BREAKING: 'Persons of interest' possibly identified in Gatwick airport shutdown

Police have identified “persons of interest” in the drone incident that forced the United Kingdom’s Gatwick Airport to close for 36 hours. Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Assistant Chief Constable Steve Barry said police believe there is more than one device involved, the Guardian reported. There were few details given about the people possibly involded.

“In terms of motivation there is a whole spectrum of possibilities, from the really high-end criminal behavior all the way down to just individuals trying to be malicious,” he told reporters. Barry said authorities are prepared to respond to any further drone sightings and that “even shotguns would be available to officers should the opportunity present itself.”

The last drone was spotted Thursday at 10 p.m., a day after the sightings first began. The airport has reopened but is dealing with many delays.

https://alboenews.net/2018/12/21/breaking-persons-of-interest-identified-in-gatwick-airport-shutdown/

British UN aid worker Ali Khamis sacked after sex claim

A British aid worker has been sacked by the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) after an inquiry into allegations that he sexually assaulted a Ugandan woman he had hired as a maid.

Ali Khamis, aged in his mid-fifties, is believed to be the first British aid worker to be caught up in a sexual exploitation case since the Oxfam scandal highlighted the scale of the problem in the charity sector.

Despite promising a zero-tolerance approach on sexual misconduct, the UNHCR took nine months to investigate the allegations against Mr Khamis then sacked him within days of The Times making inquiries about the case….

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/british-un-aid-worker-ali-khamis-sacked-after-sex-claim-75pr8xgf3?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1545395450

House Democrats tap Rep. Kathy Castor as climate panel leader

E&E News and the Tampa Bay Times report that House Democratic leaders have tentatively selected Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) to head the select committee on climate change they're reviving next year….

https://www.axios.com/house-democrats-tap-climate-panel-leader-f12e7533-7015-435a-a3c5-ba19e7beee10.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=twsocialshare&utm_campaign=organic

FBI: Human remains found in Indianapolis field belong to MS-13 victim

During the week of July 30, 2018, members of the FBI Evidence Response Team from the Cincinnati Field Office and the Indianapolis Field Office participated in a search for human remains in a wooded area of Grassy Creek Regional Park southeast of East 38th Street and Mitthoeffer Road. The teams located and recovered human remains on August 1 and August 2, 2018.

DNA from the remains was examined by experts at the University of Indianapolis Human Identification Center. The DNA testing eliminated all other potential donors with the exception of Israel Anibal Mejia-Martinez. Mejia-Martinez’s last known address was in Usultan, El Salvador.

Mejia-Martinez was believed to have been murdered approximately one year ago and buried in a shallow grave where the remains were discovered by the FBI Evidence Response Team.

The remains were recovered in connection with an ongoing MS-13 investigation in the Southern District of Ohio.

Anyone with information about the death of Mejia-Martinez is asked to contact the FBI at (614) 849-1765.

https://breaking911.com/fbi-human-remains-found-in-indianapolis-field-belong-to-ms-13-victim/

https://twitter.com/i/status/1076031887385288704

California Taxpayers Have Been Forced to Spend $700 Million to Kill Almost 1 Million Babies in Abortions

Whether they like it or not, California taxpayers pay for women’s elective abortions.

This may include paying for underage girls to get abortions without their parents’ knowledge or consent, for abortions on viable, later-term unborn babies and even for sex-selection abortions, none of which are prohibited in California.

The total price-tag for those abortions is almost $700 million, according to Live Action.

Medi-Cal, the state medical assistance program for low-income individuals, pays for women and girls to abort their unborn babies. Sixteen other states force taxpayers to pay for elective abortions as well.

An analysis of the program spending found that California taxpayers paid more than $358 million for 840,000 unborn babies to be aborted between 2000 and 2014 alone. It estimated the total spending on abortion at nearly $700 million in the past 25 years.

