Man arrested over sexual assault and murder of 11-year-old Texas girl
An 18-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the brutal murder of a Texas girl last week. Juan Carlos Garcia-Rodriguez is expected to be charged with capital murder in the death of 11-year-old Maria González, the Pasadena County Police Department announced on Saturday. Mr Garcia-Rodriguez was taken into custody by the Shreveport Police Department in Louisiana and will be extradited to Texas in the following days. He is accused of sexually assaulting Maria and strangling her to death before placing her body in a laundry basket under her bed. Maria’s father Carmelo González, who had received text messages from her daughter saying someone was knocking on the door, found the body when he returned home from work on 12 August. Pasadena Police Chief Josh Bruegger said during a press conference on Friday that detectives had talked to and taken DNA samples from Mr Garcia-Rodriguez on the day that Maria was found. He clarified that Mr Garcia-Rodriguez lived in the González’s apartment complex. Maria’s family issued a statement to KHOU 11 thanking detectives for their commitment to finding justice for the family. “We want to say thank you to the Pasadena Police Department and to Louisiana police and any officials that participated in bringing this cold-blooded murderer into custody. “This arrest has brought the family and community some peace. We are extremely thankful that he cannot cause this type of pain to anybody again.” The statement continued: “I ask for those who are in charge to give us justice. May he be burdened with the full weight of the law, for what he has done to my daughter.” Police said that Maria was in communication with her father on the morning of her murder. Mr González told her not to open the door amd asked a family member who lives near the complex to check on Maria, but he wasn’t able to find her. “I left her alone in the apartment and she was sending voice notes saying that someone was on the door. I told her not to open the door and that I was leaving work,” an emotional Mr Gonzalez told Univision in Spanish. Mr González eventually found Maria’s remains wrapped inside two plastic bags and stuffed inside a basket. The medical examiner determined that Maria was sexually assaulted and that her cause of death was asphyxiation due to strangulation and blunt force head and neck trauma. Maria had immigrated to the US with her father four years ago and they had moved into their apartment just three months ago. Pasadena police said that Mr Garcia-Rodriguez also immigrated from Guatemala and surrendered to border officers in El Paso, NewsNation. reported. Read More Texas girl sexually assaulted and strangled to death after texting father ‘someone was knocking on the door’ An 11-year-old warned about a mysterious stranger before her rape and murder. Now her father needs justice Relative of Idaho killings victim wears T-shirt with pro-firing squad message at suspect’s hearing
1970-01-01 08:00
Traffic, wet concrete, and a collision with a fire truck: Robotaxis cause chaos in San Francisco after expansion
On 10 August, California regulators voted to expand the footprint of paid taxi services by autonomous, driverless cars from Cruise and Waymo in San Francisco. Since then, it’s been utter chaos, with the AVs involved in traffic jams, slapstick malfunctions, and a car accident with a fire truck. A day after the vote, video went viral on social media showing about 10 frozen Cruise taxis snarling traffic in the North Beach neighbourhood, which company officials later said was caused by a connectivity issue due to a spike in cell traffic because of a nearby music festival. The following Tuesday, a Cruise taxi was stuck in wet concrete at a construction site. “I can see five different scenarios where bad things happen and this is one of them,” resident Paul Harvey told SFGATE. “It thinks it’s a road and it ain’t because it ain’t got a brain and it can’t tell that it’s freshly poured concrete.” Two days after that, a Cruise taxi had what might be its most serious accident yet, colliding with a fire truck in the Tenderloin neighbourhood, giving the taxi’s passengers non-severe injuries. A firefighter in the truck said the AV “lurched” as it passed through an intersection ABC 7 reports, while Cruise said its vehicle detected the emergency sirens but was unable to get out of the way in time from the truck, which drove into the oncoming traffic lane. “The AV’s ability to successfully chart the emergency vehicle’s path was complicated by the fact that the emergency vehicle was in the oncoming lane of traffic, which it had moved into to bypass the red light,” the company wrote in a statement. “Cruise AVs have the ability to detect emergency sirens, which increase their ability to operate safely around emergency vehicles and accompanying scenes. In this instance, the AV identified the siren as soon as it was distinguishable from the background noise. “The Cruise AV did identify the risk of a collision and initiated a braking maneuver, reducing its speed, but was ultimately unable to avoid the collision,” the company added. Following the repeated mishaps, the California Department of Motor Vehicles asked Cruise to cut its 400-strong deployment of AVs in San Francisco in half, with the agency saying it was “investigating recent concerning incidents.” As The Independent reported, critics of AVs warned ahead of their expansion in San Francisco that the driverless cars weren’t ready for primetime, particularly when it comes to interfacing with emergency vehicles. According to data Cruise shared with the state earlier this month, between January and mid-July of 2023, Cruise AVs temporarily malfunctioned or shut down 177 times and required recovery, 26 of which such incidents occurred with a passenger inside, while Waymo recorded 58 such events in a similar time frame. Meanwhile, according to the San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency (SFMTA), between April 2022 and April 2023, Cruise and Waymo vehicles have been involved in over 300 incidents of irregular driving including unexpected stops and collisions, while the San Francisco Fire Department says AVs have interfered 55 times in their work in 2023. Last year, Cruise lost contact with its entire fleet for 20 minutes according to internal documentation viewed by WIRED, and an anonymous employee warned California regulators that year the company loses touch with its vehicles “with regularity.” Since being rolled out in San Francisco, robotaxis have killed a dog, caused a mile-long traffic jam during rush hour, blocked a traffic lane as officials responded to a shooting, and driven over fire hoses. Jeffrey Tumlin, San Francisco’s director of transportation, has called the rollout of robotaxis a “race to the bottom,” arguing Cruise and Waymo weren’t yet definitive transit solutions, and instead had only “met the requirements for a learner’s permit.” Read More How a vote to empower autonomous ‘robotaxis’ from Cruise and Waymo has divided San Francisco GM's Cruise autonomous vehicle unit agrees to cut fleet in half after 2 crashes in San Francisco San Francisco launches driverless bus service following robotaxi expansion GM's Cruise autonomous vehicle unit agrees to cut fleet in half after 2 crashes in San Francisco Chinese military launches drills around Taiwan as 'warning' after top island official stopped in US San Francisco launches driverless bus service following robotaxi expansion
1970-01-01 08:00
Women’s World Cup Final: Everything to know about Spain and England
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Lionel Messi on soccer's growth in United States
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Jimmy Graham arrest details: Saints comeback put on hold
Jimmy Graham was reportedly under the influence and wandering through traffic when he was arrested ahead of the Saints' preseason matchup in Los Angeles.Jimmy Graham's return to the Saints is already looking messy.The 36-year-old tight end was reportedly arrested in southern Califo...
