On Saturday, William Shatner took to Twitter to mourn the death of longtime Star Trek co-star Leonard Nimoy, ruefully confessing he couldn't "make it back in time" to attend the late actor's funeral on Sunday.

"I am currently in FL as I agreed to appear at the Red Cross Ball tonight," wrote Shatner. "I feel really awful."

"I loved him like a brother. We will all miss his humor, his talent, and his capacity to love." -William Shatner http://t.co/U8ZN98tVYp

— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) February 27, 2015

I am currently in FL as I agreed to appear at the Red Cross Ball tonight. Leonard's funeral is tomorrow. I can't make it back in time.

— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) February 28, 2015

I feel really awful. Here I am doing charity work and one of my dearest friends is being buried.

— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) February 28, 2015

Instead, Shatner suggested, fans could join him online tomorrow to remember Nimoy.

So maybe tomorrow we come together here and celebrate his life.

— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) February 28, 2015

So let's spend some time tomorrow celebrating Leonard's life and remembering the man.

— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) February 28, 2015

Until tomorrow! #LLAP

— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) February 28, 2015

Naturally, Shatner missing Nimoy's funeral over a seemingly minor scheduling conflict struck more than a few commenters as rather odd. Isn't there some Trek-loving billionaire out there who can charter Bill a flight?

[Image via AP Images]

United States immigration officials are seeking to deport at least 150 Bosnians who they believe participated in war crimes and "ethnic cleansing" during the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s, the New York Times reports.

Officials have identified around 300 immigrants they believe to have been involved wartime atrocities, a number which could rise as high as 600 as more documents and records from Bosnia become available, the Times reports. The Bosnian war left 100,000 dead and displaced two million more from 1992 to 1995.

From the Times:

Evidence developed by immigration officials indicates that perhaps as many as half of the 300 Bosnian suspects in the United States may have played a part in Europe's worst massacre since World War II: the 1995 genocide at Srebrenica, where Bosnian Serb forces executed some 8,000 unarmed Muslim boys and men.

Immigration officials say 64 Balkan immigrants have left the United States, either because they were expelled "through legal proceedings" or because they fled while under investigation. Most cases involve Bosnian Serbs, the Times reports—the majority of the war's atrocities were carried out by Bosnian Serbs seeking to establish their own state and backed by Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic—although action has apparently also been taken against Bosnian Muslims and Croats.

Just $65,000 was allotted last year for travel and translation expenses for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement's war crimes center, the Times reports. "There's been a lot of covering up of what happened in Bosnia, and a lot of these people who were involved are still walking around," Hamdija Custovic, a Bosnian immigrant and leader of the Congress of North American Bosniaks, said. "Whatever has been done to find these people is not enough. It's tragic."

When Officer Jonathan Abrams pulled over a Long Island man for speeding in the HOV lane Friday morning, he ran into a slight problem: He asked both men in the car for ID, but one of them, being several pieces of wood stuck together, had none.

"I noticed that the front seat passenger was not a person," Abrams (rudely) said of driver James Campbell's wooden companion. "It was constructed as if it was popsicle sticks, large popsicle sticks."

Campbell was then cited for speeding and occupancy violation, but he says he isn't about to abandon his boarded bud. On Friday evening, Campbell confirmed to WNBC that his pal is riding up front again.

"He's got a sister down in the basement," Campbell weirdly added, "and on special occasions I bring her out and she wears a tutu."

[Image via Suffolk County Police//h/t Gothamist]

Last night, on Saturday Night Live, Dakota Johnson graduated from high school and joined ISIS. Her proud and teary-eyed dad, played by Taran Killiam, dropped her off. "Death to America," shouted an ISIS fighter played by Kyle Mooney.

The sketch is a parody of this Toyota Camry ad, in which a father drops his daughter off at the airport on her way to join the (presumably American) military.

It also references the teen girls who are leaving home to join ISIS from all around the world.

Unsurprisingly, there was a lot of finger-wagging on social media about the sketch.

I'm going to go ahead and voice my opinion on the #SNL ISIS skit. Absolutely hell no, under any circumstance. Poor poor taste!

