Belarus outlaws prominent rights group Viasna, declaring it extremist
Belarusian authorities have declared the country’s oldest and most prominent human rights group an extremist organization
2023-08-24 02:53
Senator Rubio urges Biden administration to freeze a former warlord's extradition to Colombia
Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio is calling on the Biden administration to reject Colombia’s request for extradition of a former warlord after he was named a peace envoy in the South American nation
2023-08-24 02:48
Kansas authorities find ‘items of interest’ in new search of BTK killer’s former home
Authorities in Kansas say they have found “items of interest” in several cold case investigations during a search of “BTK killer” Dennis Rader’s former home. Osage County Sheriff Eddie Virden told Fox News that investigators had dug up Rader’s former property in Park City over two days this week after linking him to unsolved missing person cases. “Through the investigation, we developed information of some possible trophies of Dennis Rader’s, and we followed up on those leads and worked with Park City,” Mr Virden told the news site. He said officers “did a dig in the area, and we did recover some items of interest”. Rader is serving 10 consecutive life terms after his 2005 confession to the brutal murders of 10 women in the Wichita area between 1974 and 1991. Investigators have reportedly linked Rader to the unsolved disappearance of Cythia “Cyndi” Dawn Kinney, a 16-year-old cheerleader who disappeared from a laundromat in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, in 1976. Rader’s daughter Kerri Rawson said in a press release that she had been assisting law enforcement with an investigation into Kinney’s disappearance and several other unsolved murders. Ms Rawson said she had recently learned of Kinney’s cold case, and the separate unsolved murder of Shawna Garber, whose remains were found near Pineville, Missouri, in 1990. She said she contacted the law enforcement in Missouri and after being put in touch with the Osage County Sheriff’s Office she was flown to Kansas to work as a volunteer in both cases. As part of that work, she said she visited her father twice at the El Dorado Correctional Facility where he is incarcerated. “Beyond these two cases that have been released publicly, I’m not at liberty to discuss other possible missing persons and unsolved murder cases that are being actively investigated as possibly committed by my father, nor can I comment on my direct assistance in the investigations,” Ms Rawson said. “Multiple law enforcement agencies are seeking long-sought answers in decades-old missing persons and unsolved murder cases in the tri-state area of Kansa, Missouri and Oklahoma. And possibly locations that extend beyond the tri-state area,” she added. Ms Rawson also revealed that Rader had this year been offered immunity to confess to any violent crimes he may have committed between the early 1960s and his arrest in 2005. She called on local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to form a BTK killer special task force “to fund and power these vital ongoing tasks”. Read More BTK killer makes chilling comparisons between himself and Gilgo Beach murders suspect Rex Heuermann Bryan Kohberger defence hints at alibi in Idaho murders - but won’t reveal what it is as deadline passes Four students stabbed to death, a weeks-long manhunt but no motive: What we know about the Idaho murders
2023-08-24 02:26
Trump, Tucker Carlson and a shared hostility to Fox News
The former president and ex-Fox host make for strange bedfellows as they try to upstage TV debate.
2023-08-24 02:25
US approves new $500M arms sale to Taiwan as aggression from China intensifies
The Biden administration has approved a new $500 million arms sale to Taiwan as it ramps up military assistance to the island despite fervent objections from China
2023-08-24 01:53
Officials say jet crash in Russia kills 10. Wagner chief was on passenger list
Officials say a private jet has crashed over Russia, killing all 10 people on board
2023-08-24 01:52
Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin feared dead after Russia plane crash
The Russian private military company boss was on the passenger list of the jet which came down near Moscow.
