Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas said he was giving media interviews about his role in President Trump’s attempts convince Ukrainian officials to announce an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden because he wanted to protect himself from Attorney General William Barr.

Shifa al-Nima was captured in the Mansour neighborhood of Mosul by the Nineveh police command, according to Iraqi police.

Five countries whose citizens died when Iran shot down an airliner last week said on Thursday that Tehran should pay compensation to families of the victims, and warned that the world is watching for its response. Canada, Ukraine, Sweden, Afghanistan and Britain said Iran should hold a "thorough, independent and transparent international investigation open to grieving nations," in a statement issued after a meeting of officials in London. Iran admitted on Saturday it had shot down the Ukraine International Airlines plane in error, after initially denying it had a role in the incident.

The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office charged Fredrick Hampton, 50, on Thursday with abuse of Paighton Houston's corpse. Hampton hasn't been charged with involvement in the 29-year-old's death, news outlets reported. Hampton was initially held in the Birmingham City Jail beginning Dec. 28 on suspicion of kidnapping, but he was released two days later after investigators failed to gather enough evidence to charge him with a crime, news outlets reported.

A "Marriage Story" actress and her husband are suing Princess Cruises, alleging their room was infested with bedbugs.

House Oversight Committee Republicans Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows issued nine demands to FISA Court presiding judge James Boasberg in a Thursday letter in response to the appointment of Obama Department of Justice lawyer David Kris to help oversee the FBI’s reform of FISA applications.The letter, obtained by National Review, asked Boasberg to identify who else besides Kris was considered, whether Kris’s past defense of the FISA application to surveil Trump-campaign adviser Carter Page was taken into account, and whether “the FISC bears any responsibility for the illegal surveillance of Carter Page,” among other concerns.“If the FISC’s goal is to hold the FBI accountable for its serious misconduct, Mr. Kris does not appear to be an objective — or likely effective — amicus curiae for several reasons,” the letter states. “At minimum, the selection of Mr. Kris creates a perception that he is too personally invested on the side of the FBI to ensure it effectuates meaningful reform.”A Republican official with knowledge of the letter told National Review that the letter signaled a concerted Congressional effort to reform FISA.“For too long, the FBI has remained largely un-checked when it comes to the FISA process. Congress must ensure that FISC stands ready to protect civil liberties without even the slightest indicia of political bias,” he said.The letter appears to be a follow-up to Monday comments from Meadows, who said in an interview that Republicans were “appealing this to the Judge” regarding Kris's appointment. The North Carolina Congressman also slammed the move to appoint Kris, saying that “there’s no way” Kris is the right man to address abuses “if he doesn’t even acknowledge that there is a problem.”Kris, a former assistant attorney general in the Obama DOJ’s national security division, has extensive experience with the FISA Court, serving as an amicus curiae, or special adviser, since March 2016.A frequent contributor to Lawfare blog, Kris was an outspoken defender of the FBI’s authority in surveilling Page, who was accused of being a Russian agent.Following the release of heavily-redacted FISA applications used to surveil Page in July 2018, Kris doubled down. “It seems to me very likely that if we get below the tip of the iceberg into the submerged parts and more is revealed, it will get worse, not better,” for Page, he told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow at the time. The letter references Kris's comment to Maddow as evidence that he is biased in favor of the bureau and against Page.DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz revealed in December that the FBI knowingly withheld information that Page was a CIA informant in order to obtain a FISA warrant against him, and even doctored an email to keep the information from the court. The report also revealed that the bureau did not inform the FISC of the partisan origins of the uncorroborated Steele dossier despite its playing a "central and essential" role in their application to surveil Page.In their letter, Jordan and Meadows also request that Boasberg give greater insight into the details surrounding the court’s assessment of the Page applications, including when it “first received any indication that information contained in the FBI’s surveillance applications for Carter Page was misleading or false.”

Nancy Pelosi used dozens of customized, signed pens to sign different parts of her signature on Trump's impeachment articles before handing them out as collectibles at the signing ceremony on Wednesday — a move that angered many Republicans.

A founding member of Australian popular children's music group The Wiggles suffered a cardiac arrest and collapsed while performing at a bushfire relief concert in Sydney on Friday, the band said. The 48-year-old Greg Page, known to Australians as the original Yellow Wiggle and an intermittent member of the group since its beginning in 1991, fell in front of fans while walking off stage at the end of the concert. "As has been reported, our friend Greg Page suffered a cardiac arrest at the end of the bushfire relief performance and was taken to hospital," The Wiggles said on the band's Twitter account.

"Doctors and patients cannot make informed choices about which treatments work best when the results of clinical trials are withheld," said study leader Dr. Ben Goldacre from Oxford University, in a telephone interview. Goldacre and colleagues looked to see if trial sponsors were complying with the 2007 U.S. Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act in the period after final guidance was issued in 2017. Under that law, sponsors of U.S. clinical trials are required to report data from applicable studies within a year of completion.

