Jury recommends life plus 419 years for man who rammed crowd
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — A jury Tuesday called for a sentence of life in prison plus 419 years for James Alex Fields Jr., 21, the Hitler admirer who killed 32-year-old Heather Heyer when he rammed his car into counterprotesters at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville in August 2017.
It will be up to Judge Richard Moore to decide on the punishment at Fields’ sentencing, set for March 29. Fields also faces federal hate-crime charges that could bring the death penalty.
Attack at Christmas market in French city kills 3, wounds 12
STRASBOURG, France — Authorities say that a man who had been flagged as a possible extremist sprayed gunfire near the city of Strasbourg’s famous Christmas market Tuesday, killing three people, wounding 12 and sparking a massive manhunt. France immediately raised its terror alert level.
It was unclear if the market — a popular gathering place that was the nucleus of an al-Qaida-linked plot in 2000 — was the intended target. The assailant got inside a security zone around the venue and opened fire from there, Mayor Roland Ries said.
Authorities did not give a motive for the shooting, though prosecutors said they had opened a terrorism investigation.
Hours before the shooting, French gendarmes went to the suspect’s home to arrest him, but he wasn’t there, Stephane Morisse of police union FGP said.
Chinese CFO gets $7.5M bail
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — A Canadian court granted bail on Tuesday to a top Chinese executive arrested at the United States’ request in a case that has set off a diplomatic furor among the three countries and complicated U.S.-China trade talks.
Hours before the bail hearing in Vancouver, China detained a former Canadian diplomat in Beijing in apparent retaliation for the Dec. 1 arrest of Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei.
A British Columbia justice granted bail of $7.5 million to Meng, but required her to wear an ankle bracelet, surrender her passports, stay in Vancouver and its suburbs and confine herself to one of her two Vancouver homes from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.