Animals news

• Trump apparently not familiar with his administration's push for global decriminalization of homosexuality

  20-02-2019 23:54 via news.yahoo.com
  The president expresses confusion when asked about one of his administration's own policies.
  
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• Jussie Smollett Now Considered a Suspect for Allegedly Filing a False Hate-Crime Report

  20-02-2019 23:52 via news.yahoo.com
  Embattled Empire actor Jussie Smollett is now considered a “suspect” for filing a false police report, evidence of which has been presented before a grand jury, a Chicago Police Department spokesman announced on Wednesday.> Case Update: Jussie Smollett is now officially classified as a suspect in a criminal investigation by ChicagoPolice for filing a false police report (Class 4 felony). Detectives are currently presenting evidence before a Cook County Grand Jury. pic.twitter
  
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• North Carolina Republican's son says warned father about operative's past

  20-02-2019 23:20 via news.yahoo.com
  A state probe into the election for the 9th Congressional District has uncovered the fraudulent scheme by a consultant working for the campaign of candidate Mark Harris.The probe could lead to a new election to fill the seat, which has remained vacant since state officials refused to certify Harris' apparent victory over Democratic rival Dan McCready by 905 votes out of 282,717 ballots cast.The five-member State Board of Elections heard evidence this week that the political consultant, Leslie Mc
  
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• 'Ice can be unforgiving': Huge winter storm moves east as snow, sleet, heavy rain target 39 states

  20-02-2019 23:20 via news.yahoo.com
  Every state east of the Mississippi is likely to get winter storm effects Wednesday, including Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, Washington.
  
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• Global stocks rise on U.S.-China trade hopes; oil up again

  20-02-2019 23:09 via finance.yahoo.com
  An index of stocks across the globe hit a more than four-month high on Wednesday on hopes for progress in trade talks between the United States and China, and a supportive backdrop from major central banks also helped push risk assets higher.Crude prices rose to their 2019 highs helped by output cuts from top producers as well as U.S. sanctions on OPEC members Iran and Venezuela.Stocks started with a rally in Asia that pushed the MSCI world equity index to its highest since October after U.S. Pr
  
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• Southwest Air Drops on $60 Million Hit From U.S. Shutdown

  20-02-2019 23:04 via news.yahoo.com
  The political stalemate that ended last month will reduce first-quarter revenue by $60 million as the aftereffects lingered on, Southwest said in a regulatory filing Wednesday.“With more of first quarter under our belt now, and a higher percentage of March bookings in place, we feel like we are at the point where we can reasonably quantify the total impact from the shutdown,” Southwest said by email.
  
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• Neptune's new moon Hippocamp is so tiny that it wasn't detected in 1989 during flyby, scientists report

  20-02-2019 22:52 via news.yahoo.com
  A new moon was found near Neptune, joining the other 13 we knew about. It's so small that it wasn't detected during the Voyager 2 flyby in 1989.
  
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• Conservative group buys Times Square billboard bashing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over Amazon NYC pullout

  20-02-2019 22:51 via news.yahoo.com
  Job Creators Network CEO Alfredo Ortiz says his group wants to highlight that socialism 'takes' and capitalism 'creates.'
  
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• French TV cuts Facebook live feed from Jewish cemetery after anti-Semitic abuse

  20-02-2019 22:40 via news.yahoo.com
  "Our country is confronted with a resurgence of anti-Semitism undoubtedly without precedent since the Second World War," President Emmanuel Macron said later on Tuesday in an annual speech to Jewish leaders in France.France 3 television said it went live from the first cemetery in the village of Quatzenheim on Tuesday as President Emmanuel Macron was visiting to pay his respects after more than 90 graves were vandalized with swastikas and anti-Semitic abuse."We are talking about explicit death t
  
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• Supreme Court limits states' abilities to seize property in criminal cases

  20-02-2019 22:29 via news.yahoo.com
  The court ruled unanimously in the case of Tyson Timbs, a recovering opioid addict whose Land Rover was seized after a felony drug conviction.
  
