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Israeli union goes on strike as Netanyahu faces rage over Hamas killing of hostages without cease-fire deal

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There were widespread disruptions across Israel on Monday as members of the country’s largest labor union went on strike to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a deal to bring home the remaining hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.

The leader of the Histadrut union, which has hundreds of thousands of members in Israel, called for the strike on Sunday after news broke of the recovery of the bodies of six hostages who had previously been known to be alive, including Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin.

The Israel Defense Forces said all six were killed a short time before their bodies were found by Israeli troops inside a tunnel in Gaza.

Funeral of Hersh Goldberg-Polin one of six Israeli hostages whose body was recovered from Hamas captivity in Gaza, in Jerusalem
People pay their respects on the street on the day of the funeral of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, one of six Israeli hostages whose body was recovered from Hamas captivity in Gaza, in Jerusalem September 2, 2024

Ronen Zvulun / REUTERS


“My message to Prime Minister Netanyahu is that my brother Keith and all the remaining hostages need to be home immediately,” Israeli-American Lee Seigel, whose brother Keith is among the roughly 75 hostages still believed to be held alive in Gaza, told CBS News at a protest on Sunday that drew hundreds of thousands of Israelis onto the streets.

Seigel said a deal was needed immediately for “those who are alive, to start rebuilding, as the country needs to rebuild, and those who are deceased, for a proper burial. Eleven months, almost 11 months of war is too much, too long,” he said.

While many private sector businesses were open as usual on Monday, municipal services as well as services at Israel’s main air transport hub, Ben Gurion Airport, were at least partially disrupted. Banks were closed and hospitals were only partially operating, the Reuters news agency reported.

Israel’s labor court ruled that the general strike would need to end by 2:30 p.m. local time on Monday, and the ruling was accepted by the union.

The nationwide strike came after months of regular protests led by the families of the hostages over Netanyahu’s handling of negotiations aimed at securing a cease-fire and hostage release agreement.  

As negotiations have taken place between Israel and Hamas through mediators including Qatar, Egypt and the United States, one of the biggest recent sticking points has been whether Israel would agree to pull back its troops from the border area between Gaza and Egypt known as the Philadelphi Corridor after any deal.

“The country needs quiet. The region needs quiet,” Seigel told CBS News. “Politics are driving the speech, the [cease-fire] non-negotiations negotiations, and are driving an extreme government in attempts to hold on to their power.”

Seigel said the killing of the six additional hostages meant President Biden should rethink the way the U.S. supports the Israeli government.

The war “serves political interests that do not jibe with the needs of our country, nor the region, nor Gaza,” Seigel said. “President Biden… we know you will not give up. But not giving up at this point means doing whatever is necessary. The United States can leverage many different interests, issues within Israel, within the region… They need to make some very, very hard decisions now that we have crossed a red line, where everything is available in the arsenal of the United States government to bring a cease-fire, to bring quiet and return hostages.”

Israel Palestinians
This combination of six undated photos shows hostages, from top left, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Ori Danino, Eden Yerushalmi, from bottom left, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, and Carmel Gat, who were held hostage by Hamas militants in Gaza. On Sept. 1, 2024, the Hostages Families Forum announced their deaths while in Hamas captivity.

The Hostages Families Forum via AP


The six hostages whose bodies were recovered were Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, and Master Sgt. Ori Danino. The Israeli Ministry of Health said that autopsies showed they had each been shot at close range on Thursday or Friday.

Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s family confirmed his death in a statement released early Sunday, thanking supporters and asking for privacy. His funeral was schedule to take place on Monday, and thousands lined the funeral procession route to pay their respects.

President Biden, who spoke to the Goldberg-Polin family, said he was “devastated and outraged” by Goldberg-Polin’s killing.

“Hersh was among the innocents brutally attacked while attending a music festival for peace in Israel on October 7. He lost his arm helping friends and strangers during Hamas’ savage massacre,” Mr. Biden said.

Netanyahu blamed Hamas for the stalled cease-fire negotiations, saying “whoever murders hostages doesn’t want a deal.”

Mr. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were scheduled to meet with the team representing the U.S. in the hostage deal negotiations at the White House later on Monday.

contributed to this report.



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Suspect detained in killing of Gen. Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s biological, chemical forces in Moscow blast

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Moscow — Russia’s security service said Wednesday that it has detained a suspect in the killing of a senior general in Moscow.

The suspect was described as an Uzbek citizen recruited by Ukrainian intelligence services.

Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, didn’t name the suspect, but said he was born in 1995. According to an FSB statement, the suspect said he was recruited by Ukrainian special services.

