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Video Shows Moment South Carolina Cop Shot Driver

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — A white South Carolina police officer who claimed he killed an unarmed black man in self-defense has been fired after being charged with murder, the city's mayor announced Wednesday after a video exposed him firing eight shots from a safe distance at the fleeing 50-year-old man.

The mayor also announced that he has ordered enough body cameras so that every uniformed officer wears one in North Charleston.

Protests began within hours of the murder charge against 33-year-old Michael Thomas Slager, a five-year veteran of the city's police force.

"I have watched the video. And I was sickened by what I saw. And I have not watched it since," Police Chief Eddie Driggers said.

He was interrupted by chants of "no justice, no peace" and other shouted questions that he and the mayor said they could not answer.

The town will continue to pay for Slager's health insurance because his wife is eight months pregnant, said Mayor Keith Summey, who called the incident a tragedy for two families.

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North Charleston police officer Michael Slager (R) is seen allegedly shooting 50-year-old Walter Sco …

About 75 people gathered outside City Hall, led by a Black Lives Matter, a group formed after the fatal shooting of another black man in Ferguson, Missouri.

"Eight shots in the back!" local organizer Muhiydin D'Baha shouted through a bullhorn. The crowd yelled "In the back!" in response.

The video recorded by an unidentified bystander shows Slager struggling to use what appears to be a Taser against Walter Lamer Scott, then pulling out his Glock pistol and firing at the man's back. The 50-year-old man crumples to the ground about 30 feet away, after the eighth shot.

The dead man's father, Walter Scott Sr., said the officer "looked like he was trying to kill a deer running through the woods." He also told NBC's "Today" show Wednesday that his son may have tried to flee because he owed child support and did not want to go back to jail.

The video is "the most horrible thing I've ever seen," said Judy Scott, the slain man's mother, on ABC's "Good Morning America."

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Screen grab of Mayor Keith Summey speaking at a press conference regarding the fatal shooting of Wal …

"I almost couldn't look at it to see my son running defenselessly, being shot. It just tore my heart to pieces," she said.

The bystander is assisting investigators after providing the video to Scott's family and lawyers.

Deflecting many of the questions from a hostile audience at a news conference, Summey said state investigators have taken over the case.

Police initially promised a full investigation but relied largely on the officer's description of the confrontation, which began with a traffic stop Saturday as Slager pulled Scott over for a faulty brake light. Slager's attorney David Aylor released another statement Monday saying the officer felt threatened and fired because Scott was trying to grab his Taser.

But Aylor dropped Slager as a client after the video surfaced, leaving the officer without a lawyer at his first court hearing Tuesday, where he was denied bond. He could face 30 years to life in prison if convicted of murder.

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Anthony Scott holds a photo of himself, center, and his brothers Walter Scott, left, and Rodney Scot …

The shooting comes amid a plunge in trust between law enforcement and minorities after the officer-involved killings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner on Staten Island, New York. Nationwide protests intensified after grand juries declined to indict the officers in both cases.

"We have to take a stand on stuff like this ... we can't just shake our heads at our computer screens," said Lance Braye, 23, who helped organize Wednesday's demonstration.

Scott's family and their attorney, L. Chris Stewart, appealed to keep the protests peaceful, saying the swift murder charge shows that the justice system is working so far in this case.

But Stewart said the video alone forced authorities to act decisively.

"What if there was no video? What if there was no witness, or hero as I call him, to come forward?" asked Stewart, adding that the family plans to sue the police.

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This photo provided by the Charleston County, S.C., Sheriff's Office shows Patrolman Michael Tho …

The video, shot over a chain link fence and through some trees, begins after both mean have left their cars, and includes no sign that Slager ordered Scott to stop of surrender. Once Scott is downed, Slager slowly walks toward him and orders his hands behind his back, but the man doesn't move. Scott then cuffs his hands and speaks into his radio while walking briskly back to where he fired the shots. He picks up the same object that fell to the ground before and returns to Scott's prone body, dropping the object near Scott's feet as a black officer approaches and checks Scott's pulse. Then, Slager picks up the object once more.

The black officer, Clarence Habersham, made no mention of any of Slager's actions his very brief official report, according to a copy obtained by the AP.

Scott had four children, was engaged and had been honorably discharged from the U.S. Coast Guard. There were no violent offenses on his record, Stewart said. But Scott did owe child support, which can lead to jail time in South Carolina until it is paid, he said.

