Saudi national Khalid al-Fawwaz, a former aide of Osama Bin Laden, has been found guilty of plotting the al-Qaeda bombing of US embassies in east Africa in 1998 that killed 224 people.
Khalid al-Fawwaz, 53, was convicted by a New York court after three days of jury deliberations.
Extradited from the UK to the US in 2012, Khalid al-Fawwaz was found guilty on four conspiracy counts and now faces a possible life sentence.
Khalid al-Fawwaz has been described as Osama Bin Laden’s spokesman in London.
A statement from Preet Bharara, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said the defendant “played a critical role for al-Qaeda in its murderous conspiracy against America”.
There were a dozen Americans among the dead after US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania were bombed in 1998.
Photo Reuters
He was arrested in London in the same year as the bombings and extradited 14 years later.
Preet Bharara described Khalid al-Fawwaz as one of Osama Bin Laden’s “original and most trusted lieutenants” who was the leader of an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan, then later acted as Bin Laden’s “media adviser” in London.
One of his roles, Preet Bharara said, was to ensure Osama Bin Laden’s threats against the US were distributed and noticed across the globe.
“Murderous words lead to murderous action,” assistant Attorney Nicholas Lewin told jurors.
The trial, which lasted a month under very heavy security in Manhattan, did not feature any testimony from the defendant.
When the verdict was read out, Khalid al-Fawwaz stood expressionless.
Five other people have already been convicted in New York for the embassy attacks.
Different parts of the world are subject to different elements of the environment, which allows some parts to have certain benefits more than others. The southeast part of the United States is typically known for their southern charm and warm climate, making it one of the most ideal places for people to retire.
While the climate may be lovely, and while residents there may have an endless supply of citrus fruits, the southeast is not all oranges and sunshine. There is terrible air quality in the southeast of America, and it could be completely damaging to everyone in the area if changes aren’t soon made.
Why is the air quality in the southeast so poor?
There’s a reason why the air quality in the southeast is so poor, and scientists have done many tests in order to figure it out. Tiny particles in the air near the Smoky Mountains in the southeast help give it the purple haze that looks good in pictures; however, it’s those particles that are making the air quality poor.
According to a CIRES atmospheric scientist, “The southeast has the highest natural emissions in the nation, and also has high manmade emissions, humidity and cloudiness.“ This is contributing to the poor air quality. Because people continue to break into the Smoky Mountains and other areas in order to tap the natural resources, the air quality will only continue to get worse as time goes on.
Poor air quality isn’t good, in the southeast or anywhere else. According to a 2012 WHO report, 7 million people died in 2012 as a result of air pollution exposure. This doubles previous estimates and proves that air pollution is the world’s single largest environmental health risk.
If the rates of air pollution continue this way in the southeast, these numbers will only continue to rise. Regularly breathing in polluted air can irritate your eyes, nose, and throat, but it mostly has a negative impact on your lungs. Breathing in polluted air can harm the lining of your lungs, which can result in breathing trouble such as asthma, or it can result in something more serious, such as lung cancer. If changes aren’t made, there may be a rise in pollution-related deaths in the southeast.
What can be done to improve the air quality?
In order to improve the air quality in the southeast, people will have to stop tapping into the Smoky Mountains and other natural resources and allowing the particles to get into the air. More eco-friendly options need to be created in order to ensure that accessing these natural resources stops hurting the air quality. After all, if this isn’t done, then these particles and aerosols will only continue to get into the air, and the air quality will just continue to get worse.
Along with using eco-friendly options to access natural resources in the southeast, typical steps to reduce pollution can also be done to improve the air quality. For example, reducing the amount of gasses and other harmful chemicals and aerosols in to the air can help improve the air quality. Carpooling, taking public transportation, and even walking or riding a bike instead of driving yourself to and from work can help reduce the amount of harmful gases and pollutants entering the air. Reducing your use of aerosols can also help to improve the air quality, and refraining from burning harmful chemicals, such as plastics, can also help to improve the air quality.
You can also opt to improve the air quality in your own home in order to improve the air quality in the southeast. For example, investing in a home air purifier. According to Wave Home Solutions, “We spend as much as 90 percent of our time indoors. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), indoor levels of air pollutants may be two to five times higher, and occasionally more than 100 times higher, than outdoor levels. A WAVE Air Purifier will let you breathe easier knowing the air you and your family are breathing inside your home is pure and clean.” This improvement will not only help your health, but it will also help to remove these harmful pollutants from the air, and this can improve the air quality in your neighborhood as well.
