Newser Story Index from July, 2012
Welcome to the Newser Story Index. Here you find stories written by Newser writers and editors, assembled with supporting photos and videos from the files of the news story.
Man Busted With $250K of Meth in Fake Snickers: Feds
Associated Press
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Jul 31, 2012 12:02 AM CDT
(Newser) -
A California man was nabbed aiming to smuggle $250,000 worth of methamphetamine into Japan in packages that looked like Snickers bars, say authorities. Rogelio Mauricio Harris, 41, of Long Beach, was busted as he was about to board a plane in Los Angeles. Federal agents discovered what looked like 45 full-sized Snickers bars in Harris' luggage,...
Obama Waffled on bin Laden Raid 3 Times
Daily Caller
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Jul 30, 2012 7:25 PM CDT
(Newser) -
President Obama took such a cautious approach to killing Osama bin Laden that he actually canceled the mission three times at the urging of advisor Valerie Jarrett, according to an upcoming book. In Leading From Behind: The Reluctant President and the Advisors Who Decide for Him , author Richard Miniter writes that Obama even delayed the mission the...
New Yorker Writer Admits to Fabrication and Quits
mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com
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Jul 30, 2012 6:57 PM CDT
(Newser) -
A New Yorker staff writer has quit the magazine and confessed to attributing phony quotes to Bob Dylan, reports the New York Times' Media Decoder blog . Jonah Lehrer says he initially panicked when cornered by a reporter about the quotes in Lehrer's book, Imagine: How Creativity Works . "I told [him] that they were from archival...
Mississippi River Drying Up
business.time.com
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Jul 30, 2012 6:16 PM CDT
(Newser) -
The worst US drought in 50 years is making the mighty Mississippi River dry up and could curb shipping there altogether, reports Time . Dry conditions mean narrower, shallower passageways, so shippers are lightening their loads to avoid running aground. That could be huge, because 60% of the country's grain exports and a fifth of its coal...
Sheryl Crow: Fan Wants to 'Shoot Me'
TMZ
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Jul 30, 2012 5:54 PM CDT
(Newser) -
Having a disturbed weirdo stalk you on Facebook is one thing—but an outright murder threat is another. Sheryl Crow has filed a restraining order request against Phillip Gordon Sparks, 45, who she says walked into the Screen Actors Guild and told an employee he would "just shoot" Crow, TMZ reports. In his Facebook posts, Sparks allegedly...
Man Shushes Women on Subway, Gets Stabbed
New York Post
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Jul 30, 2012 5:29 PM CDT
(Newser) -
All he did was ask them to pipe down. But when Ralph Carnegary made his request to a group of rowdy women on a New York subway, they allegedly stabbed him in the shoulder, the New York Post reports. Carnegary, a 63-year-old vendor, was heading to work when he encountered the women, aged 17 to 20. Arrested outside the 23rd Street station—while...
More Pianos Getting Sent to the Dump
New York Times
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Jul 30, 2012 5:00 PM CDT
(Newser) -
Imagine the cacophony: More pianos are being thrown out these days in a mangle of legs, keys, and twisted wire, reports the New York Times . Why the unceremonious dumping? Well, their value is plummeting, electronic keyboards are more affordable, and music education is suffering from budget cuts. "Instead of spending hundreds or thousands to...
Coach Slams Chinese Swimmer's 'Impossible' Time
Guardian (UK)
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Jul 30, 2012 4:42 PM CDT
(Newser) -
A Chinese swimmer's stunning world-record time at the Olympics has raised eyebrows—and elicited a pretty clear accusation, reports the Guardian . Ye Shiwen won the gold i n the women's 400m individual medley, but her remarkable time of 4:28.43 is "unbelievable" and "impossible," said US swimming coach John Leonard....
Limbaugh: Don't Remind Welfare Users About Election
The Raw Story
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Jul 30, 2012 4:21 PM CDT
(Newser) -
Rush Limbaugh would rather have people on welfare hear about the election when it best suits him—say, on Nov. 7. “Ninety-nine days, folks,” the conservative shock jock said on the air today. "Ninety-nine days before the election. If you are a welfare recipient, that’s just a little more than three checks.” Then it...
