Eternity News Now

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office has confirmed that one of its deputies was killed and four more wounded after a shooting south of Denver. Two civilians were also wounded while the suspect is believed to be dead.  Read more .

Festivities have begun around the world as revellers cheered the advent of the New Year, with Australia, New Zealand and Japan being some of the first countries to bid farewell to 2017. In the Australian city of Sydney, more than an estimated one million people gathered to watch a spectacular fireworks display in the harbour.  Read more .

Colin Kaepernick was honored at the ACLU of Southern California’s annual Bill of Rights Dinner on Sunday in Beverly Hills, the first of his scheduled high-profile appearances this week.  Kaepernick received the Eason Monroe Courageous Advocate Award, and the former... read more . 

It was only a coincidence. Two days before Christmas there was a story in the New York Times with the ominous headline: “Out of Chaos, Trump Reshapes Immigration.” It described a meeting that took place in the Oval Office in June in which the Resident Fool arrived late, furious about the number of foreigners who had entered the country since his inauguration. Their entry, he said, made a mockery of his pledge to reduce that number. Indeed, he reported to the assembled group, friends were calling him to say that he looked like a fool.  Read more .

One day after President Donald Trump invited Republican lawmakers to the White House to celebrate the historic tax cuts they passed for corporations and wealthy business leaders, his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, quietly reinstated a draconian policy that effectively serves as a regressive tax on America's poorest people.  Read more .

IN SEPTEMBER OF last year, we noted that Facebook representatives were meeting with the Israeli government to determine which Facebook accounts of Palestinians should be deleted on the ground that they constituted “incitement.” The meetings — called for and presided over by one of the most extremist and authoritarian Israeli officials, pro-settlement Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked — came after Israel threatened Facebook that its.. read more .

Beyonce presented Colin Kaepernick with Sports Illustrated's Muhammad Ali Legacy Award on Tuesday night, and Kaepernick promised that "with or without the NFL's platform, I will continue to work for the people." Beyonce was brought out as a surprise presenter by comedian Trevor Noah.  Read more .

Street protests hit Iran for a third day running on Saturday, spreading to the capital Tehran with crowds confronting police and attacking some state buildings, and a social media report said two demonstrators had been shot dead in a provincial town.  Read more .

It shouldn't come as a surprise to learn that the Trump administration isn't a major defender of animal rights -- after all, the president doesn't even have any pets. In the latest anti-animal move, the United States Department of Agriculture has announced plans to withdraw a rule related to organic standards for laying hens.  Read more .

Legendary Atlanta architect and developer John Portman passed away late Dec. 29, capping a remarkable life that left its imprint all over the world, including Asia, Europe and the United States. Despite his global reach, Portman was rooted in Atlanta. His headquarters were located in the... read more .

The family of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is mourning the loss of one of its patriarchs. Isaac Newton Farris Sr., husband of Christine King Farris and brother-in-law of Martin Luther King Jr., died peacefully at home Saturday, the family announced. He was 83.  Read more .

Erica Garner, the daughter of Eric Garner who became an outspoken activist against police brutality after her father’s death at the hands of a New York police officer, died on Saturday, according to her mother. She was 27.  Read more .

This year, the United States passed a medical milestone: the first baby in the nation born through a transplanted uterus. Reports on the specific number of successful births via transplanted uterus vary, but all place the count at fewer than 30 births.  Read more .

Sixteen-year-old Ahed Tamimi was back in court Thursday, with the judge ruling for the third time that her detention is extended, this time for another five days. Over the past week and a half, Ahed has been shuffled between numerous Israeli prisons and police stations. She has been held in cold isolation cells with cameras pointed at her 24 hours a day. Repeatedly, without a parent or lawyer present, they have attempted to interrogate her. The reasoning for the judge’s rulings to extend... read more .

In a decision denounced as "dangerous" and "appalling," President Donald Trump has enraged members of the public health and LGBTQ communities by reportedly firing the remaining 16 members of his HIV/AIDS council in letters delivered to them by FedEx on Thursday.  Read more .

Children in conflict zones around the world suffered "at a shocking scale" in 2017 as they became front line targets; used as human shields, killed, maimed and recruited to fight, the United Nation children’s agency said.  Read more .

