- WorldUSA TODAY
FBI and US military personnel arrive in Sri Lanka to help investigate bombings
FBI agents and U.S. military personnel have arrived in Sri Lanka to assist the investigation into a series of bombings at churches and luxury hotels on Easter Sunday that killed more than 350 and injured 500, the U.S. ambassador to Sri Lanka said. Ambassador Alaina Teplitz said the U.S. had no prior knowledge of the attacks, despite local claims that foreign officials had been warned of an imminent assault. The Islamic State claimed responsibility Tuesday for the attacks through its Amaq News Agency.
NewsAssociated PressArmed border group shuts down camp at border in New Mexico
An armed group that has been patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border left its post in the New Mexico desert Tuesday amid pressure from law enforcement following videos that showed militia members stopping migrants who had illegally crossed into the country. Sunland Park police and security officers with a railroad company told members of the United Constitutional Patriots on Tuesday they needed to move their trailers and equipment. Union Pacific Railroad said the group crossed its land to access the site and requested that the group not trespass onto its property.
WorldBloombergHere's What Kim Jong Un Wants From Russia
Wearing a black overcoat, Kim stepped onto a red carpet a day before his planned meeting with Putin for his first summit with the Russian leader since coming to power in 2011. The trip -- coming almost a year after Russia's invitation -- appeared timed to show that Kim has alternative sources of support after his failed meeting with Trump in Hanoi left North Korea with no clear path to escape a U.S.-led international economic embargo. While Putin has little money to share and is unlikely to make any moves that could violate sanctions or create another dispute with the U.S., Kim may have to settle for Russian pledges of diplomatic and economic support.
- NewsNational Review
Elizabeth Warren's College Plan Is a Dance with Elves
Elizabeth Warren may be the least jolly member of the Senate, but she is nonetheless offering up her best Santa Claus impersonation as she seeks the Democratic presidential nomination, complete with a trillion-dollar-a-decade student-loan giveaway — to be paid for by those on her naughty list. Senator Warren proposes to pay off Americans' student loans in a tiered fashion: Up to $50,000 in bailouts for those earning up to $100,000 a year, gradually phased out to $0.00 for those earning $250,000 a year or more. Lest this be taken as a warrant to go out and borrow big on the chance that there will be another round of debt forgiveness in the future, Senator Warren also proposes to make college free for all students, not only eliminating tuition costs but also radically expanding federal higher-education spending to cover books, student housing and living expenses, and child care — a parallel welfare state for undergraduates.
WorldAFPIran FM proposes swap for jailed British national
Iran's foreign minister on Wednesday proposed a prisoner swap for a British-Iranian mother detained in Tehran, saying the United States should drop charges against an Iranian woman it is seeking in Australia. Britain has been trying unsuccessfully to free Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a dual national who worked for the Thomson Reuters Foundation and was arrested in 2016. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif drew a parallel to Negar Ghodskani, an Iranian woman who was arrested by Australia in 2017 and separated from her newborn child as the United States asks for her extradition.
ScienceReutersNASA probe records first likely 'marsquake' detected on red planet
NASA's robotic probe InSight has detected and measured what scientists believe to be a "marsquake," marking the first time a likely seismological tremor has been recorded on another planet, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California reported on Tuesday. The breakthrough came five months after InSight, the first spacecraft designed specifically to study the deep interior of a distant world, touched down on the surface of Mars to begin its two-year seismological mission on the red planet. The faint rumble characterized by JPL scientists as a likely marsquake was recorded on April 6, the lander's 128th Martian day, or sol.
- TechnologyBGR News
Samsung's Galaxy Fold might already have a new release date – and that's awful news
Samsung's Galaxy Fold launch is now nothing short of an unmitigated disaster. Well, Samsung went far beyond giving consumers a bit of doubt — it showed us in the clearest possible light that the Galaxy Fold is a piece of junk. It was so high, in fact, that Samsung decided to cancel the phone's release this Friday so it can investigate the issues that have been causing the Galaxy Fold's display to break.
