| At impeachment trial, Democrats address Biden corruption allegations as Graham promises more developments Posted: 23 Jan 2020 06:31 PM PST  Sen. Lindsey Graham made it clear that he plans to make Hunter Biden a much bigger part of the impeachment debate in the coming days.
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| Face masks aren't a very effective way to prevent the spread of coronavirus, experts say, despite spiking sales Posted: 24 Jan 2020 04:01 PM PST  Wearing a face mask won't protect you from the Wuhan coronavirus as much as washing your hands and avoiding contact with anyone who may be infected.
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| Israeli woman jailed in Russia yet to ask for pardon Posted: 24 Jan 2020 02:48 AM PST  An Israeli woman jailed in Russia on drug charges cannot be pardoned by President Vladimir Putin until she herself petitions for it, a Kremlin spokesman said Friday. Naama Issachar, 26, was arrested in April at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, where she was transferring flights on her way from India to Israel.
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| Canada ‘Will Not Stop’ Until It Has Answers on Iran Crash Posted: 24 Jan 2020 07:34 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said her government will be relentless in seeking answers from Iran on the jet crash that killed 57 Canadians this month near Tehran.Justin Trudeau's second in command, speaking in an interview with Bloomberg TV in Davos, Switzerland, said Canada wants a "real, independent" analysis of the airplane's black box, along with transparency on what exactly happened. She also said Canada is receiving support from allies in pressing on the issue, particularly from the Netherlands and Ukraine."I am confident we will get those answers because Canada is relentlessly focused on getting them and we will not stop until we get them," Freeland said.Iran is under intense international pressure to provide full accountability over the circumstances that caused the crash of the Ukrainian International Airlines plane on Jan. 8. The three-year-old Boeing Co. 737-800 was shot down about two minutes after takeoff from Tehran. While nearly half the victims were Iranians, the crash was also one of the worst air tragedies ever involving Canadians. Many of the victims were doctors, engineers and Ph.D. students who represented a microcosm of the northern nation's immigration policies.Nafta RatificationSeparately in the interview, Freeland also commented on plans to get the new North American free trade agreement ratified in Canada's parliament, calling it the top priority for the government.The deal, a result of a year of rough negotiations with Donald Trump's administration, has been passed in the U.S. Senate and is awaiting the president's signature. It has also been approved in Mexico.Ratification won't be a straightforward process in Canada, however. Trudeau's team will need to get the support of at least one opposition party to pass legislation, and expedite debate, after losing its parliamentary majority in October's divisive election.With all of Canada's provincial premiers calling for a speedy ratification, Freeland said she's confident the governing Liberals will be able to win support for the deal.To contact the reporter on this story: Theophilos Argitis in Ottawa at targitis@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Theophilos Argitis at targitis@bloomberg.net, Stephen WicaryFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Tenn. governor announces plans for strictest anti-abortion laws in U.S. Posted: 24 Jan 2020 10:04 AM PST  Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has announced his intention to enact some of the strictest abortion laws in the U.S.
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| Photos from the Lunar New Year show how coronavirus turned China's biggest party into a washout Posted: 24 Jan 2020 09:55 PM PST  Here are photos comparing last year's celebration — complete with Chinese lions, historical dances, and family time — to this year.
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| Female prisoner dies after guards ‘did not stop her being beaten with soap bars’ Posted: 25 Jan 2020 07:52 AM PST  A female prisoner died after guards did not intervene while she was being beaten with a sock filled with bars of soap, it is claimed in a lawsuit set to be heard in the US.Nicole Rathmann was attacked by another inmate as she lay on her bunk at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility.
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| 'No, No America': Iraq protesters demand expulsion of U.S. troops Posted: 24 Jan 2020 12:56 AM PST  Tens of thousands of Iraqis rallied in central Baghdad on Friday calling for the expulsion of U.S. troops, but the protest mostly dissipated after a few hours despite a cleric's call for a "million strong" turnout. Populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr convened the march after the U.S. killing of an Iranian general and an Iraqi paramilitary chief in Baghdad this month. Three French nationals and one Iraqi, working for charity SOS Chretiens d'Orient, also went missing in Baghdad, the NGO said.
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| Schiff lobbies Chief Justice Roberts to rule on questions of executive privilege Posted: 24 Jan 2020 02:19 PM PST  Rep. Adam Schiff, the lead House prosecutor, called on Chief Justice John Roberts to expedite rulings on any disputes between Congress and President Trump over witness testimony and documents, if the Senate votes to allow them.
