Washington ( Female bank robber hits two banks in 15 minutes ) See good photo

Female robber hits two Washington banks in 15 minutes

Reuters – 17 hrs ago

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  View PhotoReuters/Reuters - An unknown bank robber is pictured on a surveillance camera inside a bank in Washington, in this February 4, 2013 FBI handout photo. REUTERS/FBI/Handout

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A woman wearing sunglasses and dressed in black down to her white tennis shoes robbed two Washington banks within 15 minutes on Monday, threatening a teller by saying she had a gun, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said.

The woman entered a PNC Bank in northwest Washington at 9:13 a.m. EST and passed a note to a teller demanding money. The robber got money and left the bank, the FBI said in a statement.

The woman next turned up at a Bank of America Corp branch in northwest Washington at 9:28 a.m. EST, asked the teller for money and saying she had a gun. She again got the money and left, the FBI said.

An FBI spokesman declined to give the amounts stolen.

The woman was described as possibly Hispanic, with dark hair. She was wearing sunglasses, a black puffy jacket, black pants, black leather gloves, a black scarf around her head, a white and black polka-dotted scarf around her neck and white tennis shoes.

She was described as having a bandage on her nose or lip.

China ( China sea - Japan and china flex muscles in the ocean ) Over Islands

China frigate locked radar on Japan navy

A Chinese military frigate locked its weapon-targeting radar on a Japanese navy vessel on at least one occasion, Japan's defence minister has claimed, as the bitter territorial row threatened to escalate.

The mosaic of rival territorial claims in the South China Sea has become Asia's worst potential military flashpoint Photo: Zhong Kuirun/ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images

11:53AM GMT 05 Feb 2013

Itsunori Onodera claimed that on January 30, "something like fire-control radar" was directed at a Japanese Self-Defence Maritime escort ship in the East China Sea.

Mr Onodera said a Japanese military helicopter was also locked with a similar radar a few days earlier.

"Directing such radar is very abnormal," he said. "We recognise it would create a very dangerous situation if a single misstep occurred.

"We will seek the Chinese side's self-restraint from taking such dangerous action."

The move is an apparent ramping up of an already tense situation in the East China Sea, where Asia's two largest economies are at loggerheads over the sovereignty of an uninhabited island chain.
On Tuesday Tokyo summoned China's envoy in protest at the presence a day earlier of Chinese government ships in the waters around the islands.

No mention was made in the earlier announcement of the actions of any Chinese military vessels. It was not believed that the military ships had been in what Japan considers its waters.

"The foreign ministry summoned the Chinese ambassador over ships entering the waters near Senkaku islands," said an official, referring to a chain claimed as the Diaoyus by Beijing.

North Korea ( Childish Youtube video - Shows U.S city under attack )

North Korea ‘dream’ video shows U.S. city under missile attack ?

In what appears to be a provocative PR stunt, a bizarre video uploaded to YouTube by North Korea over the weekend shows a dream sequence that includes a U.S. city resembling New York under an apparent missile attack.
The video, produced by North Korea's official website, Uriminzokkiri, begins with a young man imagining himself aboard a North Korean space shuttle that circles the earth, pausing to zoom in on a unified Korea.
The soundtrack to the three-and-a-half-minute video is an instrumental version of "We Are the World," the 1985 single written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, and recorded by a celebrity supergroup, with proceeds going to African aid.
Near the end of the dream sequence, the imagined U.S. city—including what appears to be the Empire State Building—is shown in flames.
"Somewhere in the United States, black clouds of smoke are billowing," reads a caption, translated by The Guardian. "It seems that the nest of wickedness is ablaze."

When reached by Yahoo News, U.S. National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor declined to comment.

The video arrives just days after North Korea threatened to retaliate against the U.S. for what it called a double standard stemming from a recent rocket launch by South Korea, which the U.S. said had no military intent.

In December, the U.S. claimed a North Korean rocket launch was a test of banned ballistic missile technology, and the United Nations Security Council announced sanctions.

On Saturday, a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman did not elaborate on the threatened retaliation. But according to the Associated Press, Pyongyang recently threatened to conduct its third nuclear test in response to what it calls U.S. hostility.

On Tuesday, South Korea U.N. Ambassador Kim Sook said a North Korean nuclear test was "imminent."

Bahrain ( Human rights activists have been put in jail )

Bahrain upholds jail terms for activists

Leading political and human rights activists have had jail sentences confirmed by Bahrain’s highest appeal court in rulings liable to bring more allegations of hypocrisy over the West’s dealings with a favoured Gulf ally.

Bahraini Shiite Muslim women hold portraits of relatives being held in Bahraini jails in the village of Sanabis, west of Manama Photo: MOHAMMED AL-SHAIKH/AFP/Getty Images

By Richard Spencer, Middle East Correspondent

10:44AM GMT 07 Jan 2013

Seven of the 13, accused of plotting against the government after protests at the start of the Arab Spring in 2011 were crushed by the authorities, received life sentences.

Among them was Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, a British-educated Danish citizen and co-founder of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, whose long hunger strike last year was publicised and narrated on social media by his daughters Zainab and Maryam.

The others included Hassan Mushaima and Abduljalil al-Singace, leaders of the Shia-led opposition party al-Haq. Both also have British links - Mr Mushaima was arrested after returning from London to Bahrain to participate in the protests, while Mr al-Singace, who is disabled, was initially seized in 2010 after returning from talking at a seminar in the House of Lords and then rearrested after the protests were put down.

