General news

• Justice Department launches review of San Francisco police

  01-02-2016 23:55 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The U.S. Justice Department said on Monday it would launch a review of the San Francisco Police following requests from city officials and community members. Although the American Civil Liberties Union had asked for a federal investigation into the San Francisco Police Department following the death of Mario Woods, 26, at the hands of police, the review will only result in recommendations, not court-enforceable reforms. "We will examine the San Francisco Police Department's current operational p
  
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• Brazil Petrobras ex-director jailed

  01-02-2016 23:53 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A former director of the Brazilian state-owned oil company Petrobras has been sentenced to 12 years in jail as part of a huge corruption probe.
  
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• Google owner takes top spot from Apple

  01-02-2016 23:48 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Google parent Alphabet tops Apple as the world's most valuable company, with shares rising 9% in after-hours trading as a result of its latest earnings.
  
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• Israeli military reopens main Palestinian city after closure

  01-02-2016 23:42 via news.yahoo.com
  
  RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — The Israeli military reopened the main Palestinian city in the West Bank late Monday after imposing a rare, day-long partial closure of surrounding roads following a Palestinian shooting attack on Israeli soldiers the day before.
  
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• 4 ex-Blackwater contractors appeal convictions in shootings

  01-02-2016 23:42 via news.yahoo.com
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Four former Blackwater security contractors found guilty in a deadly Baghdad shooting appealed their convictions on Monday, saying a key witness against them had changed his testimony after the trial and that prosecutors lacked jurisdiction to even bring the case.
  
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• 'Kung Fu Panda' a kick at top of box office

  01-02-2016 23:39 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Los Angeles (AFP) - "Kung Fu Panda 3" kicked its way to the top of the North American weekend box office, bouncing "The Revenant" to the number two spot, final industry data showed Monday.
  
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• Congresswoman fighting "swatting" calls gets targeted by 1

  01-02-2016 23:37 via news.yahoo.com
  
  BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts congresswoman says police swarmed her home after she was the victim of the kind of bogus emergency call that she's trying to combat.
  
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• US Justice Department to investigate San Francisco police

  01-02-2016 23:33 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The US Department of Justice on Monday announced the launch of an investigation into the San Francisco police force, two months after the fatal shooting of a 26-year-old black man triggered outrage in the city. "The Justice Department will conduct a thorough, independent and objective assessment of the San Francisco Police Department's policies, practices and accountability systems," Ronald Davis, director of the Justice Department's community policing office, said in a statement.
  
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• Weak Chinese data hits European stocks; US stocks flat

  01-02-2016 23:32 via news.yahoo.com
  
  New York (AFP) - European stocks finished lower Monday on poor Chinese data and a drop in oil prices, while US stocks held most of their gains following last week's rally.
  
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• Terror group's drug ring arrests

  01-02-2016 23:31 via rss.cnn.com
  
  The Drug Enforcement Agency announced Monday that an international operation had netted a Hezbollah network using millions in drug money to fund terrorist activity in Syria and Lebanon.
  
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• US stocks edge mostly lower as energy prices plunge again

  01-02-2016 23:30 via news.yahoo.com
  
  NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market was able to recover from steep losses to close slightly lower on Monday as investors looked past another drop in the price of oil and renewed concerns about U.S. and Chinese economic growth. Oil and gas companies remained in the red.
  
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• U.S. judge orders explanation of Iran prisoner deal

  01-02-2016 23:30 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Yeganeh Torbati and Joel Schectman WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal judge has challenged the U.S. government's move to drop charges against an Iranian man accused of sanctions violations as part of a U.S. prisoner trade agreed with Iran last month. Federal prosecutors filed a motion on Jan. 16 to drop the case against Alireza Moazami Goudarzi, an Iranian man accused in 2012 of trying to buy aircraft parts for Iran, including those for military aircraft engines. The dismissal was part of a wid
  
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• Tributes pour in for 'world's best chef'

  01-02-2016 23:30 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The world's top chefs, restaurateurs and food critics mourn the loss of Benoit Violier, who was found dead at his home in Switzerland.
  
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• How did Google get so big?