— Matthew Lyle (@mlyle2) March 1, 2015

#SNL makes #ISIS look funny. Easy to do living on Park Ave protected by NYPD & FBI. Christians being slaughtered in Middle East not laughing

— Green Mountain Skier (@VermontAttorney) March 1, 2015

Can't be serious. Isis skit? Like going to college? When so many people are being kidnapped and killed? Depraved. #SNL

— Raine LaChance (@rainelachance) March 1, 2015

SNL opening skit about ISIS was not funny. Not funny at all. Very sick. #Idiot Writers #SickHumor #SNLNeedsCancellled

— Chrissy Hartmann (@crhb4) March 1, 2015

Arsenio Hall was into it though, so who can really say.

ISIS: We'll take it from here dad! #snl #hilarious

— Arsenio Hall (@ArsenioHall) March 1, 2015

In court documents filed Friday, the City of Cleveland formally denied responsibility for the police shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, arguing his death was "directly and proximately caused" by his own actions.

Responding to the Rice family's wrongful death lawsuit, the city listed 20 defenses against their claims, saying, in part, that "all injuries, losses, and damages complained of" were a result of Rice's failure to "exercise due care to avoid injury."

According to that lawsuit, police acted "unreasonably, negligently [and] recklessly" when they shot the boy carrying an airsoft gun in a Cleveland park last November. As evidence of the city's negligence, the suit cites the Justice Department's recent report on excessive force by Cleveland police and the hiring of Rice's shooter, previously assessed by another police force as unfit for duty.

Attorney Walter Madison, who represents the Rice family, reaffirmed his belief in the lawsuit's merit Friday, telling The Plain Dealer, "I do believe that a 12-year-old child died unnecessarily at the hands of Cleveland police officers and I do believe that certain officers shouldn't have been entitled to wear the uniform."

[Image via AP Images]

On Saturday, Republican presidential hopeful won the Conservative Political Action Conference's presidential straw poll for the third consecutive year, the Guardian reports. Only three winners of 20 previous CPAC straw polls went on to win the party's nomination for president.http://jezebel.com/loving-the-shi...

According to the Guardian, Paul took 25.7 percent of the vote. Wisconsin governor Scott Walker came second, with 21.4 percent.

Paul's father, congressman Ron Paul, won the poll in 2010 and 2011, despite having failed in his campaigns for the Republican nomination in 2008 and 2012.

According to NJ.com, Chris Christie finished behind Donald Trump, with 2.8 percent of the vote to Trump's 7.5 percent.

In the past nine years, the Washington Post reports, the poll's winners have been: Mitt Romney, Romney, Romney, Ron Paul, Romney, Rand Paul, Rand, Rand.

After 11 months on the run, an American minister accused of molesting girls as young as 12 has been captured in Brazil, NBC News reports. According to authorities, 53-year-old Victor Arden Barnard was arrested in his apartment late Friday near one of the country's white sand beaches.

Last April, Barnard was charged with 59 counts of criminal sexual conduct with young girls while leading a Christian fellowship in Minnesota. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison. From CBS News:

According to a criminal complaint in the U.S., two women said they were among about 10 girls and young women who were chosen to live apart from their families in a camp that Barnard set up near Finlayson, Minnesota, about 90 miles north of Minneapolis.

One woman alleged Barnard sexually abused her beginning at age 13 and continuing until she was 22. The other said her abuse occurred between ages 12 and 20.

Barnard allegedly kept the girls isolated, and U.S. authorities have said he used religious coercion and intimidation to maintain his control over them, calling it cult-like behavior. He allegedly told one victim she would remain a virgin because he was a "man of God," according to a criminal complaint.

Since then, Barnard has been a fugitive from the law, making his way onto the U.S. Marshals' 15 Most Wanted list. Last believed to be in Washington state, Barnard reportedly entered Brazil illegally in 2012.

According to the Associated Press, Barnard is being held in Natal awaiting extradition.

[Image via U.S. Marshals]

Prince William visited Japan this week and took some photographs there with some people and some things, BuzzFeed News reports.

'ello!

Wot's this then, govnah!

Jolly good show, old boy! Ha ha!

U FOKIN WOT, M8.

Cool as y'like!

http://gawker.com/imprison-the-r...

[Photo credit: Getty Images | h/t BuzzFeed News]

Nina Pham, the nurse who contracted Ebola in Texas after treating Thomas Eric Duncan, the first U.S. Ebola patient to die, plans to file a lawsuit against the hospital where she was working and its parent company, the Dallas Morning News reports.

Pham told the News that she still has nightmares and body aches as a result of having contracted the disease, and that she also suffers from insomnia. She is suing Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas and its parent company Texas Health Resources for failing to provide proper training, as well as failing to protect her privacy after she was infected.

