U.S./World category, Page 1120
ESPN reasserts political talk policy after attack on TrumpVideo
NEW YORK — ESPN is making sure that its employees know there is no change in the network’s policy to avoid talking about politics unless it intersects with sports after radio talk show host Dan Le Batard criticized President Donald Trump and his recent racist comments and ESPN itself on...
Hong Kong police launch tear gas in latest mass protest
HONG KONG — Hong Kong police launched tear gas at protesters Sunday after a massive pro-democracy march continued late into the evening. The action was the latest confrontation between police and demonstrators who have taken to the streets for over a month to protest a proposed extradition bill and call...
Miss Michigan stripped of crown over ‘offensive’ tweets
Just four days into her reign as Miss Michigan, Kathy Zhu was stripped of her title over her offensive social media tweets. Zhu, 20, got the crown June 14, but by Thursday she was out. This is insane. @MissWorldLtd Beauty Queen @PoliticalKathy stripped of her Miss Michigan title for...being a...
What consumers can do as regulators weigh compounds’ risks
WASHINGTON — At first, Tomas Monarrez didn’t notice the labels when he went shopping for pots and pans. “Completely toxin free!” said a big green message on a line of nonstick frying pans in the cookware aisle at a store in the nation’s capital. “No PFOA!” boasted the label on...
Florida ‘pill mills’ were ‘gas on the fire’ of opioid crisis
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Florida survives on tourism, but a decade ago thousands of visitors made frequent trips to the state not to visit its theme parks or beaches. Instead, they came for cheap and easy prescription painkillers sold at unscrupulous walk-in clinics. For a while, few in authority did...
Some asylum seekers forced to wait in Mexico help each other
SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Mexico — A small group of asylum seekers finds space under a canopy on the side of a road leading into the United States, chatting to pass the time as a blazing desert sun pushes the heat into triple digits and fumes roll in from dozens...
Monsoon flooding death toll climbs to 164 in South Asia
GAUHATI, India — The death toll in monsoon flooding in South Asia has climbed past 160 as millions of people and animals continue to face the brunt in three countries, officials said Saturday. At least 90 people have died in Nepal and 62 in northeastern India’s Assam state over the...
American crocodiles thriving outside nuclear plant
MIAMI — American crocodiles, once headed toward extinction, are thriving at an unusual spot — the canals surrounding a South Florida nuclear plant. Last week, 73 crocodile hatchlings were rescued by a team of specialists at Florida Power & Light’s Turkey Point nuclear plant and dozens more are expected to...
Space under Vatican college holds bones of dozens, expert says
VATICAN CITY — A genetics expert retained by the family of a girl who went missing in 1983 said Saturday that a cavernous underground space near a Vatican cemetery holds thousands of bones that appear to be from dozens of individuals, both “adult and non-adult.” The expert, Giorgio Portera, said...
‘Got the Spider!’ joke on demolished house goes viral
A spray-painted joke on a demolished house is putting Renner, South Dakota, on the map. Jeff Hopkins, 51, and his girlfriend, Dawn Cronk, 49, decided to have a little fun with their extra house they had just torn down, reports the Argus Leader. The couple agreed that “Got the Spider!”...
War-weakened South Sudan tries to prepare for Ebola
JUBA, South Sudan — With the deadly Ebola outbreak in Congo now an international emergency , neighboring South Sudan and its war-weakened health system is a major concern, especially after one case was confirmed near its border. Health experts say there is an urgent need to increase prevention efforts. The...
Serbia’s president says Kosovo PM’s resignation is a ‘trick’
BELGRADE, Serbia — The surprise decision by Kosovo’s prime minister to step down over a call for questioning from a Hague-based court has been slammed as a “political trick” by Serbia’s president. Aleksandar Vucic said Saturday that Ramush Haradinaj’s resignation the day before was designed to rally popular support and...
