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LAS CRUCES, N.M./TAOS, N.M. (Reuters) - The head of an armed group that stops migrants who cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally allegedly boasted of training volunteers to kill former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, an FBI agent said in court papers. Larry Hopkins, leader of the United Constitutional Patriots, appeared in court in Las Cruces, New Mexico, on Monday to face charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm. The FBI said it found guns during a 2017 visit to his home.

POSTED APRIL 22, 2019 5:35 PM

Kidnappers in Nigeria killed two people including a Western woman on Saturday and abducted three Nigerians in the northern city of Kaduna, the local police said. Kidnappings are rampant in Nigeria, where both locals and foreigners are targeted — mostly for ransom.

POSTED APRIL 21, 2019 11:15 AM

Donald Trump and his businesses sued the Democratic chairman of the House Oversight committee on Monday to block a subpoena requesting the president's financial records. It is the latest move in a fierce tussle between the White House and Democrats in Congress amid allegations about the president's finances. In a court filing in Washington, the president's lawyers argued congressman Elijah Cummings "has no legislative purpose" to issue the subpoena and accused Democrats of using their majority in Congress to harass him.   “The Democratic Party, with its newfound control of the US House of Representatives, has declared all-out political war against President Donald J Trump," the lawsuit stated. “Subpoenas are their weapon of choice.” The lawsuit asked the court to block a subpoena issued to Mr Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars, last week demanding several years of the president's financial statements. The lawsuit, which will be fiercely contested in court, follows a string of moves in recent weeks by Mr Trump and his businesses to block the Democrats from getting their hands on his financial records.   Michael Cohen made the explosive claims during his testimony in February Credit: Getty It came after Michael Cohen, Mr Trump's longtime former lawyer, told Congress that Mr Trump had inflated his company's assets to obtain a loan in a failed attempt to buy the Buffalo Bills football team. Cohen, who has pleaded guilty to several crimes including tax fraud and lying to Congress in 2017, submitted portions of documents called "statements of financial condition" to the House Oversight committee ahead of his testimony in February.   Cohen's testimony led Democrats in Congress to demand the release of Mr Trump's statements of financial condition and his tax returns for the last six years - something he has refused to do voluntarily, bucking the trend of recent presidential candidates. In his lawsuit on Monday, Mr Trump called Cohen's testimony "a partisan stunt, not a good-faith effort to obtain accurate testimony from a reliable witness". In a statement, Mr Trump's lawyer, Jay Sekulow, said: "We will not allow presidential harassment to go unanswered." A spokeswoman for Mazars said the company would “respect this process and will comply with all legal obligations”. Mr Cummings has previously said his committee has the "full authority" to investigate whether the president engaged in illegal conduct before and during his time in office and whether he had any undisclosed conflicts of interest. He gave Mazars, which prepared financial statements for loan applications for Mr Trump, an April 29 deadline when he issued the subpoena. Responding to Mr Trump's lawsuit yesterday he said there was no “valid legal basis to interfere with this duly authorised subpoena from Congress”.

POSTED APRIL 22, 2019 11:06 AM

The Islamic State group Sunday claimed responsibility for an attack that killed 10 people and trapped around 2,000 for hours inside the communications ministry in the Afghan capital the previous day. Four IS jihadists detonated explosives near the ministry, then entered and "battled Afghan security forces with machine guns and hand grenades for numerous hours", the group said in a statement on its social media channels. The attack in central Kabul killed seven civilians and three members of the security forces, the interior ministry said on Sunday, in a new toll after three people died of their wounds.

POSTED APRIL 21, 2019 9:36 AM

Coordinated bombings turned Easter Sunday festivities into a national tragedy in Sri Lanka, killing at least 290 people and wounding more than 500 others. The nine blasts mainly targeted churches and luxury hotels in the country's deadliest violence since its civil war ended a decade ago.

POSTED APRIL 22, 2019 9:04 AM

A beautiful spring morning at the Topeka Zoo in Kansas turned tragic when a male Sumatran tiger attacked a keeper, inflicting wounds that sent her to a hospital.Although keepers are never supposed to be in the same space as the tigers, they found themselves together in the outdoor habitat that morning for reasons under investigation."There's some sort of error that occurred here," said Brendan Wiley, the zoo's director, told a news conference. He confirmed that several visitors to the zoo had witnessed the attack.The employee is the zoo's primary tiger keeper and had worked there for years, according to Mr Wiley, who noted that part of her job is to clean and maintain the enclosure. He said that the keeper was in stable condition and that the zoo was reviewing its safety protocols.The zookeeper, whom Mr Wiley declined to name, citing her family's need for privacy, suffered "lacerations and punctures" to the back of the head, neck, back and arm. She was awake and alert when she was transported to a hospital.The attack occurred about 9:15 am and the zoo's safety protocols immediately went into effect, Mr Wiley said. A radio call alerted the staff that there was an emergency, and the zoo called 911. Nearby staff members responded to the scene to secure the tigers, and an official made the decision to temporarily close the zoo. A firearms response team also was dispatched to the tiger exhibit, but zookeepers had successfully lured the tiger away by the time it arrived."Some of our staff witnessed some things that you hope you go through a career without witnessing," Mr Wiley said.The zoo has two adult Sumatran tigers: Jingga, a female, and Sanjiv, who was brought to the zoo in August 2017. Shanna Simpson, animal care supervisor, told the Topeka Capital-Journal then that Sanjiv "is the sweetest cat I have ever met."In October, Jingga gave birth to four cubs - three males and one female.The Topeka Zoo allowed Jingga and her cubs back into their enclosures Saturday afternoon, but Sanjiv would remain in holding overnight, Mr Wiley said.City spokeswoman Molly Hadfield said in an email that "nothing will happen to the tiger; he is a wild animal and was acting on instinct."Sanjiv is too valuable to conservation efforts to euthanise. Sumatran tigers are critically endangered, and only about 400 remain in the wild, according to the World Wildlife Fund. They are native to Indonesia, where deforestation, human encroachment and poaching have whittled their numbers to the brink of extinction.Some zoos participate in Sumatran tiger conservation programs designed to save the species, but these efforts are not always successful. In February, a male tiger brought to the London Zoo to mate attacked and killed its prospective female partner.The Washington Post

POSTED APRIL 22, 2019 4:13 AM

Electric automaker Tesla sent a team to investigate after a Model S exploded and caught fire in Shanghai. There are reportedly no known casualties.

POSTED APRIL 22, 2019 8:37 AM

The B-21 has disappeared into the “black” world of military technology, and will only reemerge when the bomber is ready.On October 27, 2015, nearly thirty-four years to the day after Northrop Grumman was awarded the contract to develop the first stealth bomber, the U.S. Air Force awarded Northrop a contract for a new bomber: the B-21 Raider. While many of the details of the Raider are shrouded in mystery, we do know a few things about it, and can infer others.(This first appeared in 2017.)The B-21 Raider bomber takes its name from both the twenty-first century and the legendary 1942 raid by Gen. James “Jimmy” Doolittle’s force of B-25 Mitchell bombers against targets in and around Tokyo, Japan. In invoking the Doolittle Raid, the Air Force is drawing attention to attack’s audacious nature, the strategic and tactical surprise, and the epic distances General Doolittle and his “raiders” flew to accomplish their mission.Recommended: Why Doesn't America Just Kill Kim Jong-un?

POSTED APRIL 21, 2019 10:00 PM

POSTED APRIL 22, 2019 3:00 AM

Police say she threatened to blow up the church during Easter service

POSTED APRIL 22, 2019 4:05 AM