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• Constitution's 'excessive fines' ban bolstered by U.S. high court

  20-02-2019 22:27 via news.yahoo.com
  The nine justices ruled unanimously in favor of an Indiana man named Tyson Timbs who argued that police violated his rights by seizing his $42,000 Land Rover vehicle after he was convicted as a heroin dealer.Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, back on the bench for a second straight day after undergoing lung cancer surgery in December, wrote the court's opinion, which clarified the applicability of the "excessive fines" prohibition contained in the Constitution's Eighth Amendment."For good reason, the
  
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• Police official: Smollett lawyers meeting with investigators

  20-02-2019 22:21 via news.yahoo.com
  CHICAGO (AP) — Lawyers for "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett were meeting Wednesday with prosecutors and police investigators, a police official said.
  
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• In U.S., pope's summit on sex abuse seen as too little, too late

  20-02-2019 22:04 via news.yahoo.com
  The 1985 report was one of the first exposes in a sexual abuse scandal that has plagued the Catholic Church.Pope Francis has called senior bishops to meet for four days starting on Thursday to discuss how to tackle the worsening crisis.
  
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• Many Americans Are Shocked By Their Tax Returns in 2019. Here’s What You Should Know

  20-02-2019 21:35 via news.yahoo.com
  People may receive less money in their tax refunds this year. The average federal tax return rate is down 8.7%.
  
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• Will President Trump overhaul the tax code for a second time?

  20-02-2019 21:24 via news.yahoo.com
  PWC partner Mitchell Roschelle says while your income tax return may be smaller this year, your net take home pay most likely increased.
  
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• Driver hurt by air bag shrapnel as investigation drags on

  20-02-2019 21:23 via news.yahoo.com
  DETROIT (AP) — Nearly four years ago, the U.S. government's highway safety agency began investigating air bag inflators made by ARC Automotive of Tennessee when two people were hit by flying shrapnel after crashes.
  
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• Pompeo Denies ‘ISIS Bride’ Request to Return to U.S.

  20-02-2019 21:13 via news.yahoo.com
  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday that an Alabama woman who fled to Syria to join ISIS in 2014 is not a U.S. citizen and, as a result, is not entitled to return to the U.S. with her 18-month-old son, as she had hoped to do.“Ms. Hoda Muthana is not a U.S. citizen and will not be admitted into the United States,” Pompeo said in a statement. “She does not have any legal basis, no valid U.S. passport, no right to a passport, nor any visa to travel to the United States.
  
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• Law center: Hate groups in US at highest level in 2 decades

  20-02-2019 21:13 via news.yahoo.com
  The U.S. had more hate groups last year than at any point in at least the past two decades, according to an organization that tracks white supremacists and other far-right extremists.
  
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• Snow, sleet threaten U.S. East Coast, hinder hundreds of flights

  20-02-2019 21:12 via news.yahoo.com
  A winter storm bore down on the U.S. East Coast on Wednesday, threatening to snarl New York City's evening commute after hindering air travel along the East Coast and prompting the shutdown of federal offices in Washington.Snow turning to sleet slickened roadways in the New York metropolitan area by the early afternoon and was blamed for a rash of fender benders and traffic jams.The widespread weather system piled as much as 6 inches (15 cm) of snow across the Washington area before turning to s
  
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• Andrew McCabe exacts tell-all revenge on Donald Trump

  20-02-2019 21:10 via news.yahoo.com
  The former deputy director of the FBI pulls few punches in “The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump.”
  
