By Celine Alkhaldi, CNN A highly addictive drug that became Syria’s economic lifeline over a decade of isolation may now be serving as a bargaining chip as it tries to normalize ties with neighboring states, analysts say. Captagon, a drug that is relatively unknown outside the Middle East, helped Syria turn into a narco-state after
Continue Reading By Eric Levenson, Kristina Sgueglia, Celina Tebor and John Miller, CNN A 25-year-old bank employee opened fire at his workplace in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, Monday morning and livestreamed the attack that left five dead and eight others injured, authorities said. The gunman was identified as Connor Sturgeon, an employee at Old National Bank, according to
Continue Reading By Celina Tebor and Miguel Marquez, CNN The 32-year-old man accused of stabbing an imam at a mosque Sunday in New Jersey pleaded not guilty to an attempted murder charge in court Monday afternoon. Serif Zorba was arrested for allegedly stabbing Imam Sayed Elnakib of the Omar Mosque in Paterson. Elnakib, who is in stable
Continue Reading By Shawn Nottingham, Theresa Waldrop, Amy Simonson, Ritu Prasad and Aya Elamroussi, CNN Four days after being expelled by Tennessee’s Republican-controlled House of Representatives, Democrat Justin Jones marched back to the Capitol on Monday following a unanimous vote by the Nashville Metropolitan Council to reappoint him as an interim representative. His return representing Nashville’s House
Continue Reading By Aya Elamroussi, CNN Four days after being expelled by Tennessee’s Republican-controlled House of Representatives, Democrat Justin Jones marched back to the Capitol on Monday following a unanimous vote by the Nashville Metropolitan Council to reappoint him as an interim representative. His return representing Nashville’s House District 52 put a exclamation point on a remarkable
Continue Reading By Mindy Weisberger, CNN Scientists have discovered direct evidence that people in Europe used psychoactive drugs during the Bronze Age, possibly as part of ancient rituals. Traces of alkaloid substances that originate in plants and are known to affect perception and cause delirium and euphoria were preserved in strands of human hair dating to around
Continue Reading By Abeer Salman and Jo Shelley, CNN Israeli forces shot and killed a 15-year-old Palestinian boy in the Aqbat Jaber refugee camp near the occupied West Bank city of Jericho, Palestinian officials said, as violence in the region continued to simmer on Monday. Mohammad Fayez Balhan was “killed by live occupation bullets in the head,
Continue Reading By Barbie Latza Nadeau, Allegra Goodwin and Sana Noor Haq, CNN The Italian Coast Guard is leading rescue efforts to save at least 400 migrants adrift on a boat in the Mediterranean Sea between Italy and Malta, along an immigration route that NGOs have warned is perilously dangerous. Three rescue operations involving several vessels are
Continue Reading By Eric Levenson and Emma Tucker, CNN An Idaho mother who is accused of killing her two children and conspiring to kill her husband’s first wife was motivated by “money, power and sex,” prosecutors said as opening statements in her trial began Monday, according to CNN affiliate East Idaho News. Lori Vallow Daybell is charged
Continue Reading By Phil Gast, CNN But for a flight surgeon who gave him a pass when he came up an eighth of an inch short of a height requirement, Michael Novosel Sr. might never have become a military aviator. After the 18-year-old promised to grow just a little bit more — to 5 feet, 4 inches
Continue Reading By Jo Shelley and Donie O’Sullivan, CNN Lauren and Emily Blewitt may have been in preschool at the time, but they were old enough to know that then-Vice President Joe Biden had committed a serious breach of mealtime etiquette. “He was just eating our chips!” Lauren, 10, says — a mixture of delight and outrage
Continue Reading By Brad Lendon, CNN For the first time, the Chinese navy appears to have simulated strikes by aircraft carrier-based warplanes on Taiwan, as drills around the island wrapped up on their third day. Beijing launched the drills on Saturday, a day after Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen returned from a 10-day visit to Central America and
Continue Reading By Nectar Gan, CNN Lawyer Xu Zhiyong has spent nearly two decades fighting for human rights in China, and on Monday he was handed one of the longest prison sentences ever issued for civil activism under Xi Jinping’s crackdown on dissent. Xu was sentenced to 14 years in prison and his long-time partner and fellow
Continue Reading By Jo Shelley and Donie O’Sullivan, CNN Lauren and Emily Blewitt may have been in preschool at the time, but they were old enough to know that then-Vice President Joe Biden had committed a serious breach of mealtime etiquette. “He was just eating our chips!” Lauren, 10, says — a mixture of delight and outrage
Continue Reading By Rebekah Riess, Amanda Jackson and Andi Babineau, CNN A shelter-in-place order has been lifted for neighborhoods near a burning fishing vessel in the Hylebos Waterway in Tacoma, Washington, officials said. The vessel — which was still burning Monday and believed to be carrying 55,000 gallons of diesel and 19,000 pounds of freon — caught
Continue Reading By Rebekah Riess, Amanda Jackson and Andi Babineau, CNN A shelter-in-place order has been lifted for neighborhoods near a burning fishing vessel in the Hylebos Waterway in Tacoma, Washington, officials said. The vessel — which was still burning Monday and believed to be carrying 55,000 gallons of diesel and 19,000 pounds of freon — caught
Continue Reading By Heather Chen, CNN An elderly couple has died after eating poisonous pufferfish in Malaysia, prompting an appeal from their daughter for stronger laws to prevent others from suffering the same fate. Ng Chuan Sing and his wife Lim Siew Guan, both in their early 80s, unknowingly purchased at least two pufferfish from an online
Continue Reading By Brad Lendon, CNN The US Navy has sent a destroyer close to a contested island in the South China Sea that Beijing has fortified with military installations to stake its territorial claims on the region. The sailing came as the Chinese military entered a third day of a show of force around Taiwan, a
Continue Reading By Elizabeth Wolfe, Artemis Moshtaghian, Kristina Sgueglia and Liam Reilly, CNN Three unions representing about 9,000 Rutgers University faculty and staff have gone on strike after nearly a year of gridlocked contract negotiations, marking the first educator strike in the university’s nearly 257-year history, according to the unions. Picket lines are expected to continue Tuesday
Continue Reading By Celina Tebor and Miguel Marquez, CNN The 32-year-old man accused of stabbing an imam at a mosque Sunday in New Jersey pleaded not guilty to an attempted murder charge in court Monday afternoon. Serif Zorba was arrested for allegedly stabbing Imam Sayed Elnakib of the Omar Mosque in Paterson. Elnakib, who is in stable
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