California judge pleads not guilty to murder in wife’s death

Orange County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson, right, sits next to his attorneys John Drummond Barnett, left, and Paul Meyer during a hearing at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center, Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2023, in Los Angeles. (AP)
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Updated 16 August 2023
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California judge pleads not guilty to murder in wife’s death

  • The 72-year-old was arrested on Aug. 3 at his home in the upscale neighborhood of Anaheim Hills after police found his wife, Sheryl Ferguson, shot to death

LOS ANGELES: A Southern California judge charged with killing his wife during an argument while he was drunk pleaded not guilty to murder Tuesday, and his lawyer says it was an “accidental shooting.”
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ricardo Ocampo ordered Orange County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson, who appeared in court in a suit and tie, to surrender his passport, submit to searches, and wear monitoring devices for blood alcohol content and GPS as part of new bail conditions sought by prosecutors. Ferguson, who is free on $1 million bail, also is barred from possessing firearms and alcohol and frequenting places such as bars and liquor stores.
After the hearing, Ferguson’s lawyers told reporters the long-time judge and former prosecutor was confident a jury would agree with him that no crime was committed.
“This was an unintentional, accidental shooting and not a crime,” attorney Paul Meyer said.
The hearing was held in Los Angeles because Ferguson has been a judge hearing criminal cases in a courtroom about 25 miles (40 kilometers) to the southeast in Orange County. The next hearing in Ferguson’s case was set for Oct. 30.
The 72-year-old was arrested on Aug. 3 at his home in the upscale neighborhood of Anaheim Hills after police found his wife, Sheryl Ferguson, shot to death. Prosecutors said in court filings that the couple had been arguing and the judge was drinking when he pulled a pistol from an ankle holster and shot her in the chest. The couple’s adult son and Ferguson called 911, and Ferguson texted his court clerk and bailiff to say he had shot his wife, according to the filings.
He texted: “I just lost it. I just shot my wife. I won’t be in tomorrow. I will be in custody. I’m so sorry,” according to the filing.
Prosecutors argued the new bail conditions protect public safety and ensure Ferguson doesn’t flee after authorities found 47 weapons, including the pistol used in the shooting, and more than 26,000 rounds of ammunition at his home. They say the weapons are legally owned but a rifle registered in his name is still missing.
Ferguson was charged with one count of murder and weapons-related enhancements.
Larry Rosen, Sheryl Ferguson’s brother, spoke with reporters after Tuesday’s hearing and said it was “hell” when Ferguson looked at him in the courtroom.
“My sister was a wonderful person, very caring, very selfless,” Rosen said. “The family is absolutely in shock.”
Rosen declined to discuss Ferguson’s lawyers’ claims that the shooting was an accident and said he would defer to the police and prosecutors who are investigating.
Rosen said his sister helped take care of him since he was still a minor when their mother died. He also said she was an active member of her community, participating in Boy Scouts and activities with her now-adult son. The son, who authorities said called 911 after the shooting, is the main focus of the family now, Rosen said.
“It’s a tragedy for me. I can’t even fathom what he’s going through right now,” Rosen said.
The arrest shocked the Southern California legal community and officials have been grappling with how the case should be handled. The district attorney’s office in Orange County — a cluster of cities that are collectively home to more than 3 million people — asked state officials to weigh in on whether there was a conflict before charging him last week.
Ferguson has been a judge since 2015. He started his legal career in the Orange County district attorney’s office in 1983 and went on to work narcotics cases, for which he won various awards. He served as president of the North Orange County Bar Association from 2012 to 2014.
In 2017, Ferguson was admonished by the Commission on Judicial Performance for posting a statement on Facebook about a judicial candidate “with knowing or reckless disregard for the truth of the statement,” and for being Facebook friends with attorneys appearing before him in court, according to a copy of the agency’s findings.
Ferguson said on his Facebook page that he grew up in a military family and traveled throughout Asia as a child. He went on to attend college and law school in California. He and his wife were married in 1996.