  01-02-2016 23:30 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The ABC of Google's parent company
  
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• Box Office Top 20: 'Kung Fu Panda 3' dethrones 'Revenant'

  01-02-2016 23:28 via news.yahoo.com
  
  LOS ANGELES (AP) — "Kung Fu Panda 3" punched "The Revenant" back to its second place spot over the weekend. The animated sequel brought in a robust $41.3 million — which is a franchise low, but nonetheless a healthy showing in a generally slow time of the year at the box office. "Kung Fu Panda 3" will also have animated family film territory to itself until "Zootopia" opens in March.
  
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• Jail escapees 'argued about killing cabbie'

  01-02-2016 23:17 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Three California jail escapees, all with violent criminal histories, shopped at a Target, took a taxi driver hostage, argued over whether to kill the driver and went to a hair salon to change their look all in about a week's time that they were on the lam, Orange County Sheriff's spokesman Jeff Hallock said Monday.
  
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• Glory and joy in sevens heaven

  01-02-2016 23:14 via rss.cnn.com
  
  About 30,000 fans attended the two days of the Wellington Sevens as New Zealand grabbed a dramatic last-minute win against South Africa.
  
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• Polls tight ahead of Iowa vote

  01-02-2016 23:08 via bbc.co.uk
  
  US presidential hopefuls make a final pitch to people in Iowa, where the first votes for party nominations will be cast.
  
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• What we know: WHO declares global emergency over Zika virus

  01-02-2016 23:07 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The World Health Organization has declared a global emergency over the rapidly spreading Zika virus, which has been linked to birth defects in the Americas, saying it is an "extraordinary event" that poses a threat to the rest of the world. Here is what we know about the mosquito-borne virus:
  
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• Brazil urges pregnant women to avoid Olympics over Zika

  01-02-2016 23:06 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Brasília (AFP) - Pregnant women should not travel to Brazil for the 2016 Olympics because of the risk of fetal brain damage caused by the Zika virus, President Dilma Rousseff's chief of staff said Monday.
  
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• Alphabet profit sends shares up; overtakes Apple in value

  01-02-2016 23:05 via news.yahoo.com
  
  (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc reported better-than-expected quarterly profit on Monday, sending shares of Google's parent soaring in after-hours trading and making it the most valuable U.S. company ahead of rival Apple Inc.
  
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• Alphabet passes Apple to become most valuable traded U.S. company

  01-02-2016 23:05 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By David Gaffen NEW YORK (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc surpassed Apple Inc as the most valuable company in the United States in after-hours trading on Monday, knocking the iPhone maker from the top spot that it has held for the better part of four years. The change may signal the passing of the technology baton to Alphabet - formerly known as Google - from Apple, which surged past Microsoft Corp in market value in 2010. Microsoft in turn eclipsed International Business Machines Corp two decades ago.
  
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• NBC renews deal with prolific producer Dick Wolf

  01-02-2016 23:03 via news.yahoo.com
  
  NEW YORK (AP) — NBC has signed a new production deal with prolific producer Dick Wolf, ensuring an 18th season of "Law & Order: SVU" and the continuation of his Chicago trilogy of dramas.
  
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• Exclusive: Pentagon to hike spending request to fund fight versus Islamic State

  01-02-2016 23:01 via news.yahoo.com
  
  President Barack Obama's administration will seek a significant increase in funding for the fight against Islamic State as part of its 2017 defense budget request, U.S. officials say, in another possible sign of U.S. efforts to intensify the campaign. The fiscal year 2017 Pentagon budget will call for more than $7 billion for the fight against Islamic State, a roughly 35 percent increase compared with the previous year's request to Congress, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity
  
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• Bright college teens held in death of 'awesome little girl'

  01-02-2016 23:01 via news.yahoo.com
  
  BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) — Two Virginia Tech students who had bright futures appeared before a judge Monday in the death of a seventh-grade girl who was active on social media and apparently climbed out her bedroom window.
  
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• WhatsApp used by a billion people

  01-02-2016 22:59 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Mobile messaging service WhatsApp is now used by a billion people every month, Facebook reports.
  