The FBI and the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division are investigating as well. Proving that an officer willfully deprived an individual of his or her civil rights has historically been a tall burden for federal prosecutors, particularly when an officer uses force during a rapidly unfolding physical confrontation in which split-second decisions are made.

The Justice Department spent months investigating the Ferguson shooting before declining to prosecute officer Darren Wilson in that case. But it's easier to make cases against officers who use force as an act of retribution or who can make no reasonable claim that their lives were in jeopardy when they took action.

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Muhiydin D'Baha leads a group protesting the shooting death of Walter Scott at city hall in Nort …

North Charleston is South Carolina's third-largest city, and its population is about half black. Its economy slumped after the Charleston Naval Base on the city's waterfront closed in the mid-1990s, but the city has bounced back with a huge investment by Boeing, which now employs about 7,500 people in the state and builds 787 aircraft in city.

Braye accused North Charleston police of habitually harassing blacks for minor offenses. He hopes the video will help people understand that some officers will lie to save themselves when they do wrong.

"This needs to be the last case," Braye said. "All you have to do is look at the story that was told before the video came out."

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Smith reported from Charleston, South Carolina. Contributors include Tom Foreman Jr. in Charlotte, North Carolina; Michael Biesecker in Raleigh, North Carolina; and Eric Tucker in Washington.

A remarkable heat wave warmed Antarctica’s northernmost peninsula to slightly above 63 degrees Fahrenheit (17 degrees Celsius) in March — a record high for the normally cold continent. But scientists say the balmy conditions were caused by a "freak weather event," and cannot be directly attributed to climate change.

The unusually high temperatures were recorded on March 23 and March 24 at two weather stations: the Esperanza Base and the Marambio Base, both on the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. Previously, the hottest known temperature recorded on the continent was 62.8 degrees F (17.1 degrees C), on April 24, 1961.

As Antarctica heads into the fall season, such high temperatures seem alarming. In fact, they occurred nearly three months after Antarctica's summer. But, it's hard to link an extreme event to anything in particular, cautioned Gavin Schmidt, a climate scientist with NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City. [Album: Stunning Photos of Antarctic Ice]

"Long-term trends in Antarctic temperature are perhaps slightly rising over the continent as a whole, but are quite variable," Schmidt told Live Science in an email. Still, the temperature spike can be attributed to the peninsula's geography and westerly winds, which do seem to be growing stronger with increasing climate change.

The Antarctic Peninsula is a slender arm of land that reaches up from the continent toward South America. This region is mountainous, and its highest peak rises about 9,200 feet (2,800 meters) above sea level. In order for the increasing westerly winds (which really flow clockwise around the continent) to cross over the mountain range, they have to first rise on the windward side and then descend on the leeward side.

But even as the wind rises, it doesn't cool like one might expect. Any moisture-laden air will rain or snow as it rises. "It just can't hold any more water," said Ted Scambos, a glaciologist with the National Snow and Ice Data Center, at the University of Colorado at Boulder. This precipitation means the air stays at a warm temperature despite its new, high elevation.

When the wind descends on the leeward side, in what is known as a chinook wind or a foehn wind, the air heats further still. "Because it's coming downhill and getting lower in elevation, it's getting compressed, and therefore it's getting warmer," Scambos told Live Science.

This weather pattern created a hot spot that lasted for several days over the Antarctic Peninsula.

But it’s important to remember that it isn’t just a hot spot, warned Scambos. "It's specifically this pattern where you wring the moisture out on the windward side, and on the leeward side you get very hot air, compressed air, that comes rushing down the face of the mountain," Scambos said. "And then when it gets to the ice shelf at the base, it deposits a lot of heat onto the snow and causes a lot of melting. So you get lakes of meltwater on the surface of the ice." [50 Amazing Facts About Antarctica]

It's this trend that likely caused the collapse of the Larsen B ice shelf in 2002, when 1,250 square miles (3,250 square kilometers) of ice disintegrated rapidly into the ocean. And ice loss in Antarctica is only getting worse. A separate study published last month in the journal Science found that ice shelf losses in western Antarctica have increased by 70 percent over the last decade.

But Laurie Padman, a senior scientist from Earth & Space Research, a nonprofit research institute, and a co-author of the study published in Science, warns against drawing a direct correlation between Antarctica's overall ice loss and the recent temperature spike.

