8 Family Members Killed 'Execution-Style' in Ohio

8 Family Members 'Shot in the Head' in Ohio 'Execution-Style Killings,' Officials Say

At least eight family members are dead in what appeared to be "execution-style killings" today across four different locations in Pike County, Ohio, according to officials.

All eight victims -- believed to be seven adults and one 16-year-old -- appeared to have been "shot in the head." Seven of the victims were found in three homes on the same road in Peebles, said Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and Pike County Sheriff Charles Reader in a news conference this afternoon.

The eighth victim, an adult, was found later than the other victims at a fourth location in Piketon, officials said.

No arrests have been made, and authorities believe there is a high chance the individual or individuals who committed the homicides is/are still at large, armed and dangerous, DeWine said. He added that preliminary investigations showed that none of the eight deceased appeared to have committed suicide.

Some of the victims appeared to have been killed in their sleep early this morning and were found shot to death in their beds, DeWine said.

One victim, who appeared to be a mother, was killed lying in bed with a 4-day-old baby, he added.

John Minchillo/AP Photodia on Union Hill Road that approaches a crime scene, Friday, April 22, 2016, in Pike County, Ohio. Shootings with multiple fatalities were reported at this location.

Three children -- the 4-day-old baby, a 6-month-old baby and a 3-year-old -- were found alive at the crime scenes, according to Reader.

Authorities are still working on positively identifying each of the deceased individually and notifying next-of-kin, he added.

DeWine said that while residents of the county "should not panic," they should "be careful."

At a news conference Friday night, DeWine noted that authorities have interviewed more than 30 people, though he declined to characterize any of them as "persons of interest."

“There are different theories that we’re looking at," DeWine said, noting that investigators are still working the crime scene.

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Agents with the Ohio Attorney General's Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) are leading the ongoing investigation at the request of Pike County Sheriff's Office, officials said. Numerous other law enforcement agencies from nearby counties are offering support.

"This is a devastating time for a family," Sheriff Reader said at Friday night's news conference, also noting that the crime has shocked the rural community. “We’ve never had a shooting with eight victims.”

"We’ll find who did this," Reader pledged.

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Donald Trump 'promises to change image'

Donald Trump has promised to change his image, in a closed-door meeting with Republican party leaders.

The businessman, who leads the party's race to be presidential nominee, delivered his message via aides, the Associated Press news agency reports.

His success in primary elections so far has set off alarm bells among those in the party anxious that his tone and policies will turn off voters.

Five states go to the polls on Tuesday to pick their presidential candidates.

Mr Trump has a clear lead in the number of delegates but may fall short of the 1,237 threshold required to win the nomination without a contested convention - where the nominee is chosen through negotiations among party figures.

In a recording of Thursday's meeting obtained by Associated Press, his senior aides told Republican leaders that he has been "projecting an image" so far and "the part that he's been playing is now evolving".

In it, his newly hired senior aide, Paul Manafort, told the Republican National Committee members that Mr Trump has a campaigning personality and a private one.

"When he's out on the stage, when he's talking about the kinds of things he's talking about on the stump, he's projecting an image that's for that purpose," he said.

He knows he needs to moderate his personality, Mr Manafort told the meeting. "The negatives [unfavourable ratings in polls] will come down. The image is going to change."

His standing among female voters is particularly low, after a series of controversial remarks about women, abortion and rival Ted Cruz's wife.

Analysts say Mr Trump's decisive win in the New York primary this week seemed to signal a new, softer side in his victory speech.

And he told a rally in Pennsylvania on Thursday: "At some point, I'm going to be so presidential that you people will be so bored."

On one of the key social issues currently engulfing the party, transgender rights, he took a stance out of step with his key rival Mr Cruz on Thursday, when he said transgender people should be allowed to use a toilet assigned to a gender of their choosing.

Mr Cruz criticised this as politically correct but former candidate Ben Carson praised Mr Trump for "trying to moderate".

