Lawyers seeking to spare Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev the death penalty will delve deeper into his older brother’s Islamist militant beliefs in court on Wednesday in an effort to cast him as the mastermind of the 2013 attacks. The 21-year old ethnic Chechen was found guilty earlier this month of killing three people and injuring 264 in the April 15, 2013 attack, the worst on U.S. soil since September
Lawyers seeking to spare Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev the death penalty will delve deeper into his older brother’s Islamist militant beliefs in court on Wednesday in an effort to cast him as the mastermind of the 2013 attacks. The 21-year old ethnic Chechen was found guilty earlier this month of killing three people and injuring 264 in the April 15, 2013 attack, the worst on U.S. soil since September
The Supreme Court is set to hear historic arguments in cases that could make same-sex marriage the law of the land.
Riots erupt following the funeral of a black man who died in police custody.
GORKHA, Nepal (AP) — Helicopters crisscrossed the mountains above a remote district Tuesday near the epicenter of the weekend earthquake in Nepal that killed more than 4,600 people, ferrying the injured and delivering emergency supplies. Officials said 250 villagers were feared missing in a new mudslide.
By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on Tuesday on whether the Constitution provides same-sex couples the right to marry, with a majority of the nine justices firing skeptical questions at a lawyer asking them to legalize gay marriage nationwide. Five justices including a possible swing vote, Justice Anthony Kennedy, and a member of the court’s liberal wing, Justice Stephen Breyer, asked lawyer Mary Bonauto
By Ian Simpson and Warren Strobel BALTIMORE (Reuters) – Baltimore residents on Tuesday began to clear the wreckage of rioting and fires that erupted after the funeral of a 25-year-old black man who died in police custody, while the city’s mayor defended local law enforcement’s light initial response. Acrid smoke hung over streets where violence broke out just blocks from Freddie Gray’s funeral and spread through much of the poor
The moderate Virginia Democrat was an unlikely — and unsung — trailblazer for gay equality.
By Richard Valdmanis BOSTON (Reuters) – The older brother of convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was transformed from a heavy drinker and drugs user into someone obsessed with Islam after returning from a trip to Russia in 2012, witnesses said on Tuesday. The 21-year-old ethnic Chechen was convicted this month of killing three people and injuring 264 in the bombing, and shooting dead a police officer three days later
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The world is “closer than ever” to reaching a comprehensive nuclear deal with Iran but the work is far from over, with key issues unresolved, Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday told a global gathering on nuclear disarmament, where he and Iran’s foreign minister met on the sidelines.
Loretta Lynch was sworn in Monday as the 83rd U.S. attorney general, becoming the first African-American woman to serve as the nation’s top law enforcement official.
Family and friends gathered Monday for the funeral of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man whose death in custody triggered a fresh wave of protests over US police tactics. Dozens of people arrived at the New Shiloh Baptist church to pay final respects to Gray, who died on April 19 of severe spinal injuries, a week after his arrest in Baltimore.
Loretta Lynch was sworn in Monday as the 83rd U.S. attorney general, becoming the first African-American woman to serve as the nation’s top law enforcement official.
The death toll from Saturday’s massive earthquake soared past 3,700.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the 82-year-old leader of the Supreme Court’s minority liberal wing, has cast aside her usual restraint in the past months and left little doubt where she stands on the upcoming gay marriage case.
Thousands were expected Monday at a funeral for a man who died after suffering serious spinal injuries while in the custody of Baltimore police.
By Scott Malone BOSTON (Reuters) – Convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was adrift and following his obsessive older brother when he carried out the deadly 2013 attack, a defense lawyer said on Monday as he urged a jury to spare his client’s life. The defense sought to portray Tsarnaev as a member of a fractured family who easily fell under the spell of his 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan, who lawyers
By Natasja Sheriff NEW YORK (Reuters) – Jurors in the trial of a former deli worker who confessed to killing Etan Patz in 1979 began a ninth day of deliberations on Monday with a re-reading of testimony that implicated another, earlier suspect in the case of the missing 6-year-old boy. Pedro Hernandez, 54, is charged in state Supreme Court in Manhattan with the murder and kidnapping of Patz, one of
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Authorities say two people have been killed and 1,000 have been left homeless by a tornado that struck a southern Brazilian city.
By Jeffrey Heller JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel has added the name of a Palestinian teen to its “Monument to the Memory of the Victims of Terrorism”, upsetting the youth’s parents and a group representing families of slain Israelis with both demanding his name be removed. Sixteen-year-old Mohammed Khudair, according to a murder indictment, was burned alive in July in Jerusalem by three Israelis avenging the deaths of three Jewish teenagers
By Jeffrey Heller JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel has added the name of a Palestinian teen to its “Monument to the Memory of the Victims of Terrorism”, upsetting the youth’s parents and a group representing families of slain Israelis with both demanding his name be removed. Sixteen-year-old Mohammed Khudair, according to a murder indictment, was burned alive in July in Jerusalem by three Israelis avenging the deaths of three Jewish teenagers
Sydney (AFP) – Guangzhou Evergrande led a trio of teams into the AFC Champions League last 16 on Tuesday but Western Sydney Wanderers’ title defence was left hanging by a thread.
