Burkina Faso: At least 18 killed in restaurant terror attack

Security forces in Burkina Faso have ended an operation against terrorists who attacked a Turkish cafe in the capital Ouagadougou Sunday that left 18 dead including two attackers, the communications minister Remis Dandjinou said Monday.

In a press briefing he said searches of the neighborhood around the restaurant were still continuing. Dandjinou said there were several nationalities among the victims.

The assault on the terrace of the Aziz Istanbul restaurant in the center of the West African city began around 9 p.m. local time Sunday (5 p.m. ET).

What we know about the man charged in Charlottesville attack, James Alex Fields Jr.

The 20-year-old man accused of driving a car into a crowd of counterprotesters at a white nationalist rally Saturday, James Alex Fields Jr., was denied bail in court Monday morning.

Judge Robert H. Downer Jr. said at a Monday morning hearing that he would appoint a lawyer for Fields, who faces charges of second-degree murder, malicious wounding and failure to stop at the scene of an accident, after the deadly car attack in Charlottesville, Va. Fields did not enter a plea in his video appearance at a General District Court in Charlottesville.

As crowds began dispersing in the aftermath of a “Unite the Right” rally, Fields allegedly drove a gray Dodge Challenger into a crowd of counterprotesters. The Dodge rear-ended a sedan, which crashed into a minivan in front of it. A 32-year-old woman, Heather D. Heyer, died and at least 19 others were injured, according to authorities. The Dodge sped from the scene, but Charlottesville police later found and stopped the vehicle, and took Fields, who lives in Maumee, Ohio, into custody.

The incident marked the highest point of tension during Saturday’s rally, which saw violent clashes between white supremacists and counterprotesters. The rally had been planned in protest of the removal of a Confederate monument from a public park and attracted hundreds of white supremacists. President Trump, who condemned “many sides” for the violence, had been criticized for his failure to explicitly denounce white supremacists until Monday.

Fields’ court-appointed attorney, Charles Weber, did not respond to a request for comment from Yahoo News. The judge said that Fields was not assigned a public defender because a relative of an employee in the public defender’s office was involved in Saturday’s incident.

Born and raised in Kentucky, Fields caught the attention of his high school teachers for his fascination with Nazi Germany. Social studies teacher Derek Weimer, who taught Fields in three classes at Randall K. Cooper High School in Union, Ky., told the Cincinnati Enquirer that Fields had written an assignment that “was much along the party lines of the neo-Nazi movement” and so alarming that another teacher filed a report on it.

Man arrested in plan to bomb Oklahoma bank

A 23-year-old man who was "out for blood" when he attempted to detonate what he believed was an explosives-laden van outside an Oklahoma bank in a plot similar to the deadly 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building, authorities said Monday.

During a meeting with undercover FBI agents in June, Jerry Drake Varnell of Sayre, Oklahoma, said he held "III% ideology" and wanted "to start the next revolution," a reference to the "Three Percenters" patriot movement — begun in 2008, galvanized by President Barack Obama's election — and that has rallied against gun control efforts and pledges resistance to the federal government over the infringement of constitutional rights.

Federal officials arrested Varnell early Saturday in connection with a plot to detonate a vehicle bomb in an alley adjacent to BancFirst in downtown Oklahoma City. Varnell is charged with attempting to use explosives to destroy a building in interstate commerce.

Varnell made an initial appearance before a federal judge Monday afternoon and remains in the custody of federal marshals. Court records do not indicate whether Varnell is represented by an attorney.

U.S. Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said the allegations are a somber reminder that Americans must remain vigilant about home-grown extremism and radicalization in local communities.

World's oldest man, Yisrael Kristal dies at 113

Yisrael Kristal, world's oldest man and the only member of his immediate family to survive the Holocaust has died at the age of 113.

The Polish-born son of a religious scholar died on Friday, August 11, 2017 just one month before he was due to turn 114. 

Mr Kristal was officially recognised as the world's oldest man by the Guinness Book of Records in March 2016.

Judge throws out DJ's case against Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift’s he-said-she-said groping trial raced to an end Friday with a major victory for Swift: A judge threw out the lawsuit filed against her by the ex-Denver DJ she says groped her in 2013.

U.S. District Judge William Martinez in Denver sent the eight-person jury home for the weekend and then ruled in favor of Swift’s motion to end David Mueller’s lawsuit against her on grounds he failed to prove she was personally responsible for getting his being fired after their encounter.

However, Swift’s mother and management remain defendants in Mueller’s lawsuit and the suit will go to the jury.

The jury will decide whether they find in favor or against Swift – on her claim that Mueller groped her – and also whether they find in favor or against Mueller on his claim that her mother and management interfered with his employment contract.

After the judge ruled, Swift and her legal team hugged, smiled and whispered. Mueller's team did not talk to one another or anybody else.

The ruling came on the fourth and final day of testimony in the dueling-lawsuits case. Mueller’s legal team rested their case Friday and said they would call no more witnesses to testify. Swift’s legal team declined to call any witnesses in her countersuit against Mueller, in which she accused him of indecent assault and battery stemming from their encounter.

1 dead, driver arrested at white nationalist rally in Charlottesville

A 32-year-old woman died and at least 19 were injured Saturday when a car crashed into a crowd of peaceful protesters leaving a "Unite the Right" rally that officials declared an "unlawful assembly."

Charlottesville Police identified the driver as 20-year-old James Alex Fields Jr. of Ohio. He is in custody and will be charged with criminal homicide.

The planned rally had already been shut down following bottle-throwing clashes between alt-right demonstrators, counter-protesters, white nationalists, neo-Nazis and supporters of Black Lives Matter.

Al Thomas, Charlottesville police chief, said 35 people were injured in clashes between opposing groups and in the car crash. Their injuries ranged from life-threatening to minor, he said. 

“Our hearts break for the casualties and injuries,” Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer said at a press conference.

About three hours after the car crash, the Virginia State Police's Bell 407 helicopter crashed about 7 miles from the scene. Police reports said the helicopter crashed in a wooded area and the two pilots died. No one on the ground was injured. The helicopter had been assisting in police supervision of the protests.

Facebook, Google Lose $123M To Swindler

The Court of Appeal of Lithuania has decided to extradite to the United States a Lithuanian scam artist identified as Evaldas Rimasauskas, who conned $123 million out of FaceBook and Google by sending fake emails.

“Assumption that the damage was done to the companies registered in the United States became the ground for the extradition of Rimasauskas,” the court said in a press release on Friday.

The decision to extradite the scammer was irrevocable, the court said.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York accused Rimasauskas of wire transfer fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering, news agency Elta reported.

It is alleged that Rimasauskas took part in the scam using e-mail correspondence and posed as an Asian computer hardware manufacturer to persuade Google and FaceBook to accept fraudulent invoices and transfer funds to the company established under the same name in Latvia.

The funds were transferred to the latter company’s accounts in banks in Cyprus and Latvia.