UNITED STATES
Man pleads guilty to IS plot
A man charged with plotting to help the Islamic State (IS) group pleaded guilty on Thursday to conspiracy charges, including a plot to behead conservative blogger Pamela Geller. Nicholas Rovinski, of Warwick, Rhode Island, admitted he conspired with two Massachusetts men to kill Geller and attempted to recruit others to carry out additional violent attacks in the US. The plots were never carried out. A plea agreement between Rovinski, 25, and federal prosecutors calls for a sentence of between 15 and 22 years. Judge William Young set sentencing for March next year. Rovinski, who has cerebral palsy and walks with a limp, answered softly when asked by the judge why he decided to plead guilty instead of going to trial. “I feel that in the interest of myself and the people of the United States I should pay for the crimes that I have committed,” he said. Prosecutors said Rovinski plotted with David Wright, of Everett, and Wright’s uncle Usaamah Rahim, of Boston, to kill Geller, who angered Muslims when she organized a Prophet Mohammed cartoon contest in Garland, Texas, in May. The contest ended in gunfire, with two Muslim gunmen shot to death by police. Assistant US Attorney Stephanie Siegmann said Rovinski told authorities after his arrest that he, Wright and Rahim had agreed to kill Geller, who is from New York. Siegmann said Rahim later told Wright he wanted to go after “those boys in blue,” a reference to police.
UNITED STATES
Storm causes severe flooding
More than 60 people had to be rescued on boats because of flooding in parts of North Carolina on Thursday as the remnants of Tropical Storm Julia lingered off the Atlantic Coast with days of rain. Schools in North Carolina and Virginia also canceled classes as localized flooding blocked roads and inundated parking lots. North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency for 11 counties, saying the state had not seen flooding so severe since Hurricane Floyd in 1999. The hardest hit area of North Carolina appeared to be around Bertie County in the northeastern part of the state. McCrory said five swift water rescue teams helped people who were stranded. A medical evacuation bus was also sent to help evacuate a nursing home with 52 residents. The 67,000-student school district of Virginia Beach canceled classes for a second day because of “widespread flooding.” McCrory said that between 12cm and 30cm of rain fell over eastern North Carolina. The National Weather Service reports that about 46cm of rain has fallen in some parts of Virginia’s Hampton Roads region. What is left of Tropical Storm Julia has been spinning off the coast. It was expected to move out to sea yesterday.
MEXICO
FBI-wanted fugitive detained
Prosecutors say they have detained one of the FBI’s 10 most-wanted fugitives, a Mexican sought for kidnapping, rape and homicide charges in Chicago, Illinois. The federal attorney general’s office on Thursday said that Fidel Urbina was detained on a US extradition warrant in a tiny hamlet named El Polvo in a remote part of the border state of Chihuahua. According to the FBI wanted poster, “Urbina is wanted for allegedly beating and raping a woman in March of 1998. While out on bond, he also allegedly beat, raped and strangled a second woman to death in October of 1998. Her body was later found in the trunk of a vehicle that had been burned.”
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
Some things might go without saying, but just in case... Belgium’s food agency issued a public health warning as the festive season wrapped up on Tuesday: Do not eat your Christmas tree. The unusual message came after the city of Ghent, an environmentalist stronghold in the country’s East Flanders region, raised eyebrows by posting tips for recycling the conifers on the dinner table. Pointing with enthusiasm to examples from Scandinavia, the town Web site suggested needles could be stripped, blanched and dried — for use in making flavored butter, for instance. Asked what they thought of the idea, the reply
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