'If he dies, he dies': Suspect in stabbing of Asian man in New York City told authorities

The suspect in the stabbing of an Asian man in New York City's Chinatown walked into the New York County District Attorney's Office and admitted he had just "stabbed a guy up the block," according to Manhattan's Assistant District Attorney Adam Johnson. The suspect has been identified as Salman Muflihi, 23, of Brooklyn. The incident occurred around 6:20 p.m. on Thursday, the New York City Police Department said.

• 
  No hate crime charges for suspect in Chinatown stabbing

  WABC – NY
• 
  Asian Man in Critical Condition After Being Stabbed in the Back With a Butcher Knife in NY Chinatown

  NextShark

Kashmir villagers hopeful but wary after India and Pakistan agree to ceasefire

Villagers living on both sides of the Line of Control dividing the Himalayan region of Kashmir welcomed an agreement between long-time foes India and Pakistan to stop shelling from each side, but some were sceptical it would hold. The nuclear-armed neighbours signed a ceasefire agreement along the Line of Control (LoC) in 2003, but that has frayed in recent years and there have been mounting casualties. In a joint statement on Thursday, India and Pakistan said they would observe a ceasefire.

Indian man killed by his own bird during cockfight

A cockerel that had been fitted with a knife for an illegal cockfight has killed its owner in southern India. The bird's owner was impaled in the groin by the knife as the animal tried to escape. Its owner attempted to catch it but was struck by the 7cm-long (three inch) knife on the bird's leg during the struggle.

Trump has captured the Republican party – and that's great news for Biden

In its place is the Trump party, whose major goal is to advance Trump's big lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Its agenda is to exact vengeance on Republicans who didn't or won't support the lie or who voted to impeach or convict Trump for inciting the violence that the lie generated, and to keep attention focused on the former president's grievances. As the Trump party takes over the GOP, anti-Trump Republicans are abandoning the party in droves – thereby weakening it for general elections while simultaneously strengthening Trump's hand inside it.

Lady Gaga poised to hand over $500,000 reward to mystery woman after safe return of Bulldogs

Lady Gaga is poised to hand over a $500,000 reward to a mystery woman who returned her beloved French bulldogs kidnapped in a violent street robbery near her home in Hollywood. Koji and Gustav, thought to be worth up to $10,000 dollars each, were given in at a downtown LAPD Police Station by an unnamed woman late on Friday night. Authorities believe the woman who handed the dogs in was "uninvolved and unassociated" with the attack - but she is still eligible for the "unconditional" $500,000 and is said to be in contact with Gaga's representatives.

• 
  Lady Gaga asks for 'safe return' of dogs, thanks dog walker Ryan Fischer: 'You're forever a hero'

  Yahoo Celebrity
• 
  Everything we know about the Lady Gaga dognapping

  Yahoo Celebrity

317 schoolgirls have been abducted by 'bandits' in an attack on a boarding school in Nigeria

Over 300 schoolgirls have been kidnapped from a boarding school in Northern Nigeria. Gunmen attacked the school and a nearby military checkpoint, according to Associated Press. A joint rescue operation between the military and police is now said to be underway.

• 
  Hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls taken in mass abduction

  Associated Press
• 
  Nigerian schoolboys freed as forces search for 300 abducted girls

  Reuters

More Inside A New Safari Lodge Treehouse Tucked Away in Botswana’s Okavango Delta

Only reachable by canoe, this Xigera hideaway is centered along lush riverbeds and a rich concentration of wildlife. Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest

Republicans cite ‘public health emergency’ for skipping Covid relief votes while speaking at maskless CPAC

Several Republican lawmakers said they could not attend Congress on Friday to vote for the coronavirus stimulus package due to the pandemic, but were due to appear in-person at the conservative conference taking place in Orlando, Florida, this weekend. According to CNN, the Republican lawmakers included those who were former US president Donald Trump's closest allies - some of whom were scheduled to speak at this weekend's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Florida. The group of twelve House Republicans said they were unable to attend a number of votes in the House of Representatives that day "due to the ongoing public health emergency”, in a written letter seen by CNN.

• 
  GOP lawmakers reportedly cite 'public health emergency' in skipping votes, despite speaking at CPAC

  The Week
• 
  Over a dozen GOP House members cited 'the ongoing health emergency' to skip in-person voting while they spoke at CPAC

  Business Insider

Longtime radio host Russ Martin found dead in Frisco home, police say; cause unclear

Longtime Dallas-Fort Worth radio host Russ Martin was found dead inside of his Frisco home a little after midnight Saturday, the Frisco police department announced. The cause of his death wasn't known as of Saturday, but police said no foul play is suspected. Officers responded to an unresponsive person call in the 6300 block of Douglas Avenue in Frisco around 12:30 a.m.