Girl, 12, Grabs the Wheel After Grandpa Dies
Associated Press
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Jul 30, 2012 4:04 PM CDT
(AP) -
A story of bravery out of New Jersey, where a 12-year-old girl steered a car to safety when her grandfather died at the wheel with his foot on the accelerator. Miranda Bowman was returning home after spending the day racing go-karts with 63-year-old Paul Parker on Tuesday. Bowman told a local paper her grandfather said he didn't feel good and felt...
Dark Knight Miscarriage Victim Crippled by Injuries
Associated Press
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Jul 30, 2012 3:46 PM CDT
(Newser) -
The story of Ashley Moser keeps getting sadder. The mother of the youngest Dark Knight massacre victim, Moser suffered a miscarriage this weekend—and will likely be paralyzed because of her injuries, the AP reports. She was shot in the neck and stomach during the attack. Her aunt, MaryEllen Hansen, said doctors hope Moser will be able to...
Uruguay's Prez: Legalize Pot
New York Times
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Jul 30, 2012 3:32 PM CDT
(Newser) -
Uruguayan President José Mujica wants to end the reign of violent drug cartels in his country, and he thinks legalizing marijuana may be the answer. He released a proposal last month calling for the formation of a government-run industry that would manage the cultivation and sales of the drug, reports the New York Times . If he's able...
Newt Gingrich Defends Bachmann's Islam Attacks
Politico
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Jul 30, 2012 3:16 PM CDT
(Newser) -
In a six-page, 2,500-word Politico op-ed (with an attached three-page, 1,800-word appendix ), Newt Gingrich makes it crystal clear that he is on the side of Michele Bachmann and her four fellow members of Congress who want an inquiry into whether the government is being infiltrated by Islamic extremists. (He refers to the group as "the National...
US Wins 2 Golds in Backstroke
Associated Press
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Jul 30, 2012 3:08 PM CDT
(AP) -
American teenager Missy Franklin won the women's 100-meter backstroke at the London Olympics today. Franklin won the two-lap race in 58.33 seconds for her first Olympic gold and second medal after taking bronze in the 4x100 freestyle relay. Emily Seebohm of Australia touched in 58.68 to take the silver medal and Aya Terakawa of Japan finished in...
Woman Busted Trying to Break Into Jail
newsnet5
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Jul 30, 2012 2:49 PM CDT
(Newser) -
Same story , different gender: An Ohio woman was arrested yesterday morning after authorities caught her trying to break her way into the Butler County Jail. The most amazing details of 36-year-old Tiffany Hurd's quest, per NewsNet5 : A staff member initially saw her lying near the fence and just asked her to leave. That could have been...
Japan Wins Gymnastics Silver After Appeal
BBC
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Jul 30, 2012 2:13 PM CDT
(Newser) -
China easily took the gold medal in the men's gymnastics final today, but who got silver was a matter of some controversy. When the event was first concluded, Britain stood at an astonishing second place, followed by the Ukraine. But Japan, sitting in fourth, launched an appeal, complaining that their pommel horse score was too low—and the...
'Lost' F. Scott Fitzgerald Story Published
Huffington Post
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Jul 30, 2012 1:50 PM CDT
(Newser) -
This week, the New Yorker is publishing a never-before-seen F. Scott Fitzgerald short story—that it initially rejected back in 1936. It's a charming, brief piece about a saleswoman desperate for a cigarette in a disapproving town. In an internal memo at the time, the magazine wrote that the story was "altogether out of the question....
2nd Athlete Booted From Games Over Racist Tweet
Evening Standard (London)
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Jul 30, 2012 1:35 PM CDT
(Newser) -
And Twitter claims Olympic victim No. 2. Unlike triple jumper Voula Papachristou, who got the boot from her Greek team after tweeting a racist remark about African immigrants before even making it to the Games, Switzerland's Michel Morganella did manage to play at the Olympics. But yesterday's soccer game against South Korea was what led...
Democrats' Platform to Include Gay Marriage
Washington Blade
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Jul 30, 2012 1:27 PM CDT
(Newser) -
The committee drafting the Democratic Party's official platform has, for the first time, included support for same-sex marriage on it. All 15 members of the committee voted unanimously to include the section, Rep. Barney Frank tells the Washington Blade . "Everybody was for it," he said, tracing support for the policy to President...
