The Latest: Army Corps Wants More Study on Oil Pipeline

The Latest on protests of the Dakota Access pipeline (all times local):

4:15 p.m.

The Army Corps of Engineers has finished a review of the disputed Dakota Access pipeline but says it wants more study and tribal input before it allows it to cross under the Missouri River in North Dakota.

The corps had given permission to pipeline developer Energy Transfer Partners permission, but in September it said more analysis was warranted in the wake of American Indian concerns.

The Standing Rock Sioux says the $3.8 billion, four-state pipeline threatens its drinking water and cultural sites. ETP disputes that and says it's preparing to bore under the river.

Army Assistant Secretary Jo-Ellen Darcy says in a letter to company officials and tribal Chairman Dave Archambault that "additional discussion with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and analysis are warranted."

Darcy says the Army will work with the tribe on a timeline.

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3 p.m.

A spokesman for a group supporting construction of an oil pipeline through the Midwest says the rule of law must be respected and the project should not retroactively be stopped.

The MAIN Coalition's Craig Stevens says "it's past time for the president to lift the hold on the Dakota Access Pipeline and issue the final, already approved easement."

Groups opposing the $3.8 billion pipeline plan to hold more than 200 protest actions across the country Tuesday. They seek to draw the attention of President Barack Obama by rallying at U.S. Army Corps of Engineers offices, federal buildings and offices of banks that have helped finance the project.

They want Obama to permanently stop the project which is to run beneath a lake that provides drinking water to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, which says the pipeline threatens drinking water and cultural sites.

The groups, including the Indigenous Environmental Network, Honor the Earth and Greenpeace USA.

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12:30 p.m.

Groups protesting the construction of an oil pipeline through the Midwest are planning more than 200 protest actions across the country Tuesday seeking to draw the attention of President Barack Obama.

Rallies are to include events at U.S. Army Corps of Engineers offices in many states while other locations include federal buildings and offices of banks that have helped finance the project.

Protests are planned in every state but Rhode Island and Mississippi, but organizers say they're working on getting events in every state.

The groups, including the Indigenous Environmental Network, Honor the Earth and Greenpeace USA want Obama to permanently halt the construction of the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline, the focus of confrontations between police and protesters in North Dakota.

The pipeline is to run beneath a lake that provides drinking water to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, which says the pipeline threatens drinking water and cultural sites.

The project also crosses South Dakota, Iowa and enters into Illinois.

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12:20 p.m.

A United Nations group that represents indigenous people around the world says the U.S. government appears to be ignoring the treaty rights and human rights of American Indians opposing the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline.

The statement is from the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. It came after forum member Edward John spent three days at a camp in North Dakota that's drawn hundreds of protesters against the 1,200-mile pipeline to carry North Dakota oil to Illinois.

Nearly 470 protesters have been arrested supporting the Standing Rock Sioux, which believes the pipeline threatens drinking water and cultural sites.

John says he met with both protesters and law officers. He says he found a "war zone" atmosphere.

President Barack Obama said earlier this month his administration is monitoring the situation.

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12:05 p.m.

The North Dakota Highway Patrol says a large group of Dakota Access protesters has caused the state Capitol in Bismarck to be locked down.

Highway Patrol Lt. Tom Iverson says a "large number of protesters" had gathered outside the building Monday morning. He says the Capitol was locked to avoid them gathering inside the building. The patrol is in charge of Capitol security.

Several troopers were patrolling the Capitol and the grounds.

Earlier this month, more than a dozen protesters were arrested in the judicial wing of the Capitol in Bismarck. Highway Patrol Lt. Tom Iverson said the protesters were sitting, chanting and singing and refused orders to leave. Three other people who refused orders to leave the governor's residence on the Capitol grounds were also arrested

DNA is not your health destiny: doctors

Clean living can slash your risk for heart disease even if your genes are heavily stacked against you, a new US study has found.

The large study of over 55,000 people from around the world found that people with the most inherited risk cut their chances of having a heart attack or other heart problems in half if they did not smoke, ate well, exercised and stayed slim.

It also found the opposite is true: You can largely trash the benefit of good genes with unhealthy habits.

"DNA is not destiny, and you have control," said the study leader, Dr Sekar Kathiresan, genetic research chief at Massachusetts General Hospital.

"Many people assume that if your father had a heart attack, you're destined to have a problem," but the results show that's not the case, he said.

The study was discussed Sunday at an American Heart Association conference in New Orleans and published online in the New England Journal of Medicine.

It's long been known that genes and lifestyle affect heart risk, but how much influence each one has, and how much one factor can offset the other, are unknown.

Researchers combined information from four global studies, including one which involved checking imagery for plaque building up in heart arteries.

Participants were checked for 50 genes related to heart risks and placed in five groups based on how many they had. They also were sorted into three groups by healthy lifestyle factors - not being obese, exercising at least once a week, eating a healthy diet and not smoking.

The results: people with the most gene risk had nearly twice the chance of developing heart problems than people in the lowest gene risk group did. Roughly the same was true for those in the unfavourable lifestyle group versus the favourable one.

But the interesting part was the difference in risk when gene and lifestyle factors were combined.

