A group of Palestinians allegedly set the Nablus, West Bank, tomb of Joseph on fire Friday, severely damaging the Jewish holy site amid rioting.
Palestinian security forces put out the fire at the site Jews venerate as the resting site of the biblical patriarch Joseph, son of Jacob, and his two sons.
The Israel Defense Force also arrived to restore order and disperse the crowd, which number about 100.
Joseph's tomb set on fire amid West Bank riots
Canadian envoy who hid Americans during hostage crisis dies
Ken Taylor, Canada’s ambassador to Iran who sheltered Americans at his residence during the 1979 hostage crisis, has died. He was 81.
Taylor’s wife, Pat, said Ken died today after a two-month battle with colon cancer.
Taylor kept the Americans hidden at his residence and at the home of his deputy, John Sheardown, in Tehran for three months. Taylor facilitated their escape by arranging plane tickets and persuading the Ottawa government to issue fake passports.
How insurance providers deny hepatitis C patients lifesaving drugs
Amber Rojas was almost eight months pregnant when she learned she had hepatitis C. After her daughter was born on Dec. 23, 2014, Rojas had hoped to start treatment with a newly approved, highly effective drug called Harvoni.
After filing for prior authorization and waiting for months, the 34-year old mother received an unwelcome letter on August 27, 2015 — her treatment request had been denied because her liver was still too healthy. Rojas said that even though she felt very sick with flu-like symptoms, her insurance provider deemed her “not sick enough to qualify.”
The Intercept publishes secret military documents on drone killings
Secret military documents published Thursday by The Intercept detail the extent to which the White House uses its drone program, citing an unnamed source who said he wanted to make the information available so that the public will know how the decisions to make the strikes happen.
Among the findings of the investigation: The Pentagon's Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance unit circulated a paper in 2013 that found that the drone strikes, or targeted killings, often rely upon shaky intelligence and when executed, often compromise further gathering of intelligence.
Study: Bubble plumes of methane escaping warming ocean
The most infamous and abundant greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide. But though less prolific, methane actually packs a meaner climate-warming punch.
To the dismay of climate scientists (and anyone concerned by global warming), there appears to a new and growing source of methane -- the deep sea.
In analyzing instances of bubble plumes, columns of rising methane gas bubbles, researchers found a growing number have been measured at a transition zone. The transition zone, beginning a third of a mile below the surface, is significant to stability of methane hydrates -- an area where warming water temperatures could encourage sublimation.
Family of El Faro ship victim sues for $100 million
The family of a crew member presumed drowned in the sinking of the El Faro cargo ship have sued the owners of the vessel for $100 million.
The family believes the ship should not have been sent from Jacksonville, Fla. on Sept. 29 to San Juan, Puerto Rico, into the path of Hurricane Joaquin, a Category 4 storm.
The ship disappeared two days into the voyage. The U.S. Coast Guard concluded it likely sank after the captain radioed tat the ship had lost power near Crooked Island, Bahamas. A five-day search of the area, yielded debris and one victim who was aboard the El Faro. The search was suspended Oct. 7.
Critics: US media often omit context of Israeli-Palestinian violence
As violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories returns to the headlines, critics are complaining that many prominent U.S. news outlets often omit or misrepresent contextual information vital to understanding the conflict. And perhaps predictably, partisans on both sides are targeting media coverage for different reasons.
A common complaint among some critics concerns some major U.S. media outlets’ characterization of neighborhoods and the legal and political context of the Israeli presence in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. “The biggest problem … is total lack of context in reporting in which all of this is taking place,” said Yousef Munayyer, the executive director of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation.
Alex Baer: Ides and Go Seek
'Tis the time of the wild-eyed Bewilderbeast which is nearly upon us, boys and girls -- thick as broomstick'd witches on candy bags, heavy as depleted uranium foil strewn on scrawny, screw-together tannenbaums.
You know where we are, calendar-wise: It's that time of the year in which Life makes even less sense than usual, in an American post-Summer simmer and in a pre-sprung Spring. Here we are, the lull between the Equinoxes -- the seasonal gap between locked and unlocked, as Vonnegut's sense of season would have it. It is neither Fall nor Winter, more Hypnotic Lockdown than anything -- making it Hypdown or Locknotic, I suppose. Up to you.
We're in the No-Sanity Zone betwixt the tart, fictional, Slack-jawed, Sourpussed War on KrissMuss and the all-too-real, tempting jar of Trick-or-Treat Sweetmeats and Jaw-breaker Bribes.
Cops Almost Got Away With Torturing Matthew Ajibade to Death
Mathew Ajibade died alone in an isolation cell, bound by the hands and feet, strapped into a restraint chair.
He had been brutally beaten, his body covered with bruises and abrasions. There were scrapes and bumps on his upper body and head, the result of being repeatedly punched and kicked by his jailers. Minutes later, secured and compliant in a special unit, a Taser was pressed directly into his genitals. Hit with 50,000 volts, the young man is heard on video screaming in pain.
And then, they left him there to die.
This was not a Guantanamo Bay or Abu Ghraib but South Georgia.
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