Tuesday, October 31, 2017 - Today is
Halloween
U.S. warns of North Korean
'provocations'
After months of rising tensions on the
Korean Peninsula, Pyongyang seems to have gone quiet. In the first 10 months of
this year, North Korea launched 22 missiles and tested a hydrogen bomb, while
threatening to fire missiles over the U.S. mainland.
U.S. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), has
suggested that President Trump's tweets taking aim at North Korea are
undermining diplomatic efforts regarding the country and its surrounding
region.
The U.S. should stop threatening North
Korea and instead assure leader Kim Jong-Un that there are no plans to oust him,
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has said ahead of his meeting with
President Donald Trump next month.
A South Korean lawmaker says North Korea
hacked Daewoo Shipbuilding and stole warship blueprints.
And North Korea has blasted Britain's
"wicked" claim that it was behind the hack attack on the National Health Service
(NHS). Up to 300,000 computers in 150 countries were hit by "WannaCry," which
seized systems and demanded payment in Bitcoin to return control to users.
U.S. forces capture Benghazi suspect in
Libya
U.S. forces have captured Mustafa
al-Imam in Libya for his alleged role in the 2012 Benghazi attacks that killed
four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, the White House
announced yesterday.
China considering three-year jail terms for those
who disrespect its national anthem
China's Parliament is considering
criminal penalties for those who dis-respect the nation's national
anthem, officials said yesterday.
Is Iraq now an Iranian colony?
The recent takeover of Kirkuk by the
Iranian-backed militias and the Iraqi army clearly illustrates that now
Iran is calling the shots in every important decision of Iraq.
Catalan leader in Belgium, lawyer
says
Sacked Catalan President Carles
Puigdemont has gone to Belgium, a lawyer he has hired there says. The lawyer,
Paul Bekaert, said he had not gone into hiding and did not deny he might seek
asylum.
Spanish authorities moved aggressively
yesterday to quash Catalonia's bid for independence as separatist leaders
appeared to retreat just days after declaring their region a free nation.
Wife of Chechen accused of plot to assassinate Putin
shot dead
The Ukrainian wife of a Chechen man
accused by Russia of plotting to kill President Vladimir Putin was shot dead
outside Kiev yesterday in an attack that also wounded her husband, Ukrainian
interior ministry officials said.
China's president promises
reform
Chinese President Xi Jinping
has promised to open the country's economy wider during a meeting with
American business leaders ahead of a visit by U.S. President Donald Trump.
U.S. pledges up to $60 million for security in the
Sahel region
The U.S.' support for the G5 force falls
short of an expectation by France and others that Washington would back direct
funding from the United Nations. The Trump administration says the money is to
"stop the next reservoir of Islamic terrorists."
Kenya's president posts huge reelection
win
The Oct. 26th re-election is now
showing incumbent President Uhuru M. Kenyatta with an insurmountable "commanding
98.32%" lead over his challengers (including the main one, Raila Odinga, who
withdrew from the race).
Nervous Kenyans waited today for the
response of opposition leader Raila Odinga to President Kenyatta's victory in
last week's election, which inflamed the deep ethnic tensions dividing the East
African nation.
Eight killed as Israeli forces attack
tunnel
By Lisa Levine, News of the Force Tel Aviv
Eight people were killed when the
Israeli military struck a tunnel leading into Israel from the Gaza Strip,
according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian
armed groups have vowed to respond to Israel's attack on the tunnel in a
southern town of the Gaza Strip late yesterday that left at least eight
people dead and nine others wounded.
And more and more, local Arabs are
defying death threats and intimidation to tell the truth about Israel.
Couzin Gym's Thought for the
Day: Midlife is when you go to the doctor and you realize you are
now so old that you have to pay someone to look at you naked.
U.S. Coast Guard
Two women from Hawaii who say they were
adrift in the Pacific for five months say they didn't use their emergency
radio beacon because "there wasn't enough danger." The U.S. Coast Guard and Navy
rescued them when they were 900 miles of course. Jennifer Appel and Tasha
Fuiava, with their dogs, arrived yesterday at the White Beach Naval
Facility in Japan aboard USS Ashland.
A U.S. Coast Guard boat crew, which was
preparing for a training session, has rescued a dog
swimming alone from Lake Ponchartrain, La., and brought him
back to a nearby Coast Guard station.
The Coast Guard has rescued two people
after their boat ran aground near
Barnegat Inlet, N.J.
The U.S. Coast Guard has rescued two
boaters and their dog from Haulover Inlet, near North Miami Beach,
Fla.
