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US Central Command investigating after strike 'may have resulted' in a civilian killed in Syria
US Central Command investigating after strike 'may have resulted' in a civilian killed in Syria
The US military is investigating a strike in Syria earlier this month that "may have resulted" in a civilian being killed, according to a statement from US Central Command.
2023-05-19 20:26
India makes cough syrup testing mandatory for exports
India makes cough syrup testing mandatory for exports
The move comes after some Indian cough syrups were linked to deaths in The Gambia and Uzbekistan.
2023-05-23 15:46
COP28 should seek total fossil fuel 'phaseout': UN chief to AFP
COP28 should seek total fossil fuel 'phaseout': UN chief to AFP
The COP28 climate conference should aim for a complete "phaseout" of fossil fuels, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told AFP on Wednesday, warning of "total...
2023-11-30 12:19
Bola Tinubu - the 'godfather' who has been sworn in as Nigeria's president
Bola Tinubu - the 'godfather' who has been sworn in as Nigeria's president
After fighting military rule in the 1990s, Bola Tinubu feels entitled to become Nigeria's president.
2023-05-30 00:15
Deputies discover missing 16-year-old girl during routine traffic stop
Deputies discover missing 16-year-old girl during routine traffic stop
Deputies in North Carolina have arrested a Florida man on suspicion of child abduction after finding a missing 16-year-old girl in his car during a routine traffic stop. Alejandro Hernandez Vazquez, 40, was pulled over for a traffic violation on the I-95 in Nash County at about midnight on 4 July, authorities say. Deputies became suspicious and asked to search his white 2016 Audi Q5, and learned that a teenage passenger had been reported missing hours earlier by the Coral Springs Police Department in Florida. According to Nash County Sheriff’s Office, Mr Vazquez was not known to the girl’s family and did not have permission to cross state lines. Deputies also found cannibas vape pens and drug paraphernalia in the car, they said. Mr Vazquez, from Miami, was booked into the Nash County Detention Center on charges of child abduction, felony possession of synthetic cannabinoid, possession of marijuana paraphernalia and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He was initially jailed without bond. At a court appearance on Friday 7 July, his bond was set at $505,000. The missing girl was transported to the Wake County Juvenile Detention Center before being picked by family. “The 16-year-old willfully went with him is what we’re seeing at first glance of this investigation,” Nash County Sheriff Keith Stone told ABC11. “It was not like she was bound in the car and things of that nature, but you know, it’s a young 16-year-old and a grown man, and he’s manipulated her and carried her across this country. This is a true case of child trafficking,” he added. Read More Murder suspect arrested in multi-state manhunt is now on the run again after escape from Pennsylvania jail Missing two-year-old Wynter Smith found dead in Michigan days after Amber alert issued Disgraced former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar almost killed after being stabbed in prison
2023-07-11 02:59
China’s Midea Drops Pursuit of Swedish Home Appliance Maker Electrolux
China’s Midea Drops Pursuit of Swedish Home Appliance Maker Electrolux
Midea Group Co. has dropped its pursuit of Electrolux AB after finding the Swedish home appliance maker unreceptive
2023-06-22 16:16
Buster Murdaugh breaks silence on Stephen Smith killing – and insists his father is innocent
Buster Murdaugh breaks silence on Stephen Smith killing – and insists his father is innocent
Buster Murdaugh has broken his silence to deny any involvement in the mysterious killing of gay teenager Stephen Smith – and insist that he still believes his father is innocent of the murders of his mother and brother. Alex Murdaugh’s only surviving son spoke out in his first TV interview since his family was propelled to national attention, for the new three-part FOX Nation documentary “The Fall of the House of Murdaugh”. In the interview, Buster slammed rumours that he too could have been involved in a heinous murder – that of 19-year-old Smith in July 2015 – and offered an alibi for his whereabouts on the night the teenager was killed. “I never had anything to do with his murder, and I never had anything to do with him on a physical level in any regard,” he said in a clip from the documentary, due for release on 31 August. Smith, a nursing student, was found dead on a road in Hampton County, South Carolina, in the early hours of 8 July 2015 – not far from the prominent Murdaugh family’s estate where Alex Murdaugh murdered Maggie and Paul six years later. Despite Smith suffering blunt force trauma to the head and there being no skid marks or vehicular debris on the road, officials ruled his death a hit-and-run at the time. Smith’s mother long questioned this official account and, for years, the Murdaugh name continued to crop up in connection to the case. Buster and Smith were classmates and there were unsubstantiated rumours that the two had been in some sort of relationship around the time of his death. Smith’s mother Sandy Smith named Buster as the prime suspect in her son’s murder in a letter begging the FBI to get involved in the case back in 2016. In June 2021 – mere days after Maggie and Paul’s murders – SLED announced that it was opening a new investigation into Smith’s death. This April, the agency then finally announced that Smith’s death was being investigated as a homicide and his body was exhumed for a private autopsy. No one has ever been charged over Smith’s death and law enforcement have never announced anything linking Buster to the killing. In the FOX Nation documentary, Buster for the first time offered an alibi for the night of Smith’s death saying that he was at his family’s Edisto Beach house with his late mother and brother. Hitting out at the rumours that continue to swirl, he said it was “a terrible thing” to be accused of. “I don’t want to be rude here, but have you ever been accused of murdering somebody?” he asked. “Well, let me tell you, this is