Mr Trump has accused the RNC of conspiring against him and of rigging the way delegates are awarded in a way that is unfavourable to him.

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Barack Obama visit: UK more effective at fighting terror inside EU

The UK's ability to fight terrorism would be "more effective" if it sticks together with its European allies, the US President Barack Obama has said.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph Mr Obama also said being inside the EU magnifies Britain's influence across the world.

The president arrived for a three-day visit of the UK late on Thursday.

But writing in The Sun, Vote Leave's Boris Johnson said President Obama's view was "a breathtaking example of the principle do-as-I-say-but-not-as-I-do".

The president's intervention in the UK's forthcoming EU referendum on 23 June has been hotly debated and sparked claims of "hypocrisy" from those who want to leave the EU.

Silent testament'

However, in his newspaper piece President Obama recognised that ultimately the matter was for British voters to decide for themselves.

But he also said: "...the outcome of your decision is a matter of deep interest to the United States.

"The tens of thousands of Americans who rest in Europe's cemeteries are a silent testament to just how intertwined our prosperity and security truly are.

"And the path you choose now will echo in the prospects of today's generation of Americans as well."

President Obama said that America's relationship with the UK "forged as we spilt blood together on the battlefield".

He also said: "The European Union doesn't moderate British influence - it magnifies it. A strong Europe is not a threat to Britain's global leadership; it enhances Britain's global leadership."

He said the UK had benefitted from being inside the EU in terms of jobs, trade and financial growth.

"This kind of cooperation - from intelligence sharing and counter-terrorism to forging agreements to create jobs and economic growth - will be far more effective if it extends across Europe. Now is a time for friends and allies to stick together," he wrote.

But Mr Johnson described Mr Obama's argument as "inconsistent" and "downright hypocritical".

"The Americans would never contemplate anything like the EU for themselves or for their neighbours in their own hemisphere. Why should they think it right for us?"

And Mr Johnson described the notion that the UK has more influence inside the EU than outside as "nonsense".

"The UK has been outvoted 40 times in Brussels in the last five years, and the total bill for those defeats - in extra costs for UK government and business - is put at £2.4bn a year," Mr Johnson wrote.

'No circumstances'

Tory MP Iain Duncan Smith, who is also part of the Vote Leave campaign, also accused Mr Obama of double standards.

"I can imagine no circumstances under which he would lobby for the US Supreme Court to be bound by the judgements of a foreign court," he said.

"Nor can I imagine any circumstances in which he would accept that laws should be made for­- or taxes imposed on­ - the people of the United States without the approval of Congress."

Obama's UK stay is part of a tour which also includes a visit to Germany and Saudi Arabia - from where he has just left after having discussions with King Salman on issues including Iran, Syria, Yemen and the fight against so-called Islamic State militants.

He and First Lady Michelle Obama are due to have lunch with the Queen at Windsor on Friday, and dinner with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Mr Obama will also speak at a news conference with Prime Minister David Cameron.

Mr Obama arrived at Stansted Airport late on Thursday and was greeted by the Lord Lieutenant of Essex, John Petre, and the US Ambassador to the UK, Matthew Barzun.

The Obamas previously met the Queen, Prince Philip and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during their state visit in 2011

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Turkey Ergenekon: Court quashes 'coup plot' convictions

Image copyrightAFP

Image captionThe long-running Ergenekon trial triggered big protests

Turkey's highest appeals court has overturned the convictions of 275 people, including senior military officers, accused of plotting a coup.

The appeals court ruled that the convictions were unsafe because the existence of a clandestine network called Ergenekon was unproven.

The officers, journalists, lawyers and academics were found guilty in 2013 of plotting the overthrow of then-prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The new ruling may lead to a retrial.

The Ergenekon case was one of the biggest in recent Turkish history, pitting Mr Erdogan's supporters in the Islamist-rooted AK Party against the secularist military establishment.

