Woman, Two Children Found Dead on Sidewalk Outside Boston Parking Garage

A woman and two children were found unresponsive on a sidewalk outside a Northeastern University parking garage on Christmas Day, prompting a “death investigation,” according to authorities.Boston Police confirmed the woman and the two children—both under the age of 5—were found unconscious outside the Northeastern University Renaissance Parking Garage just before 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday. All three, who have not yet been identified, were transported to a local hospital and were pronounced dead on arrival. Video from WCVB showed a black SUV behind police tape on the roof of the garage, though authorities did not comment on how the vehicle was involved.Man Found Guilty of Murdering Two Boston Doctors Inside Their Penthouse Condo“Today is a tragedy,” Boston Police Commissioner William Gross said in a press conference, adding the relationship between the three individuals is not immediately known. “At this point, this is a death investigation.”Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins said Wednesday her office is leading the investigation and that investigators are in the process of trying to determine the motive behind the incident. She noted that the holiday season can be hard for people.“On Christmas and the holiday season where many people are celebrating, it can be a challenging and difficult time,” Rollins said, according to CBS Boston. “I feel it imperative that we let people know that there is help.”“As a mother, it was incredibly hard, this scene in particular, where there were two children who lost their lives today,” Rollins added.Northeastern University did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment,  but campus police sent an alert to students about police activity near the Ruggles MBTA station and said they should “avoid the area.”Estranged Husband, Girlfriend of Missing NYC Teacher Charged With MurderRead 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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Game-Changer? Russia's Su-57 Stealth Fighter Is Packing Hypersonic Missiles

We take a look.

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Biden tries to win over Iowa seniors enamored with Buttigieg

Elderly voters say age and experience are positives and negatives for both candidates.

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Giuliani associate Parnas unable to pay both lawyers, agrees to let one withdraw

"Since I entered my appearance, Mr. Parnas' apparent ability to fund his defense has diminished," attorney Edward MacMahon Jr said in a filing with the federal court in Manhattan. "It thus would constitute a significant hardship for Mr. Parnas to continue being represented by two attorneys in this matter," MacMahon said, adding that Parnas had agreed to his request to withdraw.

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Mexico accuses Bolivia of more harassment, even as president sees let-up

Mexico's foreign ministry on Tuesday again accused Bolivian security and intelligence officials of harassing its diplomatic staff in La Paz, despite remarks by the Mexican president earlier in the day that obtrusive surveillance was easing. Mexico on Monday accused Bolivia of intimidating its diplomats in La Paz after a chill in relations since Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador last month gave political asylum to former Bolivian president Evo Morales, a fellow leftist.

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New Christianity Today editorial challenges loyalty to Trump

Christianity Today has followed up its controversial editorial criticizing President Trump with a second editorial urging fellow Christians to stop being loyal to Trump.The magazine's president, Timothy Dalrymple, asked Christians in the new editorial "to consider whether they have given to Caesar what belongs only to God: their unconditional loyalty." He said embracing Trump means being tied to his "corruption" and "race-baiting."The first editorial by the magazine, which was founded by the late Rev. Billy Graham, accused Trump of "profoundly immoral" conduct and called for his impeachment. A group of more than 100 conservative evangelical Christians responded Monday with a letter calling the magazine's position offensive, per Reuters, saying it questioned the "spiritual integrity" of tens of millions of Christian Trump supporters.More stories from theweek.com 'Fairytale of New York': How a soused Irish punk band created the greatest Christmas song of all time No, Christmas is not secular The unlikely joy of Christmas

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What we know: Woman admits to hitting teenage girl with car because girl was 'a Mexican'

The Des Moines woman faces a hate crime charge from that evening, but not for either of the intentional hit-and-runs.

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Vietnam seizes two tonnes of ivory and pangolin scales

Vietnam seized more than two tonnes of ivory tusks and pangolin scales hidden inside wooden boxes shipped from Nigeria, state media reported Tuesday. The bust comes at the end of a year of big wildlife seizures destined for communist Vietnam, a hotbed of the illicit but lucrative trade in animal parts from elephants, pangolins, tigers and rhinos. Authorities in northern Hai Phong city found 330 kilograms (730 pounds) of ivory and 1.7 tonnes of pangolin scales after checking three container shipments from Nigeria, according to Hai Quan Online, the official mouthpiece of Vietnam's customs department.

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South Korea, Japan, China leaders to promote North Korea-U.S. dialogue

China, Japan and South Korea have agreed to work together to promote dialogue between the United States and North Korea, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Tuesday following a summit between the three countries in China. North Korea has set a year-end deadline for the United States to change what it says is a policy of hostility amid a stalemate in efforts to make progress on their pledge to end the North's nuclear program and establish lasting peace.