An Alaska dentist, who gained notoriety after he was seen in a video riding a hoverboard and pulling teeth, was convicted Friday of defrauding the Alaska Medicaid program. Seth Lockhart was convicted of 46 counts, including felony medical assistance fraud and scheming to defraud, and misdemeanor counts of illegally practicing dentistry and reckless endangerment, prosecutors said. Friends had asked Lockhart how he got away with some of his practices.

Billionaire Michael Bloomberg won't have to publicly disclose his finances until late March, well after voters in more than a dozen states take to the polls on Super Tuesday. Presidential candidates are required to reveal their investments, businesses and streams of income. Bloomberg is the only Democrat seeking the White House who has yet to file paperwork to publicly disclose his.

Kelley Rogers, former president of the consulting firm Strategic Campaign Group, pleaded guilty last year to wire fraud in one of the first cases of its kind.

A new alleged victim is accusing recently fired Hialeah Police Department Sgt. Jesús Menocal Jr. of sexual assault, becoming at least the fifth woman to make such a complaint, the Miami Herald has learned.

A man stole $145,000 in cash from a marijuana money courier's unmarked van at a Southern California gas station after he collected the proceeds from several dispensaries, authorities said Friday. Because the U.S. government still outlaws marijuana, even in legal states like California it is mostly an all-cash business because of federal banking laws. Santa Ana police released surveillance footage from the gas station and asked for the public's help to identify the suspect.

An exquisite fossil of a fierce little Chinese dinosaur dubbed the "dancing dragon" that lived 120 million years ago - an older cousin of the Velociraptor - is showing scientists that feathers grew differently on dinosaurs than on birds. The two-legged Cretaceous Period dinosaur, called Wulong bohaiensis, was a bantamweight meat-eater - a bit bigger than a crow - residing in a lakeside environment, researchers said. It possessed a scaly face, a mouth full of pointy teeth and one particularly dangerous toe claw, and probably hunted small mammals, lizards, birds and fish.

1. Trump adds Ken Starr and Alan Dershowitz to impeachment defense team  CNN
2. Sen. Susan Collins hits back at 'mischaracterization and misunderstanding' of impeachment stance  Fox News
3. Lewinsky offers colorful remark in apparent response to Starr joining Trump defense team  CNN
4. Why the chief justice must ensure a fair presidential impeachment trial | TheHill  The Hill
5. The Opening Moves in the Trump Impeachment Trial  The New York Times
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1. Avalanche at California ski resort leaves 1 dead, 1 seriously injured  CNN
2. Sheriff: One dead, one seriously injured in avalanche at Lake Tahoe ski resort  Fox News
3. Avalanche at Lake Tahoe resort kills 1 skier, injures 1  Yahoo News
4. Sheriff: 1 dead, 1 seriously injured in Lake Tahoe avalanche  msnNOW
5. 1 dead, 1 injured in avalanche at Tahoe ski resort  KCRA Sacramento
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1. U.S. Says 11 Service Members Were Injured When Iran Attacked Iraqi Base  NPR
2. U.S. troops treated for injuries after Iran attack | USA TODAY  USA TODAY
3. Pentagon now says U.S. troops were injured in Iran missile attack  CBS This Morning
4. Iran could attack U.S. troops in Iraq without fear of American missile defense protection. Why?  NBC News
5. CNN tries to create a military conspiracy theory  Washington Examiner
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1. Trump scolds CNN's Jim Acosta for trying to disrupt Oval Office news conference: 'Quiet'  Fox News
2. Pompeo stonewalls as evidence emerges of possible surveillance of ex-Ukraine ambassador  CNN
3. Pompeo Says He ‘Never Heard’ That Ambassador Might Be Under Surveillance  The New York Times
4. When Trump’s Thugs Turn on Him  The New York Times
5. When you’ve got Larry, Moe, Curly, Rudy and Rob on your side, what could go wrong? | Opinion  Miami Herald
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1. Supreme Court Takes Up Birth-Control Conscience Case  NPR
2. Supreme Court will again review Obamacare birth control mandate  POLITICO
3. Supreme Court to take up Trump appeal in ObamaCare birth control case | TheHill  The Hill
4. Supreme Court will tackle dispute over birth control, religious liberty  USA TODAY
5. Supreme Court to review Obamacare requirement that employer-provided health insurance plans pay for contraceptives  CNN
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1. Trump warns Iranian supreme leader who called him a 'clown' to be 'very careful with his words'  USA TODAY
2. Isolated Iran leader lashes out at Europe as nations join US in ramping up pressure  Fox News
3. Why Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei leading Friday prayers is significant  CNN
4. Why the US needs Russia and China to help change Iran's behavior | TheHill  The Hill
5. Four former Iranian hostages: President Trump, thank you for your actions and your strength  Fox News
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1. 3 Alleged Members Of Hate Group 'The Base' Arrested In Georgia  NPR
2. FBI arrests suspected white supremacists ahead of rally  CBS Evening News
3. FBI arrests three more members of right wing extremist group 'The Base'  BBC News
4. Virginia Capital on Edge as F.B.I. Arrests Suspected Neo-Nazis Before Gun Rally  The New York Times
5. FBI Arrests Suspected White Supremacists Ahead Of Virginia Gun Rally | NBC Nightly News  NBC News
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