The trials took place amid high security at Silivri, outside Istanbul, and police repeatedly used tear gas and water cannon to keep protesters at a distance.

The highest-ranking defendant was ex-military chief Ilker Basbug, who was given a life sentence. Sixteen other life sentences were also handed down, with long jail terms for others.

Pressure on military

The appeals court found several other flaws in the original proceedings, including illegal surveillance and searches.

Mr Basbug walked free in March 2014, after Turkey's constitutional court overturned his sentence, citing a legal technicality. He was in charge of the Turkish military from 2008 to 2010.

Image copyrightAFP

Image captionTwo years ago a court ordered the release of ex-army chief Ilker Basbug from jail

The Ergenekon network was accused of plotting a coup against Mr Erdogan - now Turkey's president - in 2003-2004.

The trials were based on suspicions of a shadowy "deep state" conspiring to cause social unrest which would then provoke a military coup.

Mr Erdogan's critics saw the investigation as an attempt to curb the influence of the powerful military, which for decades saw itself as the final arbiter in Turkish politics. Since coming to power in 2002, Mr Erdogan has asserted civilian supremacy over the military.

Between 1960 and 1997, the armed forces removed four civilian governments. The Welfare Party ousted in 1997 was a predecessor of Mr Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Hundreds of military officers were arrested in a five-year investigation before the Ergenekon verdict. Some of them were prosecuted in a separate case called "Sledgehammer".

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Mexico oil plant explosion: Death toll rises to 13

The death toll in an explosion that struck a Mexican oil plant on Wednesday has reached 13 and could rise further.

The blast hit a state facility in the southern city of Coatzacoalcos. The cause of the explosion is unclear.

More than 100 people were injured and thousands had to leave their homes.

Footage showed a large fire and huge plumes of smoke.

The facility is owned by Mexico's state oil company, Pemex. Several explosions have been reported at Pemex facilities in recent years.

Mr Puente tweeted on Thursday: "We have examined the affected area and can say that unfortunately so far there are 13 people dead."

The director of Pemex, Jose Gonzalez Anaya, said in a radio interview that of 136 injured people, 13 were in a critical condition while 48 had been discharged from hospital.

He said the explosion "was caused by a leak" but "we don't know how that leak occurred".

Mr Anaya said the death toll could still rise.

The incident occurred at around 15:15 local time (20:15 GMT) on Wednesday. Veracruz state Governor Javier Duarte told a radio station the blast was felt 10km (six miles) away.

The fire was under control by early evening, Pemex said. Residents were told to stay indoors because of the possible toxic nature of the smoke from the blast, but Pemex said the smoke dissipated quickly, lessening any possible toxic effects.

On Thursday the company said there was no longer any danger from the smoke.

Pemex said the part of the factory hit by the explosion was managed by a sister company, Mexichem.

Associated Press reported that the plant produces vinyl chloride, a dangerous chemical used to make PVC pipes and packaging materials.

Exports of oil from the plant, one of the largest terminals for oil distribution in Mexico, would not be affected, the company added.

In September 2012, an explosion then a fire at a gas plant in the northern state of Tamaulipas killed 33 people.

Pemex's own headquarters in Mexico City was hit by a large gas blast in January 2013, killing 37 people.

A number of fires also struck the company's rigs in the Gulf of Mexico last year, and a worker was killed in another fire at the Veracruz plant in February this year.

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Syria conflict: Largest aid convoy reaches besieged Rastan

The largest aid convoy so far in Syria has reached a besieged rebel-held town in the centre of the country.

Sixty-five lorries are delivering food and medicine to about 120,000 civilians in and around Rastan, in Homs province.

The International Committee of the Red Cross and Syrian Red Crescent convoy is the first to reach Rastan since 2012.

A key aim of the fragile cessation of hostilities that has been in place for nearly two months was to allow aid to be delivered more widely across Syria.

On Wednesday, hundreds of sick and wounded people were evacuated from four besieged rebel- and government-held towns as part of a deal overseen by the Syrian Red Crescent.

