Big Time News Blog: 01/10/20

Friday, January 10, 2020

Stephanie Grisham: Trump’s Press Secretary Who Doesn’t Meet the Press

By BY MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM AND KATIE ROGERS from NYT Business https://ift.tt/2FAqPGn

US Employment Remains Strong, 145,000 Jobs Added in December

U.S. employers added 145,000 jobs in December and the unemployment rate held steady at 3.5%, signaling that the job market remains strong at the start of 2020 even if hiring and wage gains have slowed somewhat more than a decade into an economic expansion.

from CBNNews.com https://ift.tt/37SJMQD

Iran, United by Loss of General, Is Divided Over Plane Crash

By BY FARNAZ FASSIHI AND DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK from NYT World https://ift.tt/37XjbSi

Your Impeachment Questions, Answered

By BY NOAH WEILAND from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2FEjmWU

Of Course Bernie Can Win

By BY BRET STEPHENS from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/2NgetHE

She Was 92 and Loved Cats. An Attack Left Her Dead on the Street.

By BY ANDREA SALCEDO from NYT New York https://ift.tt/35NxbwQ

Taiwan votes in election closely watched by China

Polls opened in Taiwan on Saturday in presidential and parliamentary elections that will be closely watched by Beijing, which claims the democratic island as its own.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/39UWekB

Oman's Sultan Qaboos dies: state media

Oman's Sultan Qaboos bin Said died on Friday evening, state media said early on Saturday.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/39WtbgB

U.N. renews Syria cross-border aid operation but halves crossings, length of time

The U.N. Security Council on Friday renewed a six-year-long cross-border operation delivering aid to millions of Syrian civilians but the number of crossings and length of authorization were halved to avoid a Russian veto.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2R8S9AT

Tunisian parliament rejects government, coalition building must restart

Tunisia's deeply fragmented parliament on Friday rejected a proposed new government in a confidence vote, meaning a complex coalition-building process will need to restart with urgent economic reforms at stake.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/36HNGM9

U.S. rebuffs Britain's extradition request for diplomat's wife after fatal crash

The United States on Friday rejected a formal request from Britain for the extradition of a U.S. diplomat's wife who left the country last year after a road collision that killed 19-year-old Briton Harry Dunn.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2uFF76t

Pelosi says she will send impeachment articles once McConnell discloses Senate rules

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that she will send articles of impeachment to the Senate “soon,” but still wants to see definitive details from the Senate on how it will conduct the trial.

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Boy kills teacher, self in Mexico school shooting

Torreón (Mexico) (AFP) - An 11-year-old boy shot and killed his teacher Friday at a school in northern Mexico and wounded six other people before killing himself, authorities said. As shocked Mexicans searched for explanations for the school shooting -- a rare event for the country -- officials said they were investigating a possible link to the Columbine High School massacre in the US in 1999. Panicked parents rushed to the private elementary school, the Colegio Cervantes, in Torreon as officials evacuated the trim brick building and police and soldiers put it on lockdown.

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Japan Fires Back at Ghosn, Stoking War of Words Over Trial

(Bloomberg) -- Japan battled to restore its image on Thursday after former auto executive Carlos Ghosn blasted the country’s legal system in a marathon press conference following his escape to Lebanon.Justice Minister Masako Mori held an unusual briefing in the early morning hours in Tokyo, and then gave a second press conference later on to rebut what she said were mostly “abstract, unclear or baseless” criticisms of the country’s legal system. She was scathing in her descriptions of Ghosn’s behavior after he told the world he skipped bail and fled Japan because he didn’t think he would get a fair trial.“He has been propagating both within Japan and internationally false information on Japan’s legal system and its practice,” Mori said in her first briefing. “That is absolutely intolerable.”Ghosn, the former head of Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA, used the first press conference since his dramatic escape to blast what he called “hostage justice.” Speaking in four languages, he offered a point-by-point rebuttal of the charges against him and accused Japanese prosecutors, government officials and Nissan executives of conspiring to topple him to prevent a further integration of the Japanese carmaker with Renault.In response to Ghosn’s assertion that Japan breached his human rights by preventing him from seeing his wife, Mori said such measures were only used in cases of a flight risk or when there was a danger of evidence being concealed or destroyed. Mori also lauded Japan’s police, judges and prosecutors for building what she said was the “safest country in the world.”Mori said she was aware of criticism of Japan’s criminal justice system, and said authorities are taking steps to improve it. “It is my strong hope that he engage in all possible efforts to make his case within Japan’s fair criminal justice proceedings, and that he seek justice rendered by a Japanese court,“ Mori said.The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, which rarely makes any public comment, posted an English statement on its website saying Ghosn had only himself to blame for his strict bail conditions. It vowed to try to bring him to justice in Japan. At a regular scheduled briefing Thursday, Tokyo Deputy Chief Prosecutor Takahiro Saito pushed back against many of Ghosn’s complaints about the “inhumane” conditions of his confinement.“Ghosn gave the impression he was questioned for a total of eight hours a day, but that’s not true,” Saito said. The former CEO was questioned on 70 of the days he spent in jail, about half the total, with each session lasting an average of four hours, he said. He met with his legal counsel “almost every day” he was there, altogether more than 120 times, Saito said.Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga also piled in, calling Ghosn’s comments one-sided and not persuasive.Striking BackAt his news conference in Beirut, Ghosn refrained from accusing specific people in the Japanese government of any wrongdoing, citing the need to avoid creating friction between Lebanon and Japan. He also said he didn’t think Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was involved.Abe has avoided making any public comments about Ghosn. Kyodo News reported on Wednesday that he told a party lawmaker at a dinner in Tokyo ahead of Ghosn’s news conference that he had wanted the situation “to be sorted out within Nissan in the first place.”The head of a foreign policy panel in Abe’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party accused Ghosn of spreading “fake news.”“We have our dignity as a country, and we need to have people understand that we have a proper legal system that doesn’t ignore human rights at all,” said Yasuhide Nakayama, who is also a former vice foreign minister.Abe’s government has sought cooperation from Lebanon to bring Ghosn back but Japan doesn’t have an extradition treaty with the country. Lebanese President Michel Aoun pledged to work on the issue in a meeting Tuesday with Japan’s ambassador in Beirut, the Japanese foreign ministry said in a statement.Lebanon’s prosecutor issued a travel ban for Ghosn after questioning him Thursday on two cases, including the allegations of financial misconduct included in an Interpol red notice that police received this week, according to the state-run National News Agency. Ghosn also gave testimony on a lawsuit filed locally that he entered Israel in 2008, a criminal offense in the country. Lebanon and Israel are technically in a state of war.The restriction on international travel is in line with legal practice in Lebanon. Ghosn said at the briefing Wednesday that he wanted to clear his name and would stand trial “in any country where I believe I can receive a fair trial.”(Updates with Lebanon testimony, travel ban in final paragraphs)\--With assistance from Kae Inoue, Tsuyoshi Inajima, Emi Nobuhiro, Sophie Jackman and Dana Khraiche.To contact the reporters on this story: Tsuyoshi Inajima in Tokyo at tinajima@bloomberg.net;Isabel Reynolds in Tokyo at ireynolds1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Emma O'Brien at eobrien6@bloomberg.net, ;Daniel Ten Kate at dtenkate@bloomberg.net, Reed Stevenson, Gearoid ReidyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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Australians on SE coast urged to flee as fire risk escalates

