| Schumer on 'stunning' Bolton book news: 'We're all staring a White House cover-up in the face' Posted: 27 Jan 2020 09:40 AM PST  Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called on his Republican colleagues to allow witnesses after the revelation that former national security adviser John Bolton will say in an upcoming book that President Trump told him he wanted Ukraine aid tied to investigations.
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| Judge frees NFL star Antonio Brown from house arrest Posted: 28 Jan 2020 08:13 AM PST  A Florida judge freed NFL free agent Antonio Brown from house arrest Tuesday, allowing him to travel freely as he awaits trial on charges that he attacked the driver of a moving truck. Instead of wearing an ankle GPS monitor, Brown, 31, will have to check in with court personnel daily. Brown was one of the NFL's top wide receivers during his nine seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
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| Biden's final Iowa drive sweeps through rival territory Posted: 28 Jan 2020 04:20 AM PST  When U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden went to an Iowa university to campaign this week, one thing was in short supply: students who support him. Biden, 77, joked that it can be difficult to get college students to show up before 4 p.m. and, indeed, a few more young people appeared at a later campaign event at the University of Iowa. "I'm the only one that gets a significant portion of the young vote, as well as the old vote, in-between vote, black vote, Hispanic vote, all the vote," Biden said.
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| Government records show that Kobe Bryant's helicopter used to be owned by the state of Illinois Posted: 27 Jan 2020 11:32 AM PST  Bryant's helicopter was owned by an operator called Island Express Holding Corp., which purchased it from Illinois in 2015.
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| Powerful 7.7 earthquake hits between Cuba and Jamaica Posted: 28 Jan 2020 12:15 PM PST  The U.S. Geological Survey says a powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake has struck south of Cuba and northwest of Jamaica.
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| Indonesia's Aceh unveils new female flogging squad Posted: 28 Jan 2020 07:58 AM PST  The masked woman nervously approaches her target, shuffles into position and then unleashes a flurry of lashes -- proving herself as the newest member of the first female flogging squad in Indonesia's Aceh province. Such behaviour constitutes a morality crime in Aceh, the only region in the world's biggest Muslim-majority nation that imposes Islamic law -- known as Sharia.
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| A UFO Or America's Newest Stealth Plane? Iran Just Saw Something Fly By At Mach 10 Posted: 28 Jan 2020 10:56 AM PST  What on Earth...?
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| Chinese villages are cutting themselves off from the world with makeshift brick walls to try to stop outsiders from giving them the Wuhan virus Posted: 28 Jan 2020 02:18 AM PST  The Wuhan coronavirus has killed 106 people, infected 4,500, and spread to more than a dozen countries, China's health commission said Tuesday.
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| In wake of Bolton book news, White House allies say Trump lawyers bungled defense Posted: 27 Jan 2020 12:24 PM PST  Reports that John Bolton had written a firsthand account of President Trump's direct involvement in withholding aid to Ukraine has left some Republicans confused and angry over the legal strategy by the president's defense team.
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| China Demands Apology From Danish Newspaper Over Virus Cartoon Posted: 28 Jan 2020 02:56 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- The Chinese Embassy to Denmark wants the newspaper Jyllands-Posten to apologize for publishing a drawing that depicts China's flag with virus symbols instead of five stars."We express our strong indignation and demand that Jyllands-Posten and [cartoonist] Niels Bo Bojesen reproach themselves for their mistake and publicly apologize to the Chinese people," the embassy said in a statement posted on its website.When asked to comment, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen avoided any direct reference to Jyllands-Posten's cartoon."I have nothing to say on the matter other than [to note that] we have a very strong tradition in Denmark not just for freedom of speech but also for freedom of satire, and we'll continue to have that in the future," she said, according to multiple news media including Politiken. "This is a well known Danish position and we're not going to change it."Denmark's largest newspaper has faced international backlash over its cartoons in the past. In 2005, the paper printed 12 drawings of the Prophet Muhammad, which angered many nations in which Islam is the main religion and sparked a diplomatic crisis. Back then, Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen also defended freedom of speech and said governments had no place telling newspapers what to write.The Chinese flag was printed in the opinion section of the newspaper's Monday edition with a caption titled "Corona virus".Editor-in-Chief Jacob Nybroe said the paper won't apologize."We can't apologize for something we don't think is wrong," Nybroe told news agency Ritzau. "We have no intention to demean or mock but we don't think this drawing is doing that."(Updates with comment from Denmark's prime minister)To contact the reporter on this story: Morten Buttler in Copenhagen at mbuttler@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Christian Wienberg at cwienberg@bloomberg.net, Tasneem Hanfi BröggerFor 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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| U.N. criticizes Iraq trials of ISIS 'members', including human shields Posted: 28 Jan 2020 06:05 AM PST ![U.N. criticizes Iraq trials of ISIS 'members', including human shields]( "U.N. criticizes Iraq trials of ISIS 'members', including human shields") The United Nations raised "serious concerns" on Tuesday about the trials of hundreds of alleged Islamic State members in Iraq, some of whom merely prepared meals, offered medical services or even acted as human shields for the jihadist group. Iraq has processed thousands of cases under its anti-terrorism law - including of detainees from outside the Middle East transferred from neighboring Syria - in the aftermath of a 2014-17 war against Islamic State militants.
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| Remains of 2 US troops recovered from Afghanistan crash site Posted: 28 Jan 2020 06:56 AM PST  U.S. forces on Tuesday recovered the remains of two American service members killed in the crash of an Air Force plane in Afghanistan, the U.S. military command in Kabul said. The statement from Kabul said the cause of the crash is under investigation, but there are no indications that it was downed by enemy fire. Monday's plane crash there is not expected to derail U.S.-Taliban peace talks if the crash investigation determines, as expected, that it was not the result of hostile action.
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| 'My alarm bells went off': One witness offers his account of Kobe Bryant's helicopter crash Posted: 28 Jan 2020 12:47 PM PST  Scott Daehlin, who witnessed Kobe Bryant's fatal crash, said he heard the helicopter hovering in low cloud cover seconds before it crashed.