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• US judge grants ex-Trump lawyer prison delay

  20-02-2019 21:09 via news.yahoo.com
  A US judge on Wednesday granted a request by Michael Cohen, US President Donald Trump's former personal attorney, to delay the start of his prison term by two months.Cohen, 52, had been scheduled to report to prison on March 6 to begin a three-year sentence for fraud, tax evasion, illegal campaign contributions and lying to Congress.In a letter to Judge William Pauley, one of Cohen's lawyers asked that the date be pushed back to May 6 so Cohen can recover from shoulder surgery and prepare for up
  
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• Civilians, including many children, leave IS-held enclave

  20-02-2019 20:58 via news.yahoo.com
  BAGHOUZ, Syria (AP) — Young girls and boys stared out of the back of trucks, their faces dirty, their eyes filled with terror, exhaustion and uncertainty, as hundreds of men, women and children were evacuated from the Islamic State group's last enclave in eastern Syria on Wednesday. The evacuation may signal an imminent end to the territorial rule of the militants self-declared "caliphate" that once stretched across much of Syria and Iraq.
  
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• Netanyahu makes deal with far-right party ahead of Israeli election

  20-02-2019 20:54 via news.yahoo.com
  The deal, announced by Netanyahu's Likud and the ultranationalist Jewish Home party, was aimed at solidifying a potential right-wing coalition after the April 9 parliamentary election.Opinion polls predict Netanyahu's Likud will win the most parliamentary seats and will be in a position to form a governing coalition of rightist and religious parties similar to the one he now heads.Gantz and Lapid met on Wednesday, with speculation high they could strike a deal.
  
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• Zebra stripes are not good landing strips

  20-02-2019 20:50
  The stripes of a zebra deter horse flies from landing on them, according to a new study.
  
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• Guaido says he's trying to freeze Venezuelan accounts in Switzerland

  20-02-2019 20:33 via news.yahoo.com
  Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido said he spoke to Switzerland's president on Wednesday to try to freeze banks accounts belonging to the tumultuous South American nation after "irregular movements" were discovered.Guaido invoked a constitutional provision to claim the presidency three weeks ago, arguing that Nicolas Maduro's reelection last year was a sham.Guaido said the Venezuelan government held bank accounts in Switzerland and that irregular efforts to migrate part of those accounts t
  
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• Green New Deal: Why the GOP secretly likes Democrats' climate change plan

  20-02-2019 20:31 via news.yahoo.com
  It's not because the GOP supports the transformation of the electric grid away from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
  
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• Gory details emerge about missing woman's suspected demise

  20-02-2019 20:29 via news.yahoo.com
  DENVER (AP) — After months of mostly silence from authorities investigating the disappearance of a Colorado mother on Thanksgiving Day, grim details about her suspected demise emerged this week, including accusations that the woman's fiance beat her to death with a baseball bat while their baby was in the next room.
  
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• Russia Threatens to Target U.S. if Trump Admin. Deploys Missiles in Europe

  20-02-2019 20:25 via news.yahoo.com
  Russian president Vladimir Putin warned Wednesday that Russia would target the U.S. if America deploys missiles in Europe."Russia will be forced to create and deploy types of weapons which can be used not only in respect of those territories from which the direct threat to us originates, but also in respect of those territories where the centers of decision-making are located," Putin said in his annual state-of-the-nation address."It's their right to think how they want. But can they count?
  
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• Buzz Aldrin's son tries to stop dad from moving assets

  20-02-2019 20:08 via news.yahoo.com
  ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Buzz Aldrin's son is trying to stop his father from transferring assets from a trust in the latest dispute between the Apollo 11 moonwalker and two of his children over whether he is capable of managing his affairs.
  
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• Netanyahu strikes election deal with far-right parties

  20-02-2019 20:07 via news.yahoo.com
  JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday reached a preliminary election deal with two fringe religious-nationalist parties in a bid to unify his hard-line bloc ahead of April elections.
  
