Joe Biden predicts South Carolina win as Democrats grapple with Bernie Sanders
HILTON HEAD, S.C. — Joe Biden expressed confidence on Monday that he would win this weekend’s South Carolina primary as he and other Democrats fight to loosen front-runner Bernie Sanders’ grip on the party’s 2020 presidential nomination. Opening the most critical week of his campaign, Biden said he would win...
Kobe Bryant’s widow sues helicopter operator for deaths
LOS ANGELES — Kobe Bryant’s widow sued the owner of the helicopter that crashed in fog and killed the former Los Angeles Lakers star and their 13-year-old daughter last month as she publicly mourned their deaths Monday in an emotional public ceremony. The wrongful death lawsuit filed by Vanessa Bryant...
Chocolate bar ends hostage situation in Irish prison
Chocolate can do great things. The latest amazing attribute of the sweet treat: peacekeeper. Media outlets in Ireland, including the Irish Post, report that a five-hour standoff with hostages at Midlands Prison in Ireland was brought to a peaceful end when one of two inmates agreed to trade his weapons...
Harvey Weinstein found guilty in landmark #MeToo moment
NEW YORK — Harvey Weinstein was convicted Monday at his sexual assault trial, sealing his dizzying fall from powerful Hollywood studio boss to archvillain of the #MeToo movement. He was found guilty of criminal sex act for assaulting production assistant Mimi Haleyi at his apartment in 2006 and third-degree rape...
Pioneering black NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson has diedVideo
HAMPTON, Va. — NASA says Katherine Johnson, a mathematician who worked on NASA’s early space missions and was portrayed in the film “Hidden Figures,” about pioneering black female aerospace workers, has died. In a Monday morning tweet, the space agency said it celebrates her 101 years of life and her...
Palestinians fire rockets at Israel; Netanyahu threatens war
JERUSALEM — Gaza militants resumed their intense bombardment of southern Israel on Monday, with some rockets slipping through Israel’s Iron Dome defense system and one landing in the yard of a kindergarten. There was no word of casualties, but the second day of violence threatened to unleash a new round...
Car hits crowd at German carnival; several injured
BERLIN — A car drove into a crowd at Carnival procession in a German town on Monday, injuring several people, police said. A large number of police are at the scene in Volkmarsen, about 175 miles southwest of Berlin, and the driver was arrested, Northern Hesse police said. Local media...
Canadian police move to clear indigenous protest in Ontario
TORONTO — Canadian police moved on Monday to clear an indigenous rail blockade in Ontario that has crippled freight and passenger rail traffic in most of eastern Canada for nearly three weeks. Ontario Provincial Police arrested some protesters on Tyendinaga Mohawk territory near Belleville, Ontario, east of Toronto. Demonstrators have...
Weinstein jury back to work with signs of split over chargesVideo
NEW YORK — Jurors at Harvey Weinstein’s New York City rape trial are set to resume deliberations Monday after signaling they are at odds on the top charges in the closely watched #MeToo case. The jury sent a note to Judge James Burke at the end of a fourth day...
Former French prime minister and wife go on trial for fraudVideo
PARIS — He was the front-runner to be president of France. Instead, former Prime Minister Francois Fillon is going on trial to face fraud charges after he used public funds to pay his wife and children for work they allegedly never performed. The trial formally began Monday in the presence...
Porn actors face fingerprinting under proposed California bill
Porn — er, adult film — actors would be required to be fingerprinted and licensed in order to work in the industry in California, if a new bill is adopted. That’s after washing their hands, we’re assuming. NBC News reports the proposal, AB 2389, would call for any actor to...
Virus pushes beyond Asia, taking aim at Europe, Mideast
SEOUL, South Korea — The new virus took aim at a broadening swath of the globe Monday, with officials in Europe and the Middle East scrambling to limit the spread of an outbreak that showed signs of stabilizing at its Chinese epicenter but posed new threats far beyond. Worldwide, the...