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| Historians unveil rare photos of Sobibor death camp Posted: 28 Jan 2020 09:43 AM PST  Hundreds of newly discovered photographs, including some taken at the Sobibor death camp, represent a "quantum leap" in research into Nazi crimes against humanity, historians at the Berlin museum Topography of Terror said Tuesday. Historians said the "exceptional collection" provided unprecedented insights into the Sobibor camp in German Nazi-occupied Poland, about which little is known even 75 years after the end of World War II. The trove, consisting of 361 black-and-white photos and several written documents, also includes photos believed to show convicted Nazi guard John Demjanjuk, who denied ever being at Sobibor.
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| Idaho Nurse Sentenced to 3 Years in Prison for Helping Cover Up Kelsey Berreth’s Murder Posted: 28 Jan 2020 12:01 PM PST  A former Idaho nurse was sentenced to three years in prison on Tuesday for helping Patrick Frazee cover up the murder of his fiancée last Thanksgiving.Krystal Lee, 33, was sentenced after pleading guilty in February to evidence tampering and testifying against Frazee, her on-again, off-again boyfriend, who was convicted of killing 29-year-old Kelsey Berreth."I know that saying sorry is not good enough," she told a packed Teller County courtroom on Tuesday, before receiving the maximum sentence. "And I don't even know what the right word would be to describe the remorse that I feel."Patrick Frazee Convicted of Murdering His Missing Fiancée With a Baseball Bat, Burning Her BodyFrazee, a 33-year-old cattle rancher, was convicted in November on all six charges against him for the slaying and disappearance of Berreth and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus 156 years. Berreth, a flight instructor at Doss Aviation, was last seen at a Safeway grocery store near her Woodland Park, Colorado, home on Nov. 22, 2018. Prosecutors say later that day, Frazee fatally beat his would-be wife, with whom he shared a child, with a baseball bat before burning her body and the murder weapon at his family's ranch. The cattle rancher then enlisted the help of Lee, his secret girlfriend, to clean up the crime scene, Lee said.During her emotional two-day testimony, Lee described her troubled relationship with Frazee—which began as an affair several years ago while she was married and included a secret abortion. While the nurse has denied participating in Berreth's murder, she later admitted she witnessed him burn the evidence of his crime."She shouldn't have received the plea deal that she did," Berreth's parents, Darrell and Cheryl, wrote in a letter read aloud in court Tuesday, according to The Denver Post. "She was an active participant in the murder. The only thing she didn't do was swing the bat."'Calculating Manipulator' Patrick Frazee Murdered Kelsey Berreth With Help From Secret Girlfriend: ProsecutorsLee recounted that in 2018, Frazee asked her three times to kill Berreth on his behalf, claiming she was abusing their 1-year-old daughter and needed to be stopped. The nurse said while she initially agreed to help, she backed out before each murder attempt. "His little girl is being abused," Lee testified. "I understand if it was wrong. I didn't know what to do so I didn't make correct decisions."Prosecutors said when Lee failed to help Frazee murder Berreth, the "cold, calculating manipulator" took matters into his own hands. Afterward, Lee said Frazee told her, "I need your help, and I need your help now. You have a mess to clean up."Lee said during their frantic clean up of Berreth's apartment, Frazee told her to "get the candles wiped up, get the bathroom done, and wipe up the footprints," and threatened to kill her if she failed to do a sufficient job. Kelsey Berreth Murder Suspect's Secret Ex: He 'Told Me to Take Care of the Problem'"He asked me if I got it done. I told him the best that I could do. He said, 'You better hope you did, because your life depends on it,'" she said during the trial, according to The Gazette.After the Nov. 24 cleanup, she said the two went to Frazee's ranch, where the 33-year-old set Berreth's body on fire, along with several trash bags. To further trick authorities, Lee said she took Berreth's cellphone to Idaho—nearly 800 miles away from the missing mom's home in Woodland Park—for the signal to ping before burning it. Read 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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| There Is No Going Back If Iran Sinks A U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier Posted: 27 Jan 2020 01:30 PM PST  It would mean war.
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| Biden-Tied Lobbyist Bought Island Property from Biden’s Brother, Gave Him Mortgage Loan Posted: 28 Jan 2020 06:28 AM PST  Financial records reviewed by Politico show that Joe Biden's brother James sold one of his three parcels of land in the U.S. Virgin Islands at a substantial profit to a well-connected lobbyist who then extended a mortgage to James on the remaining two parcels.In May 2005, James Biden purchased an acre of land on Water Island for $150,000. He then applied for and received an easement to divide the property into three plots, one of which he sold to lobbyist Scott Green — a decade-long Senate staffer for Joe Biden in the 1980s — for $150,000. James had initially purchased all three parcels for $150,000, meaning that he made his money back and was able to keep the majority of the one acre plot for himself.Green's lobbying firm, Lafayette Group — which features a photo of Green with Biden on its website and quotes Biden endorsing Green — earned two government contracts from the Federal Emergency Management Agency worth a total of $5.8 million on April 11, 2010.Three days later, Green extended a $133,300 mortgage to James Biden for his remaining Water Island property. Property records reviewed by Politico show that Green had "received full payment and full satisfaction" and released the mortgage in September 2013.Joe Biden and his family traveled to Water Island several times during his vice presidency, but did not stay on his brother's or Green's land, which remains undeveloped.Lafayette Group earned tens of millions of dollars in government contracts during the course of Biden's time as vice president. During his time in the Senate, Biden also advocated for a number of areas in which Green's lobbying intersected, including a broadband network for first responders and the non-profit Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program.
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| Rep. Doug Collins expected to run for Senate, setting up GOP clash Posted: 27 Jan 2020 04:42 PM PST  The move complicates Republicans' efforts to hold on to a battleground Senate seat.