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• Why the zebra got its stripes: to deter flies from landing on it

  20-02-2019 20:00
  Pattern seems to confuse flies, researchers who dressed horses up as zebras findThe mystery of how the zebra got its stripes might have been solved: researchers say the pattern appears to confuse flies, discouraging them from touching down for a quick bite.The study, published in the journal Plos One, involved horses, zebras, and horses dressed as zebras. The team said the research not only supported previous work suggesting stripes might act as an insect deterrent, but helped unpick why, reveal
  
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• U.N. permits North Koreans to travel to Vietnam for Trump summit

  20-02-2019 19:58 via news.yahoo.com
  The 15-member Security Council has unanimously boosted sanctions on North Korea since 2006 in a bid to choke funding for Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, banning exports including coal, iron, lead, textiles and seafood, and capping imports of crude oil and refined petroleum products.Under the sanctions, 12 North Koreans are subject to a global travel ban and asset freeze.While it was not known if any of them will travel to Vietnam, the council's North Korea sanctions committee
  
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• Lower tax refunds show how the Republican tax cut is keeping money in your hands all year

  20-02-2019 19:48 via news.yahoo.com
  The size of your tax refund has nothing to do with your overall tax bill. It merely reflects what you overpaid the IRS in your paychecks last year.
  
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• Suspect is arrested for murder of 11-yearold girl who was abducted and left

  20-02-2019 19:37 via news.yahoo.com
  A suspect has been arrested for the murder of an 11-year-old girl who was abducted and left inside of a ditch 45 years ago.
  
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• Bat influenza viruses could infect humans

  20-02-2019 19:35
  Bats don't only carry the deadly Ebola virus, but are also a reservoir for a new type of influenza virus. These newly discovered flu viruses could potentially also attack the cells of humans and livestock, researchers have now shown.
  
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• Alabama Woman Who Joined ISIS Begs to Come Home

  20-02-2019 19:34 via news.yahoo.com
  An Alabama woman who fled the United States at 19 to join ISIS is now begging to come home five years later.
  
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• Saudi to free 850 Indian prisoners from its jails: India government

  20-02-2019 19:31 via news.yahoo.com
  Saudi Arabia will release 850 Indians from its prisons after a request from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during its Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's visit to New Delhi, India's Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.Saudi jails hold the greatest number of Indians incarcerated in any country abroad.As of January 2019, 2,224 Indians were jailed in the kingdom for crimes including murder, kidnapping, bribery, cheating, and offences related to drugs and alcohol, according Indian Foreign Ministr
  
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• Obama talks self-confidence with Steph Curry: ‘If you’re confident with your sexuality, you don’t need 8 women twerking around you’

  20-02-2019 19:22 via news.yahoo.com
  In a wide-ranging interview about what it means to be a man, Barack Obama said that you don't need women "twerking around you" if you are "very confident about your sexuality".During a town hall in Oakland, California as part of the former president’s My Brother’s Keeper programme, Mr Obama engaged in a candid conversation with Golden State Warriors basketball star Steph Curry.When it came to self-confidence, Mr Obama suggested that those who know who they are do not always flaunt it
  
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• NYT publisher: Trump 'retreating from a distinctly American principle'

  20-02-2019 19:16 via news.yahoo.com
  The publisher of the paper admonished the president over his use of a familiar phrase.
  
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• SCOTUS Cracks Down on Civil Asset Forfeiture

  20-02-2019 19:11 via news.yahoo.com
  The Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Wednesday that state and local governments are not exempt from the Constitutional prohibition against imposing “excessive fines” on citizens, significantly constraining the ability of law enforcement to seize the property of criminal suspects.Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing for eight of the nine justices, argued that state and local governments unconstrained by the Eighth Amendment's excessive-fines clause are likely to abuse their pow
  
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• Russia must build own internet in case of foreign disruption: Putin

  20-02-2019 19:03 via news.yahoo.com
  Russia must prepare for possible Western attempts to deny it access to the global internet by creating its own self-sufficient 'segments' of the web, President Vladimir Putin was quoted as saying on Wednesday by Russian news agencies."I think, they (foreign countries) will think through carefully before doing it, but there is a theoretical possibility (of Russia being cut off from the internet), and that's why we should create segments that don't depend on anyone," Tass quoted Putin as saying.Pu
  
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• Pope strives to fight cleric sex abuse with Vatican summit

  20-02-2019 19:01 via news.yahoo.com
  VATICAN CITY (AP) — If Pope Francis needed a concrete example to justify summoning church leaders from around the globe to Rome for a tutorial on clergy sex abuse, Sister Bernardine Pemii has it.
  