Ukrainian security sources had told CBS News Monday that the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) killed Kirillov in a special operation. The claim couldn’t be independently verified, but Russian officials quickly vowed to take revenge against Ukraine’s leaders.  

RUSSIA-BLAST-MILITARY
In this screengrab from an AFPTV footage, Igor Kirillov, head of the Russian Defense Ministry’s radiological, biological and chemical protection unit, speaks at a press briefing in June 2018.

AFPTV / AFP via Getty Images


Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov was killed Tuesday by a bomb hidden in a scooter outside his apartment building in Moscow, a day after Ukraine’s security service leveled criminal charges against him. His assistant also died in the attack. A Ukrainian official said the service carried out the attack.

The FSB said the suspect had been promised a reward of $100,000 and permission to move to a European Union country in exchange for killing Kirillov.

The agency stated that, acting on instructions from Ukraine, the suspect traveled to Moscow, where he picked up a homemade explosive device. He then placed the device on an electric scooter and parked it at the entrance to the residential building where Kirillov lived.

The suspect then rented a car to monitor the location and set up a camera that livestreamed footage from the scene to his handlers in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro. Once Kirillov was seen leaving the building, the suspect detonated the bomb.

According to the FSB’s statement, the suspect faces “a sentence of up to life imprisonment.”

Kirillov, 54, was the chief of the military’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces and was under sanctions from several countries, including the U.K. and Canada, for his actions in Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine. On Monday, Ukraine’s Security Service, or SBU, opened a criminal investigation against him, accusing him of directing the use of banned chemical weapons.

Russia has denied using any chemical weapons in Ukraine and, in turn, has accused Kyiv of using toxic agents in combat.

Kirillov, who took his current job in 2017, was one of the most high-profile figures to level those accusations. He held numerous briefings to accuse the Ukrainian military of using toxic agents and planning to launch attacks with radioactive substances – claims that Ukraine and its Western allies rejected as propaganda.

The bomb used in Tuesday’s attack was triggered remotely, according to Russian news reports. Images from the scene showed shattered windows and scorched brickwork.

Head of Russian nuclear protection forces killed in Moscow explosion
A view of the scene after Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, chief of Russia’s Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Defense Troops, and his assistant were killed in an explosion in Moscow on December 17, 2024. 

Sefa Karacan / Anadolu via Getty Images


Russia’s top state investigative agency said it’s looking into Kirillov’s death as a case of terrorism, and officials in Moscow vowed to punish Ukraine.



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Indiana conducts first execution in 15 years, puts quadruple killer to death

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Michigan City, Indiana — An Indiana man convicted of killing four people including his brother and his sister’s fiancé decades ago was put to death Wednesday, without any independent witness, marking the state’s first execution in 15 years.

Joseph Corcoran, 49, was pronounced dead at 12:44 a.m. CST at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, Indiana, the Indiana Department of Correction said in a statement. CBS Indianapolis affiliate WTTV reports that officials said the execution process started just after midnight.

joseph-corcoran.jpg
Undated photo provided by the Indiana Department of Corrections shows Joseph Corcoran.

Indiana Department of Corrections via AP


Corcoran was scheduled to be executed with the powerful sedative pentobarbital, but the state agency’s statement did not mention that drug. Corcoran’s execution was the 24th in the U.S. this year.

According to WTTV,  the statement said Corcoran told officials his last words were, “Not really. Let’s get this over with.”  

He was convicted in the July 1997 shootings of his brother, 30-year-old James Corcoran, his sister’s fiancé, 32-year-old Robert Scott Turner, and two other men, Timothy G. Bricker, 30, and Douglas A. Stillwell, 30.

According to court records, before Corcoran fatally shot the four victims he was under stress because the forthcoming marriage of his sister to Turner would necessitate moving out of the Fort Wayne, Indiana, home he shared with his brother and sister.

While jailed for those killings, Corcoran reportedly bragged about fatally shooting his parents in 1992 in northern Indiana’s Steuben County. He was charged in their killings but acquitted.

Last summer, Gov. Eric Holcomb announced plans to resume state executions following a yearslong hiatus marked by a scarcity of lethal injection drugs nationwide.

The state provided limited details about the execution process, and no media witnesses were permitted under state law.

Indiana and Wyoming are the only two states that do not allow members of the media to witness state executions, according to a recent report by the Death Penalty Information Center.

Corcoran’s attorneys had fought his death penalty sentence for years, arguing he was severely mentally ill, which affected his ability to understand and make decisions. This month, his attorneys asked the Indiana Supreme Court to stop his execution but the request was denied.

Corcoran exhausted his federal appeals in 2016. But his attorneys asked the U.S. District Court of Northern Indiana last week to stop his execution and hold a hearing to decide if it would be unconstitutional because Corcoran has a serious mental illness. The court declined to intervene Friday, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit did the same Tuesday.