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| ‘Fox & Friends’ Desperately Tries to End Unhinged Giuliani Interview, Repeatedly Fails Posted: 24 Jan 2020 08:20 AM PST  President Donald Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani showed up on the president's favorite morning program on Friday—and apparently didn't want to leave.A day after Giuliani claimed on Twitter that he was about to go public with evidence that will reveal the "Biden Family Enterprise made millions by selling public office" when Joe Biden was vice president, the former New York City mayor sat down on Fox & Friends' curvy couch for what can generously be described as an unhinged, rambling, off-the-rails performance.Giuliani, whose involvement in the Ukraine scandal is at the heart of the president's impeachment, continually left the hosts of the Fox News slack-jawed as he prattled on and bulldozed right through their efforts to keep him from incriminating and implicating himself.For example, as he claimed he would provide "compelling" evidence later in the day on a podcast to support his wild assertions about the Bidens that seemingly ensnare the entire Obama administration AND Hillary Clinton, co-host Brian Kilmeade wanted to make sure "the State Department and the White House know everything you were doing."Elsewhere in the interview, which was aired in front of a live studio audience, the one-time America's Mayor dismissed text messages and call logs with shady businessman Lev Parnas and other figures associated with Ukraine, oddly boasting, "How about all those phone records that show that I am a very hard-working lawyer?"Finally, after Giuliani once again repeated his Biden-related conspiracies, co-host Steve Doocy stepped in to wrap up the segment."I know you could go clear through noon when your podcast starts. Give it up for Rudy Giuliani," Doocy exclaimed to cheers from the audience. "We're going to be watching."The Trump lawyer, however, wasn't budging, instead saying that he'd only shown the "tip of the iceberg" while rambling on some more."Rudy, we're done," Doocy begged, prompting Kilmeade to add, "We have got to go. The president wants you to continue this investigation?""Would you like me to give up?" Giuliani replied, before adding, "Would you like me to say OK, Biden can keep his 8 million that he got in bribes. He can keep all the bribes that they got."Again, Doocy tried to give the signal that the interview was over, telling Giuliani that "we're waiting for noon" for the podcast. Giuliani, meanwhile, ignored Doocy while asking Kilmeade if he should "give it up" while grabbing his head and awkwardly leaning off the couch.The ex-mayor would continue to steamroll over Doocy's efforts to go to commercial break so he could get yet another last word in, finally giving it up after Doocy's fifth attempt to end the interview.Stephen Colbert Grills CNN's Chris Cuomo on His 'Friend' Kellyanne ConwayRead more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Turkish leader slams 'propaganda' as quake deaths rise to 29 Posted: 24 Jan 2020 11:46 PM PST  The death toll from a strong earthquake that rocked eastern Turkey climbed to 29 on Saturday night as rescue crews searched for people who remained trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings, officials said. Speaking at a televised news conference, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said earlier in the day that 18 people were killed in Elazig province, where Friday night's quake was centered, and four in neighboring Malatya. The national disaster agency later updated the total with seven more casualties.
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| China is Expanding into the Indian Ocean—Here Are Five Things the Indian Navy Can Do About It Posted: 25 Jan 2020 12:00 AM PST  Two emerging superpowers square off. Who wins?
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| Chinese University of Minnesota Student Jailed for Anti-Xi Tweets Has Been Released to Wuhan Posted: 24 Jan 2020 09:35 AM PST  A Chinese student of the University of Minnesota sentenced to six months in prison for posting tweets critical of president Xi Jinping has been released to his hometown of Wuhan, which is coincidentally under quarantine due to the recent coronavirus outbreak, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported on Friday.The Tribune received a message from student Luo Daiqing's university email address saying he had been released.University of Minnesota spokesman Jake Ricker told the paper that while Luo had attended for the 2018-2019 academic year, the student was not currently enrolled at the University. Ricker said that while the University had learned of Luo's arrest from a Wednesday report on Axios, the administration would not take immediate public action regarding the situation."I am honestly not sure what a public university can do regarding another country's legal system," Ricker said. The University of Minnesota's campuses host around 3,100 students from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.Politicians from across the political spectrum condemned China's arrest of the student, including Senators Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) and Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.), along with Representative Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) in whose district Luo was studying."This is what ruthless totalitarianism looks like," Omar said in a statement. "Luo Daiqing made these posts while he was in the U.S. — attending college in my district. Here in the United States, we believe in free speech.""The Chinese Communist Party ought to release Luo Daiqing immediately, and the University of Minnesota ought to give him a full-ride scholarship," Sasse said in his statement. "Don't forget that the Chinese Communist Party has banned Twitter, so the only people who even saw these tweets were the goons charged with monitoring Chinese citizens while they're enjoying freedom here in the United States. This is what ruthless and paranoid totalitarianism looks like.
