On the eve of Mexico's Day of the Dead this year, authorities in Veracruz declared triumphantly that they had solved one of the decade's most notorious slayings of a journalist in Mexico.
They trotted before reporters a sad-sack figure, one Jorge Antonio Hernandez Silva. They proclaimed him guilty of the April slaying of Regina Martinez, a highly respected reporter for the national Proceso magazine. He had confessed, the Veracruz government said, and the motive was robbery.
Use of torture by authorities has risen in Mexico, groups say
US government lists two ice seals as threatened
Two types of ice seals joined polar bears Dec. 21 on the list of species threatened by the loss of sea ice, which scientists say reached record low levels this year due to climate warming.
Ringed seals, the main prey of polar bears, and bearded seals in the Arctic Ocean will be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced.
Shell Oil drilling vessel is adrift in Gulf of Alaska
An unmanned mobile oil drilling rig owned by Royal Dutch Shell is adrift -- again -- south of Kodiak Island after it lost towlines Sunday afternoon from two vessels trying to hold it in place against what have been pummeling winds and high seas, according to incident management leaders.
A team of 250 people from the Coast Guard, the state of Alaska, Shell, and one of its contractors was hunkered down Sunday, mainly in Midtown Anchorage's Frontier Building, trying to resolve the ongoing crisis with Shell's drilling rig, the Kulluk.
Who paid for the Log Cabin Republicans' anti-Hagel NYT ad?
The gay GOP group confirms the ad was funded by outside donors, but refuses to identify them or their cause.
Last Thursday, the gay GOP group Log Cabin Republicans (LCR) placed a full-page ad in the New York Times that attacked Chuck Hagel as anti-Israel and anti-gay and urged President Obama not to appoint him as Defense Secretary. This was quite a strange event for multiple reasons.
Sovereign Citizens Are a Sometimes Violent Fringe Group Rejecting All Government
Meet the Sovereigns, a radical right group that rejects all forms of government, embraces God as the only authority, and clogs the courts with reams of nonsensical paperwork, writes Winston Ross.
His name is Craig Douglas Fleshman, though he won’t answer to that, just as he no longer carries a driver’s license or pays taxes. Pastor Paul Revere doesn’t recognize the authority of the State of Oregon, the United States of America, or anyone else that presumes to have some command over him. He answers only to God.
Israeli high court allows Arab MK to run
Israel's Supreme Court unanimously overturned a Central Election Committee decision to disqualify an Arab Knesset member. The court said Knesset member Haneen Zoabi, of the Balad party could run in the upcoming elections, Israeli media reported Sunday.
"This ruling proves again that the Central Elections Committee is a political body that abuses its authority and allows politicians to bar their rival for ideological reasons," Zoabi told Army Radio shortly after the high court decision.
FBI files on 'Communist' Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller revealed for first time in 50 years
FBI files on Marilyn Monroe that could not be located earlier this year have been found and re-issued, revealing the names of some of the movie star’s acquaintances who drew concern from government officials and her own entourage.
Among the secret records is one from 1956 in which the FBI documents an anonymous call to the New York Daily News claiming playwright Arthur Miller was a communist and Monroe had 'drifted into the Communist orbit'.
Revealed: how the FBI coordinated the crackdown on Occupy
It was more sophisticated than we had imagined: new documents show that the violent crackdown on Occupy last fall – so mystifying at the time – was not just coordinated at the level of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and local police. The crackdown, which involved, as you may recall, violent arrests, group disruption, canister missiles to the skulls of protesters, people held in handcuffs so tight they were injured, people held in bondage till they were forced to wet or soil themselves –was coordinated with the big banks themselves.
The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, in a groundbreaking scoop that should once more shame major US media outlets (why are nonprofits now some of the only entities in America left breaking major civil liberties news?), filed this request.
Alex Baer: Laugh or Cry, Push Reset and Just Reboot
Today's Over-the-Cliff riddle, brought to you by our mutual sponsors at Brinkmanship-M-Us: What's filled with excrement and does whatever it's told by its owners?
(While we wait for everyone to use their allotted 30 seconds to make a guess, I'll wish you a happy, cross-your-fingers reboot, into another year, and hope this one works out and fires up cleanly this time.) Ding!
OK, pencils down, everyone. You'll be quickly forgiven if you said something on the order of "our bought and paid-for, corporately-owned Congress." (Not to highlight a technicality too vividly, but corporations and absurdly wealthy individuals can both own politicians nowadays. This is called Progress.)
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