Peter Jackson Splitting Hobbit Into 3 Movies
Deadline
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Jul 30, 2012 1:07 PM CDT
(Newser) -
Fans of Peter Jackson's Middle Earth flicks are about to have a lot more to love. The director has confirmed that he's going to split The Hobbit into three movies, Deadline reports. Jackson had dropped hints about such a move at Comic-Con. Of course, it remains to be seen how the director will squeeze that much screen time out of the Tolkein...
Bollywood Star Is First Indian Woman in Playboy
New York Daily News
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Jul 30, 2012 1:03 PM CDT
(Newser) -
The good news: Sherlyn Chopra has made history as the first Indian woman to appear in Playboy . The bad news: Playboy is banned in her country, where many aren't exactly thrilled about her appearance anyway, the New York Daily News reports. "Isn’t it an irony that on the one side, as common women strive hard to safeguard their...
Syrian Diplomat Defects as Aleppo Fighting Rages
Guardian (UK)
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Jul 30, 2012 12:51 PM CDT
(Newser) -
Syria's most senior diplomat in London defected today, saying that he no longer wanted to represent a "violent and oppressive" government, the UK Foreign Office announced today. The office says Charge d'Affaires Khaled al-Ayoubi is staying in a safe place in Britain, the BBC reports, and hailed the defection as evidence of "the...
Dark Knight Rises Rebukes Occupy Protesters
Wall Street Journal
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Jul 30, 2012 12:44 PM CDT
(Newser) -
The Dark Knight Rises is more than just a movie—it's an argument against Occupy Wall Street and other "radical leftist movements," writes Andrew Klavan in the Wall Street Journal . "The movie is a bold apologia for free-market capitalism; a graphic depiction of the tyranny and violence" and "depravity" inherent...
Obama Roots Traced to 1st African-American Slave
CNN
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Jul 30, 2012 12:29 PM CDT
(Newser) -
Ancestry.com has traced President Obama's roots back to Germany and linked him to Rush Limbaugh . Now the site has named a new potential Obama relative: the first documented African-American slave. CNN reports on the result of some 500 hours of work by four genealogists, who were able to link Obama, via, perhaps surprisingly, his mother's...
Romney a Fan of ... Israel's Socialized Health Care
BuzzFeed
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Jul 30, 2012 12:15 PM CDT
(Newser) -
Mitt Romney simply cannot wait to repeal ObamaCare, but he is a fan of Israel's health care system … which has been socialized since its founding in 1948, BuzzFeed points out. During his visit to the country, Romney today praised Israel for spending so little on health care: "Do you realize what health care spending is as a percentage...
Titans Receiver Dies; Suicide Suspected
Associated Press
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Jul 30, 2012 12:05 PM CDT
(AP) -
Tennessee Titans reserve receiver OJ Murdock has died of an apparent suicide, Tampa police say. Officers found the 25-year-old Murdock inside his car this morning with what appeared to be self-inflicted gunshot wounds. The car was parked in front of Middleton High School, where Murdock attended school. He was taken to Tampa General Hospital, where...
James Holmes Charged With 140 Counts
Associated Press
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Jul 30, 2012 11:42 AM CDT
(AP) -
Colorado prosecutors have formally charged James Holmes with 24 counts of murder in the shooting at an Aurora movie theater. The 24-year-old appeared in court today and was also formally charged with 116 counts of attempted murder. Twelve people were killed and 58 people were wounded or injured. The breakdown of the charges was not immediately clear....
CNN Should 'Fire Everyone'
Salon
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Jul 30, 2012 11:37 AM CDT
(Newser) -
With CNN's president leaving at the end of the year, it's time for a shake-up at the struggling network: It needs to get people to watch even when there isn't currently a major disaster happening. At Salon , Alex Pareene offers a handy first step: "Fire everyone." "Two-thirds of the prime time lineup is hosted by unpleasant...
Saudi Woman May Withdraw From Games Over Hijab Ban
BBC
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Jul 30, 2012 11:08 AM CDT
(Newser) -
Saudi Arabia made history by sending two female athletes to the Olympics this year—but that number could drop to one if a judoka is not allowed to wear a hijab during her judo bouts. The International Judo Federation president said last week that Wojdan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shaherkani will compete sans hijab , but a Saudi official had earlier...
