Police fired tear gas and water cannons at protesters Saturday in Istanbul and Ankara, Turkey. The protesters had gathered for the one year anniversary of anti-government demonstrations that left eight people dead.
Injured protesters flee Turkish riot police in Istanbul.
GURCAN OZTURK/AFP / Getty Images
People try to march after security members closed Taksim Square and neighboring Gezi Park Saturday.
AP Photo/Emrah Gurel
The woman may now face charges for the whipping, which sent the suspect to the hospital.
The woman's daughter was allegedly raped several times in a house in Kampung Budi, Tawang, by the man and another suspect.
The 28-year-old man was later arrested with the other suspect, a 22-year-old, for the alleged rape in Tawang, Bachok on May 22.
The other suspect was also assaulted by a group before being handed over to police.
The men may be caned again by Malaysian authorities and given prison time if they are convicted for the crime.
#BearLife
"He got in the hammock like he was a tourist or something," said hammock owner Vincent James. "Then something spooked him and he ran right back there. Then half an hour later I come back and I saw there he is in the hammock again."
People gathered outside of the mayor’s office for a gay pride parade after their application for permission to hold a demonstration was rejected.
AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin
AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin
AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin
AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin
Sgt. Bergdahl had been held by the Taliban since June 2009. He is reportedly “in good condition.”
The Associated Press
An image from a video released Wednesday April 7, 2010 by the Taliban.
AP Photo/Site Intelligence Group, File
"Sergeant Bergdahl's recovery is a reminder of America's unwavering commitment to leave no man or woman in uniform behind on the battlefield," President Obama said. "And as we find relief in Bowe's recovery, our thoughts and prayers are with those other Americans whose release we continue to pursue."
The government of Qatar helped negotiate between the U.S. and the Taliban for Sgt. Bergdahl's release, Obama says, writing that "The Amir's personal commitment to this effort is a testament to the partnership between our two countries."
Obama also thanked the government of Afghanistan, who he says supported U.S. "efforts to secure Sergeant Bergdahl's release."
Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's release was part of a negotiation that includes the release of five Afghan detainees who are held in the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay. The BCC reports that the detainees have already been freed.
Bergdahl will stay at a forward-operating base in Afghanistan "until he's ready to move," ABC News reports. From there he will travel to Bagram Airfield, the largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan, before returning home.
Today the American people are pleased that we will be able to welcome home Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, held captive for nearly five years. On behalf of the American people, I was honored to call his parents to express our joy that they can expect his safe return, mindful of their courage and sacrifice throughout this ordeal. Today we also remember the many troops held captive and whom remain missing or unaccounted for in America's past wars. Sergeant Bergdahl's recovery is a reminder of America's unwavering commitment to leave no man or woman in uniform behind on the battlefield. And as we find relief in Bowe's recovery, our thoughts and prayers are with those other Americans whose release we continue to pursue.
For his assistance in helping to secure our soldier's return, I extend my deepest appreciation to the Amir of Qatar. The Amir's personal commitment to this effort is a testament to the partnership between our two countries. The United States is also grateful for the support of the Government of Afghanistan throughout our efforts to secure Sergeant Bergdahl's release.
This week the United States renewed its commitment to the Afghan people and made clear that we will continue to support them as they chart their own future. The United States also remains committed to supporting an Afghan-led reconciliation process as the surest way to achieve a stable, secure, sovereign, and unified Afghanistan. While we are mindful of the challenges, it is our hope Sergeant Bergdahl's recovery could potentially open the door for broader discussions among Afghans about the future of their country by building confidence that it is possible for all sides to find common ground.
As lawmakers take steps to protect marijuana businesses, a new government report shows that the drug’s popularity is mostly growing among adults.
A marijuana plant in Colorado.
© Rick Wilking / Reuters
Though the amendment that would ban the raids still faces several hurdles before it becomes law, it was an important symbolic victory for marijuana advocates.
In addition, Minnesota joined 21 other states Thursday when it passed a bill legalizing medical marijuana.
Which raises the question: Who exactly is using marijuana anyway?