Far-right Proud Boys leader condemns Capitol rioters but says he 'won't cry' about politicians

Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio has condemned the rioters who besieged the US Capitol, but will not “cry” about lawmakers who came under attack on the day. Mr Tarrio, who was arrested two days before some members of the Proud Boys – and other Trump supporters – rioted at the US Capitol, told CNN that lawmakers did not need sympathy after the attack. The remarks come despite concerns among members of Congress that they were targets of those who broke into the complex on 6 January, citing baseless claims the 2020 election was “stolen”.

CDC director is 'very concerned' that Covid cases have stopped falling

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, gave a sobering update about the latest data on cases, hospital admissions and deaths in the United States, and she said the direction of the numbers may mean states should rethink plans to relax restrictions on in-person activities. "Over the last few weeks, cases and hospital admissions in the United States had been coming down since early January, and deaths had been declining in the past week, but the latest data suggests that these declines may be stalling, potentially leveling off at still a very high number," she said in a briefing. It's not clear where the numbers will go from here — whether they will resume falling, plateau or even spike again — but Walensky said her agency was watching the data closely.

• 
  Decline in COVID-19 cases 'may be stalling' -CDC head

  Reuters Videos
• 
  "Things are tenuous," U.S. CDC says as downward trend in COVID-19 cases stalls

  Reuters

Teen in hospital for sledding injury dies after dad died visiting her, Ohio mom says

Katie Dougherty Zuercher has a vision of her husband waiting for their daughter in heaven. “She used to wait on the front porch for him to arrive home from work to greet him with the biggest hug before he could even get in the house,” the Ohio mom said in a Facebook post. Last weekend, Dougherty Zuercher's 14-year-old daughter, Eirelyn, was seriously injured in a sledding accident at a park in Hinckley, Ohio, Cleveland.com reported.

Golden Trump statue turning heads at CPAC was made in … Mexico

A golden statue of Donald Trump that has caused a stir at the annual US gathering of conservatives was made in Mexico – a country the former president frequently demonized. Video and pictures of the tribute being wheeled through the halls of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida, went viral on Friday. The conference is seen as a vital gathering of the Republican right, and this year has become a symbol of Trump's continued grip on the party, despite being cast out of office after two impeachments, seemingly endless parades of scandals and a botched response to the coronavirus pandemic that has cost half a million lives in the US.

• 
  With gold-colored Trump statue, conservatives show fealty to former president

  Reuters
• 
  Gold statue of Trump appears at CPAC conference

  The Independent

'We're done with that lifestyle': Jessica Watkins, Ohio woman charged in Capitol riot, renounces Oath Keepers

An Ohio woman ordered held in jail pending trial on charges in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol told a federal judge late Friday that she has disbanded her armed group in Ohio and plans to cancel her membership in the Oath Keepers. Jessica Watkins, 38, of Champaign County, told U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta in the District of Columbus that she was appalled and humiliated by the events of Jan. 6. "As soon as I'm out, whether acquittal or release, I'm canceling my Oath Keepers membership," she said.

• 
  U.S. Capitol riot suspect disavows far-right group, but loses bid for release

  Reuters
• 
  'Oath Keeper' Jessica Watkins denounced the extremist group but will stay in jail before her trial, judge says

  Business Insider

Warren Buffett again encourages investors to bet on America

Billionaire Warren Buffett encouraged investors to maintain their faith in America's economy and the businesses his Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate owns in a reassuring letter to his shareholders Saturday. Buffett hardly even addressed the coronavirus that ravaged many businesses last year, instead focusing on the long-term prospects for the railroad, utility and insurance businesses and stocks that belong to Berkshire Hathaway. Buffett's annual letter is always well read in the business world because of his remarkably successful track record and his knack for explaining complicated subjects in simple terms.

• 
  Warren Buffett explains why Berkshire Hathaway isn't a typical conglomerate

  Yahoo Finance
• 
  Warren Buffett: 'It’s easy to overlook the many miracles occurring in middle America'

  Yahoo Finance

L.A. restaurant closes after high-tech "dine and dash" scheme

Though many restaurants remain closed during the pandemic, for those that remain open, dining and dashing remains a problem — and even forced one Los Angeles restaurant owner to close up shop, CBS Los Angeles reports. According to the Los Angeles Times, a growing number of the city's restaurants have struggled as scammers take advantage of internet ordering to use fraudulent credit cards or request refunds, claiming they never received part or all of an order. The Korean Fusion Cafe "Spoon by H" had the ingredients to become an L.A. success story but is the epitome of a small business, with owner and chef Yoonjin Hwang working 15-hour days to run the restaurant with her mother and brother.

