U.S./World category, Page 1041
Lawyer: U.S. charges against WikiLeaks’ Assange ‘political’
LONDON — Lawyers for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange told a London court Thursday that he should not be extradited to the United States to face spying charges because the offenses he is accused of are political in nature. U.S. authorities accuse Assange of scheming with former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea...
U.S. home sales tumbled 1.7% in November
WASHINGTON — Home-buying slumped in November, with some Americans priced out of the market by rising prices and a shortage of sales listings. The National Association of Realtors said Thursday that sales of existing homes fell 1.7% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.35 million. Would-be buyers...
Ailing former WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers ordered freed from prison
NEW YORK — A former top executive sentenced to 25 years in prison in one of the largest corporate accounting scandals in U.S. history was ordered freed from prison Wednesday for medical reasons. U.S. District Judge Valerie E. Caproni ordered the release of former WorldCom chief Bernard Ebbers after hearing...
Paul Manafort’s New York fraud case tossed over double jeopardy concern
NEW YORK — A New York judge threw out state mortgage fraud charges against Paul Manafort, ruling Wednesday that the criminal case was too similar to one that has already landed President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman in federal prison. The decision was a blow to what had widely been...
Germany bans so-called gay conversion therapy for minors
BERLIN — Germany is banning so-called gay conversion therapy for minors, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman said Wednesday, saying the practice that purports to make patients straight has no scientific basis and often causes psychological harm. Merkel’s Cabinet also outlawed the use of conversion therapy with adults who have diminished decision-making...
FedEx driver kills man who shot him during robbery attempt
PHILADELPHIA — A man who attempted to rob a FedEx vehicle was shot and killed Tuesday night by the vehicle’s driver, who was also hit by gunfire but is recovering, police said. The shootout in Philadelphia started around 7 p.m. when a 27-year-old man attempted to rob the driver with...
Winning Mega Millions ticket worth $372M sold at Giant Eagle in Ohio
CLEVELAND — Someone in Ohio is going to have a wonderful life! A winning Mega Millions ticket worth $372 million was sold at a Giant Eagle supermarket in Mentor, a suburb of Cleveland. The winning numbers drawn on Tuesday, just eight days before Christmas, were: 22-30-53-55-56 +16. It’s the 20th...
House marches toward Trump impeachment; he claims ‘assault’Video
WASHINGTON — The U.S. House marched toward a historic evening vote to impeach President Donald Trump on Wednesday, with Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi insisting Congress must “defend democracy” by evicting him from the White House. Trump would be just the third American president to be impeached, a distinctive dark mark...
Mississippi sheriff: Missing Domino’s Pizza employee found dead
CANTON, Miss. — A Domino’s Pizza employee who went missing four days ago was found dead Tuesday afternoon, authorities in Mississippi said. The body of Helerica “Latrice” Dortch, 31, was found near a rural intersection in Canton, Madison County Sheriff Randy Tucker told WLBT-TV. Dortch was last seen Friday afternoon...
Whistleblower questions Mormon use of member donations
SALT LAKE CITY — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints defended Tuesday how it uses and invests member donations after a former church employee charged in a complaint to the Internal Revenue Service that the faith had improperly built a $100 billion investment portfolio using member donations that...
Teen ‘kidnapped’ off Bronx street staged hoax to get away from strict mom, cops sayVideo
NEW YORK — A 16-year-old girl who appeared to be kidnapped off a rainy Bronx street admitted to cops Tuesday she set the whole thing up to get away from her strict mom, a police source said. “It was staged,” the source said. The teen, Karol Sanchez, was being interviewed...
Ex-Trump campaign boss Paul Manafort hospitalized after suffering cardiac event in prison
Disgraced former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was hospitalized late last week as a result of suffering a cardiac event in prison, according to his attorney. The attorney, Todd Blanche, declined to elaborate on the 70-year-old ex-Trump campaign chief’s condition, but told the Daily News he was still recovering Tuesday...