1970-01-01 08:00
Ecuador Mayor Says Gunmen Tried to Kill Him Ahead of Elections
An Ecuador mayor said he was the victim of an attempted assassination as political violence continued ahead of
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Trump’s Big Shadow: Your Saturday US Briefing
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Relative of Idaho killings victim wears T-shirt with pro-firing squad message at suspect’s hearing
A family member of Idaho murder victim Kaylee Goncalves reportedly wore a shirt with a pro-firing squad message at her suspected killer’s hearing. Bryan Kohberger, 28, returned to the Latah County Courthouse on Friday for a pre-trial hearing. Mr Kohberger, a former criminology PhD student at Washington State University, is accused of the 13 November slayings of University of Idaho students Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin. Mr Kohberger’s attorneys requested additional DNA from prosecutors, who said they could not produce material that had not yet been provided to them by the crime lab. Judge John Judge also denied the defence’s motion alleging that prosecutors had violented Mr Kohberger’s rights by convening a 32-people grand jury, instead of 45, according to NewsNation. The judge ruled that there weren’t any substantial failures in the grand jury indictment, allowing the trial to move forward with its 2 October start date. During the proceedings, a Goncalves family member was reportedly seen wearing a shirt supporting the death by firing squad if Mr Kohberger were to be convicted, Idaho Statesman reporter Kevin Fixler revealed on X, formerly known as Twitter. Prosecutors announced earlier this year that they would be seeking the death penalty in the quadruple murder case. Due to a bill signed into law in March by the state’s Republican Governor Brad Little, which goes into effect on 1 July, Mr Kohberger could face the firing squad if convicted of the murders. Death row inmates are to be executed by firing squad only if the lethal injection is not available. Shortly after Mr Kohberger’s arrest in January, Goncalves family members voiced their support for the death penalty. The grieving relatives, along with all the parties involved in the high-profile case have since been banned from speaking to the media about the ongoing proceedings. Mr Kohberger is due to stand trial on 2 October after being indicted by a grand jury on four counts of first-degree murder and one burglary charge. His defence claimed earlier this month that he was out on a solo drive on the night of the murders. Prosecutors have tied him to the murders, in part, through surveillance footage showing his white Hyundai Elantra travelling to and from the crime scene. The affidavit, released in January, outlined some of the evidence against the accused killer – including his DNA on a knife sheath left behind at the scene of the murders, the surveillance footage and cellphone activity. The sheath – for a military or Ka-Bar style knife – was found partly under Mogen’s body after she and Goncalves were found stabbed multiple times on Mogen’s bed on the third floor of the home. DNA on the button clasp of the sheath was then found to match that of the 28-year-old accused killer. Mr Kohberger’s attorneys have sought to cast doubts on the strength of this DNA evidence, in particular the use of genetic genealogy. On Friday, Mr Kohberger’s defence asked prosecutors to share the lab results of three unidentified male DNA samples reportedly found at the crime scene. Prosecutors argued that they have provided everything and that they “can’t provide something that doesn’t exist”. “There has to be some level of trust in discovery. You are all sworn attorneys,” Mr Judge said. Read More Defence for Idaho murders suspect say they don’t have all the evidence from prosecutors at key hearing Bryan Kohberger’s defence seeks to undercut DNA evidence against him in Idaho murders case Bryan Kohberger finally reveals vague alibi for night of Idaho murders
1970-01-01 08:00
India Puts 40% Tax on Onion Export as Inflation War Intensifies
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Zelenskiy Kicks Off New Round of Allied Defense Talks in Sweden
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Sarina Wiegman: How the Dutchwoman turned England into a winning 'machine'
While success was always a possibility for this talented group of footballers, nobody could have imagined what was to come under Sarina Wiegman's leadership.
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Bond Traders Bet Next Ecuador President Can Stave Off Default
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