Authorities: Texas mom left 2 kids in hot car as punishment

WEATHERFORD, Texas (AP) — A Texas woman told investigators that she left her 2-year-old daughter and 16-month-old son in a hot car where they died last month to teach the girl a lesson and that they didn't lock themselves in, as she initially reported, according to sheriff's officials.

Cynthia Marie Randolph, 24, was being held Saturday on two counts of causing serious bodily injury to a child. It wasn't clear if she had an attorney — online jail records didn't list one for her — and she doesn't have a listed phone number.

According to the criminal complaint, Randolph initially told investigators she was inside her rural home west of Fort Worth folding laundry and watching TV on May 26 while the children were playing on the enclosed back porch. She said when she noticed they were no longer there, she went looking for them and found them about a half-hour later locked in the car. The children were unresponsive and Randolph said she broke a window to gain entry. Temperatures that day reached into the mid-90s.

At the time Randolph said the kids were exposed to the extreme temperatures in the car for "no more than an hour." But her account of that day changed over the course of several interviews with investigators until she acknowledged on Friday that she left them in the car intentionally, the Parker County Sheriff's Office said in a news release. She told investigators that she found the kids playing in the car and when the 2-year-old refused to get out, she shut the door to teach her a lesson, thinking her daughter could get herself and her brother out of the vehicle when ready.

Prominent black NRA defender criticizes ruling in Philando Castile case

Two days after Philando Castile was shot dead by a police officer during a traffic stop, the National Rifle Association issued a statement.

Castile’s death was “troubling”, the group said, adding that it supported the right of law-abiding Americans to carry firearms, no matter their race. “Rest assured,” the statement added, “the NRA will have more to say once all the facts are known.”

On Friday in St Paul, Minnesota, close to a year on, police officer Jeronimo Yanez was cleared of all charges in the death of Castile, a beloved elementary school cafeteria worker who had a permit for the firearm he was carrying when he died. There were protests in St Paul. The NRA remained silent.

However, the group’s most prominent black commentator, Colion Noir, is speaking out about the decision.

Black gun owners worried by acquittal in Castile shooting

Gerry Martin isn't sure he will ever tell a police officer during a traffic stop that he has a concealed-weapon permit — and possibly a weapon — on him.

The acquittal of a Minnesota officer in the death of a licensed gun owner who volunteered that he had a gun seconds before being fatally shot during a traffic stop adds to the worries of African-American gun owners about how they are treated by police and society.

Acknowledging that they have a weapon, they said, can open them up to violence from police, who can then claim they feared for their lives simply because of the presence of a gun, even a legal one.

"As soon as you say, 'I'm a concealed carry holder. This is my license,' they automatically are reaching for their gun thinking you're going to draw your gun on them, once again not realizing you're a good guy," said Martin, who lives in Glenside, Pennsylvania.

Snake bites man, man bites wife

A man bitten by a venomous snake in Bihar bit his wife in the wrist as his last wish was to die together.
The woman was saved by a doctor although the man died.

The incident took place in Samastipur district, some 90km north of Patna, on Saturday.

As per reports, Shankar Rai, a resident of Birsingpur village in the district, was asleep in his home on Saturday night when a deadly snake bit him. When he woke up in the morning, he found his condition worsening and suddenly turned emotional.

Apparently realising that he won’t survive for long, he came rushing to his wife Amiri Devi and bit her hands saying he loved her very much and wanted to die together. Both fell unconscious soon, witnesses said.

Welsh man thought Nazi flag was German navy symbol

A Welsh man who was asked to take down a Nazi flag he hung at a garage sale on Sunday said that he did not intend to offend anyone by displaying a Swastika and that he did not know the symbol was no longer used by the German military.

“I was told it was the German navy, which as far as I could see were not involved in the same way the SS were in the Second World War,” Anthony Williams told the Welsh newspaper the Daily Post on Tuesday.

"I saw that it had the Swastika on it. But I don’t know if it’s not still used today. I might be a bit of an idiot for not looking it up properly, but I won’t make that mistake again,” he added.

Williams, 56, also said that he did not meant to insult anyone by putting up the Nazi flag at the garage sale in the northern Welsh town of Wrexham. He said he does not have any problems with Muslims, and denied that he hung the banner “in support of Manchester” following the recent deadly suicide bombing there.

DeVos: Discrimination on basis of sexual orientation 'unsettled' law

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos indicated discrimination in schools on the basis of sexual orientation is "unsettled" law and a matter for Congress and the courts to address -- not her department.

After declining last month to say how she would handle allegations of private school discrimination under a federally-funded school voucher program, DeVos was pressed Tuesday on the topic by Democrats at a Senate hearing. President Donald Trump's budget proposal sets aside funds to create a school choice program, but provides few details about how it would be run.

The education secretary repeatedly said that any school "receiving federal funding is required to follow federal law," but said federal law is unclear on protections for LGBTQ students.

"On areas where the law is unsettled, this department is not going to be issuing decrees," DeVos said. "That is a matter for Congress and the courts to settle."

Arab nations cut ties with Qatar, saying it backs terror

Saudi Arabia and three Arab countries severed ties to Qatar on Monday and moved to cut off land, sea and air routes to the energy-rich nation that is home to a major U.S. military base, accusing it of supporting regional terror groups.

Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates made no demands of Qatar as their decision plunged the international travel hub into chaos and ignited the biggest diplomatic crisis in the Gulf since the 1991 war against Iraq.

Qatar, which will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup and is home to some 10,000 American troops, criticized the move as a "violation of its sovereignty." It long has denied supporting militant groups and described the crisis as being fueled by "absolute fabrications" stemming from a recent hack of its state-run news agency.

Saudi Arabia closed its land border with Qatar, through which the tiny Gulf nation imports most of its food, sparking a run on supermarkets. The four countries began withdrawing their diplomatic staff from Qatar as regional airlines announced they'd suspend service to its capital, Doha.