A white Coast Guard cadet is being
investigated for playing a racist song in the room of an African-American
classmate, prompting a criminal investigation, the superintendent of the U.S.
Coast Guard Academy said yesterday.
The first Coast Guard cutter to be named
after a graduate of The Citadel will soon be commissioned. It's to be named for
Oliver Perry of the Class of 1928.
The U.S. Coast Guard has wrapped up its
seasonal operations in Kotzebue, Alaska.
Coast Guard crews from Corpus Christi
and South Padre Island, Texas, have rescued four fishermen from a sinking
commercial fishing boat 5 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico.
And in Florida, the Sarasota
Bradenton Ferry Co. is soliciting feedback from the community and future riders
as it develops plans for the service to connect downtown Sarasota to Bradenton
Beach by water. Although there is no exact launch date for the planned
149-passenger ferry, the company is eyeing early next year to roll out the first
modern service of its kind in Sarasota Bay. Initial plans call for the
ferry to depart Sarasota from the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary's Flotilla 84
building, and boarding in Bradenton at the Bradenton Beach Pier. The hour-long
trip would go back and forth every day from about 8 a.m. to 10:40 p.m. Fares
could be between $12.50 and $22.50 per person.
Homeland insecurity
The Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) is appealing a federal judge's order that would have freed Aurora, Colo.,
resident and Cuban immigrant Rene Lima-Martin, who was released by mistake from
a federal immigration detention facility, further delaying his
deportation.
And the former emergency services
director for Carbon County, Utah, who was accused of using federal grant
money to buy hundreds of items for himself, has been sentenced for stealing from
the DHS.
Crime stories
Danish inventor Peter Madsen
has admitted to dismembering the body of freelance journalist Kim Wall, the
Danish police said yesterday, marking the latest shift in Madsen's explanation
for how Wall's severed body sank to the sea floor off the coast of
Copenhagen.
The FBI has authorized for release all
previously withheld materials in its JFK assassination files. Currently the
limited redactions elate to individuals who provided information during the
course of the investigation and whose lives may be at risk if they are publicly
identified. Every effort is being made to lift the remaining redactions going
forward as those personal safety concerns are balanced with the goal of maximum
transparency, the FBI has said. The National Archives will release all remaining
records on a rolling basis in the coming weeks, the agency said.
The Tokyo police have arrested a man
after finding "multiple" dismembered bodies in coolers in his apartment in a
city southwest of the capital.
A British police force has said it is
investigating online sexual grooming after "inappropriate messages" were sent to
children on Snapchat.
The FBI has opened a preliminary inquiry
into the $300 million Whitefish Energy Holdings contract secured by the Puerto
Rico Electric Power Authority, according to a source with knowledge of the
inquiry.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda
Ardern said today a ban on foreigners buying existing homes would begin in early
2018, but the restrictions would not apply to Australians.
A former New Orleans, La., police
officer has been sentenced to 25 years in prison over a series of sexual
assaults on children.
New accusers are extending the sexual
assault claims against Harvey Weinstein back to the 1970s.
A British police force has launched an
investigation after it retweeted an illegal boxing stream that also showed
pornography.
Drunken assaults on Aspen, Colo., bus
drivers are increasing. Authorities say it's simply not possible to police every
bus, and a private security service now places two security officers on
the buses.
A Letterkenny, Pa., civil servant
has pleaded guilty to 12 charges related to accessing information from social
welfare files to pass on to private investigators.
A mother in Trenton, N.J., has been
fined $10,000 for illegally sending her children to another city's
schools.
The U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force in
Tucson, Ariz., arrests the most dangerous fugitives from arresting an alleged
child molester to rounding up a dangerous man who failed to appear in court on
drug and weapons violations.
The U.S. Marshals have helped the
Kileen, Texas, Police arrest a wanted teenager, as Lazarus Israel Duaquon
Bush, 17, was taken into custody.
After years of waiting, the United
States Marshals Museum (USMM) will "open" in Fort Smith, Ark., in the next
five to six weeks - at least virtually.
The U.S. Marshals Service's New York/New
Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force, along with special agents of ICE, have
taken a wanted MS-13 gang member and convicted sex offender into custody in
New York City.
In Mahoning County, Ohio, the U.S.
Marshals are looking for Miles Hogan, 53, who is charged with burglary and a
state parole violation.
And Paul Manafort and Rick Gates both
pleaded not guilty in a federal court yesterday. They entered a packed courtroom
for their arraignment, accompanied by U.S. Marshals, but were not
restrained in any way.
U.S. Air Force
The U.S. Air Force for the first time
has publicly stated that it believes it is not barred from flying
commercial payloads on its excess intercontinental ballistic missiles
(ICBMs).
