Hikikomori: Why S Korea is paying young recluses to leave home
Money only "touches the surface" of a deeper problem, former recluses and youth workers say.
2023-05-27 05:23
Three more Oath Keepers sentenced for roles in January 6 attack: ‘I was just another idiot’
Three members of a far-right anti-government extremist group who joined a mob inside the US Capitol on January 6 were sentenced to federal prison after their convictions on a range of charges connected to the attack. The hearings in US District Court in Washington DC follow the 18-year prison sentence for Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, who was convicted by a jury on a treason-related charge of seditious conspiracy after a nearly two-month trial last year. His is the longest sentence, to date, related to the assault at the Capitol on 6 January 2021. Kelly Meggs, another member of the Oath Keepers who was convicted of seditious conspiracy in that same case alongside Rhodes, was sentenced to 12 years in prison on 25 May. Jessica Watkins, a US Army veteran who was convicted of several other charges in that same trial, was sentenced to eight and a half years. A jury found Watkins guilty of obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress and guilty of conspiracy to obstruct. “My actions and my behaviors that fateful day were wrong, and as I now understand, criminal,” she told US District Judge Amit Mehta on 26 May. “Violence is never the answer.” Federal prosecutors argued that Watkins mobilised a group in Ohio alongside the Oath Keepers, and joined a mob in Washington DC in tactical gear to upend the results of the 2020 presidential election, fuelled by Donald Trump’s false narrative that the election was stolen and rigged against him. “I was just another idiot running around the Capitol,” she said on 26 May. “But idiots are held responsible, and today you’re going to hold this idiot responsible.” Prosecutors argued that she marched from the former president’s rally at the Ellipse and breached the halls of Congress in a military-style stack formation, encouraging members of the mob to push through law enforcement. According to messages and recordings shared at trial, Watkins declared the group “stormed the Capitol” on a radio-like communication app on the day of the attack. Judge Mehta, noting her apologies, said that her efforts that day were “more aggressive, more assaultive, more purposeful than perhaps others’.” “And you led others to fulfill your purposes,” he added “And there was not in the immediate aftermath any sense of shame or contrition, just the opposite. Your comments were celebratory and lacked a real sense of the gravity of that day and your role in it.” Kenneth Harrelson was found guilty of obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to prevent an officer from discharging duties, and tampering with documents or proceedings. He was sentenced to four years in prison on 26 May. In his plea for leniency, Harrelson, weeping as he spoke, apologised to US Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, who testified during the trial that the Oath Keepers that the group failed to support law enforcement and ignored his warnings that they were endangering officers’ lives. “I am responsible and my foolish actions have caused immense pain to my wife and children,” Harrelson told Judge Mehta on Friday. The judge noted that, in evidence from federal prosecutors, “there is not a single word in a single communication that anyone would consider extremist, radicalized” or “encourages anyone to engage in violence.” Read More Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes sentenced to 18 years in prison for January 6 sedition Who are the Oath Keepers?