 


Taiwan detects 16 Chinese warships around island

Updated 7 min 28 sec ago
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Taiwan detects 16 Chinese warships around island

  • Beijing has been holding its biggest maritime drills in years
  • Around 90 Chinese warships and coast guard vessels involved

TAIPEI: Taiwan said Thursday it detected 16 Chinese warships in waters around the island, one of the highest numbers this year, as Beijing intensifies military pressure on Taipei.
The navy vessels, along with 34 Chinese aircraft, were spotted near Taiwan in the 24 hours to 6:00 a.m. Thursday, according to the defense ministry’s daily tally.
Beijing has been holding its biggest maritime drills in years from near the southern islands of Japan to the South China Sea, Taiwan authorities said this week.
Around 90 Chinese warships and coast guard vessels have been involved in the exercises that include simulating attacks on foreign ships and practicing blockading sea routes, a Taiwan security official said Wednesday.
There has been no announcement by Beijing’s army or Chinese state media about increased military activity in the East China Sea, Taiwan Strait, South China Sea or Western Pacific Ocean.
However, a recent Pacific tour by Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te that included two stops in US territory drew fury from Beijing, which claims the democratic island as part of China’s territory.
The security official said that China began planning the massive maritime operation in October and aimed to demonstrate it could choke off Taiwan and draw a “red line” ahead of the next US administration.
The sea drills were “significantly larger” than Beijing’s maritime response to then-US House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei in 2022, the security official said. Those war games were China’s largest-ever around Taiwan.
Taiwan’s foreign ministry said Wednesday that China’s increased military activity around the island was evidence that Beijing was a “troublemaker.”
But China’s foreign ministry – whose spokesperson neither confirmed nor denied that drills were taking place – directed blame at Taiwan.
James Char, an expert on China’s military at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, said Beijing’s silence “serves as a way of demonstrating that the Taiwan Strait as well as the waters and airspace around the island falls under Chinese sovereignty – hence unnecessary to announce (the drills) to the world.”
“This is another means by the mainland to force its position upon others,” Char said, though he did not rule out Chinese confirmation at a later date.
Taiwan said Monday that Beijing’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had reserved airspace off the Chinese coast until Wednesday.
Vietnam-based maritime security analyst Duan Dang said Thursday that aviation data showed the airspace zones had “fully returned to normal.”
Taiwan lives under the constant threat of invasion by China, which has not ruled out using force to bring the island under its control.
Beijing has ramped up the deployment of fighter jets and warships around the island in recent years, and also opposes any international recognition of self-ruled Taiwan – especially when it comes to official contact between Taipei and Washington.
Lai spoke last week with Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson in addition to his two recent stopovers on US soil.
The defense ministry’s tally of Chinese warships on Thursday was the highest since May 25, when 27 navy vessels were detected during Chinese military drills held days after Lai’s inauguration.


Suspense mounts as Macron prepares to unveil new French PM

Updated 13 min 59 sec ago
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Suspense mounts as Macron prepares to unveil new French PM

PARIS: French politics was on hold Thursday during a day trip to Poland by President Emmanuel Macron, who is expected to name a new prime minister a week after MPs toppled the government.
Macron had promised to name a replacement government chief within 48 hours after meeting party leaders at his Elysee Palace office Tuesday, participants said.
But he remains confronted with the complex political equation that emerged from July’s snap parliamentary poll: how to secure a government against no-confidence votes in a lower house split three ways between a leftist alliance, centrists and conservatives, and the far-right National Rally (RN).
Greens leader Marine Tondelier urged Macron on Thursday to “get out of his comfort zone” as he casts around for a name.
“The French public want a bit of enthusiasm, momentum, fresh wind, something new,” she told France 2 television.
Former prime minister Michel Barnier, whose government had support only from Macron’s centrist camp and his own conservative political family, was felled last week in a confidence vote over his cost-cutting budget.
His caretaker administration on Wednesday reviewed a bill designed to keep the lights of government on without a formal financial plan for 2025, allowing tax collection and borrowing to continue.
Lawmakers are expected to widely support the draft law when it comes before parliament on Monday.


At issue in the search for a new prime minister are both policies and personalities.
Mainstream parties invited by Macron on Tuesday, ranging from the conservative Republicans to Socialists, Greens and Communists on the left, disagree deeply.
One totemic issue is whether to maintain Macron’s widely loathed 2023 pension reform that increased the official retirement age to 64, seen by centrists and the right as necessary to balance the budget but blasted by the left as unjust.
On the personality front, Macron’s rumored top pick for a new PM, veteran centrist Francois Bayrou, raises hackles on both left and right.
For the left he would embody a simple “continuation” of the president’s policies to date, Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure has said.
Meanwhile Bayrou is personally disliked by former president Nicolas Sarkozy, still influential on the right and reported to have Macron’s ear.
Other contenders include former Socialist interior minister and prime minister Bernard Cazeneuve, serving Defense Minister and Macron loyalist Sebastien Lecornu, or former foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.
But a name could still emerge from outside the pack, as happened with Barnier in September.
Those in circulation “are names that have been around for years and haven’t seduced the French. It’s the past. I want us to look to the future,” Greens boss Tondelier said.