WorldAFPUkraine defies anti-Semitic past with Zelensky victory
Comedian Volodymyr Zelensky's election will see Ukraine led for the first time by a president of Jewish descent, in a landmark for a country with a long history of anti-Semitism. The 41-year-old actor won a landslide victory against incumbent Petro Poroshenko on Sunday. Ukraine already has a Jewish prime minister, Volodymyr Groysman, also 41, and who is to remain in office pending parliamentary elections scheduled for October.
- BusinessUSA TODAY
Ford invests $500 million in electric truck startup Rivian
Ford Motor Co., maker of the best-selling F-Series pickup trucks, announced early Wednesday that it's investing $500 million in Rivian, the Michigan-based electric truck startup company. Ford and Rivian have agreed to work together to develop an "all-new, next-generation battery electric vehicle for Ford's growing EV (electric vehicle) portfolio using Rivian's skateboard platform," Ford said in its statement. “This strategic partnership marks another key milestone in our drive to accelerate the transition to sustainable mobility,” said RJ Scaringe, Rivian founder and CEO.
- WorldTime
ISIS Claims Responsibility for Sri Lanka Terrorist Attack
The terrorist group ISIS has claimed responsibility for the bomb attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka that killed at least 321 people on Easter Sunday, but provided no evidence. In a bulletin posted by its Aamaq news agency, ISIS said: “The perpetrators of the attack that targeted nationals of the countries of the coalitions and Christians in Sri Lanka before yesterday are fighters from the Islamic State,” according to a translation by the Associated Press. The news came on Tuesday as the Sri Lankan minister of defense Ruwan Wijewardene said the attacks were in retaliation for last month's terrorist attack against Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand, in which 50 people were killed.
NewsAssociated PressPolice: Sketch of suspect in 2 girls' killings more accurate
A newly released sketch of a man suspected of killing two Indiana teenagers in 2017 "more accurately represents" the man believed to be their killer than a sketch released months after the girls were slain, state police said Wednesday. The statement from Indiana State Police sought to clarify information about the two sketches on behalf of the multi-agency task force that's investigating the February 2017 killings of 14-year-old Liberty German and 13-year-old Abigail Williams. Master Trooper Taylor Bryant told The Indianapolis Star on Monday that he drew the sketch that was released this week just three days after the girls' bodies were found in a wooded area where they had been hiking near their northern Indiana hometown of Delphi.
- PoliticsBloomberg
Trump Escalates Confrontation With Democrats on House Inquiries
President Donald Trump is doubling down on his legal confrontations with House Democrats. Hours after his Treasury secretary again put off a House committee's demand for the president's tax returns and as another panel was considering a contempt charge for a former White House aide for refusing to testify, Trump said in an interview that he was against having past and present administration officials taking part in various congressional inquiries. He told the Washington Post that any further testimony was not necessary after the White House had cooperated with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.
- BusinessReuters
US STOCKS-S&P 500 hovers below record highs on mixed earnings
U.S. stocks hovered below their all-time highs on Wednesday, as investors digested a mixed batch of earnings reports and losses in energy stocks limited gains on the indexes. The S&P 500 is 0.3% below its record high of 2,940.91 hit in September. The index has rallied 17% this year, supported by a dovish Federal Reserve, hopes of a U.S.-China trade resolution and a largely upbeat earnings season.
- WorldThe Telegraph
British father whose entire family were wiped out in Sri Lanka attack tells of his 'catastrophic' loss
A British father whose entire family were killed in the suspected terror attack in Sri Lanka has paid tribute to his "talented and thoughtful" children and his "brilliant, loving" wife. Ben Nicholson said his wife Anita, 42, son Alex, 14, and daughter Annabel, 11, had been killed as they sat at a table for breakfast in the Shangri-la Hotel in Colombo on Easter Sunday. "Mercifully, all three of them died instantly and with no pain or suffering," Mr Nicholson said.
- NewsUSA TODAY
Washington poised to become first state to allow eco-friendly 'human composting'
Washington is expected to become the first state to legalize an environmentally-friendly burial alternative that turns bodies into soil within weeks. A bill allowing “natural organic reduction," sometimes called "human composting," has passed the legislature and is headed to Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee's desk. Inslee, who has staked his 2020 presidential campaign on climate change, is reviewing the bill.
