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NSA Leaker Snowden: U.S. "Worth Dying For"
AP
NSA leaker Edward Snowden denounced as a "predictable smear" speculation that he might give secrets to China in a deal to win asylum. "If I were a Chinese spy, why wouldn't I have flown directly into Beijing? I could be living in a palace petting a phoenix by now," a writer who identified himself as Snowden wrote in an online question-and-answer session on The Guardian's website. Snowden promised more revelations and said the U.S. government "is not going to be able to cover this up by jailing or murdering me." At another point in the Q&A he said that his country was "worth dying for." Snowden also said that being called a traitor by former Vice President Dick Cheney "is the highest honor you can give an American."
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Obama, Putin Agree to Push for Syria Negotiations
President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin met Monday at the G-8 summit in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, and agreed to push for negotiations between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the Syrian opposition. Despite Washington's and Moscow's different positions on the conflict, both share an interest in seeing an end to the violence in Syria, two and a half years after its civil war began, Obama said Monday, just after his first meeting with Putin in over a year. The White House meanwhile is set to announce a new $300 million humanitarian aid package for Syria and neighbors facing an influx of refugees, days after Washington angered Moscow by authorizing military aid for Syria's rebels. Earlier Monday in Enniskillen, the site of a deadly 1987 bombing amid the region's decades-long Troubles, Obama spoke on sustaining Catholic-Protestant reconciliation and urged the world to follow Northern Ireland's "blueprint" for peace.
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More Than 100,000 Protesters Take to the Streets of Brazil
AP
More than 100,000 people took to the streets of at least eight cities in Brazil on Monday to voice their frustrations with carrying tax burdens that yielded woeful returns in public services like education, health, security and transportation, The Associate Press reported. At least 65,000 protesters in Sao Paulo gathered at a small plaza and broke into different directions in a Carnival atmosphere while chanting anti-corruption slogans that focused on the 10 cent bus and subway fare hike that initially sparked the uprising. With the exception of a small group of protestors that set a car on fire and threw rocks at the police, the protests were overwhelmingly peaceful as leaders went to great lengths to tell marchers that damaging public or private property would only dampen their cause. Police also made efforts to avoid violence and warned that they would only resort to force if protesters destroyed property.
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Former Boston Hitman Says Whitey Bulger's Dealings "Broke My Heart"
AP
James “Whitey” Bulger, the Boston crime boss charged with killing 19 people, was accused on Monday of emotionally wounding a Boston hitman, NBC News reported. Star witness John "The Executioner" Martorano told the jury that Bulger "sort of broke my heart" when he learned that he was an FBI informant. He said Bulger and Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi had been his "partners in crime," his best friends and godfather to his children. When Martorano learned that his friends were working for the feds, he decided to become a government snitch in retaliation. His cooperation agreement meant that he only had to serve 12 years in prison even though he admitted to 20 murders, some of which he recounted in his first hours on the stand. Martorano is one of three former Bulger accomplices testifying in the prosecution.
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Feds Dig Up Field in Search for Jimmy Hoffa's Remains
3 Naval Academy Students to Face Sex Assault Charges
AP
The U.S. Naval Academy midshipmen will face charges for allegedly sexually assaulting another midshipman, a woman, last year, a military official told NBC News on Monday. The woman said she was assaulted by three men, all Academy football players at the time, at an off-campus party in April 2012; it is unclear if all three will face charges, which will come as soon as Tuesday. A lawyer for the woman has told NBC News that her client was "ostracized" for the allegations against men she had considered her friends and has been critical of the Academy in its handling of the investigation, saying the victim was disciplined for drinking while her alleged attackers went unpunished for more than a year.
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Court Strikes Ariz. Proof of Citizenship Voter Law
The Supreme Court struck down Monday an Arizona law requiring would-be voters to show proof of U.S. citizenship when they register to vote. In a 7-2 decision, with the majority opinion penned by Justice Antonin Scalia, the court found Arizona's law preempted by a federal law that requires states to "accept and use" the federal voter registration form, which itself requires voters to check a box stating that they are U.S. citizens. The challenge to Arizona's law had argued that the law was aimed at discouraging voting by legal immigrants, not at curbing voter fraud. Since federal law prohibits the copying of naturalization documents, applicants were forced to register in person instead of through the mail. Three other states with proof of citizenship voter laws almost identical to Arizona's had joined Arizona in urging the high court to uphold the law.
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Man on NJ-Bound Plane: "Your Life Is in Jeopardy"
Monday, Jun 17, 2013 at 6:09 AM
Look beyond these shores – right now, in scattered corners of the world, there are people living in the grip of conflict who are studying what you're doing, and wondering if they can do it, too. You are their blueprint to follow. You are their proof of what's possible.Hope is contagious. And they are watching to see what you do next.
Obama's Ratings Suffer Amid Gov't Data-Mining Flap
Getty Images
President Barack Obama's approval ratings have suffered under the weight of the host of controversies rocking his administration, one new poll shows. A CNN/ORC poll out Monday found Obama's approval rating underwater, with 45 percent of Americans saying he is doing his job well while 54 percent disapprove — a drop from just three weeks earlier, when a series of national polls, including CNN's, found his rating holding steady despite the controversies. But those polls were taken before the explosive new revelations of the National Security Agency's data mining of phone and internet records. The new CNN poll registered the biggest shift among independent voters, while it also showed a sharp shift among younger voters as well as a big drop in whether respondents found Obama honest and trustworthy.
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Iran's Next President Hints at Thaw with U.S.
Iran's frosty relations with the U.S. could thaw soon, Iranian President-elect Hassan Rowhani hinted Monday, though he rejected the possibility of direct talks. "Iran and America's relationship was like a wound that has not healed; we must not look back but forward," Rowhani said at his first news conference after being elected Friday.
The countries should "look to the future," but one-on-one talks between the countries wouldn’t be possible unless Washington vowed to "never interfere in Iranian affairs," Rowhani said. As chief nuclear negotiator, the moderate cleric negotiated a suspension of Tehran's nuclear program in the past, but on Monday, he said it is Iran’s right to enrich uranium and it will not halt again.
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Ed Koch Tombstone Has Wrong Birth Date
Verdict in 8-Month Erection Lawsuit: No Negligence
Turkey Could Call in Army to Quell Protests: Deputy PM
AP
Could Turkey's military intervene in the growing protests that are spreading across the country's cities? Maybe, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said Monday in the capital city of Ankara, where 1,000 striking trade union workers had just clashed with police with water cannons. In Istanbul, meanwhile, what had begun as environmental demonstrations in Taksim Square have grown into larger protests against the government of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. Arinc's comments to a state-run television station Monday marked the first time since the protests began last month that leaders have raised the possibility that the army could be called in to halt the unrest. Such intervention would be a dramatic one, given Erdogan's vast reduction of the military's power via democratic reforms in his decade in power.
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Judge Grants Defense Motion on Timeline for Anonymity of Jurors in Zimmerman Trial
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- Women in combat: Could special ops be the next stop?
- Former Boston hitman says Whitey Bulger's FBI dealings 'broke my heart'
- Obama and Putin cite differences on Syria but say they want violence to end
- Iran's president-elect urges U.S. to 'look to the future'
- NSA leaker Edward Snowden: I'm not a spy for China
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