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Joran van der Sloot admits to killing Natalee Holloway in wire fraud, extortion plea

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:14 GMT

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — After years of questions, Joran van der Sloot finally gave some answers. The main suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway was required to say what happened to her as part of a plea deal on charges he tried to extort money from Holloway’s mother years later, a judge said Wednesday.Van der Sloot, the 36-year-old Dutch man who is not charged in Holloway's death, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and extortion. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison on each charge, sentences that would run concurrent with one another. As part of his plea, van der Sloot confessed to murdering Holloway in Aruba in 2005 and disposing of her body. Man clears his name of murder conviction using pandemic relief funds In addition, van der Sloot had to agree to assist law enforcement in its investigation into the whereabouts of Holloway's body. He also took a polygraph test that was handled by prosecutors.Van der Sloot will be given credit for time served in Peru, where he i...

Lockdowns lifted at 2 Miami schools after man found shot nearby

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:14 GMT

Two schools in Miami were briefly placed on lockdown after a man was shot near both campuses, officials said. Police responded to the scene in the area of NW 69th Terrace and NW 17th Avenue around 11:30 a.m., Wednesday. Once they arrived, police located an adult male with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound.7Skyforce hovered over the scene, where heavy police presence was visible. The injured man was transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital. Following the shooting, a black Nissan Maxima believed to be involved in the shooting reportedly fled the scene. Dorsey Technical College and Liberty City Elementary School were placed on lockdown as a precaution while police investigated. Those lockdowns were lifted just before 12:30 p.m. Please check back on WSVN.com and 7News for more details on this developing story.

Boynton Beach woman vows to stay in Israel and help

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:14 GMT

BOYNTON BEACH, Florida (WPBF) — A Palm Beach County native now living in Israel said she has no plans to leave the country.Twenty-four-year-old Marci Hartman grew up in Boynton Beach and moved to Israel about a year and a half ago.For the last week, she’s been living through a war.“I can’t sleep. I can barely eat. I can’t function,” Hartman said. “I don’t have work. It’s terrible.”Hartman said she had to leave her home in Herzliya because she doesn’t have a bomb shelter, a necessity in a world where terrorist attacks are a reality.“Women and children and innocent families have died,” Hartman said. “For what? People have come into their houses and killed them.”Hartman spends her days looking for ways to help.She volunteers to pack boxes of supplies for soldiers, spreads awareness of what is happening and how to donate, and prays.“It’s scary not knowing who you’re going to see next who died,” Hartman said. “Every single day, I’m checking to see if a friend or a family member or ...

Mothers who arrive at MIA say sons remain in Israel to assist families, soldiers as war continues

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:14 GMT

As the conflict in Israel rages on, more evacuees arrived in South Florida. 7News cameras captured families reuniting as another flight landed at Miami International Airport, Monday morning.While the new arrivals are happy to be back in Miami, they returned with heavy hearts and anger due to what is going on Israel. Mothers that spoke with 7News said their sons decided to stay in Israel to assist families and pack meals for soldiers. “There are thousands of our children who have just decided to stay and fight and that everybody should please pray,” Ann Deakter said.“They have two sirens while we were at the airport getting ready to take off, and so we had to go into the bomb shelter twice,” Bracha Pitch said. “At the airport, when we pulled up at the airport, we can hear the rockets landing and the booms.”The families that spoke with 7News are urging for people to pray for the ones that are sill in Israel as they continue to fight in the war.

GOP’s Jim Jordan is losing ground as he tries again to win votes to become House speaker

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:14 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Having lost the first vote to become House speaker, Rep. Jim Jordan was losing ground Wednesday on a decisive second ballot that is testing whether the hard-edged ally of Donald Trump can win over detractors or if his bid for the gavel has collapsed.The House gaveled in with angry, frustrated GOP lawmakers looking at other options. And as the rollcall was underway, a few new detractors emerged to oppose Jordan who did not seem to be picking up new votes beyond one lawmaker who was absent the day before.Ahead of the morning vote, Jordan made an unexpected plea for party unity, the combative Judiciary Committee chairman telling his colleagues on social media, “We must stop attacking each other and come together.”A surprisingly large and politically diverse group of 20 Republicans had rejected Jordan’s nomination the day before, many resenting the hardball tactics seeking to enforce support, and viewing the Ohio congressman as too extreme for the powerful positi...