The damage to homes, lives and communities from Hurricane Maria continues to mount in Puerto Rico months later. About one-third of approximately 425,000 Puerto Rican homeowners are behind on mortgage payments, tens of thousands of whom haven't made payments in months. Some economists predict that if the current indicators hold, the entire island is destined for a fate similar to Detroit's.  Read more .

Every decade or so, America’s mass media are surprised to discover that migrant farmworkers are being miserably paid and despicably treated by the industry that profits from their labor. Stories run, the public is outraged, assorted officials pledge action, then… nothing changes.  Read more .

Alabama officials on Thursday certified Democrat Doug Jones the winner of the state’s U.S. Senate race, after a state judge denied a challenge by Republican Roy Moore, whose campaign was derailed by accusations of sexual misconduct with teenage girls.  Read more .

A future containing driverless cars might be safer, according to proponents. However, critics point to the potential job loss that automation of transport might entail. The technology is still in its infancy, but it will continue to develop over the coming years.  Read more .

Former authoritarian leader Alberto Fujimori sought forgiveness from Peruvians “from the bottom of my heart” on Tuesday for shortcomings during his rule, and thanked President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski for granting him a Christmas pardon.  Read more .

In November, CNN released footage of Africans being sold into slavery at an auction in Libya, shocking and angering many around the world. The outlet reported witnessing "a dozen men being sold like commodities -- some auctioned off for as little as $400." However, though the auction has been portrayed as part of a recent phenomenon, the disaster that is enslavement is not new at all, even in the modern world. Though the conditions that enable such markets have grown increasingly bad in Libya amid instability after a US-backed NATO intervention, the enslavement of Africans -- particularly in the Middle East and North Africa -- has gone on for much longer than some care to remember.  Read more .

Erica Garner, the 27-year-old civil rights activist and daughter of Eric Garner, was hospitalized over the weekend and placed in a medically-induced coma after suffering a heart attack on Saturday night. According to Erica's mother, Esaw Snipes-Garner, the cardiac arrest was triggered by an asthma attack.  Read more .

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday urged companies to raise wages by 3 percent or more next year, keeping up pressure on firms to spend their huge cash pile on wages to broaden the benefits of his “Abenomics” stimulus policies.  Read more .

With a focus on the impact of war, conflict, and inequality on the world's children, Pope Francis delivered a Christmas Day sermon in Rome's St. Peter's Square on Monday that catalogued a multitude of concerns with policies pushed by President Donald Trump as well as previous U.S. presidents. The Pope restated his support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which was inflamed earlier this month by... read more .

On May 2, 2017, before becoming Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, as Minister of Defense, spoke about the Saudi-led coalition’s war in Yemen, a war he orchestrated since March of 2015. “A long war is in our interest,” he said, explaining that the Houthi rebels would eventually run out of cash, lack external supplies and break apart. Conversely, the Saudis could count on a steady flow of cash and weapons. “Time is on our side,” he concluded.  Read more .

Critics have blasted Israel's plans to maintain ties with Austria's new right-wing coalition, which features a far-right party with Nazi roots. Although Israeli officials promised to limit contact with.. .read more .

At a giant pet store in west-end Toronto last week, people loaded up on gifts and stocking stuffers for their pets, and posed with them for a “family Christmas photo.” This cheerful scene only highlighted the odd disconnect between the way we... read more .

The fatal shooting of a six-year-old boy by police gunfire in the US state of Texas has sparked outrage and renewed the debate over police brutality in the country. Kameron Prescott was killed on Thursday in the small town of Schertz in Bexar County, after a... read more.

During the cold and bitter winter season in Beijing - capital of the People's Republic of China - it is common to find people walking the streets with masks covering their faces.  Beijing suffers from serious air pollution, threatening the... read more .

Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency you’ve Googled a few times but still don’t quite understand, is having an awful day on the heels of a dazzling week. After hitting a record valuation of $19,857 per coin, the currency has dropped in valuation by more than 30 percent, which is actually... read more .

The loud buzzing of portable gasoline electric generators has become the norm in this central mountainous region of the battered territory. It’s been that way for more than... read more .