The terrible air quality in the southeast of America is a problem that needs to be immediately addressed. While the biggest way to remedy the situation requires eco-friendly processes and tools to be used for accessing natural resources, there are still some ways that you can help improve the air quality in the southeast on your own.
A controversial case against Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and Foreign Minister Hector Timerman has been dismissed by a federal judge on February 26.
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and Hector Timerman had been accused of covering up alleged Iranian involvement in a bomb attack against Amia Jewish centre in 1994.
Judge Daniel Rafecas said that there was no merit to the accusation as no crime had occurred.
The accusation came from prosecutor Alberto Nisman who was found dead last month in his flat.
Judge Daniel Rafecas said he would discontinue the case.
“The evidence gathered far from meets the minimal standard,” said a statement from Argentina’s judiciary system.
Photo Wikipedia
Alberto Nisman was due to testify in Congress against Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner when his body was found.
The circumstances of his death have not been clarified.
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said Alberto Nisman been fed misleading information by a rogue intelligence agent in order to discredit her government.
The president and the foreign minister had been accused of acting to hide their involvement in the Amia Jewish centre bombing – Argentina’s worst terrorist attack, in which 85 people died.
The lower house of the Argentine Congress has meanwhile approved a bill tabled by Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner scrapping the country’s secret agency, the Intelligence Secretariat.
The proposal was first announced days after Alberto Nisman’s death, on January 18.
A new federal investigative agency, which will be accountable to Congress, will replace it.
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said the change was overdue because the agency had remained largely untouched since the end of military rule in 1983.
The opposition accused the government of coming up with the proposal as a smoke screen for its involvement in the Amia bombing scandal.
Prince William has begun a four-day visit to Japan by taking part in a traditional tea ceremony in Tokyo.
The Duke of Cambridge spent about 40 minutes taking part in the ritual at Hama Rikyu Gardens.
He is on a week-long trip to China and Japan where he will undertake engagements to promote UK relations with both countries.
In his first visit to Japan, Prince William also took a speedboat ride to Tokyo Bay, which will host much of the 2020 Summer Olympics.
The last time a major member of British royal family visited Japan was in 2008, when Prince Charles came with his wife Camilla.
Hundreds of students and school children waving British and Japanese flags waited in the rain to greet him.
Kate Middleton is not with Prince William as she is due to give birth to their second child in April.
On the first day of his tour Prince William visited the Nakajima tea house, built 350 years ago in Japan’s Edo period, in the middle of a small lake within the Hama-Rikyu gardens.
As he entered the tea house, Prince William removed his shoes like the other guests, which included Tokyo governor Yoichi Masuzoe.
Dr. Genshitsu Sen, who is 92 and the 15th generation of his family to hold a senior role in the spiritual art of tea making, performed the traditional ceremony.
He also made tea for Prince William’s parents, Prince Charles and Princess Diana, when they visited Kyoto in 1986. Close to 100,000 people flocked to a parade in Tokyo at the time, as so-called “Diana Fever” swept the nation.
A number of gifts were given to Prince William, including a box of crackers, a book about the tea ceremony and a modern tea bowl decorated with a horse design in celebration of Prince George.
On February 27, Prince William is due to meet fellow royals Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko at the Imperial Palace.
In this his first visit to Japan, Prince William will also be taken to the areas devastated by the 2011 tsunami and meet survivors.
In Shanghai, Prince William will launch the three-day Great Festival of Creativity at the city’s Long Museum on March 2.
Lindsay Lohan has to do 125 more hours of community service after decreeing that activities she performed while appearing in a West End play last year did not count a Los Angeles judge has ruled.
Superior Court Judge Mark Young annulled credits that Lindsay Lohan received for time she spent in London in 2014.
Lindsay Lohan, 28, was originally ordered to complete 240 hours of community service as part of a 2013 plea deal.
It stemmed from a 2012 case involving reckless driving and lying to police.
Lindsay Lohan, who made her West End debut last year in a production of David Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow, was not present for hearing on February 25.
The actress worked with charity group Community Service Volunteers (CSV) during her time in London and reportedly lobbied insurance giant Esurance to donate $10,000 to the organization.
