Friday, February 27, 2015
Prominent Russian opposition figure Boris Nemtsov shot and killed in Moscow; was Putin critic
MOSCOW (AP) — Boris Nemtsov, a charismatic Russian opposition leader and sharp critic of President Vladimir Putin, was gunned down Saturday near the Kremlin, just a day before a planned protest against the government.
The death of Nemtsov, a 55-year-old former deputy prime minister, ignited a fury among opposition figures who assailed the Kremlin for creating an atmosphere of intolerance of any dissent and called the killing an assassination. Putin quickly offered his condolences and called the murder a provocation.
Nemtsov was working on a report presenting evidence that he believed proved Russia's direct involvement in the separatist rebellion that has raged in eastern Ukraine since last April. Ukraine and the West accuse Russia of backing the rebels with troops and sophisticated weapons. Moscow denies the accusations.
Putin ordered Russia's top law enforcement chiefs to personally oversee the probe of Nemtsov's killing.
"Putin noted that this cruel murder has all the makings of a contract hit and is extremely provocative," presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in remarks carried by Russian news agencies.
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Senate OKs bill to keep Homeland Security open for 1 week; House votes next
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress struggled late into the night Friday to avoid a partial shutdown of the Homeland Security Department, as leaders in both political parties worked to outmaneuver House conservatives furious that the legislation left President Barack Obama's immigration policy intact.
"You have made a mess," House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said at one point to Republicans, as recriminations filled the House chamber and a midnight deadline neared for a partial agency shutdown.
Even some Republicans readily agreed.
"There are terrorist attacks all over world and we're talking about closing down Homeland Security. This is like living in world of crazy people," tweeted Rep. Peter King of New York, a former chairman of the Homeland Security Committee.
Hours after conservatives joined with Democrats to vote down a three-week funding measure, 224-203, the Senate presented a one-week alternative to keep open the agency, which has major anti-terrorism responsibilities.
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Unmasking of 'Jihadi John' as a London university graduate sends shock waves through Britain
LONDON (AP) — The unmasking of Islamic State militant "Jihadi John" as a Londoner who had repeatedly been questioned by security services sent shock waves through Britain Friday, with Prime Minister David Cameron stepping in to defend British spy craft.
Cameron tried to defuse criticism of Britain's intelligence community, which had "Jihadi John" on its list of potential terror suspects for years but was unable to prevent him from traveling to Syria, where he has played a prominent role in grisly beheading videos.
Cameron did not mention "Jihadi John" or refer to his real identity: Mohammed Emwazi, a Kuwait-born computer science graduate raised and educated in Britain. But he said the country's spies make "incredibly difficult judgments" daily about how to pursue threats to national security and have broken up plots that would have caused immense damage.
Emwazi had been known to the British intelligence services since at least 2009, initially in connection with investigations into terrorism in Somalia.
David Anderson, who is in charge of reviewing Britain's terrorism legislation, said intelligence agencies may have dropped the ball, but faced a big challenge to identify real threats from "hundreds, probably thousands" of suspects.
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Leonard Nimoy, world famous as Mr. Spock on 'Star Trek' TV series and films, dies at 83
LOS ANGELES (AP) — In 1975, Leonard Nimoy published an autobiography with the defiant title, "I Am Not Spock." Two decades later, he bowed to fate with "I Am Spock," a revisionist sequel.
But for Trekkies and even casual "Star Trek" viewers, Nimoy was always the coolly composed science officer with the pointed ears and an unwavering belief in logic.
He played a variety of other stage and screen roles, wrote poetry and pursued photography, but Nimoy's portrayal of Mr. Spock remained indelible and inescapable.
It wasn't just the trademark ears or the steeply arched eyebrows — which rose higher when Spock was confronted with disconcerting emotion — or the impressive divided-finger salute or the "Live long and prosper" catchphrase.
It was how Nimoy staunchly turned what could have been a caricature into a dignified, inspiringly intellectual and even touching figure, a half-human, half-Vulcan who was a multicultural and multiethnic touchstone, well before it was hip.
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'Star Trek' icon Leonard Nimoy leaves legacy beyond science-fiction
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Leonard Nimoy didn't just leave a lasting impression on the science-fiction world, he also left his mark on science itself.
Seth Shostak, who researches the possibility of real-world extraterrestrial life as the senior astronomer at SETI Research, recalled that Nimoy was regularly willing to lend the organization a helping hand. When he was asked to narrate a planetarium introduction or appear as a guest at an event, Nimoy did so graciously and never charged.
"That struck me then, and it strikes me now," said Shostak. "If you play a famous alien, you might have little interest in how science is searching for real aliens, but Nimoy was actually interested in the science — and he was always willing to help us out."
Remembrances poured in from beyond the entertainment spectrum after news spread Friday about the death of the 83-year-old actor, who played the half-alien, half-human Spock in "Star Trek" films, TV shows and video games. NASA, Virgin Galactic, Intel and Google all sent messages, as did other groups motivated by Nimoy and his role as the truth-seeking science officer.
"Leonard Nimoy was an inspiration to multiple generations of engineers, scientists, astronauts and other space explorers," said NASA administrator Charles Bolden. "As Mr. Spock, he made science and technology important to the story, while never failing to show, by example, that it is the people around us who matter most."
