NATO ally expels undercover Russian spy 

WASHINGTON — On Oct. 30, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry delivered a rare warning to a Russian diplomat stationed in Sofia, the capital: Leave the country within 24 hours. The expelled diplomat, Vladimir Anatolyevich Rusyaev is affiliated with the Russian military intelligence service, or the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, commonly known as the GRU, according to a Western intelligence source. The intelligence source provided Yahoo News with a document describing Rusyaev's career history, including a current photograph.

Real estate heiress who posted $35M bail acquitted of murder

A San Francisco Bay Area real estate heiress who was under house arrest on $35 million bail for more than two years plans to reconnect with her children and visit family in China after a jury acquitted her of killing the father of her kids, her attorney said Friday. After deliberating for 12 days, jurors found Tiffany Li not guilty on charges of murder and conspiring with her boyfriend to kill 27-year-old Keith Green in 2016 over a custody dispute. The case drew global attention when Li's family, who made a fortune in real estate construction in China, posted one of the highest bail amounts on record in the United States.

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  Hillsborough heiress murder trial: Tiffany Li found not guilty in killing of Keith Green, hung jury for Kaveh Bayat

  KGO – San Francisco
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  Who's Who in Hillsborough Heiress murder case

  KGO – San Francisco

Pro-Life Investigators Found Guilty in Lawsuit After Filming Planned Parenthood Execs Discussing Sale of Fetal Body Parts

A San Fransisco district court on Friday found pro-life activists guilty in a lawsuit brought by Planned Parenthood after the activists surreptitiously filmed executives of the abortion group discussing the sale of fetal body parts. A ten person federal jury convicted activists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt of the anti-abortion group Center for Medical Progress on charges of conspiracy to commit fraud, breach of contract and trespass and violation of state and federal recording laws in Maryland, California and Florida. Planned Parenthood will be awarded $870,000 in punitive damages.

Australia intel chair blocked from China after criticising Beijing

Australia's parliamentary intelligence committee head, who has previously criticised Beijing, said he had been blocked from entering China due to his "frankness about the Chinese Communist Party". Andrew Hastie warned several months ago that the world's approach to containing China's rise resembles the "catastrophic failure" to prevent the advance of Nazi Germany. Hastie, along with fellow government politician James Paterson, had planned to travel to China for a study tour next month but both have been banned from entering the country.

• China Urges Australian Lawmakers to ‘Repent’ Over Past Criticism

  Bloomberg
• Australian MP says he and colleague barred entry to China

  Associated Press

Nuclear missile bunker: yours for less than $400k

One local newspaper described the sales listing, with calculated understatement, as a “mid-century fixer-upper”: an underground bunker built to withstand a nuclear attack, and to house the fire power to retaliate. The decommissioned nuclear silo in southern Arizona was once home to the Titan II, the largest intercontinental ballistic missile deployed by the US Air Force. The silo's owner, Rick Ellis, told the Arizona Daily Star newspaper that he was selling the property because he's “bored”.

Hong Kong police threaten to fire live ammunition at democracy protesters

Hong Kong police and pro-democracy protesters were fighting into the early hours of Monday morning, with police threatening to use live ammunition against protesters in the face of barrages of Molotov cocktails from demonstrators who have occupied a university campus. While three protesters have been shot during the 24 weeks of protests so far, this is the first time in the crisis the police have issued the stark warning. "If they (protesters) continue such dangerous actions, we would have no choice but to use minimum force, including live rounds," said police spokesman Louis Lau during a Facebook live broadcast.

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  Chinese Troops Join Hong Kong Cleanup as Protesters Retreat

  Meredith Videos
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  Petrol Bombs Rain Down on Police Van as it Approaches Protesters

  Storyful

Chile police stopped rescue workers helping dying protester: human rights watchdog

Chile's independent human rights watchdog said on Saturday it would file a formal complaint for murder against police officers who allegedly prevented paramedics from attending a heart attack victim amid a protest Friday. Security forces firing tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons made it impossible for rescue workers to properly treat the victim, Chile's publicly-funded National Institute for Human Rights said. Twenty-nine year old Abel Acuna died shortly after at a nearby Santiago hospital.

Aide Says Trump Asked About ‘Investigation’: Impeachment Update

The House Intelligence Committee held its second public hearing on Friday to hear testimony by former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, who was removed from that post in May by President Donald Trump. The impeachment committees separately met in a closed session with David Holmes, a staff member at the U.S. embassy in Kyiv, about this week's revelation that Trump on July 26 asked Gordon Sondland, ambassador to the European Union, about the status of “investigations” he sought from Ukraine. Here are the latest developments: Aide Says Trump Asked About 'Investigations' (7:20 p.m.

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  In closed-door testimony, US diplomat says he heard Trump question the EU ambassador on Ukraine 'investigation'

  ABC News
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  Are Democratic candidates too liberal for 2020 voters?