U.S. sets out case for extradition of WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange
LONDON — The U.S. government began outlining its extradition case against Julian Assange in a London court on Monday, arguing that the WikiLeaks founder is not a free-speech champion but an “ordinary” criminal who put many lives at risk with his secret-spilling. U.S. authorities want to try Assange on espionage...
India pours on the pageantry with colorful welcome for Trump
AHMEDABAD, INDIA — Basking in adulation from a massive, colorful crowd, President Donald Trump and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi lavished each other with praise Monday in a reaffirmation of U.S.-India ties as the subcontinent poured on the pageantry in a joyful welcome for the U.S. president. Trump capped his...
6 killed in wrong-way crash on Georgia interstate
MIDWAY, Ga. — Six people, including three children, were killed early Sunday in a head-on collision on a Georgia interstate, authorities said. The crash happened early Sunday morning on Interstate 95, Liberty County sheriff’s officials said. Officers received reports of a white Lexus traveling southbound in a northbound lane of...
Israel strikes Gaza, Syria after Palestinian rockets attacks
JERUSALEM — The Israel military said early Monday that it struck Palestinian militants targets in Gaza and Syria in response to rockets fired toward southern Israel on Sunday evening, hours after Israel said it killed a Palestinian militant who tried to place a bomb along the Israel-Gaza barrier fence. The...
WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange to face off against U.S. authorities at extradition hearing
LONDON — The U.S. government and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will face off Monday in a high-security London courthouse, a decade after WikiLeaks infuriated American officials by publishing a trove of classified military documents. A judge at Woolwich Crown Court will begin hearing arguments from lawyers for U.S. authorities, who...
2nd person in days killed by Mardi Gras float in New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS — A man was struck and killed by a Mardi Gras float during a raucous weekend street parade in New Orleans, becoming the second person in days killed along a parade route during this year’s Carnival season, authorities said. The man was fatally injured Saturday evening as the...
Penn State students raise more than $11 million in annual dance marathonVideo
STATE COLLEGE — Hundreds of Penn State students have raised almost $11.7 million dollars for pediatric cancer patients in the annual 46-hour dance marathon known as Thon. The $11,696,942.38 total was announced Sunday afternoon at the conclusion of the Penn State Interfraternity Council/Panhellenic Dance Marathon, billed as the world’s largest...
Murrysville resident Lucille Byrne made impact on students as teacher, food service director
Lucy Byrne touched the lives of thousands of students during her career as a teacher and a school food service director. “She loved working with children and with people of all ages,” said her daughter Christina Heil. “She met many people who became lifelong friends – kitchen workers, students, teachers,...
Alarms raised on reliability, security of pricey ballot-marking voting machines
Nearly 1 in 5 U.S. voters will cast ballots this year on devices that look and feel like the discredited paperless voting machines they once used, yet leave a paper record of the vote. But computer security experts are warning that these so-called ballot-marking devices still pose too much of...
Man drives Jeep off 6-story roof of Los Angeles-area garage
SANTA MONICA, Calif. — A man drove his Jeep off the the sixth floor of a Los Angeles-area parking garage early Sunday and was taken to a hospital in critical condition, authorities said. When officers arrived shortly after midnight, they found the destroyed vehicle up against a McDonald’s restaurant across...
Trump expresses optimism for U.S. peace deal with Taliban
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Sunday he’s ready to sign a peace deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan if a temporary truce holds in America’s longest war. “Time to come home,” he said. “They want to stop. You know, they’ve been fighting a long time. They’re tough people. We’re...
Lawsuit against Pa. Lt. Gov. Fetterman still looms over Twitter fallout
The back-and-forth between Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman and the Harrisburg attorney retained to represent two men claiming Fetterman violated their First Amendment rights when he blocked them on Twitter has continued offline. Jason Lindemuth, of Harrisburg, and Sean Guay, of Hummelstown, were unblocked one day before a deadline attorney...
Man skeptic of world being round dies in California rocket crash
BARSTOW, Calif. — A California man who said he wanted to fly to the edge of outer space to see if the world is round has died after his home-built rocket blasted off into the desert sky and plunged back to earth. “Mad” Mike Hughes was killed on Saturday afternoon...
