List of All Articles with Tag 'im'

US Climate Envoy John Kerry is heading to China for talks on global warming as tensions simmer between

A Princeton doctoral student has been kidnapped in Iraq while doing field work in the country, according to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday. “Elizabeth Tsurkov is still alive and we hold Iraq responsible for her safety and well-being,” Mr Netanyahu wrote in a statement. Ms Tsurkov is an Israeli-Russian dual citizen, the Israeli prime minister wrote. She is also a fellow at the Washington DC-based think tank, New Lines Institute, and is a contributor to New Lines magazine. They wrote they hadn’t heard from her since 19 March, when she said she wanted to leave the Middle East and return to Princeton to write her dissertation. They added that just over a week after hearing from her, they “learned from our sources that a pro-Iranian militia had kidnapped her in Baghdad.” The writers underscored that Ms Tsurkov’s work “poses no threat to anyone.” The magazine also wrote that Ms Tsurkov “is an outspoken critic of all three of the major likely players involved in negotiating her release: Israel, Iran and Russia.” The group said that they reached out to US and foreign officials and will continue to do so. They urged the United States to get involved in her release, because despite the fact she is not a US citizen, she “is very much a part of America,” they wrote. “She works with a Washington think tank, writes for an American magazine and studies at Princeton University. She deserves America’s every effort to bring her to safety,” New Lines magazine writers said. Ms Tsurkov’s family also confirmed details of her disappearance in a statement. “She was kidnapped in the middle of Baghdad, and we see the Iraqi government as directly responsible for her safety,” the family’s statement said. “We ask for her immediate release from this unlawful detention.” Read More Missing two-year-old’s grandmother shares ‘mental torture’ after alleged kidnapper arrested Kremlin open to talks over potential prisoner swap involving detained WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich Death of student, 20, outside club ‘senseless and avoidable’, court told

A California man pleaded guilty last week to hiding his mother’s death from the federal authorities for over 30 years, collecting more than $800,000 in benefits under her name. Donald Felix Zampach, 65, pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering and one count of Social Security fraud, according to the Justice Department. “This crime is believed to be the longest-running and largest fraud of its kind in this district,” US Attorney Randy Grossman said in a statement. “This defendant didn’t just passively collect checks mailed to his deceased mother. This was an elaborate fraud spanning more than three decades that required aggressive action and deceit to maintain the ruse.” All told, beginning in 1990, the Poway man collected $830,238. He could face up to 25 years in prison, though US sentencing guidelines suggest it will more likely be a sentence of 30 to 37 months. “He is overwhelmed with regret,” Knut Johnson, Zampach’s lawyer, told The New York Times. As part of his plea deal, Zampach will forfeit the benefit, pay restitution to various lenders, and turn over the home he took possession of in his mother’s name. The benefits scheme was an elaborate one, according to the DoJ. When Zampach’s mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, she left the US and returned to her native Japan, where she died in 1990 at age 61. Her son notified the US embassy in Tokyo of the death, but admitted to leaving blank a box for her Social Security number to avoid the government being aware of her passing, and he repeated this omission on forms for burial permits. Zampach kept up this ruse until September 2022, collecting his mother’s Social Security checks and payments from the Defense Finance Accounting Service, which pays survivors of military veterans. An audit of those over age 90 who hadn’t used their Medicare benefits helped reveal the California man’s scheme. This sort of fraud has happened in the past. In 2018, a Mexican man pleaded guilty to defrauding the government for even longer, spending 37 years collecting nearly $361,000 in government benefits after assuming the identity of a US citizen, according to The San Diego Union Tribune. In 2015, Dutch police learned that a man kept his dead mother’s body hidden for over two years and continued collecting her pension and social assistance payments. He was later caught and forced to repay 40,000 euros, according to 1 Limburg. Read More Real Housewives star Phaedra Parks reveals why she gave her son $150,000 for his 13th birthday Mastercard helping banks predict scams before money leaves customers’ accounts Vermont will pay $16.5M to settle lawsuits by foreign investors in fraudulent ski developments

Canada is bracing for higher-than-normal wildfire activity to continue into August, as soaring temperatures and drought turn much

There's a difference between winning games and winning the games that matter. How do the MLB standings look when reoriented around record versus winning teams?In sports, good teams beat the bad teams. Great teams beat the good teams. As we look toward the All-Star break and the second half ...

Piles of cash, weapons and a giant sledgehammer seen in pictures allegedly showing a raid on his home.

Rudy Farias returned home the day after he went missing in 2015, and despite “numerous” false statements being made to police no charges are planned, the Houston police say. Houston Police Chief Troy Finner told a press conference on Thursday that police interviews with Mr Farias and his mother Janie Santana on Wednesday had found no evidence of sexual or abuse during the eight years he was supposedly missing. Mr Farias, 25, was reported missing in March 2015, and an open police investigation into his disappearance continued until his mother Ms Santana said he had been discovered outside a church in Houston, Texas on 29 June. However, Houston police said he was not in fact missing, and had given false names and date of births to avoid detection when spoken to by police. “Both Janie, Rudy’s mother, and Rudy himself gave fictitious names while interacting with various patrol officers,” Lieutenant Christopher Zamora, a detective with Houston Police Department (HPD)’s missing persons unit, told reporters. “After investigators talked with him yesterday, it was discovered that Rudy returned home the following day on March 8 2015. “Mother Janie continued to deceive police by remaining adamant that Rudy was still missing. She alleged her nephew was the person friends and family were coming and going.” Mr Zamora said the district attorney had declined to lay charges “at this time” for making fictitious reports to police. “Being missing is not a crime,” Mr Zamora told the press conference. Mr Farias, who was 17 when he was first reported missing, was considered an adult under Texas state law. Mr Zamora also contradicted claims made by Houston activist and counsellor Quanell X, who alleged that Mr Farias had suffered sexual and physical abuse during. “We do take all allegations seriously and any new information or facts that we receive will be investigated.” Read More Houston police deny Rudy Farias was abused by mother but confirm he was never missing - latest update Rudy Farias’ mother says she expects to be arrested amid bombshell claims she hid and abused him for years An eight-year search for Rudy Farias came to a miracle conclusion. But was he actually missing?

Grid me up, Scottie. Here are the top answers for the 94rd version of the Immaculate Grid including the Dodgers, Astros, Rays, Phillies and more.Thursday's Immaculate Grid baseball game is a fun one with some big-name franchises to connect, such as the Los Angeles Dodgers, Houston Astros an...

Yusef Salaam, an exonerated member of the Central Park Five has won the Democratic primary for a New York City Council seat in Harlem, CNN projects, after a reallocation of ranked-choice voting results expanded Salaam's lead.

In addition to supercharging the US solar, wind and EV industries in the near term, incentives in President

The Biden administration has approved the largest offshore wind energy project yet in US waters, to be located off the coast of New Jersey where officials say it could power hundreds of thousands of homes with clean energy.

NFL teams are throwing more than ever, but a solid rushing attack is still a weapon. Our latest NFL Power Rankings break down the best for next season.In this edition of NFL Power Rankings, we will rank the best rushing offenses for the upcoming 2023 season.In the modern era, NFL offenses te...