Law enforcement officials in Arkansas are investigating after the bodies of newborn twins were reportedly discovered in a suitcase by a hunter on Friday.

The infants were found in a purple suitcase in a ditch near County Road 602 in Wynne just before 2 p.m. on Friday, the Cross County Sheriff's Office stated in a news release. Officials said the babies appear to be twins.

The Arkansas State Crime Lab expects the autopsies for the babies to be completed Tuesday morning, according to Fox 16.

"You know, it's always something being dumped in this ditch," Clyde Collins told the station. "To think something like that had happened was kind of strange."

The US risks finding itself out in the cold if it continues to push its anti-Iranian agenda, Sputnik contributor Igor Gashkov writes. Calling upon its European allies to sever ties with the Islamic Republic, Washington has failed to take EU economic interests into consideration.

The Iran issue has deeply divided The United States and Europe: while Washington has declared Tehran a sponsor of terrorism, EU member-states continue to invest in the country's economy, Sputnik contributor Igor Gashkov writes.

"There is an immense difference between Europeans and Americans on this issue," Director of the Center for Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies Semyon Bagdasarov told Sputnik. "A big contract was signed by Tehran and the French to modernize the [country's] entire aviation fleet. Paris and Berlin are actively investing in the production of Iranian hydrocarbons. European business has great prospects in Iran, and new sanctions threaten to frustrate cooperation. The interests of the US and the EU are diametrically opposed to each other here."

Former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke Jr. insinuated Wednesday that student survivors of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting were being manipulated by Democratic billionaire George Soros to organize for gun control.

In a tweet, the former Wisconsin sheriff wrote that media appearances and an activism campaign from students of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School against gun violence had "George Soros' fingerprints all over it."

Seventeen people were killed at the Parkland high school last week when a gunman attacked with an AR-15. In the days following, students of the school have organized a national campaign aimed at reducing gun violence.

Clarke, who resigned as sheriff last year amid speculation he would join the Trump administration, now serves as senior adviser and spokesman for the pro-Trump America First Action PAC. He is scheduled to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) later this week.

CPAC organizers did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Clarke's remarks.

Last December, California Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia rose to national prominence as one of Time's Persons of the Year for her leadership role in the #MeToo movement. Now, she is facing a growing chorus of former employees who are accusing her of engaging in serial sexual misconduct while under the influence of alcohol.

On February 8^th, Politico reported the first allegations against the assemblywoman from Daniel Fierro, one of her former staffers. He told the publication that in 2014, after the California Assembly's annual softball game, he stayed behind to clean up one of the field's dugouts. An apparently drunk Garcia then cornered him in the enclosed space, stroked his back, and grabbed his butt before trying to grab his crotch, at which point the staffer fled.

Day 6 ratings for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics games is down to nearly two thirds of what day 6 ratings were for the prime time broadcast of of the first Thursday of the Sochi 2014 games garnered. With the games being aired on NBC, NBC Sports Network, and live stream, the total reach, as compared to the NBC only broadcast of the Sochi Olympics, viewership was considerably lower.

Deadline Hollywood reports:

With 19.3 million watching on NBC, NBC Sports Network and streaming in total audience delivery, last night's Olympics barely was basically even with Valentine's Day's all-time low for the 2018 games so far. Cutting into any minor celebration the Comcast-owned net might get out of being up 0.5%, all those Day 6 official competition platforms put together last night was still down over 15% from the first Thursday of Sochi 2014 - which was only seen on NBC in primetime.

Putting up NBC 2018 against the broadcast-only coverage of February 13, 2014's XXII Winter Games and things start to really sting. Last night's primetime featuring Mikaela Shiffrin and Nathan Chen in PyeongChang dropped a hard 29% in sets of eyeballs.

In smaller numbers but still significant for NBCUniversal, NBCSN had its best night of the 2018 Games so far with 2.75 million tuning in.

The Olympics have taken a back seat to standard television programming over the course of the last few games. Any number of different reasons could be put forward about why this is so, not the least of which might be the growing politicization of the games as they become another outlet for geopolitical rivalry, rather than healthy sports competition.

Investors pummeled Walmart shares Tuesday after the retail behemoth reported disappointing fourth-quarter earnings in results that revealed growing pains in its e-commerce buildout.