The state government reports do not give many details about the abortions or the ages of the unborn babies, but they do list the types of abortion procedures paid for by state taxpayers. Among these are D&E abortions, which involve dismembering second-trimester unborn babies by tearing them limb from limb while their hearts still are beating. D&E abortions are done up to 24 weeks, meaning potentially viable, healthy unborn babies are aborted at taxpayers’ expense in California.

About 80,000 D&E abortions were paid for by taxpayers between 2003 and 2014, according to the analysis.

https://www.lifenews.com/2018/12/21/california-taxpayers-have-been-forced-to-spend-700-million-to-kill-almost-1-million-babies-in-abortions/

haha

https://twitter.com/TrumpGolf/status/1076161434919288835

Sarah Sanders: "It's a sad day in America when the Mexican government is doing more to protect our borders and stop the illegal flow of drugs, human trafficking and terrorists across our border than Senate Democrats are willing to do."

https://twitter.com/breaking9111/status/1076161099064664071

Amnesty International against the wall and human rights supporting @hill article linked below

https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/421814-us-risks-human-rights-abuses-by-funding-border-wall#.XBk6dciYRuJ.twitter

4 Yemeni medics killed after Saudi warplanes hit ambulance in #Jawf province

https://twitter.com/BREAKING_PTV/status/1076162690777788416

French court fines oil group Total in Iran bribery case

PARIS (Reuters) - A Paris court fined French oil and gas group Total (TOTF.PA) 500,000 euros ($570,000) on Friday for bribing foreign public officials in a case related to Iranian contracts in 1997.

Total, was charged with paying $30 million under the cover of a consultancy contract to facilitate a deal for the South Pars gas field more than two decades ago, which the Paris prosecutor said covered “corruption payments”.

Court documents said that from around 1995 to 2004, at the request of an Iranian official cited as Medhi Hashemi Rafsanjani, the son of Iran’s former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Total and intermediaries made illicit payments to middlemen designated by Medhi to help the company.

Mehdi Hashemi Rafsanjani was not immediately available to comment on Friday.

Total’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Patrick Pouyanne said in a statement after the ruling that the company would no longer pursue the matter because none of the individuals under investigation were still alive.

“Anyone who knew (former Total CEO) Christophe de Margerie knows that he would never be involved in any type of corruption,” Pouyanne said.

“However, given the specific circumstances of this case, which has been already judged in the U.S. and in which none of the individuals can defend themselves, Total doesn’t want to pursue it,” he added.

It is not the first time that Total’s business with Iran has ended in court. In 2013 it agreed to pay $398 million to settle a U.S. criminal and civil allegation that it paid bribes between 1995 and 2004 to win oil and gas contracts.

This was billed as the first coordinated action by French and U.S. law enforcement in a major foreign bribery case and at the time the Paris prosecutor recommended Total and its then CEO de Margerie face trial in France.

De Margerie died in 2014 in a plane crash.

($1 = 0.8767 euros)

https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-total-iran-fine/french-court-fines-oil-group-total-in-iran-bribery-case-idUKKCN1OK1IE

U.S. grants waiver allowing Iraq to buy Iranian electricity

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department has granted a 90 day waiver to Iraq to continue paying for electricity imports from Iran, a department spokesperson said on Friday.

The Trump administration reimposed sanctions on Iran’s energy exports in November over its nuclear program and meddling in the Middle East, but has granted waivers to several buyers to meet consumer energy needs. The State Department is working with Iraq to end its dependence on Iranian natural gas, and increase its energy independence, the spokesperson said.

https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-iran-sanctions/u-s-grants-waiver-allowing-iraq-to-buy-iranian-electricity-idUKKCN1OK1QP

WASHINGTON (AP) – Supreme Court: Justice Ginsburg has cancerous growths removed from lung

https://twitter.com/fox5dc/status/1076166207462608900

can't escape the drones

https://twitter.com/SkyNewsBreak/status/1076166204170141697