Cat filter accidentally added to double murder news conference
Sometimes funny accidents show up at the most inopportune times. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police in British Columbia were live streaming on Facebook with an update and public appeal for help about a double homicide from earlier in the week, Vancouver’s online newspaper The Daily Hive reports. The only problem?...
Teen rapper Tay-K found guilty of murder, faces up to 99 years
A teen rapper who three years ago notoriously made a music video while on the run from police was found guilty of murder Friday. Taymor “Tay-K” McIntyre, 19, faces five to 99 years behind bars after a jury convicted him of murder, but not the more serious crime of capital...
Giant Hawaii telescope to focus on big unknowns of universe
HONOLULU — Is there life on planets outside our solar system? How did stars and galaxies form in the earliest years of the universe? How do black holes shape galaxies? Scientists are expected to explore those and other fundamental questions about the universe when they peer deep into the night...
1 killed, 4 injured when Alaska flight aborted on takeoff
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A Maryland man visiting Alaska with his family was killed and one of his three children was critically injured Friday after their floatplane’s takeoff was aborted. Alaska State Troopers identified the deceased man as Joseph Patenella, 57. No hometown was disclosed. The critically hurt child was flown...
US judge denies bail for ex-Peruvian president Toledo
SAN FRANCISCO — A U.S. judge on Friday denied bail for former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo after prosecutors argued that he was a flight risk and pointed out officials found a suitcase with $40,000 in cash during his arrest. “If the defendant were to flee, this would be a diplomatically...
Black lawmaker: White man said ‘Go back where you came from’
MABLETON, Ga. — A pregnant African American lawmaker in Georgia said she was verbally attacked in a supermarket Friday by a middle-aged white man who used profanity, called her vulgar names and told her to “go back where you came from” as her 9-year-old daughter looked on. Rep. Erica Thomas,...
What to do about suspicious orders is focus in opioid case
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Two Ohio counties are asking a judge to find that drugmakers and distributors were not allowed to ship suspicious orders of controlled substances to pharmacies. If a judge sides with the request from Cuyahoga and Summit counties, it would clear the way for their governments to assert...
Pocket-sized shark squirts glowing clouds from pockets
NEW ORLEANS — A pocket-sized pocket shark found in the Gulf of Mexico has turned out to be a new species. And the mysterious pouches that it’s named for, up near its front fins? Scientists say they squirt little glowing clouds into the ocean. Researchers from around the Gulf and...
Plan to slow Western wildfires would clear strips of land
SALT LAKE CITY — The Trump administration is proposing an ambitious plan to slow Western wildfires by bulldozing, mowing or revegetating large swaths of land along 11,000 miles of terrain in the West. The plan that was announced this summer and presented at public open houses, including one in Salt...
Pilot whales strand on Iceland beach in group of 50 or more
REYKJAVIK, Iceland — Tourists and a pilot on a helicopter sightseeing tour of Iceland have found dozens of dead whales on a remote beach in Iceland. David Schwarzhans, a pilot for Reykjavík Helicopters, said he and his passengers counted 50 long-finned pilot whales washed up on the Snaefellsnes Peninsula in...
Iran says it seized British oil tanker in Strait of Hormuz
Iran said Friday it seized a British oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, a fresh escalation in the strategic waterway that has become a flashpoint in tensions between Tehran and the West. The tanker “Stena Impero” was taken to an Iranian port because it was not complying with “international...
Ex-Giants offensive lineman Mitch Petrus dies of heat stroke
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Offensive lineman Mitch Petrus, a walk-on at Arkansas who went on to a three-year NFL career that included a Super Bowl win with the New York Giants, has died. He was 32. Pulaski County Coroner Gerone Hobbs said Petrus died of heat stroke Thursday night at...
2 workers die after being trapped in grain silo in Ohio
TOLEDO, Ohio — A shipping business in Ohio says two workers died after they were trapped in a silo filled with grain. The workers became trapped Friday morning inside the silo operated by The Andersons in Toledo. A Toledo fire department spokesman says rescue crews spent nearly two hours trying...