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• Fake engagement at Cruz rally protests his gay marriage view

  01-02-2016 22:57 via news.yahoo.com
  
  BOSTON (AP) — Two Massachusetts students say they staged a marriage proposal at a Ted Cruz rally as a demonstration against the Republican presidential hopeful's stance on gay marriage.
  
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• Air rage warning from China airlines

  01-02-2016 22:56 via rss.cnn.com
  
  A group of Chinese airlines will begin putting restrictions on "uncivilized passengers."
  
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• Missing Czechs found in Lebanon

  01-02-2016 22:55 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Five Czech nationals who went missing in Lebanon in July have been found and are now in the care of Lebanon's security force, Czech officials say.
  
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• Georgia to execute US state's oldest death row inmate

  01-02-2016 22:54 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The US state of Georgia is set to execute its oldest death-row prisoner Tuesday, just days before his 73rd birthday, in a case critics say is emblematic of capital punishment's excesses. Brandon Jones, scheduled to receive a lethal injection at a state prison in Jackson, has spent more than 36 years behind bars for the 1979 murder of a convenience store clerk. Death penalty opponents note that many death row inmates were sentenced to death at a time when they lacked a satisfactory defense system
  
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• Venezuela's UN envoy: Not concerned about US investigations

  01-02-2016 22:53 via news.yahoo.com
  
  UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Venezuela's ambassador to the United Nations dismissed the possibility of cooperating with U.S. investigations into a billion-dollar bribery schemes that allegedly occurred at the country's state-run oil company while he was in charge.
  
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• Game On: Iowa caucuses kick off 2016 presidential election

  01-02-2016 22:53 via news.yahoo.com
  
  DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — After a long year of campaigning, Republican and Democratic presidential candidates face voters for the first time, battling in Iowa Monday for a boost toward the White House — or in many cases, simply a reason to stay in the race.
  
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• Denver in store for its first big snowstorm of the season

  01-02-2016 22:53 via news.yahoo.com
  
  DENVER (AP) — A weather system that unleashed strong winds, snow and heavy rain on California is promising to bring the first big snowstorm of the season to the Denver area before heading across the Plains.
  
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• VIDEO: The chef behind the world's best restaurant

  01-02-2016 22:36 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Benoit Violier, the chef behind the best restaurant in the world, has been found dead at his home.
  
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• No arrests made after Denver brawl between biker clubs

  01-02-2016 22:35 via news.yahoo.com
  
  DENVER (AP) — More than one person, including a Colorado Department of Corrections officer, opened fire during a weekend brawl among members of motorcycle clubs that left one dead and seven others injured, but police officials said Monday they still don't know who fired the fatal shot.
  
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• San Francisco police face US Justice Department review

  01-02-2016 22:27 via news.yahoo.com
  
  SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The U.S. Department of Justice launched a review of the San Francisco Police Department, an agency facing scrutiny over the shooting death of a young black man and the emergence of homophobic and racist text messages exchanged between officers.
  
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• Everton sign £13.5m striker Niasse

  01-02-2016 22:26 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Everton complete the capture of forward Oumar Niasse from Russian club Lokomotiv Moscow in a £13.5m deal.
  
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• CDC says Chipotle-linked outbreak of E. coli appears over

  01-02-2016 22:24 via news.yahoo.com
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Looks like it's safe to bite into that burrito.
  
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• Zika virus linked to birth defects is international emergency, WHO says

  01-02-2016 22:21 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Stephanie Nebehay and Ben Hirschler GENEVA/LONDON (Reuters) - The World Health Organization has declared the mosquito-borne Zika virus to be an international public health emergency due to its link to thousands of suspected cases of birth defects in Brazil. WHO Director-General Margaret Chan told reporters on Monday coordinated international action was needed to improve detection and speed work on a vaccine and better diagnostics for the disease, although curbs on travel or trade were not nec
  
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• Man City get their man as Guardiola lands

  01-02-2016 22:21 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Manchester City pulled off a spectacular coup on Monday by naming Pep Guardiola as their manager from next season, after a courtship lasting four years. Guardiola, who leaves Bayern Munich at the end of the season, will take over from Chilean Manuel Pellegrini on a three-year deal reportedly worth more than £15 million ($21.5 million, 20 million euros) a year. City, bankrolled by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, released a statement saying they had in recent weeks "commenced and finalis
  
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• Lumber Liquidators to pay more than $13M for illegal imports

  01-02-2016 22:21 via news.yahoo.com
  
  NEW YORK (AP) — Lumber Liquidators will pay more than $13 million for illegally importing hardwood flooring, after the company pleaded guilty to environmental crimes last year.
  
