‘I can’t describe a better father’: Community rallies for grieving man who left twins to die in hot NYC car

Less than a week after leaving his twin one-year-old children to die, trapped in a hot car in the Bronx, Juan Rodriguez stood before dozens of his family and friends, and shook.With tears in his eyes, the 39-year-old sighed and hung his head in disbelief. A court officer brought him a cup of water. Then a chair.The room was silent but for those sighs, and the muffled conversation taking place in the corner between a judge and two attorneys.As he shook, dozens of family and friends waited for news on the fate of a grieving father, who had just made the biggest mistake of his life by forgetting his children strapped into car seats on a hot summer day – and one who they otherwise described as a doting, attentive, and dedicated man who would do anything for his kids.“I can’t lay out a better example of what a good father is. He’s an involved father. Loving. Always there for his kids,” Marlon Pavon, a family friend who went to college with Rodriguez, says later, outside the courthouse.“He would go above and beyond if they needed something,” he tells The Independent.The description of Rodriguez is one that seemed to contradict the underlying set of the facts before the state of New York. It has refused so far to drop charges against the father of five who forgot two of them in a hot car for hours after driving to his job at a Veterans Affairs hospital from his home just outside of the city two Fridays ago.But it’s an opinion of him that seemed to be shared among the dozens of friends and family who took time out of their days to show support for him, even as he wrestled with the tragedy that is now taking over their lives.It’s an opinion that is shared by Rodriguez’s wife too; a newly grieving mother who clasped his shoulder at a press conference after court, crying as their four-year-old son smiled at his father, and playing with his face.“I will never get over this loss, and I know he will never forgive himself for this mistake,” Marissa Rodriguez said in statement distributed by their lawyer last weekend. “This is a horrific accident, and I need him by my side to go through this together.”But, even with the testimonials, the question remains: how could such a loving father ever leave his two children in the back seat of a boiling hot car, even if it was accidental?Well, on 26 July, according to court documents, Rodriguez – a captain in the New York national guard who was once deployed in the Middle East – pulled into work just after 8am at the Veterans Affairs hospital, after dropping off another of his children at daycare.Eight hours later, the father was seen returning to that car, and driving off. Moments later, after Rodriguez realised his two children were still in the back seat, he pulled over and jumped out screaming. A bystander called the police. The medical examiner registered the internal temperature of the children at 108 Fahrenheit (42 Celsius).Amber Rowlins, the director of the advocacy group Kids and Cars, says that she sees dozens of similar cases. Parents, in a rush or somehow distracted, simply forget.Rowlins runs a group headquartered in Kansas that advocates for better safety measures on these issues, and compiles what is perhaps the saddest database in America – one that tracks all of these children’s deaths.She says that it could happen to anyone, even a father who just months ago threw a lavish party to celebrate his twins’ first birthdays in their fence-lined suburban yard.“This happens to all different types of people. People of all different ages. People of all different socioeconomic statuses, professions, races, ethnicities,” Rowlins says.“It truly is one of those things that does not discriminate,” she continues.Kids and Cars was established in the early 1990s at something of an inflection point for this particular kind of tragedy, Rowlins says. Before then, children being left unintentionally in cars was relatively rare.The newfound understanding that airbags are deadly for young children that developed at that time changed that. As parents began putting their babies in back seats, so too did they begin to forget them once they were physically out of sight.Since 1990, over 900 children have died from heat stroke after being left in cars in the US, with 25 deaths already recorded this year, according to the database. Just last year, there were 53.But even with the human propensity to forget, Rowlins says that these deaths are all unnecessary. There are, and have been for years, products available that notify parents if they forget something with weight in the back seat and wander away from the vehicle. Those tools just aren’t in every vehicle.It’s an issue that has attracted the attention of congress, with the first bill aimed at requiring carmakers to put that technology into cars being introduced by now-presidential candidate Tim Ryan of Ohio in 2016. The current version of the bill has a Senate-introduced version too, and six sponsors.Michael Zetts, Ryan’s communications director, says it is ridiculous that the bills have not already passed.“These kinds of tragedies happen every year, and it’s not just one or two. It’s in the teens. It’s more,” he says. “All summer long, and even in the spring, you get these stories.”Rodriguez, for his part, now plans on joining in on the efforts to enact legislation that would ensure what has happened to him never happens to another family.At least, that is what his lawyer says his client plans on doing if he can beat the manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide charges he faces. Rowlins says that from what she has seen in her 15 years advocating on these issues, about half of the deaths result in charges, and about a third of the cases see convictions. It is hard to predict what the results will be, and sometimes seemingly identical cases will yield opposite results.As Rodriguez starts that fight, he has plenty of support from his family and friends, who showed up en masse to support him in the Bronx.But Rowlins says that regardless of the character of the father described by that support network, this doesn’t change the fact a parent can be charged with manslaughter. Parents don’t leave their children in cars because they don’t care about legal repercussions.“They have no idea they’re leaving them behind,” she says. “Fear of going to jail is not going to stop that from happening.”Pavon, the friend of the family, says that he is now going to be there for a friend who he says always has his back.“Whenever I’m in need, he’s always been there. It just shows you the level of character that he has,” he says. “I hate to see his family go through this. It’s a tragic accident.”