"If you have an unfavourable lifestyle and high gene risk, your risk of having a heart attack over the next 10 years is 10 per cent," but with a good lifestyle, it was only five per cent in one of the groups in the study, Kathiresan said.

 

Opposition parties threaten to oust defense minster over S. Korea-Japan military pact

Opposition parties on Monday threatened to oust Defense Minister Han Min-koo if his ministry presses ahead with the tentative signing of a military intelligence-sharing pact with Tokyo.

South Korea and Japan plan to provisionally ink the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) to enhance cooperation in coping with North Korea's evolving military threats during their talks in Tokyo, Seoul officials said.

Four years ago, the two sides failed to sign the arrangement in the face of strong resistance from opposition parties and civic groups that berated the Seoul government for secretly pushing for a deal without public consent.

"We will take steps to dismiss or impeach the defense minister should (the GSOMIA) be provisionally signed," Woo Sang-ho, floor leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, said during a meeting with senior party members.

Woo also pointed out that the general populace, as shown through their massive street protests on Saturday, has been infuriated about the "unilateral" way the government has handled key state affairs.

Citing Pyongyang's growing nuclear and missile threats, the defense ministry has highlighted the importance of stronger security collaboration with Japan, which boasts high-tech intelligence-gathering equipment.

But many citizens are still concerned about any military engagement with their country's onetime colonizer -- in light of the fact that mainstream politicians in Japan refuse to fully atone for their country's wartime misdeeds. Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula from 1910-45.

Park Jie-won, the interim leader of the minor opposition People's Party, also warned that if the defense ministry pushes for the signing of the GSOMIA, the three opposition parties, including the Justice Party, will join forces to seek the dismissal or impeachment of the defense chief.

Federal agents to investigate fire at South Carolina black business organization

Federal agents will investigate a fire that broke out over the weekend at an African-American business organization's headquarters in South Carolina, officials said on Sunday.

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said its agents were assisting local law enforcement in their investigation of the fire, which destroyed the offices of the Black Chamber of Commerce in Beaufort, South Carolina, early on Saturday.

Damage to the building was estimated at $2 million, the agency said.

Officials did not release additional details of the blaze. Greenville, South Carolina, television station WYFF reported that the building was under construction and slated to open next year.

Man critically shot at Whitehaven apartment complex

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A man is in critical condition after being shot in Whitehaven.

Police responded to the scene in the 1700 block of Brookgreen Drive, at the Summit Park Apartments, around 5:15 p.m. Sunday.

The victim was taken to Regional Medical Center.

Police said the suspect was wearing a black hoodie with the word “Texas” on it and black pants

Trump talks to "60 Minutes" about same-sex marriage, abortion and the Supreme Court

President-elect Donald Trump said in a wide-ranging interview with “60 Minutes” that his role of appointing a Supreme Court justice is “very important” -- and that he plans to appoint pro-life justices.

“I’m pro-life,” he said. “The judges will be pro-life.”

Asked specifically whether he wants the Supreme Court to repeal the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion nationwide, Trump replied that if the decision were overturned the issue of abortion would be decided by each state.

“If it ever were overturned, it would go back to the states,” he said.

But does that mean some women would be unable to receive abortions, assuming their home states ban them? Asked to clarify, Trump replied: “Yeah, well, they’ll perhaps have to go, they’ll have to go to another state.”

When Stahl followed up on the question, asking whether it’s okay that some women might have to travel to other states to receive abortions, Trump said there’s a “long way to go” before discussing that.

“Well, we’ll see what happens,” he said. “It’s got a long way to go, just so you understand. That has a long, long way to go.”

The issue of Supreme Court appointments will be one of the first decisions facing Trump: since Justice Antonin Scalia’s death last February, there has been one vacant seat on the nation’s highest court. President Obama nominated Merrick Garland to fill Scalia’s seat, but congressional Republicans refused to give Garland a hearing or vote on his nomination.

Trump has said throughout his campaign that he is pro life -- and at one point this year suggested there should be “some form of punishment” for women who undergo abortions. His campaign later clarified that he meant if abortion were outlawed, that doctors who perform abortions should be punished.

And during the third presidential debate, he suggested that third-trimester abortions were currently legal and that Clinton supported allowing them -- both things which are not true.

“You can take the baby and rip the baby out of womb, in the ninth month, on the final day,” he said. “And that’s acceptable.”

Trump added that his Supreme Court nominees would also be “very pro-Second Amendment.”

As for same-sex marriage, Trump said after the Supreme Court ruling last year it’s the law of the land -- and that he is “fine” with that being the case.

“It’s irrelevant because it was already settled. It’s law,” he said. “It was settled in the Supreme Court. I mean it’s done … these cases have gone to the Supreme Court. They’ve been settled. And-- I th-- I’m-- I’m fine with that.

Hundreds of thousands demanding the departure of the president of South Korea because her friend

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in South Korea, Saturday, in protests demanding the resignation of President Pak John Hay, in one of the largest protests in the country against the authority in the past three decades.

The demonstration was the third over the weekend, amid accusations of the President to allow her friend to intervene in the affairs of government administration for personal gain.
President apologized twice already to the demonstrators in October / October last, she only asked for advice from her friend Choi Soon torrent, which did not assume a no official government post, but did not succeed in calming the protesters, who say they feel betrayed.