Wedding crashers in California beat groom to death during his reception, police say
LOS ANGELES — A groom was beaten to death by two men who crashed his wedding reception, which was being held in a backyard east of Los Angeles, authorities said. Two suspects were arrested Sunday afternoon in the city of Chino, Calif., hours after the groom, 30-year-old Joe Steven Melgoza...
Europe postpones launch of planet mission, seeks Soyuz fix
European space officials on Tuesday postponed the launch of a three-year mission to study planets in other solar systems shortly before it was due to blast off. The European Space Agency announced that the launch from Kourou, French Guiana, of the Characterising ExOPlanets Satellite (CHEOPS) mission would be delayed by...
Pope removes shroud of secrecy from clergy sex abuse cases
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis abolished the use of the Vatican’s highest level of secrecy in clergy sexual abuse cases Tuesday, responding to mounting criticism that the rule of “pontifical secrecy” has been used to protect pedophiles, silence victims and prevent police from investigating crimes. Victims and their advocates cheered...
3 dead in Montana casino shooting, suspect killed by police
GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A pre-dawn shooting Tuesday at a Montana casino left three people dead and another person injured, and the suspect was later tracked down and killed by police, officials said. The shooting at the Emerald City Casino in the city of Great Falls happened about 2 a.m....
Judge sets Michael Flynn sentencing, rejects defense arguments
WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Monday scheduled a sentencing hearing for next month for Michael Flynn after rejecting arguments from the former Trump administration national security adviser that prosecutors had withheld evidence favorable to his case. The order from U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington pushes the case...
3 dead as suspected twisters, other storms batter the SouthVideo
Three people are confirmed dead and a dozen more injured as a powerful storm front packing suspected tornadoes smashed into buildings, downed trees and left a trail of destruction around the Deep South on Monday, authorities said. One person was reported killed in a suspected tornado strike on a Louisiana...
Sheriff fires North Carolina school resource officer who slammed studentVideo
HENDERSON, N.C. — A North Carolina sheriff said Monday that he has fired a school resource officer seen on surveillance video violently slamming a middle school student to the ground twice and then dragging the boy off camera. Vance County Sheriff Curtis Brame issued a statement Monday that the deputy...
Tamara Ecclestone, daughter of former Formula 1 chief, robbed of $66M in jewelry from London home
LONDON — London police are investigating the theft of a large cache of “high value jewelry” reported stolen from the palatial home of heiress Tamara Ecclestone, the daughter of former Formula 1 chief Bernie Ecclestone. The Sun newspaper said the stolen jewelry was worth about $66 million and included precious...
WWII allies, Germany mark 75 years since Battle of the BulgeVideo
BASTOGNE, Belgium — Side by side, the Allies and former enemy Germany together marked the 75th anniversary of one of the most important battles in World War II — the Battle of the Bulge, which stopped Adolf Hitler’s last-ditch offensive to turn the tide of the war. At dawn on...
In Afghanistan, Sen. Lindsey Graham says U.S. troop drawdown coming
KABUL, Afghanistan — U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham said Monday that President Donald Trump will announce an American troop drawdown this week, which could begin before the end of the year. Speaking from the Afghan capital of Kabul, Graham said the president could reduce troop numbers to 8,600, down from the...
Across India, opposition building against citizenship lawVideo
NEW DELHI — Thousands of university students flooded the streets of India’s capital, while a southern state government led a march and demonstrators held a silent protest in the northeast on Monday to protest a new law giving citizenship to non-Muslims who entered India illegally to flee religious persecution in...
Supreme Court won’t revive homeless camping ban in Idaho
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court will not review an appellate decision that makes it harder for cities to keep homeless people from sleeping on the streets. The justices on Monday did not comment as they left in place a ruling that struck down a Boise, Idaho, ordinance. The ruling by...
75 years on, Battle of the Bulge memories bond people
THIMISTER-CLERMONT, Belgium — As a schoolboy three quarters of a century ago, Marcel Schmetz would regularly see open trucks rumble past to a makeshift American cemetery — filled with bodies, some headless, some limbless, blood seeping from the vehicles onto the roads that the U.S. soldiers had given their lives...