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PHOTOS: Ohio mass shooting leaves 10 dead including the gunman

A gunman wearing body armor and carrying extra magazines opened fire in a popular nightlife area of Dayton, Ohio, killing nine and injuring dozens, authorities say, in the second U.S. mass shooting in less than 24 hours.

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2 mass shootings in less than 24 hours shock US

Two mass shootings at crowded public places in Texas and Ohio claimed at least 29 lives in less than 24 hours and left scores of people wounded, a shocking carnage even in a country accustomed to gun violence. In the Texas border city of El Paso, a gunman opened fire Saturday morning in a shopping area packed with thousands of people during the busy back-to-school season.

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31 dead, 62 rescued after boats capsize in Philippines

Rescuers recovered more bodies in rough seas where three ferry boats capsized after being buffeted by fierce winds and waves off two central Philippine provinces, bringing the death toll to 31 with three missing, the coast guard said Sunday. Coast guard spokesman Armand Balilo said the dead were mostly passengers of two ferries that flipped over in sudden wind gusts and powerful waves Saturday off Guimaras and Iloilo provinces. Sixty-two other passengers and crew were rescued.

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Canadian police divers search river for missing teen murder suspects

Canadian police divers are searching a river for two missing teenagers suspected of a double murder, after finding an abandoned boat on its shores.The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has been chasing Kam McLeod, 19, and Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, for weeks since the pair were connected to two separate killings in British Columbia earlier this month.Authorities announced on 31 July that they were scaling back the search, which had taken officers to the remote town of Gillam in northern Manitoba.On Friday RCMP officers, travelling in a helicopter, spotted a damaged aluminium boat on the shores of the Nelson River, near Gillam.RCMP divers have now travelled to the town to search a section of the river.Their hunt began on Sunday.“RCMP Underwater Recovery Team (URT) will conduct a thorough underwater search of significant areas of interest today,” the force said on Twitter.The teenagers have been tracked in a series of stolen cars as they have travelled thousands of miles across Canada, from its Pacific coast in the west all to the way east to rural Manitoba.RCMP units believe the pair have been cornered in this region of rural Manitoba.The manhunt began on 12 July when Mr McLeod and Mr Schmegelsky, childhood friends, left their home in Port Alberni on Vancouver Island and travelled 1,500 miles north to Whitehorse, in the Yukon, claiming that they were looking for work.But on 15 July police discovered the bodies of a young couple near Liard Hot Springs, back in British Columbia. The RCMP has said the teenagers are suspects in the case and are wanted for questioning.A few days later a burnt-out truck driven by the pair was discovered, along with the body of Leonard Dyck. Mr McLeod and Mr Schmegelsky have been charged with his murder and chased across Canada by the RCMP ever since.The father of Mr Schmegelsky has told reporters he believes his son is on a “suicide mission” and expects him to eventually die in a confrontation with the police.“A normal child doesn’t travel across the country killing people,” he said. “A child in some very serious pain does.”