A statement from CSV said Lindsay Lohan had volunteered on the organization’s Positive Futures project, which works with teenagers in Hackney.
“She has built strong relationships with the young volunteers she has worked with on the scheme,” CSV said.
Yet US prosecutors questioned some of her UK activities – which reportedly included “meeting and greeting” fans in London – and challenged evidence submitted by her attorney to show the required hours had been completed.
A hearing has been scheduled for March 12, when a new community service agency will be selected.
Lindsay Lohan will have until May 28 to complete the additional community service.
A transcript of a footage showing Paris gunman Amedy Coulibaly during a bloody rampage inside Jewish supermarket HyperCacher has been released nearly two months after the attacks in the French capital.
Amedy Coulibaly delivers an anti-Semitic rant and shouts “Stand up or I’ll kill you” at hostages, according to a transcript obtained by Le Nouvel Observateur.
During the seven-minute video he shoots dead three of his four victims.
Seventeen people died in three days of violence that began at the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine on January 7.
Brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi killed 12 when they burst into Charlie Hebdo‘s offices.
Police believe Amedy Coulibaly shot dead a policewoman in the Montrouge area of Paris the day before the attack on the kosher supermarket at Porte de Vincennes.
Investigators are examining seven minutes 45 seconds of footage apparently filmed by Amedy Coulibaly on a GoPro camera worn during the siege, according to reports.
The footage shows Amedy Coulibaly shouting “Nobody move”, before grabbing hold of a customer, asking his name, and then shooting him dead.
He asks another man what origin he is. And when the hostage replies “Jewish”, he kills him too.
“So you know why I am here then. Allahu Akbar,” Amedy Coulibaly shouts, according to Le Nouvel Observateur‘s report.
He is also heard making anti-Semitic remarks when one woman tries to tell him that his hostages have done nothing wrong.
Amedy Coulibaly is believed to have had a long history of criminal activity – including drugs offences – and links to at least one of the Kouachi brothers.
A separate video that emerged after Amedy Coulibaly was shot dead by police apparently showed him pledging his allegiance to the Islamic State militant group, and claiming the attacks were “retribution”.
The supermarket footage apparently shows Amedy Coulibaly asking one of his hostages to help up upload his camera footage to a computer.
Shop assistant Lassana Bathily is thought to have saved many customers’ lives by hiding them in a cold store.
The transcript comes a day after France announced plans to improve dialogue with the country’s Muslim community.
Allen Zderad from Minnesota is now able to see his wife again after ten years of being blind due to a bionic eye.
The 68-year-old man started having serious vision problems around 20 years ago due to a condition known as retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease which affects the retina.
Allen Zderad, who worked as a chemist when, was declared effectively blind a decade ago.
The man continued his hobby of woodwork by developing his sense of touch and spatial relationships.
Mayo Clinic researcher and ophthalmologist Dr. Raymond Iezzi Jr. had been working on the Second Sight Argus II retinal prosthesis system when he reached out to Allen Zderad.
Dr. Raymond Iezzi Jr. considered Allen Zderad a suitable candidate for a bionic implant.
During the process, the ophthalmologist fitted 60 electrodes into Allen Zderad’s eye.
The electrodes work by interacting with a special camera attached to the patient’s glasses and a separate computer pack capable of sending information to the electrodes embedded in Allen Zderad’s retina, which then sends signals straight to the optic nerve.
After implant, Allen Zderad, a grandfather of ten, explains that he can’t make out detail, but he can now make out shapes and outlines.
Paris is often referred to as the most romantic city in the world. Its majestic sights and impressive cultural background can satisfy all tastes and ages. Whether you are planning to visit Paris for your honeymoon or offer your kids an unforgettable vacation, you can be sure of the fact that you will not regret your decision.
The French culture is very distinct from everything you have experimented so far in Europe. Just like the Spanish, the Norwegians or the Germans have their own customs and rituals, the French too have something that differentiates them from the rest. They wouldn’t be French without it, right?
Photo Source: diydilettante.wordpress.com
What to see in Paris?
Eiffel Tower – it is an obvious choice, but there is a reason why everyone puts the Eiffel Tower at the top of the list. Starting from its base that inspires young men to propose to their loved ones and finishing to the top, you can admire the stunning views of the luminous city. Make sure you don’t miss it!