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| Two pedestrians killed by snowplow in Kansas Posted: 24 Jan 2020 03:39 PM PST  The two victims were struck by a snowplow north of the Kansas State University campus in Manhattan, authorities said.
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| Wax On, Wane Off: A Guide to All the Lunar Phases Posted: 24 Jan 2020 07:14 AM PST |
| Warren Gets Backing From Des Moines Register: Campaign Update Posted: 25 Jan 2020 04:04 PM PST ![Warren Gets Backing From Des Moines Register: Campaign Update]( "Warren Gets Backing From Des Moines Register: Campaign Update") (Bloomberg) -- The Des Moines Register endorsed Elizabeth Warren for the Democratic presidential nomination, a little more than a week before the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 3.The influential newspaper in Iowa's largest city revealed its pick for the first-in-the-nation nominating contest on its website Saturday evening.. Warren is polling at 16.3% in Iowa, statistically tied for third place with Pete Buttigieg and behind Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average.While coveted by candidates, the Des Moines Register's endorsement has been a poor predictor of caucus-night performance. Since the Register started making recommendations in 1988, only three of its endorsed candidates went on to win the state's caucuses: Republicans Bob Dole in 1988 and 1996 and George W. Bush in 2000, and Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016.Sanders Asked to Renounce Rogan Endorsement (11:59 a.m.)The Human Rights Campaign is calling on Bernie Sanders to renounce an endorsement from radio host Joe Rogan, who has made derogatory comments about African Americans and LGBTQ people.Rogan, who hosts "The Joe Rogan Experience," one of the most downloaded podcasts, said he would "probably vote for Bernie," adding "I believe in him. I like him a lot."In response, HRC President Alphonso David said in a statement that while Sanders' campaign has been "unabashedly supportive of the rights of LGBTQ people," Rogan "has attacked transgender people, gay men, women, people of color and countless marginalized groups at every opportunity."The statement from the largest LBGTQ advocacy group and lobbying organization in the U.S. pointed to instances in which Rogan had compared African Americans to "Planet of the Apes," and repeatedly misgendered transgender people, including referring to MMA fighter Fallon Fox as "that tranny."Sanders has appeared on Rogan's show, as have fellow Democratic candidates Andrew Yang and Tulsi Gabbard. -- Emma KineryBernie Sanders Takes Iowa Lead in NYT Poll (10:16 a.m.)Senator Bernie Sanders has jumped to the lead in Iowa over Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden, while support for Elizabeth Warren has slipped, according to a New York Times/Siena poll released on Saturday.The first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses will be held Feb. 3.Sanders had the support of 25% of likely caucus-goers, up 6 points since the previous version of the survey in late October.He's pulled ahead of Buttigieg, the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor at 18% and former Vice President Biden at 17%. Warren was at 15% and Amy Klobuchar at 8%, days after the two U.S. senators received a joint endorsement from the newspaper.The survey of 1,689 registered voters in Iowa, including 584 Democratic caucus-goers, was conducted Jan. 20-23 and had a margin of error of 4.8 percentage points for the Democratic caucus electorate and 2.8 percentage points for registered voters. -- Ros KrasnyCOMING UP:Some of the Democratic candidates will debate again in New Hampshire on Feb. 7.The first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses will be held Feb. 3. The New Hampshire primary is Feb. 11. Nevada holds its caucuses on Feb. 22 and South Carolina has a primary on Feb. 29.CNN will host town halls featuring eight presidential candidates in New Hampshire on Feb. 5 and 6.(Disclaimer: Michael Bloomberg is also seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. He is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)\--With assistance from Ros Krasny and Emma Kinery.To contact the reporter on this story: Gregory Korte in Washington at gkorte@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Ros Krasny, Max BerleyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| This Is What Skiing in Africa Looks Like Posted: 24 Jan 2020 06:38 AM PST |
| China expands lockdown against virus, fast-tracks hospital Posted: 23 Jan 2020 06:35 PM PST  China expanded its lockdown against the deadly new virus to an unprecedented 36 million people and rushed to build a prefabricated, 1,000-bed hospital for victims Friday as the outbreak cast a pall over Lunar New Year, the country's biggest, most festive holiday. The number of confirmed cases around the world climbed sharply to more than 850, with at least 26 deaths, all of them in China. Meanwhile, France announced that three people had fallen ill with the virus — the disease's first appearance in Europe.
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| Iran Cannot Defeat American Stealth Planes, but They Could Cause Real Damage Posted: 24 Jan 2020 05:00 PM PST  Not so lopsided?
