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Natalee Holloway disappearance suspect pleads not guilty to extorting victim’s mother

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:23:50 GMT

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Joran van der Sloot, the chief suspect in Natalee Holloway’s 2005 disappearance, pleaded not guilty Friday in Alabama to charges he tried to extort money from the missing teen’s mother in exchange for revealing where to find her daughter’s remains.Although he’s not on trial for harming Holloway, the extortion and wire fraud charges are the only alleged crimes that link the Dutch citizen to Holloway’s unsolved disappearance on the Caribbean island of Aruba. The 18-year-old went missing during a high school graduation trip with classmates and was last seen leaving a bar with van der Sloot, a student at an international school on the island where he grew up.Van der Sloot, now 35, walked shackled into the Alabama courtroom Friday as Holloway’s parents looked on. He’d been extradited Thursday from Peru, where he’s serving a 28-year sentence after confessing to killing a Peruvian woman in 2010 — five years to the day after Holloway went missing.Na...

A timeline of events leading to Donald Trump’s indictment in the classified documents case

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:23:50 GMT

The 49-page federal indictment of former President Donald Trump lays out a stunning timeline of events, detailing allegations that he not only mishandled sensitive material, but also took steps to hide records and impede investigators.Here are some key of the key events leading to the 37 criminal charges against Trump, according to the indictment:Jan. 20, 2021: As Trump leaves the White House, he directs the movement of dozens of storage boxes to Mar-a-Lago, prosecutors say. The boxes, packed by Trump and his White House staff, contain newspaper clippings, letters, photos and other mementos from his time in office, but also hundreds of classified documents that, as a former president, he wasn’t authorized to have.Under the Presidential Records Act, presidential records are considered federal, not private property and must be turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration. Multiple federal laws govern the handling of classified and sensitive documents, includin...

4 children lost in the jungle for 40 days after a plane crash are found alive in Colombia

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:23:50 GMT

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombian President Gustavo Petro said Friday that authorities found alive four children who survived a small plane crash 40 days ago and had been the subject of an intense search in the Amazon jungle that held Colombians on edge.The children were alone when searchers found them and are now receiving medical attention, Petro told reporters upon his return to Bogota from Cuba, where he signed a cease-fire agreement with representatives of the National Liberation Army rebel group.The president said the youngsters are an “example of survival” and predicted their saga “will remain in history.”The crash happened in the early hours of May 1, when the Cessna single-engine propeller plane with six passengers and a pilot declared an emergency due to an engine failure. The small aircraft fell off radar a short time later and a frantic search for survivors began. The three adults were killed, and their bodies were found in the area.Associated Press, The Associated Press

American Airlines, JetBlue seek to keep some ties despite losing antitrust case

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:23:50 GMT

American Airlines and JetBlue said Friday they should be allowed to keep selling tickets on each other’s flights in the Northeast and link their frequent-flyer programs despite losing an antitrust trial over their partnership.The Justice Department said if the airlines get their wish, travelers would miss out on the benefits of restoring competition between the carriers. In separate filings, the airlines and the government told a federal judge in Boston how he should carry out his ruling last month to break up the partnership. American’s CEO has said his airline will appeal the verdict.The Justice Department proposed a final judgment that would order American and JetBlue to end most parts of the deal immediately. The government said the airlines should honor existing tickets to avoid hurting travelers, but then quickly wind down their sharing of airport gates and takeoff and landing slots at key airports.The airlines want to keep selling tickets on each other’s fli...

Homeland Security names Border Patrol veteran Jason Owens to lead the agency

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:23:50 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Friday named U.S. Border Patrol veteran Jason Owens to lead the agency, replacing retiring chief Raul Ortiz.In a statement announcing Owens’ promotion, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said, “Chief Owens is a talented, selfless, and inspiring leader who is dedicated to the Border Patrol’s law enforcement mission, the men and women who fulfill it, and the country that we all serve.”“I am inspired by his commitment to the mission, and am grateful to him for his continued service in this new leadership role,” Mayorkas added.The New York Times reported that Owens has been with the Border Patrol for more than 20 years, most recently as the head of the Del Rio division in Texas.Ortiz said last month in a note to staff that was obtained by The Associated Press that he will leave June 30.Ortiz managed the Border Patrol and its roughly 20,000 agents through the COVID-19 pandemic and Title 42 emergency health restrictions...