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Dayton seconds away from a 'catastrophic loss of life' as gunman who killed nine named as Connor Betts

Dayton, Ohio was seconds away from a “catastrophic loss of life”, the city’s police chief said. Nine people were killed and 27 injured by Connor Betts, 24, who opened fire on revellers as they were leaving bars in the Oregon district of the city. Among those who died was his sister, Megan, 22.  Graphic video footage released by police showed people running for safety as Betts unleashed a volley of bullets. Many rushed back into the bars they had just left, for safety. Shoes are piled outside the scene of a mass shooting including Ned Peppers bar Credit:  John Minchillo Tianycia Leonard, 28, was in the back, smoking, at Newcom's. She heard "loud thumps" that she initially thought was someone pounding on a skip. "It was so noisy, but then you could tell it was gunshots and there was a lot of rounds," she said. The footage showed Betts, who was wearing a bullet-proof vest and was armed with .233 rifle and 100 round drum magazines, trying to get into Ned Peppers bar. He was shot dead by police within 30 seconds of their being alerted to the threat. 'At least 10 dead' in second mass shooting of weekend in US as gunman targets Ohio bar “Had that individual made it through the doorway of Ned Peppers with that level of weaponry there would have been a catastrophic loss of life,” said Dayton’s police chief, Richard Biehl. US president, Donald Trump, paid tribute to police for their swift action. “As bad as it was, it could have been so much worse.” Of the nine people who were killed, six were black, the others were white. Police declined to speculate on what drove Betts, whose only encounter with police had been for minor motoring offences, to embark on a deadly shooting spree.  Police officers at the crime scene in Dayton, Ohio Credit: Tom Russo/ EPA Rob Portman, a Republican senator, paid tribute to the police.  "Their courage was extraordinary. They saved lives, probably hundreds of lives, given the situation," he said. "We all saw workers in Hazmat suits who were having to clear away blood off the sidewalk from the tragedy last night." Mr Portman added: "How could someone point a gun at someone he had never seen or known and pull the trigger."

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Italian Police Mistakes May Help American Teens in Cop Stabbing Case