very, very, very, very, very, it’s a terrible thing to place on somebody with absolutely no fact. I mean, it has harmed my reputation. I mean, people perceive me as a murderer.” In the interview, Buster also doubled down on his father’s innocence in the murders of Maggie and Paul – even after a jury of 12 peers convicted him back in March and he was sentenced to life in prison on the charges. Maggie and Paul were found shot dead on the family’s 1,700-acre Moselle estate back on 7 June 2021. Alex Murdaugh had called 911 claiming to have found their bodies. When asked if he ever thought it possible that his father might have killed their loved ones, Buster insisted no. “No, because I think that I hold a very unique perspective that nobody else in that courtroom ever held. And I know the love that I have witnessed,” he said. The 29-year-old went on to say that he thinks there are a lot of questions that still need to be answered about the murders. “My biggest thing that I want people to realise, that there are always two sides of the story. Now, they can pick which one they want to believe,” he said. “But I think there’s a heck of a lot that still needs to be answered about what happened on June the 7th.” He said that prosecutors presented a “crappy motive” and that the case was not “fair”. “I do not believe it was fair,” he said. “I was there for six weeks studying it, and I think it was a tilted table from the beginning. “And I think, unfortunately, a lot of the jurors felt that way prior to when they had to deliberate. It was predetermined in their minds prior to when they ever heard any shred of evidence that was given in that room.” Buster said that he believed the police were under “an awful lot of pressure” to come up with a suspect in the killings and so “the route that they decided to go with” was to charge his father. He also blamed the media coverage of the case which he said left jurors going into the process with their minds already made up. “Because of everything they had the ability to read prior to the trial,” he said. “I think that people get overwhelmed, and I think that they believe everything that they read. And I think it took advantage of a jury pool in a very small town in a very small county.” Now, with his father behind bars, he said he fears that the real killer is still walking free. “I think I set myself up to be safe but yes, when I go to bed at night, I have a fear that there is somebody that is still out there,” Buster added. Throughout the high-profile murder trial, Buster stood by his father, attending each day of the court’s proceedings with his family members. Buster also testified in his father’s defence saying that Murdaugh had been “destroyed” and “heartbroken” in the aftermath of the deaths of his mother and brother. But despite continuing to insist his father’s innocence even now, Buster did not deny that his father may be a psychopath. “I’m not prepared to sit here and say that it encompasses him as a whole, but I certainly think there are characteristics where you look at the manipulation and the lies and the carrying out of that such, and I think that’s a fair assessment,” he said. When asked if he worries he might be like his father, Buster also had some harsh words for his father’s character. “No, I do not worry, because I am not a thief. I am not a liar. I’m not a manipulator,” he said. “In those regards, I am nothing like him, but, in other regards, I believe that I do hold some of his more admirable traits, which I am quite proud of.” Murdaugh, 54, was sentenced to life in prison for the murders and is serving his time in the maximum security facility McCormick Correctional Institution in South Carolina. He is also facing a slew of financial fraud charges for stealing millions of dollars from his law firm clients and his dead housekeeeper’s family and over a botched hitman plot where he claims he paid an accomplice to shoot him dead. As well as Smith’s death, Murdaugh’s high-profile conviction also shone a spotlight on some other mystery deaths tied to the South Carolina legal dynasty. An investigation was also reopened into another mystery death connected to the Murdaugh family – that of their longtime housekeeper Gloria Satterfield. She died in 2018 in a mystery trip and fall accident at the family home. Murdaugh then allegedly stole around $4m in a wrongful death settlement from her sons. At the time of his murder, Paul was also awaiting trial for the 2018 boat crash death of Mallory Beach. Read More Alex Murdaugh set to plead guilty to federal financial charges Alex Murdaugh’s friend gets jail sentence for scheming to steal millions from dead housekeeper’s family New Alex Murdaugh jail call audio reveals awkward interaction with surviving son Buster
2023-08-31 00:55
Korea Inflation Cools in June, Backing BOK Extended Pause
Korea Inflation Cools in June, Backing BOK Extended Pause
South Korea’s inflation eased for a fifth month in June, bolstering the case for the central bank to
2023-07-04 07:51
Aid delivery waits to enter Gaza from Egypt at Rafah crossing
Aid delivery waits to enter Gaza from Egypt at Rafah crossing
About 20 trucks may cross into Gaza after a deal with the US, but aid organisations warn it's not enough.
2023-10-19 18:53
Final-green drama as Europe power to five-point lead at Ryder Cup
Final-green drama as Europe power to five-point lead at Ryder Cup
Last-gasp heroics from Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland and Justin Rose helped Europe hold off a United States fightback to seize a massive 6.5-1.5 lead after the opening day...
2023-09-30 01:25
New Found Intercepts 47 g/t Au Over 10.55M & 115 g/t Au Over 4.10M at Iceberg East; Defines Near-surface, High-grade Segment of Iceberg-Iceberg East Covering 570M Strike
New Found Intercepts 47 g/t Au Over 10.55M & 115 g/t Au Over 4.10M at Iceberg East; Defines Near-surface, High-grade Segment of Iceberg-Iceberg East Covering 570M Strike
VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 13, 2023--
2023-09-13 18:57
EY Approaches Lenders in Push to Find Metro Bank Buyer by Monday
EY Approaches Lenders in Push to Find Metro Bank Buyer by Monday
Consulting firm Ernst & Young has been hired to find a buyer for Metro Bank Holdings Plc this
2023-10-08 23:18