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| Chinese people are turning on the government as the coronavirus outbreak spirals into the Lunar New Year Posted: 24 Jan 2020 10:04 PM PST  An unprecedented quarantine during the biggest festival of the year is proving a breaking point, as a fearful public faces the spreading virus.
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| Sluggish storm to keep dumping snow over Midwest Posted: 24 Jan 2020 09:26 AM PST  A slow-moving storm already responsible for dumping more than half a foot of snow on parts of Missouri and Iowa will continue to produce fresh powder over a portion of the Midwest as it sluggishly drifts eastward through Saturday.As snow returns to Chicago and Milwaukee and reaches Detroit, air and ground travel disruptions are likely to mount. This satellite loop from Friday, Jan. 24, 2020, shows the organized storm swirling over the middle of the nation. (NOAA / GOES-East) The storm became better organized late this past week as it managed to attach to the upper part of the atmosphere. Rather than remaining weak and taking a swift eastward track, spreading snow over huge swath from the Plains to the Northeast, the storm matured and stalled over the Mississippi Valley for a time.The result was a swath of light to moderate snowfall from part of northern Arkansas to northern Michigan. The swirl of snow near and north and west of the center of the storm has held together and will drift eastward through Saturday. "Up to a few additional inches of snow is forecast to fall on portions of northern and western Illinois, central and southeastern Wisconsin and northern Michigan," AccuWeather Meteorologist Courtney Travis said.This is on top of what has already fallen, bringing the storm total to 6-10 inches with an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 12 inches in portions of the area.CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP"An advancing cold pocket of air with moisture is forecast to produce snowfall in the 1- to 3-inch range from central Illinois to northern and central Indiana and the northwestern and central parts of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan on Saturday," Travis added.Americans who live in this zone, including in Indianapolis and South Bend, Indiana; Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Flint, Michigan; and Champaign, Illinois; may yet have enough snow to sweep off of their cars and shovel.Up to a few more inches of snow is likely to fall on Chicago.Meteorologists urge motorists to use caution on Saturday morning across the region, as untreated roadways are likely to be slippery.Even though blustery conditions will develop as the storm moves along this weekend, the air is of Pacific origin and not from the Arctic. Aside from snow showers near the old center of the storm, lake-effect snowfall is likely to be minimal in the storm's wake.Saturday night, slightly colder air with snow showers will continue to advance eastward along with the old storm center. Motorists around Detroit and Toledo, Cleveland, Columbus and Youngstown, Ohio, could encounter slippery conditions with a coating of snow possible. By Sunday, the main focus of snow showers will retreat to the central Appalachians and around the eastern Great Lakes.Temperatures are likely to be above average during the last few days of January and the first few days of February for the North Central states. Highs will generally average within a few degrees of freezing in the northern tier to the lower 40s over portions of the central Plains and the Ohio Valley.Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
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| Mexican children take up arms in fight against drug gangs Posted: 25 Jan 2020 12:09 AM PST  Ayahualtempa (México) (AFP) - With baseball caps and scarves covering their faces, only their serious eyes are visible as a dozen children stand to attention, rifles by their side. In the heart of the violence-plagued Mexican state of Guerrero, learning to use weapons starts at an early age. "Position three!" yells instructor Bernardino Sanchez, a member of the militia responsible for the security of 16 villages in the Guerrero area, which goes by the name of Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities (CRAC-PF).
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| Owners of solar company that caused loss for Buffett plead guilty over Ponzi scheme Posted: 24 Jan 2020 03:30 PM PST  Jeff Carpoff, 49, pleaded guilty to money laundering and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, while Paulette Carpoff, 46, pleaded guilty to money laundering and conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States.
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| Trump's Impeachment Defense Takes Its Cue From the President Posted: 25 Jan 2020 11:22 AM PST  Over the course of the two-hour presentation that kicked off a new phase in the trial, Trump's lawyers placed the government's summary of the phone call—which the President has long maintained was "perfect"—at the heart of their client's defense
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| Millions of locusts are swarming in Kenya. These striking photos show just how bad the outbreak is Posted: 25 Jan 2020 01:12 PM PST  Hundreds of millions of locusts are swarming into Kenya from neighboring Somalia and Ethiopia with unprecented size and destructive potential.
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| Jeff Bezos’s girlfriend gave Amazon boss’s ‘flirtatious texts’ to brother who leaked to National Enquirer, report claims Posted: 25 Jan 2020 10:56 AM PST  Text messages allegedly sent by Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos may have been sold to tabloid newspaper the National Enquirer by his girlfriend's brother, according to sources quoted by The Wall Street Journal.According to the paper, federal prosecutors are examining messages, including at least one photograph, first sent by the world's richest man to news reporter Lauren Sanchez, with whom he was having an extramarital affair.