Air Force Major Gen. Gary Sayler has
retired as the Adjutant General of Idaho and commanding general of the Idaho
Army and Air National Guard after 45 years of service.
The U.S. Air Force dispatched a B-2
Spirit stealth bomber from Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., to the Asia-Pacific
region over the weekend. Both the U.S. and Russia have sent nuclear
bombers there as tensions with North Korea soar.
A pair of U.S. Air Force F-35A fighter
jets flew to an air base in Japan's southern prefecture of Okinawa yesterday,
marking the first deployment of the fighters to Japan.
In a Powerpoint slide, the Air Force
Office of Special Investigations (OSI), the branch's chief investigative and
protective service and a central organ of counterintelligence, actually
authorized the Air Force to surveil U.S. citizens.
The Air Force-Wyoming football game on
Saturday, Nov. 11th, will be televised live on ESPNU and will kick off
at 8:15 p.m., Mountain Time.
Airmen with the 354th Fighter Wing at
Eielson AFB, Alaska, have started Exercise Arctic Gold 18-1.
Wyoming Air National Guard's 153rd
Airlift Wing has deployed 100 of its airmen to the Middle East.
In California, the March Field Air
Museum is set to honor military veterans. Since its inception, the March Field
Air Museum has welcomed active duty military, National Guard and reserve
personnel free of charge, year-round.
Airmen are preparing for "battle" at
Exercise Southern Strike. According to the Mississippi Air National Guard,
Southern Strike is based out of the Gulfport CRTC, but most range operations
occur at Camp Shelby, Miss.
A historic Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress,
a centerpiece of U.S. air power during World War II, has flown in to visit
Phoenix, Ariz.
U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Illinois),
is a pilot in the Air National Guard, which is a hard balance with his life in
Congress.
Soldiers from Ft. Bragg, N.C., recently
trained at Laurinburg-Maxton Airport. At the same time, pilots from the Civil
Air Patrol took turns working with local air traffic controllers operating out
of a mobile tower.
Civil Air Patrol national commander
Major Gen. Mark Smith has announced the CAP has contracted with a company called
"Verified Volunteers" to screen CAP members every five years for criminal
convictions concurring with their membership renewal dates, beginning in 2019.
Those who have already been screened with fingerprint cards will not have to
submit them again however, the general said. Our look into "Verified
Volunteers" gives a company address in Fort Collins, Colo., but it's business
phone number has a New York City area code.
And Air Force Tech. Sgt. Nathan “Nate”
E. Wall, 30, of Fulton, N.Y., died on Sunday, Oct. 22nd, while stationed with
the 569th Security Forces Squadron at Vogelweh Air Base, near Kaiserslautern,
Germany. A native of Fulton, he graduated from G. Ray Bodley High School's Class
of 2005 and received his associate’s degree in criminal justice through the
military. He was a member of the Oswego County Civil Air Patrol
squadron prior to joining the Air Force in 2005. Calling hours will be held
from 4 to 8 p.m., ET, on Friday, Nov. 3rd, at the Foster Funeral Home,
Inc., at 910 Fay St. in Fulton, N.Y. Services will be at 10 a.m.
on Saturday, Nov. 4th, at the Emmanuel Baptist Bible Church at 15564 State
Route 104, in Martville, N.Y., with burial with full military honors at the
Mount Adnah Cemetery at 706 E. Broadway in Fulton.
NOAA news
In reversing course, NOAA Fisheries
has said it will allow anglers in the South Atlantic to catch red snapper
for the first time in three years.
An animation of imagery from NOAA's GOES
East satellite shows the development, movement and demise of Tropical Storm
Philippe.
And NOAA's GOES East satellite
has provided an image of Post-Tropical Cyclone Selma as it dissipated near
the border of El Salvador and Honduras.
U.S. Public Health Service
President Trump's opioid panel will
recommend nationwide drug courts and tightened measures for prescriptions.
The commission will recommend a system for distributing federal funding and
health care workers from the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned
Corps will administer treatment and care in areas with above-average opioid
use.
And if you need to be tested for rabies,
your physician will decide whether you will need to receive the post-exposure
treatment recommended by the U.S. Public Health Service.
UFO news
There's spooky goings-on in the skies
above Bradford, England, after a photographer captured a group of mysterious
object seemingly flying in front of the moon. The image was taken in Queensbury
by Carl Conway at 7:05 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 29th. "I just took this photo and
noticed something flying across the moon. There are six of them apparently
flying in formation in the bottom left of the picture," Conway said.
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