While the suspense over Macron’s choice endures, there has been infighting on the left over whether to play along in the search for stability or stick to maximalist demands.
Once a PM is named, “we will then have to have a discussion with whoever is named,” Socialist chief Faure said, saying the left must “be able to grab some victories for the French public.”
The Socialists’ openness to cooperation has been denounced by their nominal ally Jean-Luc Melenchon, figurehead of the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI).
“No coalition deals! No deal not to vote no confidence! Return to reason and come home!” he urged on Tuesday.
Hard-line attitudes are not necessarily vote-winners, with just over two-thirds of respondents to an Elabe poll published Wednesday saying they want politicians to reach a deal not to overthrow a new government.
But confidence in the elite is limited, with around the same number saying they did not believe the political class could reach agreement.
In a separate poll from Ifop, RN leader Marine Le Pen is credited with 35 percent support in the first round of a future presidential election — well ahead of any likely opponent.
She has said she is “not unhappy” her far-right party has been left out of the horse-trading around government formation, appearing for now to benefit from the chaos rather than suffer blame for bringing last week’s no-confidence vote over the line.


Hardest-hit Nigeria is latest African country to provide malaria vaccine to young children

Updated 17 min 32 sec ago
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Hardest-hit Nigeria is latest African country to provide malaria vaccine to young children

  • Experts say Nigeria’s population of more than 210 million people, as well as its climate, contribute to its high malaria burden
  • WHO report notes countries with malaria still grapple with fragile health systems, weak surveillance and drug and insecticide resistance

BAYELSA, Nigeria: Ominike Marvis has lost count of the number of times her 6-year-old son has had malaria. So when Nigeria started offering a malaria vaccine, she was eager to protect her youngest child.
She took the 6-month-old baby to get his first shot at a health center in hard-hit Bayelsa state, where the country’s vaccination campaign kicked off last week. The vaccine aims to prevent severe illnesses and deaths from the mosquito-borne disease.
“At least I know he’s safe from it now,” Marvis, 31, said.
Africa accounts for the vast majority of malaria in the world. Nigeria, the continent’s most populous country, has the biggest burden with about a quarter of the cases.
According to a World Health Organization report released Wednesday, there were an estimated 263 million cases of malaria and 597,000 deaths worldwide last year, mostly in children under 5. That is 11 million more malaria cases compared to 2022 with nearly the same number of deaths.
“No one should die of malaria, yet the disease continues to disproportionately harm people living in the African region, especially young children and pregnant women,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, calling for more support.
There are now 17 countries giving new malaria vaccines to young children, the WHO report said. Nigeria began its campaign last week, offering a vaccine developed by Oxford University.
Research suggests it is more than 75 percent effective at preventing severe disease and death in the first year and that protection is extended for at least another year with a booster.
Nigeria’s health minister, Muhammad Ali Pate, called the vaccination campaign a “monumental step” in the country’s efforts to eliminate malaria.
The disease is caused by a parasite that is spread through mosquito bites. Experts say other measures like bed nets and insecticide spraying remain essential to curb the disease.
Experts say Nigeria’s population of more than 210 million people, as well as its climate, contribute to its high malaria burden, but so do other factors like poor sanitation and limited tools like treated bed nets.
Besides the lack of funding, WHO report said countries with malaria still grapple with fragile health systems, weak surveillance and drug and insecticide resistance.
But progress has also been made on several fronts, the report said, including in the African region where countries have achieved a 16 percent reduction in malaria deaths since 2015. And in 83 countries where malaria is present, 25 of them now report fewer than 10 cases a year, the report said.
In the oil-rich but poor Bayelsa state, among the worst-hit in Nigeria, malaria is so common in riverside communities that mothers spoke of how no one in their family has been spared.
“Here, malaria is something we are used to,” said Claris Okah, a community health worker.
Among the challenges health workers like Okah face is hesitancy among parents, so they are educating families about the new vaccine and other steps to prevent malaria.
“The vaccine is a good thing,” Okah siad.