Sydney (AFP) – Guangzhou Evergrande led a trio of teams into the AFC Champions League last 16 on Tuesday but Western Sydney Wanderers’ title defence was left hanging by a thread.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Authorities say two people have been killed and 1,000 have been left homeless by a tornado that struck a southern Brazilian city.
STRASBOURG, France (AP) — Europe’s top human rights court has ordered Russia to pay damages for the fatal shooting of a Moldovan man in 2012.
STRASBOURG, France (AP) — Europe’s top human rights court has ordered Russia to pay damages for the fatal shooting of a Moldovan man in 2012.
The Polish government has approved the recommendation of the defense ministry to order Patriot missiles produced by U.S. firm Raytheon in the Polish missile defense tender, the defense ministry said on Tuesday. The Polish President, Bronislaw Komorowski, also speaking on Tuesday, said Poland will enter negotiations with the United States to finalize the missile defense tender, which is worth about $5 billion. The defense ministry also said on Tuesday that
The Polish government has approved the recommendation of the defense ministry to order Patriot missiles produced by U.S. firm Raytheon in the Polish missile defense tender, the defense ministry said on Tuesday. The Polish President, Bronislaw Komorowski, also speaking on Tuesday, said Poland will enter negotiations with the United States to finalize the missile defense tender, which is worth about $5 billion. The defense ministry also said on Tuesday that
By James Mackenzie and Robin Emmott CATANIA, Italy/LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) – EU foreign ministers met on Monday under pressure to produce more than words to save migrants drowning in the Mediterranean, as the first bodies were brought on shore of hundreds feared killed in a shipwreck while trying to reach Europe. Malta’s Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said as many as 900 people may have died off the coast of Libya when
An air strike on a Scud missile base in the Yemeni capital Sanaa caused a big explosion that blew out windows in homes, killing seven civilians and wounding dozens, medical sources told Reuters. Yemen’s state news agency Saba, run by the Houthi movement which controls the capital, said the bombing resulted in “dozens of martyrs and hundreds of wounded,” citing a government official. Saudi Arabia has led an alliance of
By Sylvia Westall CAIRO (Reuters) – A video purportedly made by Islamic State and posted on social media sites on Sunday appeared to show militants shooting and beheading about 30 Ethiopian Christians in Libya. Reuters was unable to verify the authenticity of the video, but the killings resemble past violence carried out by Islamic State, an ultra-hardline group that has expanded its reach from strongholds in Iraq and Syria to
By Katharine Houreld ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – China and Pakistan launched a plan on Monday for energy and infrastructure projects in Pakistan worth $46 billion, linking their economies and underscoring China’s economic ambitions in Asia and beyond. China’s President Xi Jinping arrived in Pakistan to oversee the signing of agreements aimed at establishing a Pakistan-China Economic Corridor between Pakistan’s southern Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea and China’s western Xinjiang region.
By Antonio Denti PALERMO, Italy (Reuters) – As many as 700 people were feared dead after a fishing boat packed with migrants capsized off the Libyan coast overnight in what officials said may be the Mediterranean’s worst disaster as thousands flee poverty and war to Europe. Top officials in Europe, whose recently-downsized border protection program has been criticized by international aid groups, said urgent action was needed. EU foreign policy
By Francesco Guarascio and Adrian Croft BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The EU is considering sending warships to the Libyan coast to combat oil and arms smugglers but fears that could encourage more migrants to take to sea in hopes of being rescued and taken to Europe, according to an EU document seen by Reuters. In a frank reference to EU fears that saving more lives could mean trafficking gangs put more
By Sam Wilkin DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told military commanders on Sunday the United States had created the “myth” of nuclear weapons to portray Iran as a threat, hardening his rhetoric before nuclear negotiations resume this week. Khamenei, the highest authority in Iran, has supported the talks but continues to express deep mistrust of the United States. “They created the myth of nuclear weapons so
By Rafiq Sherzad JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) – A suicide bomber in Afghanistan’s eastern city of Jalalabad killed 33 people and injured more than 100 on Saturday, setting off a blast outside a bank where government workers collect salaries, the city’s police chief said. President Ashraf Ghani blamed Islamic State militants, without giving further detail. If true, it would be the first such major attack carried out by the group in
Iraqi security forces fought Islamic State militants at the gates of the western city of Ramadi on Friday, and local authorities warned it was in danger of falling unless reinforcements arrived soon. Police sources and provincial council members said the militants were no more than half a kilometer from the center of the capital of Anbar province, and many residents were rushing to leave, waving white flags. “The situation in
By Mohamed Mokashaf ADEN (Reuters) – Yemen’s former president Ali Abdullah Saleh said on Friday he would not leave the country, dismissing reports in the Gulf Arab media that he was seeking a safe exit as Saudi Arabian war planes bomb troops loyal to him and their Houthi militia allies. The United Nations, meanwhile, said about 150,000 people had been driven from their homes by three weeks of air strikes
