Canada glacier melt rerouted in rare case of ‘river piracy’
WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists have witnessed the first modern case of what they call “river piracy” and they blame global warming. Most of the water gushing from a large glacier in northwest Canada last year suddenly switched from one river to another.
That changed the Slims River from a 10-foot (3 meters) deep, raging river to something so shallow that it barely was above a scientist’s high top sneakers at midstream. The melt from the Yukon’s Kaskawulsh glacier now flows mostly into the Alsek River and ends up in the Pacific Ocean instead of the Arctic’s Bering Sea.
It seemed to all happen in about one day — last May 26 — based on river gauge data, said Dan Shugar, a University of Washington Tacoma professor who studies how land changes. A 100-foot (30-meter) tall canyon formed at the end of the glacier, rerouting the melting water, Shugar and his colleagues wrote in a study published in Monday’s journal Nature Geoscience .
The term “river piracy” is usually used to describe events that take a long time to occur, such as tens of thousands of years, and had not been seen in modern times, especially not this quickly, said study co-author Jim Best of the University of Illinois. It’s different from something like the Mississippi River changing course at its delta and it involves more than one river and occurs at the beginning of a waterway, not the end.
The scientists had been to the edge of the Kaskawulsh glacier in 2013. Then the Slims River was “swift, cold and deep” and flowing fast enough that it could be dangerous to wade through, Shugar said. They returned last year to find the river shallow and as still as a lake, while the Alsek, was deeper and flowing faster.
Man accused of Facebook video killing said he ‘just snapped’
CLEVELAND (AP) — In a rambling video, Steve Stephens said, “I snapped, I just snapped.” But as the manhunt dragged on Monday for the man accused of posting Facebook footage of himself killing a retiree, police were unable to explain what set him off.
“Only Steve knows that,” Cleveland police Chief Calvin Williams said as authorities posted a $50,000 reward for Stephens’ capture in the shooting of Robert Godwin Sr., a 74-year-old former foundry worker.
In the video, Stephens blamed a former girlfriend he had lived with, saying he woke up last week and “couldn’t take it anymore.” But in a statement Monday, the woman shed little light on what might have gone wrong and said Stephens was good to her and her children.
As for the shooting victim, Godwin appeared to have been selected at random, gunned down while picking up aluminum cans Sunday afternoon after spending Easter with some of his children.
A manhunt that started in Cleveland’s gritty east side expanded rapidly into a nationwide search for Stephens, a 37-year-old job counselor who worked with teens and young adults, police said.
Arkansas seeks to carry out 1 of 2 first executions
VARNER, Ark. (AP) — State and federal courts lifted the two primary obstacles Arkansas faced in its plan to execute eight inmates before the end of April, but the state backed away from legal efforts to carry out one of the first two lethal injections scheduled Monday night.
The decisions from the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the state Supreme Court were among a flurry of legal actions over the series of planned lethal injections that, if carried out, would mark the most inmates put to death by a state in such a short period since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
The rulings left the state fighting against the clock to execute convicted killer Don Davis before his death warrant was expected to expire at midnight. Davis and Bruce Ward were set to be executed Monday night and had been granted stays by the state Supreme Court, but Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said she wouldn’t appeal Ward’s stay at this time.
The state scheduled the executions to occur before its supply of midazolam expires at the end of the month, and Arkansas has not found a new supplier of the lethal injection drug.
“Allowing (Davis’) stay to stand will effectively prevent Arkansas from seeing justice done,” Rutledge said in a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Turkey’s president Erdogan fulfils ambition, but at a cost
ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has finally fulfilled his long-held ambition to expand his powers after Sunday’s referendum handed him the reins of his country’s governance. But success did not come without a cost.
His victory leaves the nation deeply divided and facing increasing tension with former allies abroad, while international monitors and opposition parties have reported numerous voting irregularities.
An unofficial tally carried by the country’s state-run news agency gave Erdogan’s “yes” vote a narrow win, with 51.4 percent approving a series of constitutional changes converting Turkey’s political system from a parliamentary to a presidential one. Critics argue the reforms will hand extensive power to a man with an increasingly autocratic bent, leaving few checks and balances in place.
Opposition parties called foul, complaining of a series of irregularities. They were particularly outraged by an electoral board decision to accept ballots that did not bear official stamps, as required by Turkish law, and called for the vote to be annulled. International monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, who also listed numerous irregularities, said the move undermined safeguards against fraud.
The referendum campaign was heavily weighted in favor of the “yes” campaign, with Erdogan drawing on the full powers of the state and government to dominate the airwaves and billboards. The “no” campaign complained of intimidation, detentions and beatings.
France’s would-be presidents rally in Paris days before vote
PARIS (AP) — Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen hammered on themes that pump up supporters, like immigration and national identity, at her Paris rally on Monday as France’s unpredictable presidential campaign neared its finish with a grab-bag of potential outcomes.
Questions rather than clarity defined France’s presidential race a week before the first-round vote to narrow the field of 11 to a May 7 runoff between the top two vote getters.
Le Pen has been jostling with independent centrist Emmanuel Macron for the lead in polls, while hard-left rival Jean-Luc Melenchon and conservative Francois Fillon begin to close the gap.
Scuffles between scores of opponents of Le Pen’s anti-immigration National Front party and riot police broke out ahead of her rally, delaying its start. Her campaign director announced to the crowd of thousands that a party lawmaker had been attacked on his way in, denouncing the masked youth as “extreme-left scum.” Lawmaker Gilbert Collard was unharmed.
A woman later jumped onto the stage as Le Pen spoke but was quickly slammed to the floor and removed.
