Fire ignites as capsized ship dismantled
SAVANNAH, Ga. -- The remains of an overturned cargo ship being dismantled along the Georgia coast caught fire Friday as workers used torches to cut into the hull, sending up black smoke and causing loud bangs that sounded like explosions.
The multiagency command overseeing demolition of the Golden Ray said in a statement late Friday that crews had put out the fire, which burned for several hours, and would remain on the scene overnight in case the blaze flared up again.
Susan Inman of the Altamaha Riverkeeper conservation group said that she could see flames shooting from the open ends and the top of the Golden Ray on Friday afternoon as she watched from a boat about 300 yards away near St. Simons Island.
No injuries had been reported and all demolition crew members near the shipwreck were safely evacuated, said a spokesman for the multiagency command in charge of the demolition.
Roughly half of the shipwreck remains partly submerged in St. Simons Sound. The South Korean-owned Golden Ray measured 656 feet long when it capsized on Sept. 8, 2019.
Ohio city to pay $10M over police killing
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio's capital city will pay a $10 million settlement to the family of Andre Hill, a Black man who was fatally shot by a white Columbus police officer in December as he emerged from a garage holding a cellphone, the Columbus city attorney announced Friday.
It's the largest such settlement in city history.
Hill, 47, was killed by officer Adam Coy on Dec. 22. Hill was visiting a family friend when he was shot. Coy and another officer had responded to a neighbor's nonemergency complaint about someone stopping and starting a car outside.
Coy was fired and has pleaded innocent charges of murder and reckless homicide.
"No amount of money will ever bring Andre Hill back to his family, but we believe this is an important and necessary step in the right direction," City Attorney Zach Klein said in a statement.
As part of the settlement, a gym frequented by Hill will be renamed the Andre Hill Gymnasium.
At a news conference Friday afternoon surrounded by Hill's family, attorney Ben Crump said, "We come here to applaud the city leadership in saying Andre Hill's life matters, and to send a message that we're better than this America."
Hill's older sister, Shawna Barnett, said that, "the money is a good thing; but having Andre here would be better."
Beyond an internal police investigation, the Ohio attorney general, the U.S. attorney for central Ohio and the FBI have begun inquiries into the shooting.
Ex-Green Beret gets 15 years for spying
FALLS CHURCH, Va. -- A former Army Green Beret who admitted divulging military secrets to Russia over a 15-year period was sentenced Friday to more than 15 years in prison for espionage.
Peter Dzibinski Debbins, 46, of Gainesville, Va., pleaded guilty to violating the federal Espionage Act.
His relationship with Russian agents dates to 1996 and spanned 15 years. It began when he was an ROTC student at the University of Minnesota and on a visit to Russia gave a handler there the names of four Catholic nuns he had visited after a Russian agent told him the nuns were involved in cult activity. In later years, he provided details about activities of his Army Special Forces unit overseas and the names of fellow Special Forces soldiers.
Debbins, at Friday's sentencing hearing in Alexandria, offered an apology of sorts in which he largely emphasized how he was victimized by the GRU, the Russian intelligence service.
Prosecutors said Debbins never told the FBI anything about being blackmailed. They said he's fabricated the excuse and that his original explanation of his motive is far more likely: That he was bitter about his time in the Army and that he considered himself a "loyal son of Russia."
Prosecutors said the very fact that a Special Forces soldier agreed to betray his country is just as damaging as any particular information he betrayed.
California base now Space Force host
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- California's Vandenberg Air Force Base has been renamed as a U.S. Space Force base on Friday.
The name was changed to Vandenberg Space Force Base during an afternoon ceremony on the parade field at the sprawling complex on the Central Coast, which tests ballistic missiles and conducts orbital launches for defense, science and commercial purposes.
The Space Force was created as the sixth uniformed military branch in 2019 during the administration of former President Donald Trump. Personnel assigned to the Air Force Space Command were reassigned to the Space Force, ending its Air Force lineage.
Vandenberg's host unit, the 30th Space Wing, will be redesignated Space Launch Delta 30, under Space Operations Command.
Vandenberg was originally established in 1941 as Camp Cooke, an Army garrison for tank, infantry and artillery training.