"For most of Antarctica, we think that the loss of ice shelves is because of changes in the amount of warm water that gets under them, and so they're melting from below," Padman said. This generates meltwater, but it also loosens the contact the ice has with the bedrock, therefore allowing it to flow out far more easily. And the world's oceans have been warming rapidly, absorbing most of the planet's excess heat.

Still, westerly winds, which caused the hotspot two weeks ago, might also increase ice loss. The clockwise winds push warm ocean water up against the side of Antarctica, and it's this direct contact between the two that helps melt the ice. So ice loss and the temperature spike can both be attributed to westerly winds, which scientists agree are increasing with climate change. The exact factor behind those winds is likely a combination of the Antarctic ozone hole and increasing carbon dioxide emissions, Scambos said.

"So it is all connected to climate change, but one should not attribute this event to greenhouse gases," Scambos said. "It's a freak weather event that's set against a backdrop of a very slow progression toward a warming planet and a planet that has shifting patterns in it."

Follow Shannon Hall on Twitter @ShannonWHall. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook &Google+. Original article on Live Science.

Wochit
ISIS Releases More Than 200 Yazidi Prisoners in Iraq

BAGHDAD (AP) — The Islamic State group released more than 200 Yazidis on Wednesday after holding them for eight months, the latest mass release of captives by the extremists targeted by U.S.-led airstrikes and an Iraqi ground offensive.

Gen. Hiwa Abdullah, a peshmerga commander in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, said most of the freed 216 prisoners were in poor health and bore signs of abuse and neglect. He added that about 40 children are among those released, while the rest were elderly.

No reason was given for the release of the prisoners who were originally abducted from the area around Sinjar in the country's north. The handover took place in Himera just southwest of Kirkuk, 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad.

The freed captives wept and called out to God when greeted by their families, some so weak they lay on the arid ground. Women wiped away tears with their long headscarves.

"We are very happy now," said Mahmoud Haji, one of the released Yazidis. "We were worried that they were taking us to Syria and Raqqa," the Islamic State group's de facto capital.

Those needing medical care were taken away by ambulances and buses to receive treatment.

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Yazidis released by Islamic State militants arrive in Kirkuk, 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of Ba …

Also among those released was Jar-Allah Frensis, a 88-year-old Christian farmer, and his wife.

Frensis said the militants broke into his house in Sinjar and arrested him along with his wife and son. Then, the family was separated and the son was taken away. He said he still doesn't know what happened to his son.

"The militants took all of our money and jewelry. We have been living under constant fear till our release," Frensis told The Associated Press.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the release, his spokesman said.

"Obviously, any release of innocent civilians is to be welcomed and I think one couldn't help but being moved by the pictures" of the Yazidis after they were freed, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

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Yazidis released by Islamic State group militants arrive in Kirkuk, 180 miles (290 kilometers) north …

Tens of thousands of Yazidis fled in August when the Islamic State group captured the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar, near the Syrian border. But hundreds were taken captive by the group, with some Yazidi women forced into slavery, according to international rights groups and Iraqi officials.

In January, the Islamic State group released some 200 Yazidi prisoners. At the time, Kurdish military officials said they believed the extremists released the prisoners as they were too much of a burden. This latest release comes after Iraqi ground forces, backed by U.S.-led airstrikes, retook the city of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown.

The Islamic State group still holds about a third of Iraq and neighboring Syria in its self-declared caliphate. The U.S. launched the airstrikes and humanitarian aid drops in Iraq on Aug. 8, partly in response to the Yazidi crisis.

The Sunni militant group views Yazidis and Shiite Muslims as apostates deserving of death, and has demanded Christians either convert to Islam or pay a special tax. The group has massacred hundreds of captive soldiers and tribal fighters who have risen up against it, publicizing the killings in sleek online photos and videos.

In other violence Wednesday in Iraq, police and hospital officials said a bomb exploded near an outdoor market in Baghdad's southeastern suburb of Nahrwan, killing four people and wounding 10. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists.

___

Associated Press writers Ahmed Sami in Baghdad, Imad Matti in Kirkuk, Iraq, and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

Islamic State releases over 200 captives in Iraq

Most of the freed prisoners were in poor health and showed signs of abuse and neglect, an official says.
Held for 8 months

Associated Press Videos
Mom Gets 20 Years for Killing Son With Salt

By Barbara Goldberg

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (Reuters) - A suburban New York mother who blogged about motherhood was sentenced by a judge to 20 years to life in prison on Wednesday for murdering her young son with a salt overdose so she could bask in social media attention about his mysterious illness.