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| What Salvini's Setback Means for Italy Posted: 27 Jan 2020 01:31 AM PST ![What Salvini's Setback Means for Italy]( "What Salvini's Setback Means for Italy") (Bloomberg Opinion) -- In the end, Italy's red wall held up against Matteo Salvini's assault.The leader of the right-wing League had hoped to score a famous win in a regional election in Emilia-Romagna, an area with strong leftist traditions. Voters thought otherwise: Stefano Bonaccini, the incumbent Democratic Party governor, won convincingly on Sunday against his opponent, Lucia Borgonzoni. The populist Five Star Movement collapsed to less than 5%.The result is a setback for Salvini, who campaigned extensively in the region in the hope of wounding mortally the coalition government of the Democrats and Five Star. But it would be foolish to rule him out. Emilia-Romagna was always an ambitious target. The right-wing partnership of the League, the Brothers of Italy and Forza Italia won big in Calabria, a Southern region that also went to the polls at the weekend.The latest trouncing of Five Star, still the largest party in parliament, might have a mixed impact on the government. Its lawmakers could keep propping up the executive because they fear losing their seats in a fresh election, but some might defect in the hope of winning Salvini's favors — with the expectation that he'll take power eventually (the League dominates national polls). The coalition is extremely fragile.Nevertheless, Salvini has again failed to deliver a killing blow. The elections in Emilia-Romagna, Italy's sixth-largest region by population and one of the richest, are his second tactical blunder since the Summer. In August he collapsed the turbo-populist alliance of the League and Five Star as he felt certain he'd secure a new general election, which would propel his right-wing grouping to government. The Democrats and Five Star chose to form an unlikely partnership instead, scuppering his plans.This time Salvini turned a regional vote into a test for government, as he smelled blood in Emilia-Romagna. With hindsight this too was a mistake. A defeat in Emilia-Romagna was, in a sense, perfectly normal. Yet the narrative has shifted: Today, Salvini comes across as a loser.The result offers respite to the Democrats, who are regrouping after a string of poor electoral results. But they should hold off on the Lambrusco, Emilia-Romagna's favorite sparkling wine. Sunday's victory is the same as the U.K. Labour party winning seats in deep-red Liverpool. In usual times, there would be nothing to celebrate. As the result in Calabria shows, Salvini's right-wing coalition is dominant in most of the country.The biggest uncertainty relates to the government. Five Star is in an existential crisis as its candidates in both regions failed to get anywhere near 10%. Luigi Di Maio, Italy's foreign minister, resigned last week as party leader because he wanted to avoid blame for the inevitable defeats. The party will hold its first congress in March, but it is split into factions between those who want a closer relationship with the left and those who don't. It has no obvious figure capable of reuniting its members.The Democrats will hope that they can replicate what Salvini did with Five Star in the last administration: Force them into submission by exploiting their fear of a new election. This might shake off the torpor from the government of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on a range of topics from immigration to industrial policy. Italy would then move in a more classically social democratic direction.It's also entirely possible, however, that Five Star's implosion means the government loses its parliamentary majority, which is already very slim in the Senate. In any new national vote, Salvini would be the strong favorite.The best chance for the Democrats and Five Star is to make the government work much better. The left won in Emilia-Romagna because the region has fared well thanks to pragmatic local administration. The same cannot be said for Italy as a whole.To contact the author of this story: Ferdinando Giugliano at fgiugliano@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: James Boxell at jboxell@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.Ferdinando Giugliano writes columns on European economics for Bloomberg Opinion. He is also an economics columnist for La Repubblica and was a member of the editorial board of the Financial Times.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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| Warning shots fired as migrants rush Serbia's border with Hungary Posted: 28 Jan 2020 01:04 AM PST  A Hungarian security officer fired three warning shots early on Tuesday after about 60 migrants tried to force their way through a checkpoint on the border with Serbia, and Serbian police said later they had arrested 37 people for trying to cross the frontier illegally. No one was wounded in the incident, which took place at the Roszke/Horgos border crossing, Hungarian police spokeswoman Szilvia Szabo said. Hungarian police said the group tried to enter the European Union member state at the crossing at about 0430 GMT, prompting the security officer on site to fire the warning shots.
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| US military's Special Operations Command says its newest recruits may have an 'unhealthy sense of entitlement' Posted: 28 Jan 2020 02:58 PM PST  "It didn't happen during our period," a former Delta Force commander told Business Insider. "We really were severe about policing ourselves."
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| How the world discovered the Nazi death camps Posted: 26 Jan 2020 08:01 PM PST  Images of what the Allies found when they liberated the first Nazi death camps towards the end of World War II brought the horror of the Holocaust to global attention. Many of the ghastly pictures were at first held back from the broader public, partly out of concern for those with missing relatives. The concentration and extermination camps were liberated one by one as the Allied armies advanced on Berlin in the final days of the 1939-1945 war.
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| Harvard professor charged with hiding China ties, payments Posted: 28 Jan 2020 01:47 PM PST  A Harvard University professor was charged Tuesday with lying about his ties to a Chinese-run recruitment program and concealing payments he received from the Chinese government for research. Charles Lieber, chair of the department of chemistry and chemical biology, is accused of hiding his involvement in China's Thousand Talents Plan, a program designed to lure people with knowledge of foreign technology and intellectual property to China. Lieber was arrested early Tuesday at his office at the Ivy League university, officials said.
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| Israel's Air Force Has a New Air-Launched "Rampage" Ballistic Missile Posted: 28 Jan 2020 09:00 AM PST  And it was just used for the first time.
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| Alabama Dem Doug Jones Praises Dershowitz for ‘Some Good Points’ in Impeachment Defense Posted: 28 Jan 2020 07:12 AM PST  Senator Doug Jones (D., Ala.) told reporters Monday night that President Trump's defense-team lawyer Alan Dershowitz made "some good points" relating to the second article of impeachment against Trump, and implied he could split his vote over concerns with the "obstruction of congress" charge."He did make some good points on a couple of things on factual issues that I've got concerns about with, especially with regard to Article II," Jones told USA Today. But Jones criticized the defense team for its efforts to dispute the first article of "abuse of power.""They're focusing solely on the [July 25th call] transcript and there's so much more to the story than the transcript, and they continue to talk about cross-examination of witnesses but yet they continue to block witnesses that have first-hand knowledge. That's disingenuous," he continued.The freshman Senator added that he "just don't buy" Dershowitz's assertion that Trump's impeachment was based on a non-literal reading of the Constitution.Dershowitz said during arguments Monday that the president did not commit an abuse of power even if he did "demand a quid pro quo as a condition to sending aid to a foreign country" — a claim John Bolton makes in his upcoming memoir. He explained that convicting Trump for abuse of power over the withholding of military aid would require that jurors assume Trump's motive for orchestrating the quid pro quo was self-serving and not in the national interest.Jones, who faces a stiff reelection challenge in Alabama, said last month that "gaps in testimony" after the House's case left him "trying to see if the dots get connected" before the vote in the Senate.The Alabama Democrat also seemed to imply that he could vote to convict Trump on abuse of power, but could acquit him on obstruction of Congress."I try to keep these separate," he explained. "My training as a judge is saying, each count stands on its own. And that's how I'm trying to continue to look at this."Jones said that he had taken several hundred pages of notes during the trial, but was still not sure how he would vote."I ask myself a lot of questions and I'll go back, I'll argue with myself a lot tonight," he said. "It's the way I do things."