Walmart suffered one of its worst days ever on Wall Street, plunging 10.2 percent to close at $94.11, its biggest one-day decline in percentage terms in more than 30 years.

The company reported another solid quarter of gains in US comparable store sales, but quarterly earnings slumped 42.1 percent to $2.2 billion. Earnings were dented primarily by investments to keep prices low and by the effects of online sales of lower-margin items, chief financial officer Brett Biggs said.

Walmart also reported much slower growth in e-commerce sales than in the prior three months

Now that the gun control advocates have had their fifteen minutes of fame, let's start focusing on the real issues impacting the rise in school shootings since that infamous day in Columbine in 1999. Issue number one that no one in the mainstream media or government wants to acknowledge: fatherlessness. Specifically, the impact of fatherlessness on the boys who grew up to become school shooters.

Dr. Warren Farrell, author of the new book The Boy Crisis, explains:

Minimal or no father involvement, whether due to divorce, death, or imprisonment, is common to Adam Lanza, Elliott Rodgers, Dylan Roof and Stephen Paddock.

In the case of 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, he was adopted at birth. His adoptive dad died when Nikolas was much younger, and doubtless the challenges of this fatherlessness was compounded by the death of his adoptive mom three and a half months ago.

The rate of mass shootings has tripled since 2011. We blame guns, violence in the media, violence in video games, and poor family values. Each is a plausible player. But our daughters live in the same homes, with the same access to the same guns, video games, and media, and are raised with the same family values. Our daughters are not killing. Our sons are.

But boys with significant father involvement are not doing these shootings. Without dads as role models, boys' testosterone is not well channeled. The boy experiences a sense of purposelessness, a lack of boundary enforcement, rudderlessness, and often withdraws into video games and video porn. At worst, when boys' testosterone is not well-channeled by an involved dad, boys become among the world's most destructive forces. When boys' testosterone is well channeled by an involved dad, boys become among the world's most constructive forces.

How dirty is San Francisco? An NBC Bay Area Investigation reveals a dangerous mix of drug needles, garbage, and feces throughout downtown San Francisco. The Investigative Unit surveyed 153 blocks of the city - the more than 20-mile stretch includes popular tourist spots like Union Square and major hotel chains. The area - bordered by Van Ness Avenue, Market Street, Post Street and Grant Avenue - is also home to City Hall, schools, playgrounds, and a police station.

As the Investigative Unit photographed nearly a dozen hypodermic needles scattered across one block, a group of preschool students happened to walk by on their way to an afternoon field trip to city hall.

"We see poop, we see pee, we see needles, and we see trash," said teacher Adelita Orellana. "Sometimes they ask what is it, and that's a conversation that's a little difficult to have with a 2-year old, but we just let them know that those things are full of germs, that they are dangerous, and they should never be touched."

In light of the dangerous conditions, part of Orellana's responsibilities now include teaching young children how to avoid the contamination.

The Russian air grouping in Syria has officially joined the Syrian Army's looming East Ghouta offensive, backing up heavy raids conducted by government warplanes against militant position across the region on Monday with many of its own strikes.

Military-affiliated sources report that Russian airpower conducted heavy precision strikes across multiple rebel-held districts east of Damascus city targeting militant tactical positions, gatherings and movements.

As of the last reports two hours ago, Russian jets were still carrying-out raids over East Ghouta.

In particular, it is believed that the Russian combat aircraft have placed considerable emphasis on striking rebel fire support positions (such as anti-tank missile dug-outs and heavy machine gun nests) with precision weapons.

During the past couple of days, opposition sources have claimed that Russian warplanes raided East Ghouta, however all such reports are untrue and it is not until around midnight on Monday to Tuesday that Russian jets started to conduct strikes against militant targets throughout the region.

Newsweek published a story about the company's financial ties to a mysterious church, but editors said the company attempted to thwart their reporting efforts.

Several Newsweek staffers threatened to resign earlier this week, accusing the company of attempting to muzzle the publishing of a story further detailing internal turmoil at the magazine and ties to a controversial Christian college.

On Tuesday evening, Newsweek published a story about previously unreported ties between Newsweek Media Group (which also owns International Business Times) and Olivet University's efforts to develop a campus in upstate New York. Olivet, which is affiliated with a mysterious religious sect called "The Community," has numerous connections to former leaders of NMG.

But not before several reporters and editors made it clear to management that they would quit if Newsweek did not publish the story.