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A former city school teacher and her four-year-old son have been found dead in Harlem, New York City, officials say. On Monday, police found Felicia Barahona, 36, lying on the living room floor of her apartment with an electrical cord wrapped around her neck. Barahona's son, Miguel, who was fired in 2012 after she was impregnated by an 18-year-old student, was found drowned in the bathtub. Miguel is believed to be the child she had with the student, police sources said. “The death of the baby is very, very, very sad,” said the victim’s friend Bierca Rodriguez, 44. “She always takes care of the baby. She’s a good mommy. I don’t know what happened but she was always working,” said another neighbor. Police arrived at the scene after receiving a call by a resident who reported a foul odor coming from the apartment. Officials have not clarified if it was a murder-suicide or whether the two were the victims of foul play, but the city Medical Examiner is set to conduct ...

The Israeli ambassador to the United States says the regime has “evidence” that Washington was “actually behind” what led up to a UN resolution against Tel Aviv, asserting that such information will only be given to President-elect Donald Trump. Ron Dermer did not let on what the evidence is or how it has been obtained when pressed in a CNN interview on Monday, stating that the future president would be notified of it when he assumes office and he will decide if the American people should know about it. “We will present this evidence to the new administration through the appropriate channels, and if they want to share it with the American people they are welcome to do it," he said. David Keyes, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said later that "ironclad information, frankly, that the Obama administration really helped this resolution and helped craft it, [came] from sources internationally and sources in the Arab world." On Friday,...

At least 19 protesters have been killed in recent clashes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, amid growing tensions over the refusal of President Joseph Kabila to quit after the expiration of his term in office. According to a UN provisional toll on Wednesday, at least 45 demonstrators have also been injured in violent clashes between protesters and security forces since Tuesday. Reports of the death toll are different. Human Rights Watch said security forces had killed at least 26 demonstrators in the capital and arrested scores of others. The government said nine people had been killed in Kinshasa. On Tuesday, the director of the UN mission in the DR Congo, Maman Sambo Sidikou, said his office had documented 113 arrests of opposition leaders and civil society activists, human rights campaigners and journalists by police and intelligence authorities since December 16. Fears are growing about the eruption of new violence across the country. S...

Recent findings have revealed that the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group in Iraq is manufacturing weapons on an industrial scale, with products largely purchased in bulk from Turkey. The London-based Conflict Armaments Research reported on Wednesday that Daesh has maintained a “robust and reliable” supply chain between Turkey and Iraq, enabling its members to produce tens of thousands of weapons in and around the northern city of Mosul. The arms research group’s executive director James Bevan warned that the highly-trained terrorists could take their expertise with them as they are retreating in the wave of an Iraqi battle to liberate Mosul. Bevan further said he believes Daesh has already moved its experienced bomb-makers out of Mosul and into northern Syria as well as southern Turkey. “They place a very high value on technical capacity and they will do everything they can to preserve it,” he said. Bevan went on to say that Daesh Takfiris highly rely on Turkey concerning th...

The US and the UK have been coordinating Saudi Arabia's attacks in Yemen which have killed at least 11,400 people since March 2015, says a political analyst. Ralph Schoenman, former personal secretary of British philosopher Bertrand Russell, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV when asked about a report that Washington was halting its planned arms sales to Saudi Arabia. A senior US official said on Tuesday that "we have made clear that US security cooperation is not a blank check,” adding, “Consequently, we’ve decided not to move forward with some foreign military sales cases for air-dropped munitions, PGMs (precision-guided munitions).” “That’s obviously a direct reflection of the concerns that we have about Saudi strikes that have resulted in civilian casualties,” the official said on condition of anonymity. The US decision would leave the UK faced with an awkward dilemma because of the scale of its weapons sales to the Saudis. Schoenman said the decisi...

A US military aircraft with five service members on-board has crashed off Japan’s Okinawa island, days after a Marine Corps F/A-18 pilot died in another crash in the Japanese territorial waters. The MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft was flying over Okinawa’s east coast late Tuesday, when it crashed in shallow waters near the shore, according to the US Marine Corps. All of the crew survived the crash, Japanese military said, noting that three of the airmen had life-threatening injuries and were being treated at a US Navy hospital at the Kadena Air Base. The Marines suspended flights of all Osprey military aircraft in Japan after the crash. Last Wednesday, a Marine Corps F/A-18C Hornet fighter jet went down when it was flying about 120 miles southeast of the city of Iwakuni, which is located in Yamaguchi Prefecture and hosts a Marine Corps air station. The Hornet’s 32-year-old pilot was able to eject the aircraft before impact but did not survive the incident. His body was ...

The Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says occupied Palestine will be liberated only through resistance and struggles of Palestinian people and groups, provided that they maintain their unity. In a meeting with the head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, Ramadan Abdullah Shalah, in Tehran on Wednesday, Ayatollah Khamenei praised the Palestinians’ motivations, which are rooted in their faith and the spirit of resistance, adding, “The only way to liberate the holy city of al-Quds is struggle and resistance, and other solutions are useless and futile,” the Leader stated. The Leader referred to the young population of Palestine as an important factor for the Palestinian resistance in the occupied territories, and expressed high optimism that the Israeli regime will perish within the next quarter of a century. “The Zionist regime -- as we have already said -- will cease to exist in the next 25 years if there is a collective and united s...

