Fort Hood Shooting: Suspect Rests his Case Without Testifying at Sentencing

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

The Army psychiatrist who killed 13 people at Fort Hood decided not to call witnesses or testify Tuesday during his trial’s penalty phase, which is his last chance to plead for his life before the jury begins deliberating whether to sentence him to death.

Major Nidal Hasan rested his case without submitting any evidence to counter the emotional testimony from victims’ relatives, who prosecutors hope convince jurors to hand down a rare military death sentence. The same jury convicted Hasan last week for the attack, which also wounded more than 30 people at the Texas military base.

The judge dismissed jurors after Hasan declined to put up a defense. But she then asked Hasan more than two dozen questions in rapid fire, affirming that he knew what he was doing. His answers were succinct and just as rapid.

“It is my personal decision,” he said. “It is free and voluntary.”

The judge, Colonel Tara Osborn, then read him several court opinions to back up her decision not to introduce evidence in Hasan’s favor on her own.

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US Envoy to Travel to North Korea to Seek Release of Detained American Missionary

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

A U.S. envoy will travel to North Korea later this week to try and secure the release of an American missionary sentenced to 15 years hard labor in the country earlier this year.

The State Department says in a statement Bob King, who is special envoy for North Korean Human Rights Issues, will travel to North Korea on a humanitarian mission Aug. 30 to request freedom and a pardon for 45-year-old Kenneth Bae.

“Ambassador King will request the DPRK pardon Mr. Bae and grant him special amnesty on humanitarian grounds so that he can be reunited with his family and seek medical treatment,” the statement said.

Bae, a tour operator and Christian missionary, was arrested in November and accused of subversion. In April, North Korea’s Supreme Court convicted him of committing hostile acts against the country and sentenced him to 15 years hard labor.

Bae was recently hospitalized and reportedly has lost 50 pounds since he was sentenced. While King’s visit is a humanitarian mission, it could help improve relations severely strained by Pyongyang’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.

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Sheriffs Band Together to Overturn Colorado Gun Control Laws (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Colorado GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Tancredo says sheriffs throughout CO have added momentum to efforts to overturn gun control laws that are infringing on the Second Amendment rights of Coloradans.

When Breitbart News spoke with Tancredo on August 26, he said: “The laws that have been passed are being challenged by 55 Sheriffs, along with other Coloradans who anticipate the laws will be struck down because they are blatantly unconstitutional.”

In the interim he said winning the upcoming September 10 recall elections “will be the most important and powerful signal we can send.” These recalls focus on Democrat state senators John Morse and Angela Giron, both of whom supported the gun control measures that Democrat Governor John Hickenlooper signed into law on March 20.

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Shocking Video of White Toddler, 3, being ‘Racially Bullied’ by her Black Neighbors

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Photo Credit: LiveLeak

Photo Credit: LiveLeak

A shocking video has emerged which appears to show the racially motivated bullying of a three-year-old white girl by her five-year-old black neighbors.

Two clips uploaded to Facebook and entitled ‘When white people pi** black people off’, show a heartbreaking scene – a little Minneapolis girl trying to play with another group of girls who are encouraged to hit, push and verbally abuse the toddler at the encouragement of an older boy off camera.

Outraged viewers quickly seized upon the videos as evidence of racism and unleashed a torrent of threatening calls at the parents of the bullying children – who had no idea the incident had been filmed, let alone posted online and rushed to apologize to the equally clueless parents of the victim.

In the video’s, which have been watched with horror by over 250,000 people, a little girl is seen sitting on a plastic bike as two older girls yell, ‘you ugly’ at her.

Identified as Mackenzie Peterson, the toddler, who is sitting on her small tricycle is seemingly spat at by one of the girls, who has been indentified as being a neighbor and five-years-old.

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Naked Juice Forced to Give Customers up to $75 Each after Settling $9m Class-Action

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Photo Credit: Amazon

Photo Credit: Amazon

Naked Juice fans who bought bottles could get up to $75 in payments from a $9 million class action settlement fund after plaintiffs questioned the company’s claims of labels including ‘100 percent juice’ and ‘all natural’.

ABC News reports that customers who purchased eligible Naked Juice flavors between Sept. 27, 2007 and Aug. 19, 2013 can send in a claim form online at Nakedjuiceclaims.com or mail it by Dec. 17, 2013.

Those who have proof of purchase are entitled to a cash payment of up to $75.

Without proof, customers can claim up to $45 – depending on how much they spent on the juice.

Naked Juice, founded in 1983, helped put mass-produced green smoothies in the map.

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First Human Brain-to-Brain Interface (+video)

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Photo Credit: University of Washington

Photo Credit: University of Washington

University of Washington researchers have performed what they believe is the first noninvasive human-to-human brain interface, with one researcher able to send a brain signal via the Internet to control the hand motions of a fellow researcher.

