U.S./World category, Page 1008
U.S. sanctions Russian oil trading firm for role in Venezuela
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration announced sanctions Tuesday on a Russian state-controlled brokerage that has helped the Venezuelan government skirt an American oil embargo and enabled President Nicolas Maduro keep his grip on power in the South American country. Administration officials said Rosneft Trading S.A. and its president, Didier Casimiro,...
Judge refuses to delay sentencing of Roger StoneVideo
WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Tuesday refused to delay sentencing for Roger Stone on his conviction for witness tampering and lying to Congress. The decision by Judge Amy Berman Jackson came after President Donald Trump tweeted in defense of his longtime ally and said Stone’s conviction “should be thrown...
S.C. authorities: Neighbor strangled missing girl, killed selfVideo
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A 6-year-old girl who disappeared from her front yard after school was strangled by a neighbor who then killed himself, authorities said Tuesday. Lexington County Coroner Margaret Fisher told reporters Tuesday that Faye Marie Swetlik died just a few hours after she was abducted. “The loss of...
1 person dead when high speed train hits car in Florida
POMPANO BEACH, Fla. — One person died Tuesday morning when a car was hit by a high speed train in South Florida, officials said. The Brightline train, which operates between Miami and West Palm Beach, struck the car at an intersection in Pompano Beach about 10:12 a.m. Tuesday, said sheriff’s...
Government troops, rebels exchange fire in eastern UkraineVideo
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine and Russia-backed separatists blamed each other for an outbreak of fighting in the country’s rebel-held east on Tuesday. Ukraine’s military said in a statement that the separatists attempted to advance into the Ukraine-controlled territory but were repelled. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy denounced the attack as a...
Woman dead in another mall shooting in Thailand
BANGKOK — Gun violence struck in a Thai shopping mall for the third time in six weeks on Tuesday when a man fatally shot a woman working at a beauty clinic in a Bangkok mall and wounded another. The motive for the shooting was believed to be jealousy, and the...
Rebel attack in eastern Congo kills 15 civilians and soldierVideo
BENI, Congo — Rebels have killed 15 civilians and a soldier in the latest overnight attack on a village in eastern Congo, a local official said Tuesday, while frightened residents fled. “They surprised the people in their homes,” the administrator of Beni territory, Donat Kasereka Kibwana, told the Associated Press,...
India builds wall along slum ahead of Trump visit
AHMEDABAD, India — A 1,640-foot brick wall has been hastily erected in India’s Gujarat state ahead of a visit by President Donald Trump, with critics saying it was built to block the view of a slum area inhabited by more than 2,000 people. “Since they are spending so much money...
Jury to begin deliberating in Harvey Weinstein’s rape trialVideo
NEW YORK — A jury is expected to begin deliberations Tuesday in Harvey Weinstein’s trial after often-emotional testimony from multiple women who accused him of sexual assault. The panel of five women and seven men will begin to weigh the evidence that Weinstein raped a woman in a Manhattan hotel...
Queen Elizabeth II’s nephew and wife agree to divorceVideo
LONDON — Queen Elizabeth II’s nephew and his wife have amicably agreed to end their marriage, the couple said in a statement. The Earl of Snowden, David Armstrong-Jones, and his wife Serena, the Countess of Snowden, agreed to separate after more than 25 years of marriage. Armstrong-Jones is the son...
Watchman sentenced to 16 years in killing of Florida tourist
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — A hotel watchman has been convicted of killing a Florida tourist staying at an Airbnb lodging in Costa Rica and was sentenced to 16 years in prison. The court in Pavas found on Monday that Bismark Espinoza Martínez had taken advantage of his position at...
Police: Mishandling of firearm leads to boy’s shooting death in Ohio
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A 12-year-old boy was fatally shot at an Ohio home in what appeared to be a tragedy involving a mishandled firearm, police said Tuesday. Columbus police said they were called to the home a few miles west of downtown on Monday evening and found the injured boy,...
