WorldAFPUK teen who joined IS gives birth in Syrian refugee camp
A teenager who joined the Islamic State group in Syria but now wants to return to Britain on Sunday gave birth in a refugee camp, as European governments grapple with what to do with returning jihadists ahead of a US troop pullout. Shamima Begum, whose fate has stirred controversy ever since she and two friends fled London to join the terror network in 2015 aged just 15, told Sky News she had delivered a boy. "I just gave birth so I'm really tired," the 19-year-old said as she made a renewed appeal to be allowed back to Britain with her newborn baby.
- HealthUSA TODAY
How many push-ups can you do? Study finds men who can do 40 have lower risk of heart disease
Those who could do more than 40 push-ups during a timed test at a preliminary examination were 96 percent less likely to have developed a cardiovascular problem compared to those who could do no more than 10 push-ups, according to the report published Friday in the medical journal JAMA Network Open. Nearly half of U.S. adults deal with some form of cardiovascular disease as of 2016, according to the American Heart Association.The study's authors believe push-ups may be an easy way to test men's risk for heart disease.
WorldAssociated PressIsrael-Central Europe summit canceled after Polish pullout
Poland on Monday pulled out of a summit in Jerusalem, triggering the collapse of the entire meeting, after the acting Israeli foreign minister said that Poles "collaborated with the Nazis" and "sucked anti-Semitism with their mothers' milk. The developments mark a new low in a bitter conflict between Poland and Israel over how to remember and characterize Polish actions toward Jews during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been due to meet with the leaders of four Central European nations known as the Visegrad group.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Jihadi bride Shamima Begum gives birth and says 'people should have sympathy for me'
Shamima Begum, 19, went to Syria in 2015 and was discovered there in a refugee camp last week, heavily pregnant and insisting she wanted to go home. The birth of her child over the weekend prompted calls for the baby to be subject to care proceedings should Begum be able to return from Syria, as it emerged that the Family Division of the High Court had presided over cases involving at least 150 children deemed at risk of radicalisation in the last five years. In an interview with Sky News recorded at the Kurdish-controlled camp to which she fled from the last pocket of Isil-controlled territory, Begum said there was “no evidence” she had done anything wrong and she could not see “any reason”...
- NewsThe Independent
Disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner to register as sex offender after prison release
Disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner has been released from federal prison after being convicted of having illicit online contact with a 15-year-old girl in 2017. He will have to register as a sex-offender and spend three years on supervised release under the terms of his sentence. The Federal Bureau of Prisons website shows the 54-year-old New York Democrat is currently in the custody of its Residential Re-entry Management office in Brooklyn, New York.
BusinessAFP Relax NewsGMC Acadia souped up with new engine, trim, and tech
GMC has unveiled the refreshed Acadia for the 2020 model year complete with a new trim, a fresh look, and the latest GMC infotainment system. GMC announced on Monday that the Acadia has gotten its midcycle refresh, and now, the lineup looks more like a group of Sierra pickups from the front than mid-size SUVs. In addition to its new exterior styling, the Acadia has a new powertrain option and an assortment of new technologies including an enhanced infotainment system and heads-up display.
PoliticsReutersJoe Biden says will decide soon whether to run for presidency
Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, a Democrat, said on Saturday he had not yet decided whether to run for president in 2020 but would do so "in the near term". More than two dozen Democrats could ultimately opt to run for president, creating a crowded field hoping to challenge President Donald Trump. Biden, who served two terms as vice president after decades in the U.S. Senate, would have the advantage of name recognition should he enter the race.
- NewsUSA TODAY
Emails show how fake university set up by ICE lured foreign students
The email exchanges with Ali Milani – who is described in a LinkedIn profile as the president of the University of Farmington – show how the school in Farmington Hills, Michigan, may have lured students to enroll in a fake university set up by The Department of Homeland Security. Jan. 30: Feds set up fake university in Michigan to nab undocumented immigrants A federal indictment unsealed Jan. 30 said that the university was produced by federal agents with an investigative division of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which is part of DHS. Federal agents posed as university officials such as "Ali Milani" to trick the students, say attorneys.
PoliticsFOX News VideosAlan Dershowitz: Congress' failure to authorize funds for the president is not an emergency
After President Trump declares a national emergency to fund the border wall, Harvard professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz reacts to the legal fight over the move.
