U.S./World category, Page 521
Maduro ally seeks recognition as Venezuela diplomat in court
MIAMI — For more than two years, almost since the time of his arrest on U.S. warrant, Alex Saab has insisted he is a Venezuelan diplomat targeted for his work helping the South American country circumvent American economic sanctions. Starting Monday, the Colombian-born businessman will get a chance to prove...
China vows to drop some travel tracking in covid rule easing
BEIJING — China said it would stop tracking some travel, potentially reducing the likelihood people will be forced into quarantine for visiting Covid-19 hot spots, as part of an uncertain exit from the strict pandemic policies that helped fuel widespread protests. Once midnight hit Monday, the part of a smart...
Divided Republicans point fingers over midterms disaster
With the midterm elections officially over, Republicans are pointing fingers over their disastrous performance — and the divisive role of former President Donald Trump. Herschel Walker’s loss in the closely watched Georgia Senate run off capped a campaign in which the GOP dramatically failed to engineer a sweeping red wave...
Biden restarts task force on immigrants’ success in U.S.
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is reinstating a task force that is aimed at helping immigrants and refugees integrate into the United States. The Task Force on New Americans will be run by the Domestic Policy Council and the focus will be workforce training, education and financial access as well...
Young voters’ enthusiasm for Democrats waned during midterms
WASHINGTON — Young voters who have been critical to Democratic successes in recent elections showed signs in November’s midterms that their enthusiasm may be waning, a potential warning sign for a party that will need their strong backing heading into the 2024 presidential race. Voters under 30 went 53% for...
2nd Oath Keepers Jan. 6 sedition trial to get underway
WASHINGTON — After securing seditious conspiracy convictions against two leaders of the Oath Keepers, the Justice Department will begin Monday to try to make its Capitol riot case against four others affiliated with the far-right extremist group. Openings statements are expected in Washington’s federal court less than two weeks after...
3 children die after fall into icy lake; UK gripped by storm
LONDON — Three young boys who fell through ice covering a lake in central England have died and a fourth remains hospitalized as weather forecasters issued severe weather warnings for large parts of the United Kingdom. Police in full uniform jumped into the water and broke through the ice using...
Ukraine PM urges more military aid to counter Russia attacks
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s prime minister is appealing for Patriot missile batteries and other hi-tech air defense systems to counter Russian attacks, as more Russian shelling was reported on Monday in the eastern regions of Ukraine where Moscow is trying to make battlefield gains. Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told French...
Iran execution: Man publicly hanged from crane amid protests
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran executed a second prisoner on Monday convicted over crimes committed during the nationwide protests challenging the country’s theocracy, publicly hanging him from a construction crane as a gruesome warning to others. The execution of Majidreza Rahnavard came less than a month after he allegedly...
3 bald eagles die, 10 sick after eating euthanized animals
INVER GROVE HEIGHTS, Minn. — At least 13 bald eagles were likely poisoned by scavenging the carcasses of euthanized animals that were improperly dumped at a Minnesota landfill, and three of the majestic birds have died. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that state and federal wildlife officials are investigating after...
Storm blowing through California dumps snow in SierraVideo
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — Heavy snow fell in the Sierra Nevada as a winter storm packing powerful winds sent ski lift chairs swinging and closed mountain highways while downpours at lower elevations triggered flood watches Sunday across large swaths of California into Nevada. More than 250 miles of the...
With suspect in custody, spotlight returns to 1988 bombing
The announcement Sunday that a Libyan man suspected in the 1988 bombing of a passenger jet has been taken into U.S. custody put the spotlight back on the notorious terrorist attack and longstanding efforts to pursue those responsible. The suspect, Abu Agela Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi, is accused of building the...
Photos: It’s all downhill for 300 skiing Santas, a Grinch and a tree
NEWRY, Maine — A bunch of Santa lookalikes took to the ski slopes to spread some seasonal cheer on Sunday. More than 300 jolly ol’ elves — all dressed in red — dashed together down a mountain with white beards and Santa hats flapping in the breeze at the Sunday...