From the News:

Pham wants unspecified damages for physical pain and mental anguish, medical expenses and loss of future earnings. But she said that she wants to "make hospitals and big corporations realize that nurses and health care workers, especially frontline people, are important. And we don't want nurses to start turning into patients."

Pham alleges that the hospital ignored her request not to release any information about her, and that the video released of her in her hospital room was recorded without her consent. Her attorney told the News that Pham was used "as a PR pawn."

[Photo credit: AP Images]

On Sunday, singer, pouter and former juvenile delinquent Justin Bieber turned 21. Happy birthday, little dude!

Grateful to be alive!!! Love u!!! 21

— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) March 1, 2015

I love everybody! #21

— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) March 1, 2015

According to TMZ, the pop star rented a private island for the occasion. Other than that, however, Bieber celebrated his 21st birthday just like any other law-abiding American resident*: by trying his first sip of alcohol ever.

Tastes kinda gross, huh? Don't worry, Justin, I'm sure you'll get used to it.

*Bieber, of course, is a citizen of Canada, where everything is permitted.

[Image via Getty Images]

Former News Corp executive and News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks, who, last year, was found not guilty of hacking a murdered 13-year-old's cell phone, is about to be rehired by her old employer (and possibly lover) Rupert Murdoch, The Guardian reports.

According to The Guardian, Murdoch plans to rehire Brooks "in a permanent position heading up his search for new online investments." Brooks has moved to New York from Oxfordshire with her husband, who was also cleared of charges related to Brooks' arrest, and their daughter.

"She is still trusted and very much held in high regard by Murdoch," an anonymous source told the Daily Mail. "This is a high-status job at the top of the business."

"It is understood her husband, who was also acquitted of charges linked to Brooks's arrest, is hoping to relaunch his career in the horse-racing business in the U.S.," The Guardian reports.

The Guardian reports that Brooks' $7.7 million legal fees will be paid for in part with the $24.8 million severance deal she received, compensating her for the loss of future earnings after resigning as chief executive of News International in 2011.

[Photo credit: AP Images]

On Saturday, a small fire broke out near Disneyland's It's a Small World attraction, NBC Los Angeles reports, injuring none but entertaining many.

According to Disneyland spokesperson Suzi Brown, the blaze broke out at around 9:20 p.m.—possibly the result of a firework display—and was put out soon after. Still, plenty of people got a chance to capture the magic moment forever on social media.

"Yoooo," reported one eyewitness, "Small World, Small World's on fire, yo."

[ Image via Imgur//h/t Daily Mail]

Samuel Sam-Sumana, vice president of Sierra Leone, has voluntarily placed himself under a three-week quarantine after the death from Ebola of one of his security personnel last Tuesday, the Associated Press reports. Sierra Leone recorded 18 new cases of Ebola last week, up from 16 the week before.

"This virus has affected thousands of our people and has nearly brought our country to its knees," Sam-Sumana said in a statement. "We all have a collective responsibility to break the chains of transmission by isolating the sick and reporting all known contacts, by not touching the dead ... We cannot be complacent. We must work together as a nation to end Ebola now."

President Ernest Bai Koroma will attend a European Union conference on Ebola in Belgium, the AP reports. In the presidents' absence, Vice President Sam-Sumana will become acting president, carrying out his duties from home.

The present rise in Ebola cases comes as a surprise, The New York Times reported on Saturday. Health officials had thought the disease was receding. "We worked so hard," Emmanuel Conteh, an Ebola response coordinator, told the Times. "It is a shame to all of us."

[Photo credit: AP Images]

A video posted to Facebook Sunday night shows several LAPD cops struggling with a man before eventually shooting him on the street in downtown L.A. The man, still unidentified, was reportedly homeless.

According to Officer Jack Richter, police were responding to a call regarding an altercation between two people on Sunday morning.

As several of the officers wrestled the man to the street, a woman approaches from behind and grabs a baton one cop appears to have dropped. He runs up to the woman shouting, "You have my stick! You have my stick!" before two officers slam her to the ground.

Still struggling to subdue the first man, it looks as though officers begin to taser him. One of the officers is then heard repeatedly shouting, "he's going for my gun!" before five shots are fired.

The original video was reportedly uploaded to Facebook by a man named Anthony Blackburn. As of this posting, it has been viewed upwards of 100,000 times. It has not yet been confirmed whether the shooting was fatal.