2023-05-27 04:49
Rwanda suspect denies killings but 'sorry' over genocide
By Wendell Roelf CAPE TOWN One of the Rwanda genocide's most wanted remaining suspects, accused of ordering the
2023-05-27 04:47
Man suspected of peeping into teen girl’s window is killed by police after fatally shooting two people
Two people were shot dead and another wounded by a Rhode Island man accused of peeping into a teenage girl’s bedroom window. James Harrison, 52, was later shot and killed by police after a chase and standoff with law enforcement in Johnston County, according to authorities. Officials say that Harrison’s 83-year-old mother, Janet Harrison, who lived with him in Johnston, was one of the victims, reported WPRI. Also fatally shot was his neighbour, 44-year-old Thomas “TJ” May, while his 15-year-old daughter was shot and taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Police say they were initially called to the May family home on Tuesday night after a report of loud banging noises outside a bedroom window. Harrison was allegedly seen outside the window with a ladder, and Mr May sought to file a trespass order to keep him off the family’s property, reported WPRI. The police were unable to make contact with Harrison and returned at 7.30am the following morning to speak to him. The officer said that when he arrived at the home he was the suspect driving away making a hand gesture “consistent with shooting a firearm”, the police stated. The teenage girl was then found on the front lawn suffering from gunshot wounds, and May was found in the garage of the property with a gunshot wound to the head. When police entered Harrison’s home they found that his mother had also been killed. Harrison was spotted two hours later at a cemetery and following a police chase he crashed his vehicle into a large rock. He then got out of the vehicle and pointed a firearm at officers who shot him dead. Rhode Island State Police and the state’s Attorney General’s Office will be investigating the officer-involved shooting. Read More Texas grand jury indicts man in fatal shooting of rapper Takeoff Texas parents fret over Winnie the Pooh being used to teach kids about school shootings U.S. cities reporting fewer killings hope crime strategies promote peace this summer Family Feud star faces trial for allegedly shooting wife to death years after joking about marriage on show Eleven-year-old boy shot by police after mother asked him to call 911 about domestic disturbance
2023-05-27 04:21
JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon deposed over bank's Jeffrey Epstein ties
Two lawsuits accuse the bank of ignoring signs it was profiting from the long-standing relationship.
2023-05-27 03:50
How Americans plan to travel this Memorial Day
(Corrects to add dropped word in last bullet) The upcoming Memorial Day weekend is expected to see millions
2023-05-27 02:45
India official empties dam to retrieve lost phone
The man, who has now been suspended, was taking a selfie when he dropped his phone into the water.
2023-05-27 01:48
Navy finds 'perfect storm' of problems in elite Seals course
A Navy report found trainees in the elite unit were at risk of injuries or death in a gruelling course.
2023-05-27 01:23
Deadly Russian strikes obliterate Dnipro medical facility in central Ukraine
At least two people died and dozens more were left injured after Russian forces struck a medical facility in the city of Dnipro on Friday morning, after intense shelling rained over central Ukraine overnight.
2023-05-27 01:20
Alex Murdaugh’s accomplice takes plea deal and agrees to cooperate with FBI in dead housekeeper theft case
Alex Murdaugh’s accomplice and friend Corey Fleming is now cooperating with the FBI over the convicted killer’s scheme to steal millions of dollars from his dead housekeeper’s family. Fleming, a longtime friend and law school classmate of the disgraced legal scion, accepted a plea deal with federal prosecutors this week over his involvement in Murdaugh’s financial fraud schemes. He appeared in federal court in South Carolina on Thursday where he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. At the court hearing, Fleming confessed that he had taken part in one of Murdaugh’s financial schemes – and admitted that he knew what he was doing when he did so. Prosecutors allege that Murdaugh orchestrated a financial fraud scheme which included stealing almost $4.3m from the estate of Gloria Satterfield and its insurance carriers. Satterfield was the Murdaugh’s longtime housekeeper who died in a mysterious “trip and fall” accident at the prominent family’s 1,700-acre Moselle estate in South Carolina in 2018 – the same property where Murdaugh shot dead his wife Maggie and adult son Paul three years later. Following her death, Murdaugh recommended that Satterfield’s sons hire his friend and fellow attorney Fleming to represent them in bringing a wrongful death claim against him, so that they could collect from his homeowner’s insurance policies. The insurance companies ultimately settled the estate’s claim for more than $4m – two payments of $505,000 and $3.8m. Murdaugh and Fleming then stole the settlement money for themselves and the housekeeper’s sons didn’t get a dime. Much of the stolen money was funneled through a fake “Forge” bank