NEWS BREAK FROM AROUND THE WORLD

 The Herald recently reported Lynnwood resident, 19-year-old Brian Roberto Varela, could face charges of rape, manslaughter and homicide by controlled substance. According to police, the suspect allegedly bragged about sexually assaulting his victim as she died while overdosing on Percocet pills and liquid THC. It is reported Varela then attempted to cover up her death by hacking into her cellphone. During the incident, Varela is said to have sent a group message to friends that showed a “a semi-nude, unconscious young woman with swollen blue lips.” Court papers say the picture included the following caption: “LOL I think she od’d, still breathing.” According to The Herald , reports say Varela used a slang word for sex and suggested he’d been engaging in intercourse with her “to pass the time.” Police identified the young woman as Alyssa Mae Noceda, an 18-year-old Mariner High School student. Noceda’s mother says her daughter had gone to a party Saturday even...

Just months after she struck a plea deal to avoid time behind bars, the fiancee of Marion "Suge" Knight was sentenced to three years in jail Friday for a probation violation linked to the former rap mogul's pending murder trial. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Douglas Sortino ruled that Toi-Lin Kelly, 37, helped Knight violate a court order limiting his jailhouse phone communications by aiding him in arranging interviews with the producers of a BET documentary about Death Row Records, the record label he founded in the early 1990s. Sortino also found that she was indirectly communicating with Knight through a private investigator, violating the terms of probation he granted her in October. "To me it's pretty blatant, and frankly, jaw-dropping," Sortino said, adding that Kelly had basically slapped him in the face after he granted her probation. Prosecutors last year accused Kelly of selling surveillance footage connected to Knight'...

A California woman has been charged after she attempted suicide by driving her car the wrong way on the freeway, allegedly killing a young father. Grace Ward, 28, who suffered a broken leg in the crash that killed Ryan Folson, has been charged with second-degree murder. Ward was reportedly driving on Interstate 5  in Redding on Jan. 7., when she crossed into oncoming traffic in an alleged suicide attempt. Folsom, a 29-year-old father of two, was reportedly on his way to a Sacramento hospital to interview for a residency program when Ward’s vehicle struck his. Three other cars were reportedly able to swerve out of the way before Ward's car struck Folsom’s vehicle, reports said. “She intentionally was driving and swerving towards them,” Shasta County District Attorney Stephanie Bridgett said. Folsom and Ward were both taken to Mercy Medical Center in Redding where  Folsom died. Folsom is survived by his pregnant wife and two children. A GoFundMe account rai...

Turkey said eight of its troops were killed Saturday in Ankara's military operation against a Syrian Kurdish militia, the deadliest day in the two-week-old offensive in the enclave of Afrin, while in another part of Syria, al-Qaida-linked militants downed a Russian fighter jet, then shot and killed the pilot. In a statement late Saturday, the Turkish military said five soldiers were killed after their tank in Syria came under attack near Afrin. The soldiers could not be saved despite all attempts, it said. Earlier in the day, three Turkish soldiers were reported killed in the Afrin offensive — one was killed in the area of the tank attack, another in northern Syria and the third on the Turkish side of the border in what Ankara said was an attack by Syrian Kurdish militiamen. The total death toll for Turkish troops since the operation, codenamed Olive Branch, started on Jan. 20 now stands at 13. Bilginsoy reported from Istanbul. Associated Press writers Jim Heintz...

Director Zack Snyder is clearly a big fan of Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns. Its influence is all over Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice – most of all, in the thick-set, grey Batsuit worn by Ben Affleck in the movie. However, at a very early stage of the production, the plan was for Batman to look quite different. Concept artist Jerad S. Marantz has shared a design for the Dark Knight’s outfit that’s a world away from the stripped-back costume seen in the finished film. This suit is a heavily armoured model with a chrome, metallic colour scheme. Also, fans will note the comic book accurate white eyes. Marantz explained in his caption that the design was only entertained for about a week before the decision was made to go back to basics and produce a “classic Batman,” as the artist puts it.     “Believe it or not This was a very early pass on the #batmanvssuperman#batsuit . Before we got the note to do a classic #Batman I was exploring futuristic and ...

YouTube has been making efforts to improve its transparency, which is why anyone viewing news broadcasts on the platform may notice a change starting today. If a news video has received any public funding or government support, YouTube will show a notice below the video. This only applies to videos that are uploaded by news organizations. The feature starts rolling out today for US users only, and YouTube cautions that there may be bumps in the road to its implementation: "We don't expect it to be perfect," the release said. Eventually, the company plans to expand this feature. In the meantime, users can use the "send feedback" option to flag imperfect implementation. As the landscape between online news and ads becomes more muddled, increasing transparency is an important step to take. Both Twitter and Facebook have put regulations into place that require people who run political ads to disclose who is behind them. It's good that YouTube is takin...

PayPal COO Bill Ready contends eBay’s decision to ditch the company and use Adyen to process payments moving forward is actually good for PayPal.  On Wednesday, eBay announced it plans to use smaller European competitor Adyen to process payments on the back-end once its original partnership with PayPal runs out in 2020 — news that initially sent PayPal stock down as much as 8.8% in one day.   Under the original terms of the agreement, eBay uses PayPal as its primary payments provider, meaning that the majority of transactions processed on eBay were processed through PayPal. In exchange, PayPal was restricted in how it works with other marketplaces that compete with eBay. While PayPal was free to work with marketplaces that rival eBay, PayPal couldn’t offer the same degree of services to other marketplaces. But come July 2020, that will change. Under the new terms PayPal and eBay agreed upon, which will last until 2023, PayPal will be free to work with other ma...