Update 2, 03/02/15, 7:45 a.m.: The LAPD has confirmed that the man officers shot and killed yesterday was homeless. LAPD Sgt. Barry Montgomery told KTLA that police were called to the scene, in LA's Skid Row, after a reported robbery:

On Sunday evening, LAPD Commander Andrew Smith told reporters that when the officers arrived "they saw the individual they believed was a suspect and attempted to take him into custody."

A struggle ensued, during which police used a Taser on the man several times in an unsuccessful effort to subdue him, Smith said.

"It became a struggle over one of the officer's weapons," the commander said, referring to a firearm. The man was then shot by police, Smith said. It was unknown how many times he was struck. Shortly afterward, he was pronounced dead at the scene by Los Angeles firefighters.

Smith also told the Los Angeles Timesthat two officers and one sergeant fired their weapons; one officer's body camera apparently recorded the incident.

Witnesses told the Times that the man killed was known locally as "Africa," and had apparently been living in a tent on Skid Row for a number of months "after spending a long stretch in a mental health facility."

"That man never was a threat," Lonnie Franklin, who claims to have witnessed the shooting, told the paper. "The amount of officers present at the time could have subdued him."

Update: According to reports, the man was taken to a hospital; he was pronounced dead shortly thereafter.

A New Jersey police dive team recovered a pickup truck that sunk into the Toms River early Sunday morning after the vehicle was spotted driving donuts on the ice. The driver and passenger later turned themselves into police; both were unharmed. Their dog was not so lucky: Police found its frozen body in the submerged truck.

According to Toms River police, they received a 911 call that a car had driven onto the frozen river just past midnight Sunday, and shortly after police arrived at the scene, the truck went under:

The truck drove out to the center of the river and began doing "donuts". Police units responded and also observed the vehicle on the ice. The headlight and brake lights could be seen from the shoreline as the vehicle headed South and West towards the other side of the river. After a period of time went by the lights suddenly were no longer visible.

"They went on the ice, and police shined their light on them, and they took off on the ice—turned lights off and took off," John Fackenthal, the passenger's uncle, told ABC New York. "They heard a crack, and got out of the car, and couldn't get the dog out, so the dog is still under."

With the help of a Coast Guard helicopter, the New York Daily News reports, police were able to fish the truck out of the river around 10 a.m. this morning*

NJSP TEAMS Unit conducted Successful Dive confirmed, No persons in Pickup; Boxer mix dog found in pkup. 2 subjects in custody.

— NJSP - State Police (@NJSP) March 1, 2015

[Image via U.S. Coast Guard Mid-Atlantic]

Contact the author at aleksander@gawker.com .

Did Bill O’Reilly personally witness “Irish terrorists kill and maim their fellow citizens in Belfast with bombs”? The answer, as you may have guessed, is definitely not. But in this particular case, his long-time employer Fox News is openly admitting to their top anchor’s fabrication.

Last week, the network dismissed a widening array of allegations against O’Reilly as “nothing more than an orchestrated campaign by far left advocates” and argued that “responding to the unproven accusation du jour has become an exercise in futility.”

But Fox News did respond to questions posed by Paul Farhi of the Washington Post, about a 2013 book in which O’Reilly wrote, “I’ve seen soldiers gun down unarmed civilians in Latin America, Irish terrorists kill and maim their fellow citizens in Belfast with bombs.” In a statement to the Post, the network admits that O’Reilly did not actually see anything of the sort:

Asked about O'Reilly’s statements Friday, a Fox News spokesman said that O’Reilly was not an eyewitness to any bombings or injuries in Northern Ireland. Instead, he was shown photos of bombings by Protestant police officers.

Want to read more about O’Reilly’s dangerous adventures? The book in which he originally claimed to have witnessed the Belfast bombings, Keep It Pithy: Useful Observations in a Tough World: An Essential Collection of Writings By One of the Most Powerful Voices in Media Today, can be purchased on BillOReilly.com for $21.99.

Image credit: Fox News

To win the "Blurred Lines" copyright trial against Marvin Gaye's children, sad pop star Robin Thicke is digging a very deep hole to bury his career in. This week's revelation? He once looked Oprah right in her beautiful, trusting face and lied.