Pattinson Planned to Propose
Daily Mirror (UK)
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Jul 30, 2012 10:55 AM CDT
(Newser) -
Twilight fans are already devastated by the dissolution of Kristen Stewart's relationship with Robert Pattinson , but the latest will surely cause renewed sobbing: Pattinson was weeks away from proposing when he learned of Stewart's betrayal, the Mirror reports. "He had bought the house in Los Angeles to be their home and saw them...
Palestinians Rip Romney's 'Racist' Praise for Israel
Associated Press
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Jul 30, 2012 10:50 AM CDT
(Newser) -
Mitt Romney offended Palestinians again today, saying that Israel was more prosperous than Palestine because of its superior culture and the will of God. "You notice such a dramatically stark difference in economic vitality" between Israel and Palestine, Romney said at a fundraiser in Jerusalem today, citing each nation's per-capita...
Tom Cruise's Plot: Spoil Suri
Australia's News Network
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Jul 30, 2012 10:46 AM CDT
(Newser) -
By all accounts, Katie Holmes "won" when it came to her divorce settlement with Tom Cruise—but that doesn't mean Tom can't get a little satisfaction of his own. Cruise's plan is to totally spoil 6-year-old daughter Suri, thus thoroughly annoying Holmes. "While she’s trying to instill a routine and introduce more...
NASA Flags Still Upright on Moon
bbc.co.uk
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Jul 30, 2012 10:42 AM CDT
(Newser) -
Decades later, America's mark on the moon remains: All but one of the flags left by the Apollo missions are still flying. Scientists reviewed photos taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, sent to study the moon in 2009. The images show shadows revolving throughout the day around the flags' believed locations, the BBC reports. "I...
Ashton Buys Mila $5K Bejeweled Phone Case
Monsters and Critics
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Jul 30, 2012 10:10 AM CDT
(Newser) -
Aww, it's just like a high school romance, except the high-schoolers in question are grownup movie stars with scads of money to buy each other ridiculous gifts. The gift in question this time around, from Ashton Kutcher to Mila Kunis : a phone case engraved with their initials, plus pink crystals and diamonds forming a heart around said initials....
iPhone 5, iPad Mini to Debut Sept. 12
iMore
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Jul 30, 2012 10:01 AM CDT
(Newser) -
Get ready for a big Apple event on Sept. 12: That's when the company will announce the iPhone 5 and iPad mini , sources tell iMore . The new iPhone will be available on Sept. 21, reports have said; it's not clear when the scaled-down tablet will be out. That release date is just 11 months after the iPhone 4S was released, compared to 16 months...
Gator Bites Off Man's Hand —and Man Gets Charged
Associated Press
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Jul 30, 2012 9:01 AM CDT
(AP) -
He's either a candidate for a Darwin award or the most pitiable man in Florida right now. Wallace Weatherholt's hand was bitten off by a 9-foot alligator on June 12 ... and on Friday the airboat captain got slapped with charges related to the incident. The 63-year-old was charged with unlawful feeding of an alligator following last month's...
Democrats Meddling With GOP Primaries
Associated Press
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Jul 30, 2012 8:48 AM CDT
(Newser) -
Democrats are launching attack ads aimed at Republican Senate primary candidates—but the ads may actually be designed to get the easiest target nominated, insiders in both parties say. The apparent strategy follows Harry Reid's 2010 work in support of Republican Sharron Angle, who won her primary before losing to Reid. The AP cites Democratic...
Working Late in Pregnancy as Dangerous as Smoking?
Daily Mail (UK)
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Jul 30, 2012 8:25 AM CDT
(Newser) -
Planning to work right up until your due date? You might as well light up a cigarette, a new study suggests. The study finds that babies born to women who worked into the ninth month of pregnancy were an average of half a pound lighter than those born to moms who stopped working after anywhere from six to eight months. The same effect is seen in babies...
Olympics to Fans: Please Stop Tweeting
Reuters
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Jul 30, 2012 8:08 AM CDT
(Newser) -
Excited Olympics attendees have been overwhelming mobile networks, and now the International Olympic Committee is urging spectators to cool it with the texting and tweeting. "Of course, if you want to send something, we are not going to say 'you can't do it', and we would certainly never prevent people," says an IOC spokesperson....
Afghan Police Bases US Built for $19M Sit Empty
Wall Street Journal
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Jul 30, 2012 7:41 AM CDT
(Newser) -
When US inspectors looked at four border police bases in Afghanistan—funded by the US at a cost of almost $19 million—they found most of the facilities on three of those bases had either been abandoned or weren't being used as intended, the Wall Street Journal reports. The report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan...
