Suspect to be arraigned in abduction, murder of Memphis heiress – National & International News – WED 7Sept2022

Suspect to be arraigned in abduction, murder of Memphis heiress. Report: seized Mar-a-Lago papers contained foreign nation’s nuclear secrets. Thousands still stranded in Pakistan floods.

NATIONAL NEWS

Suspect to be arraigned in abduction, murder of Memphis heiress

On Friday, the husband of kindergarten teacher Eliza “Liza” Fletcher, 34, reported her missing when she failed to return from an early morning jog.  Later that day, Memphis police located surveillance footage from the area near the University of Memphis where Fletcher was jogging. The video showed a man forcing Fletcher into the passenger seat of a black GMC Terrain SUV. The SUV then parked for four minutes before driving off.

Police quickly identified the driver of the SUV as Cleotha Abston, 38, and arrested him for especially aggravated kidnapping and evidence tampering. Witnesses stated that about 3 hours after the kidnapping, Abston had attempted to clean the SUV’s interior with floor cleaner outside his brother’s home and washed his clothes in a kitchen sink.

Fearing the worst, authorities then began looking for Fletcher. On Monday, searchers found a woman’s body near a vacant home about a half mile from Abston’s brother’s home. Later, a detective found a trash bag containing purple running shorts like those Fletcher was wearing in the surveillance video.

Yesterday, the body was positively identified as Fletcher. Police say her death was “violent”. Abston will be arraigned today on charges of first-degree murder, premeditated murder and murder in the course of the perpetration of a kidnapping.

Fletcher was the granddaughter of the late hardware mogul Joseph Orgill III, whose company does about $3 billion in sales annually. Police say questions remain about Fletcher’s kidnapping. However, Shelby County DA Steve Mulroy says investigators “have no reason to think this was anything other than an isolated attack by a stranger”. 

Click here for the full story (opens in new tab).

Report: seized Mar-a-Lago papers included info on foreign nation’s nuclear capabilities

Days after the FBI’s August 8 search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, The Washington Post, citing sources close to the investigation, reported that the FBI had conducted the raid believing that Trump was holding classified papers on nuclear technology. Today, the Post reports, again citing official sources, that the FBI raid did in fact recover documents relating to the nuclear capabilities and other defense capabilities of a foreign country. The report does not name the country in question and doesn’t specify whether it was a friendly nation or an adversary.

The Post also reported that some of the classified documents seized from Trump’s home contained material so sensitive that it is typically only viewable on a “need-to-know” basis. That means even officials with top level clearances can’t review the material at will. Even some of the Biden administration’s most senior national defense officials were not authorized to review this material.

Click here for the full story (opens in new tab).

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Thousands still stranded in Pakistan floods

Unusually heavy monsoon rains have flooded 1/3 of Pakistan in the country’s worst natural disaster in decades. The floods have affected 33 million people and led to the deaths of over 1300, many of them children. Authorities say about 250,000 people are in shelters, but that is only a fraction of the displaced.

Thousands of people across the country remain stranded on spits of exposed high ground and levies where they’ve been taking refuge for days or weeks in some cases. Flood damage to infrastructure has made it difficult for rescuers and aid workers to reach these people. Many of the stranded people are having difficulty obtaining adequate food or clean water.

Sherry Rehman, Pakistan’s climate change minister, says the devastation in her country is symptomatic of the inequities of climate change. Pakistan is responsible for less than 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Yet Pakistan and other low-emissions countries are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Rehman has called on the global community not only to help Pakistan during this crisis, but also with long-term work to make the country more climate resilient.

Click here for the full story (opens in new tab).

Please share any thoughts, comments or questions in the Comments section below!