The strongest aftershock since Chile's devastating earthquake rocked the South American country Thursday as President Sebastian Pinera was sworn into office.The 7.2-magnitude aftershock was stronger than the quake that destroyed the Haitian capital on Jan. 12.
There were no immediate reports of damages or injuries but the temblor - and at least three other aftershocks - strongly swayed buildings - shook windows and provoked nervous smiles among the dignitaries attending Pinera's inauguration at the congressional building in coastal Valparaiso.
The biggest aftershock happened along the same fault zone as Chile's magnitude-8.8 quake on Feb. 27, said geophysicist Don Blakeman at the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colorado.
Pinera assumes Chile presidency amid strong quakes
John Conyers' Wife Sentenced to Jail
A former Detroit councilwoman married to Democratic U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr. was sentenced to 37 months in prison Wednesday for accepting bribes from a waste-management company trying to win city business.
Monica Conyers is appealing the sentence, which includes two years of supervised release after prison, according to the office of U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn, who handled the case.The sentencing is the latest chapter in the latest scandal to plague Detroit, already struggling with severe unemployment, poverty and blight.
Mrs. Conyers in June admitted she took bribes from Houston-based Synagro Technologies Inc. as it sought a $47 million sludge-disposal contract from the city. The company won the contract in a 5-4 vote, with Mrs. Conyers voting in its favor after initially opposing it.
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TVNL Comment: Now we know why impeachent talk disappeared along with all investigations into 2004 voting machines in Ohio. Now we know.
Israel Palestine peace talks break down over settlement row
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, has pulled out of planned peace talks in the wake of Israel’s announcement it is to build 1,600 new homes in the occupied West Bank.
"The Palestinian president decided he will not enter into those negotiations now ... the Palestinian side is not ready to negotiate under the present circumstances,” Amr Moussa, the Arab League Secretary-General, told reporters in Cairo.
“The talks have already stopped,” he said.
US kept us in the dark on torture: spy chief
US intelligence agencies misled allies, including Britain, about US mistreatment of suspected terrorists, the former head of MI5 has said.
Eliza Manningham-Buller, who retired as head of Britain's domestic spy agency in 2007 and is now a member of the House of Lords, said the Americans suppressed details of their harsh handling of some prisoners, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is accused of organising the September 11 attacks.
Welcome To The World’s First Murdochracy
What is a murdochracy? It is where the fealty and augmentation of Murdoch’s editors and managers are undisguised, an inspiration to his choir on seven continents, where even his competitors sing along and wise politicians heed the Murdochism: “What’ll it be? A headline a day or a bucket of shit a day?”
French bread spiked with LSD in CIA experiment
A 50-year mystery over the 'cursed bread' of Pont-Saint-Esprit, which left residents suffering hallucinations, has been solved after a writer discovered the US had spiked the bread with LSD as part of an experiment.
Pope's brother admits hitting students
Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, brother of Pope Benedict XVI, admitted hitting students while he was director of the most prominent Catholic boys' choir in Germany. The allegations of abuse of children in Germany have raised questions about Pope Benedict, who spent his early career as a professor of theology and bishop of Munich before becoming a top Vatican official in 1982.
Ratzinger denied knowing boys were sexually abused. He said the choirmaster was "a king without a kingdom" in the school hierarchy and that the tone was set by the "very violent" headmaster who served from 1953 to 1992. One former student, Franz Wittenbrink, now a composer, has described the headmaster as a sexual sadist.
New York City's Assassination Connection
Papers from Des Moines to London were reporting that his New York–based firm, Payoneer—which offers prepaid cards, mostly as a way for employers to compensate foreign workers without checks and wire transfers—had been linked to this year’s cinematically brash Hamas assassination in Dubai. In the open view of security cameras, wearing vaudeville-level wigs and mustaches, a group of at least 27 agents plotted the death of the Palestinian militant Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who was drugged and smothered with a pillow in his hotel room on Jan 19.
FBI indicts Colombo crime family members in extortion in World Trade Center demolition
The charges include the Colombo family’s use of a trucking company they controlled, All Around Trucking to execute a kickback and extortion scheme for debris removal subcontracting from Testa Corporation, a demolition contractor headquartered near Boston. The Colombo family carried out the scheme at locations including the World Trade Center construction site, and the Newtown Creek wastewater treatment plant on the border between Brooklyn and Queens. Specifically, as detailed in the detention memorandum, Theodore Persico, Jr., Michael Persico, and others agreed that, in exchange for All Around obtaining debris removal subcontracting with Testa, All Around would kickback a portion of its profits as a commercial bribe to a Testa foreman. After All Around secured subcontracting work with Testa, Colombo family associates threatened Testa employees when Testa failed to pay All Around on the timetable set by the crime family. Consensual recordings captured defendant Michael Persico directing Bombino to threaten Testa employees, and captured Bombino reporting back to Michael Persico that, when Bombino made the threats, the Testa employees were “shakin’ in their boots over us.” Other charges in the indictment include an extortion of a furniture store owner, in which Michael Persico forced the furniture store owner to give Bombino control of the store until the owner repaid a loan owed to Colombo family associates.
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