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| Sanders Leads in N.H., Iowa While Biden Still Ahead Nationally Posted: 26 Jan 2020 07:45 PM PST ![Sanders Leads in N.H., Iowa While Biden Still Ahead Nationally]( "Sanders Leads in N.H., Iowa While Biden Still Ahead Nationally") (Bloomberg) -- New polls showed the unsettled state of the Democratic primary days before the first voters weigh in at the Iowa caucuses, with front-runner status still unclear.Vice President Joe Biden holds a sizable lead nationally, but many polls show Democrats in the early-voting states favor Bernie Sanders, which could spark the Vermont senator's campaign for the contests ahead.Winning in the early states is critical to generate momentum to continue on through Super Tuesday on March 3, when populous states including California and Texas hold their primaries. Biden, in particular, has run on the notion of electability -- losing early on could dampen that argument. National polls aren't particularly predictive of the eventual nominee at this point.A poll by Emerson University of the first caucus state found Sanders leading with 30%, followed by Biden at 21% and Amy Klobuchar at 13%. The poll marks the first time this cycle Klobuchar placed in the top three. Elizabeth Warren was at 11% and Pete Buttigieg 10%. That poll has a margin of error of 4.6 percentage points.But Suffolk University and USA Today's poll of Iowa painted a different picture. Biden led with 25%, followed by Sanders with 19%, Buttigieg with 18%, Warren 13% and Klobuchar 6%. That poll had a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points.That poll found that 13% of Iowans were undecided and a whopping 45% say they could still change their minds. In the Emerson Poll, 38% of Iowans said they could change their minds.Sanders led in New Hampshire polls from CNN/University of New Hampshire and NBC News/Marist, as well as one for Iowa by the New York Times/Siena College released over the weekend.Biden maintained the lead in national polls from the Washington Post/ABC News and Fox News. The state of the race remains tight eight days before the first delegates will be assigned and the primary season officially kicks off after months of campaigning.Granite StateThe CNN poll found Sanders with a lead in the first primary state with 25%. Behind him were Biden at 16%, Buttigieg at 15%, and Warren with 12%.Sanders was also ahead in the NBC News poll of New Hampshire voters, where support was widely dispersed. Following Sanders at 22% was Buttigieg with 17%, Biden with 15%, Warren with 13%, and Klobuchar at 10%.The CNN poll had a margin of error of 4.3 percentage points and NBC poll of 3.8 percentage points.In Iowa, where voters will caucus on Feb. 3, Sanders was leading, according to the New York Times/Siena College survey, with 25% support. Buttigieg followed with 18%, Biden at 17%, and Warren at 15%. The poll's margin of error is 4.8 percentage points.Last MinuteBiden maintains a 6.4-point lead in the RealClearPolitics national average. The Washington Post/ABC nationwide poll released on Sunday found Biden with a double-digit lead over the rest of the field with 34%. Sanders followed with 22% and Warren with 14%; no other candidate had over 10%. The poll had a margin of error of 3.5 points.Fox News also released a national poll on Sunday that found Biden leading with 26%; it had a margin of error of 3 percentage points. Sanders followed with 23%, Warren 14% and Michael Bloomberg with 10%. Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.Despite his lead in the early states, Sanders is far from a certain win there. Iowans are known for deciding who to support at the last minute, even after candidates have criss-crossed the states for months and in some cases years.Impeachment ImpactA CBS poll released on Sunday showed little more than a third of those expressing a candidate choice in Iowa had "definitely" made up their minds. And the Times/Siena poll found 39% of likely caucus-goers have yet to make a final decision.The impeachment trial of President Donald Trump will keep Sanders in Washington, along with the other senators in the race -- Warren, Klobuchar and Michael Bennet of Colorado -- for much of the key time.Sanders acknowledged as much at a rally in Marshalltown, Iowa Saturday."We've had to radically change our schedule in the past week, toss it into the garbage can and begin anew," Sanders said. "But we are going to be back in Iowa this week in every place we possibly can."The CBS poll suggested missing out on a final candidate handshakes or town-hall meeting won't have a big effect, though. Two-thirds of Iowa Democrats said senators spending time at the impeachment trial won't make a difference to their vote.(Adds details in paragraphs 4 to 6)To contact the reporter on this story: Emma Kinery in Washington at ekinery@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Derek Wallbank at dwallbank@bloomberg.net, Ros KrasnyFor 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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| Venezuelan police capture fugitive Colombian senator who fled via dentist's office Posted: 28 Jan 2020 08:32 AM PST ![Venezuelan police capture fugitive Colombian senator who fled via dentist's office]( "Venezuelan police capture fugitive Colombian senator who fled via dentist's office") Venezuelan special police detained a fugitive Colombian former senator who had illegally crossed the border, the force's chief said, four months after she escaped custody by climbing out of her dentist's office in Bogota. Aida Merlano, a former Conservative senator who was imprisoned last year for vote buying, made her theatrical escape in October, lowering herself with a rope and fleeing on the back of a delivery motorcycle. Jose Dominguez, head of Venezuela's FAES Special Action Force, wrote on his Instagram account late on Monday that officers detained her in the city of Maracaibo, capital of western Zulia state by the Colombian border.
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| Hunter Biden will pay child support to the mother of his child in Arkansas Posted: 28 Jan 2020 07:22 AM PST  Hunter Biden has agreed to pay child support to the mother of his child in Arkansas and backpay 13 months of missed installments.
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| The helicopter that carried Kobe Bryant and 8 others before crashing on a hillside did not have a black box on board, investigators say Posted: 27 Jan 2020 05:17 PM PST  The National Transportation Safety Board said on Monday that investigators are working to determine the cause of the crash.