However, such aid operations have been jeopardised by escalating fighting in the country's north-west, particularly around the divided city of Aleppo.

Fear of return to 'total conflict'

ICRC spokesman Pawel Krzysiek said the convoy to Rastan was carrying food parcels, wheat flour and other nutritional items, as well as medicines and equipment to improve the water supply.

"We are hoping that this is one of many humanitarian convoys still to come, not only to Rastan but to other besieged places in Syria," he said in a video posted on Twitter as the convoy arrived.

Mr Krzysiek said ICRC and Red Crescent teams planned to assess the water and waste infrastructure in Rastan, as well as the nutritional and other needs of its population, which has doubled because of an influx of people fleeing fighting.

As the convoy arrived, UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura told reporters in Geneva that there had been "modest but real progress" on the delivery of humanitarian aid to the almost 500,000 people living in besieged areas, but "not enough for us to feel comfortable at all".

Rastan, about 20km (12 miles) north of the city of Homs, has reportedly been the target of government air strikes in recent days, as the cessation of hostilities brokered by the US and Russia appeared on the verge of collapse.

The main opposition umbrella group on Tuesday suspended its participation in UN-led peace talks in Geneva in protest at what it said were repeated government violations of the truce, which took effect on 27 February.

Over the past two weeks, the government has accused rebel groups of taking part in assaults around Aleppo carried out by jihadist groups excluded from the cessation of hostilities, while the rebels say they are defending themselves from attacks.

Russia, which launched an air campaign to bolster its ally President Bashar al-Assad in September, warned on Thursday that the opposition's decision to pull out of the Geneva talks could lead to "a return of total armed conflict".

"We have a situation where terrorists are desperately trying to disrupt the political process,'' Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

The US, which backs the opposition to Mr Assad, meanwhile expressed concern about reports that Russia was moving military personnel and equipment back into Syria, five weeks after announcing that most of its forces would be withdrawn.

"We believe that our efforts are best focused on supporting the diplomatic process," US Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters in Riyadh.

He urged Russia to use its influence to ensure the government abided by the truce.

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Ecuador earthquake death toll rises to 350

More than 200 aftershocks recorded and Spanish Red Cross says as many as 100,000 people may need assistance

The death toll from the 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Ecuador has risen to 350, and many survivors are believed to still be trapped inside collapsed buildings.

The security minister, César Navas, announced the updated toll and said rescuers were continuing to seek more victims and survivors.

More than 200 aftershocks have rattled Ecuador in the 36 hours since Saturday’s quake, some measured as high as magnitude 6.1, according to Ecuador’s Geophysics Institute.

Speaking before the new death toll was announced, Ecuador’s president, Rafael Correa, said an earlier figure of 272 would “surely rise, and in a considerable way”.

Correa said citizens would pull together after the disaster. “The Ecuadorian spirit knows how to move forward, and will know how to overcome these very difficult moments,” he said.

More than 2,500 people were injured in the disaster, which brought down housing blocks and air control towers, buckled bridges and cracked pavements. In the coastal town of Chamanga, authorities estimated than 90% of homes had been damaged.

At least 100 of those killed in the quake were citizens of the regional capital Portoviejo. They included the Quinde family – a mother, father, teenage daughter and toddler son – killed when a four-storey hotel collapsed on their car.

The family were en route to drop off daughter Sayira, 17, for her first term at university, where she had won a scholarship to study medicine. “I never thought my life would be destroyed in a minute,” Sayira’s aunt Johana Estupiñan told Associated Press.

At a girls’ school in Playa Prieta, six members of staff including an Irish nun were killed as the building collapsed. Sister Clare, 33, from Derry city, was a nun in the Home of the Mother order. Her family said they believed she had been trying to lead colleagues out of the school to safety when a stairwell collapsed.

“She was trying to get them down the stairs and the staircase collapsed. We knew she was trapped but information has been slow to come out,” her cousin Emmet Doyle said. “She died as she lived, helping others.”