Palace of Versailles – we can discover here the reason why the French have such a distinct attitude. The Palace of Versailles is a true, opulent monument dedicated to the decadence of royalty. It is truly a unique example of ostentatious representations of wealth. It will surely impress you!
Avenue des Champs Elysees – just like with the Eiffel Tour, a walk on Champs Elysees is another sweet cliché that romantic couples will appreciate. The street is filled with great shops so you will surely not get bored in case you don’t like the view (hardly possible).
The Louvre Museum – extremely popular, the Louvre museum contains some of the most popular works of art in the world (Mona Lisa or Venus de Milo) and it surprises through its various exhibitions that bring diversity and sophistication closer to the viewers.
The Notre Dame Cathedral – this is indeed a place of mystery, history and poetry. All these intertwine with the purpose of offering visitors a unique experience. Its construction began in 1163 and was completed only 170 years later. Its Gothic style, rose windows, and side chapels know how to charm tourists in the French style.
Photo Source: www.shoretrips.com
When to go to Paris?
The best time to visit Paris is during spring (March-May) and autumn (September- November). These are the periods when the locals return from their vacations and you can truly experience the atmosphere of the city. If you choose to fly to Paris from anywhere in the UK you should avoid the month of July (Bastille Day -14 July) or mid-January when lots of couture fashion shows take place and the prices rocket.
But if you want to save some money you can rent a car from Thrifty and get the best deals for different models of cars. Whether it’s just you and your partner or you plan a trip for the whole family, the car of your dreams is waiting to take you into a Parisian exploration.
The masked ISIS militant with British accent known as “Jihadi John”, who has been pictured in the videos of the beheadings of Western hostages, has been named as Mohammed Emwazi from London.
Mohammed Emwazi, a Kuwaiti-born British man believed to be from West London, who was known to UK security services.
They chose not to disclose his name earlier for operational reasons.
Mohammed Emwazi first appeared in a video last August, when he apparently killed the American journalist James Foley.
He was later thought to have been pictured in the videos of the beheadings of American journalist Steven Sotloff, British aid worker David Haines, British taxi driver Alan Henning, and American aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, also known as Peter Kassig.
In each of the videos, the militant appeared dressed in a black robe with a black balaclava covering all but his eyes and top of his nose.
Speaking with a British accent, the man taunted and threatened Western powers before appearing to kill the hostages.
Last month, the militant appeared in a video with the Japanese hostages Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto, shortly before they were killed.
Friends of Mohammed Emzawi told the Washington Post that he was from a well-to-do family and that he studied computer programming at university.
Mohammed Emzawi is believed to be an associate of a former UK control order suspect, who travelled to Somalia in 2006 and is allegedly linked to a facilitation and funding network for Somali militant group al-Shabab.
The Washington Post said Mohammed Emzawi was believed to have travelled to Syria around 2012 and later joined ISIS, which has declared the creation of a “caliphate” in the large swathes of Syria and neighboring Iraq it controls.
Secretary of State John Kerry has accused of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu of not being correct on Iran’s nuclear program talks.
Benjamin Netanyahu has criticized the US and others for “giving up” on trying to stop Iran obtaining nuclear weapons.
The Israeli PM “may not be correct”, John Kerry said after attending the latest Iran nuclear talks in Geneva.
Benjamin Netanyahu will address Congress next week, after an invitation by Republican leaders criticized by the White House.
John Kerry was reacting to a speech in which Benjamin Netanyahu had said the US and others were “accepting that Iran will gradually, within a few years, develop capabilities to produce material for many nuclear weapons”.
“I respect the White House and the president of the United States but on such a fateful matter, that can determine whether or not we survive, I must do everything to prevent such a great danger for Israel,” he said in a speech in Israel.
Having just concluded the latest round of nuclear talks with Iran in Geneva, John Kerry told senators President Barack Obama had made it clear the policy was not to let Iran get nuclear weapons and Benjamin Netanyahu’s might therefore not be correct.
The invitation for Benjamin Netanyahu to speak before Congress has angered Democrats.
Photo AFP/Getty Images
A spokesman for the White House warned against reducing US-Israeli relations to a party-political issue.
Earlier, US National Security Adviser Susan Rice had gone further and said Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit was “destructive to the fabric of the relationship”.
