State Department watchdog resigns after predecessor’s ouster
The State Department’s acting inspector general resigned abruptly on Wednesday following the firing of his predecessor in circumstances now being investigated by Congress.
Stephen Akard announced his resignation just two days after Democrats issued subpoenas for several of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s top aides to answer questions about the shakeup in the watchdog’s office. The department said Akard would return to the private sector but offered no other reason for his departure.
“We appreciate his dedication to the department and to our country,” the department said in a statement. Akard’s deputy, Diana Shaw, will serve as the new acting inspector general once Akard leaves on Friday.
Although Akard had not been expected to become the permanent inspector general, his departure underscores the tumult and uncertainty in the office, which has been wracked by Republican charges of leaks and politically biased investigations.
Democrats have alleged that Pompeo sought the ouster of Akard’s predecessor, Stephen Linick, because Linick was investigating allegations of impropriety by Pompeo.
Pompeo has denied the allegations but acknowledged he asked President Donald Trump to fire Linick for poor performance. Akard, who had also served as the director of the Office of Foreign Missions at the State Department, had withdrawn from those investigations.
Tanzanian miner strikes it rich again with latest huge gem
A small-scale miner in Tanzania who had become an overnight millionaire over a month ago when he unearthed two of the biggest rough tanzanite gemstones ever found has struck it rich again, digging up a third stone weighing 13 pounds with an estimated value of $2 million.
The three stones were discovered by Saninu Laizer. The first two stones have an estimated value of $3.4 million.
Tanzanite, with a deep violet-blue color, is found only in the East African country and considered to be one of the rarest gemstones on earth.
Laizer waved the large stone over his head before handing it over to Tanzanian government officials, who gave him a check to purchase it.
Satellite images of poop reveal penguin haunts in the Antarctic
British scientists say there are more emperor penguin colonies in Antarctica than previously thought based on evidence of bird droppings spotted from space.
A study published Wednesday by scientists at the British Antarctic Survey counted 61 emperor penguin colonies dotted around the southernmost continent, 11 more than the number previously confirmed.
Scientists used images from Europe’s Sentinel-2 satellite mission to look for smudges on the ice that indicated large amounts of guano, or penguin poop.
Peter Fretwell, a British Antarctic Survey geographer and the study’s lead author, called the latest count “good news” but noted that the newly spotted colonies were small.
Migos rapper Takeoff accused of sexual assault
A new civil lawsuit filed Wednesday morning in Los Angeles Superior Court alleges that rapper Takeoff, of the popular hip-hop group Migos, raped a woman at a party in Encino in June.
The suit, with the defendant filing anonymously, claims that the rapper (born Kirshnik Khari Ball) pursued her at a June 23 house party she attended with a Migos backup performer, called “Durel” in the suit. She claims that after Takeoff, 26, offered her marijuana and began a conversation, she declined his advances. After later running into her and Durel in a stairwell, Takeoff followed the plaintiff into an upstairs bedroom, where he raped her, the lawsuit says.
The woman filed a report with the LAPD and underwent a medical exam later in the day after the alleged assault, but so far no charges have been filed in the case. The suit alleges sexual battery, assault and gender violence, among other claims.
Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Shirley Ann Grau dies at 91
Shirley Ann Grau, a Pulitzer Prizewinning fiction writer whose stories and novels told of both the dark secrets and the beauty of the Deep South, has died. She was 91.
Grau died Monday in a New Orleansarea memory care facility of complications from a stroke, her daughter Nora
Mcalister of Metairie said Wednesday. She said the family is not planning a funeral or memorial service for her, in accordance with her mother’s wishes.
Grau won the 1965 Pulitzer Prize for her fourth book, “The Keepers of the House.” The book drew critical praise but also threatening phone calls for its depiction of a long romance between a wealthy white man and his black housekeeper in rural Alabama.
Five American 11th-graders named National Student Poets
Five high school juniors have been named National Student Poets by a partnership of the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the nonprofit Alliance for Young Artists & Writers.
The student poet program was launched in 2011, with winners contributing to community programs and poetry events and performing their work everywhere from Lincoln Center to the White House. Winning applicants each represent a region and are chosen based on creativity, dedication and promise.
This year’s poets are Isabella Ramirez, from Lake Worth; Ethan Wang, from Katy, Texas; Manasi Garg, from Saratoga; Madelyn Dietz, from St. Paul, Minn.; and Anthony Wiles, from Sewickley, Pennsylvania. Each receives a $5,000 cash award.
Interior minister promoted to Venezuela’s top military rank
The Nicolas Maduro regime promoted Interior Minister Nestor Reverol to general in chief, the highest military rank in Venezuela — even though the officer is charged by federal prosecutors in New York with accepting large bribes in exchange for protecting drug shipments to the United States.
The promotion marks the first time that a national guard officer receives the rank, in a move that observers say alters the balance of forces inside the Venezuelan military.
The U.S. Department of Justice accuses Reverol of being part of the Venezuelan drug trafficking organization known as the Cartel of the Suns, allegedly controlled by Maduro and the regime top lieutenants Diosdado Cabello and Tareck El Aissami.