In response to the passage of the GOP tax bill, many voices are now offering variations on the theme of "speak truth to power." It's true enough that tax overhaul, coming after 30 years of widening inequality, widens it further. It is likewise yet another exercise in trickle-down economics, the policy promise that direct economic help to corporations and the rich will eventually lift up the rest of us. The GOP and Trump conveniently disregard the countless economists who have shown that trickle-down is a false promise.  Read more .

The vast majority of Americans dislike the GOP's $1.5 trillion tax plan, but while signing the bill into law on Friday, President Donald Trump highlighted one segment of society that loves it and can't wait until it takes effect: massive corporations.  Read more .

A resounding majority of United Nations member states has defied unprecedented threats by the US to declare President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital "null and void".  Read more .

While last week the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rolled back net neutrality rules that allowed the internet to be regulated as a public utility, the United Kingdom announced Wednesday that by 2020, high-speed internet will be a legal right for all British households and businesses.  Read more .

The police chief of Charlottesville, Virginia, announced his retirement on Monday, about two weeks after a report faulted his department and others for failing to protect public safety during a white nationalist rally in August that turned deadly.  Read more .

The US has vetoed, as expected, a UN Security Council draft resolution rejecting President Donald Trump's recent recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and his plans to move the American embassy in Israel to the city.  However, the proposed measure was backed on Monday by the 14 other... read more .

In major metropolitan areas around the country over the last half-decade, police have shot -- and shot at -- people in numbers dramatically higher than previous tallies suggest. A new Vice News investigation finds that between 2010-2016, cops in the 50 largest police departments in the country shot more than 3,630 people, nearly double some previous estimates.  Read more .

Following numerous reports that Hurricane Maria's death toll in Puerto Rico has been drastically under-counted by more than one thousand casualties, Gov. Ricardo Rosselló ordered an official recount of deaths related to the storm.  Read more .

An Amtrak train derailed on Monday in Washington state during its inaugural run on a faster route from Seattle to Portland, Oregon, sending passenger cars tumbling from a bridge onto a major highway, killing at least three riders and injuring about 100 people.  Read more .

Blackwater Security founder Erik Prince will partner with at least one of the state-owned Mozambican companies at the center of a hidden-loan scandal that resulted in the country defaulting on its debt this year.  Read more .

A major power outage halted air traffic Sunday at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, grounding all of the hub's outgoing flights and halting incoming traffic for tens of thousands of travelers hoping to land at the world's busiest airport.  Read more .

In a quiet post published to BillMoyers.com on Friday titled simply, "Farewell," the veteran muckraker and site's namesake—whose work in public life goes back to the Johnson administration in the early 1960s and whose journalistic career spans from his teens as a local newspaper reporter in East Texas to his most well-known role as the host of several PBS shows and documentaries—announced that the online project would soon enter "archive mode" and cease its daily output of progressive news and commentary.  Read more .

Prominent Kenyan academic Calestous Juma has died in the United States at the age of 64, prompting an outpouring of grief and tributes on social media. "Intellectual giant", "innovator", "tireless champion of the world's poorest" - these are just some of the words used to describe... read more .

Weapons supplied by the United States and Saudi Arabia to opposition fighters often fell into the hands of ISIL, significantly enhancing the "quantity and quality" of the group's armaments, a new report alleges.  Read more .

Far right leaders promised to build a new Europe without the EU, as they rallied against Islam and praised US President Donald Trump's hardline immigration policy at a meeting in Prague over the weekend.  Read mor e.

A suicide bomb and gun attack on a church in the western Pakistani city of Quetta has killed at least eight people and wounded dozens of others, hospital officials say.  Read more .

Four Palestinians have been killed by Israeli security forces in the occupied Palestinian territories on Friday. Two were killed in the Gaza Strip as thousands of people protested on Friday in the... read more .

Hours before Republicans are expected to release the final version of their tax bill, a new video illustrates how the plan "is a perfect demonstration of how the wealthy use their power to bend the rules in their favor."  Read more .

Kimber Lanning stands at just 5 feet 1 inch. But in the Arizona economic landscape where she acts as a fierce advocate for local economies, she is a giant. In 2003, Lanning started Local First Arizona. She was the only employee, and didn't take any salary. Now, with 3,200 members, it is the largest coalition of local businesses in the country.  Read more .