Benjamin Netanyahu was invited by House Speaker John Boehner in what is seen as a rebuke to President Barack Obama’s Iran policy.
Israel’s prime minister is expected to discuss Iran, as well as Islamist militant groups, in his address.
The current tensions took root over a decade ago when Iran’s nuclear program first came to light.
In 2005, Iran was referred to the UN Security Council, leading to a series of sanctions and UN resolutions requiring Tehran to stop enriching uranium.
The US and other powers – the so-called P5+1 – are negotiating with Iran on its nuclear program. They want to agree a deal by March this year, but Benjamin Netanyahu is opposed to any agreement which might allow Tehran to retain the future capacity to build a nuclear weapon.
Benjamin Netanyahu has turned down an invitation to meet Senate Democrats privately, saying this “could compound the misperception of partisanship” surrounding his trip.
Several Democratic members of Congress including Vice-President Joe Biden have said they will not attend the speech.
Republican leaders did not consult the Obama administration before inviting Benjamin Netanyahu, which the White House has called a breach of protocol.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on February 25: “The president has said the relationship between the US and Israel can’t just be reduced to a relationship between the Republican party and the Likud party.”
Barack Obama does not plan to meet Benjamin Netanyahu next week. The White House cited the “long-standing practice” of not meeting government leaders close to elections, which Israel will hold in mid-March.
Benjamin Netanyahu is fighting a tough election against the Labor Party’s Yitzhak Herzog, who has focused on the prime minister’s cooler relations with Barack Obama.
Argentina’s Congress has voted to dissolve the country’s intelligence agency.
The Intelligence Secretariat will be replaced with a new federal agency that will be accountable to Congress.
The proposal was drafted last month by President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, following the death of special prosecutor Alberto Nisman.
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner accused a rogue agent of feeding misleading information to Alberto Nisman, who was investigating the government.
The lower house of Congress voted 131 to 71 in favor of the bill. It had already been passed by the Senate.
During a six-hour debate, opposition lawmakers repeatedly expressed their discontent with the fact that, under the new law, oversight of all wiretaps will be moved from the intelligence services to the general attorney’s office.
They said they felt uneasy about the close ties between the government and the current general attorney.
They also said they were worried about the role army chief Cesar Milani would play in intelligence gathering under the new law.
The new agency is expected to be set up within 90 days of the bill being signed into law by President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner had argued a reform of Argentina’s intelligence services was overdue.
She said that the agency had kept much of the same structure it had during the military government, which ended in 1983, and needed to become more accountable.
“We need to make the intelligence services more transparent because they have not served the interests of the country,” the president said in a televised speech in January.
Kicking off the debate in the lower chamber on February 25, governing party lawmaker Diana Conti described the vote as “a fight for the democratization of the country’s intelligence services”.
She said it was time to put an end “to the perverse links between the intelligence services, the judiciary and some political sectors”.
One of the main criticisms of the SI had been a lack of control of its funding.
The new law creates “control mechanisms” to oversee the new agency’s finances, although critics said details of how these mechanisms would work were lacking.
Opposition congressman Manuel Garrido also warned that there were no safeguards to prevent the new agency from committing serious irregularities.
Manuel Garrido also said the law was a smokescreen to divert attention from the death under mysterious circumstances of federal prosecutor Alberto Nisman.
Alberto Nisman, who was 51, was found dead in his flat on January 18 with a gunshot wound to his head hours before he was due to testify to a congressional committee.
He had been investigating the bombing of the Amia Jewish centre in the capital, Buenos Aires, in 1994 which left 85 people dead.
Alberto Nisman had accused President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and Foreign Minister Hector Timerman of involvement in a plot to cover up Iran’s alleged role in the bombing.
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner rejected the allegations and said a former secret agent had misled the prosecutor in order to discredit her government.
Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith shared the honors, winning two prizes each at last night’s BRIT Awards at London’s O2 Arena.
Ed Sheeran scooped the night’s main prize, album of the year, for his record X – which was the best-selling record of 2014 in the UK.
He also won best British male, while Sam Smith took home best breakthrough artist and the global success award – recognizing album sales outside the UK.
Earlier, Taylor Swift opened proceedings, playing her hit single Blank Space surrounded by dancers in white suits and bowler hats.
She went on to win best international female, her first award after eight years of releasing records in the UK.