A woman blows marijuana smoke in Denver, Colo., April 20,
Mark Leffingwell / Reuters
The report breaks down marijuana usage by age, gender and race. The CDC's data doesn't take into account the most recent laws legalizing medicinal and recreational marijuana, but it does show longer-term trends. Much of the data was collected via home interviews conducted during the entire year it represents — so, for example, 2002 data was gathered over the course of 2002. For 2012, the sample size was made up of 68,309 people. Data on teen marijuana usage was gathered from yearly interviews with between 45,000 and 50,000 high school students.
Following is a closer look at highlights from the report:
Sterling will take the NBA to court over its efforts to wrest control of the Clippers away from him.
Donald Sterling at a Lakers game on January 10.
Kirby Lee / Reuters
Embattled Clippers co-owner Donald Sterling plans to file a $1 billion lawsuit against the NBA. In an email, his attorney Max Blecher confirmed to BuzzFeed that the suit would be filed Friday.
The news of the lawsuit comes a day after Sterling's estranged wife and Clippers co-owner Shelly Sterling inked a deal to sell team for $2 billion to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
It was unclear if Donald Sterling would have to sign off on the sale. Blecher said Thursday Donald's approval was needed, but in a news release Shelly's lawyer described her as the "sole trustee."
The sale and lawsuit are the latest development in a saga that began with Donald making racist comments to a woman known as V. Stiviano. The NBA later fined Sterling and banned him for life. Donald has since vowed to fight the NBA.
This is a developing story. Check back later for updates.
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Questionably Starring: Flex Alexander as Michael Jackson
Flex Alexander as Michael Jackson never, ever, ever should have happened.
Blueprint Entertainment, Nomadic Pictures / Via youtube.com
Starring: Paul Winfield as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Winfield's portrayal of King falls short. Waaaay short.
Filmways Television / Via youtube.com
Starring: Jennifer Hudson as Winnie Mandela, Terrance Howard as Nelson Mandela
Featuring Jennifer Hudson in an uncomfortable Xhosa accent. And why would anyone cast Terrence Howard as Nelson Mandela?
Ironwood Films, Equinoxe Films / Via youtube.com
Starring: Angela Bassett as Rosa Parks
She certainly looked the part, but the movie itself is a bit forgettable.
Chotzen/Jenner Productions, CBS, Come Sunday, Jaffe/Braunstein Films / Via youtube.com
The agency had called the report an internal document but bowed to pressure from Congress and a lawsuit from the ACLU last week.
AP photo/Brian Skoloff
U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Friday released a long-awaited report critical of the agency's use of deadly force.
"We initiated both internal and external use of force reviews to improve ourselves and our responsibility to the public and to use force only when necessary," said agency Commissioner R. Gil Kerlikowske. "This release and, most importantly, the policy and training changes they represent are the beginning of a continuous review of our responsibility to only use force when it is necessary to protect people."
The release of the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) report — along with revised use of force guidelines that adopt many of the report's recommendations — comes following months of pressure from Congress and advocacy groups, including a lawsuit last week by the American Civil Liberties Union, which charged the agency with not responding to repeated freedom of information requests for the report to be released.
"This is just a first step, but it's an important first step," said Mitra Ebadolahi, staff attorney for the San Diego ACLU's Border Litigation Project, which filed the lawsuit. "It's critical because as the largest law enforcement agency in the country they come into contact with thousands of American everyday. It has been years since we received an up to date policy guidebook from them that allows the public to know when and why CBP officers use force."
In the PERF report, 67 cases that led to 19 deaths were reviewed and a number of recommendations were made regarding the border patrol agents' use of deadly force.
In a statement first given to BuzzFeed, Sen. Bob Menendez said the PERF report unfortunately confirms the need for "significant improvements in policy uniformity, transparency, and accountability at CBP."
"While I am pleased that border patrol has already updated many key aspects of their use of force policies, more work is needed to establish uniform and clear practices that put an end to preventable deaths at the border," the statement read in part. "I continue to encourage the Border Patrol to fully implement the critically needed recommendations within this comprehensive report, and I welcome Commissioner Kerlikowske's promise of a continuous review of use of force policies."
In addition to updating the handbook, CBP said it is undertaking a review and redesign of its basic training curriculum, "establishing a center of excellence to continuously evaluate use of force policy and procedures," and installing border fence training venues and purchasing use of force training simulator systems designed to provide officers and agents with a more realistic and job specific training experience.
"Before my confirmation, I told Congress that transparency, responsiveness and communication are my hallmarks," Kerlikowske said. "I committed to an open dialogue between CBP and its stakeholders."
