U.S./World category, Page 1209
Pennsylvania man claims he found another R. Kelly sexual abuse tape
NEW YORK — A Pennsylvania man who said he was cleaning out an old videotape collection found what he thought was a recording of R&B singer R. Kelly in concert, but instead turned out to show a man who appeared to be Kelly sexually abusing girls, he and his attorney...
U.S. authorities to assist in investigation of Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed 157
U.S. air safety officials are assisting in the investigation into the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines plane bound for Nairobi that went down Sunday, killing all 157 people on board, including eight Americans. The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board will take part in the probe, officials said,...
Boeing likely to face new questions after another 737 crash
Investigators rushed to the scene of a devastating plane crash in Ethiopia on Sunday, an accident that could renew safety questions about the newest version of Boeing’s popular 737 airliner. The Boeing 737 Max 8 operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed shortly after taking off from the capital of Addis Ababa,...
Church pastor near deadly tornado: Lord reaching out hand
BEAUREGARD, Ala. — The pastor of a church that became a center for shelter, help and grieving when a tornado killed 23 people in eastern Alabama said in his first Sunday service after the storm that the Lord has reached out his hand to the community. Imperfect things like tornadoes...
Turbulence injures 30 on flight from Istanbul to New York
NEW YORK — Severe turbulence tossed terrified passengers and crew around a Turkish Airlines plane cabin as it passed over Maine on Saturday, with 30 people suffering bumps, bruises, cuts and a broken leg before the flight landed safely at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, officials said. Dozens...
Melania Trump: Growing ease in first lady role, but not politics
WASHINGTON — Melania Trump came armed with surefire applause lines when she stepped up to address a largely female audience that had gathered to celebrate other women. The first lady showcased the record number of women serving in Congress. She said women’s unemployment had hit its lowest level in 65...
Town by town, local journalism is dying in plain sight
WAYNESVILLE, Mo. — Five minutes late, Darrell Todd Maurina sweeps into a meeting room and plugs in his laptop computer. He places a Wi-Fi hotspot on the table and turns on a digital recorder. The earplug in his left ear is attached to a police scanner in his pants pocket....
Modern policing: Algorithm helps NYPD spot crime patterns
NEW YORK — When a syringe-wielding drill thief tried sticking up a Home Depot near Yankee Stadium, police figured out quickly that it wasn’t a one-off. A man had also used a syringe a few weeks earlier while stealing a drill at another Home Depot 7 miles south in Manhattan....
No survivors in Ethiopian Airlines crash en route to Kenya
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — A jetliner carrying 157 people crashed shortly after takeoff from the Ethiopian capital Sunday, killing everyone aboard, authorities said. More than 30 nationalities were among the dead. It was not clear what caused the plane to go down in clear weather. The pilot sent out a...
Babe Ruth’s last surviving daughter dies in Nevada at 102
HENDERSON, Nev. — Julia Ruth Stevens, the last surviving daughter of Hall of Fame baseball slugger Babe Ruth and a decades-long champion of his legacy, has died at age 102, her family has announced. Tom Stevens said Sunday that his mother died Saturday morning at an assisted living facility in...
Satellite images suggest North Korea planned space launch even before Hanoi
TOKYO — Satellite images suggest North Korea was preparing to launch a space rocket even before the breakdown of the Hanoi summit between President Trump and Kim Jong Un, experts say. There is no way of knowing whether Pyongyang will follow through with the plans, which would undoubtedly be seen...
More blackouts hit Venezuela as opposition, government rally
CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan opposition and government loyalists held rival demonstrations in Caracas on Saturday, as both sides prepared for what some fear could be a protracted power struggle. The rallies unfolded as power and communications outages continued to hit Venezuela, intensifying the hardship of a country paralyzed by economic...
Ebola treatment center in Congo is attacked again; 1 dead
KINSHASA, Congo — Heavily armed assailants again attacked an Ebola treatment center in the heart of eastern Congo’s deadly outbreak on Saturday, with one police officer killed and health workers injured, authorities said, while frightened patients waited in isolation rooms for the gunfire to end. The early-morning attack in Butembo...
