| America’s pastime gives silence a try in Baltimore Posted: 29 Apr 2015 12:46 PM PDT  The Orioles take drastic step after rioting follows funeral of man who died in Baltimore police custody.
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| Former Goldman banker acquitted of all charges in rape case Posted: 29 Apr 2015 11:27 AM PDT By Edward Krudy RIVERHEAD, New York (Reuters) - A former Goldman Sachs banker was found not guilty on Wednesday of charges that he raped an Irish student at his rental home while vacationing in Long Island in the summer of 2013. After a three-week trial, Judge Barbara Kahn acquitted Jason Lee, 38, of the most serious charge of rape at a Suffolk county court in Riverhead, New York. |
| Orioles, White Sox prepare for bizarre fan-less game in Baltimore Posted: 29 Apr 2015 10:51 AM PDT  "Does anyone know if the mascot works today?" Orioles manager Buck Showalter asked a room full of reporters in a pre-game press conference unlike any other ever held in the history of Major League Baseball...
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| Japan PM offers condolences for WWII dead in historic speech Posted: 29 Apr 2015 09:33 AM PDT  Declaring "history is harsh," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan offered solemn condolences Wednesday for the Americans who died in World War II as he became the first Japanese leader to address a joint meeting of Congress.
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| Clinton: Baltimore shows justice system 'out of balance' Posted: 29 Apr 2015 07:51 AM PDT  NEW YORK (AP) — Hillary Rodham Clinton says unrest in Baltimore shows that the nation has "allowed our criminal justice system to get out of balance" but the "violence has to stop."
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| Boston bomber trial focuses on older brother Posted: 29 Apr 2015 06:06 AM PDT  Lawyers seeking to spare Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev the death penalty will delve deeper into his older brother's Islamist militant beliefs in court on Wednesday in an effort to cast him as the mastermind of the 2013 attacks. The 21-year old ethnic Chechen was found guilty earlier this month of killing three people and injuring 264 in the April 15, 2013 attack, the worst on U.S. soil since September 2001, but jurors must now decide whether Dzhokhar Tsarnaev should be put to death or spend life in prison. Defense lawyers have argued that Tsarnaev should be spared capital punishment because he was a pawn in a scheme to attack the world-renowned marathon that was led by his older brother Tamerlan, 26, who was killed days later in a shootout with police.
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| Indonesia defends executions, after convicts die singing Posted: 29 Apr 2015 05:48 AM PDT  Indonesia on Wednesday staunchly defended its execution of seven foreigners including two Australians as a vital front of its "war" on drugs as testimony emerged of how they went singing to their deaths. Australia withdrew its ambassador in protest at the midnight executions, but Indonesian President Joko Widodo said he was merely applying "the rule of law" against narcotics traffickers. The seven convicts -- two from Australia, one from Brazil and four from Africa -- were shot by firing squad along with one Indonesian, despite strident foreign appeals and pleas from family members. Brazil expressed "deep regret" at the execution of its national, who is mentally ill according to his family, and said it was weighing its next move.
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| U.S. reaches anti-bias accord with Los Angeles County sheriff Posted: 29 Apr 2015 03:15 AM PDT By Daina Beth Solomon LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved an accord on Tuesday with the U.S. Justice Department to settle findings that the country's largest sheriff's department systematically harassed and intimidated low-income minority residents. The settlement follows a scathing report on Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office abuses cited by the Justice Department in 2013, capping a two-year probe of policing practices in the Antelope Valley, an area of Mojave Desert communities north of Los Angeles. The report concluded that county sheriff's deputies, along with authorities in the towns of Lancaster and Palmdale, routinely targeted blacks and Hispanics in a "pattern and practice" of unlawful traffic stops, raids and excessive force. As part of the agreement, the county must pay $25,000 in penalties plus up to $700,000 in restitution to people who can prove they were targeted, Supervisor Michael Antonovich said in a statement. |
| Baltimore streets once rocked by riots quiet under curfew Posted: 29 Apr 2015 02:06 AM PDT  Residents obeyed an all-night curfew enforced by 3,000 police and National Guardsmen.
