Associated Press stories, Page 246

RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Five patients in intensive care died after their oxygen cut off in southern Gaza’s main hospital that was stormed by Israeli troops, causing chaos for hundreds of staff and wounded inside, health officials said Friday. Troops were searching the complex where the military said it believes...

Greece has become the first majority-Orthodox Christian nation to legalize same-sex marriage under civil law. At least for the near future, it will almost certainly be the only one. Eastern Orthodox leadership, despite lacking a single doctrinal authority like a pope, has been united in opposing recognition of same-sex relationships...

BERLIN — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a bilateral security agreement with Germany and planned to sign another with France on Friday, securing a strong signal of long-term backing as Kyiv works to shore up Western support nearly two years after Russia launched its full-scale war. The Ukrainian leader was...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Egypt is building a wall and is leveling land near its border with the Gaza Strip ahead of a planned Israeli offensive targeting the border city of Rafah, satellite images analyzed Friday by the Associated Press show. Egypt, which has not publicly acknowledged the construction,...

Alexei Navalny, who crusaded against official corruption and staged massive anti-Kremlin protests as President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe, died Friday in the Arctic penal colony where he was serving a 19-year sentence, Russia’s prison agency said. He was 47. The stunning news — less than a month before an election...

BOSTON — With back-to-back Super Bowl victories for the hometown Chiefs, Kansas City football fans gathered for another championship parade and a second celebratory pep rally in a row. Don’t expect there to be a third. Not because the Chiefs, with star quarterback Patrick Mahomes still just 28 years old,...

INDIANAPOLIS — Victor Wembanyama’s first NBA All-Star experience will be hectic, just like everything else has seemed so far in his rookie season with the San Antonio Spurs. He’s going to the Tech Summit, the league’s thinktank that kicks off the All-Star festivities Friday morning. He’ll have a slate of...

BATON ROUGE, La. — An LSU football player was arrested Thursday and charged with attempted second-degree murder after a shooting last week that injured two people. Treyvion Antwan Holly, a freshman running back, faces three charges — attempted second-degree murder, aggravated criminal damage to property and illegal use of a...

TAMPA, Fla. — Gerrit Cole was leaving the Yankees’ minor-league complex when fans on the sidewalk by the parking lot asked for autographs. When the 2023 AL Cy Young Award winner reached over a bush-lined fence to grab a baseball and pen, a fan asked whether he could capture the...

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Don’t expect Denny Hamlin to stay in line during the closing laps of the Daytona 500. He’s not settling for second. He’s not sacrificing his finish to help a teammate. He’s not counting on anyone else, either. It’s exactly how he wants it, maybe how he...

WASHINGTON — An FBI informant has been charged with lying to authorities about a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden, his son Hunter and a Ukrainian energy company, a claim that is central to the Republican impeachment inquiry in Congress. Alexander Smirnov falsely reported in June 2020 that executives...

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Two games in two days. A concert. Four Metropolitan Division rivals separated by about a 100-mile corridor that runs from New York to Philadelphia. Roughly 140,000 fans sitting in bone-chilling temperatures waiting to shout for a goal or great save. Hockey is coming back to the...

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s state courts agency said Thursday that it never received a ransom demand as part of a cyberattack that briefly shut down some of its online services earlier this month and prompted a federal investigation. The attack, called a “denial of services” attack, on the website of the...

WASHINGTON — The White House publicly confirmed on Thursday that Russia has obtained a “troubling” emerging anti-satellite weapon but said it cannot directly cause “physical destruction” on Earth. White House national security spokesman John Kirby said U.S. intelligence officials have information that Russia has obtained the capability but that such...

The suburban Philadelphia man charged with decapitating his father and posting a video online in which he held up the severed head had a device with photos of federal buildings and apparent instructions for making explosives when he was arrested, authorities said Thursday. Justin Mohn, 32, faces a dozen new...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Cleveland-Cliffs announced Thursday that it is shutting down a northern West Virginia tin production facility indefinitely and plans to lay off 900 workers after the International Trade Commission voted against imposing tariffs on tin imports. The trade commission ruled earlier this year that no anti-dumping and countervailing...

ABOARD THE USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER — Sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and its accompanying warships have spent four months straight at sea defending against ballistic missiles and flying attack drones fired by Iranian-backed Houthis, and are now more regularly also defending against a new threat...

NEW YORK — Smoking has surpassed injecting as the most common way of taking drugs in U.S. overdose deaths, a new government study suggests. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called its study published Thursday the largest to look at how Americans took the drugs that killed them. CDC...