Sergeant, 5 officers broke department policy in fatal 2022 shooting, LAPD chief says

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:23:50 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles police sergeant and five officers broke department policy when they opened fire last year on an armed man who refused to follow officers’ commands, killing him, a police commission found. The Board of Police Commissioners voted on May 23 to approve a Los Angeles Police Department internal investigation into the fatal shooting of Rodolfo Torres on July 2, 2022, that found the officers’ use of force was not reasonable or necessary.Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore said in his internal investigation report to the commission that four other officers who opened fire on Torres were within policy. Two other officers who responded to the scene did not fire their weapons. On the day of the fatal shooting, two officers were patrolling South Los Angeles when they came upon Torres, 30, who seemed to be under the influence of drugs and had a bulge in his clothing resembling a gun, Moore wrote. One of the officers believed he recognized Torres as someone invol...

Oregon Democratic Party to send federal officials a $500,000 donation from former FTX executive

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:23:50 GMT

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The Democratic Party of Oregon said Friday it will send a half-million dollars to the U.S. Marshals Service that had been donated by a former executive at the disgraced cryptocurrency exchange FTX, to conform with a request from the U.S. Department of Justice.Oregon elections officials had already fined the Democratic Party of Oregon $15,000 for wrongly reporting the source of the campaign donation last year. Oregon Senate Republicans had demanded that state Democrats send back the $500,000 campaign donation.The Democratic Party of Oregon said it was conforming with an April 13 request from the Justice Department. The party received the funds last fall from Nishad Singh, who pleaded guilty in February to federal criminal fraud charges, including one count of conspiracy to violate federal campaign finance laws. The party said Singh, who was the engineering director at collapsed cryptocurrency giant FTX, had lied to the party about who the donor was.The party said i...

What is a 'dupe' on TikTok? Here's the meaning behind the trend

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:23:50 GMT

(NEXSTAR) — Even though you may be used to hearing the word "dupe" in reference to someone being "fooled" or "tricked," (Someone was 'duped' by a scammer, for example), the term has many meanings — especially on TikTok.Search the short-form video social media platform for "dupe" and you're likely to find countless videos rating or recommending fragrances, skincare, food, purses, tumblers, shoes, cleaning products, and even vehicles. So just what are these "dupes"? Singer, model tried to traffic more than 200 pounds of cocaine in SUV, Sheriff’s Office says On TikTok, "dupe" is shorthand for "duplicate" (a meaning Merriam-Webster does acknowledge). For these kinds of videos, a user will try out and/or recommend less-expensive alternatives to high-priced premium and luxury products. Generally, "dupe" products aren't full-on knockoffs, but legal competitor products that do the same things or look relatively the same.Essentially, dupes are "if you like this, then you'll love this."For ...

A look inside the private development for state park that Texas may take over

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:23:50 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Ahead of a hearing to determine whether the state of Texas will use eminent domain to take over the property, we're getting a look inside a planned private development on the site of a now-shuttered state park.The 'Freestone' community, on the site of Fairfield Lake State Park, is marketed as a "luxury lake and golf enclave encompassing the largest privately owned body of water in the United States," according to a marketing book provided to KXAN by Todd. TIMELINE: From state park to private development: The twisting timeline of Fairfield Lake Construction crews are already preparing, after the park, which welcomed more than 80,000 visitors last fiscal year, closed its gates to the public Sunday night."We have construction equipment on site now," said Shawn Todd, CEO of the company developing the site, Todd Interests. "Architects, surveyors, workmen are on property at present, and heavy construction will start when the park leaves."The park's lease officially expir...

Trudy Rubin: After the Ukraine dam disaster, NATO must make Putin pay for his war crimes

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:23:50 GMT

When Ukraine’s U.N. ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya addressed a special Security Council session on Tuesday about the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam, he confronted his Russian counterpart as “the representative of Putin’s terrorist regime … that has detonated a bomb of mass environmental destruction.”That says it all.Who can doubt that it was Moscow that unleashed the largest man-made disaster in Europe since the 1986 nuclear meltdown in Chernobyl? But Chernobyl — another Russian desecration of Ukrainian soil — was caused by Soviet incompetence. This massive ecological crime was deliberate.By destroying the dam, Vladimir Putin meant to impede Ukraine’s counteroffensive to drive Russia out of occupied Ukrainian territory, a critical undertaking which has just gotten started.He must not be allowed to succeed.Ukrainian forces will now be unable to cross the flooded Dnipro River with armored vehicles in coming weeks (although this approa...