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Authorities in China's far-west are collecting DNA samples, fingerprints, eye scans and blood types of millions of people aged 12 to 65, according to a new Human Rights Watch (HRW) report. Xinjiang, the only Chinese territory apart from Tibet where ethnic Han Chinese are not in the majority, has long been subject to tight controls and surveillance not experienced elsewhere in China. In April, authorities banned the region's 10 million Muslims from wearing long beards or veils in public, as well as banning home schooling and introducing new restrictions on downloading allegedly extremist materials. Those new rules came on the heels of a series of steps to increase surveillance in the region that include the surrender of passports and mandatory GPS trackers in cars. "The mandatory data banking of a whole population's biodata, including DNA, is a gross violation of international human rights norms," Sophie Richardson, China director for...

The probation officer and an accompanying Marion County Sheriff’s deputy paid Christopher Owens, who turned 32 that day, a visit at his Allen Lane home in Kimball at around 4:00 p.m. on Monday.  When they searched his bedroom, they allegedly found the homemade bombs. Owens, who was convicted of committing theft over $1,000, was home with his girlfriend and a child  The police chief said that the devices, which were filled with black powder, were not that potent. “I don’t think they were powerful enough to hurt anyone else, but they were a danger to the people in that home,” he said. Owens was charged with eight counts of reckless endangerment because there were eight people living in the home, Allison said. In addition to reckless endangerment, Owens was charged with felony possession of a firearm, kidnapping, domestic assault, possession of explosive components and drug possession, according to Allison. It was not immediately clear if Owens ...

Two FBI agents assigned to the investigation into alleged collusion between President Donald  Trump's campaign and Russia exchanged text messages referring to the future president as an "idiot,"  according to copies of messages turned over to Congress Tuesday night by the Justice Department. Special Counsel Robert Mueller removed one of the agents, Peter Strzok, from the Russia probe "immediately" after learning of the texts in late July, the department said in a letter to lawmakers. The messages, which were turned up during a Justice Department inspector general investigation into potential political influence on investigative decisions during the campaign, are fueling Republican calls for a second special counsel to investigate Mueller's operation. About 375 texts were handed over by the Justice Department, arriving on Capitol Hill the night before Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is expected to face a prolonged grilling in fron...

Doug Jones, a Democratic former prosecutor who mounted a seemingly quixotic Senate campaign in the face of Republican dominance here, defeated his scandal-scarred opponent, Roy S. Moore, after a brutal campaign marked by accusations of sexual abuse and child molestation against the Republican, according to The Associated Press. The upset delivered an unimagined victory for Democrats and shaved Republicans’ unstable Senate majority to a single seat. Mr. Jones’s victory could have significant consequences on the national level, snarling Republicans’ legislative agenda in Washington and opening, for the first time, a realistic but still difficult path for  Democrats to capture the Senate next year. It amounted to a stinging snub of President Trump, who broke with much of his party and fully embraced Mr. Moore’s candidacy, seeking to rally support for him in the closing days of the campaign. Amid thunderous applause from his supporters at a downtown hotel, ...

The justices without comment or dissent declined to hear a Georgia woman’s suit that alleged she was pushed out of her job as a hospital security guard because she is a lesbian. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 says employers may not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, religion and nationality. And lower courts have split recently over whether the ban on sex discrimination includes discrimination based on sexual orientation. Lawyers for Lambda Legal hoped the high court would hear the case of Jameka K. Evans vs. Georgia Regional Hospital to resolve the dispute and issue a ruling with nationwide impact. But the case had some procedural flaws. Evans filed her original complaint without a lawyer and did not serve papers on the hospital. As a result, the hospital said it would not participate in the case. Gregory Nevins, director of Lambda’s Employment Fairness Project, said Monday’s court action was disappointing. “The Supreme Court is delaying the inevitable and leav...

Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer is releasing a book next summer. Spicer has signed a deal with Regnery Publishing, conservative book publisher.  His forthcoming book, titled "The Briefing," will focus on his "turbulent tenure" behind the lectern before resigning in July, according to the book's official description. The book promises to shed "new light on the headline-grabbing controversies of the Trump administration’s first year," the description states. Spicer worked as the communications director for the Republican National Committee before being named as now-President Donald Trump's press secretary during the transition. His tenure got off to a rocky start when he made his first appearance in the White House briefing room the day after Trump took office and read a statement to the press about the size of the crowd at the inauguration. His resignation came the day after the Trump administration marked it...