‘I want to talk’: Griner opened up during her long trip home
WASHINGTON — WNBA star Brittney Griner didn’t want any alone time as soon as she boarded a U.S. government plane that would bring her home. “I have been in prison for 10 months now, listening to Russian. I want to talk,” Griner said, according to Roger Carstens, the special presidential...
NASA’s Orion capsule blazes home from test flight to moon
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA’s Orion capsule made a blisteringly fast return from the moon Sunday, parachuting into the Pacific off Mexico to conclude a test flight that should clear the way for astronauts on the next lunar flyby. The incoming capsule hit the atmosphere at Mach 32, or 32...
Japanese company’s lander rockets toward moon with UAE rover
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A Tokyo company aimed for the moon with its own private lander Sunday, blasting off atop a SpaceX rocket with the United Arab Emirates’ first lunar rover and a toylike robot from Japan that’s designed to roll around up there in the gray dust. It will...
Hospitalizations signal rising covid-19 risk for U.S. seniors
Coronavirus-related hospital admissions are climbing again in the United States, with older adults a growing share of U.S. deaths and less than half of nursing home residents up to date on covid-19 vaccinations. These alarming signs portend a difficult winter for seniors, which worries 81-year-old nursing home resident Bartley O’Hara,...
Arizona Gov. Ducey stacks containers on border at term’s end
SAN RAFAEL VALLEY, Arizona — Work crews have steadily erected hundreds of double-stacked shipping containers topped by razor wire along Arizona’s remote eastern boundary with Mexico in a bold show of border enforcement by Republican Gov. Doug Ducey even as he prepares to leave office. Until protesters slowed, then largely...
Libyan accused in Lockerbie bombing now in American custody
WASHINGTON — A Libyan intelligence official accused of making the bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 in an international act of terrorism has been taken into U.S. custody and will face federal charges in Washington, the Justice Department said Sunday. The arrest of...
Rioter who assaulted cops at Capitol gets 5 years in prison
WASHINGTON — A Tennessee man who authorities say came to Washington ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot prepared for violence in a car full of weapons and assaulted officers who were trying to defend the Capitol was sentenced Friday to more than five years behind bars. Ronald Sandlin, 35,...
Flint water crisis charges dismissed against ex-Gov. Snyder
FLINT, Mich. — A judge dismissed criminal charges against former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder in the Flint water crisis, months after the state Supreme Court said indictments returned by a one-person grand jury were invalid. Snyder, a Republican who left office in 2019, was charged with two misdemeanor counts of...
Prosecutors say South Carolina lawyer killed wife and son to cover crimes
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Disbarred South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh killed his wife and son to gain sympathy, thereby providing a cover from damning financial crimes, prosecutors alleged Thursday as they provided their most detailed theory in a saga that has drawn worldwide attention for its bizarre twists. Questions around motive...
AP Investigation: Prison boss beat inmates, climbed ranks
The prison staff didn’t know much about the new acting warden. Then, they say, he made a bizarre and startling confession: Years ago, he beat inmates — and got away with it. Thomas Ray Hinkle, a high-ranking federal Bureau of Prisons official, was sent to restore order and trust at...
Putin says more U.S.-Russian prisoner exchanges are possible
MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that more U.S.-Russian prisoner exchanges are possible if Moscow and Washington find a compromise. Putin spoke a day after Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout was swapped for WNBA star and two-time Olympian Brittney Griner. Asked after a summit in Kyrgyzstan whether other...
Biden wants African Union to be added to Group of 20 nations
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden plans to announce at next week’s U.S.-Africa summit that his administration supports adding the African Union as a permanent member of the Group of 20 nations, according to the White House. The African Union represents the continent’s 54 countries. The G-20 is composed of the...
