U.S./World category, Page 673
Parents, retirees teach class as omicron sidelines faculty across nation
Clark County, Nevada, was short nearly 2,000 teachers this week. The district had 400 substitutes to cover them. That simple math problem forced central-office staff into classrooms, students into auditoriums, and eventually led one of the largest districts in the U.S. to halt instruction. “It was putting a real strain...
U.S. says Russia preparing ‘false flag’ operation as pretext to invade Ukraine
WASHINGTON — Reverting to a familiar “playbook,” Russia is plotting a pretext to invade Ukraine, a “false flag” operation that would justify its actions despite a week of intense U.S.-Russia negotiations that apparently failed to move Moscow away from a scheme of regional aggression, U.S. officials said Friday. The White...
Thieves raiding rail cargo containers in Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES — Thieves have been raiding cargo containers aboard trains nearing downtown Los Angeles for months, taking packages belonging to people across the U.S. and leaving the tracks blanketed with discarded boxes. The packages are from retailers including Amazon, REI and others, CBSLA reported Thursday. The sea of debris...
Pig heart recipient stabbed a man during 1988 attack at Maryland bar, leaving him paralyzed
David Bennett Sr. was celebrated around the world this week as the first-ever pig heart transplant recipient, though family members of the man he repeatedly stabbed in the 1980s struggled to fully appreciate the medical marvel. Diagnosed with terminal heart disease and ineligible for a human transplant, 57-year-old Bennett decided...
‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli ordered to return $64M, barred from drug industry
NEW YORK — Martin Shkreli must return $64.6 million in profits he and his former company reaped from jacking up the price and monopolizing the market for a lifesaving drug, a federal judge ruled Friday while also barring the provocative, imprisoned ex-CEO from the pharmaceutical industry for the rest of...
Goodbye ‘godsend’: Expiration of child tax credits hits home
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — For the first time in half a year, families on Friday are going without a monthly deposit from the child tax credit — a program that was intended to be part of President Joe Biden’s legacy but has emerged instead as a flash point over who is...
Cyberattack in Ukraine targets government websites
A cyberattack left a number of Ukrainian government websites temporarily unavailable on Friday, officials said. While it wasn’t immediately clear who was behind the cyberattack, the disruption came amid heightened tensions with Russia and after talks between Moscow and the West failed to yield any significant progress this week. Ukrainian...
3 women charged with beating airline security officer at JFK
NEW YORK — Three women are facing federal charges of attacking an airline security worker who tried to block them from boarding a flight at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport in September because of what prosecutors say was problematic behavior, including a refusal to wear a face mask properly....
Study: More evidence links a virus to multiple sclerosis
There’s more evidence that one of the world’s most common viruses may set some people on the path to developing multiple sclerosis. Multiple sclerosis is a potentially disabling disease that occurs when immune system cells mistakenly attack the protective coating on nerve fibers, gradually eroding them. The Epstein-Barr virus has...
U.K.’s embattled Prince Andrew loses honorary military titlesVideo
LONDON — Prince Andrew has been stripped of his honorary military roles as the growing furor over allegations that he sexually abused a teenage girl trafficked by the late financier Jeffrey Epstein threatened to taint the House of Windsor. Buckingham Palace said late Thursday that Queen Elizabeth II had also...
Study nixes Mars life in meteorite found in Antarctica
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A 4 billion-year-old meteorite from Mars that caused a splash here on Earth decades ago contains no evidence of ancient, primitive Martian life after all, scientists reported Thursday. In 1996, a NASA-led team announced that organic compounds in the rock appeared to have been left by...
Baltimore prosecutor Marilyn Mosby charged with lying in home purchases
BALTIMORE — A federal grand jury indicted Baltimore’s top prosecutor Thursday on charges of perjury and making false mortgage applications in the purchase of two Florida vacation homes, the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland said. The four-count indictment alleges that Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby...