Ciro De Luca/ReutersOne week has passed since the brutal stabbing death of 35-year-old Italian Carabinieri police officer Mario Cerciello Rega, allegedly at the hands of two San Francisco teens, and the investigation seems to have gone awry. Rome Cops: American Teens Stabbed Police Officer to Death in Drug-Fueled FrenzyReporting that closed camera television footage is missing from the area where 19-year-old Finnegan Elder allegedly stabbed Rega 11 times has raised eyebrows. The manager of the pharmacy directly across from where blood still stains the cobblestones says they only run their cameras when they are open. The stabbing took place around 2:30 a.m. Police now also say the camera on the bank across the street was broken. What we don’t know with certainty is who decided where the fateful rendezvous would take place or if it was possible that anyone involved could have known that cameras would not be working. The fatal stabbing took place during a humid Roman night when local residents without air conditioning, of which there are many in Rome, would have been sleeping with their windows open. Italian media reports have already hinted of secret witnesses who may have heard and seen the whole thing. Police contend that they showed their badges and identified themselves as Carabinieri officers before the American teens allegedly launched the attack that would turn fatal. Officer Rega, we now know, forgot his gun that evening. His partner, Andrea Varriale, was unable to access his because Gabe Natale Hjorth, Elder’s 18-year-old alleged accomplice, was beating him up. And since it is illegal for police to shoot at suspects running away, Varriale did not use his weapon at all. Natale Hjorth, who is half Italian and speaks the language, allegedly told investigators that he did not know the men who approached them to retrieve a bag they stole over a bad drug deal were cops. In fact, he says he was sure they were not. But without video surveillance tape, it may prove impossible to prove whether the police showed their badges or just how they approached the American teens. Elder told investigators that Rega had grabbed him by the neck. Again, without proper surveillance video, the truth may never come out. Elder’s uncle who is acting as a family spokesman confirmed that Elder took part in informal “fight nights” back in San Francisco, so while it is certain he knew how to throw a punch, it remains unclear how he could have so easily overtaken a trained paramilitary police officer who, one would hope, would be equally trained in self defense. Of course the brutal stabbing of anyone is indefensible, but the circumstances leading up to this particular crime will prove crucial as the court drama plays out. If the teens were acting in self defense against older men they did not know were police, as Elder told investigators, they could receive leniency. If footage clearly shows the police showing their badges before the attack, it could prove far worse for the suspects. In a police reconstruction of events presented to the press, investigators say it took only a few minutes for the teens to run nearly two miles from where they allegedly stole a backpack back to their hotel room. That timeline, though, has an empty 24-minute window when the police, the teens and the alleged drug dealer and his interloper were all unaccounted for. Attorneys for both teens are demanding a clearer picture of the evidence. Elder’s father Ethan, who is returning to California Saturday after visiting his son in prison Thursday and Friday, said he hoped the video would answer questions about the circumstances of the case. Elder’s attorney has so far not tried to deny the confession given during the early hours of the investigation. Natale Hjorth’s attorneys now say their client didn’t know there was a stabbing at all until after his arrest despite the fact the two teens spent the hours after the attack in the same hotel room. A leaked photo of Natale Hjorth blindfolded before he was interrogated has only further muddied the waters. Police have confirmed they are investigating both why that happened and who leaked the photo. The knife–a seven-inch military-style weapon–was found hidden under the ceiling tile in the Le Méridien Visconti hotel room Elder had rented for his Roman holiday. Natale Hjorth was not listed as a guest at the hotel but was arrested in Elder’s room. If Natale Hjorth‘s claims are true, it would mean that Elder lifted the ceiling tile and hid the knife and both men’s bloody clothing without him knowing. Investigators are still collecting forensic evidence from the room which could validate or contradict Natale-Hjorth’s claims. Lawyers for Natale-Hjorth have filed an appeal to the court order that will keep the teens incarcerated during the preliminary investigative stage. Under Italian law, police can do so for six months before formally indicting them for a crime and then another six months if they need it. While rarely successful so early in an investigation, the appeal will allow the defense to see certain discovery evidence that they have so far not been provided. Elder’s lawyers have not yet filed a similar brief, and given news that the two young Americans are turning agaisnt each other, it seems unlikely that the defense teams will share what they learn. The case continues to draw comparisons to the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher. American student Amanda Knox was at first implicated and eventually convicted and acquitted of that murder, in part because of shoddy police work. In the first days of that investigation, police directed the narrative that Knox had confessed, that there was a bloody knife and that CCTV cameras did not work. That case took nearly a decade to play out. This one could take even longer. 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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Dayton, El Paso, Gilroy and beyond: You're right to be afraid. Mass shootings are more numerous and deadly

A survey found 41% of Americans fear random mass shootings. FBI data shows a rise in shootings – and victims – so that's not an unreasonable fear.

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Trump smirked at idea of shooting migrants at rally three months before El Paso massacre