In 2013, Thicke, Pharrell and T.I. preemptively sued Gaye's children to force a court to decide whether their smash hit "Blurred Lines" technically infringes on Gaye's classic 1977 song, "Got to Give It Up."‎

So far, Thicke's strategy has been to desperately attempt to distance himself from the song, claiming under oath that he's a liar who should never have been credited because he was too wacked out on Vicodin to actually participate in the songwriting process.

And this month, the second-rate James Frey reportedly testified that he "lied to Oprah when he told her half of his music was inspired by Gaye."

But one thing he's definitely not lying about, nope, no way, nothing to see here? His personal liability in the case. Via the LA Times:

Richard Busch, an attorney representing Gaye's children, asked Thicke if he changed his story after he learned of the copyright claim.

"‎Absolutely not," the performer replied.

According to reports, an Oregon woman was arrested on smuggling charges in Japan last week after her mother mailed her a three-month refill of her Adderall prescription.

Carrie Russell, a 26-year-old English teacher, was arrested on Feb. 20 while eating dinner with friends at a Nagoya restaurant. Authorities say they discovered the pills—which are illegal in Japan—hidden inside an old Tylenol bottle.

Russell, who was reportedly diagnosed with attention deficit disorder at age 7, was living in South Korea when her mom mailed the prescription refill. But authorities say she broke the law when she accepted a new job and shipped the unmarked pill bottle in her belongings to Japan, where the stimulants have been outlawed since the 1950s.

Russell's mother—a doctor who did not prescribe the medication—tells Oregon Live she believes Japanese authorities are misinterpreting her daughter's actions:

First, as a physician who often prescribes Adderall, she routinely advises patients to consider keeping pills in unmarked containers because prescription bottles attract burglars, due to the substance's high street value. She advises against carrying the medication in a car or purse, and to consider keeping it in a locked safe.

Second, knowing of the stigma in Japan concerning mental disorders, she didn't want Carrie Russell's reputation to suffer in case someone opening her household shipments noticed the medication.

"My repackaging [in the Tylenol container] was not an attempt to break or circumvent the law," Jill Russell wrote in a sworn affidavit sent Feb. 25 to Japanese police. "It was intended to preserve Carrie's privacy and dignity around a sensitive issue regarding medication to treat a disorder which falls under the area of mental health."

Russell is reportedly facing several years in prison over the medication. Oregon Live reports U.S. diplomats had a hard time locating her because Japanese authorities neglected to notify the American embassy of her arrest.

Despite multiple efforts, American envoys have so far been unable to secure her release from the detention center

[h/t NYDN]

Charmayne Maxwell, best known as a member of the Grammy-nominated 1990's R&B group Brownstone, was found dying this week in what cops are calling a bizarre, freak accident.

According to TMZ, Maxwell's husband found her bleeding to death in their Los Angeles home on Friday evening:

A family member tells us Charmayne had come home from her son's soccer game, and was home alone with him. Later in the evening ... around 9 PM her husband, music producer Carsten Soulshock, came home and found her unconscious and bleeding.

We're told it looked like Charmayne had fallen and cut her neck on glass ... she was bleeding profusely, but still had a pulse. Carsten called 911, and paramedics transported her to Cedars Sinai Hospital ... but she had lost too much blood. We're told she died on the way to the hospital.

Charmayne's death is still under investigation, but investigators reportedly do not suspect foul play at this time. Her brother denied reports of a suicide note, writing "People are so dumb. This is actually BS... Bad things happen to the most innocent people. My sister died in the most terrible way and I'm in so much pain right now."

[image via Instagram]

According to the AP, Iraqi officials launched a "large-scale military operation" backed by Sunni and Shiite forces to recapture a large city north of Baghdad from ISIS terrorists Monday.

The AP reports that Al-Iraqiya television confirmed the operation—"backed by artillery and airstrikes by Iraqi fighter jets"—and claimed some militants had already been driven out of the area.

ISIS took control the city of Tikrit—best known as Saddam Hussein's hometown—last summer. According to the AP, it is one of the largest cities currently held by the terrorist group and a key area.

Prime Minister Haider al-al-Abadi reportedly asked ISIS members to abandon the cause before the offensive began, promising an official pardon in exchange.

"I call upon those who have been misled or committed a mistake to lay down arms and join their people and security forces in order to liberate their cities," al-Abadi said Sunday during a news conference in Samarra, 95 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad.

Al-Abadi offered what he called "the last chance" for Sunni tribal fighters, promising them a pardon. "The city will soon return to its people," he added.

[image via AP]