U.S./World category, Page 1250
Woman pleads not guilty in fatal butt injections
NEW YORK — A New York City woman accused of killing a patient at an illegal cosmetic surgery clinic has pleaded not guilty to charges including manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. Whalesca Castillo, 44, was arraigned Thursday in the June 17, 2018 death of Lesbia Ayala of Philadelphia. Prosecutors say...
Sheriff: Fake pastor carrying drug-filled Bible visited jail
LAURINBURG, N.C. — Authorities say a man posing as a pastor tried to smuggle drugs into a North Carolina jail by hiding them in a Bible. News outlets cite a Facebook post from the Scotland County Detective Division that says 28-year-old James A. Morman III visited the Scotland County jail...
Kansas City Walmart stabbing suspect: ‘I tried to kill her’
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Kansas City man has been charged with stabbing his ex-girlfriend in the neck while she was working at a Walmart store. Twenty-two-year-old Brian Lenoble Jr. is charged with first-degree domestic assault and armed criminal action. No attorney is listed for him in online court records....
Sheriff: Vandals targeted teen for interracial relationship
GOLDSBORO, N.C. — A North Carolina sheriff says the vandalism of two vehicles is being investigated as a hate crime stemming from an interracial relationship between two teens. A Wednesday release from the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office says that on Dec. 27 a white family’s minivan was found spray-painted with...
Sanders contrite as 2016 aides face harassment allegations
NEW YORK — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and his chief lieutenants are offering contrition as some of his 2016 campaign staffers face allegations of sexual harassment that threaten to derail a second White House bid before it begins. Hours after a New York Times report detailed allegations of unwanted sexual...
Police: 17-year-old girl arrested after police car joyride
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Authorities say a 17-year-old girl took a police cruiser on a joyride following a traffic stop early on New Year’s Day in western Michigan. Grand Rapids police say the girl was a passenger in a minivan that was pulled over about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday following a...
22 injured when bus overturns on Mississippi interstate
JACKSON, Miss. — A Greyhound bus driver has been charged with driving under the influence after the bus overturned on an interstate highway in Mississippi and caused injuries that sent nearly two dozen passengers to hospitals. Jackson Police Sgt. Roderick Holmes said in a news release the wreck happened about...
Boy stayed up to watch Netflix, saved family from fire
MINQUADALE, Del. — A 13-year-old boy who defied his mom by staying up late to watch Netflix is credited with saving his family from the fire that destroyed their Delaware home. The News Journal reports that Angela Marie Borden said in a Facebook post that her son, Damir, was still...
Krispy Kreme delivers doughnuts to officers over pastry loss
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Krispy Kreme has stepped in to comfort Kentucky police officers mourning the loss of a doughnut truck that caught fire. The Lexington Herald-Leader reports the company and a police escort delivered dozens of doughnuts to the city police department Wednesday afternoon. Officer Kyle Mounce says no one...
China lands spacecraft on ‘dark’ side of moon in world first
BEIJING — China’s burgeoning space program achieved a first on Thursday: a landing on the so-called dark side of the moon. Three nations — the United States, the former Soviet Union and more recently China — have sent spacecraft to the near side of the moon, which faces Earth, but...
NASA: Icy object past Pluto looks like reddish snowman
LAUREL, Md. — A NASA spacecraft 4 billion miles from Earth yielded its first close-up pictures Wednesday of the most distant celestial object ever explored, depicting what looks like a reddish snowman. Ultima Thule, as the small, icy object has been dubbed, was found to consist of two fused-together spheres,...
Mexico finds flayed god temple; priests wore skins of dead
MEXICO CITY — Mexican experts have found the first temple of the Flayed Lord, a pre-Hispanic fertility god depicted as a skinned human corpse, authorities said Wednesday. Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History said the find was made during recent excavations of Popoloca Indian ruins in the central state...
6 die in Denmark’s worst train accident since 1988
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Six passengers were killed when a Danish train sustained damage while crossing a bridge that was closed to cars because of high wind Wednesday, and authorities investigated if falling cargo from a freight train caused Denmark’s deadliest railway accident in 30 years. Authorities said the two trains...