account which sought to imitate the legitimate and totally unrelated business Forge Consulting. In accepting the plea deal, Fleming admitted that he helped Murdaugh steal the insurance money meant for Satterfield’s sons and has agreed to cooperate with the FBI and US Attorney’s office in the case. He has also agreed to submit to polygraph tests and to turn over his law licences in South Carolina and Georgia. He faces up to five years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000 when he is sentenced at a later date. He was released Thursday on a $25,000 unsecured bond. He is also facing separate state charges over the Satterfield case. Ronnie Richter, an attorney representing the Satterfield family, welcomed Fleming’s guilty plea. “This was a good day for justice because this is the first time anyone associated with the Satterfield case has pleaded guilty to anything,” he said. Fleming’s plea deal comes the same week that Murdaugh was indicted on a slew of new charges over their scheme. The South Carolina Attorney General’s Office announced on Wednesday that a federal grand jury had returned a 22-count indictment against the 54-year-old disgraced legal dynasty heir, charging him with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, bank fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. The convicted killer was already awaiting trial on more than 100 financial crimes charges over a decade-long multi-million-dollar fraud scheme where Murdaugh stole millions from his law firm and legal clients – a scheme he confessed to orchestrating when he took the stand at his murder trial. But, now he has been hit with a further 22 charges for what prosecutors describe as three separate schemes to steal money from personal injury clients he represented through his law firm. As well as the scheme with Fleming, prosecutors allege that Murdaugh ran a second scheme from at least September 2005 to September 2021, where he allegedly routed and redirected clients’ settlement funds into his own pocket including by directing his law firm colleagues to pay the funds directly into his personal account. In the third scheme, Murdaugh and his banker Russell Laffitte allegedly conspired from July 2011 to October 2021 to commit wire fraud and bank fraud. Laffitte, who was CEO of Palmetto State Bank at the time, acted as Murdaugh’s personal banker and as a custodian or conservator for some of his law firm clients. Laffitte then conspired to defraud those clients, with the two men diverting the money to themselves. Laffitte was convicted in November of financial fraud charges in connection to Murdaugh’s alleged white collar fraud schemes. Murdaugh faces up to 30 years in prison on the highest charges of wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in the new indictment. His other financial charges already amount to more than 700 years in prison if convicted. Even without the financial charges, Murdaugh will already spend the remainder of his life in prison after he was found guilty on 2 March of murdering his wife Maggie and son Paul on the family’s Moselle property back on 7 June 2021. Murdaugh was sentenced to life in prison the day after the verdict. Satterfield, who worked for the family for more than 20 years, was found at the bottom of the steps leading into the family’s home. She never resumed consciousness and died from her injuries three weeks later on 26 February. At the time, Murdaugh claimed that she had tripped over the family’s dogs and hit her head, and her death was regarded as an accidental fall. However, her death certificate cited her manner of death as “natural” and no autopsy was ever carried out. Questions have been swirling around Satterfield’s death for the past few years as the string of deaths, stolen money and corruption surrounding Murdaugh came to light. In September 2021, an investigation was reopened into her death and investigators said they planned to exhume her body. Satterfield’s death isn’t the only mystery death tied to the South Carolina legal dynasty. A homicide investigation has also been opened into the 2015 death of Stephen Smith, who was found dead in the middle of a road in Hampton County. The openly gay 19-year-old had suffered blunt force trauma to the head and his death was officially ruled a hit-and-run. But Smith’s family have long doubted this version of events, with the Murdaugh name cropping up in several police tips and community rumours. At the time of his murder, Paul was also awaiting trial for the boat crash death of Mallory Beach. Read More Alex Murdaugh indicted on 22 new financial fraud charges for stealing money from dead housekeeper’s family Audio reveals Alex Murdaugh blaming dogs for housekeeper’s death – after he walked back claim five years later Stephen Smith’s body is exhumed after murder near Murdaugh home – as family offers $35k reward to catch killer
2023-05-27 01:18
Sudan conflict: Hospital attacks potential war crimes, BBC told
Mounting evidence seen by the BBC suggests that medical facilities are being targeted by both sides.
2023-05-27 00:55
Mexico president says does not want relations with Peru under Boluarte
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Friday his government does not want to have commercial
2023-05-27 00:29