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• Israel PM deal seeks to boost ultra-right in April vote

  20-02-2019 18:54 via news.yahoo.com
  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brokered an agreement Wednesday aimed at uniting ultra-right parties ahead of April elections, prompting accusations he was pandering to extremists.Netanyahu pushed for the deal to try to boost the number of seats held by right-wing parties after the April 9 elections, with an eye on his next coalition government should he win as expected.The agreement would see three parties on the far right run on a single electoral list instead of running separately:
  
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• Vatican envoys meet sex abuse victims ahead of conference

  20-02-2019 18:53 via news.yahoo.com
  Vatican representatives met Wednesday with victims of sex abuse by Catholic priests a day ahead of a landmark conference on the protection of minors, the Holy See said."The credibility of the Church, the Vatican and the pope are at an apocalyptic stage," Francois Devaux, co-founder of the victim's association "La parole liberee" (Freed speech), said afterwards.The Vatican's organising committee met "12 people, men and women, from different parts of the world who belong to various organizations,"
  
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• Trump attacks on press 'dangerous' and 'reckless': NYT publisher

  20-02-2019 18:52 via news.yahoo.com
  US President Donald Trump's attacks on the press are "reckless" and "dangerous" and threaten to encourage violence against journalists at home and abroad, the publisher of The New York Times warned on Wednesday."America's founders believed that a free press was essential to democracy because it is the foundation of an informed, engaged citizenry," A.G. Sulzberger said in a statement.Previous US presidents "had complaints about their coverage and at times took advantage of the freedom every Ameri
  
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• Abuse victims demand to see pope, call for bishops to be fired

  20-02-2019 18:48 via news.yahoo.com
  The 12 victims met with five Vatican officials a day before the start of an unprecedented conference on clerical abuse that aims to guide senior bishops on how best to tackle a problem that has decimated the Church's credibility.All the survivors of abuse who took part in the meeting, which lasted more than two hours, said they were disappointedthe pope did not attend, even though he was not scheduled to be there."We need to have a discussion with the man who makes the rules and has the power in
  
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• The Latest: Court records say 2 knew man wanted fiancee dead

  20-02-2019 18:46 via news.yahoo.com
  DENVER (AP) — The Latest on the criminal cases tied to a Colorado woman's death (all times local):
  
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• Andrew McCabe says it is ‘possible’ Trump is Russian asset

  20-02-2019 18:25 via news.yahoo.com
  In a startling remark from a top US intelligence official, former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe says that it is “possible” that Donald Trump is a Russian asset.Mr McCabe made the comments on Tuesday, when he said that the FBI’s Russia investigation was launched to suss out the president’s ties to Moscow, and that he is eager to see what special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation uncovers.“I think it’s possible,” Mr McCabe told CNN’s A
  
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• Jussie Smollett case: FBI investigates whether actor had any role in threatening letter

  20-02-2019 18:12 via news.yahoo.com
  The latest developments in the investigation into the alleged Jan. 29 attack on the "Empire" star: The FBI is checking into whether Smollett was involved in the threatening letter sent to Fox and the L.A. City Attorney's office say he posed as his brother during a 2007 DUI stop.
  
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• Abbas says will reject reduced tax reimbursement from Israel

  20-02-2019 18:02 via news.yahoo.com
  Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said Wednesday he would not accept partial payment of tax transfers owed by Israel, which decided to withhold reimbursements in retaliation for payments to prisoners jailed for attacks."We shall not accept the (tax) money if it is not paid in full," Abbas told a central committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.Israel's security cabinet on Sunday approved the freezing of $138 million (122 million euros) over the Pa
  
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