Germany: Man rescued from woods after sex game goes awry
BERLIN — German police say a 51-year-old man who was left tied up in the woods when a sex game went awry had a lucky escape after a cyclist and a hunter heard his screams for help. Police said the man was discovered fully dressed but firmly bound with ropes...
Biden said to pick Air Force general as Joint Chiefs chair
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is expected to nominate a history-making Air Force fighter pilot with years of experience in shaping U.S. defenses to meet China’s rise to serve as the nation’s next top military officer, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the decision. If confirmed by the Senate,...
CDC’s Rochelle Walensky resigns, citing pandemic transition
NEW YORK — Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, submitted her resignation Friday, saying the waning of the covid-19 pandemic was a good time to make a transition. Walensky’s last day will be June 30, CDC officials said, and an interim director wasn’t...
King Charles III surprises crowd outside Buckingham PalaceVideo
LONDON — King Charles III surprised cheering fans who started gathering outside Buckingham Palace on Friday, a day ahead of his coronation, as final touches were made in preparation for an occasion that London hasn’t celebrated in 70 years. People in the crowd screamed his name as Charles stepped from...
13-year-old charged as adult with Pa. murder in sleepover shooting of friend
A 13-year-old has been charged with third-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in the April 1 shooting death of his 12-year-old friend Kain Heiland. Nolan Grove, who is being charged as an adult, is also facing a felony charge of having a firearm without a license and multiple misdemeanor counts of...
FDA weighing 1st over-the-counter birth control pill
WASHINGTON — U.S. health regulators are weighing the first-ever request to make a birth control pill available without a prescription. Advisers to the Food and Drug Administration meet next week to review drugmaker Perrigo’s application to sell a decades-old pill over the counter. The two-day public meeting is one of...
Dog Show 101: What’s what at the Westminster Kennel Club
NEW YORK — To the casual viewer, competing at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show might look pretty simple: Get a dog. Groom it. Pose it. Lead it around a ring. But there’s a lot more than that to getting to and exhibiting in the United States’ most prestigious canine...
WHO downgrades covid pandemic, says it’s no longer emergency
GENEVA — The World Health Organization said Friday that covid-19 no longer qualifies as a global emergency, marking a symbolic end to the devastating coronavirus pandemic that triggered once-unthinkable lockdowns, upended economies and killed at least 7 million people worldwide. WHO first declared covid-19 to be an emergency more than...
500 pounds of pasta illegally dumped in New Jersey woods
Illegal dumping usually consists of stuff like tires, old appliances and broken furniture. Well, residents in New Jersey discovered something out of the ordinary. Almost 500 pounds of pasta — spaghetti, macaroni, ziti and alphabet pasta — was found late last month near a creek in the woods near Old...
U.S. probes complaint that woman was trapped in flaming SUV
DETROIT — U.S. safety regulators are investigating possible electrical problems in older Dodge Journeys after a woman was trapped and died when her SUV caught fire in December. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it’s investigating whether inoperative door locks and windows can prevent people from getting out of...
Half a million at-home covid tests sold at CVS may be contaminated with bacteria, FDA says
More than a half a million covid-19 at-home test kits distributed to CVS Health and on Amazon should not be used because the liquid in the test tubes may be contaminated, according to the FDA. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a safety warning on May 4, 2023, saying...
Arab ministers to meet over Syria’s return to Arab league
CAIRO — Diplomats from Arab nations are planning an emergency meeting in Cairo over the weekend about the fighting in Sudan and the prospect of Syria’s return to the Arab League more than a decade after its membership was suspended, an official said Friday. Sunday’s meeting, confirmed by Gamal Rushdy,...
Strong earthquake hits Japan, killing 1, injuring 13
TOKYO — A strong, shallow earthquake hit central Japan on Friday afternoon, killing at least one person and injuring 13 others, but no tsunami warning was issued. The magnitude 6.2 quake struck Ishikawa prefecture on the west coast of Japan’s main island of Honshu, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The...
8 fatally shot in Serbia town a day after 9 killed at school
BELGRADE, Serbia — At least eight people were killed and 10 wounded late Thursday in a drive-by shooting in a town close to Belgrade, the second such mass killing in Serbia in two days, state television reported. The attacker used an automatic weapon to shoot randomly at people near the...
Former California college student arrested in 3 stabbingsVideo
DAVIS, Calif. — A 21-year-old who was a student at the University of California, Davis, until last week was arrested for allegedly committing three recent stabbings, including two that were fatal, city police said. Davis Police Chief Darren Pytel said Thursday that Carlos Dominguez was taken into custody Wednesday after...
Ex-Democrat Florida governor nominee Andrew Gillum not guilty of lying to FBI
TALLAHASSEE — Former Florida Democratic candidate for governor Andrew Gillum, who came within a whisker of defeating Republican Ron DeSantis in 2018, was acquitted Thursday of lying to the FBI in a corruption case that also involved illegal use of campaign contributions. But the federal jury hung on charges that...
Justice Clarence Thomas let GOP megadonor pay child’s tuitionVideo
WASHINGTON — A Republican megadonor paid two years of private school tuition for a child raised by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who did not disclose the payments, a lawyer who has represented Thomas and his wife acknowledged Thursday. The revelation of tuition payments made by Dallas billionaire Harlan Crow...
Coroner: 4 dead in killings in south Georgia townVideo
A Georgia man shot two of his relatives and a fast food worker dead before killing himself on Thursday in rural south Georgia, the local coroner said. The shooter killed his mother and grandmother at two neighboring homes and killed a woman at a McDonald’s restaurant in downtown Moultrie, Colquitt...
Kids and social media: Here are tips for concerned parents
When it comes to social media, families are seeking help. With ever-changing algorithms pushing content at children, parents are seeing their kids’ mental health suffer, even as platforms like TikTok and Instagram provide connections with friends. Some are questioning whether kids should be on social media at all, and if...
Party affiliation can be misleading in some local Pa. elections
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — When Devon Taliaferro first ran for school board in Pittsburgh Public Schools, she filed as a Democrat. She’s a...
Duquesne’s new grant match program targets transfer students as way to boost enrollment
Transfer students — long an afterthought when colleges had plenty of teens to recruit straight out of high school — these days are being courted by four-year campuses to keep enrollments healthy. The latest example comes from Duquesne University. Beginning this summer, Duquesne says it will match up to $20,400...
Covid dropped to 4th leading cause of death in U.S. last year
NEW YORK — U.S. deaths fell last year, and covid-19 dropped to the nation’s No. 4 cause, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday. Covid-19 deaths trailed those caused by heart disease, cancer and injuries such as drug overdoses, motor vehicle fatalities and shootings. In 2020 and 2021,...
Autopsy shows Tyre Nichols died of blunt force injuries
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Tyre Nichols died of blunt force injuries to the head after he was beaten by Memphis police during a January arrest, an autopsy report released Thursday showed. The autopsy said the manner of death was homicide. It described multiple contusions, brain injuries, cuts and bruises to the...
DeSantis stacks conservative agenda; presidential run looms
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — From the death penalty to gender identity to abortion, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has cemented himself as a conservative standard bearer as he prepares to launch a presidential campaign sometime after the legislative session ends this week. With the help of GOP supermajorities in the statehouse, the...
As oil boom transforms Guyana, a scramble for spoils
ANN’S GROVE, Guyana — Villagers in this tiny coastal community lined up on the soggy grass, leaned into the microphone and shared their grievances as someone in the crowd yelled, “Speak the truth!” And so they did. One by one, they asked for a library, streetlights, school buses, homes, a...