CPAC is promoting Donald Trump’s big lie of election fraud

The nation's largest right-wing summit has devoted at least seven panels to relitigating or amplifying false claims about the 2020 presidential election, not counting the speeches from high-profile Republicans and right-wing figures raising questions about “election integrity” after Donald Trump's loss and a persistent lie that the election was “stolen” from his supporters. Matt Schlapp, chair of the CPAC-hosting American Conservative Union, told CNN ahead of the conference that “we're going to spend a lot of time going through what happened in the states” despite the Trump campaign's spurious legal big and admission from his own Justice Department and nationwide election officials that no such fraud occurred. Speakers have said their concerns are about “protecting elections” and ensuring “election integrity” but they have promoted the same baseless, legally dubious complaints that the former president and his campaign have argued for months leading up to the deadly riot at the Capitol on 6 January, as his supporters stormed into the halls of Congress to stop the certification of the votes.

Andrew Yang intervened when a man wielding a metal pole attacked a photojournalist on the Staten Island Ferry

Andrew Yang, the businessman and former candidate for president who is running for mayor of New York City, intervened to help a news photographer who was attacked Friday while on a ferry in Staten Island. According to a report from the Staten Island Advance, Yang at around 11 a.m. Friday was traveling from Manhattan to Staten Island with his staff and a small group of reporters as the mayoral candidate planned to tour the borough.

GOP congresswoman's husband, whose truck had Three Percenters decal, says he never heard of armed group before

The husband of Republican Rep. Mary Miller is on defense and trying to distance himself from the Three Percenters after reports his truck was spotted with a decal for the armed right-wing group, which has been tied to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Illinois state Rep. Chris Miller's truck was seen with a large Three Percenter decal, which the FBI has labeled a "radical militia group," while on Capitol grounds the day of the attack. But Miller denied promoting the group and told the Daily Beast in an email that he "never was a member" and didn't know about the Three Percenters until he "read about them" when "fake news started this fake story."

• 
  Husband of Hitler-quoting GOP congresswoman parked his militia-stickered truck outside Capitol Jan. 6

  The Week
• 
  A truck with a far-right militia sticker seen near the Capitol riot belongs to GOP Rep. Mary Miller's husband

  Business Insider

A plastic surgeon attended his virtual traffic trial while performing surgery on a patient in California

The California doctor can be seen in an operating room wearing scrubs in footage from the trial. A California doctor shocked attendees at his virtual traffic trial by dialing in from an operating room while in the middle of performing surgery. Dr. Dennis Green was in an operating room when he appeared at his virtual hearing at Carol Miller Justice Center in Sacramento on Thursday afternoon, the Sacramento Bee reports.

Ted Cruz engages in an online spat over Biden's HHS secretary nominee who sued the Trump administration more than 100 times

Ted Cruz opposes the nomination of Xavier Becerra as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Cruz insists that the role should be filled by a scientist and not an attorney. Kevin M. Kruse called out Cruz for dismissing Becerra's tenure as a former congressman and current attorney general.

She taught piano to kids in NC for years. Then her daughter accused her of sex crimes.

Anya's memories of being a little girl in Bend, Oregon, where she lived until moving to Charlotte when she was 7, are like the memories most of us have of being that young — they're not clear. “I remember being in bed with her, all the time, being best friends, and her being naked, and things like that,” Anya says, upon being asked about her earliest recollections of the sexual abuse she says her mother subjected her to. There's one that is strikingly vivid, however: When she was perhaps 5 or 6 years old, Anya recalls, her mother sat her down to show her a pornographic film, which featured an actor tied to a chair playing a character drugged and forced to perform a sex act.

Republicans sued over proxy voting in the pandemic. Now they're using it to speak at CPAC.

House Republicans were furious over the summer when the House made unprecedented changes allowing lawmakers to designate a proxy and vote on their behalf amid traveling concerns due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since Thursday, when CPAC began its annual conference, nearly two dozen House Republicans have written letters to the House clerk to notify they would be absent due to the COVID-19 pandemic and designated a proxy to vote on their behalf. Others, including several CPAC speakers, designated proxies to cast their vote before Thursday.

• 
  Republicans who sued over proxy voting during pandemic now are using same excuse for CPAC

  USA TODAY
• 
  Rep. Gosar Used Pandemic Vote-by-Proxy to Speak at Far-Right Extremist Event

  Rolling Stone

American Airlines flight diverted to Phoenix after passengers fight over racial slur

Flight 776 between Dallas-Fort Worth and Los Angeles had to be diverted to Phoenix. Kelly Pichardo, 30, and Leeza Rodriguez, 29, were asked to stop using a slur by another passenger. Both women were charged with disorderly conduct and Pichardo also faced an additional assault charge.