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Bank robber tosses cash in the air, saying "Merry Christmas"

A witness said the man held up a Colorado Springs bank but then got rid his haul because someone was tailing him outside.

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Did de Blasio Put Politics Ahead of Yeshiva Students?

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Why Stephen Curry (Not LeBron) Is the N.B.A. Player of the Decade

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Tulsi Gabbard, encouraged by Trump, may seek spoiler role

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard will likely not win the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, but she could still help reelect President Trump.

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Woman and two children found dead on Boston sidewalk on Christmas Day

Boston Police Commissioner William Gross said on Wednesday detectives had few details about what happened to the three victims, whom he said were found unconscious on the pavement and pronounced "non-viable" at a local hospital.

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Elizabeth Warren once held campaign event at restaurant with 'wine vault'

Is a good old fashioned winery no longer good enough for people these days?Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has been a vocal critic of big money donors and fundraising in campaigns, calling out South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg for attending a fundraiser at a "wine cave." But Warren herself has a troubled past when it comes to drinking wine in elaborate places.While running for U.S. Senate, Warren reportedly held an event at a restaurant boasting a "wine vault," per The Washington Post. The restaurant also featured wine reaching the price of $3,800 a bottle.Warren went after Buttigieg in the last Democratic debate, saying the next president shouldn't be chosen by billionaires in wine caves (although she said nothing of billionaires in wine vaults). Warren's own wine-centric event took place in October 2017, per the Post, and had a $1,000 per-attendee price tag. Warren, for her part, has acknowledged she used to have a big donor program but now thinks there is a "better" way to do things.The Post's revelation does provide some good fodder for the next Democratic primary debate, though. Which came first: the wine cave or the wine vault?More stories from theweek.com 'Fairytale of New York': How a soused Irish punk band created the greatest Christmas song of all time 11 Christmas movies for people who hate Christmas movies The unlikely joy of Christmas

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Amid claims of 'political favoritism,' FBI is asking questions about former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin's pardons

Federal investigators are looking into former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin's last-minute pardons, some of which have drawn national criticism.

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Venezuela arrests 11 after weekend raid of military outpost: Maduro

Venezuela has arrested 11 people in connection with a weekend raid of a remote military outpost in southern Bolivar state, but some suspects have fled across the border to Brazil with stolen weapons, President Nicolas Maduro said on Monday. Authorities have accused Brazil, Colombia and Peru - all adversaries of socialist Maduro who recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido as the rightful president - of complicity with the attack, in which one Venezuelan soldier was killed.

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New wife, 26, charged with exploiting husband, 77, for money

Lin Helena Halfon was arrested earlier this month at Tampa International Airport. The Tampa Bay Times reported that when her husband, Tampa businessman Richard Rappaport, was notified by investigators about what his wife was doing, he said wanted to give his wife the benefit of the doubt, according to a warrant affidavit.

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Japan Ruling Party Lawmaker Arrested in Casino Bribery Scandal

(Bloomberg) -- Tokyo prosecutors arrested a ruling party lawmaker on suspicion of receiving bribes from a Chinese company seeking to invest in the casino industry, dealing a blow to already unpopular plans to open the country to the gaming industry.Liberal Democratic Party politician Tsukasa Akimoto, who had served as a vice minister in charge of promoting the establishment of casinos in the country, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of receiving payoffs of about 3.7 million yen ($34,000), the Tokyo Public Prosecutor’s office said. The bribes included cash, plane tickets and hotel rooms, it said in a statement.The company was not named in the indictment and prosecutors didn’t indicate what he did in return for the bribes. Three others who were related to the company were also arrested, prosecutors said.The Chinese firm suspected of paying the bribes runs online casinos and is headquartered in the southern city of Shenzhen, according to Kyodo News of Japan. It’s also suspected of smuggling several million yen in cash into Japan without declaring it to customs, according to the report.Akimoto became the first sitting lawmaker to be arrested in about a decade, according to Kyodo.“I was not involved in any wrongdoing,” Akimoto said on his Twitter feed before the arrest.The nation legalized casino gambling in 2016 to great excitement in the industry, where many have long tried to get a foot in the door in a potential $20 billion gaming market. Companies including MGM Resorts International and Las Vegas Sands Corp. have spent heavily to get access to a gaming market that could become Asia’s second-largest after Macau.Gambling Prize Worth $20 Billion Is Losing Its Luster in JapanThree years later, some of that enthusiasm is wearing off. A number of casino executives, who declined to speak publicly because of the sensitive nature of the casino approval process, told Bloomberg News that the procedure in Japan has been more difficult compared with other markets that have built gaming industries. At least one company, Caesars Entertainment Corp., has pulled out.Japan’s law allows for the establishment of three casino resorts, and Osaka, Yokohama and Tokyo are among the local governments seeking to attract a casino or considering doing so, according to the country’s tourism authority. Opinion polls show that the public opposes the idea.(Updates with statement from prosecutors)\--With assistance from Lisa Du, Isabel Reynolds and Takashi Hirokawa.To contact the reporters on this story: Jon Herskovitz in Tokyo at jherskovitz@bloomberg.net;Emi Nobuhiro in Tokyo at enobuhiro@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Kazunori Takada, Kana NishizawaFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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Bloomberg axes company using prisoners for campaign calls