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Kurdish troops rout IS group from key town near Iraqi border after Christians abducted there
BEIRUT (AP) — Backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, Kurdish fighters fought their way Friday into a northeastern Syrian town that was a key stronghold of Islamic State militants, only days after the group abducted dozens of Christians in the volatile region, Syrian activists and Kurdish officials said.
The victory marks a second blow to the extremist IS group in a month, highlighting the growing role of Syria's Kurds as the most effective fighting force against the Islamic State. In January, Kurdish forces drove IS militants from the town of Kobani near the Turkish border after a months-long fight, dealing a very public defeat to the extremists.
But it is also tempered by this week's horrific abductions by IS militants of more than 220 Christian Assyrians in the same area, along the fluid and fast shifting front line in Syria.
The town of Tel Hamees in Syria's northeastern Hassakeh province is strategically important because it links territory controlled by IS in Syria and Iraq.
The province, which borders Turkey and Iraq, is predominantly Kurdish but also has populations of Arabs and predominantly Christian Assyrians and Armenians.
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Gunman kills 7, commits suicide in house-to-house rampage; mother's death may have set him off
TYRONE, Mo. (AP) — A man who authorities say may have been unhinged by the death of his ailing mother killed seven people and then took his own life in a house-to-house shooting rampage that wiped out a swath of this tiny town in the Missouri Ozarks.
Joseph Jesse Aldridge, 36, carried out the killings with a .45-caliber handgun Thursday night or early Friday at four homes in Tyrone, the no-stoplight community of about 50 people where he lived with his mother, the Missouri State Highway Patrol said.
Joseph Aldridge was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound before dawn in a running pickup truck on the middle of a highway 15 or 20 miles away.
The patrol said four of the dead — two couples — were cousins of Aldridge's, ranging in age from 47 to 52. The names of the rest of the dead — and an eighth victim who was wounded but expected to survive — were being withheld until relatives could be notified.
All the victims were adults and were gunned down within a few miles of one another.
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Mexican police nab teacher-turned-drug lord, Servando 'La Tuta' Gomez of Knights Templar gang
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Servando "La Tuta" Gomez, a former school teacher who became one of Mexico's most-wanted drug lords as head of the Knights Templar cartel, was captured early Friday by federal police as he tried to sneak out of a house wearing a baseball cap and a scarf to hide his identity.
Gomez was arrested at a house in Morelia, the capital of the western state of Michoacan, along with eight bodyguards and associates toting a grenade launcher, three grenades, a machine pistol and assault rifles, National Security Commissioner Monte Alejandro Rubido said.
Gomez and his accomplices were arrested without a shot fired, after a months-long intelligence stakeout in which his associates were identified when they gathered on his birthday Feb. 6 with cakes, soft drinks and food, he said.
Rubido said the key break came months ago when agents identified one of Gomez's most-trusted messengers. A series of such liaisons had apparently supplied Gomez with food, clothing and medicine when he was earlier hiding out in the mountains.
Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said that "we have caught the most important target in the fight against organized crime."
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In scenes of desperation, avalanche survivors in Afghanistan wait for rescue on rooftops
PANJSHIR VALLEY, Afghanistan (AP) — In an endless sea of white, Afghan villagers waited on rooftops Friday, waving in desperation as helicopters swooped low over the avalanche-struck region. All around them, homes, people and livestock had vanished under the snow.
The avalanche in this impoverished corner of Afghanistan killed at least 168 people this week, with dozens succumbing to plummeting temperatures elsewhere. The depth of despair was captured by an Associated Press team traveling on one of the first aid flights to the area.
Army helicopters dropped bags filled with bread — the first food to reach hundreds of people in the far northern district of Paryan in Panjshir province, 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of the capital, Kabul.
As the helicopters touched down, whipping up clouds of powdered snow, men rushed forward for food, water and blankets while women watched from rooftops. Yellow plastic jerry cans of cooking oil, sacks of rice and rolled up blankets were passed from man to man.
On the return flights, the choppers took the injured to an international hospital in the southern reaches of the valley.
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On Antarctica, scientists find glaciers melting at an accelerating pace, threatening havoc
CAPE LEGOUPIL, Antarctica (AP) — From the ground in this extreme northern part of Antarctica, spectacularly white and blinding ice seems to extend forever. What can't be seen is the battle raging thousands of feet (hundreds of meters) below to re-shape Earth.
Water is eating away at the Antarctic ice, melting it where it hits the oceans. As the ice sheets slowly thaw, water pours into the sea — 130 billion tons of ice (118 billion metric tons) per year for the past decade, according to NASA satellite calculations. That's the weight of more than 356,000 Empire State Buildings, enough ice melt to fill more than 1.3 million Olympic swimming pools. And the melting is accelerating.
In the worst case scenario, Antarctica's melt could push sea levels up 10 feet (3 meters) worldwide in a century or two, recurving heavily populated coastlines.
Parts of Antarctica are melting so rapidly it has become "ground zero of global climate change without a doubt," said Harvard geophysicist Jerry Mitrovica.
Here on the Antarctic peninsula, where the continent is warming the fastest because the land sticks out in the warmer ocean, 49 billion tons of ice (nearly 45 billion metric tons) are lost each year, according to NASA. The water warms from below, causing the ice to retreat on to land, and then the warmer air takes over. Temperatures rose 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit (3 degrees Celsius) in the last half century, much faster than Earth's average, said Ricardo Jana, a glaciologist for the Chilean Antarctic Institute.