Donald Trump laughed and joked after a supporter suggested shooting Mexican migrants at a rally in May 2019.The clip of the interaction is once again spreading across social media, as the US reels from the El Paso massacre.“When you have 15,000 people marching up, and you have hundreds and hundreds of [immigrants], and you have two or three border security people that are brave and great – and don’t forget we don’t let them and we can’t let them use weapons,” Mr Trump said, to an audience of thousands in Florida.“We can’t. Other countries do, we can’t. I would never do that. But how do you stop these people?”In response someone from the audience shouted: “Shoot them!”Mr Trump then appeared to laugh before shaking his head and saying: “That’s only in the Panhandle you can get away with that statement.”The crowd then erupted into laughter and cheers, and Mr Trump added: “Only in the Panhandle!”The Florida Panhandle is a region in the north west of the state.The interaction was remembered with anger online, in the aftermath of the El Paso massacre.At least 20 people were killed when a white male opened fire at a Walmart in the Cielo Vista mall on Saturday.Several people are injured and being treated in hospital. Police said that at least three Mexicans were among the dead.The suspected gunman, Patrick Crusius, is an alleged white supremacist.In the wake of the massacre politicians condemned Donald Trump’s racism and Congress’ failure to take action on gun control.Pete Buttigieg, a presidential primary candidate, said the US was “under attack from white nationalist terrorism”.He said that the attacker was “abetted by weak gun laws” and added: “If we are serious about national security, we must summon the courage to name and defeat this evil.”Former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke, who represented the district where the attack took place, said the US president bore some responsibility for the attack which left 20 people dead.“He is a racist, and he stokes racism in this country,” he added.“It does not just offend our sensibilities; it fundamentally changes the character of this country and it leads to violence.”

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Hong Kong police fire tear gas at protesters in tourist district

Hong Kong riot police fired repeated tear gas rounds on Saturday evening at pro-democracy protesters in a popular tourist district, during the latest violence to rock the global finance hub despite increasingly stern warnings from China. Authorities in Hong Kong and Beijing this week signalled a hardening stance. Dozens of protesters were arrested, and the Chinese military said it was ready to quell the "intolerable" unrest if requested.

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Seventeen dead in car explosion in central Cairo: health ministry

Seventeen people have died and 32 have been injured in an explosion outside Egypt's National Cancer Institute in central Cairo, Egypt's health ministry said early on Monday.

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Democrats aim their outrage at Trump after two mass shootings

Two mass shootings that killed 29 people in Texas and Ohio reverberated across the U.S. political arena on Sunday, with some Democratic presidential candidates accusing President Donald Trump of stoking racial divisions while he said "hate has no place in our country."

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Bill Maher: Democrats Are ‘Blowing It’ With Open Borders, Free College Talk

Comedian Bill Maher said Friday night that Democrats are “blowing” their chances of defeating President Donald Trump in 2020 by proposing open border and free college policies.“All the Democrats have to do to win is to come off less crazy than Trump — and, of course, they’re blowing it,” Maher said in his closing monologue during his HBO show, “Real Time with Bill Maher.”More from The National Interest: This Is the Worst U.S. President EverMake Your Pick for the 6 Best Presidents Ever The Best President Ever: Lincoln Democrats are “coming across as unserious people who are going to take away all your money so migrants from Honduras can go to college for free and get a major in ‘America sucks,'” he said.Maher did not identify any specific candidate in his diatribe, but was referring instead to the leftward lurch of the Democratic field.Some Democrats have embraced the idea of forgiving some or all student loan debt, while others back the decriminalization of illegal border crossings. Ten Democrats onstage raised their hands when asked whether they support providing government health insurance to illegal immigrants at a presidential debate in June.

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Who is the El Paso shooter? Investigators search for links, motive in anti-immigrant screed

Patrick Crusius, 21, has been charged in the mass shooting that killed 20 at Walmart in El Paso. Police are investigating his ties to a hate-filled manifesto

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California cliff collapse: Three dead after tons of sandstone plunges onto popular surfing beach