Canada has passed new legislation that expands the authority of US customs and border officers working at Canadian airports, a move civil liberties groups say may put the rights of Canadian travellers at risk.  Read more .

The nonpartisan First Amendment advocacy group Free Press vowed to take the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to court Thursday after the Republican-controlled panel moved to gut net neutrality protections that prohibit internet service providers (ISPs) from charging for and discriminating against content, in a 3-2 vote along party lines.  Read more .

French government and military officials were involved in supplying weapons to the perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide and obstructing attempts to bring them to justice, a new report alleges.  Read more .

USA Today, the most widely-circulated newspaper in the U.S, has penned a scathing takedown of President Donald Trump, calling him "uniquely awful," unfit to clean the toilets in his predecessor's presidential library, and a person "who can always find room for a new low." The blistering editorial, published Tuesday evening, is especially striking as its comes... read more .

Ford Motor Co plans to consolidate global production of midsize sedans in China in 2020 and ship them to the United States and Europe, three sources said on Wednesday.  Read more .

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has declared East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine, rejected the US stance as "dangerous" and called on the international community to follow in its footsteps.  Read more .

Omarosa Manigault Newman, who achieved a measure of fame playing a villain on “The Apprentice” and cemented a relationship with President Trump that led to a White House appointment, will be ... read more .

Doug Jones, a Democratic former prosecutor who mounted a seemingly quixotic Senate campaign in the face of Republican dominance here, defeated his scandal-scarred opponent, Roy S. Moore, after a brutal campaign marked by accusations of sexual abuse and child molestation against the Republican. The upset delivered an unimagined victory for Democrats and shaved Republicans’ unstable Senate majority to a single seat.  Read more .

India's two-sentence response to the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital last week elicited mixed reactions after New Delhi for decades strongly backed the Palestinian cause. The static statement to a dynamic situation was described by some as... read more .

While women who have accused President Donald Trump of sexual misconduct gathered in New York City on Monday to publicly share their stories, nearly 60 female Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to the House oversight committee demanding an investigation into the allegations.  Read more .

Edwin M. Lee, an affordable housing advocate and technocrat who became the first Asian-American to be elected as mayor of San Francisco, died early on Tuesday of undisclosed causes, his office said. He was 65. “It is with profound sadness and terrible grief that we confirm that Mayor Edwin M. Lee passed away on Tuesday, December 12 at 1:11 a.m. at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. Family, friends and colleagues were at his side,” his office said in a statement.  Read more .

A 16-year-old Palestinian boy, shown in a photo that has been roundly condemned as symbolising the Israeli army's use of excessive force, has been accused of throwing stones at a group of armed Israeli soldiers. An image of Fawzi al-Junaidi, blindfolded and surrounded by more than... read more .

Pope Francis made a renewed appeal for nuclear disarmament on Sunday, addressing a crowd at the Vatican's St. Peter's Square as the Nobel Committee was awarding one of the world's foremost anti-nuclear groups with the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo.  Read more .

Anger is mounting in the UK against billionaire Richard Branson, who successfully sued the cash-starved National Health Service (NHS) for £328,000 of taxpayer money. Almost 70,000 people have signed a petition calling for him to return the funds.  Read more .

Joining the revolt taking place in the streets and online against FCC chair Ajit Pai's plan to kill net neutrality, more than 20 pioneers of the internet—including world wide web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, and Vint Cert, one of the "fathers of the internet"—published an open letter on Monday slamming Pai's proposals as "flawed and factually inaccurate" and demanding that his agency cancel its planned Thursday vote.  Read more .

Palestinians have refused a Bahraini delegation from entering Gaza after the group visited Israel amid ongoing controversy over the US decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem and recognise the city as Israel's capital.  Read more .

Erik Prince, the founder of the notorious Blackwater (now known as Academi) private army that wreaked havoc during the Bush-era military adventures in Iraq, the chairman of Frontier Services Group, an aviation, logistics, and security firm, brother of education secretary Betsy DeVos, and close friend to Steve Bannon, is not letting any grass grow under his mercenary and entrepreneurial feet.  Read more .

