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President Trump’s defense team began its second day of arguments with a high-minded lecture from Ken Starr about the dangers of partisan impeachments, before launching scathing broadsides at one of the president’s top rivals for the presidency, Democrat Joe Biden.

Mon, 27 Jan 2020 20:28:39 -0500

A man with a criminal record and history of mental illness pleaded guilty on Monday to four counts of murder in a string of deadly attacks on sleeping homeless men in San Diego, two of whom were set on fire. Jon David Guerrero, 42, agreed to be sentenced May 1 to four consecutive life terms in prison without the possibility of parole and an additional 143 years to life in prison, the Union-Tribune reported.

Mon, 27 Jan 2020 20:21:56 -0500

Asian stocks extended a global selloff on Tuesday as China took more drastic steps to combat the coronavirus, while bonds found favour on expectations central banks would need to keep stimulus flowing to offset the likely economic drag. As the death toll reached 100 and the virus spread to more than 10 countries, including France, Japan and the United States, some health experts questioned whether China can contain the epidemic. China has already extended the Lunar New Year holiday to Feb. 2 nationally, and to Feb. 9 for Shanghai.

Mon, 27 Jan 2020 20:20:27 -0500

One of two women that Harvey Weinstein is on trial for sexually assaulting took the witness stand on Monday to describe how the Hollywood producer violently sexually assaulted her and explain why she returned to him within a month and endured a second unwanted sexual encounter. Miriam "Mimi" Haleyi is the second of six women expected to testify that the disgraced Hollywood mega-producer sexually assaulted them, following dramatic testimony last week from 'Sopranos' actress Annabella Sciorra. Weinstein is charged with performing a forcible sex act on Haleyi in 2006 and with raping an unnamed accuser in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013.

Mon, 27 Jan 2020 20:17:37 -0500

* Death of man, 39, initially attributed to hanging * UK Foreign Office said to be in touch with man’s wifeA British man has died while being held in US immigration detention in Florida, the Guardian has confirmed.The death was first reported by BuzzFeed News, which said the man was 39 years old and that the cause was initially attributed to asphyxiation due to hanging. The incident was reported to have occurred on Saturday last week.“Our staff are in contact with the US authorities following the death of a British man in Florida,” said a spokeswoman for the Foreign Office in London.Foreign Office officials are understood to have been in contact with the deceased man’s wife, as US officials investigate the circumstances of the death.Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the Guardian.In a statement to BuzzFeed, the agency identified the deceased man as Ben James Owen and clarified he had died at the Baker county detention center in Macclenny, Florida. Officials said Owen had entered the US on a temporary visa in July and had been arrested on suspicion of felony aggravated stalking, felony false imprisonment, domestic assault, and violating the conditions of his pre-trial release. The agency said the case remained under investigation.The incident marks the fifth death at a detention centre in the 2020 fiscal year, which begins in October 2019. There were eight deaths in Ice detention in the 2019 fiscal year.The immigration detention population in the United States has soared under the Trump administration. Last year Ice detained 510,854 people, compared with 396,448 in 2018. The administration has also increased its use of detention facilities, mostly run by private security companies, with a new concentration of detention centres opening in the deep south.Medical provision and mental health care at detention facilities has come under increased criticism under the Trump administration after a spate of high profile deaths since 2017.At the end of last year House Democrats on the oversight and reform committee launched an inquiry to investigate a “troubling pattern of abuse and poor treatment” of migrants in custody.

Mon, 27 Jan 2020 20:16:46 -0500