2023-08-24 01:49
Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin ‘dies in plane crash’
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin is on the passenger list for a flight that has crashed near Moscow, killing 10 people. Ten people died after a private jet crashed in Russia’s Tver region north of Moscow, TASS news agency reported on Wednesday, citing the emergencies ministry. The Embraer aircraft, en route from Moscow to St Petersburg, was carrying seven passengers and three crew, TASS said. More follows on this breaking news story.... Read More Russia’s ‘General Armageddon’ fired – having not been seen since Wagner mutiny Russia's 'General Armageddon' reportedly dismissed after vanishing in wake of Wagner uprising Wagner chief Prigozhin reappears in first video after mutiny - and he’s recruiting
2023-08-24 01:22
Russia’s ‘General Armageddon’ removed from post – having not been seen in public since Wagner mutiny
A military commander dubbed “General Armageddon” for his brutality during Syria’s civil war has been removed as the head of Russia’s air force, having not been seen in public since the mutiny by Wagner mercenaries against Moscow at the end of June. Sergei Surovikin, a former commander of Russia’s troops in Ukraine who was previously awarded his nation’s top military honour, has not been publicly sacked – but state media has published sources confirming the move. He was given his moniker in recognition of the brutal tactics he deployed in Syria’s civil war, and was regarded as one of Russia’s most effective commanders. General Surovikin – who is believed to have close ties to Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin – was the most senior military figure to lose his position over the attempted uprising, which took place over a 24-hour period from 23 to 24 June. Russian president Vladimir Putin reacted with fury to the mutiny, which saw Mr Prigrozhin’s forces attempt to march on Moscow in protest at the way in which Moscow’s military top brass were handling the invasion of Ukraine. President Putin said that the revolt – the most significant threat to his leadership in years – could have tipped Russia into civil war. The march on Moscow was eventually halted about 125 miles outside the capital after a deal was brokered between Mr Prigozhin and the Kremlin via Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko. The terms of the arrangement allowed for the Wagner founder and some of his troops to decamp to Belarus and leave combat operations in Ukraine, where they had been involved in some of the fiercest fighting seen in the war so far. Mr Prigozhin has been photographed in St Petersburg and Belarus in recent weeks, and posted a video on Monday that he suggested had been shot in Africa, one of Wagner’s other theatres of combat. The two men Mr Prigozhin had wanted to topple – defence minister Sergei Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the general staff – remain in their posts. General Surovikin’s last public appearance was on 24 June, when he appeared in what looked like a carefully stage-managed video. Visibly strained and without insignia, he urged Mr Prigozhin to abandon his march on Moscow. Since that day, speculation has been rampant about General Surovikin’s fate. Some Russian news outlets and sources have said that the general, who was often publicly praised by Mr Prigozhin in the run-up to the revolt, was being questioned over possible complicity, and that he was potentially being held under house arrest. General Surovikin’s daughter told the Russian social media channel Baza in late June that her father had not been arrested. US officials have previously told American media that General Surovikin was supportive of Mr Prigozhin, but that Western intelligence did not know with certainty whether he had helped the rebellion in any way. Of the latest move, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, citing an anonymous source, reported that General Surovikin had been replaced as commander of the Russian Aerospace Forces by Colonel General Viktor Afzalov, who heads the main staff of the air force. The agency frequently represents the official position of the Kremlin, through reports citing anonymous officials in Russia’s defence and security establishment. The RBC newspaper reported a defence personnel source saying: “Army General Sergei Surovikin has been relieved of his position in connection with his transfer to a different role ... He is currently on a short holiday.” The television personality Ksenia Sobchak, who is the daughter of a politician with links to Mr Putin, suggested that General Surovikin had not been in touch with his relatives. “They say that he was relieved of his post on 18 August by way of closed decree. The family still has had no contact with him,” she wrote on Telegram. General Surovikin was placed in charge of Russian military operations in Ukraine last October, but in January that role was handed to General Gerasimov while General Surovikin was made a deputy. News of the dismissal of General Surovikin came as another drone attack targeted Moscow, believed to be the sixth such assault in a week. The Ukrainian intelligence agency also claimed it had destroyed a key S-400 surface-to-air missile defence system in Russian-occupied Crimea. Such a loss would be another embarrassing blow for the Kremlin, as Ukraine increasingly targets Russia’s assets far behind the front line in southern and eastern Ukraine. Speaking about the drone attack on the Russian capital, Moscow’s mayor Sergey Sobyanin said that one drone had smashed into a building under construction in Moscow City, a prestigious business complex that has been hit by drones twice before. Several windows were broken in two buildings nearby, and emergency services responded to the incident. Russia’s defence ministry claimed to have downed all of the drones in Moscow and the surrounding area. Earlier, a three-hour night-time drone attack by Russia in Ukraine’s southern region of Odesa overnight on Tuesday caused a blaze at grain facilities, according to the head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration, Oleh Kiper. Elsewhere, a Russian drone attack on the city of Romny in northeastern Ukraine struck a local school, killing the principal, his deputy, a secretary and the school librarian, according to Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs. Three people were also killed in the Belgorod region of Russia on the Ukrainian border during the repeated shelling of a sanatorium, according to the region’s governor. Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report Read More The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin ‘dies in plane crash’ Russia's 'General Armageddon' reportedly dismissed after vanishing in wake of Wagner uprising Wagner chief Prigozhin reappears in first video after mutiny - and he’s recruiting
2023-08-24 01:19
Which agencies would GOP candidates cut? Try to remember all of these
Most of the candidates hitting the first 2024 Republican presidential primary debate stage on Wednesday have advocated for ending at least one government agency. Here's a look at which candidates would erase which government agency.
2023-08-24 00:58
BRICS Latest: Bloc Agrees Rules Clearing Path for More Members
BRICS leaders edged closer to adding new members to their club for the first time since 2010, after
2023-08-24 00:47
10 Supernatural TV Shows to Stream Right Now
Here's where to stream your favorite spooky shows, including 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer,' The Walking Dead,' and 'What We Do in the Shadows.'
2023-08-24 00:29