As budget deficit balloons, few in Washington seem to care
WASHINGTON — The federal budget deficit is ballooning on President Donald Trump’s watch and few in Washington seem to care. And even if they did, the political dynamics that enabled bipartisan deficit-cutting deals decades ago has disappeared, replaced by bitter partisanship and chronic dysfunction. That’s the reality that will greet...
Michigan man receives congratulatory telegram 50 years later
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A man who graduated from the University of Michigan in 1969 has finally received a congratulatory telegram from family friends that was sent more than 50 years ago. Robert Fink received the Western Union telegram this year. Western Union ended its telegram business in 2006. The...
Wanted: More pastures for West’s overpopulated wild horses
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — If you ever wished to gaze at a stomping, snorting, neighing panorama of Western heritage from your living-room window, now could be your chance. A classic image of the American West — wild horses stampeding across the landscape — not only has endured through the years but...
R. Kelly: ‘We’re going to straighten all this stuff out’
CHICAGO — R. Kelly walked out of a Chicago jail on Saturday after someone who officials say did not want to be publicly identified paid $161,633 that the R&B singer owed in back child support. Kelly, who was ordered taken into custody on Wednesday by a judge after Kelly said...
Jayme Closs kidnapping suspect reportedly confesses in letter from jail
A man accused of kidnapping 13-year-old Jayme Closs from her rural Wisconsin home in the fall after her parents were killed has purportedly written a letter from jail saying he regretted the crimes and committed them “mostly on impulse.” The letter supposedly from Jake Patterson, who was arrested in January...
Richmond exhibit seeks to reimagine Confederate statues
RICHMOND, Va. — They are towering figures, larger-than-life statues that honor heroes of a bygone era. The Confederate leaders memorialized on Richmond’s Monument Avenue were once revered, but have become flashpoints in a national debate about how symbols of slavery and white supremacy should be treated today. The angst over...
Motorcyclist killed after hitting dead pig in roadway
LITTLEROCK, Calif. — Authorities say a motorcycle rider has died after he hit a dead pig on a Southern California road and was thrown from his bike. KABC-TV says 57-year-old Bradley St. John was doing about 55 mph Thursday night in Littlerock when he struck the animal, which was directly...
More women work in construction that’s still a man’s world
NEW YORK — Tameeka Gwyn is used to schlepping concrete weighing as much as 60 pounds (27 kilograms) around a construction site. For Janna Rojas, it’s a cinch to carry metal pipes as heavy as 100 pounds going into new plumbing. “When you first do it, it’s quite a shock,...
Ex-Pirate pitcher Esteban Loaiza gets 3-year federal sentence for drug trafficking
Former Pittsburgh Pirate pitcher Esteban Loaiza was sentenced in federal court in San Diego to three years in prison for drug trafficking on charges involving about 44 pounds of cocaine, federal prosecutors said. In a plea agreement in U.S. District Court, Loaiza, 47, of Imperial Beach, Calif., admitted he took...
CDC: Unvaccinated Oregon boy almost dies of tetanus
PORTLAND, Ore. — An unvaccinated 6-year-old Oregon boy was hospitalized for two months for tetanus and almost died of the bacterial illness after getting a deep cut while playing on a farm, according to a case study published Friday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The 2017...
Utah teacher forces student to wash off Ash Wednesday cross
SALT LAKE CITY — A teacher in the predominantly Mormon state of Utah was placed on administrative leave after she forced a Catholic student to wash off the Ash Wednesday cross from his forehead. William McLeod, 9, had just returned to his school near Salt Lake City after attending Catholic...
NC man wins $1 million lottery prize. For the second time. At the same store.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A North Carolina man has won a second $1 million lottery prize at the same store in less than two years, lottery officials said Friday. Terry Splawn, of Concord, won $1 million with a $150 Million Cash Explosion scratch-off ticket he bought Wednesday at Sam’s Mini Stop...
