U.S./World category, Page 354
SpaceX back with 1st Space Coast launch of the year
After a record 2023, SpaceX is not slowing down its launch plans for 2024 with the first launch of the year from Florida slated for Wednesday evening. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying a telecom satellite for private Swedish company Ovzon is slated to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force...
U.S. asks Supreme Court to step in on Texas border barrier
The Justice Department asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to intervene in its ongoing fight with Texas over border policy and immigration laws and allow border agents to remove razor wire on the Texas side of the Rio Grande river. The application asked the justices to set aside an order...
Russia and Ukraine exchange hundreds of prisoners of war in biggest release so far
Russia and Ukraine on Wednesday exchanged hundreds of prisoners of war in the biggest single release of captives since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. Ukrainian authorities said that 230 Ukrainian prisoners of war returned home in the first exchange in almost five months. Russia’s Defense Ministry said that 248...
U.S. intel confident militant groups used largest Gaza hospital in campaign against Israel: AP source
WASHINGTON — The U.S. is “confident” that Palestinian militant groups used Gaza’s largest hospital to hold “at least a few” hostages seized during their bloody Oct. 7, 2023, attack and to house command infrastructure, an American intelligence assessment declassified Tuesday and shared by a U.S. official found. The assessment offers...
Investigators focus on air traffic communication after a fatal Tokyo runway crash
TOKYO — A transcript of communication between traffic control and two aircraft that collided and burst into flames at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport showed that only the larger Japan Airlines passenger flight was given permission to use the runway where a smaller coast guard plane was preparing for takeoff. An orange...
Meet the newest breed to join the American Kennel Club, a little dog with a big smile
NEW YORK — It’s small in stature, big on activity and known for a “smile,” and it’s ready to compete with 200 other dog breeds. Say hello to the Lancashire heeler, the latest breed recognized by the American Kennel Club. The organization announced Wednesday that the rare herding breed is...
Iran says at least 95 were killed in blasts at a ceremony honoring slain general
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates —Two bombs exploded and killed at least 95 people Wednesday at a commemoration for a prominent Iranian general slain by the U.S. in a 2020 drone strike, Iranian officials said, as the Middle East remains on edge over Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza. No one...
Rescuers race against time in search for survivors in Japan after powerful quakes leave 65 dead
SUZU, Japan — Japanese rescue workers and canine units searched urgently through rubble Wednesday ahead of predicted bitter cold and heavy rain in what the prime minister called a race against time after powerful earthquakes killed at least 65 people in western Japan. Ishikawa prefecture and nearby areas were shaken...
Israel on alert for possible Hezbollah response after senior Hamas leader is killed in Beirut strike
BEIRUT — Israel was on high alert for an escalation with Hezbollah on Wednesday after one of the top leaders of the Palestinian Hamas was killed in a strike in Beirut that was widely blamed on Israel and heightened the risk of a broader Middle East conflict. The killing of...
In Texas case, federal appeals panel says emergency care abortions not required by 1986 law
NEW ORLEANS — The Biden administration cannot use a 1986 emergency care law to require hospitals in Texas hospitals to provide abortions for women whose lives are at risk due to pregnancy, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. It’s one of numerous cases involving abortion restrictions that have played out...
Souvenir sellers have flooded the Brooklyn Bridge. Now the city is banning them
NEW YORK — Visitors to New York City hoping to take home a souvenir from the Brooklyn Bridge will now have to settle for a photograph, as vendors are about to be banned from the iconic span. The new rule, which goes into effect Wednesday, aims to ease overcrowding on...
Former Kentucky official who denied gay couples marriage licenses faces $360,000 payment
LEXINGTON, Ky. — A former Kentucky county official who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples must pay a total of $260,104 in fees and expenses to attorneys who represented one couple, a federal judge has ruled. That judgment against Kim Davis is in addition to a total of...
Prosecutors accuse Sen. Bob Menendez of introducing Qatari royal family member to aid N.J. businessman
NEW YORK — U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez used his international clout to help a friend get a multimillion-dollar deal with a Qatari investment fund, partly by taking actions favorable to Qatar’s government, federal prosecutors said Tuesday in a revised indictment. The new allegations deepen the legal challenges for Menendez, a...
