
Head of London's police force Cressida Dick resigns after string of scandals
CBSN
The head of London's Metropolitan Police, Cressida Dick, said Thursday she is resigning after a string of controversies that undermined public confidence in the force and prompted a falling out between her and the capital's mayor. Mayor Sadiq Khan had recently threatened to oust Dick from her role, saying she wasn't doing enough to reform the Metropolitan Police, Britain's largest police force, and tackle growing accusations of misogyny and racism.
Khan said late Thursday it was clear the only way to overhaul the force was to have "new leadership right at the top of the Metropolitan Police."
In a statement, Dick, who has headed the force for four years and is the first woman to lead Scotland Yard, said it was with "huge sadness" that it has become clear that Khan "no longer has sufficient confidence in my leadership to continue."

Russia has released Ksenia Karelina, a dual U.S.-Russian national who was sentenced to 12 years in prison for treason in August last year, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a social media post early Thursday, offering no information about the terms of her release. The Wall Street Journal first reported Karelina's release, saying she was freed in a prisoner swap orchestrated by the two countries' intelligence agencies.

London — The British government's broadcasting regulator Ofcom announced Wednesday that it is investigating an online suicide forum reportedly linked to 50 deaths in the U.K. Ofcom said it was using new powers granted under British law to look into whether the site's service provider had "failed to put appropriate safety measures in place to protect its U.K. users from illegal content and activity."

Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo — Anthrax poisoning has killed about 50 hippos in Virunga, Africa's oldest national park, which is located in the Democratic Republic of Congo's troubled east, the head of the park told AFP on Tuesday. The toxin is caused by a spore-forming bacterium, Bacillus anthracis, which survives for decades in soil where animals that died of anthrax or were carriers were buried. It is transmissible to humans and potentially fatal in its inhaled form.

Moscow — An appellate court in Russia's far east on Monday reduced the prison sentence for an American soldier convicted of stealing and making threats of murder, Russia's state news agency RIA Novosti reported. Staff Sgt. Gordon Black, 34, flew to the Pacific port city of Vladivostok to see his girlfriend and was arrested in May 2024 after she accused him of stealing from her, according to U.S. officials and Russian authorities.