Obama’s Hiroshima visit stirs differing views across Pacific
Two very different visions of the hell that is war are seared into the minds of World War II survivors on opposite sides of the Pacific.
Category Archives: Prison
Hiroshima trip by Obama stirs differing views across Pacific
Two very different visions of the hell that is war are seared into the minds of World War II survivors on opposite sides of the Pacific. Michiko Kodama saw a flash in the sky from her elementary school classroom on Aug. 6, 1945, before the ceiling fell and shards of glass from blown-out windows slashed her.
How to make the US-Vietnam relationship great again
In Hanoi, US President Barack Obama will see a city that has undergone a transformation from bicycles and cyclos to one of scooters and taxis. But he will also see a country that hasn't transformed enough, stubbornly denying freedom of speech, as the arrests of blogger Nguyen Huu Vinh and his assistant Nguyen Thi Minh Thuy illustrate.
Obama lands in Vietnam to boost security, trade ties
US President Barack Obama landed in Vietnam late Sunday for a landmark visit capping two decades of rapprochement between the former wartime foes, as both countries look to push trade and check Beijing's growing assertiveness in the South China Sea. US President Barack Obama disembarks from Airforce One after landing at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi on May 22, 2016 Air Force One touched down in Hanoi just after 9:30 pm for the beginning of a three-day trip in which Obama will meet Vietnam's communist leadership and stress improving relations with the dynamic and rapidly emerging nation.
Vietnam votes for rubber-stamp assembly ahead of Obama visit
Ahead of President Barack Obama's first visit to Vietnam, the country voted Sunday in once-every-five-year-elections for a rubber-stamp parliament whose membership has already been largely determined by the Communist Party. Amid worries about soaring public debt, a serious budget deficit and China's aggressive claims in nearby seas, there's also high hope for Obama's visit, both in the government, which wants him to lift an arms export embargo so it can better deal with Beijing, and among rights activists who want him to hold to account a repressive one-party state seen as treating its critics abysmally.
Today in History
On May 22, 1960, an earthquake of magnitude 9.5, the strongest ever measured, struck southern Chile, claiming some 1,655 lives. In 1860, the United States and Japan exchanged ratifications of the Treaty of Amity and Commerce during a ceremony in Washington.
Cuban migrants climb down from lighthouse near Key West
The 19 Cuban migrants straddled atop the American Shoal lighthouse off Sugarloaf Key have come down and are being processed by immigration officials, Coast Guard officials said Friday afternoon. The migrants climbed down from the 109-foot structure around 5:30 p.m. Earlier in the day, the migrants had swum to the lighthouse after the Coast Guard approached their makeshift boat in the waters off Sugarloaf.
‘Tom Perez has guts’: US labor secretary being eyed as Clinton’s running mate
Perez has spent his years at the helm of the labor department fighting for paid leave, overtime pay and visiting workers on the ground - and he's not done yet On Tuesday night, the White House announced that the Obama administration had finalized a new rule that could potentially expand overtime benefits to 4.2 million more Americans. On Wednesday morning, Perez boarded Air Force Two and with Vice-President Joe Biden and flew to Columbus, Ohio, where they made the official public announcement inside Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams .
Coast Guard in standoff with Cuban migrants on American Shoal Lighthouse
U.S. Coast Guard crews are trying to get an estimated 20 Cuban migrants off American Shoal lighthouse off Sugarloaf Key. The migrants climbed the 109-foot structure after swimming away from their homemade vessel.
How Safe Is Commercial Aviation, Really?
An EgyptAir plane en route from Paris to Egypt disappeared from radar on May 19. Here, another Egyptair plane on a runway in Russia in 2011. On Thursday, May 19, EgyptAir flight MS804, traveling from Paris to Cairo, crashed into the Mediterranean Sea.
Steve Napolitano undaunted in campaign to replace Knabe
Running against a politician with the last name Hahn might intimidate most, but for Steve Napolitano, the challenge is undoubtedly worthwhile. "Nobody knows the Fourth District better than me and I have a record of achievement," said Napolitano.
Gov. Jerry Brown to consider clemency for death row inmate Kevin Cooper
Kevin Cooper, right, speaks with his attorney, Public Defender David Negus, during a preliminary hearing in November 1983 in Ontario. After 33 years in jail - 31 spent on San Quentin Prison's death row - Kevin Cooper's last hope of avoiding execution rests in the hands of Gov. Jerry Brown.
Set executions before Jan. 1, governor says
Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Wednesday that he wants the state to execute death-row inmates before one of the drugs that would be used expires in January. The governor, in Berlin to open an economic development office, spoke by telephone to reporters at the state Capitol a day after prison officials announced they acquired a new supply of vecuronium bromide.
Jared Kushner and the Big Con
Any fan of the classic sitcom Seinfeld should know how to pronounce the name "Kushner" - the same way Jerry used to say, "Hello, Newman ." The Trump administration's Golden Boy has had his luster tarnished in the past few weeks.
US establishes first permanent military base in Israel
For the first time in history, the United States on Monday established an official, permanent military base in Israel: an air defense base in the heart of the Negev desert. Dozens of US Air Force soldiers will call home the new base, located inside the Israeli Air Force's Mashabim Air Base, west of the towns of Dimona and Yerucham.
Ex-CIA officer celebrates Italy’s decision not to jail her in Muslim cleric’s kidnapping
For years, Sabrina De Sousa tried persuading Italian authorities she was wrongly convicted in absentia for the 2003 kidnapping of an Egyptian terrorism suspect in Milan. From her home in Washington and now in Portugal, the former American spy lobbied for a pardon so she could visit her aging mother in India without being extradited to Italy and jailed.
Activist Lewis honored decades after civil rights arrest
The first time John Lewis traveled to Mississippi in 1961, he was arrested and jailed with other Freedom Riders, black and white, who challenged segregation in a bus station. Lewis, who is African-American, remembers going into a restroom labeled for white men only.
Former sailor seeks pardon in submarine photos case
A former Navy petty officer, who is imprisoned for illegally taking pictures on a nuclear attack submarine, is seeking a presidential pardon and clemency. On Monday, Jeffrey Addicott, a former Army attorney and director of the Center for Terrorism Law at St Mary's Law School in Texas, submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice petitions for a presidential pardon and for clemency to get Kristian Saucier out of jail.
An Overview of 2010
The year of 2010 was considered a rough year for the United States. There was a variety of economic issues, a tragic oil spill, and two tumultuous wars.