The Bahraini royal family claims that al-Haq is attempting to enact a plot to overthrow their regime, with the support of Iran. Bahrain has a Shia Muslim majority, like Iran, but the royal family itself and a large minority elite is Sunni.

Human rights groups though claim that the protests which occupied parts of Bahrain’s capital Manama in February and March 2011 were largely peaceful, and their leaders arrested for advocating democratic reforms. Bahrain has a parliament elected by full franchise, unlike neighbours such as the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, but its constituencies are drawn to ensure a Sunni majority, while the power to appoint a government remains in the hands of the rulers

Saudi ( 15-year-old Saudi girl flees from 90 year old husband )

15-year-old Saudi girl flees from 90-year-old husband

A 15-year old Saudi Arabian bride married off to a 90-year old groom escaped the martial home after she barricaded herself in a room on the wedding night.

The groom said he suspected the groom and her parents had set out to swindle him of the 65,000 Saudi Riyals dowry Photo: ALAMY

By Damien McElroy

7:09PM GMT 07 Jan 2013

The unnamed husband is now suing her parents for recovery of the £10,750 dowry he paid to secure marriage to his child bride.

Newspaper reports in the conservative Islamic state said the girl had managed to secure herself in the marital bedroom before escaping two days later to her parents' home.

The groom told Al-Hayat newspaper that he suspected the groom and her parents had set out to swindle him of the 65,000 Saudi Riyals dowry.

"I feel that there is a conspiracy by her mother against me," he said. "I will go to court tomorrow and demand that her parents give me back my money."

However campaigners in Saudi Arabia have called on the authorities to intervene to ensure the girl in Jizan, a southern town near the border with Yemen, is not returned to the man. Concerned authorities must intervene immediately to save this girl from disaster," said Suhaila Zain al-Abdin of the National Society for Human Rights.
Saudi Arabia has no minimum legal age for marriage but its government has said it was working on introducing a legal watershed for the "safety of young girls".

Abdullah Bin Saleh Al-Hadeithi, a member of the Shura Council or Saudi Arabia's legislative body, said that the ministry of justice had signalled its intention to bring forward the regulations.

Ali Abdul Rahman al-Roumi, a university researcher, reported last year that in excess of 5,000 girls below the age of 14 were married off each year in Saudi Arabia.

For most parents involved in the trades, the practice is seen as a financial transaction.

Orange County ( Two people found fatally shot parking complex )

By SALVADOR HERNANDEZ, CLAUDIA KOERNER, THOMAS MARTINEZ, KIM PIERCEALL and LOU PONSI / ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

IRVINE – Two people who were found fatally shot inside a parked car Sunday night have been identified as a couple in their 20s, police officials said Monday.
Keith Lawrence, 27, and his fiancée, Monica Quan, 28, were discovered in the car on the top floor of a parking structure at 2100 Scholarship.

Keith Lawrence, 27, and his fiancée, Monica Quan, 28, were found shot inside a parked car on the top floor of a parking structure in Irvine late Sunday.

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They were found at about 9:10 p.m. after officers received a call of someone slumped over in the car.
Lawrence was found in the driver seat while Quan was in the front passenger seat, said Lt. Julia Engen of the Irvine Police Department. Few other details have been released.
The couple had recently moved to the complex, Engen said.
"It doesn't appear they were robbed," Engen added. "There's no obvious motive."
Investigators are also trying to determine when the shooting occurred. When an officer arrived at the parking structure, it was obvious that Lawrence and Quan had been dead for some time, officials said.
The shooting appears to have taken place where the two where found.
The vehicle belonged to Lawrence, authorities said.
No arrests had been made as of Monday morning.
Lawrence and Quan were graduates of Concordia University, and Quan worked for Cal State Fullerton, Engen said.
The couple shared a love of basketball and both played for Concordia teams during their time as students.
Keith Lawrence attended Concordia 2006-2008, after studying at Moorpark College. He played on the Concordia basketball team during the 2007-08 season, traveling to the 2007 NAIA National Championship and earning a place on the all-tournament team.
Lawrence had worked since August as an armed public-safety officer at USC, after graduating from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Academy. He was assigned to patrol at USC, Capt. David Carlisle said.

Syria (Female English teacher -turned sniper 'Guevara' ) The Female Sniper

Syria: the former English teacher turned Aleppo's female sniper

Her fame has spread throughout Aleppo. Her comrades have nicknamed her 'Guevara', but to many of the city's residents she is known simply as: 'the female sniper'.

Guevara near the frontline in Salah Addeen Photo: ALESSIO ROMENZI

By Ruth Sherlock, Aleppo

7:30PM GMT 04 Feb 2013

Standing stock still, her finger suspended over the trigger, she stared through the sniper sight of her Dragonov rifle. Her view framed by the jagged concrete edges of the fist-sized hole that has been cut into the wall of her hideout on one of the most dangerous front lines in Aleppo, Guevara, named after the revolutionary, watched the enemy – government soldiers – moving along the other side of the street.

"I like fighting. When I see that one of my friends in my katiba [rebel division] has been killed, I feel that I have to hold a weapon and take my revenge," she said.

Dressed in green khaki trousers, a grey jumper dress, tight fitting hijab and a camouflage combat jacket, Guevara, 36, cleaned and loaded her gun, sitting in a half demolished building just metres from where government troops patrol.

^{Guevara watches the enemy lines through her sniper sight on the frontline in Salah Addeen (ALESSIO ROMENZI )}

Despite the war, she was immaculate – eyebrows perfectly plucked, blusher and a little eyeliner. Small leather boots with heels, and a gold bracelet are touches of her feminine side.