The sentence imposed on Lacey Spears, 27, who chronicled her 5-year-old son's illnesses on a personal blog called "Garnett's Journey" and other social media, was less than the maximum penalty of 25 years to life requested by the prosecution.

"By not imposing the maximum, I'm exhibiting something you didn't show your son - namely mercy," said Judge Robert Neary in the Westchester County Courthouse in Valhalla.

A jury convicted Spears of second-degree murder in Garnett's 2014 death at Westchester Medical Center.

Assistant District Attorney Doreen Lloyd described Garnett as a normal, healthy child whose illnesses were induced by his mother, who eventually killed him by putting a lethal amount of salt into the hospitalized boy's feeding tube, all the while blogging and posting pictures to Facebook.

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Lacey Spears looks toward her attorney during her sentencing by Judge Robert Neary on Wednesday, Apr …

"She continued to portray him as a sick child for her own bizarre need for attention. She used that feeding tube as a weapon to kill him," Lloyd said.

"Garnett Spears should be in school today but he's not because his mother murdered him," she said.

Defense lawyers, who asked for the minimum sentence of 15 years to life and filed a notice of appeal on Wednesday, said Spears was innocent and blamed the hospital for negligence.

Spears, who lived in Chestnut Ridge, about 32 miles (51 km) north of New York City, declined the judge's request to make a final statement, standing with her wrists cuffed behind her.

The judge described her as mentally ill and identified her condition as "Munchausen by proxy syndrome," in which a caregiver fabricates a medical problem for someone in their care.

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Lacey Spears is seen in an undated photo from the Westchester County District Attorney's Office …

"Your crime is unfathomable in its cruelty. How could a mother ever treat her child in such a callous, inhumane manner?" the judge said.

Spears told investigators that her son, whose father was killed in a car accident, suffered from a slew of medical problems from Crohn's disease and Celiac diseases to ear abnormalities, according to court papers.

The child had been hospitalized with gastrointestinal symptoms that prosecutors say his mother induced.

Spears had moved with Garnett from Decatur, Alabama, to Clearwater, Florida, to Chestnut Ridge.

(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg; Editing by Will Dunham and Doina Chiacu)

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani prepares to depart after the end of a press conference on the sidelines of the 69th United Nations General Assembly in New York September 26, 2014. REUTERS/Adrees Latif

By Parisa Hafezi

ANKARA (Reuters) - Iran will only sign a final nuclear accord with six world powers if all sanctions imposed over its disputed atomic work are lifted on the same day, President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised speech on Thursday.

Iran and the powers reached a tentative agreement last week in the Swiss city of Lausanne aimed at restricting Tehran's nuclear program in return for removing the economic penalties.

All sides are working toward a June 30 deadline for a final deal on the nuclear work, which Western powers fear is aimed at developing an atomic bomb but Tehran says is purely peaceful.

"We will not sign any deal unless all sanctions are lifted on the same day ... We want a win-win deal for all parties involved in the nuclear talks," Rouhani said.

Since the preliminary agreement was reached, Iran and the United States seem to have different interpretations over some issues, including the pace and extent of sanctions removal.

"Our goal in the talks (with major powers) is to preserve our nation's nuclear rights. We want an outcome that will be in everyone's benefit," Rouhani said in a ceremony to mark Iran's National Day of Nuclear Technology.

"The Iranian nation has been and will be the victor in the negotiations."

Iran insists all nuclear-related United Nations resolutions, as well as U.S. and EU nuclear-related economic sanctions, will be lifted immediately once a final accord is signed.

But the United States said on Monday that sanctions would have to be phased out gradually under the comprehensive nuclear pact.

The U.S. and EU sanctions have choked off nearly 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of Iranian exports since early 2012, reducing its oil exports by 60 percent to around 1 million barrels a day.

"Our main gain in the talks was the fact that U.S. President Barack Obama acknowledged that Iranians will not surrender to bullying, sanctions and threats," Rouhani said.

"It is a triumph for Iran that the first military power in the world has admitted Iranians will not bow to pressure."

Negotiators from Iran, the United States, Germany, France, Britain, Russia and China will resume negotiations in the coming days to pave the way for the final deal.

(Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Larry King and Andrew Heavens)