Two Canadian citizens, mother and son Jennifer and Arthur Flawn from Quebec, were also among the dead, the family confirmed to Canada’s CTV News.

The Spanish Red Cross said as many as 100,000 people may need assistance in holiday towns and fishing villages in the more remote regions near the epicentre of the quake, where citizens have been sleeping outside among the ruins.

The charity said it estimated that 3,000 to 5,000 people needed temporary housing. About 800 volunteers and staff members with the Ecuadorian Red Cross were involved with search and rescue operations and helping provide first aid.

Spain has sent a military plane with 47 search-and-rescue experts and their five dogs to Ecuador, and it is expected to arrive in the city of Guayaquil on Monday afternoon. Other rescue teams have flown in from Mexico and Colombia.

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Ethiopia attack: 200 people dead, 100 children missing

Death toll rises from cross-border cattle raid as government says more than 100 children were taken by attackers.

The death toll from a raid carried out by attackers from South Sudan in western Ethiopia has risen to 208 people, an Ethiopian official said, adding that 108 children were kidnapped.

By Sunday afternoon, the number had risen to "208 dead and 75 people wounded" from a figure of 140 a day earlier, government spokesman Getachew Reda told the Reuters news agency.

Women and children were among the dead, he said, adding that the assailants had also taken 2,000 head of livestock.

"Ethiopian Defence Forces are taking measures. They are closing in on the attackers," Getachew said.

The attack happened on Friday in the Horn of Africa nation's Gambela region which, alongside a neighbouring province, hosts more than 284,000 South Sudanese refugees who have fled a conflict in that country.

Getachew earlier say that Ethiopian forces had killed 60 of the attackers and would cross the border into South Sudan to pursue the assailants if necessary.

No government link

Cross-border cattle raids have happened in the same area in the past, often involving Murle tribesmen from South Sudan's Jonglei and Upper Nile regions - areas awash with weapons that share borders with Ethiopia.

Previous attacks, however, were smaller in scale.

The attackers are not believed to have links with South Sudanese government troops or rebel forces who fought the government in Juba in a civil war that ended with a peace deal signed last year

South Sudanese officials were not immediately available for comment.

Under pressure from neighbouring states, the United States, the United Nations and other powers, South Sudan's feuding sides signed an initial peace deal in August and agreed to share out ministerial positions in January.

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Injuries as bus explodes in Jerusalem

At least 20 people wounded in explosion on board of a bus in West Jerusalem's Hebron street, Israeli medics say.

A bus has exploded in the heart of Jerusalem, wounding at least 20 people, Israeli rescue services say.

Images showed fire and large plumes of smoke billowing from the back of the bus on Hebron street on Monday.

Israeli media outlets said at least 20 people had been wounded, including two seriously. Police were calling it a attack.

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Rockets Kill 4 Syrians in Turkey

Turkish officials say rocket projectiles fired from Syria have killed four Syrians — three of them children — in a Turkish border town.

The governor's office says four rocket projectiles that hit the town of Kilis also wounded a Turkish citizen and five other Syrians.

The state-run Anadolu Agency said earlier that one of the victims was a 40-year-old Syrian shepherd who died when one of the projectiles exploded near a middle school in Kilis.

The town's local population is outnumbered by the Syrian refugees living there.

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6 p.m.

The head of the main Syrian opposition coalition says it is "unacceptable" for the peace talks in Geneva to continue amid government violations of a cease-fire in place since late February.

In a series of comments posted on Twitter Monday, Riad Hijab, the head of the Higher Negotiations Committee, says the Syrian government and its allies have used the talks as a "pretext" for waging their military campaign. He says the government has also kept up its siege of civilian areas.

The U.S. and Russian-brokered cease-fire brought weeks of relative calm to much of Syria, but appears to be breaking down across the north, where insurgents have launched an offensive they say is in retaliation for government breaches.

