U.S./World category, Page 1069
15 dead after Russian dam collapse floods dormitories
MOSCOW — At least 15 people are dead after a dam at a small Siberian gold mine collapsed and water flooded two workers’ dormitories on Saturday. The Emergencies Ministry also said seven people were unaccounted for, Russian news reports said. The regional health ministry said 16 people were injured. The...
Toxic PCBs linger in schools as EPA, lawmakers fail to act
MONROE, Wash. — At first, teachers at Sky Valley Education Center simply had students evacuate and used fans to clear the air when the fluorescent lights caught fire or smoked with noxious fumes. When black oil dripped onto desks and floors, they caught leaks with a bucket and duct-taped oil-stained...
Turkey wants Syrian forces to leave border areas, aide says
ISTANBUL — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants Syrian government forces to move out of areas near the Turkish border so he can resettle up to 2 million refugees there, his spokesman told The Associated Press on Saturday. The request will top Erdogan’s talks next week with Syria’s ally, Russian...
Parliament vote forces U.K. to postpone Brexit beyond Oct. 31
LONDON — A defiant Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Saturday that he would resist attempts to delay Britain’s departure from the European Union beyond the end of the month, though he appeared to have no choice but to seek an extension after Parliament postponed a decision on whether to back...
Barcelona mayor pleads for violence in Catalonia to stop
BARCELONA, Spain — The mayor of riot-stricken Barcelona pleaded Saturday for calm after violent protests by Catalan separatists rocked Spain’s second largest city for a fifth consecutive night. “This cannot continue. Barcelona does not deserve it,” Mayor Ada Colau told reporters, adding that Friday’s violence was the worst so far....
Elected officials across U.S. watching Cleveland opioid case
Gene Vittone has seen the toll opioid addiction has exacted on his community up close and personal. The Washington County district attorney, who is also a paramedic, has seen law enforcement, family services and first responders struggle under a tsunami of illicit drug use that once triggered 16 overdoses on...
Exhibit on Jefferson’s architecture weaves in slavery’s role
NORFOLK, Va. — As an architect, Thomas Jefferson envisioned buildings for a new republic — not old-world kings. The domes and columns in his designs recalled ancient Greece and Rome to symbolize liberty and democracy. And yet enslaved Americans were involved in the actual construction. They helped build everything from...
Unlikely alliance fighting pipeline in Texas Hill Country
FREDERICKSBURG, Texas — One of the longest proposed new natural gas pipelines in the U.S. is set to run through Heath Frantzen’s property in the Texas Hill Country, where more than 600 white-tailed and trophy axis deer graze on a hunting ranch his family has owned for three generations. Fearing...
70,000 California wildfire victims may miss out on payments
SAN FRANCISCO — As many as 100,000 Californians are eligible to receive payments for the damages they suffered from a series of devastating wildfires over the last several years. But tens of thousands of them have not sought compensation. They face a Monday deadline to file claims against Pacific Gas...
Nestor downgraded, but tornado damages Florida homes
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Tropical Storm Nestor was downgraded Saturday after it spawned a tornado that damaged homes and a school in central Florida but spared an area of the Florida Panhandle devastated one year ago by Hurricane Michael. The Polk County Sheriff’s Office said several homes were damaged and Kathleen...
Service canceled for Texas woman shot at home by officer
DALLAS — A service for a woman shot in her home by a Fort Worth police officer that had been scheduled for Saturday was canceled amid a family dispute over funeral arrangements. Atatiana Jefferson’s funeral had been set to be held at Potter’s House Church in Dallas. Church representative Mara...
Closing arguments up next in deadly N.C. prison breakout trial
ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. — Closing arguments are expected next week in the trial of an inmate accused of murder in a deadly attempted breakout that left four North Carolina prison workers dead. Jurors on Thursday heard grisly details about the disturbance in a video interview, The Virginian-Pilot reported. In the...