Using electrical brain recordings and a form of magnetic stimulation, Rajesh Rao sent a brain signal to Andrea Stocco on the other side of the UW campus, causing Stocco’s finger to move on a keyboard.

While researchers at Duke University have demonstrated brain-to-brain communication between two rats, and Harvard researchers have demonstrated it between a human and a rat, Rao and Stocco believe this is the first demonstration of human-to-human brain interfacing.

“The Internet was a way to connect computers, and now it can be a way to connect brains,” Stocco said. “We want to take the knowledge of a brain and transmit it directly from brain to brain.”

The researchers captured the full demonstration on video recorded in both labs. The following version has been edited for length. This video and high-resolution photos also are available on the research website.

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Facebook Report: Governments Asked for Data on 38,000 Users this Year

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

Government agencies around the world demanded access to the information of over 38,000 Facebook users in the first half of this year, and more than half the orders came from the United States, the company said on Tuesday.

Facebook’s first “global government requests report” covers the first six months of 2013, ending 30 June. It comes as the social network giant and its peers are coming under intense scrutiny following revelations about their co-operation with the National Security Agency’s mass surveillance of US and foreign citizens.

“Transparency and trust are core values at Facebook. We strive to embody them in all aspects of our services, including our approach to responding to government data requests,” Colin Stretch, Facebook general counsel, said in a blogpost. “We want to make sure that the people who use our service understand the nature and extent of the requests we receive and the strict policies and processes we have in place to handle them.”

US authorities made 11,000-12,000 requests for information on 20,000-21,000 individuals over the six months. The company complied in 79% of cases. Facebook said it had to give a range for the US figures in order to give an indication of “all criminal and national security requests to the maximum extent permitted by law”.

The figures released by Facebook give no detail on the types of requests received or of what type of information the company handed over. Facebook, along with Google and others, is currently pressing Congress to be allowed to give greater detail the number of requests it receives from the US authorities. The NSA has the the authority to demand data about communications with non-US citizens without specific warrants and gags companies from disclosing even the most basic details of those cases.

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Man Mauled by Grizzly in Alaska Recounts Attack

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Photo credit: Marshmallow

Photo credit: Marshmallow

A man who recently was mauled by a grizzly bear near northern Alaska’s remote Brooks Range said he recognized the animal that left him with broken teeth and a deep gash in his arm from his guide trips.

Jim Tuttle said he and the hunters he guided often spotted the bear, nicknamed Buddy. But the animal was never aggressive toward them until two weeks ago, when Tuttle was walking along a creek and saw it charging.

Tuttle said 16 years of guiding in the area had dulled him to the risks of working in bear country. When the incident occurred earlier this month, he was walking to a caribou carcass by himself, armed only with a pair of trekking poles.

“I am partly to blame. I got complacent, and I paid for it,” he told the Anchorage Daily News. “I guess I should have had a gun in my hand, safety off, ready to shoot.”

He said the attack northwest of Anaktuvuk Pass lasted less than 15 seconds. When it was over, Tuttle was spitting out broken teeth and needed a tourniquet on his left arm. One of his cheekbones was cracked.

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Syrian Chemical Weapons Attack Work of Obama Allies?

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syria_NEW YORK – As the U.S. considers a response to what it calls a chemical weapon attack by Syria’s Bashar al-Assad regime that killed hundreds of civilians, reliable Middle Eastern sources say they have evidence the culprits actually were the rebel forces trying to take over the government.

Secretary of State John Kerry accused the Assad government Monday of covering up the use of chemical weapons in “a cowardly crime” and a “moral obscenity” that shocked the world’s conscience. Kerry claimed the Obama administration had “undeniable” evidence “that the Assad government was culpable in the use of chemical weapons on civilians” in the Aug. 21 attack in Damascus suburbs.

Reports that the Obama administration is considering a military strike against the Assad government continued to circulate Monday. Meanwhile, U.N. weapon inspectors in Syria were fired upon by snipers as they attempted to investigate the site of the Aug. 21 attack.

Assad has rejected charges that his government forces used chemical weapons as “preposterous” and “completely politicized,” the Los Angeles Times reported.

He argues Syrian forces were in the targeted area.

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U.S. Faces Mid-October Deadline to Raise Debt Limit

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debtBut there’s no guarantee — mainly because of partisan disagreement about whether to continue the automatic spending cuts known as the sequester that are slicing defense and domestic agency budgets.

Republicans favor restoring funding to the Pentagon while cutting domestic programs even more deeply. But Democrats want to roll back the automatic defense and non-defense cuts — in part through alternative spending reductions and tax increases on the wealthy.

Although Democrats say they are happy to debate how to fund the government, they add that they won’t negotiate over the separate issue of the debt ceiling.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee, said Republicans ought not put the nation’s creditworthiness at risk by demanding concessions in return for raising the debt limit.

“I don’t think the American public is going to stand for playing with what remains an economic weapon,” he said. “Playing around with the debt ceiling will create unnecessary economic harm.”

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