  CBS News Videos

Minneapolis Police Admit to Discovering 1,500 Untested Rape Kits, Spanning Over 30 Years, Found in Storage

The Minneapolis Police Department announced Friday that a 2015 count of rape kits collected from survivors came up terribly short, missing more than 1,500 rape kits held in police storage facilities. Minnesota passed a law in 2015 that required law enforcement agencies to audit their backlogged kits. But after conducting a new review this year, the Minneapolis police said at a press conference on Friday, that 1,700 untested rape kits spanning over 30 years have been discovered — far more than the 194 kits found in 2015.

Why Russian Fighter Jets Are Threatening NATO In The Baltics

Key point: Russia and NATO's military buildup in the Baltics is creating a tense situation. In the most recent illustration of ongoing Russia-NATO military tensions over Baltic airspace, recently released footage shows a Russian Su-27 fighter making a sharp turn into an American F-15C. It is unclear when the video was filmed, with some speculating that it occured during a prior NATO BAP (Baltic Air Policing) mission. When viewed in that light, this incident seems to fall into the trend of what US officials have previously described as “unsafe” Russian interceptions and “aggressive maneuvers” in high-tension airspace.

AP sources: Epstein jail guards had been offered plea deal

Federal prosecutors offered a plea deal to two correctional officers responsible for guarding Jeffrey Epstein on the night of his death, but the officers have declined the offer, people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. The existence of the plea offer signals the Justice Department is considering criminal charges in connection with the wealthy financier's death at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York in August. The city's medical examiner ruled Epstein's death a suicide.

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  ‘Nuclear explosion level bad’: How US press reported Prince Andrew interview

  The Independent
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  Britain's Prince Andrew 'categorically" denies sex claims

  Reuters Videos

Racist, anti-Semitic incidents prompt Syracuse to halt fraternity activities; Alpha Chi Rho suspended

Syracuse University suspended one fraternity and halted social activities at all the school's fraternities for the rest of the semester after a series of racist and anti-Semitic incidents that have prompted days of protests, the school president announced Sunday. "Last night, one of our African American students reported being subjected to a verbal racial epithet from a group of students and visitors to our campus," Chancellor Kent Syverud said in a statement. Syverud's action was the latest in a series of crackdowns on fraternities across the nation and comes less than a week after San Diego State University suspended all Interfraternity Council-affiliated organizations following the death of a freshman who had attended a fraternity event.

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  Syracuse University suspends fraternity's activities after alleged racist incidents

  ABC News
• Syracuse suspends fraternity after report of racial slur

  Associated Press

Leading Muslim groups to challenge India holy site court ruling

Two leading Muslim groups said Sunday they will file petitions in India's top court challenging its decision to award Hindus control of a bitterly disputed holy site that has sparked deadly inter-religious violence. The Supreme Court ruled on November 9 that the holy site in Ayodhya, where Hindu mobs destroyed a 460-year-old mosque in 1992, must be managed by a trust to oversee the construction of a Hindu temple. A separate piece of land in Ayodhya would be given over to a Muslim group to build a "prominent" new mosque.

‘You can’t impeach somebody just because you don’t like them’: Michigan, swing voters and the impeachment

Yahoo News speaks with voters from the battleground state of Michigan to hear their thoughts on the impeachment hearings and on the election that's just one year away. With Michigan a home to swing voters, who stands a chance at winning this crucial state?

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  ‘Saturday Night Live’ Turns “Boring” Impeachment Hearings Into Soap Opera Starring Jon Hamm

  Deadline
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  Fox Business Host Calls Trump 'Big Dumb Baby' For Attacking Yovanovitch

  HuffPost

How to watch the Leonids meteor shower

Colorful shooting stars will soon streak across the night sky during one of the most famous annual meteor displays. The Leonids meteor shower is expected to peak Sunday night into Monday morning, November 17-18. The Leonid meteor shower occurs every year when Earth passes through a cloud of debris left behind by comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle.

French interior minister blames protest violence on 'thugs'

French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner blamed "thugs" and "bullies" on Sunday for the violence that hit demonstrations the previous day marking marked the first anniversary of the anti-government "yellow vest" protests. "Yesterday, what we saw were few (legitimate) demonstrators but thugs, bullies and morons," Castaner told Europe 1 radio when asked about the violence in Paris on Saturday. Demonstrators torched cars and pelted police with stones and bottles and police fired tear gas and water cannon during the rallies to mark a year since the birth of the anti-government yellow vest movement.

