U.S. urges stiff sentences for Britons who recruited for al Qaeda
NEW HAVEN Conn. — U.S. prosecutors urged a judge on Tuesday to impose the maximum sentences for two British men who pleaded guilty in December to running a website and distributing publications that promoted violence and raised money for al Qaeda.The pair, 39-year-old Babar Ahmad and 34-year-old Syed Talha Ahsan, appeared in U.S....Florida lawyers fired for calling Palestinians ‘swine,’ ‘cockroaches’
Raticoff and Sheres.MIAMI — Two South Florida public defenders were fired Tuesday after making inflammatory remarks on social media about Palestinians allegedly celebrating the abduction and murder of three Israeli teenagers in June.In one Facebook post attorney Gary Sheres wrote: "they are the filthy swine they don’t eat,"...Obama seeks money, fast hearings to curb young migrant surge
WASHINGTON — The U.S. administration sought on Tuesday to halt a cross-border surge of unaccompanied children from Central America, asking Congress for $3.7 billion in emergency spending and putting in place plans to quicken the youngsters' deportation hearings.It was President Obama's most substantive effort to gain control of a...Two dozen rescued after being stranded on California roller coaster
Local media footage showed rescuers in hard hats working from an elevated platform and a perch atop the ride's support beams aiding the roller coaster's occupants, one of whom could be seen gripping a safety harness.LOS ANGELES — Two dozen people, four of them slightly injured, were left stranded high off the ground after a...Report: U.S. spies on prominent Muslim Americans
Nihad Awad.An online magazine reported Wednesday that the National Security Agency and the FBI covertly scanned the emails of five prominent Muslim-Americans under the government's secret surveillance program aimed at foreign terrorists and other national security threats.The report in The Intercept, a venture by journalist Glenn...China criticized for banning Ramadan fast
WASHINGTON, DC – As Muslims around the world observe the holy month of Ramadan, Uighur Muslims in China face far-reaching restrictions on their religious practices. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) urges the Chinese government to end such actions, including bans on fasting and other religious...United Nations to intervene in Detroit water crisis
DETROIT — The United Nations Human Rights Council is expected to intervene in Detroit’s water crisis. In March the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department announced it would issue shut-off notices to customers with unpaid balances that exceeded $150 and were more than two months behind on their payments. The DWSD said about half...Poll: 63 percent of Americans believe Blacks are responsible for their own condition
WASHINGTON — According to a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center, 63 percent of Americans believe Blacks are responsible for their own inability to succeed.Those polled ranged from those who identified as "solid liberals" to those who identified as "steadfast conservatives." They were asked whether they believed that "racial...Charter One to change its name to Citizens Bank in 2015
SOUTHFIELD — Citizens Financial Group Inc.’s Charter One branches in Michigan will be rebranded as Citizens Bank next year as part of a broader strategy to unify all of its brands, the company announced on Monday. This change, also scheduled for Citizens’ Charter One branches in Ohio, will result in a uniform Citizens Bank...U.S. justices uphold firms’ religious objections to contraception
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled that owners of private companies can object on religious grounds to a provision of President Obama's healthcare law that requires employers to provide insurance covering birth control for women.The decision, which applies only to a small number of family owned or other...N.Y. top court says cyberbullying law violates free speech
ALBANY N.Y.— New York's highest court said on Tuesday that a law designed to criminalize cyberbullying was so broad that it violated the First Amendment, marking the first time a U.S. court weighed the constitutionality of such a law.The 2011 Albany County law banned electronic communication intended to "harass, annoy, threaten...or...Obama to reform immigration on his own, bypassing Congress
WASHINGTON — President Obama said on Monday he would take executive action to revamp the U.S. immigration system and move additional resources to protect the border after hopes of passing broad reform legislation in Congress officially died.Republican John Boehner, speaker of the House of Representatives, told Obama last week that his...U.S. privacy board says NSA Internet spying program is effective but worrying
Washington — The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA)'s data collection program has been an effective tool to enhance the country's security but some elements of the cyber-spying raises privacy concerns, a U.S. federal privacy watchdog said in a report.Privacy issues have become a hot topic since former NSA contractor Edward Snowden...
