Albuquerque police detain suspect in killings of Muslim men
For days, the news that someone might be killing Muslim men in Albuquerque, New Mexico, spread fear among the city’s Muslim residents. On Tuesday, police said they had arrested a man who was himself Muslim and who may have targeted at least two of the victims because he was angry that his daughter had married a man from the other major branch of Islam. Police said that the man, Muhammad Syed, 51, would be charged in two of the killings and that he was a suspect in the other two deaths.
MIT researchers create test to predict COVID immunity
If you’re wondering how much protection you have from COVID-19, researchers at two local powerhouse universities say they’ve created new tests that will help determine antibody levels. MIT scientists on Tuesday announced they’ve developed a blood test that may predict COVID-19 immunity. The announcement came a day after Harvard researchers said they’ve built a saliva test that detects the presence of both antibodies and the virus. The MIT researchers created a paper test that measures the level of neutralizing antibodies in a blood sample, which could help people decide what protections they should take against infection. Their test uses the same type of “lateral flow” technology as most rapid antigen tests for COVID-19.
Ruling upholds House panel’s request for Trump tax returns
A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that the House could gain access to former President Donald Trump’s tax returns, upholding a district court judge’s decision last year. A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held that a federal law gives a House committee chair broad authority to request them despite Trump’s status as a former president. The appeals court’s ruling does not necessarily mean that Congress will obtain the records. Trump’s legal team has vowed to fight the congressional effort “tooth and nail,” and he is virtually certain to appeal to the Supreme Court.
Nebraska woman charged with helping daughter have abortion
A Nebraska woman has been charged with helping her teenage daughter have an abortion. The charges come after investigators uncovered Facebook messages in which the mother and daughter discussed using medication to end the approximately 24-week pregnancy. Nebraska law prohibits abortion after 20 weeks. Prosecutors charged 41-year-old Jessica Burgess with helping her then 17-year-old daughter end her pregnancy and then burning and burying the fetus. Madison County Attorney Joseph Smith says he’s never had a case involving an illegal abortion in his 32 years as the prosecutor.
Mississippi grand jury declines to indict woman in Emmett Till murder case
A grand jury in Mississippi examining the case of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black boy whose abduction and killing more than six decades ago became a galvanizing force for the civil rights movement, has declined to indict the white woman whose accusations prompted the attack, prosecutors said Tuesday. Jurors in Leflore County, Mississippi, where Emmett had traveled from Chicago in summer 1955, heard more than seven hours of testimony from investigators and witnesses with direct knowledge of the case. Still, prosecutors said, the panel did not find sufficient evidence to indict the woman, Carolyn Bryant Donham, on charges of kidnapping or manslaughter.
143 roosters euthanized after deputies bust illegal cockfighting event
More than 140 roosters were euthanized after Riverside County sheriff’s deputies busted an illegal cockfighting event in Jurupa Valley, authorities said. At around 10:36 p.m. on Friday, deputies responded to a call about an illegal cockfighting gathering on Troth Street. When deputies arrived at the home, 200 people scattered, and 143 birds were found caged throughout the property, many of them dead or severely injured, Sgt. Patrick Samosky said in a statement. John Welsh, a Riverside County Department of Animal Services spokesperson, said all 143 birds needed to be euthanized because the department “cannot adopt out such birds as they are valuable and they would almost always end up back in a cockfighting ring.”
Record-setting rainfall inundates Seoul, killing at least 9
Some of the heaviest rainfall in decades struck the Seoul area overnight, flooding homes, streets and subway stations, and killing at least nine people, South Korean officials said Tuesday. Three of the dead, two sisters in their 40s and a 13-year-old girl, were found early Tuesday as emergency workers pumped out the water that had flooded their semi-basement home in southern Seoul. Another was a municipal employee, apparently electrocuted while removing a tree that had fallen onto a sidewalk, police said. In addition to the nine confirmed deaths, officials said six people were missing after floodwaters pulled them into manholes, underground passages or streams.
China reaffirms threat of military force to annex Taiwan
China has reaffirmed its threat to use military force to bring self-governing Taiwan under its control. The statement issued by the Cabinet’s Taiwan Affairs Office and its news department Wednesday followed almost a week of threatening Chinese military exercises near the island that have disrupted flights and shipping in a region crucial to global supply chains. The Chinese statement said Beijing seeks “peaceful unification” with Taiwan but “does not pledge to relinquish the use of military force and retains all necessary options.” China says the threatening moves were prompted by a visit to Taiwan last week by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but Taiwan says China used that merely as a pretext to up its threats.
Iran weighing ‘final’ EU offer on nuclear deal
Seventeen months after the United States and Iran began negotiating a possible return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal abandoned by former President Donald Trump, the European Union has presented a “final” proposal for the two sides to consider before the talks collapse for good, Western officials said. The negotiations have carried on through many pauses, crises and threatened conclusions, and it is far from certain that the latest proposal represents a final chapter. But U.S. and EU officials say their patience has worn paper-thin as Iran steadily expands its nuclear program.