Taylor Swift star dedicated her award to Ed Sheeran, a close friend, who fanned the flames of her love affair with the UK by “taking me to pubs and showing me how to make a proper cup of tea”.
Both acknowledged their slow-building success in their speeches.
Paloma Faith won best British female, and also alluded to her slow-building career.
She revealed she’d “been arrested twice” for fly posting in Hackney when she was a young artist, but could now see her face on posters at the tube station outside the venue.
Paloma Faith’s third album, A Perfect Contradiction, was the biggest-selling female record in the last year, shifting more than 725,000 copies.
She also gave one of the night’s more elaborate performances, singing Only Love Can Hurt Like This under a streaming waterfall.
Mark Ronson won best single for Uptown Funk, while rock duo Royal Blood were presented with best British Group by rock legend Jimmy Page.
The band also performed at the show, alongside George Ezra and Kanye West, who premiered a new song All Day, which had to be heavily censored by ITV.
Madonna fell off the stage during her performance at this year’s BRIT Awards.
The singer tumbled down a set of stairs and landed awkwardly, apparently after a dancer tried to remove a cape she was wearing at the start of her routine.
Madonna, 56, recovered and returned to continue her song, Living For Love.
She issued a statement later saying she was “fine” and that her cape had been “tied too tight”.
“Nothing can stop me and love really lifted me up,” Madonna wrote on Instagram, referencing the lyrics to her song.
“Thanks for your good wishes!”
The painful incident came at the end of a ceremony where Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith shared the honors, winning two awards each.
South Korea’s top court has revoked a 1953 law under which cheating spouses could be jailed for up to two years.
South Korea was one of only three Asian countries to criminalize adultery.
About 5,500 people have been convicted in the country since 2008.
Out of the nine-judge panel, seven deemed the law unconstitutional.
Presiding judge Park Han-Chul said public conceptions of individuals’ rights had changed.
“Even if adultery should be condemned as immoral, state power should not intervene in individuals’ private lives,” he said.
In recent years, while hundreds of people have been convicted under the law, very few have actually gone to prison.
“Recently, it was extremely rare for a person to serve a prison term for adultery,” Lim Ji-bong, a law professor at Sogang University in Seoul, told the Associated Press.
“The number of indictments has decreased as charges are frequently dropped.”
The law has previously been reviewed four times by the court and upheld.
The most recent was in 2008, when actress Ok So-ri petitioned the court after being given an eight-month suspended sentence for adultery.
Although she was unsuccessful, it was a narrow loss. Five of the judges deemed the law to be unconstitutional, saying that adultery could be condemned on moral grounds but not as a criminal act. Six judges needed to oppose the law for it to be revoked.
The Constitutional Court said on February 26 that anyone convicted since 2008 could have their case reconsidered.
However, some in South Korea have defended the law, saying its loss would encourage depravity.
Judge Ahn Chang-Ho, who read the dissenting opinion at the constitutional court, said that the statute was a key protector of family morals and warned that its abolition would “spark a surge in debauchery”.
Doctors treating Bobbi Kristina Brown at Georgia hospital have been forced to re-induce the coma because she began to have seizures.
They had decided to gradually end her coma in order to have a better idea of the 21-year-old’s status and prognosis. Not long afterwards, however, Bobbi Kristina Brown began to seize, and doctors opted to put her back on the sedatives.
Whitney Houston’s daughter was not removed from life support. She remained on a ventilator and feeding tube.
Bobbi Kristina Brown was placed in a medically induced coma three weeks ago, shortly after being found in the bathtub of her Roswell, Georgia home face down and unresponsive.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has been forced into a tough run-off election after failing to gain 50% of voters in his re-election bid.
Rahm Emanuel had 45% of the vote while his main challenger, Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, gained 34%.
Chuy Garcia was successful in garnering support from those who have been unhappy with Rahm Emanuel’s term as mayor, including the teacher’s union.
The run-off election will be held on April 7.
Speaking to supporters on February 24, Rahm Emanuel pledged to return to campaigning immediately.
“We will get back out there, talking to our friends and families and neighbours as they make a critical choice about who has the strength, who has the leadership, who has the ideas to move this great city forward,” he said.
“Today, we the people have spoken,” Chuy Garcia told supporters, some who were already wearing campaign buttons with the run-off date and a cartoon version of Garcia’s moustache.