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| Mexico deports 2,300 Hondurans from '2020 Caravan' Posted: 27 Jan 2020 11:52 PM PST  Mexican migration authorities said they have deported 2,300 Hondurans who illegally crossed over from Guatemala with a caravan heading to the United States. The "assisted return" of the Central Americans took place between January 18 and Monday, according to the interior ministry and the National Migration Institute. A total of 1,064 Honduran migrants were deported on National Guard planes and charter aircraft, they said in a statement.
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| Autistic futures trader who triggered crash spared prison Posted: 28 Jan 2020 04:31 PM PST  A U.S. judge Tuesday sentenced a socially awkward math whiz-turned-futures trader who earned tens of millions of dollars over several years and helped trigger a U.S. stock market "flash crash" from his parents' suburban London home to time served and a year's home confinement, sparing him imprisonment after prosecutors praised his cooperation and said his crimes were entirely unmotivated by greed. Government prosecutors and defense lawyers described the 41-year-old Navinder Singh Sarao as autistic in memos filed before sentencing in Chicago federal court.
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| The Israeli Army Is Unprepared for a Ground War with Iran and Hezbollah Posted: 28 Jan 2020 02:53 AM PST  If Israel has to go to war tomorrow against Iran or its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah, there's a problem. The Israeli mechanized division that would defend Israel's northern border, or enter Syria or Lebanon to eject Iranian and pro-Iranian forces, are in bad shape.
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| Dems’ Impeachment Guru Flirted With #Resistance Conspiracies — and Went to War With Alan Dershowitz Posted: 28 Jan 2020 08:24 AM PST  He's the Harvard law professor advising Democrats on their impeachment playbook. There's just one problem: His adventures in the extremely online world of the anti-Trump "Resistance" took him a little off the deep end for a while. Laurence Tribe has spent decades as a respected constitutional law scholar, but the Trump era saw him buddy up for a bit with the fringiest of fringey Resistance conspiracists online in amplifying far-fetched theories about how President Donald Trump and his crew might finally meet justice, some of which Tribe now regrets partaking in. And in another sign of the divisiveness of the Trump era, Tribe and his more MAGA-friendly Harvard Law colleague Alan Dershowitz—who is defending the president in his impeachment trial—have descended into a bitter feud, with Dershowitz accusing Tribe of harboring a "vendetta" against him for supporting Trump throughout his various legal woes. Tribe has been pushing for Trump's impeachment and removal from office from the day former FBI Director James Comey was sacked. Since then, he's urged House Democrats to take the impeachment plunge and, when they finally got there, counseled top lawmakers on how to handle it, even huddling with them personally ahead of key hearings.In a very Washington coincidence, Tribe counts both Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA)—the lead prosecutor of Democrats' case against Trump—and Chief Justice John Roberts, the referee in Trump's trial—as former law school pupils. Tribe did not make himself available for an interview but answered emailed questions from The Daily Beast. He declined to go into details about the advice he is giving to Democrats as they lay out to the Senate and the public their case to impeach Trump—but he noted it was "accurate" that his ideas on impeachment have proven influential within the Democratic caucus. Dershowitz Can't Give a Straight Answer on Impeachment RoleIndeed, it was Tribe who first described the plan that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) turned to in hopes of getting an upper hand over Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). In a Washington Post op-ed published two days before the House passed articles of impeachment, Tribe argued that Pelosi had no obligation to immediately send the articles to the Senate so it could begin the trial, because McConnell's closeness with Trump ensured it would be unfair. "Under the current circumstances," Tribe wrote, "such a proceeding would fail to render a meaningful verdict of acquittal." Pelosi ultimately heeded his advice and held the articles of impeachment for 28 days, a move that altered the course of the impeachment process. Hill Democrats say Tribe has been an engaged, if sober, presence in the impeachment process. When he met with House Judiciary Committee Democrats to help prepare them for their impeachment hearings in December, his presentation was "very dry," according to a Democratic source. Online, however, Tribe has been much more colorful. His takes, backed by the weight of his half-century of legal scholarship, sometimes meaningfully push the envelope, as Pelosi's hold-the-articles gambit showed. Other times, they have strayed a bit too far into the fever swamps. MAN OF STEELEIn December 2017, Tribe approvingly shared a prediction from another Resistance Twitter star, Brian Krassenstein, who tweeted that he had "no doubt in my mind that before all is said and done Devin Nunes will be headed to prison.""I'm willing to bet @krassenstein is right," tweeted Tribe. "Nunes is headed to federal prison." Since then, Nunes has not come close to federal prison. Krassenstein, however, has been banned from Twitter and had his Florida home raided by the FBI. Nor is Krassenstein the only Resistance figure Tribe's aligned with. In the past, Tribe has approvingly shared the views of Louise Mensch, the British pundit whose fantastical commentary on Robert Mueller's Russia investigation made her an online favorite.Mensch is notorious for, among other things, declaring that her "sources say the death penalty, for espionage, being considered for @StevenKBannon." In March 2017, Tribe tweeted a link to an interview Mensch did with the BBC in which, among other things, she reiterated her belief that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the murder of Andrew Breitbart, the founder of Breitbart. (He did not.)Tribe told The Daily Beast that his views of Mensch have since changed. Asked if he regretted amplifying her views, he said, "Of course I do." The professor has also revisited another favorite topic: the Steele dossier. In late 2017, Tribe tweeted a challenge: Had anything in the 35-page memo compiled by a British spy during the 2016 campaign—which made explosive claims about Russian collusion with Trump—been off-base?Since then, some of the dossier's key claims—including a colorful anecdote involving Trump, prostitutes, and bodily fluids in a Moscow hotel room—remain unsubstantiated. Others, like the claim that Trump fixer Michael Cohen met with Russian officials during the 2016 campaign, have been proven false. In January 2019, before Mueller dealt the final death blow to the Prague theory, Tribe was still referencing it on Twitter. He told The Daily Beast on Monday that he doubts the meeting occurred. "I may well have missed," said Tribe, "some aspects of what the Steele dossier contained." But Tribe has stuck to his guns on the question of Nunes. When the former GOP chairman of the House Intelligence Committee was under scrutiny at the time for possible coordination with the White House on the panel's investigation into the Trump campaign's ties with Russia, Tribe