California governor rejects parole for Sirhan Sirhan, convicted assassin of Robert F. Kennedy
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday refused to parole the man convicted of gunning down Robert F. Kennedy in Los Angeles, a brazen assassination of a presidential candidate that scarred the nation and altered the course of American politics during the turbulent 1960s. A two-person state parole panel recommended in...
Twitter, Meta among tech giants subpoenaed by Jan. 6 panel
WASHINGTON — Months after requesting documents from more than a dozen social platforms, the House committee investigating the Capitol insurrection has issued subpoenas targeting Twitter, Meta, Reddit and YouTube after lawmakers said the companies’ initial responses were inadequate. The committee chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, demanded records Thursday from the companies...
U.S. vows ‘decisive’ response if Russia pursues threatened deployments to Cuba, Venezuela
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration responded Thursday to threats from Russian officials that Moscow could begin military deployments in Cuba and Venezuela if tensions continue to rise with the United States, vowing a “decisive” response if it sees any evidence that the threat is real. Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei...
Supreme Court blocks vaccine-or-test rule for U.S. businesses
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has stopped the Biden administration from enforcing a requirement that employees at large businesses be vaccinated against covid-19 or undergo weekly testing and wear a mask on the job. At the same time, the court is allowing the administration to proceed with a vaccine mandate...
Oath Keepers head charged with Jan. 6 seditious conspiracyVideo
WASHINGTON — Stewart Rhodes, the founder and leader of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group, and 10 other members or associates have been charged with seditious conspiracy in the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol, authorities said Thursday. Despite hundreds of charges already brought in the year since pro-Trump rioters...
Iraqi officials: 4 rockets target U.S. Embassy in Baghdad
BAGHDAD — At least four rockets targeted the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone on Thursday, two Iraqi security officials said. The area is home to diplomatic missions and the seat of Iraq’s government, Three of the missiles struck within the perimeter of the American Embassy, the officials...
Iowa man arrested after hundreds of pigs die from neglect
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa — An Iowa man has been arrested after hundreds of pigs died at his farm last month when they went without adequate food and were kept in conditions so cold that some of their ears froze off. Black Hawk County sheriff’s deputies arrested the 38-year-old man Monday...
Polish church says it’s wrong to ask if abuse victim is gay
WARSAW, Poland — Poland’s Catholic bishops have strongly criticized a local diocese for asking a court to determine whether a man who was sexually abused as a child by a priest is gay, and whether the sexual contact may have consequently been pleasurable for him. The victim, Janusz Szymik, who...
Train derails in India’s West Bengal state; at least 5 dead
NEW DELHI — At least five people died and more than 45 were injured when a train derailed Thursday in India’s West Bengal state, officials said. Twelve coaches of the train went off the rails and three capsized. Images from the scene showed passengers stuck in twisted metal and debris...
Reports: Rep. Matt Gaetz’s ex-girlfriend testifying before grand jury in FloridaVideo
ORLANDO, Fla. — An ex-girlfriend of U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz appeared Wednesday at the federal courthouse in downtown Orlando, reportedly in order to testify before a grand jury that is weighing potential sex trafficking charges against him. Reports by CNN and NBC News indicated the grand jury has been meeting...
Jan. 6 panel requests interview from GOP leader Kevin McCarthyVideo
WASHINGTON — The House panel investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection requested an interview and records from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday, as it continues to seek first-hand details from members of Congress on former President Donald Trump’s actions on the day hundreds of his supporters brutally beat police,...
Army ups bonuses for recruits to $50K, as covid takes toll
The U.S. Army, for the first time, is offering a maximum enlistment bonus of $50,000 to highly skilled recruits who join for six years, The Associated Press has learned, as the service struggles to lure soldiers into certain critical jobs amid the continuing pandemic. Maj. Gen. Kevin Vereen, head of...
Germany: 65 children freed from abusers as part of probe
BERLIN — Authorities in Germany say they have rescued 65 children from their abusers over the past two years as part of an investigating into a large-scale sexual abuse network. Police in Cologne said at a news conference Wednesday that the victims ranged from three months to 17 years. Investigators...