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| Use of 'rescues' by Mexican migration officials criticized Posted: 24 Jan 2020 03:41 PM PST  For many people who watched the moments when hundreds of Mexican national guardsmen with helmets and riot shields confronted hundreds of migrants who had been resting in the shade after walking all morning, "rescues" didn't seem to be the right word. Defenders of migrants' rights say rescues typically don't involve spraying those being rescued with pepper spray.
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| Photos show how China is grappling with the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak as 12 cities are quarantined and hospitals run out of space Posted: 24 Jan 2020 03:00 PM PST  Chinese authorities quarantined people in 12 cities, halting transportation and cutting off nearly 33 million people to try and quell the outbreak.
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| Will China Invade Taiwan Before the Communist Party Approaches its 100th Anniversary? Posted: 25 Jan 2020 12:30 AM PST  Could it happen?
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| Japan Sees Nothing Wrong With Justice System Ghosn Called Rigged Posted: 23 Jan 2020 10:00 PM PST ![Japan Sees Nothing Wrong With Justice System Ghosn Called Rigged]( "Japan Sees Nothing Wrong With Justice System Ghosn Called Rigged") (Bloomberg) -- Long before fallen auto titan Carlos Ghosn fled trial in Japan and launched an attack on the country's justice system from afar, another foreign businessman found himself at the mercy of Tokyo's powerful public prosecutors.Steven Gan, a U.S. citizen who had run a debt collection business in Japan for more than a decade, faced allegations in 2004 that he was not legally qualified to do so. When a prosecutor threatened him with more than a year of pre-trial detention, the American said he quickly agreed to sign a series of confessions and apologies."It's not an issue of whether you are innocent or guilty, it's that they will force you to confess in order to maintain that 99% conviction rate," Gan said in a phone interview from his home in the U.S., where he returned after receiving a suspended sentence. The Tokyo District Prosecutors' office declined to comment on individual cases.Allegations of a "rigged" system by the former chairman and chief executive of Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA have prompted a flurry of government statements and press conferences aimed at defending Japanese justice. Earlier this week, the Justice Ministry sent a notice to media saying it had set up new websites in Japanese and English to explain the country's judicial system.A history of convictions being overturned, often after false confessions, shows the system doesn't always work and that prosecutors have used prolonged detentions to break the will of suspects. Yet few in Japan question a legal framework Justice Minister Masako Mori credited with keeping crime rates among the lowest in the world. Rather than calling for reforms, many lawmakers are urging a clampdown to prevent any further escapes.Basic Rights"Japan's criminal justice system sets out appropriate procedures to clarify the truth of cases and is administered appropriately, while guaranteeing basic individual human rights," Mori said in a Jan. 5 statement. "There is no room to justify the flight by a defendant who has been released on bail."In media appearances since he skipped bail and flew to Lebanon, Ghosn has blasted everything from extended pre-trial detention to interrogations without a lawyer present, prosecutors' failure to hand over evidence and the long wait before the start of his trial. Many of these practices are banned in the U.S. and other countries, and have been criticized by the UN Committee against Torture."I was sure I would never get a fair trial and feared I would die in Japan," Ghosn wrote in an opinion piece published in the Financial Times this week.Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been largely silent in the affair, making his first public comments on Ghosn's escape Thursday and saying it was "regrettable" that he left Japan illegally.Miscarriage of Justice?Arrested in November 2018 and charged with financial crimes, Ghosn spent a total of almost 130 days in jail. The former auto executive, who has denied all allegations, was freed on bail last year under strict conditions, such as not being able to communicate with his wife and only allowed the use of a computer at his lawyer's office."There are as many wrongful convictions as grains of sand on the beach," said Akira Kitani, a retired judge who handed down an unusual 30 not-guilty verdicts during the course of his career on the bench.The National Registry of Exonerations in the U.S. details 2,542 convictions overturned since 1989, or about 85 a year. Twenty-six people were completely exonerated in Japan in the same period, according to the Supreme Court.Actual rates of wrongful conviction are harder to pin down. There is arguably less effort to uncover such cases in Japan than in the West — the country's version of the U.S. Innocence Project, which works to exonerate the innocent, operates on a shoestring budget."I can't say whether there are many or not, but the issue is that the conditions that can lead to wrongful convictions haven't been completely resolved," said Shiori Yamao, a former prosecutor turned opposition lawmaker. "The biggest problem is that you don't get released unless you admit wrongdoing."Many experts say Japanese prosecutors are too powerful. In his book, "The Japanese Way of Justice," David T. Johnson, a professor