didn't just think Nunes was wrong but possibly breaking the law. Tribe told The Daily Beast last week that he continues to believe Nunes, who has since come under scrutiny for his contacts with figures involved in the Ukraine probe, "has significant criminal exposure and that a principled Justice Department would prosecute him." In a statement to The Daily Beast, a spokesperson for Nunes did not comment on Tribe's claims but said "it'd be hard to find anybody who would take Laurence Tribe or The Daily Beast seriously." ENTER THE DERSHAnother wrinkle to Tribe's impeachment role is his escalating feud with Dershowitz. The two celebrity legal experts, once friendly colleagues at Harvard Law, find themselves on opposite sides of the Trump impeachment and drifting further apart by the day. On Monday, when Dershowitz testified in defense of Trump in the Senate impeachment trial, he name-checked Tribe two times as an example of someone who was inconsistent on legal questions of impeachment. Tribe, meanwhile, live-tweeted takedowns of Dershowitz's arguments. In an interview with The Daily Beast last week, Dershowitz—who has occasionally responded to Tribe, but with far less frequency—said he doesn't pay much attention to Twitter but claimed that his former colleague has a "personal vendetta" against him. "He's a partisan," said Dershowitz. "I think he was assigned a job by the anti-Trump people to try to destroy me and he's accepted that assignment, which I think is pretty immoral." He also claimed that Tribe would be silent if Hillary Clinton faced similar charges had she become president. Tribe told The Daily Beast the notions that his partisan feelings inform his legal judgment—or that he has it out for Dershowitz—were ridiculous."Why would I have a 'vendetta' against Alan?" Tribe asked in an email. "We were colleagues and friends for years, and although we've disagreed at times I used to come to his defense with some frequency. I've become a vocal critic of Alan's increasingly unhinged arguments in defense of President Trump's conduct only because those arguments have seemed to me increasingly bizarre and increasingly dangerous."Team Trump Settles on Its Impeachment Defense: A Healthy Dose of Lib Triggering"The one and only compass Alan Dershowitz follows these days," leveled Tribe, "is the one that will bring him maximum media attention."Tribe has also kept a close eye on two of the trial's most central players, Schiff and Roberts.The California congressman, who graduated from Harvard Law School in 1985 and was a research assistant for Tribe while there, is among the many students—including Barack Obama—whom Tribe has mentored. Schiff, said Tribe, "remains among the brightest and most promising students I have taught in a half-century career at Harvard Law School… His handling of the Intelligence Committee's work, and his performance as a House Impeachment manager, have been breathtakingly effective."Schiff, for his part, had nothing but good things to say about Tribe in a statement provided to The Daily Beast. "Larry is a dear friend, former professor, and trusted mentor," said Schiff. "He's been a great source of knowledge on the law and Constitution for all of us throughout this process, and we're lucky to have the best constitutional law scholar in the nation advising us." HE'S GOT THE POWERWhile Tribe's praise for Schiff has been effusive and encouraging, his praise of Roberts, whom he has called "fair-minded and brilliant," has sounded a more aspirational note. According to the Constitution, the chief justice presides over a Senate trial, but tradition has dictated that the role is more ceremonial and procedural than substantial.Among some observers, however, there is hope that Roberts could play a significant role in resolving key questions about the trial. In the event of a tied vote, Roberts could cast a decisive role for or against new evidence. He could also quickly resolve any legal challenge from the White House regarding the legality of a subpoena for officials like John Bolton or Mick Mulvaney.Tribe predicted to MSNBC's Laurence O'Donnell that Roberts could rule in favor of new witnesses and documents if the situation arises. "If he is asked to issue a subpoena, I think he will use his power to do it," Tribe said.It's one of many predictions Tribe has made over the course of nearly three years of excited Trump-era tweeting and opining. Notably, he has yet to predict Trump's conviction or acquittal—but has suggested there will be chaos no matter what."Even if an unremoved Trump is defeated this Nov 4 so overwhelmingly that he doesn't even try to hang onto power beyond next January 20," tweeted Tribe, "imagine the havoc this vengeful man could wreak in the intervening 77 days, pardoning his loyal henchmen and attacking political adversaries."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get 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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| Sanders Leads, Klobuchar Climbs and Buttigieg Drops in Iowa Posted: 26 Jan 2020 07:17 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Senator Amy Klobuchar has broken into the top three Democratic presidential candidates in Iowa for the first time, a poll released Sunday showed. It was the third poll of the day to show her rival, Bernie Sanders as the frontrunner in an early state.An Emerson University poll showed Sanders leading in Iowa with 30% while Joe Biden followed with 21%. Klobuchar was in third with 13% ahead of Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg who had 11% and 10%, respectively. The poll was conducted from Jan. 23-26 and has a margin of error of 4.6 percentage points.Since December, Sanders has risen 8 percentage points in the Emerson poll. Conversely, Buttigieg fell 8 percentage points. Klobuchar's rise comes on the heels of an endorsement from The New York Times.Two New Hampshire polls released Sunday morning by CNN/University of New Hampshire and NBC News/Marist both also found Sanders in first.(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.)This post is part of Campaign Update, our live coverage from the 2020 campaign trail.To contact the author of this story: Emma Kinery in Washington at ekinery@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Magan Sherzai at mcrane19@bloomberg.net, Virginia Van NattaFor 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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| Iran lawmakers call for debate on quitting nuclear arms treaty Posted: 28 Jan 2020 01:49 AM PST  A group of Iranian lawmakers on Tuesday asked parliament to debate a motion for Iran to quit a treaty governing global nuclear arms control, a move apparently aimed at pressuring European powers to salvage Tehran's own 2015 nuclear deal. A report on the assembly's news site ICANA said a minimum number of MPs had signed a request to parliament's managers to arrange a debate on the motion for Iran to take the far-reaching step of leaving the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said last week that Iran could withdraw from the NPT if European countries refer the country to the U.N. Security Council over the 2015 deal, a move that would overturn diplomacy in Tehran's turbulent relations with Western powers.
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| US Navy’s first Triton drones arrive in Guam Posted: 28 Jan 2020 01:25 PM PST  Two drones arrived in Guam and will serve as part of an early operational capability to develop a concept of operations for the high-altitude, long-endurance systems.