Democratic presidential contender Michael Bloomberg cut ties with a contractor that used prisoners to make calls for his presidential campaign, he said in a statement Tuesday. Earlier Tuesday, online news site The Intercept reported that Bloomberg's campaign contracted a New Jersey-based call center company that, in at least one instance, used Oklahoma inmates to make calls on behalf of the billionaire's campaign. "We only learned about this when the reporter called us, but as soon as we discovered which vendor's subcontractor had done this, we immediately ended our relationship with the company and the people who hired them," Bloomberg said in the statement.

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Merkel Coalition Partners Stuck in Doldrums After Shift to Left

(Bloomberg) -- The new leftist leaders of Germany’s Social Democrats have failed to give Angela Merkel’s junior coalition partners a lift in the polls.The SPD were stuck on 13% in the final Insa survey of the year for Bild newspaper, the same as the previous week and down from 20.5% in the most recent general election in 2017. Merkel’s CDU/CSU bloc gained one point to 28%, while the SPD again trailed the Greens and the far-right Alternative for Germany, stable on 21% and 15% respectively.In an attempt to revive their fortunes, the Social Democrats this month picked Norbert Walter-Borjans and Saskia Esken as co-leaders, scuppering a rival bid by Finance Minister and Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz.The new team endorsed policy demands as a condition to remain in government that would ease years of fiscal discipline under Merkel and Scholz, boost infrastructure spending, lift the minimum wage and step up efforts to tackle climate change.But the shift to the left has apparently failed to win back the voters who have abandoned the party in droves over the past decade as the Greens and AfD gained support.Insa head Hermann Binkert suggested that, as things stand, there’s little point in the SPD putting forward a candidate to take over from Merkel when she finishes her term in 2021 -- if her government survives that long.\--With assistance from Chris Reiter.To contact the reporter on this story: Iain Rogers in Berlin at irogers11@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, Andrew Blackman, Raymond ColittFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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Jihadists on motorbikes kill 35 civilians in Burkina Faso raid

An attack by militants in northern Burkina Faso has killed 35 civilians, almost all of them women, the president said, one of the deadliest assaults in nearly five years of jihadist violence in the West African nation. Seven soldiers and 80 jihadists were also killed in the double attack on a military base and the town of Arbinda in Soum province. The morning raid was carried out by dozens of jihadists on motorbikes and lasted several hours before armed forces backed by the air force drove the militants back. The army said the attack was of a "rare intensity". "A large group of terrorists simultaneously attacked the military base and the civilian population in Arbinda," the army chief of staff said in a statement. "This barbaric attack resulted in the deaths of 35 civilian victims, most of them women," President Roch Marc Christian Kabore said on Twitter, praising the "bravery and commitment" of the defence and security forces. Remis Dandjinou, the communications minister and government spokesman,  later said that 31 of the civilian victims were women. The president has declared 48 hours of national mourning. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but jihadist violence in Burkina Faso has been blamed on militants linked to both al-Qaeda and Islamic State groups. Burkina Faso, which borders, Mali and Niger, has endured regular jihadist attacks which have left hundreds dead since the start of 2015 when militant violence began to spread across the Sahel region. More than 700 people have been killed and around 560,000 internally displaced by the violence, according to the United Nations. Attacks have targeted mostly the north and east of the country, though the capital Ouagadougou has been hit three times.

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White-bearded 'Merry Christmas' bank robber throws cash at passers-by

A white-bearded man robbed a bank two days before Christmas, but threw the stolen cash in the air and wished passers-by a merry Christmas, US media reported. Colorado police confirmed in a statement an "older white male" robbed the Academy Bank in Colorado Springs after threatening workers with an unidentified weapon and leaving with an unknown amount of money around midday Monday. "He started throwing money out of the bag and then said, 'Merry Christmas!" witness Dion Pascale told local station KKTV 11 News.

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