5: 

Handcuffs Discovery Raises Questions About Minneapolis Police Shooting of Jamal Clark

Investigators are working to determine whether Jamar Clark, a 24-year-old unarmed black man shot by Minneapolis police, was handcuffed during the incident that subsequently sparked mass protests and led to dozens of arrests across the city.

Police initially denied that Clark was restrained when an officer shot him in the head shortly after midnight Sunday. But investigators later found handcuffs at the scene.

“We are still examining whether or not they were on Mr. Clark or whether they were just fallen at the scene,” Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans said at a news conference Tuesday.

The county medical examiner’s office announced Clark’s death Monday after his family removed him from life support, a day after the shooting. The office deemed Clark’s death a homicide.

Police said the incident began when they were called to North Minneapolis around 12:45am Sunday following a report of a domestic assault. When they arrived, police said, they saw a man (later identified as Clark) interfering with paramedics who were helping the victim. Officers tried to calm him, but there was a struggle and an officer fired at least once, Evans said, hitting the man.

Vice News

4: 

Big Oil’s Dream of Drilling Off the Arctic Coast Of Alaska May Be Ending

You can add Norway’s state oil company to the list of petro-giants that have abandoned their dreams of finding black gold in the icy white Arctic.

Statoil is walking away from a block of leases it has held in the remote Chukchi Sea off Alaska, announcing this week that the area is “no longer considered competitive.” The move as the price of oil is bouncing downward toward $40 a barrel, far below the $100-plus it commanded in early 2014.

“Since 2008, we have worked to progress our options in Alaska,” Tim Dodson, Statoil’s executive vice president for exploration, said in a statement announcing the decision. “Solid work has been carried out, but given the current outlook we could not support continued efforts to mature these opportunities.”

Statoil’s decision follows Royal Dutch Shell’s September decision to abandon a hard-fought venture in the same area. Shell powered past regulatory hurdles and intense opposition from environmentalists to return to the Chukchi Sea after a disastrous 2012 effort, only to find the results disappointing.

Vice News

3: Two suspects killed in Paris police raid

Two suspects linked to the attacks in Paris have died after police raided an apartment in a northern suburb of the French capital, a prosecutor said.

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said on Wednesday that investigators could not at this point identify the dead, adding that the suspected ringleader behind the attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was not arrested in the operation.

Abaaoud’s fate remains unclear. The Belgian national is a key suspect in Friday’s attacks, in which at least 129 people were killed.

In a press conference, Molins said eight people, including seven men and a woman, were arrested in Saint-Denis early on Wednesday.

Forensic experts were examining the apartment after a female suspect killed herself by detonating a vest rigged with explosives at the start of the raid, Molins said.

One image taken during the raid showed heavily armed police hauling away a naked man from the building at the centre of the raid.

Molins said more than 5,000 bullets were fired by police during the operation.

Aljazeera

2: 

Obama’s drone war a ‘recruitment tool’ for Isis, say US air force whistleblowers

Four former US air force service members, with more than 20 years of experience between them operating military drones, have written an open letter to Barack Obama warning that the program of targeted killings by unmanned aircraft has become a major driving force for Isis and other terrorist groups.

The group of servicemen have issued an impassioned plea to the Obama administration, calling for a rethink of a military tactic that they say has “fueled the feelings of hatred that ignited terrorism and groups like Isis, while also serving as a fundamental recruitment tool similar to Guantánamo Bay”.

In particular, they argue, the killing of innocent civilians in drone airstrikes has acted as one of the most “devastating driving forces for terrorism and destabilization around the world”.

The Guardian 

1: 

Pike River families remember five years on

At 3.44pm on 19 November 2010, there was an explosion at the Pike River Mine, trapping 29 men inside.

Bernie Monk said his son Michael, and the 28 other men who lost their lives, were not looked after in their workplace, but he wanted to do what he could to ensure others were treated better.

As a direct result of the Pike River tragedy, and the families’ advocacy, there had been substantial changes to the country’s health and safety rules, he said.

RNZ