Three people have died after a cliff collapsed, forcing a popular surfing beach to close and sending tons of sandstone onto beachgoers in California.A 30-foot-long slab of the cliff plunged onto the sand near Grandview Beach north of San Diego on Saturday.Footage of beach chairs, towels, surf boards and beach toys strewn about the sand was captured by a KNSD-TV helicopter.Other beachgoers and lifeguards at a nearby tower scrambled to the towering pile of debris, which was estimated to weigh tens of thousands of pounds, to help dig out victims."I saw first responders, and I saw lifeguards frantically digging people out of the debris," Jim Pepperdine, who lives nearby, told the San Diego Union-Tribune.Mr Pepperdine said he saw people trying to resuscitate a woman before her body was covered.A woman died at the scene and two more people later died at hospitals. Another person was taken to a hospital and a person who had minor injuries was treated at the scene, according to statements from the city.Their names and ages were not immediately released. All the victims were adults, authorities said.Search dogs were brought in to hunt for other possible victims, and a skip loader was brought in to move the dense, heavy debris. No other victims were found by late Friday night.The beach is reached by wooden stairs from a parking lot above. Homes atop the cliff were not in any danger, Encinitas Fire Chief Mike Stein said.However, the cliff remained unstable and complicated the search effort, Mr Stein said.Suburbs north of San Diego have contended with rising water levels in the Pacific Ocean, pressuring bluffs along the coast. Some bluffs are fortified with concrete walls to prevent multimillion-dollar homes from falling into the sea.Long stretches of beach in Encinitas, San Diego County, are narrow strips of sand between stiff waves and towering rock walls. People lounging on beach chairs or blankets are sometimes surprised as waves roll past them and within a few feet of the walls.Grandview Beach is fairly narrow, with tides high this week. Surfers lay their boards upright against the bluff.Cliffside collapses are not unusual as the ocean chews away at the base of the sandstone, authorities said. Some beach areas were marked with signs warning of slide dangers.Several people have been killed or injured over the years in bluff collapses. The Tribune reported that Rebecca Kowalczyk, from Encinitas, died near the same area on 16 January 2000, when a 110-yard-wide chunk of bluff fell and buried her.Bluffs give way four to eight times a year in Southern California, but "nothing of this magnitude," said Brian Ketterer, southern field division chief of California State Parks."This is a naturally eroding coastline," Encinitas lifeguard captain Larry Giles said. "There's really no rhyme or reason, but that's what it does naturally ... This is what it does, and this is how are beaches are actually partially made. It actually has these failures."Associated Press

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'Comfort woman' statue pulled from Japan exhibit after threats

A controversial statue symbolizing "comfort women" was withdrawn from a Japanese art exhibition on Saturday after organizers received security threats, amid a resurgence of tensions between Japan and South Korea rooted in their bitter wartime past. Comfort women is a euphemism for those, many of them Korean, forced to work in Japan's World War Two brothels and is a highly emotional topic for people of both countries. Japan says the issue was settled by past agreements and apologies but many Koreans say Japan did not go far enough and have demanded further compensation for victims.

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Canada deploys divers in search for fugitive teen murder suspects

Canadian police said Sunday they sent a team of divers to a river in Manitoba, to join the weeks-long hunt for two teenage triple-murder suspects. Five members of the federal Underwater Recovery Team were sent to Gillam in northern Manitoba to conduct a "thorough underwater search" in the area, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said in a statement. The teens are wanted in connection with the murder of Lucas Fowler, 23, of Australia, and his American girlfriend Chynna Deese, 24, who were found shot dead alongside the Alaska Highway in northern British Columbia on July 15.

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Malaysia Voices Trust in South China Sea Pact

