TV News LIES

Angela Lansbury, star of stage and screen best known to television audiences as mystery writer and amateur sleuth Jessica Fletcher on Murder, She Wrote and who gave voice to the title tune in Beauty and the Beast, died Tuesday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 96.

"The children of Dame Angela Lansbury are sad to announce that their mother died peacefully in her sleep at home in Los Angeles at 1:30 AM today, Tuesday, October 11, 2022, just five days shy of her 97th birthday," her family said in a statement.

Lansbury was a highly decorated actress. She was awarded an Honorary Oscar in 2014 to celebrate her seven-decade film career, and she won six Tony awards, including this year's Lifetime Achievement Awards for her work on the stage. She was nominated for a Grammy Award for her work on the 1993 soundtrack for Beauty and the Beast, in which she voiced Mrs. Potts.

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The death toll from a boat accident in Nigeria’s south-eastern state of Anambra has risen to 76, the president has said.

The vessel capsized on Friday amid heavy flooding in the Ogbaru area of Anambra, according to officials on Saturday, when they said at least 10 people had died and 60 were missing.

In a statement posted on Twitter on Sunday, Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, said that emergency authorities had confirmed the higher death toll.

Authorities are working to rescue or recover any missing passengers, said Buhari, adding that he had directed relevant agencies to check safety protocols to prevent future accidents.

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The Uvalde school police department has been suspended, and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers will instead provide coverage to the school district, district officials announced Friday.

"As a result of recent developments, Lt. Miguel Hernandez and Ken Mueller have been place on administrative leave, and the District has made the decision to suspend all activities of the Uvalde CISD Police Department for a period of time," a statement from the district said.

Hernandez was acting district police chief. Mueller was director of student services and plans to retire. Officers still employed will fill other roles in the district, officials said.

The trickle of information about the cheating scandal wracking elite chess turned into a deluge Tuesday night, when Chess.com said it believes Hans Niemann, a 19-year-old grandmaster, cheated in more than 100 games.

The report — which runs to 72 pages with supporting documents such as email conversations — is sending a fresh jolt through the chess world. It's intensifying interest in the U.S. Chess Championships that begin in St. Louis on Wednesday, where Niemann and 13 other players are vying for the title.

The tournament, streaming games on YouTube and Twitch, has $250,000 in prize money at stake. Play begins each day at 2 p.m. ET and will run for the next two weeks. In his first match, Niemann is slated to face 15-year-old Christopher Woojin Yoo.

When contacted by NPR, neither Niemann nor tournament organizers offered a comment on Wednesday.

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Iranian prosecutors have opened an investigation into the death of a teenage girl during the early days of protests in Tehran, who has become an icon for the anti-government movement.

The popular uprising against Iran’s theocratic rulers was sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd detained for allegedly violating the country’s laws on clothing, and has largely been led by women.

Universities have been a battleground for days, and on Wednesday riot police were deployed around campuses in several cities including Tehran, Reuters reported, citing witnesses.

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The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is wading into tense territory with a new rule essentially making the agency an abortion provider, facing the wrath of GOP lawmakers and likely legal challenges.

The VA has already started providing abortions to pregnant veterans and VA beneficiaries in limited circumstances set out in the rule, which took effect when it was published on Sept. 9.

The landmark rule quickly raised questions about the infrastructure to handle demand, and the legal consequences of performing the services in red states where abortion is banned or severely restricted.

But the VA has shown no signs of backing down from its rule — which it says will cover about 1,000 abortion procedures per year — and advocates are hailing it as a major step forward in health care for veterans.

New York City police are investigating a possible bias incident after red paint was sprayed on the Russian Consulate.

Police received a 911 call around 1:30 a.m. Friday at the Upper East Side building and found that the facade of the consulate had been vandalized with red paint, according to police. There were no obvious words or symbols painted on the building.

As of Saturday, no arrests have been made, and the investigation remains ongoing, an NYPD spokesperson said.

The State Department said it was facilitating contact between the consulate and NYPD. When asked about claims on social media that the Russians say State has ignored their security requests, a senior State Department official said: ”We follow our diplomatic obligations.”

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