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| Nepal quake toll tops 5,000 as aid reaches area near epicenter Posted: 29 Apr 2015 12:08 AM PDT  PASLANG, Nepal (AP) — The first aid shipments reached a hilly district near the epicenter of Nepal's earthquake, a U.N. food agency official said, and distribution of food and medicine would start Wednesday, five days after the quake struck. The death toll from Saturday's disaster passed 5,000.
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| Tensions rise in Nepal after 'weak' response to deadly quake Posted: 28 Apr 2015 11:31 PM PDT  The government has yet to fully assess the devastation wrought by Saturday's 7.9 magnitude quake, unable to reach many mountainous areas despite aid supplies and personnel pouring in from around the world. Anger and frustration was mounting steadily, with many Nepalis sleeping out in the open under makeshift tents for a fourth night since Nepal's worst quake in more than 80 years. There have been some weaknesses in managing the relief operation," Nepal's Communication Minister Minendra Rijal said late on Tuesday. "We will improve this from Wednesday." Prime Minister Sushil Koirala told Reuters on Tuesday the death toll could reach 10,000, with information on casualties and damage from far-flung villages and towns yet to come in.
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| Man shot, suspect in custody at Ferguson, Missouri protest: newspaper Posted: 28 Apr 2015 08:39 PM PDT (Reuters) - A man was shot and wounded, and a suspect quickly taken into custody at a Tuesday night protest in Ferguson, Missouri, near the site where unarmed black teenager Michael Brown was shot dead by police last summer, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. The newspaper said it was unclear if the shooting was linked to the demonstration, where some 50 people gathered and intermittently blocked traffic near where white Ferguson officer Darren Wilson fatally shot Brown in August. Representatives for the Ferguson police department could not be immediately reached. Brown's shooting, and subsequent police killings of unarmed black men, has sparked months of sometimes destructive protests against police violence, which have flared anew most recently in Baltimore where authorities have clashed with thousands protesting a black man's death in police custody. |
| Protesters defy curfew in riot-hit Baltimore Posted: 28 Apr 2015 07:51 PM PDT  Nervous authorities attempted to stave off another night of violence.
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| Thousands of police descend on Baltimore to enforce curfew after riots Posted: 28 Apr 2015 07:03 PM PDT  By Scott Malone and Ian Simpson BALTIMORE (Reuters) - Thousands of police and National Guard troops fanned out across Baltimore on Tuesday night to enforce a new curfew and prevent further violence, while the mayor fended off criticism that she responded sluggishly to a night of rioting, looting and fires. A day after the worst rioting in the United States in years, more than 3,000 police took up posts in front of businesses and hospitals with less than 30 minutes before a citywide 10 p.m. EDT curfew takes effect. On Monday, shops were looted, buildings burned to the ground, 20 officers were injured and police arrested more than 250 people in the violence following the funeral of a 25-year-old black man who died in a hospital on April 19 a week after sustaining injuries in police custody. Just ahead of the curfew, there were still hundreds people on the streets and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake pleaded with people to go home and police said no exceptions would be made to the curfew except for medical emergencies and work.
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| Justice Roberts revives an old argument that could save gay marriage Posted: 28 Apr 2015 06:31 PM PDT |
| Commission approves policy for Los Angeles police body cameras Posted: 28 Apr 2015 03:42 PM PDT By Alex Dobuzinskis LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Los Angeles Police Commission approved a policy on Tuesday clearing the way for the widespread use of body cameras by patrol officers in the second-largest U.S. city, as tensions rise in the United States over police use-of-force incidents. Mayor Eric Garcetti said in December the city would equip 7,000 Los Angeles Police Department officers with the devices over the next two years to capture their day-to-day interactions with civilians. The commission's 3-1 vote on rules governing the use of the devices brings Los Angeles closer to becoming the largest U.S. city to put body cameras into widespread use. Officials are also testing the use of body cameras by officers in Baltimore, which on Monday saw riots following several days of protests over the death of a black man who suffered a fatal spine injury while in police custody. |
| Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to announce 2016 presidential run Posted: 28 Apr 2015 03:26 PM PDT |
| Sources: Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to run for president Posted: 28 Apr 2015 02:32 PM PDT  MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders will announce his plans to seek the Democratic nomination for president on Thursday, presenting a liberal challenge to Hillary Rodham Clinton.
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