Suspect in Natalee Holloway’s 2005 disappearance in Aruba revealed her fate as part of plea deal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:14 GMT

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — The chief suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway had to say what happened to her as part of a plea deal on charges he tried to extort money from Holloway’s mother years later, a judge said Wednesday.The disclosure came during a plea and sentencing hearing for Joran van der Sloot, who is accused of trying to get money from Holloway’s mother in exchange for revealing the location of her daughter’s body.Van der Sloot pleaded guilty to extortion and wire fraud charges. An attorney who represented Holloway’s mother during the alleged extortion said earlier that the plea agreement called for the Dutch citizen to provide more information about what happened to Holloway.Van der Sloot is not charged in Holloway’s death. But before he was sentenced, Beth Holloway made a statement saying van der Sloot had acknowledged murdering her daughter.Holloway went missing during a high school graduation trip with classmates. She was last seen leaving a bar wi...

Belgium’s far right capitalizes on migration after terror attack 

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:14 GMT

BRUSSELS — The man who shot and killed two Swedish football fans in Brussels Monday night had been living in Belgium despite having a failed asylum petition, which the country’s far right is now eager to point out. The Flemish far-right party Vlaams Belang started circulating an ad on Facebook Tuesday pointing out Abdessalem Lassoued, a 45-year-old Tunisian man who was killed by police that morning, was denied asylum and was subject to an order to leave the country. The terror attack by an undocumented migrant, who was under authorities’ scrutiny for multiple criminal allegations, plays into Vlaams Belang’s hands ahead of Belgium’s national and regional elections in June next year, in which migration is expected to be a key topic. “Why was this coward terrorist not arrested and expulsed to his country of origin?” the message read. It gathered close to a quarter of a million views only a day later, according to Meta’s library listing political ads on ...

France’s pro-Palestine protest ban is OK, top court rules

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:14 GMT

The top French court on Wednesday ruled that pro-Palestine demonstrations can still be banned in the country, rejecting an appeal from an organization defending the Palestinian cause in France.But the court stated that local authorities “alone” should evaluate individual cases for potential risks to public order.On Friday, Palestine Action Committee — a French-based pro-Palestinian organization — had filed an appeal to the French Council of State asking for the suspension of Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin’s instruction to regional leaders to prohibit pro-Palestine protests. It said the government’s move was “a further step in the radicalization of the French state against any support for the Palestinians.”The organization calls on “all activists of the cause, all free spirits, to react and fight so that we can express, together, our support for the glorious Palestinian resistance in the face of a criminal and implacable enemy.”Since Hamas militants launche...

Small plane that crashed into New Hampshire lake had started to climb from descent, report says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:14 GMT

GILFORD, N.H. (AP) — A small plane that crashed into Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire began to climb from a descent before it headed down again, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary report.The body of the pilot, the only person on board, was recovered the day after the Sept. 30 crash. The wreckage of the Cessna 150 plane was found in about 57-foot-deep (17-meter-deep) water, the board said in its report, issued late Monday afternoon.The pilot was not named in the report. He was identified by the state Fish and Game Department as Robert Ashe, of West Ossipee, New Hampshire. The plane was registered Ashe, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.The NTSB said the pilot had departed from the Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport in Providence at about 6:10 p.m. on Sept. 30 and was destined for the Laconia Municipal Airport in Gilford, which is near the lake. The pilot entered a right downwind leg of the traffic pattern for the runway at ...

Donald Trump told to keep volume down after getting animated at New York civil fraud trial

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:14 GMT

By JENNIFER PELTZ and MICHAEL R. SISAK (Associated Press)NEW YORK (AP) — A judge warned Donald Trump and others at his New York civil fraud trial to keep their voices down Wednesday after the former president threw up his hands in frustration and spoke aloud to his lawyers while a witness was testifying against him.Judge Arthur Engoron made the admonition after Trump conferred animatedly with his lawyers at the defense table during real estate appraiser Doug Larson’s second day of testimony at the Manhattan trial.State lawyer Kevin Wallace asked Engoron to ask the defense to “stop commenting during the witness’ testimony,” adding that the “exhortations” were audible on the witness’ side of the room. The judge then asked everyone to keep their voices down, “particularly if it’s meant to influence the testimony.”The 2024 Republican frontrunner was in court for a second straight day Wednesday, watching the tria...