U.S./World category, Page 1178
Comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy appears headed for landslide victory in Ukraine
KIEV — A comedian whose only political experience consists of playing a president on TV cruised toward a huge landslide victory in Ukraine’s presidential election Sunday in what was seen as a reaction against the country’s entrenched corruption and low standard of living. Exit polls and early results from about...
‘Panic mode’: Witness describes aftermath of Sri Lanka bombsVideo
Bhanuka Harischandra was running a little late for his meeting Sunday. As a car carrying him pulled into the back entrance of the luxury Shangri-La Hotel in Sri Lanka’s capital of Colombo, he realized something was wrong. People were telling him not to come in, it wasn’t safe. Still, the...
Bonnets, costumes on display at NYC’s Easter Parade
NEW YORK — The fancy hats and finery were out and on display for New York City’s annual Easter extravaganza. Participants in the annual Easter Parade made their way along Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue on Sunday in a processional of the wild and whimsical. The annual event is a New York...
Giuliani: Trump camp did no wrong by taking Russian help
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani insisted Sunday the president’s 2016 campaign did nothing wrong by taking information from the Russians, as House Democrats pledged stepped-up investigations into campaign misconduct and possible crimes of obstruction detailed in the special counsel’s report. Giuliani called the Trump campaign’s effort to...
Trump attends Easter service following slew of tweets
PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Donald Trump on Easter morning offered condolences to the people of Sri Lanka, continued his attacks on special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation and attended service at the Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea near his Florida estate. The president tweeted happy Easter to his many followers earlier in...
Ohio man on beer fast drops 44 pounds during Lent
The Ohio man that decided to sustain himself on just beer for Lent lost 44 lbs and is easing himself back into eating solids. Del Hall of Cincinnati, who is director of sales at Fifty West Brewing, told the Cincinnati Enquirer this week that he lost over 40 lbs and...
Texas town reflects on dragging death ahead of execution
JASPER, Texas — A technology company was almost ready to bring up to 300 new jobs to Jasper, Texas, but in the final stages of recent negotiations, a potential deal-breaker emerged: the community’s history as the place where three white men dragged a black man behind a pickup, killing him....
Happy birthday: Queen Elizabeth II turns 93 on Easter Sunday
LONDON — Queen Elizabeth II is celebrating her 93rd birthday, which this year coincides with Easter Sunday. The queen is marking Easter by attending a service with other senior royals at St. George’s Chapel on the grounds of Windsor Castle, west of London. She was joined by Prince William and...
Pope denounces ‘cruel violence’ of Sri Lanka Easter attack
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis denounced the “cruel violence” of the Easter Sunday slaughter of Christians and foreigners in Sri Lanka as he celebrated the most joyful moment on the Christian liturgical calendar by lamenting the bloodshed and political violence afflicting many parts of the world. Francis skipped his homily...
Easter Sunday bomb blasts kill more than 200 in Sri Lanka
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — More than 200 people were killed and hundreds more wounded in eight bomb blasts that rocked churches and luxury hotels in or near Sri Lanka’s capital on Easter Sunday — the deadliest violence the South Asian island country has seen since a bloody civil war ended...
Americans’ energy use surges despite climate change concern
WASHINGTON — Americans burned a record amount of energy in 2018, with a 10% jump in consumption from booming natural gas helping to lead the way, the U.S. Energy Information Administration says. Overall consumption of all kinds of fuels rose 4% year on year, the largest such increase in eight...
‘Toxic cocktail’ poisoning water in fire-ravaged city
PARADISE, Calif. — The drinking water in Paradise, Calif., where 85 people died in the worst wildfire in state history, is contaminated with the cancer-causing chemical benzene, water officials said. Officials said they believe the contamination happened after the November firestorm created a “toxic cocktail” of gases in burning homes...
Columbine honors 13 lost with community service, ceremony
LITTLETON, Colo. — Community members in suburban Denver marked the 20th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting Saturday by cleaning neighborhoods, volunteering at shelters, placing flowers at a memorial and attending a remembrance ceremony. The events end a three-day slate of somber gatherings honoring the victims and lending support...