“This city deserves a mayor who will put people first, not big money, special interests,” Chuy Garcia said on Tuesday.
“I will be that mayor.”
Both Chuy Garcia and Rahm Emanuel were already out shaking hands on February 25 at stations on the city’s L subway.
Rahm Emanuel needed 50% to avoid a run-off, and had fundraised extensively – $16 million, more than four times his challengers, over the course of the campaign.
President Barack Obama also endorsed Rahm Emanuel, who was his first chief of staff, for re-election.
Jesus Garcia, who was born in Mexico and raised in Chicago, is a county commissioner who jumped into the mayor’s race in October after another likely candidate, Chicago Teacher’s Union President Karen Lewis, was diagnosed with brain cancer.
During the campaign, Chuy Garcia and three other challengers criticized Rahm Emanuel’s push to close dozen of schools and his large fundraising operation.
Joyce Rodgers, who is retired, said she believed the school closures cost the mayor the trust of the city’s African-American community. Many in the city’s public schools are minorities.
Others were supportive of Rahm Emanuel’s efforts to bring more jobs to the city. The mayor campaigned on his record – making a series of tough budget decisions and raising Chicago’s minimum wage.
Chris Brown has been forced to cancel shows in Montreal and Toronto after Canadian officials stopped him from entering the country.
The singer wrote in a tweet on February 24: “The good people of the Canadian government wouldn’t allow me entry. I’ll be back this summer and will hopefully see all my Canadian fans!”
Canada did not give a reason for denying entry to Chris Brown.
But authorities can declare someone “criminally inadmissible.”
Chris Brown was sentenced to five years of probation for assaulting singer Rihanna before the Grammy Awards in 2009.
Since then the musician has violated the terms of his probation on several occasions.
Live Nation – the promoter of Chris Brown’s Between The Sheets tour – confirmed that the shows were cancelled “due to immigration issues”.
The singer’s spokeswoman, Nicole Perna, said Canadian immigration officials denied Chris Brown entry but said that the musician can apply to return at a later date and plans to do so.
French authorities have arrested three al-Jazeera journalists for the alleged illegal flying of a drone in Paris after being spotted by police in the Bois de Boulogne area.
A spokesman for prosecutors said there was “no relationship for the moment” between the arrests and mysterious drone flights over the city at night.
Drones flew over the Eiffel Tower and other landmarks five times for a second night running on February 24.
Flying drones over Paris without a license is banned by law.
The offense carries a maximum one-year prison sentence and a €75,000 ($85,000) fine.
A judicial source told AFP news agency of the three people arrested: “The first was piloting the drone, the second was filming and the third was watching.”
The names and nationalities of the journalists have not been released. Al-Jazeera is a Qatar-based satellite TV channel.
It is against the law for any aircraft to fly lower than 19,700ft over central Paris. Flying any aircraft under that ceiling – including drones, police helicopters and air ambulances – requires permission from city authorities.
According to new reports, Bruce Jenner was driving at 38 mph during this month’s fatal car accident.
The former Olympian was traveling in his SUV along Pacific Coast Highway when he struck a Lexus, which then spun into oncoming traffic and was hit by a Hummer, killing the Lexus driver, Kim Howe.
Investigators had questioned whether speed could have been a factor in the deadly collision, but according to TMZ, the Sensing Diagnostic Module in Bruce Jenner’s car shows he was initially driving between 46 and 47 mph.
Bruce Jenner slammed on his brakes right before the impact, bringing his speed down to 38, per the data recorder. The incident reportedly took place in less than three seconds.
The new information could prove that Bruce Jenner was unaware of the traffic backup at a stop light ahead of him, as investigators continue to research whether he was driving too closely to the Lexus, and how much fault he bears for what happened.
After striking the Lexus, Bruce Jenner then hit the Prius that was in front of the other car. The accident was caught on tape by a MTA bus surveillance camera.
Bruce Jenner initially reportedly claimed he was being chased by paparazzi, but officials have said photographers were not near enough to have been a factor.
According to new reports, there are more members of an Assyrian Christian community in north-eastern Syria were abducted by ISIS militants than at first thought.
Sources in the community said as many as 200 people might have been seized on February 23 in raids on a string of villages near Tal Tamr, in Hassakeh province.
Most of the captives were women, children and the elderly.
