U.S./World category, Page 805
A year into pandemic, veterans halls ‘barely hanging’ on
NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Paul Guilbeault knew the writing was on the wall for the last Veterans of Foreign Wars post in this city south of Boston when businesses across Massachusetts were ordered to close as the coronavirus pandemic took hold last March. Within six months, the 90-year-old Korean War...
U.S. defense chief arrives in Kabul on 1st trip to Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan — U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived Sunday in Kabul on his first trip to Afghanistan as Pentagon chief, amid swirling questions about how long American troops will remain in the country. State-owned Radio and Television Afghanistan and popular TOLO Television reported Austin’s arrival in Kabul from India....
Biden’s top aides unlikely to qualify for relief payments
WASHINGTON — At least one group in America is unlikely to get any money from President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion economic rescue plan — his own top aides. Most of Biden’s senior West Wing advisers made far more than the threshold that would qualify them for direct payments from the...
Prosecutor: Man accused of 1 murder says he really killed 16
WOODBURY, N.J. — A man charged with beating to death a New Jersey resident he says sexually abused him as a child now claims he has killed a total of 16 people, including his ex-wife and three others in New Mexico, officials said. Authorities have not corroborated his claim. Sean...
New Orleans D.A.: Priest, 2 dominatrices face vandalism charges after having sex on altar
A former priest and two women are facing charges for having sex on the altar of Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Pearl River, La. The Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate reports a passerby spotted lights on inside the church. Looking into the church’s windows and glass doors, the...
5 nations demand better EU sharing of migration load
ATHENS, Greece — The interior ministers of the five Mediterranean countries on the front line of mass migration to Europe want their EU partners to share the burden more equitably. “We can no longer be punished for our geographical position,” Malta’s Byron Camilleri said Saturday, summing up his position and...
Eruption of Iceland volcano easing, not affecting flights
REYKJAVIK, Iceland — The eruption of a long-dormant volcano that sent streams of lava flowing across a small valley in southwestern Iceland is easing and shouldn’t interfere with air travel, the Icelandic Meteorological Office said Saturday. The fissure eruption began at around 8:45 p.m. Friday in the Geldinga Valley, about...
Biden, Harris offer solace, denounce racism in Atlanta visit
ATLANTA — President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris offered solace to Asian Americans and denounced the scourge of racism at times hidden “in plain sight” as they visited Atlanta on Friday, just days after a white gunman killed eight people, most of them Asian American women. Addressing the...
2 journalists detained as Myanmar junta clamps down on press
YANGON, Myanmar — Two more journalists were detained in Myanmar on Friday, part of the junta’s intensifying efforts to choke off information about resistance to last month’s coup. Mizzima News reported that one of its former reporters, Than Htike Aung, and Aung Thura, a journalist from the BBC’s Burmese-language service,...
Attacked Georgia spas had been targeted by prostitution stings
ATLANTA — Two Atlanta area massage businesses where a gunman waged a deadly assault this week had been repeatedly targeted in police prostitution investigations over the years, raising questions about the mayor’s earlier comments that the spas operated legally. Police records show officers went to the businesses at least 21...
Mexico launches crackdown on migrant smuggling
MEXICO CITY — In a rare show of force Friday, Mexico sent hundreds of immigration agents, police and National Guard officers marching through the streets of the capital of the southern state of Chiapas to launch an operation to crack down on migrant smuggling. The parade Friday in the city...
Russian national pleads guilty in $150 million kickback plot
NEW BERN, N.C. — A Russian national living in North Carolina has pleaded guilty to bribery and other charges after prosecutors say he received more than $150 million in kickbacks from contractors seeking deals with the Russian military. Leonid Teyf, 59, of Raleigh, pleaded guilty Friday in federal court in...
No charges for Texas officer in killing of college student
DENTON, Texas — A grand jury declined to indict a North Texas police officer in the fatal shooting of a college student who had refused to drop a frying pan and a cleaver and then advanced toward police with the pan. The Denton County grand jury made the decision Thursday...
U.S., China spar in 1st face-to-face meetings under Biden
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Top U.S. and Chinese officials met again Friday after sparring over sharply different views of each other and the world in their first face-to-face talks since President Joe Biden took office. The two sides gathered for a new session a day after a contentious opening in which...
Montana lawmakers revisit dress code some call sexist
Montana lawmakers have revived a dress code that drew accusations of sexism when it was first introduced ahead of the 2015 legislative session before being tabled without ever taking effect. The dress code made a reappearance Thursday in response to a Republican lawmaker’s objection to a male Democrat’s decision not...
Vaccine withheld from hospital that gave Trump Tower shots
The city of Chicago on Thursday decided to withhold first doses of covid-19 vaccines from a hospital that improperly administered vaccinations to Trump Tower workers. The withholding of vaccines comes as the city conducts a review of actions by Loretto Hospital, whose president said in a memo to hospital staff...
4 men linked to Proud Boys charged in plot to attack Capitol
Four men described as leaders of the far-right Proud Boys have been charged in the U.S. Capitol riots, as an indictment ordered unsealed on Friday presents fresh evidence of how federal officials believe group members planned and carried out a coordinated attack to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s...
Biden picks former Florida senator who flew in space to lead NASA
President Joe Biden has chosen a former senator from Florida who flew on the space shuttle right before the Challenger accident to lead NASA. Biden on Friday announced his intent to nominate Bill Nelson as the space agency’s administrator. If confirmed by the Senate, Nelson will become NASA’s 14th administrator,...
Kremlin: Putin’s offer of a call with Biden was to save ties
MOSCOW — The Kremlin said Friday that President Vladimir Putin’s offer to speak by phone with U.S. President Joe Biden was intended to prevent bilateral ties from completely falling apart over the American’s remark that the Russian leader was a killer. Putin made it clear that “it makes sense to...
Happiness Report: World shows resilience in face of covid-19
STOCKHOLM — The coronavirus brought a year of fear and anxiety, loneliness and lockdown, and illness and death, but an annual report on happiness around the world released Friday suggests the pandemic has not crushed people’s spirits. The editors of the 2021 World Happiness Report found that while emotions changed...
In dealing with immigration, Biden is using some of same tactics as Trump, leaving Democrats in political bind
WASHINGTON — Democrats who long blistered the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration policies are suddenly in a tough political bind. The Biden administration is responding to a wave of children crossing the southern border into the U.S. with some of the very tactics that evoked moral outrage from Democrats when former...
Atlanta police on shooting probe: ‘Nothing is off the table’
ATLANTA — Police said Thursday that “nothing is off the table” in the investigation of the deadly shootings at two Atlanta massage businesses, including whether the slayings were a hate crime. Those attacks and a third one near the suburban town of Woodstock killed eight people and prompted President Joe...
Judge refuses to delay, move trial of ex-cop in George Floyd death
MINNEAPOLIS — A judge on Friday denied a defense request to delay or move the trial of a former Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd’s death after a $27 million settlement for Floyd’s family raised concern about a tainted jury. Jury selection was halfway complete last week in former...
Emergency sites for migrant children raising safety concerns
McALLEN, Texas — The U.S. government has stopped taking immigrant teenagers to a converted camp for oil field workers in West Texas as it faces questions about the safety of emergency sites it is quickly setting up to hold children crossing the southern border. The Associated Press has learned that...
U.S. won’t recognize Syria presidency vote unless UN involved
UNITED NATIONS — The United States warned Syrian President Bashar Assad on Thursday that the Biden administration will not recognize the result of its upcoming presidential election unless the voting is free, fair, supervised by the United Nation and represents all of Syrian society. The acting U.S. deputy ambassador to...