CBP initially said it would not release the report because it was meant as an internal review document but seems to have bowed to public pressure on multiple fronts.
While the ACLU is pleased with the release of the report, it is now pivoting to calling for practices to be put in place to ensure agents who do not comply with the new guidelines are properly reprimanded.
"It will still be important to see how these revised policies on use of force are translated into training and the agency will require monitoring to ensure that agents who violate these new policies are held accountable," Vicki Gaubeca, director, ACLU of New Mexico Regional Center for Border Rights said.
For those dreaming of a world filled with self-driving cars, the future looks great — but it may not be great enough.
The biggest shift that may result from self-driving cars is an end to widespread auto ownership, with taxis taking their place. The idea is that a driver's wages are what make taxis expensive. Without drivers, then, taxis could become cheap and ubiquitous. There will be no need to own a car because it'll be more cost effective to just summon one whenever you need it.
We're already headed down this road, with Uber revealing this week that someday its entire taxi fleet will be self-driving.
An Uber taxi in New Delhi, India. Someday, taxis like this may be automated.
AP Photo/Saurabh Das
Right now in the United States, the average cost of owning a car is $8,876 per year. American drivers pay 59.2 cents per mile. And that's just the cost of the car itself; if you buy a home with a garage or rent an apartment with a parking space, you're also paying more for housing so you can own a car.
The promise of self-driving cars is that these costs would disappear, or at least shrink.
Ansun Sujoe and Sriram Hathwar both won the 2014 Scripps National Spelling Bee after spelling all words in the final round.
Chuck Myers / MCT
AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta
Jacob Williamson may have lost the National Spelling Bee after misspelling “kabaragoya,” but he won a lot of hearts over for his unbridled love of words.
AP Photo/ Evan Vucci
All four men accused of sexual abuse by Michael Egan have now filed motion to dismiss the cases. Individuals close to former NBC President Garth Ancier and Michael Egan wrote in declarations Ancier wasn’t on trips to Hawaii where he’s accused of abuse.
Kevork Djansezian / Reuters
LOS ANGELES — Former NBC President Garth Ancier Thursday filed a motion to dismiss a sexual abuse case filed against him by Michael Egan, who accused him, X-Men director Bryan Singer, and other Hollywood executives of sexually abusing him when he was underage.
In the motion, filed in a U.S. District Court in Hawaii, Ancier argues he was too busy from July to September 1999 to travel to Hawaii where the abuse allegedly occurred. He was named NBC president in May 1999 and was working with shows that summer and into sweeps period. "Taking time off for two trips to Hawaii would have been virtual suicide," he wrote in a declaration.
Also included in the motion are three declarations from people close to Ancier and Egan who claim under penalty of law Ancier was not in Hawaii during that time.
Egan's friend Chad Shackley, who Egan accused of abusing him in a 2000 lawsuit and he maintained close ties with, according to messages obtained by BuzzFeed, wrote Egan never told him Ancier engaged in any sexual activity with him and never witnessed any sexual activity between the two occurred. He also wrote he went on two trips to Hawaii in 1999 with Marc Collins-Rector, a registered sex offender Egan sued for sexual abuse in 2000 who allegedly organized the Hawaii trips Ancier was on. Shackley said he did not recall Egan or Ancier on either trip. This is the first Shackley has commented publicly on the new allegations.
Ancier's personal assistant from 1999, Renate Radford, also denied Ancier was in Hawaii in a declaration, as did the personal chef of Collins-Rector, Melvin Berman.
Ancier is the final of the four men accused of sexual abuse by Egan to file a motion to dismiss. Singer and Broadway producer and Gary Goddard filed motions to dismiss last week. David Neuman, who was a former executive in a digital video company started by Collins-Rector that Singer invested in, filed a motion two weeks ago.
Minnesota joined 21 other states Thursday when it passed a bill legalizing medical marijuana, but it’s the only state that won’t legalize smoking it.
Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton on April 30, 2014 delivers his State of the State address.
AP Photo/Tom Olmscheid
On Thursday, Minnesota passed into law a medical marijuana bill for patients with cancer, HIV/AIDS, glaucoma, Tourette's syndrome, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Crohn's Disease, as well as for children with epilepsy.
