Donald Trump’s visit to Colorado on Friday offered the presumptive GOP nominee a chance to repair relations with Republicans in this pivotal swing state after a contentious primary season. But Trump instead dwelt on the divisions that threaten to split open the party.

In his address at the Western Conservative Summit, Trump repeatedly mentioned the fractious GOP primaries, particularly Colorado’s complicated delegate allocation process, in which the real estate mogul was outmaneuvered by GOP rival Sen. Ted Cruz.

“Polls came out and I was going to win Colorado, doing really well in Colorado. It looked good, and I was looking forward to it,” Trump recounted. “And then, all of a sudden, I didn’t get the delegates!”

Back in April, Trump slammed the process, and the fierce outcry he triggered culminated in state GOP Chairman Steve House receiving death threats.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-pol-trump-colorado-conservaties-20160701-snap-story.html

Source: AFP

A Taiwanese warship mistakenly launched a supersonic "aircraft carrier killer" missile towards China on Friday, hitting a fishing boat and killing one person, the navy said, as ties between the island and its once bitter rival deteriorate.

The Hsiung-feng III (Brave Wind) missile flew about 75 kilometres (45 miles) before hitting the trawler in waters off Penghu, a Taiwanese-administered island group in the Taiwan Strait.

The skipper on the Taiwanese 60-tonne trawler was killed and three other crew on board, including a Vietnamese and a Filipino, were injured.

"An initial investigation showed that the incident has caused the death of the skipper," Taiwan's defence ministry spokesman Chen Chung-chi told reporters.

Read more: https://sg.news.yahoo.com/taiwan-mistakenly-fires-carrier-killer-missile-towards-china-053704875.html

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Oops.

U.S. prosecutors have charged a new defendant accused of participating in a scheme with two nephews of Venezuela's first lady to transport a multi-hundred kilogram load of cocaine to the United States.

An indictment filed on Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan accused Roberto De Jesus Soto Garcia of participating in meetings in Honduras and agreeing to facilitate the cocaine's arrival at a Honduran airport on its way to the United States.

The indictment said he agreed to participate in the drug venture with, among others, Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas and Efrain Antonio Campo Flores, who are both nephews of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's wife, Cilia Flores.

The indictment charges Soto Garcia with conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States. It was unclear if he had an attorney or was in custody, and contact information could not be immediately located.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/venezuela-first-ladys-nephews-u-drug-case-gets-032238863.html

US prosecutors appear to be equal opportunity types.

Venezuela's government on Thursday rejected what it called the United States' "interventionist obsession" after US President Barack Obama backed steps for a referendum on removing his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro from power.

Obama warned Maduro's government on Wednesday not to block the opposition's "legitimate" efforts to hold a recall referendum.

"The interventionist obsession of the US government is unacceptable," the Venezuelan foreign ministry responded in a statement on Thursday.

Maduro's opponents blame him for an economic crisis that has caused food shortages and prompted deadly looting.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/venezuela-accuses-us-interventionist-obsession-204916614.html

Sounds as if Maduro is the one obsessed with a US intervention.

After nearly four years of peace talks Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos signed a ceasefire with Marxist rebels on June 23 in Havana, Cuba. The agreement ends a half century-old guerrilla war that has killed more than 220,000 people. Under a final peace accord expected later this summer, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the rebel group known as the FARC, will disarm and form a political party. Rebel commanders accused of war crimes will be judged by special tribunals – but face only token punishment.

For his efforts Santos, a 64-year-old economist, navy veteran, and former defense minister, could be a strong contender for Nobel Peace Prize. But at home his popularity is sagging due, in part, to concessions his government has made to the widely despised FARC. Santos discussed these issues in a recent interview with TIME.

Colombian presidents have tried and failed to make peace with the FARC since the 1980s. Why are these negotiations working?

I have always known that in order to have peace you need to be able to make war. We strengthened the armed forces and improved joint operations and intelligence. For the first time we were able to (target) top FARC commanders. That was the tipping point. The FARC began to realize that they would never achieve their goals through armed struggle. That allowed us to negotiate from a position of strength.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/colombian-president-hails-obama-u-114701313.html

Odds are rising that you will live to be 100 years old.