Russian President Vladimir Putin has made a surprise visit to a Russian base in Syria and ordered his troops to start withdrawing from the war-torn country. Syrian state TV reported that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met with Putin at... read more .

Taking a dig at President Donald Trump, French President Emanuel Macron on Monday will award the first group of climate scientists "Make Our Planet Great Again" grants. According to the Associated Press, "Several U.S.-based climate scientists are about to hit the jackpot."  Read more .

Three women who have accused Donald Trump of sexual assault and misconduct are now calling on Congress to launch a bipartisan investigation into the US president's alleged actions, saying a probe should go beyond partisan politics.  Read more .

A Bangladeshi man with a homemade bomb strapped to his body set off an explosion at a New York commuter hub during rush hour on Monday, wounding himself and three others in what New York Mayor Bill de Blasio called an attempted terrorist attack.  Read more .

With U.S. weapons makers leading the way, and after five consecutive years of decline, sales among the world's 100 largest arms producers rose in 2016, garnering nearly $375 billion in profits, according to a new analysis of industry data by the... read more .

As civil rights activists and African-American leaders including Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) boycotted President Donald Trump's visit to Mississippi's brand-new Civil Rights Museum in Jackson on Saturday, hundreds of protesters greeted the president to condemn his record on race relations and civil rights.  Read more .

Trump critics drew attention to a New York Times report on Saturday regarding the estimated death toll in Puerto Rico as a result of Hurricane Maria, which left the island devastated after making landfall in September. While the official count of fatalities stands at 64, the Times' analysis found that a more realistic estimate would be in the thousands.  Read more .

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has declared the end to the country's war against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group. Read more .

Temperatures remain well above average in the southwestern United States, and wildfires continue to burn across California. By stark contrast, a cold blast of Arctic air has brought unusually snowy weather into the southern states, along with parts of Mexico.  Read more .

Being our semi-regular weekly survey of what’s goin’ down in the several states where, as we know, the real work of governmentin’ gets done, and where dogs run free, so why not we? We begin in Illinois, where, once again, we learned that pipelines don’t always leak, sometimes they go boom, too.  Read more .

As protests and violence intensified in the Middle East on Friday in response to President Donald Trump's decision to flout international law and recognize Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel earlier this week, more than 120 Jewish studies scholars from universities across the United States condemned the move and urged the Trump administration to take responsibility for the fallout.  Read more .

French President Emmanuel Macron has backed mediation efforts led by Kuwait to end a six-month blockade imposed on Qatar by Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. The Saudi-led quartet cut diplomatic and economic ties with Qatar on... read more .

Hamas leader Ismail Haniya has said the US decision on recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is a "war declaration against Palestinians", and called for a new "Intifada", or uprising. Haniya said in a speech in Gaza City on Thursday that... read more .

Having failed to secure a foothold in France and Belgium, a Norwegian dating website has now brought billboards encouraging cash-strapped students to snag themselves a rich "sugar daddy" or "sugar mama" to Switzerland.  Read more .

Mahmoud Abbas has condemned Washington's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. He said it negates the US' right to be a mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, while stating that Jerusalem remains the “eternal capital” of Palestine.  Read more .

Civil rights advocates across the country are outraged at President Donald Trump's plans to attend the grand opening the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum this weekend in Jackson, Mississippi.  Read more.

As President Donald Trump delivered his inaugural address on Capitol Hill in January, his incoming national security adviser Michael Flynn, sitting a few yards away, texted a former business partner that a nuclear power project that would require lifting sanctions on Russia was “good to go,” a senior House Democrat said in a letter released on Wednesday.  Read more .

Russia has been banned from the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics after the IOC found evidence of an “unprecedented systematic manipulation” of the anti-doping system that has led to a series of... read more .

US President Donald Trump will call Jerusalem the capital of Israel on Wednesday and begin the process moving his country's embassy to the city, according to senior US officials. Amid reports of the expected move, the Arab League urged the... read more .