Boy Scouts file for bankruptcy over sex-abuse lawsuits
Barraged by hundreds of sex-abuse lawsuits, the Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday in hopes of working out a potentially mammoth victim compensation plan that will allow the hallowed, 110-year-old organization to carry on. The Chapter 11 filing in federal bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Delaware, sets in...
Popular sex therapist from Pa. Amie Harwick killed in balcony fallVideo
A nationally known sex therapist who hails from Lansdale, Montgomery County, is dead under suspicious circumstances and her ex-boyfriend is under arrest. All this, after Dr. Amie Harwick was found on the ground beneath a third-story balcony at her home in the Hollywood Hills with injuries consistent with a fall...
New York prosecutors mulling more charges against Giuliani associates
NEW YORK — Rudy Giuliani may not be out of the woods yet. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are considering more charges against criminally indicted associates of the former New York mayor in connection with a company that gave him a lucrative business deal, according to a report Monday. The charges...
Ball State professor suspended for calling police on black studentVideo
MUNCIE, Ind. — A white professor at an Indiana university who called police to his classroom after a black student refused to change seats will not be teaching for the remainder of the semester, the school said in a written statement. No formal charges or disciplinary action was immediately taken...
Inmate death at Ohio prison being investigated as homicide
LONDON, Ohio — The weekend death of an inmate at an Ohio prison is being investigated as a homicide. Robert Leach Jr., 23, died after “an incident” midday Saturday at Madison Correctional Institution, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction confirmed by email Monday. Spokeswoman JoEllen Smith...
U.S. House Speaker Pelosi warns allies against using HuaweiVideo
BRUSSELS — No NATO ally should succumb to the temptation of letting Chinese tech giant Huawei into their next-generation cellular networks, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday at Allied headquarters, turning U.S. opposition to Huawei into a bipartisan effort. Pelosi said the invasion of privacy that would result from...
U.S. judge dismisses lawsuit over transgender pronoun dispute
PORTSMOUTH, Ohio — A judge dismissed a professor’s lawsuit against a small, public university in Ohio that rebuked him for not addressing a transgender student using the student’s preferred gender terms. Nicholas Meriwether’s federal lawsuit alleged that Shawnee State University officials violated his rights by compelling him to speak in...
U.K. issues severe flood warnings; storm injures 9 in Germany
LONDON — Britain issued severe flood alerts Monday, warning of life-threatening danger after Storm Dennis dumped weeks’ worth of rain in some places. One woman swept away by the floodwaters was feared dead. To the east, Dennis’ gale-force winds also injured nine people in car accidents in Germany as trees...
SWAT team fatally shoots murder suspect after standoff in Florida
POINCIANA, Fla. — A Florida SWAT team fatally shot a murder suspect early Monday after investigators say he pulled a gun on them after barricading himself inside a house. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said his SWAT team first shot Rudy “Shorty” Arenas, 40, with beanbag guns to knock him...
Televangelist, ex-pastor settle lawsuit alleging sex abuse
AKRON, Ohio — A confidential settlement was reached in a former Ohio megachurch pastor’s lawsuit alleging televangelist Ernest Angley sexually abused and harassed him over a decade, starting in 2004. The allegations by Brock Miller, of Myrtle Beach, S.C., included that Angley forced him to get a vasectomy, inspected his...
Virginia lawmakers reject assault weapon ban
RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s push to ban the sale of assault weapons has failed after members of his own party balked at the proposal. Senators voted to shelve the bill for the year and ask the state crime commission to study the issue, an outcome that drew...
Ex-South African leader F.W. de Klerk sorry for apartheid comment
JOHANNESBURG — Former South African president F.W. de Klerk on Monday apologized and withdrew his statement that the country’s former harsh system of racial separation known as apartheid was not a crime against humanity. De Klerk, the last president under apartheid, caused an uproar with the comment during an interview...
Suicide bomber in Pakistan kills 8 at Islamist rally
QUETTA, Pakistan — A powerful suicide bombing killed eight people and wounded 16 others in Pakistan’s restive Baluchistan province on Monday, local police said, when it struck an Islamist rally in the regional capital. Police said the blast went off near Quetta’s press club, where dozens of supporters for a...