Residents in the path of wildfires razing southeast Australia were urged to evacuate on Thursday if they don’t intend to defend their homes as hot and windy conditions are forecast to escalate the danger over the next two days. The Rural Fire Service in New South Wales state has told fire-weary community meetings south of Sydney in the coastal towns of Nowra, Narooma and Batemans Bay that northwesterly winds were likely to once again drive blazes toward the coast. In neighboring Victoria state, fire-threatened populations were urged to act quickly on evacuation warnings.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2T4pa3L

8 months before the first 737 Max crash, 2 Boeing employees talked about how they wouldn't let their families fly on the plane

Reuters obtained a Boeing internal communication on Thursday between two employees worried about the safety of the 737 Max.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/37SR6M8

Iran Shot Down Ukraine Flight after Attack on Iraqi Military Bases, U.S. Officials Say

Pentagon and Iraqi officials claim that a Ukrainian Airlines flight that crashed after leaving Tehran Tuesday night was shot down by an Iranian anti-aircraft missile system, according to multiple reports.Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, en route from Tehran to Kyiv, was shot down by an Iranian anti-aircraft missile in what was likely an accident, several U.S. military officials told Newsweek. The incident occurred just hours after Iran launched 15 missiles at Iraqi military bases in retaliation for the assassination of general Qasem Soleimani.When asked about the crash during a White House event on Thursday, President Trump said that "somebody could have made a mistake on the other side.""Well, I have my suspicions," he said. "I don't want to say that because other people have their suspicions . . . somebody could have made a mistake on the other side.”Several U.S. officials told CBS News that U.S. intelligence identified the Iranian anti-aircraft missiles upon launch using radar systems, which subsequently picked up a mid-air explosion when they struck the plane.All 176 passengers on board the flight were killed. Footage showed the plane on fire as it descended from the sky. The New York Times later released a video showing the plane being struck by a missile.> Breaking First footage of the Ukrainian airplane while on fire falling near Tehran pic.twitter.com/kGxnBb7f1q> > -- Ali Hashem علي هاشم (@alihashem_tv) January 8, 2020Following the incident, Iranian state media initially reported that the plane had crashed due to “technical issues,” and Ali Abedzadeh, who leads the country's civil aviation organization, said Wednesday he would not hand over the recovered black boxes to the United States.In a statement Thursday, Abedzadeh dismissed allegations the plane was shot down, saying it was "scientifically impossible and such rumors make no sense at all."“We are aware of the media reports out of Iran and we are gathering more information,” Boeing said in a statement after the crash.> We are aware of the media reports out of Iran and we are gathering more information.> > -- The Boeing Company (@Boeing) January 8, 2020Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed Thursday that he would launch an investigation “to find out the causes of the tragedy.”“We will definitely find out the truth. We will conduct a detailed and independent investigation,” Zelensky said.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2Ta7mV2

Bill Cosby asks Pennsylvania high court to review conviction

Comedian Bill Cosby filed an appeal Thursday of a court decision last month that upheld his conviction for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman at his home. The latest appeal — filed with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which does not have to take the case — focuses on four key trial issues, including the judge’s decision to let five other accusers testify and to send Cosby to trial despite what he called a binding agreement with an earlier prosecutor that he would not be charged in the case. Cosby, 82, is serving a three- to 10-year prison term at a maximum-security state prison in Pennsylvania.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/36FzEKX

US intelligence reportedly indicates that Iran accidentally shot down the Ukrainian Airlines plane and then realized its mistake

Iran claims the plane crashed due to technical problems. US, British, and Canadian intelligence say it was likely shot down by Iran missile.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2FDD0SB

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