| 1.Selma march over bridge marks Bloody Sundayanniversary |
| Thousands of demonstrators marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on Sunday to mark the 50th anniversary of the brutal assault of civil rights activists in the same spot. Many sang “We Shall Overcome” at the scene of the 1965 clash, known as Bloody Sunday and commemorated in the film Selma. The attack helped galvanize support for the civil rights movement that led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act, which Attorney General Eric Holder, speaking in Selma, said was “under siege” by new state voting laws.
Source: Los Angeles Times, The New York Times |
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| 2.GOP Benghazi investigation chief finds gaps in Hillary Clinton’s emails |
| The Republican chairman of a House committee investigating the 2012 Benghazi attack said Sunday there were “huge gaps” in the emails then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton turned over to the committee. Clinton went to Libya after the attack, which left U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans dead. “We have no emails from that day,” said Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.). Clinton, under criticism for using a private email account instead of a government one, has asked the State Department to release all her emails.
Source: Reuters |
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| 3.Oklahoma fraternity closed over racist video |
| The national board of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity shut down its University of Oklahoma chapter after a video surfaced allegedly showing SAE members from the school riding a bus, chanting that “there will never be a n—er in SAE.” The board made the decision “with no mental reservation whatsoever that this chapter needed to be closed immediately,” SAE national president Brad Cohen said after an emergency board meeting Sunday night. The reaction came after The Oklahoma Daily student newspaper posted the video online.
Source: The New York Times, The Oklahoma Daily |
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| 4.Obama says the U.S. would “walk away” from a bad Iran nuclear deal |
| President Obama on Sunday said Iran must agree to stringent conditions in a potential nuclear deal or the U.S. will “walk away” from the negotiating table. For a deal to work out, the U.S. would have to “verify that they are not going to obtain a nuclear weapon, that there’s a breakout period so that even if they cheated we would be able to have enough time to take action,” Obama said on Face the Nation. “If we don’t have that kind of deal, then we’re not going to take it,” he added.
Source: CBS News, Voice of America |
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| 5.Protests continue in Madison over police shooting |
| More than 100 people protested in Madison, Wisconsin, on Sunday in the third day of demonstrations over the fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager Tony Robinson Jr. by a white policeman. Robinson, 19, was shot outside an apartment building after Officer Matt Kenny, 45, responded to a report of a man dodging cars in traffic and battering another person. The killing was the latest in a series of deaths of unarmed black men that have touched off nationwide protests of excessive force against African Americans.
Source: Reuters |
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| 6.Iraq closes in on Islamic State in Tikrit |
| Iraqi forces have dealt severe blows to the Islamic State fighters near the city of Tikrit a week into an offensive aiming to regain control over the city from militants, officials said Sunday. Government forces and allied militias, however, had not yet been able to enter the city. “It will still take days to completely liberate” the areas, said Ahmed al-Karim, head of the provincial council in the area. “There is resistance from [the Islamic State], but it is not at the level we expected.”
Source: The Washington Post |
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| 7.Apple to debut Apple Watch |
| Apple is unveiling its long-awaited Apple Watch on Monday in San Francisco. The iPhone and iPad maker’s CEO, Tim Cook, said in September that the company’s new wearable gadget would have features that included fitness tracking, messaging, and Apple Pay. The Apple Watch is expected to start at $349, but fans are still wondering about other details such as battery life and apps. The Apple Watch is the company’s first new device since the death of the company’s visionary co-founder, Steve Jobs.
Source: NBC Bay Area |
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| 8.Cosmos exhibition game to end Cuba sports embargo |
| The New York Cosmos will play the Cuban national soccer team in Havana this June in an exhibition match, ending a professional sports ban on the communist Caribbean island. The Cosmos will travel to Cuba during a break in their North American Soccer League schedule. The match will be the first pro sports exchange since the U.S. and Cuba announced renewed diplomatic relations in December. The last pro team to play in Cuba was the Baltimore Orioles, who beat Cuba’s national baseball team 3-2 in 1999.
Source: The New York Times |
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| 9. Report says cycling officials went easy on Lance Armstrong |
| Cycling’s international governing body gave Lance Armstrong special treatment and delayed addressing rumors that the now-disgraced former Tour de France champion had been doping, according to a new report by the Cycling Independent Reform Commission. The report says officials at the International Cycling Union (UCI) “exempted Lance Armstrong from rules, failed to test him despite the suspicions, and publicly supported him against allegations of doping, even as late as 2012.” The UCI set up the commission to investigate the causes of the sport’s doping scandal.
Source: CNN |
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| 10.Solar plane starts historic flight |
| A solar-powered plane with a 236-foot wingspan took off from Abu Dhabi on Monday, with the goal of becoming the first plane to travel around the world without any fuel. The Solar Impulse 2 will be piloted by André Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard, who will alternate flying the single-seat aircraft. The journey is expected to take several months, and the pilots hope the plane will make it back to Abu Dhabi by late July or August. The first stop is Muscat, Oman, where Borschberg is expected to land late Monday.
Source: The Associated Press |
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