(Bloomberg) -- Malaysia is confident it can reach an agreement with China to settle tensions in the South China Sea after its neighbors warned that incidents in the disputed waters had “eroded trust.”The country is “very hopeful” that a code of conduct for the area will be completed within the three-year deadline or earlier, Malaysia’s Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Haslinda Amin."We are very hopeful that within three years or perhaps even earlier we can come up with a better understanding of things," Saifuddin said in the interview in Bangkok after the Asean Foreign Ministers Meeting. "We are also hopeful that the U.S. and other superpowers will respect the CoC once its implemented."Saifuddin said he had not seen an increased presence of Chinese navy vessels in the disputed region, which includes a waterway that carries more than $3 trillion in trade each year.His comments come after a joint communique from Asean aired concerns on the same day that China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi touted a preliminary draft of the code of conduct to end the decades-long conflict over the area. Activities in the South China Sea, including land reclamation, “increased tensions and may undermine peace, security and stability in the region,” the 10-nation bloc of Southeast Asian countries said in the statement.Malaysia’s Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s stance on China has warmed ever since he stepped into power last year and quickly put Chinese-backed projects on hold for review. He has since resumed some of the contracts and looked to Chinese companies from Huawei Technologies Co. to SenseTime Group Ltd. for cooperation in artificial intelligence and transport.As trade tensions between the U.S. and China escalate, Saifuddin is concerned that possible U.S. sanctions against Malaysia could prevent it from trading with China. Vietnam is a cautionary tale, with the U.S. imposing duties on steel imports from the country in July.“We are a small player and we would like to trade with both the U.S. and China,” Saifuddin said. If Malaysia were to be punished for its trade surplus with the U.S., then “we just have to tell the U.S. that you are just being very unfair and you are being a big bully,” he added.To contact the reporters on this story: Anisah Shukry in Kuala Lumpur at ashukry2@bloomberg.net;Haslinda Amin in Singapore at hamin1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Yudith Ho at yho35@bloomberg.net, Ruth PollardFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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Iran seizes third tanker and seven sailors in Persian Gulf

Iran yesterday said it had captured an oil tanker and seven sailors it accused of “smuggling” fuel through the Persian Gulf to Arab states – the third such seizure in recent months.   Iranian state television reported that the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp detained the tanker, its crew and 700,000 litres of fuel on Wednesday. "The seizure of the oil tanker was in coordination with Iran's judiciary authorities and based on their order. It was taken to the Bushehr port, where its fuel was handed over to the authorities,” said Guards commander Ramezan Zirahi.  The incident marks the latest instalment in a series of actions designed to broadcast power and strength to the West.  Tensions in the Persian Gulf have been high since US President Donald Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal last year, cutting the prized economic lifeline Tehran was offered in exchange for curtailing its nuclear programme. Since then, Iran has struggled to fight back against a combination of sanctions and diplomatic isolation, and to curtail rampant fuel smuggling, by sea and land, to neighbouring countries including Arab rivals. Entreaties to European signatories to the nuclear deal to pressure the US to back down have thus far fallen short, leaving Tehran looking to its nuclear programme and the Strait of Hormuz for sticks where carrots have failed. The IRGC captured the Panama-flagged Riah last month, accusing it of smuggling cheap, state-subsidized Iranian fuel. That incident followed the tit-for-tat detention of British tanker Stena Impero earlier in July, two weeks after British forces captured an Iranian oil tanker near Gibraltar accused of violating sanctions on Syria. British authorities say the Iranian seizure was illegal and have ruled out a swap of the two vessels. Twenty percent of global oil consumption passes through the Strait of Hormuz, and Iran has threatened to block all exports if the international community bow to US calls to stop buying Iranian oil. In recent days, the Washington-Tehran confrontation has reached new heights, with the US announcing sanctions against Iranian Foreign Minister Javid Zarif, a key architect of the scrapped nuclear deal.  Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called the sanctions “childish”. On Saturday, Mr Zarif said Iran would soon take “the third step” in reducing its commitments made under the deal.

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Teen's family say it's looking forward to truth coming out

The family of one of the two California teenagers held in the slaying of an Italian police officer is looking "forward to the truth coming out and our son coming home," an attorney for the family said Saturday. "We feel the public has an incomplete account of the true version of these events," Craig Peters said. Peters read the short statement in front of the home of Finnegan Elder's parents in San Francisco in which he said the family also expressed their condolences to Carabinieri officer Mario Cerciello Rega.

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Gilroy Garlic Festival shooter killed himself, coroner says

The gunman who opened fire on unsuspecting festival-goers at the Gilroy Garlic Festival just days ago died by suicide, the Coroner's Office found.

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Dayton Shooting Victims Included Gunman’s Own Sister

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Renée Fleming to Lead Opera at Aspen

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