According to aides who were present when Trump discussed the issue, but who choose to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, Trump said he was sick of Vance and wanted to fire him. “I wanted him to be my attack dog,” said Trump, “but he appears foolish on television. He dropped the college football trophy. He met with Pope Francis and the next day the pope died. Vance is toxic, and I don’t want him to come near me. He just doesn’t look as good on television as I thought he would.”   read more

The EPA said Tuesday that while it "worked within the framework of the law to repeatedly and urgently communicate the steps the state needed to take to properly treat its water, those necessary (EPA) actions were not taken as quickly as they should have been." The agency said its oversight was hampered "by failures and resistance at the state and local levels to work with us in a forthright, transparent and proactive manner."   read more

The FBI report, grouping data from almost 13,000 police agencies, reported increases in murders, manslaughter, two definitions of rape, aggravated assaults and robberies. Murders rose 6.2 percent in the first half of last year, compared with the same period in 2014. Aggravated assaults rose 2.3 percent and robberies were up 0.3 percent. Rapes that includes penetration rose 1.1 percent. Rapes categorized under an older definition of forcible carnal knowledge of a female were up almost 10 percent.   read more

Lettre got a job as a staff member for the House Select Intelligence Committee in 2002. He stayed there until 2005, when he joined the staff of Sen. Harry Reid as senior defense and intelligence adviser, remaining there as Reid took over as Senate Majority Leader. There he worked on intelligence and defense appropriation legislation and confirmation of defense officials. He went on to be special assistant to secretaries of defense Bob Gates, Leon Panetta and Chuck Hagel.   read more

Feeley returned to Mexico City in 2009 as the deputy chief of mission. Beginning in 2011, he served as chargé d’affaires upon the departure of Ambassador Carlos Pascual after some embarrassing cables were released as part of Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning’s WikiLeaks dump. Feeley later testified in secret at Manning’s trial concerning the release’s impact on relations with Mexico and Ecuador. Feeley also oversaw preparation for Secretary of State Clinton’s work at the Cartagena Summit.   read more

His first Washington assignment came in 1998, when he was stationed at his country’s embassy as a first secretary. Kriščiūnas returned to Lithuania in 2001, but this time to the Finance Ministry, where he was the director of the European Union Program Management Department. In 2004, he was named an undersecretary of finance. In 2008, he completed a management studies program at The Swedish Institute in Stockholm. The following year he was named vice minister at the Finance Ministry.   read more

"I want to see Donald Trump come to this country ... I want him to get a sense of the fury and the frustration with his xenophobic remarks," said lawmaker Gavin Robinson. "To have someone come to our shores who demonizes all of the Muslim community would be fundamentally wrong and would undermine the safety and security of our citizens and that is not a risk I am prepared to take," said Labour Party's Jack Dromey. "I don't think Donald Trump should be allowed within a 1,000 miles of our shore."   read more

Securing sufficient assurances U.S. spies will not access Europeans' personal data indiscriminately once it is transferred across the Atlantic has been a big sticking point in two years of talks between Brussels and Washington on a new framework for protecting data shifted to the U.S. Revelations two years ago from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden of mass U.S. surveillance programs caused a political storm in Europe, leading the European Commission to demand changes to Safe Harbour.   read more

He was seen as a hardliner in Colombia’s fight against leftist rebels and spent much of his tenure directing Colombia’s fight against the FARC. “I want to...put pressure on illegal armed groups," he said upon his appointment as defense minister. "I want Colombia to be the most hostile territory in the world to the drug trade.” It was under his leadership that the Colombian military also scored successes against the ELN and BACRIM criminal organizations.   read more

Beginning in 2000, Chalyi was an adviser to Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, on foreign relations issues. In 2009, he went to work for President Viktor Yanukovych as deputy minister for foreign affairs. Chalyi resigned in 2010 in protest of Yanukovych’s policies. Yanukovych was chased from office in 2014 for siding too closely with the Russians as Ukraine oriented itself toward the West. Chalyi returned to the Razumkov Center as its deputy director general for foreign policy.   read more

In 2013, bin Mubarak was named secretary general of the National Dialogue Conference, which worked for more than a year to establish a new political system for Yemen. He worked hard to have women included in the new government, urging that a quota for women’s participation be set. In October 2014 he was appointed prime minister. However, he resigned after 33 hours because of opposition from Houthi rebels, who were to withdraw from the capital Sana’a upon the appointment of a prime minister.   read more

"This issue must be resolved immediately or the consequences could be enormous for the thousands of businesses and millions of users impacted," warned the two largest American and European trade groups. Under EU law, companies cannot transfer EU citizens' personal data to countries deemed to have insufficient privacy safeguards, of which the U.S. is one. Revelations two years ago of mass U.S. surveillance programs set the stage for the European Court of Justice ruling.   read more

David Craig got the letter last week from his son Lynn Craig, who returned safely from Iraq in September 2005. The missing letter, dated March 14, 2005, was written about a month after Lynn Craig had been in Iraq. At that time, he was a lance corporal of the U.S. Marine Corps. He's still part of the Reserve. The Craigs say they'd like to know where the letter has been all this time.   read more

Phokeer started in politics around 1983 when he joined the MSM (Militant Socialist Movement) party, led by Prime Minister Sir Anerood Jugnauth. Phokeer won a seat in parliament in 1991. The MSM lost power in 1995, but when it won elections in 2000, Phokeer was appointed ambassador to Egypt, where he served for four years. He returned to Mauritius in 2004 and was appointed special adviser to the minister of agriculture.   read more

De Sousa's lawyer said there were no grounds for extradition and he would appeal to Portugal's top court. De Sousa was arrested in October at the request of Italian prosecutors, who want her to serve a six-year sentence. She was one of 26 people convicted in absentia on charges of snatching Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr from a street in Milan in 2003 and taking him to be questioned in Egypt. The case focused attention on the treatment of suspects moved around the world for CIA interrogation.   read more

“The USA FREEDOM Act ended bulk collection, but this report leaves us guessing just how good a job it did,” said Open Technology's Robyn Greene. Under a replacement program that took effect on Nov. 29, NSA and law enforcement agencies must get a court order and ask communications companies to authorize monitoring of call records of specific people. While some Republicans vying for the White House have criticized the shutdown of the bulk program, other Republican contenders have defended it.   read more

Robins Air Force Base officials issued a statement saying King's picture on the flier was "an honest mistake." The shooting session is scheduled for Monday, the annual national holiday to commemorate King's birthday. "We offer our heartfelt apology to those affected by our thoughtlessness," base spokesman Roland Leach said. "We hold the legacy of Dr. King in the highest regard. We're deeply sorry for any offense or harm caused by our insensitivity..."   read more