Both sides have repeatedly accused the other of violating the truce.

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5:20 p.m.

The main Syrian opposition group has sent a sharply-reduced delegation to meet with a U.N. mediator in Geneva peace talks, amid renewed rebel fighting on the ground.

A Western diplomat familiar with the talks says the opposition High Negotiations Committee was considering whether to continue participating. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The HNC sent a three-person delegation to meet Monday with U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura, far smaller than the usual 10-15 person delegation that has met with him repeatedly in on-and-off talks since February that have made no tangible progress. No major HNC leaders were among the three.

The group postponed a planned news conference until Tuesday. A Syrian government delegation met with de Mistura earlier on Monday.

— Jamey Keaten in Geneva

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4:50 p.m.

Turkey's state-run news agency says a rocket fired from Syria has killed one person and wounded a second in a border town.

The Anadolu Agency says the rocket exploded near a middle school in the town of Kilis on Monday, wounding a Syrian shepherd and a 14-year-old boy.

Anadolu said the Syrian man died of his wounds in a hospital. The school has been evacuated.

Earlier, two other rockets fired from Syria hit an olive grove and a building used as a storage center for hospital oxygen units, but there were no casualties.

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4:00 p.m.

Turkey's state-run news agency says two rockets fired from Syria have struck an olive grove and a building used to store hospital oxygen units in southern Turkey. No casualties were reported.

Anadolu Agency says the rockets struck the border town of Kilis on Monday. Police increased security in the area surrounding the state hospital.

Kilis witnessed an almost daily salvo of rockets fired from Islamic State-controlled territory last week, which killed one person and wounded several others.

Turkey's military systematically retaliates for rockets or shells that land on Turkish territory in line with its rules of engagement.

The defense minister said last week that Turkish retaliatory strikes against the rockets and shells fired into Turkey have killed 362 militants and wounded 123 others so far this year

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3:30 p.m.

A Syrian government envoy to Geneva peace talks says unspecified new "ideas" were floated in his latest meeting with a U.N. mediator, while using most of his public comments to decry Israel's cabinet meeting in the Golan Heights.

Syria's U.N. ambassador Bashar Ja'afari also criticized statements from rebel fighters that he claimed had called for a "revocation of the cessation of hostilities." Rebel groups announced that they had attacked Latakia province, a Syrian government stronghold, in retaliation for violations of a fragile cease-fire that began in late February.

Speaking to reporters but taking no questions, Ja'afari criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to host a Cabinet meeting in the Golan on Sunday. Israel captured the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it in 1981. Netanyahu said on Sunday that the international community should recognize that "the Golan will forever remain under Israeli sovereignty."

Ja'afari said he would next meet U.N envoy Staffan de Mistura on Wednesday. De Mistura was meeting with the opposition later Monday.

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3:15 p.m.

Russia has called for direct talks between the Syrian government and the opposition.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters in Moscow on Monday that direct talks between the government and a broad opposition delegation should be launched as part of the Geneva talks.

He also denied allegations that Moscow and Washington were negotiating the departure of Syrian President Bashar Assad behind closed doors.

The talks in Geneva, which resumed last week, have until now been indirect, with a U.N. envoy shuffling between the two delegations.

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2:30 p.m.

Syrian activists and rebels say opposition fighters have launched a new offensive against government forces in a number of areas in the country's northwest.

Rebels groups said in a statement Monday that the attacks in rural parts of the Latakia province, a government stronghold, are in retaliation for violations of a fragile cease-fire that began in late February.

Other fighters attacked government positions in the rural part of the adjacent Hama province.

The U.S. and Russian-brokered cease-fire had reduced violence across Syria despite alleged violations on both sides. The opposition says the government has breached the agreement more than 2,000 times.

The cease-fire was intended to facilitate talks in Geneva, which resumed last week. A Syrian opposition member in Geneva, Mohammed al-Abboud, says they have the right to defend themselves.

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