Artist uses ‘historic’ markers to raise climate awareness
DURHAM, N.H. — New England is awash in historic markers, but a handful of plaques popping up in a New Hampshire town are different. Rather than commemorating important people or places in history, many of these dinner plate-size signs detail events like rising sea levels and an explosion of ticks...
Indiana woman convicted of reckless homicide in 3 deaths
ROCHESTER, Ind. — An Indiana woman was convicted Friday of reckless homicide for plowing her pickup truck into four children, killing three of them, as they crossed a two-lane highway to board their school bus. The Fulton County jury also found Alyssa Shepherd, 24, guilty of criminal recklessness in the...
Sharpton searches for the words to eulogize — and galvanize
A life taken at the hands of police. A grieving family. A divided nation. A stirring eulogy by the Rev. Al Sharpton. The 65-year-old civil rights activist has become a constant of the Black Lives Matter era with his presence in the pulpit after police shootings of African Americans, showing...
Chicago’s mayor says top cop drinking before incident in car
CHICAGO — Chicago’s mayor said Friday that the city’s top police officer told her he’d had “a couple of drinks with dinner” before he fell asleep at a stop sign while driving home, an incident that the chief contends was related to a change in his blood pressure medication. Superintendent...
Law stopping Florida felons from voting temporarily halted
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A federal judge issued a ruling Friday temporarily blocking a Republican-backed Florida law that barred some felons from voting because of their inability to pay fines and other legal debts. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle means thousands of felons who were denied the right...
Hong Kong protesters don cartoon masks to defy ban
HONG KONG — Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters donned cartoon character masks as they formed human chains across the semiautonomous Chinese city on Friday night, in defiance of a government ban on face coverings at public assemblies. Gathering along the city’s subway lines, many protest supporters masqueraded as Winnie the Pooh...
Failed raid against El Chapo’s son leaves 8 dead in Mexico
CULIACAN, Mexico — Mexican security forces aborted an attempt to capture a son of imprisoned drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman after finding themselves outgunned in a ferocious shootout with cartel henchmen that left at least eight people dead and more than 20 wounded, authorities said Friday. The gunbattle Thursday...
Boris Johnson urges support for Brexit deal before knife-edge vote
LONDON — Boris Johnson worked behind the scenes Friday to win enough support to push his new Brexit deal through the fractious British Parliament and pave the way for Britain — finally — to leave the European Union in two weeks. His message to allies and opponents alike: Approve the...
White House: Ukraine aid held up partly over election probe
WASHINGTON — The White House acknowledged that President Trump’s decision to hold up military aid to Ukraine was linked to his demand that Kyiv investigate the Democratic National Committee and the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, a shifting new explanation about events at the heart of the impeachment inquiry. The admission...
Trump says Europe now willing to take IS prisoners in Syria
WASHINGTON — Claiming new progress against Islamic State extremists in Syria, President Donald Trump said Friday that some European nations are now willing to take responsibility for detained IS fighters who are from their countries. “Anyway, big progress being made!!!!” he exclaimed on Twitter. A day earlier, he had proclaimed...
First all-female spacewalking team makes history
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The world’s first all-female spacewalking team made history high above Earth on Friday, working to replace a broken part of the International Space Station’s power grid. As NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir hauled out wrenches, screwdrivers and power-grip tools, it marked the first time...
Syria Kurds accuse Turkey of violating cease-fire
CEYLANPINAR, Turkey — The Kurdish-led administration in northern Syria accused Turkey on Friday of violating a U.S.-brokered cease-fire that went into effect overnight, as fighters from both sides clashed in and around a border town that has been one of the fiercest fronts in the Turkish invasion. The town of...
Officials: Blast at Afghan mosque kills 62 during prayers
KABUL, Afghanistan — An explosion rocked a mosque in eastern Afghanistan as dozens of people gathered to offer Friday players, causing the roof to collapse and killing 62 worshippers, provincial officials said. Attahullah Khogyani, spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar, said the militant attack wounded 36 others. He said it...