Liberal revolt threatens to derail House Democrats on their first day in charge
WASHINGTON — House Democratic leaders faced the prospect of a liberal rebellion on their first day in charge after prominent Democrats said they would oppose a package of rules changes endorsed by incoming speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi. Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said they would vote...
U.S. Catholic bishops to pray over clergy sexual abuse scandal
MUNDELEIN, Ill. — U.S.-based Roman Catholic bishops are gathering Wednesday for a weeklong retreat near Chicago on the church sexual abuse scandal that organizers say will focus on prayer and spiritual reflection and not formulating policy. The retreat begins a day after The Associated Press reported that the Vatican blocked...
Sheriff: Unknown if race was factor in Texas girl’s slaying
HOUSTON — A Texas sheriff said Wednesday that he’s aware of claims by activists that a weekend shooting that killed a 7-year-old black girl was racially motivated but adds that it remains unclear what prompted the shooting and investigators are considering all possibilities. Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said during...
Daryl Dragon, of ‘The Captain and Tennille,’ dead at 76
NEW YORK — Daryl Dragon, the cap-wearing “Captain” of “The Captain and Tennille” who teamed with then-wife Toni Tennille on such easy listening hits as “Love Will Keep Us Together” and “Muskrat Love,” died Wednesday at age 76. Dragon died of renal failure at a hospice in Prescott, Ariz., according...
Man attacks McDonald’s employee in Florida, viral video shows
Brenda Biandudi doesn’t normally go to fast food chains, but it was New Year’s Eve and she needed somewhere to use the restroom and buy a drink. So Biandudi stopped at a McDonald’s in St. Petersburg, Fla., on Sunday afternoon. She noticed it was nearly empty inside, save for a...
Police: Man fires into Oklahoma City Taco Bell over sauce
OKLAHOMA CITY — Police in Oklahoma City say they are looking for a man who fired a gun into a Taco Bell after he didn’t get the sauce he wanted. Authorities say the confrontation happened after 1 a.m. Monday. No one was hurt, but a drive-thru window was shot out....
For decades, nuns in India have faced abuse
KURAVILANGAD, India — The stories spill out in the sitting rooms of Catholic convents, where portraits of Jesus keep watch and fans spin quietly overhead. They spill out in church meeting halls bathed in fluorescent lights, and over cups of cheap instant coffee in convent kitchens. Always, the stories come...
14-year-old boy arrested on murder charge after fatal crash
HOUSTON — A 14-year-old boy who authorities say was driving an SUV that caused a fatal car accident has been arrested on a murder charge. The Harris County Sheriff’s Office says the SUV was filled with teens who were throwing eggs at other cars Tuesday afternoon when another driver began...
Sports betting will be no home run for state budgets
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — The race to legalize sports betting is on now that the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed it in all 50 states, but will it provide enough extra tax revenue to make much of a difference for schools, roads or pension debt? Don’t bet on it. Just...
Uffizi Gallery in Florence tries shaming Germany into returning painting stolen by Nazis
MILAN — The director of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence is urging Germany to return a Dutch masterpiece stolen by Nazi troops during World War II, dramatizing its absence by hanging a black and white photo of the work with the label “Stolen” in three languages. Eike Schmidt said in...
3 dead after SUV crashes into river during police chase
MILWAUKEE — A toddler, her young mother and a man died when their vehicle drove into a frigid river while being chased by Milwaukee police officers who suspected they were involved in two armed robberies. Surveillance video shows the vehicle speeding and the driver losing control Monday night before the...
Kentucky cops ‘cry’ over lost donuts
In a humorous tweet, a police department in Kentucky lamented the apparent loss of a truckload of Krispy Kreme donuts. The Lexington, Ky., police department posted to Twitter on Dec. 31, “No words” with three photos showing officers seemingly broken up at the scene of a Krispy Kreme truck that...
