Author: Frank Jordans
-
Islamic State claims responsibility for Berlin market attack
BERLIN — The Islamic State group claimed responsibility Tuesday for a truck attack on a crowded Berlin Christmas market that German authorities said came right out of the extremist group’s playbook, inflicting mass casualties on a soft target fraught with symbolic meaning. The Monday night attack on the popular market by the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial…
-
Truck rams into German Christmas market, killing 12 people
BERLIN — Police said Tuesday that the driver who rammed a truck into a crowded Christmas market in the heart of the German capital, killing at least 12 people and injuring nearly 50, did so intentionally and that they are investigating a suspected “terror attack.” The truck struck the popular Christmas market outside the Kaiser…
-
European Space Agency says Mars probe may have exploded
BERLIN — Europe’s experimental Mars probe hit the right spot — but at the wrong speed — likely ending up in a fiery ball of rocket fuel when it struck the surface at high speed, scientists said Friday. Pictures taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show a black spot in the area where the Schiaparelli…
-
Europe’s comet probe Rosetta ends 12-year mission with crash
BERLIN (AP) — After 12 years of hurtling through space in pursuit of a comet, the Rosetta probe ended its mission Friday with a slow-motion crash onto the icy surface of the alien world it was sent out to study.Mission controllers lost contact with the probe, as expected, after it hit the surface of comet…
-
Good boy! Dogs know what you’re saying, study suggests
BERLIN — Scientists have found evidence to support what many dog owners have long believed: Man’s best friend really does understand some of what we’re saying. Researchers in Hungary scanned the brains of dogs as they were listening to their trainer speaking to determine which parts of the brain they were using. They found that…
-
Scientists: Underground stone rings made by Neanderthals
BERLIN — Two mysterious stone rings found deep inside a French cave were probably built by Neanderthals about 176,500 years ago, proving that the ancient cousins of humans were capable of more complex behavior than previously thought, scientists say. The structures were made from hundreds of pillar-shaped mineral deposits, called stalagmites, which were chopped to…
-
Family of missing US speed flyer hopes he’s still alive
BERLIN — The family of an American extreme sports enthusiast who went missing in the Swiss Alps over the weekend said Wednesday they’re holding out hope that he’s still alive. Harrison Fast of Boulder, Colorado, was speed flying on the Jungfrau mountain in central Switzerland when the group he was with lost sight of him…
-
U.N. criticism not likely to stop CIA drone strikes
WASHINGTON — The U.S. government’s covert program using unmanned drones to strike at terrorists inside Pakistan is not likely to stop or change, despite new criticism from a U.N. human rights expert. U.S. officials insist the CIA program has been an effective tool to take out insurgents along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, particularly those hidden…
-
U.N. expert: ‘Targeted killings’ may be war crimes
GENEVA — Governments must come clean on their methods for killing suspected terrorists and insurgents — especially when using unmanned drones — because they may be committing war crimes, a U.N. human rights expert said Wednesday. Philip Alston, the independent U.N. investigator on extrajudicial killings, called on countries to lay out the rules and safeguards…
-
Authors defend U.N. report on secret prisons
GENEVA (AP) — The authors of a U.N. report on the use of secret prisons in the fight against terrorism defended on Wednesday their claim that Britain was among countries complicit in the practice, even as the U.K. government dismissed the allegation as unsubstantiated and irresponsible. Britain’s Foreign Office said the team of independent U.N.…