Gunman opens fire on high-speed European train; subdued by 2 Americans
Gunman opens fire on high-speed European train; subdued by 2 Americans
PARIS (AP) — A gunman opened fire on a high-speed train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris on Friday, wounding two people before two American passengers subdued him, officials said.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, speaking in Arras in northern France where the suspected was detained, said one of the Americans was hospitalized with serious wounds. Their names were not immediately released.
Philippe Lorthiois, an official with the Alliance police union, said on i-Tele that the two Americans were soldiers. In Washington, the Pentagon said it “can only confirm that one U.S. military member was injured in the incident. The injury is not life-threatening.”
The White House issued a statement saying that President Barack Obama was briefed on the shooting, and said, “While the investigation into the attack is in its early stages, it is clear that their heroic actions may have prevented a far worse tragedy.”
Contrary to early reports, Lorthiois said the attacker did not fire his automatic weapon but wounded one man with a handgun and the other with a blade of some kind.
US stocks join global market rout, Dow Jones industrial average tumbles 530 points
NEW YORK (AP) — Growing concerns about a slowdown in China shook markets around the world on Friday, driving the U.S. stock market to its biggest drop in nearly four years.
The rout started in Asia and quickly spread to Europe, battering major markets in Germany and France. In the U.S., the selling started early and never let up. Investors ditched beaten-down oil companies, as well as Netflix, Apple and other technology darlings. Oil plunged below $40 for the first time since the financial crisis, and government bonds rallied as investors raced into hiding spots.
“Investors are wondering if growth isn’t coming from the U.S. or China, where is it going to come from?” said Tim Courtney, CIO of Exencial Wealth Advisors. “This is about growth.”
By the time it was over, the Standard and Poor’s 500 index had lost 5.8 percent for the week, its worst weekly slump since 2011. That leaves the main benchmark for U.S. investments 7.7 percent below its all-time high — within shooting range of what traders call a “correction,” a 10 percent drop from a peak.
Markets began falling last week after China announced a surprise devaluation of its currency, the yuan. Investors have interpreted China’s move as a sign that flagging growth in world’s second-largest economy could be worse than government reports suggest. On Friday, they got more bad news: A private survey showed another drop in manufacturing on the mainland.
White House: Deputy Islamic State leader al-Hayali killed in US military airstrike in Iraq
OAK BLUFFS, Mass. (AP) — The No. 2 leader of the Islamic State militant group was killed in a U.S. military airstrike in Iraq earlier this week, the White House said Friday.
Ned Price, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said Fadhil Ahmad al-Hayali was traveling in a vehicle near Mosul, in northern Iraq, when he was killed Tuesday.
As the senior deputy to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, al-Hayali was the primary coordinator for moving large amounts of weapons, explosives, vehicles and people between Iraq and Syria, where IS militants control vast amounts of territory.
The United States is leading a coalition of countries that have spent the past year striking at IS militants, weaponry and machinery from the air but has made little progress in meeting President Barack Obama’s goal to “degrade and destroy” the group, which has also beheaded hostages, including some Americans.
Al-Hayali oversaw the IS in Iraq, where he planned operations over the past two years, including an offensive the group launched in Mosul in June 2014. He was a member of al-Qaida in Iraq, the predecessor group to IS.
UNESCO chief: IS engaged in ‘most brutal, systematic’ destruction of ancient sites since WWII
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Islamic State extremists in Syria and Iraq are engaged in the “most brutal, systematic” destruction of ancient sites since World War II, the head of the U.N. cultural agency said Friday — a stark warning that came hours after militants demolished a 1,500-year-old monastery in central Syria.
The world’s only recourse is to try to prevent the sale of looted artifacts, thus cutting off a lucrative stream of income for the militants, UNESCO chief Irina Bokova told The Associated Press.
A series of recent attacks has stoked fears that IS is accelerating its campaign to demolish and loot heritage sites. On Friday, witnesses said the militants bulldozed St. Elian Monastery in central Syria. Days earlier, IS beheaded an 81-year-old antiquities scholar who had dedicated his life to overseeing the ruins of Palmyra in Syria, one of the Middle East’s most spectacular archaeological sites.
Since capturing about a third of Syria and Iraq last year, IS fighters have destroyed mosques, churches and archaeological sites, causing extensive damage to the ancient cities of Nimrud, Hatra and Dura Europos in Iraq. In May, they seized Palmyra, the Roman-era city on the edge of a modern town of the same name.
“We haven’t seen something similar since the Second World War,” Bokova said of the scope of the IS campaign against ancient sites. “I think this is the biggest attempt, the most brutal systematic destruction of world heritage.”
His own deadline nearing, Biden huddles with family, aides to game out mechanics of a 2016 run
WASHINGTON (AP) — Tucked away at his family home in Delaware, Vice President Joe Biden has been huddling with longtime aides and family members, evaluating what it would take to launch a viable presidential campaign against well-funded Democratic opponents with a huge head start.
Although Biden has yet to make a decision, his advisers say the vice president and his associates have started gaming out mechanics like fundraising, ballot deadlines and an early primary state strategy. Also under consideration are the personal consequences for Biden and his family, who are still mourning the death of the vice president’s son, Beau Biden, a few months ago.
Much of the deliberation has taken place this week at the Bidens’ house in a secluded, wooded suburb of Wilmington, said several Biden aides, who requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the meetings publicly. In recent days, longtime Biden confidantes Mike Donilon and former Sen. Ted Kaufman have spent time there, along with Biden’s surviving son, Hunter Biden, and his sister, Valerie Owens Biden, who has played a top role in all his previous campaigns.
A look at the deliberations:
CEO of cheating website says he’s faithful to wife despite running affair dating service
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Touting himself as the “The King of Infidelity,” the founder of the adultery site Ashley Madison built his livelihood around the unconventional philosophy that cheating is a natural part of married life — yet he says he is a devoted husband, and his wife of 12 years says she would be devastated if he was unfaithful.
Noel and Amanda Biderman say they do not practice what they preach but simply are smart entrepreneurs seizing an untapped market.
“I am printing money, I don’t deny it,” Biderman told the New York Daily News in 2014. “That’s what happens when you build a taboo-focused business.”
Their privately held Toronto holding company, Avid Life Media Inc., grossed $115 million in earnings last year, according to tax documents and figures shared by Biderman with Forbes.
Now divorce lawyers are preparing for a potential bonanza from the site’s massive breach that released the information of its subscribers.