Clinton Lands Starring Role at Convention
New York Times
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Jul 30, 2012 7:12 AM CDT
(Newser) -
He's back. Bill Clinton will play a major role in the upcoming Democratic National Convention, and will be the one to place Barack Obama's name into nomination after an address hammering home an economic argument for the president's reelection, reports the New York Times . Clinton is expected to help skewer the GOP by underscoring his...
Romney's Jerusalem Stance 'Unacceptable': Palestine
Associated Press
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Jul 30, 2012 7:11 AM CDT
(Newser) -
Palestinian officials are fuming after Mitt Romney asserted yesterday that Jerusalem is Israel's capital. The candidate also implied he'd move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as president, as Israel desires. "Such statements and policy will push the region toward extremists," said an aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud...
Marissa Mayer Gives Yahoo a 'Cool' Makeover
allthingsd.com
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Jul 30, 2012 6:57 AM CDT
(Newser) -
With Marissa Mayer at the helm for just two weeks, Yahoo is already looking more and more like her old workplace, Google: more "collaborative and cool," writes Kara Swisher at AllThingsD . That means some fresh perks for workers, most notable among them, free food in the company's URLs Cafe. (To date, only coffee drinks have been gratis.)...
Panetta: Aleppo Attack Is 'Nail in Assad's Coffin'
BBC
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Jul 30, 2012 6:50 AM CDT
(Newser) -
As brutal fighting continued for control of Syria's largest city, a furious Leon Panetta vowed that the regime's assault on Aleppo would be a "nail in the coffin" of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Some 200,000 residents have fled the besieged city as rebels battle to hold off government troops, reports the BBC . Several were...
Dozen Stuck on Roller Coaster for Hours
Vallejo Times-Herald
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Jul 30, 2012 6:44 AM CDT
(Newser) -
A dozen Six Flags visitors expected to soar like Superman yesterday; instead, they got stuck in the air for two hours. The Superman Ultimate Flight ride at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in northern California stopped working when twelve riders were 150 feet in the air, at the ride's peak, according to the Vallejo Times-Herald . They stayed there...
CNN Sorry for Opening Palin Segment With 'Stupid Girls'
Hollywood Reporter
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Jul 30, 2012 6:39 AM CDT
(Newser) -
OK, so perhaps it was not the best idea for CNN to introduce a segment about Sarah Palin visiting Chick-fil-A with the Pink song, "Stupid Girls." And it knows it. "The music selection was a poor choice and was not intended to be linked to any news story," a CNN spokesperson tells the Hollywood Reporter . "We regret any...
'Pussy Riot' on Trial for Russia Church Protest
BBC
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Jul 30, 2012 4:50 AM CDT
(Newser) -
Members of a female punk protest group go on trial today in Russia for "religious hooliganism." Three young women of Pussy Riot have been jailed since February after they sang a song criticizing President Vladimir Putin in Moscow's main cathedral that was slammed as "blasphemous" by church officials. The three were led into...
Hundreds of Millions Lose Power in India
Associated Press
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Jul 30, 2012 4:23 AM CDT
(Newser) -
Northern India's power grid went down for the first time since 2001 early this morning, throwing hundreds of millions of people into the dark. Hundreds of trains ground to a halt and hospitals were forced to use generators after the country's northern grid crashed around 2:30am, unable to keep up with the huge demand for power amid sweltering...
Assange's Mom in Ecuador to Fight for Son
CNN
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Jul 30, 2012 4:20 AM CDT
(Newser) -
Julian Assange has a new representative in Ecuador: his own mother. Christine Assange is in Quito to seek asylum for her son, who is currently in the country's London embassy , and she's set to meet with officials today, CNN reports. Extradition to the US could mean the death penalty or "many years in prison with torture as they are...
10 Walmarts Hit by Weekend Bomb Threats
ABC News
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Jul 30, 2012 4:09 AM CDT
(Newser) -
Bomb threats were called in yesterday to two Walmarts in Kansas—following threats to eight stores Friday in Missouri. The warnings prompted the stores to close their doors after evacuating customers, but investigators found no explosives, ABC News reports. A recorded voice in the Missouri bomb threats said: "There's a bomb in the building....