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos doesn't believe in public education. She is an avid proponent of the school privatization movement, which operates through vouchers, charter schools and other means. Author Noliwe Rooks argues that school privatization enables the continuation of historic educational apartheid, oppressing people of color. Rooks wrote the book Cutting School: Privatization, Segregation, and Public Education, featured as the Truthout Progressive Pick last week. Rooks, the director of American Studies at Cornell University, argues that the so-called "education reform" privatization movement manifests as segregated education, rebranded.  Read more .

There is no shortage of media commentary discrediting "identity politics," particularly the focus on Black, Latinx, LGBTQ, and immigrant communities calling for justice and equity. Economics is our real problem, a counter argument goes, not race, sex, gender, citizenship. But as author Nancy Isenberg points out in White Trash, "identity has always been a part of politics." Laws have been written to oppress and exploit particular identities -- Native Americans, Black Americans, Asians, homosexuals, transgender, and women -- in a successful effort to maintain a system of... read more .

Housing is the necessary precondition for security, identity, emotional well-being, work, leisure and community. There is no greater condemnation of capitalism than its inability to provide adequate housing for those who produce its wealth -- the working class. The high percentage of people of color who are homeless points to the wealth divide between the white and non-white working class, based on the historical legacy of racism and the building of capitalism out of slavery. The ruling class explanation relies on blaming the victims, arguing that people experiencing homelessness are in some way individually incompetent.  Read more .

Late Saturday the United States Senate passed a Bill that will allow oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) – an area which has been protected since 1960.  Read more .

The Republican Party is cutting away at the very sinews of our economy, the comity of our politics, and the quality of our most basic public services. Trump may sound different, but he's just the barker outside their big top. The grisly deed is being done on the inside.  Read more.

The killing of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh by Houthi rebels on Monday marks the end of another Arab leader deposed by the Arab Spring protests. Saleh's death came after he announced the end of his cooperation with the... read more .

Yemen's ousted leader Ali Abdullah Saleh has been killed by Houthi rebels near the capital, Sanaa, a development expected to have major implications for the war in the Arab world's poorest country.  Read more .

U.S. drugstore chain operator CVS Health Corp (CVS.N) said on Sunday it had agreed to acquire U.S. health insurer Aetna Inc (AET.N) for $69 billion, seeking to tackle soaring healthcare spending through lower-cost medical services in pharmacies.  Read more .

Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s senior advisor - and the man who allegedly ordered Gen. Michael Flynn’s “collusion” calls to Russia - has appeared at pro-Israeli donor Haim Saban’s event where he has been thanked for his lobbying on behalf of Israel.  Read more.

Thousands of people have rallied in the German city of Hanover against the far-right Alternative for (AfD) party, which elected its new leadership in the city. The demonstrators on Saturday shouted slogans and carried... read more .

Six years ago today, a transition agreement was signed in Riyadh, making way for Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh to step down from his 33-year reign. Those who brokered the agreement declared it would ensure a peaceful transition to democracy in Yemen.  Read more.

A group of UN human rights experts has strongly condemned Libya's slave trade amid reports that hundreds of African refugees are being bought and sold in markets across the country every week.  Read more .

Emmerson Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe's new president, has installed his new 22-member cabinet, with major roles for people who were also in Robert Mugabe's government for years.  Read more .

My mom died without me by her side because my boss at Walmart wouldn’t let me leave work. In 2015, my mom had a stroke, so I upended my life in North Carolina, and moved to Texas with my son to take care of her.  Read more.

The German police have evacuated a Christmas market in the city of Potsdam following a report about an “explosive device” allegedly planted nearby. Later, a wired device “filled with nails” was found and defused.  Read more.

President Donald Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn was charged by Special Counsel Robert Muller on Friday with lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.  Read more.

New federal charges were filed Thursday against Wayne Jenkins, a sergeant in the Baltimore Police Department’s corrupt Gun Trace Task Force. The charges are related to a 2010 case about which slain detective Sean Suiter was scheduled to testify a day after his death in Baltimore’s Harlem Park neighborhood on Nov. 15.  Read more .

Bitcoin slid to as low as $9,000 in volatile trade on Thursday, having lost more than a fifth of its value since hitting an all-time high of $11,395 on Wednesday. Read more .

Leading female scholars from Saudi Arabia have described moves to ease restrictions on women as government spin aimed at an international audience to bolster support for efforts to liberalise its ailing economy.  Read more .