Peanut Butter News

Full Story at wciv.com

Colleton County, SC – Authorities say a 21-year-old man was arrested in connection with the shooting death of his brother in Colleton County on Wednesday.

The Colleton County Sheriff’s Office have charged Eric Plant with the death of this 21-year-old brother Joshua Plant.

According to investigators, on Wednesday, police received a call from Eric Plant stating that his brother, Joshua, was shot as they were at a home on Black Creek Road in Colleton County.

Full Story at CNN.com

Video from the protest in Phoenix, Arizona, shows the man standing with other protesters, with the rifle slung over his right shoulder.

Phoenix police said authorities monitored about a dozen people carrying weapons while peacefully demonstrating.

“It was a group interested in exercising the right to bear arms,” said police spokesman Sgt. Andy Hill.

Arizona law has nothing in the books regulating assault rifles, and only requires permits for carrying concealed weapons. So despite the man’s proximity to the president, there were no charges or arrests to be made. Hill said officers explained the law to some people who were upset about the presence of weapons at the protest. Video Watch the rifle being legally carried at rally »

Full Story At CNN.com

North Korea officials said they were enriching uranium and would weaponize all plutonium, according to KCNA, the state-run North Korean news agency.

When enriched to a high degree, uranium can be used for weapons-grade material. Plutonium can be used in atomic bombs.

These moves are in response to Friday’s U.N. resolution, according to the news agency, which referred to the resolution as a blockade.

“No mater how hard the U.S.-led hostile forces may try all sorts of isolation and blockade, the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea), a proud nuclear power, will not flinch from them,” KCNA said.

Full Story At  msnbc.com

BAGHDAD – Iraq’s government Monday ruled out allowing U.S. combat troops to remain in Iraqi cities after the June 30 deadline for their withdrawal, despite concern that Iraqi forces cannot cope with the security challenge following a recent resurgence of bombings.

Asking U.S. forces to stay in the cities, including volatile Mosul in the north, would be embarrassing for Iraq’s prime minister, who has staked his political future on claims that the country has turned the corner in the war against Sunni and Shiite extremists.

Full Story At  msnbc.com

MOMBASA, Kenya – A cargo ship loaded with humanitarian aid was headed to Kenya under Navy escort Wednesday after evading pirates firing grenades and automatic weapons, the second unsuccessful hijacking attempt of a U.S. freighter in a week, officials said.

In defiance of President Barack Obama’s vow to halt their banditry, pirates have seized four vessels and some 60 hostages off the Horn of Africa since Sunday’s rescue of an American freighter captain from the drifting lifeboat where he was held hostage.

Full Story At  CNN.com

But for those four days, they were on the minds of people around the globe, from the captain’s hometown in Vermont, to the White House, to port cities and anywhere that families send their loved ones off to sea.

“I actually was more concerned for his family,” said Adm. Rick Gurnon, head of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, where Capt. Richard Phillips had trained.

“I was pretty sure he would be OK,” Gurnon said of Phillips, adding, “as a captain at sea, in a lifeboat, he was in an environment he was comfortable with even if he was sharing it with four armed Somali pirates.

Full Story At  CNN.com

Also nearby was the Maersk Alabama — which had been seized early Wednesday off the Horn of Africa. All 20 of its remaining crew members were in good physical shape, said Ken Quinn, second officer of the ship, in a satellite call placed by CNN.

“There’s four Somali pirates, and they’ve got our captain,” Quinn said.

Maersk spokesman Kevin Speers said the guided-missile destroyer USS Bainbridge was near the Maersk Alabama and that its crew was talking to the Navy.

Full Story At  NYTimes.com

A gunman invaded an immigration services center in downtown Binghamton, N.Y., during citizenship classes on Friday and shot 13 people to death and critically wounded 4 others before killing himself in a paroxysm of violence that turned a quiet civic setting into scenes of carnage and chaos.

Full Story At  msnbc.com

REYNOSA, Mexico – Acting on a tip, 30 masked soldiers in combat gear bust down the door of a boarded-up house to find 55 terrified migrants, hostages of the Gulf drug cartel.

Amid screams and the smell of urine and sweat, they find a blood-spattered room and a nail-encrusted log used to beat the captives and extort money from their families: $3,000 each.

Five suspected kidnappers are hauled off in a military truck, including the alleged leader — the son of a local police officer.

Full Story At news.yahoo.com

OAKLAND, Calif. – A police officer was battling for his life and three more were dead after a parolee with an “extensive criminal history” opened fire at a routine traffic stop and hours later gunned down members of a SWAT team searching for him.

The gunman was also killed Saturday, capping a day of violence that the Oakland Police Department said was the worst in its history. Never before had three police officers died in the line of duty on the same day.

Full Story At CBS News

(CBS) In Phoenix Monday, a gun dealer went on trial for supplying assault rifles to Mexican drug gangs who are locked in a bloody war with authorities — and each other. CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy reports on a case that’s being watched closely in both the United States, and in Mexico.

In the escalating drug war south of the border, Mexican cartels supply the drugs, but the guns largely come from the United States.

Full Story At Bloomberg.com

Feb. 24 (Bloomberg) — Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. recalled a pistol made famous by James Bond and a second handgun after discovering they may discharge without the trigger being pulled. The shares fell 9.3 percent in after-hours trading.

The recall affects all Walther PPK and PPK/S models made by Smith & Wesson from March 21, 2002, to Feb. 3, 2009, the Springfield, Massachusetts-based gunmaker said today in a regulatory filing. The recall will cost $900,000 to $1.3 million for the quarter ended Jan. 31, the company said. Smith & Wesson reported $73 million in sales for the quarter ended in October.