Massive flooding, triggered by heavy torrential rainfalls, has inundated central regions of Thailand's south over the weekend, killing at least 14 people.  According to a statement released by the country’s Interior Ministry on Tuesday, the catastrophic flooding has also affected about 600,000 people from 88 districts, prompting authorities in 11 southern provinces to declare disaster zones. Railway services have been suspended in the southern part of Nakhon Si Thammarat province as the railroad has been covered by floodwaters. The torrential rains also battered the popular tourist draws of Krabi and Koh Samui islands, suspending a number of flights and ferry services. Rescue teams have already scattered in the inundated areas to provide victims with basic requirements and prevent further casualties. Such heavy rainfalls are unusual for this time of year when most of the country usually enjoys a cooler and drier period. Thailand is now in the midst of a thr...

The US Defense Department has buried a study that revealed a $125 billion waste of administrative funds, fearing it that would prompt Congress to cut the military budget, according to a new report. Released in January 2015, the study identifies a "clear path" for the Pentagon to save $125 billion a year over a period of five years,  The Washington Post  reported Monday. The study, which was conducted by the Defense Business Board and consultants from McKinsey and Co, had found that the goal would be achieved through streamlining the bureaucracy through attrition and early retirements, curtailing the use of contractors and making better use of information technology. According to the report, personnel and cost data showed that around a quarter of the Pentagon’s $580 billion budget was wasted on operations related to accounting, human resources, logistics and property management. The study also found that the Defense Department had more than one million employees h...

A senior Iranian official says a recent US Senate vote to extend the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA) violates last year’s nuclear agreement signed between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries, vowing a tough and appropriate response by the Islamic Republic to the move. “If it (ISA) becomes definitive and the US president signs it, the Islamic Republic will definitely give a tough and appropriate response,” Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on international affairs, said at a press conference in Tehran on Tuesday. The US Senate on December 1 voted to extend ISA for another 10 years. The sanctions law, which would authorize the US president to re-impose sanctions on Iran, was first adopted in 1996 to punish investments in the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program and its support for anti-Israeli resistance groups. The ISA now needs President Barack Obama’s signature to turn into law. Under the JCPOA, which wa...

Two people have lost their lives and six have been injured after a chopper crashed in an artificial lake in the Iranian capital, the spokesman for Tehran Emergency Center says. The helicopter, belonging to the Iranian Helicopter Support and Renewal Company (IHSRC), which is affiliated to the Iranian Defense Industries Organization, crashed in the Chitgar artificial and recreational lake in northwestern Tehran on Tuesday with eight people on board, Hassan Abbasi said. He added that technicians of the Tehran Emergency Center and seven ambulances were dispatched to the lake immediately after the incident and carried out rescue operations. Abbasi said two of the injured succumbed to their wounds on the way to hospital, adding, however, that the other six injured in the crash were admitted to hospitals in Tehran and their condition is satisfactory. The cause of the incident is under investigation.

US State Department officials are increasingly concerned that President-elect Donald Trump will make America a “banana republic” by allowing his adult children to assume the role of freelance ambassadors, a report says. “It makes us look like we’re some sort of banana republic," one State Department official told  POLITICO  in a report published on Tuesday. "This is not the way that grown-up nations do things." The report did not reveal the name of the official. State Department employees are very upset that Trump’s children could blur the line between their business affairs and America's foreign affairs, the report said. Last month, Trump's daughter, Ivanka, was seen attending a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, creating fears among some circles the president-elect's family will wield unparalleled influence over his political duties.  One of Trump's sons reportedly discussed how to resolve the years-old Syrian crisis with ...

Iraqi army soldiers have wrested control of al-Salam Hospital situated on the left bank of Tigris River as part of their operation to liberate the strategic city of Mosul from the grip of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group. Major General Walid al-Khalifah, the deputy of the army’s 9th Division, said the Iraqi national flag was hoisted over the hospital building on Tuesday. He further announced the recapture of another Mosul medical institution, called al-Talimi Hospital, by the Iraqi forces. Meanwhile, the commander of Nineveh Liberation Operation, Lieutenant General Abdul Amir Yarallah, confirmed the al-Salam Hospital recapture, noting that the troops from the 9th Division "continued clearing" the al-Salam neighborhood of Daesh militants. Mosul is split by the Tigris River, with the eastern half of the city known as the left bank.  The northern Iraqi city fell to Daesh two years ago, when the terror outfit began its campaign of death and ...

Iranian male sports shooter Amir Hossein Zolfagharian has demonstrated brilliant performances at the 9th edition of Asian Airgun Championships in Tehran, and claimed a gold medal. On Monday, the junior Iranian marksman had to fight it out for the yellow metal against competitors from China and Japan, and tallied the highest point to stand on top of the podium at the Azadi Sport Complex in western Tehran. Later in the day, the Iranian team managed to get the second gold medal for the Islamic Republic in youth group team competitions. The Bangladeshi and Chinese squads respectively claimed the silver and bronze medals in this discipline. The Iranian team consisted of Amir Asadi, Amir Mohammad Nekounam, Alireza Davoodabadi, Mahyar Sedaghat and Hojjatollah Poudineh. The ninth edition of Asian Airgun Championships opened on December 3 in the Iranian capital city of Tehran, and will wrap up on December 9, 2016. Dozens of marksmen and women from various Asian nations, includ...