Investigators have confirmed that ammonium nitrate was the trigger for the explosion at a West, Texas, fertilizer plant last month that left 14 people dead and some 200 injured, according to the Texas state fire marshal’s office.
The actual cause of the fire and subsequent blast at the West Fertilizer facility is still being determined, investigators said.
The fire marshal’s office has been leading the investigation of the April 17 blast, along with the federal Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agency (ATF).
Roughly $100 million in damages will be attributed to the West, Texas blast when everything is said and done, according to the latest estimates from Texas’ State Fire Marshal Office. More than 70 investigators are still working to determine where exactly the initial fire began, with more than 200 leads and 400 interviews collected already.
A North Korean court has sentenced the US citizen Kenneth Bae to 15 years’ hard labour after finding him guilty of unspecified “hostile acts” against the state, in a move possibly intended to force concessions from Washington.
Bae was arrested in November 2012 in Rason, a special economic zone in North Korea’s far north-eastern region bordering China and Russia. His trial at the country’s supreme court began on Tuesday, according to the official KCNA news agency, which referred to Bae as Pae Jun-ho, the North Korean rendering of his name. The sentence was announced on Thursday.
Bae, a tour operator who lives in the Seattle suburb of Lynnwood, was accused of attempting to overthrow the government, a crime that carries a possible death penalty. In its latest dispatch KCNA did not state the exact nature of his alleged crimes.
Though he was born in South Korea, Bae is a naturalized U.S. citizen who has apparently made several trips to North Korea in the past via his travel agency Nation Tours. Our thoughts are with his family and friends during this difficult time.
I think you will see — again I can’t release any names to you yet, but next Wednesday I think those of us who are concerned about this issue … we’re finally going to get some answers.Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz • Discussing an upcoming House oversight committee hearing which many GOP members believe will expose new information that the Obama Administration has previously tried to keep quiet. Sources say that previously unidentified witnesses, with firsthand knowledge of the 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, will reveal new information about the events which claimed the lives of four Americans. source
Three new suspects were taken into custody in the investigation of last month’s deadly Boston Marathon bombing and will face charges of interfering with the probe, not planning or carrying out the attack, police and a U.S. law enforcement source said on Wednesday.
Two of the suspects were university classmates of 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who has been criminally charged with planting homemade pressure-cooker bombs at the marathon finish line on April 15 along with his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
The U.S. law enforcement source said that two of the suspects are being held by immigration officials for violating the terms of their visas. The source said they are likely to face charges related to obstruction of justice and with making false statements to investigators.
Big new development in the criminal investigation of last month’s Boston Marathon bombing.
The former neighborhood watch leader charged with fatally shooting Trayvon Martin told a judge Tuesday that he agrees with his defense attorneys’ decision not to seek an immunity hearing under the state’s “stand your ground” self-defense law.
Under questioning from Circuit Judge Debra Nelson, Zimmerman repeatedly said “yes” to a series of questions asking if he was aware he was giving up the right to a hearing before his second-degree murder trial in June. A judge would have sole discretion in an immunity hearing to decide if Zimmerman is exempt from culpability in the shooting. A jury would make the determination in the murder trial.
George Zimmerman’s trial is scheduled to begin on June 10th. Anybody think he’s actually going to walk away from this?
Last summer, three peace activists broke into a nuclear weapons site. A chain reaction followed.
If you’ve got some free time, WaPo has a pretty look profile on the three activists who broke into the Y-12 nuclear facility in Tennessee last year, all of whom still face up to 30 years in federal prison on charges related to the break-in. It’s an interesting read, which we highly recommend to anybody with a bit of free time, but definitely not a short one.
U.S. intelligence agencies now believe that Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime has used chemical weapons in its struggle to hold onto power, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday.
Hagel said that the White House sent a letter to members of Congress on Thursday morning disclosing that intelligence agencies had made that assessment, which followed a series of similar conclusions reached by Britain, France and most recently Israel.
It is believed that the White House plans to increase pressure on the U.N. to get more involved in Syria, rather than involve the U.S. military; however, as Politico notes, the use of chemical weapons doesn’t appear to be the “red line” that the Obama administration once claimed.
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The women injured when Los Angeles police opened fire on them during the manhunt for ex-cop Christopher Dorner have reached a $4.2-million settlement with the city, sources told The Times.
Los Angeles City Atty. Carmen Trutanich announced a settlement had been reached Tuesday afternoon. More details were expected at a 2 p.m. news conference.
Margie Carranza, 47, and her mother, Emma Hernandez, 71, were delivering newspapers in Torrance on Feb. 7 when LAPD officers shot repeatedly at their blue Toyota Tacoma. Hernandez was shot twice in the back, and Carranza was injured by broken glass, an attorney for the women said.
We’re glad to hear that these two women will be taken care of financially, though they undoubtedly would have preferred simply not to be shot at. Still, it’s hard not to see this as a positive outcome, considering there was once some doubt they’d even get a new truck.
Montana Sen. Max Baucus has confirmed that he will retire rather than seek re-election in the 2014 midterm elections in a new statement released on Tuesday. The Democrat currently serves as Senate Finance Committee Chairman, and his departure will undoubtedly add to the growing fear among Democrats that the party could lose its majority in the 100-member Senate in the very near future. (Photo via Ars Skeptica) source
Hopes of a diplomatic breakthrough on the Korean peninsula have dimmed after North Korea dismissed US conditions for talks as “totally unacceptable” and demanded to be recognized as a nuclear state.
After weeks of tension in the region, including North Korean threats of nuclear war, Pyongyang had appeared willing to consider negotiations. But on Tuesday, the state-controlled Rodong Sinmun newspaper rejected the condition that the North must first begin to demonstrate a willingness to dismantle its nuclear weapons programme and suspend missile launches.
“If the DPRK sits at a table with the US it has to be a dialogue between nuclear weapons states, not one side forcing the other to dismantle nuclear weapons,” the newspaper said, referring to the North by the abbreviation of its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Well, things were beginning to look better on the Korean peninsula…
Young New Yorkers would not be able to buy cigarettes until they were 21, up from the current 18, under a proposal advanced Monday by Dr. Thomas A. Farley, the city’s health commissioner, and Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker.
The proposal, which would give New York the highest smoking age in the country among major cities, is the latest effort in a long campaign to limit smoking that began soon after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg took office, with bans on smoking in restaurants and bars, and expanding more recently to bans at parks, beaches, plazas and other public places.
Given some of the responses to New York’s last major health initiative, we imagine more than a few residents won’t be particularly fond of the proposed change; however, it is likely to see some support. Thoughts?
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