With Gov. Mark Dayton's signature on the bill, Minnesota becomes the 22nd state to legalize medical marijuana. About 5,000 people are expected to be eligible for Minnesota's medical marijuana program and will be legally able to access cannabis beginning July 1, 2015, according to the Star Tribune .
"I thank everyone who worked together to craft and pass this legislation. I pray it will bring to the victims of ravaging illnesses the relief they are hoping for," Dayton said in a statement.
Medical marijuana advocates watch as the Minnesota House of Representatives vote on a bill that would legalize marijuana use for medical reasons at the Capitol in St. Paul, Minn. on May 9, 2014.
AP Photo/The Star Tribune, Glen Stubbe
Unlike other states, Minnesota will not allow patients to smoke marijuana buds, but will instead have access only to cannabis oil. Many doctors have said this is unusual, and that oil extracts are often more potent than smoking the plant. Some medical marijuana advocates have also said many people will still not get the relief under the limited bill, and have said they plan to continue the fight next year in the legislature.
Police in Minnesota lobbied against legalizing possession or smoking of plant material, and the governor said he would not sign a bill that was not supported by the local law enforcement.
Private manufacturers will bid to produce and distribute the oils with the state Department of Health, which will manage the medical program. The law authorizes eight manufacturing and distribution sites around the state.
The Los Angeles Times reports the tech mogul will pay $2 billion for the team.
Steve Ballmer, Nov. 19, 2013.
REUTERS/Jason Redmond
Ballmer's bid sets a record price for an NBA team and beat out a $1.6 billion bid from the Geffen group and a $1.2 billion bid from Ressler.
The previous price record for an NBA team team was set this month when Wesley Edens and Marc Lasry bought the Milwaukee Bucks for $550 million.
Greg Abbott’s statement comes in the wake of a nationwide debate about states’ secrecy surrounding the drugs used in executions.
Ron Jenkins/Fort Worth Star-Telegram / MCT
Texas, the state with the most active death chamber, has refused to disclose the source of its new batch of pentobarbital, only revealing that it came from a “licensed compounding pharmacy within the United States.”
Handout / Reuters
However, the Associated Press reported in April that there was little evidence from Texas prison officials to support their claim that such suppliers would be in danger of violence if their identities were made public.
Richard Carson / Reuters
Dismissing Campbell's lawyers' argument that his execution could be torturous in light of Oklahoma's botched lethal injection in April, Abbott said that Texas' execution protocol was “vastly different” from Oklahoma’s where a new protocol was being used.
Campbell’s lawyers had filed an appeal to halt his execution on the grounds that the state did not disclose enough information about the source of the drugs to ensure a humane, non-torturous execution.
AP Photo/Texas Department of Criminal Justice
“The e-mail did not raise allegations or concerns about wrongdoing or abuse…”
AP Photo / NBC News
I actually did go through channels. And that is documented. The NSA has records, they have copies of emails right now, to their Office of General Counsel, to their oversight and compliance folks, from me, raising concerns about the NSA's interpretations of its legal authorities.
“We wanted to make it very clear that violence against women happens every single day.”
The hashtag #YesAllWomen exploded in the wake of the tragedy, providing a space for women to share their stories of harassment and speak freely about what happens when women dare to govern their own bodies.
Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times / MCT
The title of the Tumblr is fairly self-explanatory; it is a compilation of stories of what sometimes happens when women refuse the advancements and wants of men who feel entitled to women.
The blog was founded by Deanna Zandt, who manages the site along with Laina Fader, Kate Tull, Kathryn Peters, and Shauna Gordon-McKeon.
Via whenwomenrefuse.tumblr.com
"There are so many documented accounts of violence against women who refuse sexual advances from men, and countless stories from women who didn't report them to the police or the media," she continues. "We wanted to make it very clear that violence against women happens every single day."
"We kept seeing responses over the weekend that were sort of 'othering' Rodger; it's that guy over there, not one of us," added Zandt. "Rodger is one of many, and our intent is to create some tapestry showing the connection and volume of these incidents. We still don't recognize gender-based violence as a deep cultural problem that we all share; largely, we view incidents as individual. They are not."
Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times / MCT
Via whenwomenrefuse.tumblr.com
Female students at Wasatch High School in Utah were surprised to find their yearbook photos were altered without them knowing about it.
Via fox13now.com
Via fox13now.com
Via fox13now.com
Via fox13now.com