Some 1,000 local Assyrian families are believed to have fled their homes in the wake of the abductions.
Kurdish and Christian militia are battling Islamic State in the area.
At least 90 Assyrians were seized by the militants on February 23 as they captured 12 villages along the southern bank of the Khabur river before dawn, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based opposition group that monitors the conflict in the country.
The Syriac National Council of Syria put the figure as high as 150, while Afram Yaboub of the Assyrian Federation of Sweden said sources on the ground had told him that at least 60 and up to 200 people were missing.
Osama Edward of the Sweden-based Assyrian Human Rights Network told the AFP news agency that the captives had been taken to the ISIS stronghold of Shaddadi, as did Syria’s state news agency, Sana.
“People were expecting an attack, but they thought that either the Syrian army, which is just 30km [20 miles] from there or the Kurds or the [US-led] coalition’s strikes would protect them,” Osama Edward said.
Hundreds of Assyrians who were living in villages on the north bank of the Khabur River and elsewhere are reported to have fled following the attack to the largely Kurdish-controlled provincial capital of Hassakeh, to the south-east, and Qamishli, another city to the north-east.
“Since Monday, 800 families have taken refuge in the city of Hassakeh and another 150 in Qamishli,” Osama Edward reported.
The Syriac Military Council had about 400 fighters in the area and at least four had been killed in clashes with the jihadists, he added. The YPG has deployed between 1,000 and 1,500 fighters.
The YPG was also reported to be continuing a major offensive launched on Sunday against IS some 60 miles to the east, near the border with Iraq – an area of vital importance to the jihadists.
The Syrian Observatory said at least 132 ISIS militants had been killed in the offensive, along with seven members of the YPG.
The World Health Organization (WHO) calls for immediate measles vaccinations across Europe and central Asia after a series of outbreaks.
The WHO officials say they have been “taken aback” by more than 22,000 cases in 2014 and the first months of 2015.
The health organization demands that counties control the outbreaks with “no exception”.
It says the surges threaten the goal of eliminating measles in the region by the end of 2015.
Dr. Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO regional director for Europe, said: “When we consider that over the past two decades we have seen a reduction of 96% in the number of measles cases in the European region, and that we are just a step away from eliminating the disease, we are taken aback by these numbers.
“We must collectively respond, without further delay, to close immunization gaps.
“It is unacceptable that, after the last 50 years’ efforts to make safe and effective vaccines available, measles continues to cost lives, money and time.”
According to the WHO, a growing number of parents are refusing to vaccinate their children or are facing barriers in getting the immunizations they need.
Dr. Nedret Emiroglu, from the WHO, says: “The priority is now to control current outbreaks through immunization activities targeting people at risk.
“At the same time, all countries, with no exception, need to keep a very high coverage of regular measles vaccination, so that similar outbreaks won’t happen again in our region, and measles can be eliminated once and for all.”
The news comes after an 18-month-old boy died of measles in Germany, sparking a nationwide debate about whether immunizations should be made compulsory.
In California, the department of public health has reported an outbreak of measles with more than 100 registered cases so far. Most of those showing symptoms of the disease were not vaccinated.
Mystery drones have been spotted flying over central Paris for the second night.
French police are no closer to knowing who is operating them.
There were five sightings by between 23:00 on February 24 and 02:00 on February 25, French media report.
Up to three drones were seen near the Invalides military museum, Place de la Concorde and two of the old city gates.
Flying drones over Paris at night is illegal and daytime flights require authorization from city authorities.
Five drones were seen the previous night in similar areas, including the Eiffel Tower and above the US embassy, close to Place de la Concorde.
However, some of the latest drone flights have been captured on film and will be analyzed by a 10-strong team of investigators set up after the first incidents.
The new sightings were also on the fringes of central Paris, at the key transport gates of Porte de Clignancourt in the north and Porte de Saint-Cloud in the south-west.
Small drones are inexpensive and easy to buy but their appearance in recent months over sensitive locations has worried French authorities.
It is against the law for any aircraft to fly lower than 19,700ft over central Paris. Flying any aircraft under that ceiling – including drones, police helicopters, and air ambulances – requires permission from city authorities.
Flying a drone at night is banned completely.
Drones present a problem for authorities in built-up areas, in that shooting them down could endanger the public. It is possible to jam GPS or radio signals guiding them.
