they intend to repeat baseless legal claims Mr Trump has advanced on his Truth Social page, namely the argument that under the Presidential Records Act and a 2012 court precedent regarding tapes belonging to former president Bill Clinton, he had the right to keep the documents at issue in this case. “Contrary to the Government’s assertion regarding the nature of the legal issues in this matter ... this case presents novel, complex, and unique legal issues, most of which are matters of first impression. As noted above, this Court will need to evaluate the intersection between the Presidential Records Act ... and the various criminal statutes forming the basis of the indictment. These will be questions of first impression for any court in the United States, and their resolution will impact the necessity, scope, and timing of any trial,” they said. Continuing, they also said they plan to challenge the constitutionality of the Espionage Act under which Mr Trump is being prosecuted, as well as Mr Smith’s ability to indict a former president. Mr Smith’s office has not yet responded to the filing. Last month, Mr Trump was indicted on 37 federal charges over his handling of classified documents, including national defence information, after leaving the White House. The indictment, which was unsealed on Friday (9 June), alleges that Mr Trump deliberately lied to and misled authorities so that he could hold onto documents that he knew were classified. On at least two separate occasions, Mr Trump then showed some of the classified documents to people not authorised to see them, the indictment alleges. Stunning photos revealed that many of the documents were stored around a toilet, shower and ballroom at his Mar-a-Lago estate. The charges include 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information and single counts of false statements and representations, and counts of conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document or record, corruptly concealing a document, concealing a document in a federal investigation and a scheme to conceal. He pleaded not guilty to the charges at his arraignment in a Miami federal courthouse, becoming the first current or former US president ever charged with a federal crime. Mr Trump’s longtime aide Walt Nauta was also charged with six obstruction- and concealment-related charges after he allegedly helped move boxes of documents from Mar-a-Lago to Mr Trump’s residence and then lied to investigators about having any knowledge of the handling of the papers. The two men appeared in court together but Mr Nauta did not enter a plea as he did not have legal counsel in Florida. Mr Nauta appeared for his arraignment last week where he pleaded not guilty. Read More Trump news – live: Trump wants classified documents trial delayed to after 2024 as Georgia grand jury meets Trump’s co-defendant wants to delay routine hearing on classified documents case Ron DeSantis reveals wife Casey’s reaction to being called ‘America’s Karen’ Pence shuts down voter who blamed him for certifying Biden’s 2020 win Trump’s co-defendant wants to delay routine hearing on classified documents case Ex-Congressman suggests Hunter Biden alleged laptop data fabricated
2023-07-11 21:26
China's Xi calls for patience as Communist Party tries to reverse economic slump
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has called for patience in a speech released as the ruling Communist Party tries to reverse a deepening economic slump and said the West’s pursuit of material wealth led to “spiritual poverty.”
2023-08-17 15:56
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