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  Fires Burn in Paris on First Anniversary of Yellow Vest Protests

  Storyful
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  Scuffles mar anniversary of birth of yellow vest movement

  Associated Press

‘We Must Be As Harsh as Them’: Leaked Docs Reveal China’s Mass Incarceration of Muslims: NYT

Hundreds of internal Chinese government documents obtained by The New York Times reveals striking new details about the execution of the country's mass detention of ethnic minorities over the past three years in the Xinjiang region. The rare leak of documents, described in the newspaper's bombshell report as “one of the most significant leaks of government papers from inside China's ruling Communist Party in decades,” details how Chinese authorities have contained as many as one million Uighurs, Kazakhs and other predominately Muslim minorities into internment camps and prisons. The camps, which began in 2016, were described as China's answer to fighting Islamic extremism.

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  Maps show 500 suspected 're-education' camps and prisons where China is locking up and torturing its Muslim minority

  Business Insider
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  Leaked documents reveal details of China's 'shown no mercy' Uighur detention policy

  The Telegraph

Three family murder-suicides within ten days shock Turkey as the country faces record unemployment

The deaths of three separate families within ten days have shocked Turkey as the country struggles with mass unemployment and a financial crisis. On Friday, authorities confirmed that a family of three had been found dead in their home in the central Istanbul district of Bakırköy, poisoned by cyanide. Earlier in the month, police discovered the bodies of a family of four, including a nine year-old daughter and a five year-old son, in their home in the southern city of Antalya.

Why Did a Russian Soldier Shoot Eight of His Comrades in Siberia?

Why did a Russian soldier gun down eight of his comrades at a remote Siberian military base? The reason was probably hazing by his fellow soldiers, including a threat of being raped, according to his father. On October 25, 2019, Private Ramil Shamsutdinov—a twenty-year-old conscript—shot eight soldiers at a base near the town of Gorny.

Sheriff calls deadly shooting at Airbnb rental a ‘bloodbath’

Authorities in the San Francisco Bay Area are calling a shooting that left five dead during a Halloween party at an Airbnb rental a “bloodbath,” where several partygoers were armed and some showed up looking for trouble. Contra Costa Sheriff David Livingston said Friday that he knows residents in the plush San Francisco suburb of Orinda are on edge after the massive party on Oct. 31 and wanted to provide an update, although he could not yet say what sparked the shooting and who shot whom. Livingston said there is a wealth of evidence to process, including casings that littered the floors and countertops of the four-bedroom home with vaulted ceilings that hosted roughly 100 people that night.

William Barr: Democrats' investigations into Trump are political harassment meant to 'sabotage' his presidency

WASHINGTON–Attorney General William Barr said Friday that President Donald Trump's political opponents have pursued a "scorched earth, no-holds-barred resistance" meant to "sabotage" his presidency. "The pursuit of scores of investigations and an avalanche of subpoenas is meant to incapacitate" the administration, Barr said in a biting address to the conservative Federalist Society. The attorney general, in a full-throated defense of the president, said the political "harassment" contravenes the intent of the Constitution's framers who, he said, meant to provide the chief executive with sweeping authority.

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  Barr Rips 'War Of Resistance Against' Trump In Partisan Rant

  HuffPost
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  William Barr's 'Authoritarian' Trump Defense Triggers Calls For His Impeachment

  HuffPost

S. African asylum-seekers held on trespassing charges

South African police detained more than 180 foreign nationals for storming the UN refugee agency in Pretoria, where they had been staging a sit-in protest, police said Saturday. Hundreds of asylum-seekers started camping in front of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on October 8, asking to be relocated to another country after a spate of xenophobic violence in September. Protesters broke into the UNHCR premises on Thursday after they were informed of a court order giving them three days to vacate the site.

Here's everything we know about Mina Chang, who rapidly rose from a self-described singer to a State Department official with a dubious résumé

Department of State Mina Chang, a 35-year-old State Department official, prompted a flurry of interest over her credentials this week after she was alleged to have embellished her work history and educational experience. In a statement from her previous nonprofit group, executive director Ian Dailey characterized the news reports as a "classic 'hit-job'" and said he was "disgusted with the unwarranted attack" against Chang. Here's what we know about Chang, who joined the Trump administration in April.

First African-American FBI agent finally gets recognition

The first African-American FBI special agent, who was hired 100 years ago, is finally getting recognition. There are no known photographs of James Wormley Jones, but there is a record of his hiring. Inside FBI headquarters in Washington is an archive room filled with hundreds of thousands of documents and a lone application for the job of special agent.

Russia says it will return captured naval ships to Ukraine on Monday

Russia will return three captured naval ships to Ukraine on Monday and is moving them to a handover location agreed with Kiev, Crimea's border guard service was cited as saying by Russian news agencies on Sunday. A Reuters reporter in Crimea, which Russian annexed from Ukraine in 2014, earlier on Sunday saw coastguard boats pulling the three vessels through the Kerch Strait toward the Black Sea where they could potentially be handed over to Ukraine. Ukraine has been pushing for their return as a good will gesture from Moscow ahead of a possible four-way peace summit on eastern Ukraine next month.

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  Russia begins moving captured Ukrainian ships

  Reuters Videos
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  Russia set to return seized Ukrainian ships: report

  AFP