Ex-USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar sentenced to 175 years for sexual abuse
Disgraced long-time USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar was sentenced on Wednesday to 40 to 175 years in prison for molesting young female gymnasts, following days of wrenching testimony from about 160 of his victims, including Olympic medallists.
"I've just signed your death warrant," Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina said as she announced Nassar's sentence and delivered a searing rebuke of his years as an abuser.
Aquilina also scoffed at the apology Nassar offered his victims and said he will be required to make restitution to them.
Some victims dabbed their eyes after Aquilina spoke, while Rachael Denhollander, the first woman to come forward publicly in 2016, smiled. Spectators applauded when the hearing ended and Nassar, wearing a dark blue jail house jumpsuit, was led out of the court.
Russia probe's Robert Mueller asked US intelligence officials about Trump: Sources
Senior US intelligence officers including CIA director Mike Pompeo have been questioned by the US special counsel's team about whether President Donald Trump tried to obstruct justice in the Russia probe, sources told Reuters on Wednesday.
Such questioning is further indication that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's federal investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US election and potential collusion by Trump's campaign includes examining the President's actions around the probe.
In interviews last year with Pompeo, director of national intelligence Dan Coats and National Security Agency director Mike Rogers, Mueller's team focused on whether Trump had asked them to lean on former FBI director James Comey, the sources said.
US diplomat resigns from Suu Kyi panel on Rohingya crisis
US diplomat Bill Richardson resigned early on Thursday from an Aung San Suu Kyi-appointed panel set up to ease communal tensions in Myanmar's Rakhine State and hit out at the Nobel Laureate for an "absence of moral leadership" over the crisis.
In a statement that pulled few punches, the former US governor and one-time Suu Kyi ally said he could not in "good conscience" serve on the committee that would likely serve only to "whitewash" the causes behind the Rohingya exodus.
Richardson also accused Suu Kyi of a "furious response" to his calls to help free two Reuters journalists arrested while reporting on the Rakhine crisis.
China scientists clone first monkeys made by same process that created Dolly the sheep
Scientists in China have created the first monkeys cloned by the same process that produced Dolly the sheep more than 20 years ago, a breakthrough that could boost medical research into human diseases.
The two long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) named Hua Hua and Zhong Zhong were born at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Neuroscience in Shanghai, and are the fruits of years of research into a cloning technique called somatic cell nuclear transfer.
Until now, the technique has been used to clone more than 20 different animal species, including dogs, pigs and cats, but primates have proven particularly difficult.
Elton John announces a final three-year global tour
Elton John on Wednesday announced a three-year farewell world tour, saying he would quit traveling afterward to focus on life with his family.
The 70-year-old singer, one of the best-selling recording artists in the world over a 50-year career, told a news conference in New York that his priorities have changed after becoming a parent to two children with his husband David Furnish.
"I love them so much. I don't want to miss them and I don't want them to miss me," he said. "I've had a good run."