Corcoran’s attorneys then asked the U.S. Supreme Court issue an emergency order halting his execution, but the high court denied their request for a stay late Tuesday, ending Corcoran’s options with the courts.

His sole remaining hope then became Holcomb, who could have commuted Corcoran’s death sentence. But that commutation never came and the execution proceeded as scheduled.

WTTV says Holcomb issued a statement saying Corcoran’s case “has been reviewed repeatedly over the last 25 years – including 7 times by the Indiana Supreme Court and 3 times by the U.S. Supreme Court, the most recent of which was tonight. His sentence has never been overturned and was carried out as ordered by the court.”

Indiana’s last state execution was in 2009 when Matthew Wrinkles was put to death for killing his wife, her brother and sister-in-law in 1994.

Since then, 13 executions were carried out in Indiana, but those were initiated and performed by federal officials in 2020 and 2021 at a federal prison in Terre Haute.

State officials have said they couldn’t continue executions because a combination of drugs used in lethal injections had become unavailable.

For years, there has been a shortage across the country because pharmaceutical companies have refused to sell their products for that purpose. That’s pushed states, including Indiana, to turn to compounding pharmacies, which manufacture drugs specifically for a client. Some use more accessible drugs such as the sedatives pentobarbital or midazolam, both of which, critics say, can cause intense pain.

Religious groups, disability rights advocates and others have opposed his execution. About a dozen people, some holding candles, held a vigil late Tuesday to pray outside the prison, which is surrounded by barbed wire fences in a residential area about 60 miles east of Chicago.

“We can build a society without giving governmental authorities the right to execute their own citizens,” said Bishop Robert McClory of the Diocese of Gary, who led the prayers.

Other death penalty opponents also demonstrated outside the prison Tuesday night, some holding signs that read “Execution Is Not The Solution” and “Remember The Victims But Not With More Killing.”

“There is no need and no benefit from this execution. It’s all show,” said Abraham Borowitz, director of Death Penalty Action, his organization that protests every execution in the U.S.

Prison officials said in a brief statement Tuesday evening that Corcoran “requested Ben & Jerry’s ice cream for his last meal.”

Corcoran said farewell late Tuesday to relatives, including his wife, Tahina Corcoran, who told reporters outside the prison that they discussed their faith and their memories, including attending high school together. She reiterated her request for Indiana’s governor to commute her husband’s death sentence.

Tahina Corcoran said her husband is “very mentally ill” and she didn’t think he fully grasped what was happening to him.

“He is in shock. He doesn’t understand,” she said.



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1 killed, 9 injured in shooting, fiery crash in Baltimore suburb of Towson, police say

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1 dead, 9 injured in mass shooting, fiery crash in Towson, police say


1 dead, 9 injured in mass shooting, fiery crash in Towson, police say

06:24

BALTIMORE — One person was killed and nine others injured in a shooting and fiery crash in the Baltimore suburb of Towson Tuesday night, authorities said.

Law enforcement responded at around 7:15 p.m. in the 8500 block of Loch Raven Boulevard, Baltimore County Police Chief Robert McCullough said in a news briefing. 

“It appears to be a mass shooting incident,” McCullough told reporters. “We have multiple persons who were shot. Right now, we are determining the circumstances and the conditions in this case.”


Baltimore County Police provide update to mass shooting in Towson

10:11

The first arriving officer found a vehicle on its side in flames near a funeral home, McCullough said, and then several gunshot victims were found in the area. 

“There appears to be some type of incident that led to the vehicle crashing and catching on fire,” McCollough said. “Investigators are looking into the circumstances leading up to that.”   

The name of the person killed and the manner of death was not released, nor were the conditions of the nine people injured. McCollough did not specify how many of the nine people injured were gunshot victims. 

At this time, investigators believe this was an isolated and targeted incident, with no further threat to the community, he added. It’s unclear if any suspects have been arrested. There was no word on a possible motive. 

“We will leave no stone unturned and we will dedicate every resource to this,” McCullough said. “We don’t generally see incidents like this in our community in Baltimore County. I assure you as your police chief that we will put all resources toward trying to clear this case.”

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was at the scene assisting police, as was the Baltimore County Fire Department.

“This is an incident that is shocking, particularly for those of us in Baltimore County,” said Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski. “These types of incidents are unheard of here, so it really shocks the conscience. However, we want our residents to know that we are, as always, fully committed to ensuring that both our fire and police departments have the full support and all the resources they need from the Baltimore County government to ensure that they bring this investigation to a conclusion.” 

Anyone with information is asked to call Baltimore County Police at 410-887-4636.



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