That reality means re-examining your financial planning for retirement, and even how you think of retirement. What’s for certain is that retiring in your 60s, what has been standard, is less likely.

Careers will change as well. We likely will need to reinvent ourselves several times over in the course of our working life and remain open to change.

On the positive side, this gain in longevity is likely to be a boost in our healthy years of life, not of more years plagued by poor health and dementia.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/what-would-your-90-year-old-self-tell-you-to-change-today-2016-06-29

Source: AFP

Venezuela's government is considering asking the high court to dissolve the legislature controlled by President Nicolas Maduro's opponents who are seeking to remove him from office, a spokesman said Tuesday.

It was the latest maneuver in a political conflict that has raised tensions in the volatile South American country as it struggles with an economic crisis.

Maduro's side "has started discussions to request a consultation with the constitutional chamber of the Supreme Court" with a view to achieving "the abolition of this National Assembly," ruling coalition spokesman Didalco Bolivar told a news conference.

The opposition blames Maduro for a deep economic crisis that has caused widespread food shortages and deadly looting.

Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/venezuela-govt-may-seek-dissolve-congress-spokesman-165529540.html

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Bolivarian democracy in action!

Source: LA Times

Simon Ramo, an engineering impresario who was chief technical director of the U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile program, joined Hughes Aircraft Co. in its early years and co-founded TRW Inc., has died at the age of 103, his son Jim Ramo said Tuesday.

Ramo died Monday of natural causes, in his sleep in Santa Monica, his Jim Ramo said.

The author of a score of books, Ramo helped sculpt the landscape of Southern California aerospace in the late 20th century. Although he technically retired at 65, he never really did so, his son said: Ramo received his last patent, for an educational computing system, at age 100.

Ramo was born May 7, 1913, in Salt Lake City to Benjamin and Clara Ramo. His father owned a clothing store. Ramo earned a degree from the University of Utah at age 20 and finished a PhD in electrical engineering from Caltech in 1936, when he was 23. That year he began working on military-related programs for General Electric Co., where he also helped develop the electron microscope.


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-simon-ramo-20160628-snap-story.html

Source: AP

Republicans on the House Benghazi Committee faulted the Obama administration Tuesday for what they said was a slowed response to help Americans under attack in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012.

Four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, died in two assaults at the diplomatic facility and CIA annex.

The panel's chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, said the panel's report, being released Tuesday, was not aimed at Hillary Clinton, secretary of state at the time. Democrats have said the goal of the report is to undermine Clinton's presidential bid.

Gowdy said Tuesday that the report documents that the U.S. was slow to send help to the Americans in Benghazi "because of an obsession with hurting the Libyans' feelings."

Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/house-republicans-report-fault-obama-benghazi-attacks-113746460--politics.html

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Looks like AP has updated the article with this new headline and lede:

House Republicans fault US military response to Benghazi

A report by the House Benghazi panel is faulting the military for its slow response sending resources to Benghazi, Libya, during deadly 2012 attacks on a U.S. outpost, despite clear orders from President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

Republicans on the Benghazi committee released an 800-page report on Tuesday on the attacks that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.

The panel's chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina said "nothing was en route to Libya at the time the last two Americans were killed almost eight hours after the attacks began."

Gowdy said the Libyan forces that evacuated Americans from the CIA annex in Benghazi were not affiliated with any of the militias the CIA or State Department had developed a relationship with during the previous 18 months.

Habib Ullah chugged along a dusty road in rural Pakistan on his battered motorcycle, his wife, infant son and 7-year-old daughter hanging on — a family of farm laborers on their way to work the fields.

A 60-year-old father of seven, Ullah was steering through the barren, mountainous district of Khuzdar, in Pakistan’s poorest province.

The family never reached the fields. One of the motorcycle’s wheels struck a mine on Loop Leak Road.

Only the little girl, Aliya survived.

http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-fg-worldwide-terror/