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| US forces recover two bodies from jet crash site in Afghanistan Posted: 28 Jan 2020 01:23 PM PST  US forces on Tuesday recovered two bodies near the wreckage of a military jet that crashed in a Taliban-controlled area of eastern Afghanistan, after Afghan forces trying to reach the scene clashed with insurgents. "The remains were found near the crash site, treated with dignity and respect by the local Afghan community, in accordance with their culture," the statement said. Ghazni police chief Khaled Wardak said US helicopters landed at the site in the late afternoon and were reinforced by Afghan security forces on the ground during the operation.
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| Sandy Hook denier charged with having victim's dad's ID info Posted: 28 Jan 2020 08:45 AM PST  A Florida man who repeatedly harassed parents of shooting victims at Sandy Hook Elementary School has been arrested for possessing the identification of one of the parents, authorities said. Wolfgang Halbig, 73, was arrested Monday on a charge that he was in unlawful possession of another person's identification, according to the Lake County Sheriff's Office. Halbig was a guest on the radio show of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
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| This Picture Could Start World War III: If North Korea Blasts Seoul with the 'Big Guns' Posted: 27 Jan 2020 01:02 AM PST  Or a massive artillery attack.
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| The outbreaks of both the Wuhan coronavirus and SARS likely started in Chinese wet markets. Photos show what the markets look like. Posted: 28 Jan 2020 10:35 AM PST  The Wuhan coronavirus outbreak likely started in a Chinese wet market, where livestock and poultry are sold alongside animals like dogs and civets.
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| Tsunami threat issued after 7.7 magnitude earthquake strikes near Jamaica Posted: 28 Jan 2020 01:21 PM PST  A tsunami threat message was issued Tuesday after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck near Jamaica and Cuba, CNN reports.The International Tsunami Information Center said Tuesday "hazardous tsunami waves are forecast for some coasts," per Reuters, and CNN writes there was a "threat of tsunami waves reaching 0.3 to 1 meter (about 1 to 3 feet) above tide level for the coasts of Jamaica, Belize, Cuba, Honduras, Mexico and the Cayman Islands."The earthquake, which struck shortly after 2:00 p.m. Eastern, was felt in Miami and caused "very strong to severe shaking in far western Jamaica," The Weather Channel reports, citing the U.S. Geological Survey. The Associated Press also reports it could be felt "strongly" in Santiago, where a witness said, "We were all sitting and we felt the chairs move. We heard the noise of everything moving around."There have not been reports of any casualties, and according to the National Tsunami Warning Center, there is no tsunami threat for the eastern United States or the Gulf of Mexico. The Washington Post reports, though, this "appeared to be one of the biggest [earthquakes] on record in the Caribbean, and the largest since 1946."More stories from theweek.com John Bolton just vindicated Nancy Pelosi All the president's turncoats It's 2020 and women are exhausted
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| Shunned by the West and China, Zimbabwe Turns to U.A.E. Posted: 27 Jan 2020 07:00 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Sign up to our Next Africa newsletter and follow Bloomberg Africa on TwitterSanctioned by the West and spurned by China, Zimbabwe has turned to the United Arab Emirates in its latest bid to find a savior that can arrest the collapse of its economy.Zimbabwe's government has approached the U.A.E. in hopes of selling a stake in its national oil company, according to three company and government officials familiar with the plan. It also wants companies in the U.A.E. to buy more of its gold, they said.President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said U.A.E. investors will build solar plants in Zimbabwe, and U.A.E. President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan a year ago issued a decree to open an embassy in Zimbabwe. Dubai also contributed to relief efforts when Zimbabwe was hit by a cyclone last year.Zimbabwe's economy is in free-fall: It likely contracted by more than 6% last year, according to government estimates. Half the population is in need of food aid, inflation is running at over 500% and its currency has depreciated by more than 90% against the dollar since a 1:1 peg was abolished in February last year."They need investment desperately," said Jee-A van der Linde, an economic analyst at NKC African Economics in Paarl, South Africa. "It's been snowballing. I don't know where it's going to end up. I don't know how that would be appealing for the U.A.E."Oil companies in the U.A.E. said they were unaware of the interest.Belarusian BusesThe U.A.E.'s foreign ministry didn't respond to requests for comment.The U.A.E. is not the only country Mnangagwa has targeted for potential investment. Since taking power from Robert Mugabe in a November 2017 coup, he has crisscrossed the globe and attended gatherings such as the World Economic Forum in Davos, repeating the mantra 'Zimbabwe is open for business.' Two trips to Russia and former Soviet republics revived interest in a platinum project and a fleet of second-hand Belarusian buses now ply the streets of the capital, Harare, and the second-biggest city, Bulawayo.By May 2019, investment pledges worth $27 billion had been announced in projects ranging from steel mills to abattoirs. There's little evidence that they are being developed.A visit by Wang Yi, the Chinese foreign minister in January ended with only pledges of further infrastructural projects being carried out by China. There was no mention by the "all-weather-friend" as Zimbabwe likes to describe China, extending any financial bailout.Zimbabwe wants to sell a stake of as much as 25% in the National Oil Infrastructure Company of Zimbabwe, the people said, declining to be identified as the plans haven't been disclosed.NOIC owns storage depots at the port of Beira in neighboring Mozambique as well as five locations in Zimbabwe. It also owns gas stations and the pipeline that brings oil products from Beira to Mutare for companies including Puma Energy BV, in eastern Zimbabwe.Fuel ShortagesZimbabwe is prone to frequent shortages of motor fuel and sees a relationship with the U.A.E., possibly through the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, as a way of securing supply, one of the people said. The southern African nation consumes 1.4 million liters of gasoline and 2.5 million liters of diesel daily, according to the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority."We are working toward establishing a permanent arrangement with friendly countries and that also includes the U.A.E.," said Fortune Chasi, Zimbabwe's energy minister, declining to comment directly on whether Zimbabwe had approached the U.A.E.(Adds Davos in eighth paragraph)\--With assistance from Zainab Fattah and Mahmoud Habboush.To contact the reporters on this story: Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg at asguazzin@bloomberg.net;Ray Ndlovu in Johannesburg at rndlovu1@bloomberg.net;Godfrey Marawanyika in Harare at gmarawanyika@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: John McCorry at jmccorry@bloomberg.net, Pauline Bax, Gordon BellFor 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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| Supreme Court allows Trump's 'public charge' immigration curb Posted: 27 Jan 2020 11:56 AM PST  The Supreme Court gave the go-ahead on Monday for one of President Trump's hard-line immigration policies, allowing his administration to implement a rule denying legal permanent residency to certain immigrants deemed likely to require government assistance in the future.