South Korean opposition parties submit a new motion to impeach Yoon over martial law

Updated 5 sec ago
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South Korean opposition parties submit a new motion to impeach Yoon over martial law

SEOUL: South Korea’s parliament says the country’s six opposition parties have submitted a new joint motion to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol over his declaration of martial law.

The National Assembly said the main opposition Democratic Party and five smaller opposition parties submitted the impeachment motion on Thursday afternoon.

The parties say they aim put the motion to a floor vote on Saturday.

Yoon’s short-lived Dec. 3 martial law declaration has triggered political chaos and large protests calling for his ouster. The Democratic Party has argued that Yoon’s decree amounted to rebellion.

Earlier Thursday, Yoon defended his decree as an act of governance and denied rebellion charges.

Yoon defended his martial law decree as an act of governance and denied rebellion charges, vowing Thursday to “fight to the end” in the face of attempts to impeach him and intensifying investigations into last week’s dramatic move.

He spoke hours before the main opposition Democratic Party submitted a new impeachment motion against him for a floor vote this weekend. Parliament on Thursday afternoon passed motions to impeach national police chief Cho Ji Ho and Justice Minister Park Sung Jae, suspending them from official duties, over their enforcement of martial law.

Yoon’s Dec. 3 martial law declaration has generated political chaos and large protests calling for his ouster. The decree brought hundreds of armed troops attempting to encircle parliament and raid the election commission, though no major violence or injuries occurred. Martial law lasted only six hours as Yoon was forced to lift it after the National Assembly unanimously voted it down.

Yoon, a conservative, said he enacted martial law as a warning to the liberal Democratic Party, which controls parliament. He called the party “a monster” and “anti-state forces” that he said tried to use its legislative muscle to impeach top officials, undermined the government’s budget bill for next year and sympathized with North Korea.

“I will fight to the end to prevent the forces and criminal groups that have been responsible for paralyzing the country’s government and disrupting the nation’s constitutional order from threatening the future of the Republic of Korea,” Yoon said.

“The opposition is now doing a sword dance of chaos, claiming that the declaration of martial law constitutes to an act of rebellion. But was it really?” he said.

Yoon said martial law was an act of governance that cannot be the subject of investigations and doesn’t amount to rebellion. He said the deployment of nearly 300 soldiers to the National Assembly was designed to maintain order, not dissolve or paralyze it.

The Democratic Party quickly dismissed Yoon’s statement as “an expression of extreme delusion” and “a declaration of war against the people.” Kim Min-seok, head of a party task force, accused the president of attempting to incite pro-Yoon riots by far-right forces. He said the Democratic Party will focus on getting the motion impeaching Yoon passed on Saturday.


UN condemns suicide attack on Afghan minister

Updated 12 December 2024
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UN condemns suicide attack on Afghan minister

  • Khalil Ur-Rahman Haqqani was the brother of Jalaluddin Haqqani, founder of the feared Haqqani network responsible for some of the most violent attacks during the Taliban’s two-decade insurgency

KABUL: The United Nations mission in Afghanistan on Thursday condemned an attack claimed by the Daesh group that killed the refugees minister and several others.
The Minister for Refugees and Repatriation, Khalil Ur-Rahman Haqqani, was killed on Wednesday afternoon in a suicide bombing at the ministry’s offices in the capital Kabul.

Tight security measures were in place Thursday for Haqqani’s funeral.
Cabinet member Khalil Haqqani was the most high-profile casualty of an assault in the country since the Taliban seized power three years ago.
“There can be no place for terrorism in the quest for stability,” the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said on X, offering condolences to the victims’ families.
The European Union and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation also condemned the attack, along with Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iran.
Haqqani — who is on US and UN sanctions lists and never appeared without an automatic weapon in his hand — was the brother of Jalaluddin Haqqani, founder of the feared Haqqani network responsible for some of the most violent attacks during the Taliban’s two-decade insurgency.
He was also the uncle of Sirajuddin Haqqani, the current interior minister.
The Daesh group claimed responsibility for the attack, saying a bomber detonated an explosive vest inside the ministry, according to a statement on its Amaq news agency, as translated by the SITE Intelligence Group.
Taliban authorities had already blamed Daesh for the “cowardly attack” — the first targeting a minister since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.
Violence has waned in Afghanistan since the Taliban forces took over the country in 2021, ending their war against US-led NATO coalition forces.
However, the regional chapter of Daesh, known as Islamic State Khorasan, is active in Afghanistan and has regularly targeted civilians, foreigners and Taliban officials with gun and bomb attacks.