at Hawaii University, said it is "difficult to find a state agency — inside Japan or out — that wields as much power," as the country's prosecutors.It's less obvious whether that authority leads to more unfair verdicts than in other developed nations. While some say Japan's conviction rate of more than 99% is evidence of a problem, others argue this is largely the result of prosecutors choosing to indict only for cases they are sure to win."It's not as if prosecutors have some god-like ability always to be right," former judge Akitani said. "You have to make decisions based on the idea that they could be wrong." Many Japanese judges never find anyone not guilty, he said. Japan's Supreme Court said it had no statistics on decisions by individual judges.Rule of LawJapan is undoubtedly freer from crime than most countries — the U.S. city of Baltimore, with a population of about 600,000 people, has more reported homicides in a year than the whole of the world's third-largest economy, which has a population of some 126 million. Just 40 people are incarcerated per 100,000 people in Japan, compared with 655 in the U.S.Read more: Japan Fires Back at Ghosn, Stoking War of Words Over TrialRecent innovations, including video and audio recording of interrogations have strengthened the position of defendants, but many experts say more is needed to prevent the false confessions on which convictions are sometimes based.Early bail hearings should be required to rein in lengthy detentions, and the accused should be allowed to have a lawyer present during questioning, according to Edo Naito, a retired international business attorney who has lived and worked in Japan for more than 40 years."If Japan addresses the above flaws, the justice system would be seen as superior to many of its peers," Naito said, while warning that "like all bureaucracies, the Ministry of Justice tends to resist changes."Naito added that his analysis of recent high-profile cases involving Japanese and foreign corporate executives did not indicate any discrimination against non-Japanese. Harsher treatment instead occurred where crimes involved major frauds and were thought to have enriched the defendant, he said.Masahiko Shibayama, a lawyer turned lawmaker for Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, prioritizes placing stricter checks on people leaving the country, and wants penalties to be introduced against those who skip bail."Ghosn's case could damage Japan's reputation by giving the impression that if you have money you can escape the law," Shibayama said. "This would be a clear blow to our national interests."Debt collector Gan, who wrote a book about his experiences, said his case left him "a broken man," forced to rebuild his life in the U.S. "I don't blame Carlos Ghosn for escaping," he said. "Not in the slightest. Who wants to go through a system that's completely stacked against you?"(Adds Prime Minister Abe in paragraph nine.)\--With assistance from Yuko Takeo and Takashi Hirokawa.To contact the reporter on this story: Isabel Reynolds in Tokyo at ireynolds1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Reed Stevenson, Jon HerskovitzFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Limited internet to be restored in Kashmir, no access to social media Posted: 25 Jan 2020 12:43 AM PST  Limited mobile data services and internet will be temporarily restored in Jammu and Kashmir from Saturday, ending nearly a six month communications lockdown after Prime Minister Narendra Modi withdrew the Muslim majority region's autonomy. Access will be limited to about 300 "whitelisted" websites and internet speed would remain low, the local Jammu and Kashmir government said in a notice late on Friday. The move to restore the services comes days after India's top court ordered the curbs to be reversed, saying that freedom of internet access is a fundamental right and that its indefinite suspension is illegal.
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| Lindsey Graham Says He Would Oppose Effort to Compel Hunter Biden Testimony Posted: 24 Jan 2020 12:58 PM PST  Senator Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) on Friday said if Republican colleagues attempt to compel Hunter Biden to testify in the impeachment trial of President Trump, he will vote against the subpoena."I don't want to call Hunter Biden. I don't want to call Joe Biden. I want someone to look at this when this is done," Graham told reporters on Capitol Hill."I don't think it's wrong for us to look at the Biden connection in the Ukraine, the $3 million given to the vice president's son by the most corrupt company in the Ukraine," Graham said. However, he added, "To my Republican friends, you may be upset about what happened in the Ukraine with the Bidens but this is not the venue to litigate that."Republicans such as Senator Rand Paul (R., Ky.) have repeatedly threatened to subpoena Hunter Biden if Democrats follow through on their intention to summon former White House national security adviser John Bolton. Paul and colleague Ted Cruz (R., Texas) have suggested the idea of "witness reciprocity," allowing Democrats to call a witness to testify in exchange for a Republican witness.Graham acknowledged he will need several Republican senators to vote with him to prevent a subpoena of Hunter Biden and that he doesn't yet know of other senators who would join him.The fate of possible votes regarding Bolton and other possible Democratic witnesses was still unclear. A group of moderate GOP senators, including Susan Collins of Maine and Mitt Romney of Utah, have signaled support in the past for allowing witnesses at the trial.