WorldAFPIn Syria's Baghouz, dying palms and a wilting IS 'caliphate'
The wilted palms and pomegranate trees at the entrance to Baghouz were struggling to survive, much like diehard Islamic State group fighters in the Syrian village. Pinned down in a patch less than half a square kilometre, the jihadists faced intermittent air strikes by the US-led coalition backing the Syrian Democratic Forces. On a press tour Saturday organised by the US-backed forces, the street ahead was punched through by massive craters and sprinkled with charred lorries.
- PoliticsBloomberg
Trump Wanted Russia in Memo Firing Comey, Former FBI Leader Says
President Donald Trump wanted the Russia investigation cited in the memo firing FBI Director James Comey, and believed Russia's president over his own intelligence agencies about North Korea's missile capability, former Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe said. McCabe said in a pre-recorded interview on CBS's “60 Minutes” broadcast on Sunday that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein didn't want to include a reference to the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election in the memo he wrote citing reasons why Comey should be fired, but that Trump insisted. Rosenstein “explained to the president that he did not need Russia in his memo.
WorldAFPPolish PM nixes trip to Israel after Netanyahu Holocaust 'comment': govt
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has cancelled a visit to Israel for a high-level summit, a government spokesperson told AFP on Sunday, after uproar in Poland over reported comments by Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu about the Poles and the Holocaust. Netanyahu -- who was initially quoted in Haaretz newspaper as saying that "The Poles collaborated with the Nazis" -- has been condemned in Poland for appearing to accuse all Polish people of cooperating with Germany during World War II. Warsaw has long been at pains to point out that Poland, which was occupied by Nazi Germany, could not have and did not collaborate in the Holocaust although individual Poles may have done so.
- NewsThe Independent
Man awarded £120m in compensation from Ford after being paralysed in car accident
An Alabama jury has awarded $151.8m (£117.4m) to a young man paralyzed in a 2015 rollover accident involving a Ford Explorer sport utility vehicle, Ford and lawyers in the case said on Sunday. The jury awarded $100m in punitive damages and the rest in compensatory damages after finding that the 1998 Ford Explorer did not meet the company's own safety guidelines, according to a court document seen by Reuters and lawyers for plaintiff Travaris “Tre” Smith. The document, released on Friday, said Ford “acted wantonly” in designing the vehicle.
WorldAssociated PressThe Latest: Cardinal calls McCarrick punishment 'important'
Cardinal Sean O'Malley issued a statement Saturday after the announcement that McCarrick had been found guilty by the Vatican of sex abuse, including while hearing confession. O'Malley says church leaders "must enforce accountability for cardinals and bishops." O'Malley says his archdiocese is committed to taking reports of abuse seriously, saying it has a "moral responsibility" to be always vigilant.
WorldReutersMacau police investigate suspected murder at Sands casino resort: media
Police in the world's biggest gambling hub of Macau are investigating what they suspect is a rare murder in a five-star casino resort after a Chinese man was found stabbed in his bed, broadcaster TDM reported on Monday. Murder cases have been rare in the Chinese territory since Portugal ceded control of what had been a colonial backwater on the heel of China's southern coast 20 years ago. The suspected murder took place in Sands China's Conrad Macau hotel, TDM reported, citing police.
- WorldNational Review
Seven MPs Resign from Labour Party
Chuka Umunna, Luciana Berger, Gavin Shuker, Angela Smith, Chris Leslie, Mike Gapes, and Ann Coffey — resigned from the Labour party Monday over concerns about Jeremy Corbyn's leadership, forming their own contingent, the Independent Group. Berger, Labour's most high-profile Jewish member, called the party “institutionally anti-Semitic” and accused it of “a culture of bullying, bigotry and, intimidation,” saying she is now “embarrassed and ashamed” to be a member. Leslie said the party has been “hijacked by the machine politics of the hard left.
- BusinessUSA TODAY
Will Procter & Gamble stock split again soon?
Procter & Gamble stock is near all-time highs as its turnaround efforts appear to be taking hold. Shares peaked just 30 cents below $100 last week, which begs a welcome question that investors haven't been able to ask in 15 years: When will P&G stock split next? Usually, when P&G stock crosses the century mark, the consumer products giant doubles the number of shares outstanding with two-for-one splits.
