U.S./World category, Page 1048

In 2007, the U.S. government made a promise to public service workers: Make 10 years of payments on their federal student loans and any remaining debt would be erased. But officials have largely failed to deliver. And that’s left lawmakers questioning whether to end the program or try to fix...

MADRID — Spain’s governing Socialists won the country’s national election Sunday but will need the backing of smaller parties to stay in power, while a far-right party rode a groundswell of support to enter the lower house of parliament for the first time in four decades, provisional results showed. Voters...

PORTLAND, Maine — The tradition of releasing balloons at weddings, birthdays and memorials may soon get deflated by lawmakers in more than half a dozen states. Critics say the helium-filled balloons pollute the environment, and threaten birds and other wildlife when they fall to earth. “People don’t really realize that...

WASHINGTON — The U.S. has little interest in joining other countries in a multi-nation effort to get North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons, President Donald Trump’s national security adviser said Sunday. The United States is not trying to exclude other nations from nuclear talks with Pyongyang, John Bolton...

INDIANAPOLIS — Former Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar, a Republican foreign policy sage known for leading efforts to help the former Soviet states dismantle and secure much of their nuclear arsenal, but whose reputation for working with Democrats cost him his final campaign, died Sunday. He was 87. Lugar died at...

LAS VEGAS — At a farm outside Las Vegas, a herd of pigs feasts on lobster, sausage links and beef. In town, people at a community center sit for a dinner that may include sliders and truffle mac and cheese. The two meals have something in common: Both came from...

POWAY, Calif. — The rabbi who led a service on the last day of Passover suffered a gunshot wound to his hands and two others endured shrapnel wounds as political, civic and religious leaders across the country struggled to make sense of another fatal attack on a house of worship...

KWA-THEMA, South Africa — Calls for more jobs for South Africa’s black majority and respect for the rights of the LGBTI community marked Freedom Day celebrations Saturday commemorating the 25th anniversary of the end of apartheid. Singing and dancing punctuated one gathering of about 3,500 on the outskirts of Johannesburg....

PEMBA, Mozambique — Mozambique’s government urged many people to immediately seek higher ground Saturday in the wake of Cyclone Kenneth, fearing flooding and mudslides in the days ahead as heavy rain lashed the region. At least five people were killed, the government said. Mozambique’s disaster management agency said one person...

SAINTHAMARUTHU, Sri Lanka — They arrived a day or two after the Easter Sunday bombings and moved into a low-slung house behind a high wall and black metal gate, unloading boxes from a pale gray minivan. But the neighbors in the seaside town of Sainthamaruthu soon began to suspect something...

HONG KONG — North Korea accused the U.S. of pressuring South Korea to follow a policy of implementing sanctions against the regime, its state media reported. The Korean Central News Agency report said there is a “serious situation of tension being created” on the peninsula amid halted denuclearization talks with...

INDIANAPOLIS — Oliver North announced Saturday he would not serve a second term as National Rifle Association president, making it clear he had been forced out by the gun lobby’s leadership after his failed attempt to remove the NRA’s longtime CEO in a burgeoning divide over the group’s finances and...

HUGO, Okla. — The mother of three children wounded when Oklahoma police fired at a man in a pickup who was suspected of robbing a restaurant says two of her kids suffered head wounds and the third was shot in the face. “My 4-year-old daughter was shot in the head,...

As his 2020 campaign gears up, President Trump is putting an early focus on the three Rust Belt states that sent him to the White House after Republican losses in midterm elections showed his support in the region is fading. Despite dominant fundraising, an established campaign organization and the power...

GRAND HAVEN, Mich. — Police in Michigan are appealing to people to surrender their instant riches after a box with $30,000 fell off the back of a truck. Authorities in Grand Haven say drivers stopped Thursday to pick up cash for themselves. Only $2,500 was immediately recovered and returned to...

POWAY, Calif. — A gunman armed with a semiautomatic rifle walked into a suburban San Diego County synagogue and opened fire on the congregation Saturday, killing one person and wounding three in an attack that authorities believe was motivated by hate. A 19-year-old white male was arrested in connection with...

Apparently it isn’t a good idea to host a bachelorette party at the same time and place as the NFL Draft. Who knew that Nashville is the destination spot for bachelorette parties in the country? What a lot of women who planned on making this a weekend to remember are...

HUGO, Okla. — Three children were wounded in a police shooting Friday in Oklahoma when an officer fired at a man in a truck who was suspected of robbing a restaurant earlier in the month, according to state investigators. Brook Arbeitman, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation,...

DETROIT — Prosecutors on Friday asked a judge for a six-month timeout in the criminal case against Michigan’s former health director after finding a “trove of documents” related to the Flint water crisis in the basement of a state building. The 23 boxes included a file titled “phones/wiped” with the...

LOS ANGELES — More than 1,000 students and staff members at two Los Angeles universities were quarantined on campus or sent home this week in one of the most sweeping efforts yet by public health authorities to contain the spread of measles in the U.S., where cases have reached a...

It may soon be legal for the dead to push daisies, or any other flower, in backyard gardens across Washington state. The state legislature recently passed a bill that, if signed by the governor, allows human bodies to be composted - and used for mulch. As the nation ages, U.S....

FORT BENNING, Ga. — There’s tough, there’s Army Ranger tough and then there’s the toughest of the tough, the handful named Best Ranger. Earlier this month, 106 elite members of the U.S. military spent 60 grueling hours competing as two-member teams for the Best Ranger title. Sleep-deprived and sometimes soaking...