U.S. top court in major ruling to protect cellphone privacy
June 26th, 20140 WASHINGTON — On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police officers usually need a warrant before they can search an arrested suspect's cell phone, a major decision in favor of privacy rights at a time of increasing concern over government encroachment in digital communications.In an opinion written by Chief Justice...
Court rules ‘no fly list’ process is unconstitutional and must be reformed
June 26th, 20140 PORTLAND, Ore. — In a landmark ruling, a federal judge struck down as unconstitutional the government’s procedures for people on the No Fly List to challenge their inclusion. The decision came in an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit brought on behalf of 13 Americans who found themselves on the list without any......
Former N.Y. cop faces hate crime charges for robbing Hispanics
NEW YORK — A former police sergeant pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to hate crime charges for stealing cash from Hispanic motorists during traffic stops on New York's Long Island, officials said.Scott Greene, 50, faced 60 counts of larceny and official misconduct after a sting operation revealed him pulling over Hispanic drivers...Court releases memo of U.S. justification of drone attacks on Muslim citizen
WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Monday released a redacted version of the U.S. Justice Department's memorandum of justification for a 2011 drone attack that killed Anwar al Awlaki, an American-born Islamist preacher suspected of having ties to al Qaeda.The memo said that because the U.S. government considered al Awlaki to be an......
ACLU: U.S. police forces have ‘dangerously’ militarized
WASHINGTON — Police SWAT teams are forcing their way into homes, often using explosive devices, simply to serve drug possession search warrants in tactics that a leading civil rights groups said on Tuesday treated civilians as wartime enemies.The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said federal government programs that armed police...Harry Reid on Iraq vote: “I’m sorry that I was misled… It was a mistake”
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Wednesday, June 18, that he deeply regretted his vote to go to war with Iraq in 2003."Do you know how I feel about that?" Reid asked during a sit-down interview in his office with The Huffington Post. "I'm sure this is no big surprise," he said, pausing for ten seconds before...Bus ads show Christian, Jew, Muslim agreeing on Qur’an verse
WASHINGTON — An Islamic advocacy group is circulating 20 advertisements on Washington, D.C., buses that show a Christian, Muslim and Jew agreeing on a verse from the Qur’an.The advertisements were recently plastered on 20 metro buses by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a national advocacy organization for Muslim civil...U.S. captures suspected ringleader of 2012 attack in Benghazi
WASHINGTON — The United States said on Tuesday it had captured a suspected ringleader of the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya that killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador, and ignited a political firestorm in Washington.President Obama said in a statement he had authorized the operation in......
Chicago bomb plot defendant denied secret files by appeals court
Daoud.CHICAGO — A federal appeals court has overruled a landmark lower court decision that allowed lawyers for a man accused of plotting to bomb a Chicago bar to see documents classified under a major U.S. spying law.The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision on Monday means prosecutors need not disclose to lawyers for the...
Maliki asks for U.S. intervention, Obama to send 300 military advisers
June 19th, 20140 BAGHDAD — President Obama said Thursday, June 19, he is planning to send up to 300 military advisers to Iraq to help retrain Iraqi security forces as they battle an insurgent invasion."Armed forces will not be returning to combat in Iraq," Obama said in a White House announcement.After a meeting with national security advisers, Obama......
FAA to investigate air traffic controller’s joke that delayed airplane landing
ATLANTA —The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating an air traffic controller's joking remark that caused a Delta jet to abort a landing at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.Flight 630 from Detroit was approaching a runway last Wednesday when a controller told the pilot: “630, go around,” instructing the...Sixty two percent of Americans back allowing illegal immigrants become citizens
WASHINGTON — Sixty-two percent of Americans support providing a way for immigrants living in the United States illegally to become citizens if they meet requirements, while almost a fifth support deportation, a poll showed on Tuesday.With the Obama administration hoping that immigration reform could be passed this year, 17 percent of......