Radiation from Japan nuclear disaster spreads off U.S. shores

Source: Reuters

Radiation from Japan's 2011 nuclear disaster has spread off North American shores and contamination is increasing at previously identified sites, although levels are still too low to threaten human or ocean life, scientists said on Thursday.

Tests of hundreds of samples of Pacific Ocean water confirmed that Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant continues to leak radioactive isotopes more than four years after its meltdown, said Ken Buesseler, marine radiochemist with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Trace amounts of cesium-134 have been detected within several hundred miles (km) of the Oregon, Washington and California coasts in recent months, as well as offshore from Canada's Vancouver Island.

Another isotope, cesium-137, a radioactive legacy of nuclear weapons tests conducted from the 1950s through the 1970s, was found at low levels in nearly every seawater sample tested by Woods Hole, a nonprofit research institution.

"Despite the fact that the levels of contamination off our shores remain well below government-established safety limits for human health or to marine life, the changing values underscore the need to more closely monitor contamination levels across the Pacific," Buesseler said in an email.



Read more: https://ca.news.yahoo.com/radiation-japan-nuclear-disaster-spreads-off-u-shores-222502042.html

Air Force burning through bomb stockpiles striking ISIL

Source: USA Today

The Air Force has fired more than 20,000 missiles and bombs in the air war against the Islamic State, depleting its stocks of munitions and prompting the service to scour depots around the world for more weapons and to find money to buy them, according to records obtained by USA TODAY.

The Air Force efforts come as the Pentagon has stepped up airstrikes on Islamic State, or ISIL, targets in Iraq and Syria. That bombing campaign began in August 2014 in Iraq, spread to Syria a month later and has continued to target ISIL fighters and equipment.

"We're in the business of killing terrorists and business is good," Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said in statement. "We need to replenish our munitions stock. Weapons take years to produce from the day the contract is assigned until they roll off the production line."

The Air Force carries out most of the bombing runs, using a variety of warplanes from single-prop Predator drones to huge B-1 bombers. Navy and Marine pilots, and several other countries, also fly missions.

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/12/03/isil-iraq-syria-hellfire-missiles-drones/76741954/

Civilian Deaths Raise Questions About C.I.A.-Trained Forces in Afghanistan

Source: NY Times

A series of home raids by C.I.A.-trained Afghan counterterrorism forces in the last month resulted in the deaths of at least six innocent civilians, according to Afghan government officials, reviving an issue that has been a chronic source of tension between Afghanistan and the United States.

The deaths happened over the course of three raids in the restive eastern province of Khost, the officials said, including a Nov. 20 episode in which a husband and wife were killed with two American advisers present. The raids were conducted by the Khost Protection Force, one of the regional units known as counterterrorism pursuit teams, set up by the C.I.A. to fight the Taliban, the Haqqani network and Al Qaeda.

The C.I.A. has trained thousands of Afghan forces for such missions — around 3,500 in the Khost Protection Force alone. But from the start, some senior Afghan officials have considered them a problem, accused of human rights abuses and seen as largely unaccountable.

The C.I.A. began dismantling or shrinking the teams as the agency began a partial withdrawal from Afghanistan in recent years. And control of the pursuit teams was officially shifted to the Afghan intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security, from the C.I.A. two years ago, at the request of Afghan officials.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/04/world/asia/afghanistan-civilian-casualty-khost.html?_r=0

The King of Saudi Arabia Gave More Than $1.3M in Gifts to the Obamas Last Year

Officer convicted of assault for pointing gun at civilian’s face

Source: Washington Post

Prince George's County police officer Jenchesky Santiago was convicted Wednesday of assault and misconduct in office. The police department has released cellphone video of the incident, showing Santiago holding a gun to a man’s head. (PGPD Police/ YouTube)
By Julie Zauzmer December 2 at 10:45 PM Follow @JulieZauzmer
A police officer who held a gun to a man’s head, apparently to impress his friends, was convicted Wednesday of first-degree assault and misconduct in office.

After Officer Jenchesky Santiago’s conviction, the Prince George’s County police chief condemned the officer’s actions and said he was recommending that the department fire him.

The police department also released a cellphone video of the May 2014 incident, which showed Santiago holding the gun close to the man’s forehead and shouting, “I dare you to [expletive] fight me, son.”

William Cunningham, the victim, said Wednesday that he still thinks every day about the terrifying traffic stop beside his front lawn . “I thought I was going to die right there,” he said. “I just thought it was over.”


Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/officer-convicted-of-assault-for-pointing-gun-at-civilians-face/2015/12/02/f8d3ec04-992b-11e5-94f0-9eeaff906ef3_story.html

San Bernardino: Shooter was in touch with terror subjects, officials believe

Source: CNN

Syed Rizwan Farook -- who along with his wife, Tashfeen Malik, carried out the San Bernardino shooting massacre -- apparently was radicalized and in touch with people being investigated by the FBI for international terrorism, law enforcement officials said Thursday.

Farook's apparent radicalization contributed to his role in the mass shooting of 14 people Wednesday during a holiday party for the San Bernardino County health department, where Farook worked, sources said.

Still, it wasn't necessarily the only driver behind the carnage, as workplace grievances might have also played a role. President Barack Obama hinted as much Thursday when he said that the attackers may have had "mixed motives."

David Bowditch, assistant director in charge of the FBI's Los Angeles office, told reporters Thursday that Farook had traveled to Pakistan.

Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/03/us/san-bernardino-shooting/index.html

Nielsen: smartphones and the internet are eating our tv time

The use of Internet-ready devices like smartphones appears to have seriously cut into the time Americans spend watching traditional TV, new Nielsen data show, potentially undermining the notion that mobile devices merely serve as "second screens" while people are plopped in front of the set.

Data provided to The Associated Press show an increase in the number of 18-to-34-year-olds who used a smartphone, tablet or TV-connected device like a streaming box or game console. That grew 26 percent in May compared with a year earlier, to an average of 8.5 million people per minute.

Those devices, which all showed gains in usage, more than offset declines in traditional TV, radio and computers. In the same age group, the demographic most highly coveted by advertisers, use of those devices fell 8 percent over the same period to a combined 16.6 million people per minute.

It's not a one-to-one tradeoff, though. Sometimes people are using smartphones while watching TV, or using them outside the home where it wouldn't cut into TV time. In addition, some mobile device use is, well, to watch TV shows.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MOBILE_VS_TV_TIME

Bridgeport Officer Who Reported Racist Letter Wrote It: Police

A former Bridgeport police officer who claimed someone left a racist memo on police letterhead in his mailbox at headquarters in February admitted to writing the letter himself and has been charged with filing a false report, according to police.

Former Officer Clive Higgins reported that he found a racist hate letter in his police mailbox the morning of Monday, Feb. 9 and feared for his life because of it.

The letter, printed on paper marked with the department's official letterhead, started off with "WHITE POWER" and went on to say "Officer Clive Higgins doesn't belong here in this Police Department" and "These Black Officers belong in the toilet."

A month earlier, Higgins was acquitted in connection with a 2011 police brutality case in which officers were caught on camera beating a suspect at Beardsley Park and shooting him with a stun gun. Two other officers were convicted, but a federal jury found Higgins not guilty.

http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/Bridgeport-Officer-Who-Reported-Racist-Letter-Wrote-It-Police-360060851.html#

Paris Attacks: Friend of 'Baby-Faced Bomber' Arrested at Airport

Source: NBC News

A friend of the "baby-faced bomber" who was behind one of the Paris terrorist attacks is among two people arrested in Belgium, officials revealed Thursday.

Samir Z., a French national who was born in 1995, was stopped at Brussels airport at 4:30 a.m. local time Sunday (10:30 p.m. ET Saturday) while trying to board a flight to Morocco, Belgian Prosecutor Eric Van der Sypt said in a statement.

"He is considered to be part of the entourage of Bilal Hadfi," according to Van der Sypt, referring to the 20-year-old so-called "baby-faced bomber" who blew himself up outside an international soccer game in the French capital after failing to gain access to the stadium on November 13.

Samir Z. was also suspected of attempting to leave for Syria twice this year, Van der Sypt's statement added

Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/paris-terror-attacks/paris-attacks-friend-baby-faced-bomber-arrested-airport-n473406

Israel arrests youths over fatal West Bank arson attack

Source: BBC

Israeli authorities have arrested several youths in connection with a fatal arson attack on a Palestinian family's home in the West Bank.

The Shin Bet security agency said the youths were believed to be affiliated with a Jewish terrorist organization.

The killing of Saad and Riham Dawabsha and their 18-month-old son, Ali, in the village of Duma four months ago provoked international condemnation.

Another son, four-year-old Ahmed, is still being treated for his wounds.



Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34994812