Trump appeals Maine ruling barring him from ballot under the Constitution’s insurrection clause
Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday appealed a ruling by Maine’s Democratic secretary of state barring him from the ballot over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. He was expected to also ask the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on his eligibility to return...
Kennedy cousin whose murder conviction was overturned sues former cop, Connecticut town
HARTFORD, Conn. — Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel, whose murder conviction in the 1970s killing of a teenager in Connecticut was overturned, is suing the lead police investigator in the case and the town of Greenwich for alleged malicious prosecution, civil rights violations and other claimed wrongdoing. Skakel, 63, a nephew...
Gunman breaks into Colorado Supreme Court building; intrusion unrelated to Trump case, police sayVideo
DENVER — A man leaving the scene of a car wreck Tuesday shot his way into the Colorado Supreme Court building and inflicted “extensive damage” to the building before being arrested by police, authorities said, adding the incident seems unrelated to the court’s recent ruling banning former President Donald Trump...
Police seek motive in fiery fatal crash in upstate New York; no terror link found
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The driver who crashed an SUV loaded with gas cans outside a western New York concert venue appeared to have been aiming at a pedestrian crossing, but there’s no evidence of a terror motive in the fiery wreck that killed him and two ride-hail passengers on New...
Man found dead at Salt Lake City airport after climbing inside jet engine
SALT LAKE CITY — A man was found dead inside an airplane engine Monday night at Salt Lake City International Airport after police say he breached an emergency exit door, walked onto the tarmac and climbed inside the jet’s engine. Officers found the 30-year-old man unconscious inside an engine mounted...
Ian Ziering goes off on ‘hooliganism on our streets’ after biker brawl leads to battery reportVideo
LOS ANGELES — Actor Ian Ziering was involved in a battery incident in Los Angeles on Sunday during what appeared to be a street brawl involving several people on mini bikes. Although the “Beverly Hills, 90210” alum said he was “completely unscathed,” the New Year’s Eve altercation left him concerned...
Harvard president Claudine Gay resigns amid plagiarism claims, backlash from antisemitism testimonyVideo
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Harvard University President Claudine Gay resigned Tuesday amid plagiarism accusations and criticism over testimony at a congressional hearing where she was unable to say unequivocally that calls on campus for the genocide of Jews would violate the school’s conduct policy. Gay is the second Ivy League president...
Inmate at federal prison in West Virginia is found dead after reported fight with another inmate
BEAVER, W.Va. — An inmate at a federal prison in West Virginia has died after after a fight at the facility, authorities said. Andrew Davis, 39, was found with unspecified injuries from a “perceived altercation” with another inmate on Sunday at the Federal Corrections Institute Beckley and treated before being...
Donald Trump is expected to appeal the Colorado and Maine rulings banning him from primary ballots
DENVER — Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday is expected to appeal rulings from Colorado and Maine that ban him from the states’ ballots, setting up a high-stakes showdown over a 155-year-old addition to the Constitution that bars from office those who “engaged in insurrection.” Trump would appeal the Colorado...
Florida teen traveling to Cleveland boards wrong flight to Puerto Rico
For the second time in recent weeks, a child traveling alone by air wound up in the wrong destination. A Florida teen on Dec. 22 was expected to arrive in Cleveland, Ohio, but mistakenly boarded a flight to Puerto Rico, according to TribLive news partner WTAE. The 16-year-old boy left...
Russian missiles hit Ukrainian cities, killing 5 and injuring almost 100, Kyiv officials say
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s two largest cities came under attack Tuesday from Russian missiles that killed at least five people and injured almost 100, officials said, as the war approached its two-year mark and the Kremlin stepped up its winter bombardment of urban areas. Four civilians were killed and 92...
A missing person with no memory: How investigators solved the cold case of Seven Doe
CHICAGO (AP) — Buried at the edge of a Chicago Catholic cemetery are an elderly person’s remains marked only by a cement cylinder deep in the ground labeled with the numbers 04985. The person died in 2015 at a nursing home not remembering much, including their own name. They went...