Yellow vest anger burns in France, fueled by Notre Dame fire
PARIS — French yellow vest protesters set fires Saturday along a march through Paris to drive home their message to a government they believe is ignoring the poor: that rebuilding the fire-ravaged Notre Dame Cathedral isn’t the only problem France needs to solve. Like the high-visibility vests the protesters wear,...
Climate protesters march in London again; arrests hit 710
LONDON — London police said more than 710 people were arrested and about 28 charged since climate change protests began last week in the British capital. The Extinction Rebellion protests started Monday and have at times paralyzed parts of London, with peaceful demonstrations at Waterloo Bridge, Oxford Circus and other...
British cyber expert pleads guilty to creating malware
MILWAUKEE — A British cybersecurity researcher credited with stopping a worldwide computer virus has pleaded guilty to developing malware to steal banking information. Federal prosecutors in Wisconsin and Marcus Hutchins’ attorneys said in a joint court filing Friday that the 24-year-old agreed to plead guilty to developing malware called Kronos...
5-year-old Michigan boy calls 911 to ask for McDonald’s
WYOMING, Mich. — A 5-year-old Michigan boy had a craving for McDonald’s but his grandmother was sleeping, so he called 911 and made a request. WZZM-TV in Grand Rapids reports Iziah Hall of Wyoming asked the dispatcher: “Can you bring me McDonald’s?” Dispatcher Sara Kuberski said she told him no...
6 explosions hit churches, hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — A security official said six near-simultaneous blasts hit three churches and three hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday. The official said the explosions caused multiple fatalities among worshippers and hotel guests. The official said the blasts at two churches were suspected to be carried out...
Gunmen storm government building in Kabul; at least 7 dead
KABUL — Suicide bombers and gunmen stormed a high-rise government office building in a busy section of Kabul on Saturday, killing at least four civilians and three members of Afghan security forces in an hours-long battle that ended with all the assailants dead. No group claimed responsibility for the attack...
New attack on Ebola center in Congo; 1 militia member killed
BUTEMBO, Congo — Militia members attacked an Ebola treatment center hours after another attack killed a staffer with the World Health Organization, a Congolese official said Saturday. Butembo city’s deputy mayor, Patrick Kambale Tsiko, told The Associated Press that the attackers armed with machetes tried to burn down the center...
Doctor-services firm says private data of patients exposed
DALLAS — Nationwide physician-staffing company EmCare says a breach exposed personal data for about 31,000 patients, including in some cases their Social Security numbers and clinical information. EmCare Inc. said Saturday that an unauthorized third party gained access to the information through employee email accounts. The company said that it...
Road crew misspells ‘school’ in school crossing
DORAL, Fla. — A road crew in Florida should get an “F” for spelling. A motorist on Thursday spotted the error, realizing that workers in Doral had made a mistake when painting the word “school” at a pedestrian crossing in the road. Instead of S-C-H-O-O-L, it was spelled S-C-O-H-O-L. #UPDATE-...
Tiger attack sends keeper to hospital, zoo pledges ‘nothing will happen to the tiger’
A beautiful spring morning at the Topeka Zoo in Kansas turned tragic Saturday when a male Sumatran tiger attacked a keeper, inflicting wounds that sent her to a hospital. Although keepers are never supposed to be in the same space as the tigers, they found themselves together in the outdoor...
George Zimmerman banned from Tinder dating app
The ex-neighborhood watch volunteer who killed an unarmed black teen in Florida in 2012 has been banned from the dating app Tinder. An emailed statement from Tinder cited users’ safety as a reason for removing George Zimmerman’s profile. An article by Tampa, Florida, weekly Creative Loafing says Zimmerman used a...
Oregon county pays $100K over Blue Lives Matter flag
PORTLAND, Ore. — An Oregon county has agreed to pay $100,000 to a black employee who sued alleging she was harassed after asking that a Blue Lives Matter flag not be displayed in the office. Karimah Guion-Pledgure said in her January lawsuit against Multnomah County that the flag demeans the...