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| She Says He Raped Her Over 40 Years Ago. Now He's a Suspected Serial Killer. Posted: 28 Jan 2020 01:56 AM PST  When Fran met Bruce Lindahl, he didn't seem like a monster. Today, more than 40 years later, she considers herself lucky to be alive.She was 15 and Lindahl was in his early twenties when he first invited Fran and her friends over to his apartment in Lisle, Illinois, she recalled to The Daily Beast. He would buy alcohol for the girls and host parties at his place with his live-in girlfriend.He initially seemed like a "wonderful person," according to Fran, whose last name is being withheld at her request. (The Daily Beast does not name survivors of sexual violence without their consent.) He took her ice skating or to the movies, and even earned the trust of Fran's mother, who allowed him to be the adult driver in the passenger seat when she only had her learner's permit. Perhaps most of all, he was charming, she said.Now, police say Lindahl—who has been dead since the 1980s—could easily prove to be a serial killer.Is a Serial-Killer Gang Murdering Young Men Across the U.S.?On Jan. 13, police detectives in Lisle, a Chicago suburb, announced that thanks to advanced DNA forensics they were able to tie Bruce Lindahl to the murder of Pamela Maurer of Woodridge, who was found strangled on the side of a road in 1976. Mauer, who was just 16 at the time, decided to walk to a nearby store to buy a Coke that night. Police found her body the next morning. Perhaps most disturbing about the latest developments in the case: The lead detective, Chris Loudon, suggested DNA evidence could eventually tie Lindahl to dozens of other victims of violent crimes ranging from rape to murder."If Bruce wouldn't have accidentally killed himself, the death toll would have likely been astronomical," Loudon told The Daily Beast, adding that he would "bet his entire paycheck" Lindahl was responsible for at least nine murders—and may be linked to 12. And with at least 25 tips coming in daily, Loudon said, he believed that number could grow. He and fellow officers have leaned on some of the same techniques that were at least partially responsible for the capture of the suspected Golden State Killer, Joseph James DeAngelo, in 2018. Through DNA databases from popular services like 23andMe, a composite sketch was created. It bore a striking resemblance to Lindahl.Lindahl often had run-ins with the law, and investigators had suspected him in a number of heinous crimes prior to his death in 1981. He was charged with kidnapping and raping a woman named Debra Colliander in 1980, but the case fell apart when the victim went missing two weeks before she was set to testify. Her body was discovered in 1982.By then, Lindahl was dead, having been found in an apartment in the nearby Chicago suburb of Naperville, draped over 18-year-old Charles Huber. Detectives concluded Lindahl accidentally severed his own femoral artery while stabbing the young man 28 times with a six-inch kitchen knife.But Fran knew Lindahl was capable of wanton brutality and violence before police did.When she was still a teenager, Lindahl invited her over for drinks early one morning, which had become a regular occurrence by then. When Fran arrived, she recalled, he had her favorite—a scotch on the rocks—ready for her. But after just a couple of sips, she said, she dropped the drink, lost control of her motor functions, and went limp.Lindahl proceeded to attack her, she said, stripping her of her clothes, taking photographs of her in various poses, and raping her. She recalled the assault continuing until she grew "very, very sick."She said she asked Lindahl to take her to a nearby hospital and that he refused, insisting she was OK. Instead, Fran remembered Lindahl going so far as to take some of her friends skiing that same day. She spent the day trying to sleep in the back of his car.Despite the assault, Fran added, she didn't feel comfortable completely distancing herself from Lindahl, and their relationship—abusive and violent though it was—would continue for a few more years. "When Bruce said jump, I said, 'How high?'" she said.At the time, and perhaps even today, Fran says, she felt responsible for what happened to her. Although she was just a teenager, she described some sexual encounters with Lindahl that were "consensual" in her mind.She didn't tell any of her friends or family. Not only did she worry about being believed, she felt that Lindahl would do "something terrible" to her.Fran recalled another night when Lindahl insisted she come over to his place. When she arrived, Lindahl's girlfriend was sleeping in the next room. He then forced Fran to perform oral sex on him and demanded she sneak out the window when he was finished, she recalled."I thought if I screamed, he would hurt me," she said. Fran still remembers the last time she saw Lindahl, too.She was 18 and had taken a job that required her to work the graveyard shift. That meant she almost never saw Lindahl anymore. She thought she had escaped him, or perhaps that he had moved on to other women.Until one morning, when she passed Lindahl's car on the way home from work. Lindahl must have been waiting for her; he followed her back to her house.She pleaded with Lindahl that she was tired from work and needed sleep, but he ignored her and followed her into the house, she said. When he grabbed the family Polaroid camera and followed her upstairs, she feared the worst.To this day, Fran isn't entirely sure how she convinced Lindahl to leave that morning. But she was able to coax him out of the house and escape unharmed.Learning of his death was the only way out of being haunted by him."I was thrilled," she said, recalling relief washing over her when she saw him on local news.Fran never allowed Lindahl to define her life. She started a family and worked hard; years would go by without her thinking about the man. But she never stopped worrying about Lindahl's girlfriend, she said.Years after Lindahl died, she thought she ran into her in a Chicago suburb. When Fran asked if she was who she thought she was, the woman denied it and turned white. She was living under a different name than Fran remembered, she said. "I always worried that maybe she didn't know Bruce was dead," she said. "That maybe she was living her life in hiding."Over the years, Fran has grappled with guilt and wondered if she should have spoken up sooner. But when she saw the news of his being tied to so many other grisly crimes, she realized how close she may have come to becoming one of Lindahl's alleged murder victims herself.She said she doesn't feel brave or courageous telling her story. But after reading pleas from detectives in media reports, she felt the need to come forward. "I always felt like everything was my fault. I guess I've always been that way," she said. She subsequently reached out to police and was interviewed by Detective Loudon. Still, Fran added, she couldn't help suspecting that keeping her head down saved her at a time when perpetrators of sexual violence were even less likely to be prosecuted than they are today."Somehow, I always knew to be afraid," she said. "I feel lucky I kept my mouth shut."Read 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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