Month: December 2019

Moscow (AFP) – A naval serviceman died and an officer was missing Thursday after Russia’s only aircraft carrier caught fire in an Arctic shipyard, the latest accident to raise concern over the future of the navy flagship. Russian news agencies quoted the Zvezdochka shipyard as saying the fire started during wielding operations in an engine…

Key Point: Today the Iowa-class battleship is a floating relic, but the idea keeps getting revisited.  In the early 1980s, the Reagan Administration was looking to fund high visibility defense programs. Reagan had been elected on a platform of rebuilding the armed services after the “hollowing out” of the early 1970s. One example was the reactivation of…

The International Criminal Court announced Wednesday that two alleged leaders of a predominantly Christian militia involved in a bitter conflict with Muslim forces in the Central African Republic must stand trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Patrice-Edouard Ngaissona and Alfred Yekatom are suspected of involvement in crimes including murder, rape, persecution,…

(Bloomberg) — The Justice Department’s watchdog told Congress that he has an ongoing investigation into what appears to be leaks from agents in the New York FBI field office to Rudy Giuliani about the Hillary Clinton email investigation in 2016. “We were very concerned about that,” Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz said in a…

A senior Republican went on a furious rant about being forced to attend a morning hearing after Democrats delayed impeachment votes just before midnight on Thursday. The House Judiciary Committee engaged in 14 hours of fiery debate over articles of impeachment against Donald Trump before Jerry Nadler, the Democratic committee chairman, surprised members by postponing…

Welcome to 2020 Vision, the Yahoo News column covering the presidential race with one key takeaway every weekday and a wrap-up each weekend. Reminder: There are 54 days until the Iowa caucuses and 328 days until the 2020 election. The headline in Politico, the leading tribune of inside-the-Beltway conventional wisdom, was stark: “Dems fret trade…

New Zealand authorities are planning a mission to recover eight bodies on the volcanic White Island on Friday morning, despite warnings from scientists of the risk of another eruption.  At least eight people have died as a result of the huge explosion on Monday, while more than 20 people are in intensive care suffering severe burns. Eight…

Some of the victims of Monday’s volcanic eruption in New Zealand were passengers from a Royal Caribbean cruise ship. That’s now raising questions about the liability of cruise lines and the excursion companies they contract with. Royal Caribbean told CBS News it is now “suspending tours of active volcanoes.” In an earlier statement, it said…

Tesla Tesla’s Cybertruck may have a hard time converting Ford F-150 and Chevrolet Silverado owners, but it might open up a new segment of the pickup-truck market, according to a survey from the automotive research site Autolist. The roughly 1,100 respondents were asked, assuming they had to buy one and their specs were similar, whether…

By Farah Master and Keith Zhai MACAU/HONG KONG (Reuters) – Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Macau next week to announce a raft of new policies aimed at diversifying the city’s casino-dependent economy into a financial center, according to over a dozen interviews with officials and corporate executives. The move is seen by officials and…