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| A 'messy' winter storm bringing snow and flooding may cause travel delays across Northeast Posted: 25 Jan 2020 12:08 PM PST  Expect travel delays, heavy rain and possible flooding in the Northeast over the weekend as a slow-moving storm moves east.
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| Taliban say frustrated by additional demands of US Posted: 24 Jan 2020 05:08 AM PST  The Taliban, in a rambling commentary published on their website, expressed frustration with what they describe as additional U.S. demands in peace talks — even after they had offered a "reduction of violence." They have not publicly outlined what that would entail and did not explain the new Washington demands. The insurgents' gesture of reduced violence, though never quantified, was meant to open a window for the signing of a peace agreement that could see the withdrawal of U.S. troops and the end to the 18-year war in Afghanistan, America's longest conflict. "The United States and the Afghan Taliban must commit to abide by the laws of war and end all attacks on Afghan civilians," he added.
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| Trump administration accused by the UK of a 'denial of justice' after refusing to extradite a diplomat's wife accused of killing a British teenager Posted: 24 Jan 2020 02:14 AM PST  The UK government said the decision to reject the extradition request was a "denial of justice."
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| The West Blames the Wuhan Coronavirus on China’s Love of Eating Wild Animals. The Truth Is More Complex Posted: 24 Jan 2020 02:14 AM PST  The Wuhan coronavirus is believed to have originated from a market that sold wild animals.
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| The Indian Air Force Hopes to Dodge Sanctions as Its Springs for Russian Missiles and MiG and Sukhoi Jet Fighters Posted: 25 Jan 2020 02:00 AM PST  Some history you may not have know about until now.
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| Robert Koehler: Serial ‘pillowcase rapist’ suspect was building a ‘dungeon’ before arrest Posted: 24 Jan 2020 08:19 AM PST  Prosecutors in Florida believe a 60-year-old man building a "dungeon" under his home is the so-called pillowcase rapist, who authorities say broke into women's houses and concealed his face with pillows and towels in as many as 40 assaults in the state since the 1980s.Robert Koehler was arrested on 18 January after authorities say they tied his DNA to samples collected from a 1983 case. The sample also matched DNA collected from several other cases between 1981 and 1986, according to the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office.
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| Coronavirus contagion rate makes it hard to control - studies Posted: 25 Jan 2020 10:44 AM PST ![Coronavirus contagion rate makes it hard to control - studies]( "Coronavirus contagion rate makes it hard to control - studies") Each person infected with coronavirus is passing the disease on to between two and three other people on average at current transmission rates, according to two separate scientific analyses of the epidemic. "It is unclear at the current time whether this outbreak can be contained within China," said Neil Ferguson, an infectious disease specialist at Imperial College London who co-led one of the studies.
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| Lindsey Graham is offering unsolicited legal advice to Trump's team Posted: 23 Jan 2020 08:24 PM PST  Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a juror in President Trump's impeachment trial, is offering free legal advice to his counsel, if they want to accept it.So far, the House impeachment managers have "done a good job" of "painting ... a tapestry, taking a series of events and telling a story," Graham told reporters on Thursday. When Trump's legal team starts delivering his defense on Saturday, they will "start pulling on the threads."Graham also thinks Trump's attorneys will need to shift the focus to former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. Hunter Biden was on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company, and is in the center of a debunked conspiracy theory being peddled by Trump allies, including Rudy Giuliani. Graham said Trump's team needs to "really go hard at the idea that when they tell you there's not a scintilla of evidence, groundless, baseless, phony accusations regarding the Bidens, I would challenge that very hard."More stories from theweek.com Trump debuts official Space Force logo — and it's literally a ripoff of Star Trek Mike Pompeo reportedly angrily challenged a reporter to find Ukraine on a map. She did. Hong Kong, U.S. take steps to curb coronavirus spread
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| It’s Hard to Pull Off 3 Billion Trips During a Pandemic Posted: 24 Jan 2020 02:14 AM PST  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- There's never a good time for the outbreak of a deadly virus, but this one is particularly bad. China's Lunar New Year is often dubbed the world's largest migration, a stretch of weeks when hundreds of millions of people visit their families. Before the pandemic started spreading, officials were expecting 3 billion airplane and train trips during the holiday rush between Jan. 10 and Feb. 18. Millions more have gone abroad.Little wonder, then, that the travel industry is suffering. With the death toll up to 25 and more than 800 infected, tourists are staying home. Some have no choice: The government has put seven cities on lockdown and airports are stepping up screening measures. On Friday, China ordered all travel agencies to suspend sales of domestic and international tours.Shares of China Southern Airlines Co. – the carrier most exposed to the site of the outbreak – have slid 14% since the second death from the virus was confirmed, while Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., which said it would waive fees for tickets to and from the mainland, has slumped 7.6%. The country's largest online travel agency, Trip.com Group Ltd. has tumbled 12%.If the SARS outbreak of 2003 is any guide, things could get even worse. In May of that year, Chinese air passenger traffic fell 71%, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Bernstein Research cited concerns of a repeat outcome when it cut Trip.com's rating one notch to "market perform" earlier this week. The Nasdaq-listed company, which changed its name from Ctrip.com last year, issued a statement Thursday saying it would refund travelers who've been diagnosed, or those in close touch with them.The hope is that, like SARS, the turbulence will eventually pass. For Trip.com, however, the business challenges are bigger than the coronavirus. In recent years, the company has struggled to keep up with competition from digital rivals like Meituan Dianping and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.Few travel companies have benefited more from China's transition to the world's biggest source of tourists in 2012. Despite the trade war and Hong Kong's protests,(3) China's outbound tourism numbers have continued to rise. According to Euromonitor International, 108.39 million overseas trips were taken last year, a 9.5% gain, after surging 11.7% in 2018. Trip.com now makes up a quarter of its total sales from outbound Chinese visitors, from under 15% five years ago, reckons Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Vey-Sern Ling.But the hotel-booking sector is getting crowded. Meituan Dianping has recently overtaken Trip.com as China's top site, just five years after the food-delivery giant started dabbling in the business. Meituan now has 47% of China's market, ahead of Trip.com, with 34%, according to TrustData. Now, Meituan is moving further into Trip.com's territory with luxury hotels, while chains like Marriott International Inc. are pushing for direct booking on their China websites. Alibaba said part of the $13 billion it raised from its Hong Kong listing in November would go toward fliggy.com, its online travel group site.If there's any lesson to be gleaned from all this, it's the benefit of diversification. While China's superapp business model has arched some eyebrows (how can one company possibly provide digital payments, taxis, food delivery, massages and pet grooming?) there's a decent case to be made for having some crisis-proof subsidiaries. Consider AirAsia Group Bhd, Southeast Asia's most successful budget airline, which is setting up a regional fast food franchise.Plans could already be underway for Trip.com to diversify its investor base, with the company discussing plans to go public in Hong Kong, Bloomberg News reported earlier this month. Here, Alibaba is a successful model. With its second listing, the company is now closer to its Chinese end-users, and Alibaba's New York-listed stock has soared 14%.The four-month span of the SARS outbreak shows how quickly things can turn around: While China's growth dipped in the second quarter of 2003, it swiftly resumed in the following months. Given how much more important the Chinese shopper is to the economy now, the damage could be more painful. A 10% fall in discretionary transportation and entertainment could shave 1.2 percentage points from China's growth domestic product, according to "back of the envelope" estimates by S&P Global Inc. Hong Kong retailers and restaurants, just coming off the pain of last year's protests, were already suffering. For those companies that enjoyed the fast-rising Chinese consumer, it may be time to devise a plan B. (Updates to include China's measures to suspend travel-agency sales.)(1) Hong Kong, followed by Macau, are the top two destinations of mainland Chinese travelers.To contact the author of this story: Nisha Gopalan at ngopalan3@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Rachel Rosenthal at rrosenthal21@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.Nisha Gopalan is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering deals and banking. She previously worked for the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones as an editor and a reporter.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Lower number of shark bites off Florida coast may not be good news. Here's why. Posted: 25 Jan 2020 10:34 AM PST  The number of blacktip sharks off Florida's shoreline is down nearly 60 percent from 2011. Researchers say warming waters may be the reason.
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| Racist threats rattle students, faculty at university Posted: 25 Jan 2020 07:21 AM PST  WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — Three months after a set of anonymous, threatening, racist, antisemitic and homophobic emails sent a wave of fear through the sociology department at Wake Forest University, the department chairman says he's still waiting for university leaders to announce a meaningful response. Alarmed by what he deemed white supremacist terrorism, chairman Joseph Soares canceled sociology classes for a week. When they resumed, Wake Forest police officers were stationed outside classrooms and the building itself.
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| Trump reverses stance on Medicare, Social Security cuts, and Dems pounce Posted: 24 Jan 2020 06:10 AM PST  While much of the nation was focused on President Trump's impeachment trial in the Senate, he gave an interview in Davos, Switzerland, that undercut one of his key pledges from the 2016 campaign, declaring his intention to "take a look" at cutting benefits to entitlement programs, such as Social Security and Medicare.
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