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• Cyprus president warns UN chief no rush to reach peace deal

  01-02-2016 22:21 via news.yahoo.com
  
  NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Cyprus' president has warned U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that time is needed to negotiate a deal reunifying the ethnically-split island without "deficiencies, gaps and ambiguities" that may lead Greek and Turkish Cypriots to reject it in referendums.
  
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• Zika: Who's doing what to beat contagion

  01-02-2016 22:16 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Vaccines and antibiotics have made many infectious diseases a thing of the past; we've come to expect that public health and modern science can conquer all microbes. But nature is a formidable adversary. And Zika is our newest threat, particularly to pregnant women.
  
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• Venture funding moves to 'Sesame Street'

  01-02-2016 22:16 via news.yahoo.com
  
  How do you spell venture capital? The folks at the kid-oriented Sesame Workshop are looking to teach and learn with a new investment fund aimed at projects for children. Sesame Workshop, the force behind the long-running Sesame Street programs, has announced plans to team up with the seed venture Collaborative Fund on "startups focused on education, media, family development, social and cultural development, food, health and wellness," according to a statement.
  
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• Chicago sees spike in murders from gang violence

  01-02-2016 22:10 via news.yahoo.com
  
  Chicago has seen an "unacceptable" spike in murders and shootings largely as a result of "petty disagreements" and gang conflict, the police department said Monday. The street violence comes as the embattled department is struggling to rebuild trust in the community in the wake of a series of incidents in which police were accused of being quick to pull the trigger on their service weapons. "The vast majority of incidents originated from petty disagreements that escalated into gun violence that
  
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• As children die reaching for Europe's shores, empathy fades

  01-02-2016 22:08 via news.yahoo.com
  
  PARIS (AP) — Five months ago, a 3-year-old Syrian boy's corpse on a Turkish beach galvanized public action for refugees. Now, strikingly similar images are generating little more than a collective shrug.
  
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• Alphabet reports 17.8 percent rise in revenue

  01-02-2016 22:06 via news.yahoo.com
  
  (Reuters) - Google parent Alphabet Inc reported a 17.8 percent rise in quarterly revenue on Monday, boosted by strong sales of advertising on mobile devices and YouTube. The company, announcing its first results under a new reporting structure aimed at improving transparency, said consolidated revenue jumped to $21.33 billion in the three months ended Dec. 31, from $18.10 billion a year earlier. Net income in the fourth quarter rose to $4.92 billion, or $7.06 per Class A and B share and Class C
  
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• Syrian opposition says government must implement goodwill measures within days

  01-02-2016 22:04 via news.yahoo.com
  
  The Syrian government must within a few days state its readiness to implement goodwill measures on the ground, an opposition official said on Monday, accusing the U.N. peace envoy of overstepping the mark by declaring the start of peace talks. "The Syrian regime must state directly, frankly and without ambiguity that it is ready to implement (United Nations) Articles 12 and 13 immediately, and it must not take more than a few days. If not, the High Negotiations Committee will not take part in an
  
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• The Latest: Iowa temps to remain above freezing for caucuses

  01-02-2016 21:55 via news.yahoo.com
  
  DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) —
  
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• U.S. envoy visits Kurdish-held northern Syria

  01-02-2016 21:47 via news.yahoo.com
  
  By Tom Perry and Arshad Mohammed BEIRUT/ROME (Reuters) - A U.S. envoy has visited Kurdish-controlled northern Syria in what appeared to be the first declared trip to Syrian territory by an Obama administration official in three years. The U.S. envoy to the coalition against Islamic State, Brett McGurk, said his weekend trip aimed to review the fight against the jihadist group that controls swathes of Syria and Iraq. The Syrian Kurds have established control over wide areas of northern Syria sinc
  
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