ScienceMashableNASA posts image of ghostly blue objects, deep in the cosmos
NASA's long-lived Hubble Space Telescope captured vivid bright clumps moving through the cosmos at some 1,000 light years from Earth. Seen as the vivid blue, ephemeral clumps in the top center of the new image below, these are telltale signs of an energy-rich gas, or plasma, colliding with a huge collection of dust and gas in deep space. NASA doesn't identify the new star itself, called SVS 13, perhaps because it's obscured by thick clouds of cosmic matter.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Shamima Begum is 'traumatised', says her lawyer as he likens Isil bride to a First World War soldier
Show me some sympathy', says Isil bride after giving birth The British schoolgirl who ran away to join Isil has appealed for public sympathy following the birth of her son, as a row intensifies over whether she should be allowed to return to the UK. Shamima Begum, 19, went to Syria in 2015 and was discovered there in a refugee camp last week, heavily pregnant and insisting she wanted to go home. The birth of her child over the weekend prompted calls for the baby to be subject to care proceedings should Begum be able to return from Syria, as it emerged that the Family Division of the High Court had presided over cases involving at least 150 children deemed at risk of radicalisation in the las...
- WorldBloomberg
Japan's Abe Declines to Say If He Backed Trump for Nobel Prize
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declined to say whether he nominated Donald Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize, while praising the U.S. President for “decisive” efforts to resolve the problems of a nuclear-armed North Korea. Abe, who has worked hard to build a personal rapport with Trump, walked a fine line during a parliamentary committee meeting Monday when asked about Trump's claim from Friday that the Japanese leader had put his name forward for the prize. I am not saying it's not true,” he told an opposition lawmaker, adding that the Nobel committee doesn't reveal nominations and he would refrain from commenting.
WorldAFPThousands of Venezuela volunteers begin preparing US aid entry
Thousands of volunteers in Venezuela will begin mobilizing on Sunday to bring American aid into their crisis-hit country despite a blockade by President Nicolas Maduro who claims the assistance could be cover for a US invasion. Once-wealthy Venezuela is gripped by a power struggle between socialist leader Maduro and Juan Guaido, the head of the National Assembly who proclaimed himself interim president last month and now has the backing of more than 50 countries. But even as the political battle pitting Guaido against Maduro continued to deepen, Caracas confirmed talks had taken place with an envoy for US President Donald Trump's administration.
BusinessAFPHong Kong economy stalls amid trade dispute: finance chief
Hong Kong's economy stalled last year as the ongoing China-US trade dispute and retail woes dragged down local business, the city's financial chief said Sunday. "The impact of China-US trade frictions on Hong Kong's exports has clearly emerged at the end of last year," said finance secretary Paul Chan. Economic growth in the semi-autonomous Chinese city for the last quarter of 2018 was less than 1.5 percent -- the weakest since the first quarter of 2016 and a "significant slowdown" from the average growth rate of 3.7 percent in the first three quarters, Chan wrote on his official blog.
WorldAssociated PressIsraeli leader pledges funds for museum for Jewish WWII vets
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged Sunday that his government would allocate the necessary funds to complete a long-promised museum honoring Jewish World War II veterans. The project has been bogged down in bureaucratic stalemate for more than a decade as donor money has dried up and the government has wavered on its degree of support. The museum appeared doomed when the government did not renew its matching funds commitment four years ago.
NewsReutersIllinois factory gunman obtained firearm permit despite felony conviction
The gunman who killed five co-workers and wounded five policemen at an Illinois factory was a violent felon who nevertheless obtained a state permit to buy a firearm despite being legally barred from owning one, authorities said on Saturday. Gary Martin, 45, who carried his pistol to work on Friday apparently suspecting he faced dismissal from his job, opened fire after being told of his termination in a meeting at the Henry Pratt Company plant in Aurora, Illinois, about 40 miles (64 km) west of Chicago, police said. The dead included the plant manager, a human resources supervisor, a human resources intern and two other workers.
- BusinessThe Independent
Amazon pays zero federal taxes for second year in succession despite doubling profits, says new report
Amazon has paid zero federal taxes for the second year in succession, despite a doubling of its profits, according to a new report. Although the tech giant founded by Jeff Bezos saw its profits grow from $5.6bn (£4.3bn) in 2017 to $11.2bn (£8.7bn) in 2018, it will actually receive a tax rebate of $129m (£100m). “The company's newest corporate filing reveals that, far from paying the statutory 21 per cent income tax rate on its US income in 2018, Amazon reported a federal income tax rebate of $129m,” said the report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), which describes itself as a “non-partisan, non-profit think tank”, based in Washington DC.
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