WorldFOX News VideosWWII shipwreck discovered off Australian coast
The SS Iron Crown, an Australian freighter sunk by a Japanese submarine during World War II, has been discovered.
- BusinessCar and Driver
View Photos of the 2019 Lexus LS500h Hybrid
Lexus's big LS500h sedan is both a flagship and a hybrid. We're not convinced it can serve both masters. From Car and Driver
BusinessAFPIranians brace for harder times as US oil sanctions close in
Iranians, already hard hit by punishing US economic sanctions, are bracing for more pain after Washington abolished waivers for some countries which had allowed them to buy oil from Iran. "In the end the pressure (America) is putting out is on the people," said a 28-year-old technical instructor in Iran. In 2015 when Iran struck a landmark nuclear deal with world powers, hopes were high that it would end the country's years of crippling economic isolation.
- WorldUSA TODAY
Tough trek for Central American migrant caravan heading through Mexico to U.S. border
PIJIJIAPAN, Mexico – Central American migrants hoping to reach the U.S. are finding a much tougher trek than those in previous caravans, meeting unwelcoming townsfolk and a surprise raid by Mexican police and immigration agents who detained hundreds in Mexico's south. While their compatriots were been taken into custody Monday, hundreds of other migrants scrambled away into the brush along the highway in Chiapas state to elude authorities. Many had already learned they would not be received in towns with the same hospitality that greeted previous caravans, and now they know they won't be safe walking along the rural highway either.
- NewsAOL.com
Coachella woman arrested after allegedly tossing bag of 7 live puppies into dumpster
A woman allegedly caught on camera tossing seven live puppies into a Coachella, Calif., dumpster last week has been arrested. Deborah Sue Culwell, 54, was taken into custody Monday by Commander Chris Mayer of the Riverside County Department of Animal Services (RCDAS) after harrowing footage of the incident went viral over the weekend, according to a statement. RCDAS spokesperson John Welsh said Culwell may face up to seven counts of felony animal cruelty.
WorldAssociated PressNorth Korea's Kim will go into Putin summit needing a win
When North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin for their first one-on-one meeting, he will have a long wish list and a strong desire to notch a win after the failure of his second summit with President Donald Trump. Despite a relationship that goes back to the very foundation of North Korea, relations between Pyongyang and Moscow haven't always been the picture of comradery, or even particularly close. More than 10,000 North Korean laborers still employed in Russia, many working in the logging industry in the Russian Far East, are being kicked out by the end of this year as a 2017 U.N. sanctions resolution takes effect.
- BusinessReuters
UPDATE 3-Visa profit jumps, lower cross-border volume weighs on shares
Visa Inc reported higher expenses and lower spending by people using its cards abroad on Wednesday even as increased overall consumer spending drove quarterly profit 14 percent higher. Shares of the company were trading lower after the bell as investors worried over a slide in cross-border volume growth, which measures the value of transactions made on a Visa card outside a customer's home country. The company and its rival Mastercard had recently come under fire for charging high fees on tourist cards in the European Union.
- LifestyleCar and Driver
In-Depth Photos of Our Long-Term 2019 Mazda CX-5 Turbo
We got the expensive one, too, because that's what you're buying. From Car and Driver
- Entertainmentmotorious
This 1965 Superformance Shelby Cobra Will Break All The Necks
This may be a replica, but it's the only one licensed by Shelby. Just because you want to drive something drop-dead gorgeous and smoking fast doesn't mean you have to take out a second mortgage. This 1965 Superformance Shelby Cobra has the sleek, instantly recognizable looks of the original Shelby Cobra, making it a standout in a sea of cool cars.
- WorldBloomberg
Rebuilding Notre Dame Is More Than a Vanity Project
A lot of people seem to consider the whole thing no more than a “vanity project” for the uber-rich. The burning of the cathedral has occasioned a remarkable outpouring of pledges from around the world — including from some of the wealthiest families in France and elsewhere. In Paris itself, the gilets jaunes were back in the streets last weekend, having decided not to take an Easter break from their regular protests.
