U.S./World category, Page 613
Sri Lanka in crisis: President flees and ire turns to PM
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s president fled the country Wednesday, plunging a country already reeling from economic chaos into more political turmoil. Protesters demanding a change in leadership then trained their ire on the prime minister and stormed his office. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his wife left aboard an...
Demand for monkeypox vaccine overwhelms NYC system
NEW YORK — Soaring demand for the monkeypox vaccine caused the appointment system to crash in New York City, one of many places where supplies have been running out almost as soon as they arrive. City health officials acknowledged the frustration over the limited supply of the vaccine and vowed...
South Africa’s many illegal guns a factor in bar shootings
JOHANNESBURG — South African police are patrolling the streets of Johannesburg’s Soweto township, following a spate of bar shootings that have rocked the nation. The country’s abundance of guns held illegally is partially to blame for the shootings in which 22 people were killed at three different taverns this past...
Russia, Ukraine discuss UN plan to free up grain exports
ISTANBUL — Russia said Wednesday it has presented a package of proposals for a “practical and quick solution” to unblock the export of Ukrainian grain during talks between Russian and Ukrainian military officials in Istanbul. Both sides were seeking an agreement on a United Nations plan for the grain’s shipment...
Wall Street opens lower after another hot inflation report
NEW YORK — Early gains on Wall Street were doused Wednesday after the government reported that surging prices for gas, food and rent catapulted U.S. inflation to a new four-decade peak in June, likely sealing the case for another large interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve. Futures for the...
Prominent Greek actor-director found guilty of 2 rapes
ATHENS, Greece — A prominent Greek stage actor and director has been found guilty of raping two men when they were minors. Dimitris Lignadis, 57, was found guilty by an Athens court Wednesday in two out of four cases of rape. Lignadis was acquitted for insufficient evidence in a third...
Heard faces high legal hurdles seeking to reverse Depp win
FALLS CHURCH, Va. — The Johnny Depp-Amber Heard libel trial, which generated intense interest for two months earlier this year as a livestreamed, no-holds-barred soap opera featuring one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, is not fading away quietly. Earlier this month, Heard’s lawyers filed a 51-page motion asking Judge Penney Azcarate...
U.S. inflation surges again in June, raising risks for economy
WASHINGTON — U.S. inflation surged to a new four-decade high in June because of rising prices for gas, food and rent, squeezing household budgets and pressuring the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates aggressively — trends that raise the risk of a recession. The government’s consumer price index soared 9.1%...
Video shows police milling in hallway during Uvalde massacre
AUSTIN, Texas — Surveillance footage captured the gunman in the Uvalde school shooting enter the building with a AR-15 style rifle and later shows officers in body armor milling in the hallway outside the fourth-grade classrooms where 19 children and two teachers were killed. The video published Tuesday by the...
Prosecutor: Ohio escapee had woman at knifepoint, was killed
MASON, Ohio — A member of a law enforcement tactical team shot and killed an escaped prison inmate on Tuesday after the team entered an Ohio hotel room where authorities said he was holding a woman at knifepoint, prosecutors said. Authorities in Hamilton County had been seeking Thomas Cromwell, 27,...
Superbug infections, deaths rose at beginning of pandemic
NEW YORK — The toll of drug-resistant “superbug” infections worsened during the first year of the covid-19 pandemic, U.S. health officials said Tuesday. After years of decline, 2020 ushered in a 15% increase in hospital infections and deaths caused by some of the most worrisome bacterial infections, according to a...
Baby stars, dancing galaxies: NASA shows new cosmic views
GREENBELT, Md. — A sparkling landscape of baby stars. A foamy blue and orange view of a dying star. Five galaxies in a cosmic dance. The splendors of the universe glowed in a new batch of images released Tuesday from NASA’s powerful new telescope. The unveiling from the $10 billion...
Poll: Many young, educated Republicans ready to move on from Trump
A day after a New York Times poll indicated that a majority of Democrats do not want President Joe Biden as their 2024 candidate, a second poll shows that most young Republicans do not want Donald Trump to win their party’s nomination. The New York Times/Siena College poll showed that...
State lottery advertising tells players half of the story
HOUSTON — The sign at the SHOP N Go front counter says “WE SOLD $10,000 WINNER!!” Located in a Hispanic neighborhood, the store sells Texas Loteria, a popular game marketed by the state lottery that resembles the iconic bingo lotería game in Mexico. The sign and the game attract players...
Cheney: Trump attempted to contact Jan. 6 witnessVideo
WASHINGTON — The Jan. 6 committee revealed Tuesday that Donald Trump has attempted to contact a witness who was in discussions with the panel about its investigation of the former president and the 2021 attack on the Capitol. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said that person declined to answer or respond...
White House urges caution on covid variants, pushes boosters
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is calling on people to exercise renewed caution about covid-19, emphasizing the importance of getting booster shots for those who are eligible and wearing masks indoors as two new highly transmissible variants are spreading rapidly across the country. The new variants, labeled BA.4 and BA.5,...
Pentagon: U.S. kills IS group leader in Syria in drone strike
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon said Tuesday that it killed a leader of the Islamic State group in Syria in a drone strike. U.S. Central Command said in a news release that Maher al-Agal was killed Tuesday and an unidentified senior official in the Islamic State group was seriously injured. The...
Jill Biden apologizes for saying Latinos ‘unique’ as tacosVideo
WASHINGTON — Jill Biden apologized Tuesday for saying Latinos are “as unique” as San Antonio breakfast tacos during a speech to the nation’s largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization. “The first lady apologizes that her words conveyed anything but pure admiration and love for the Latino community,” tweeted Jill...
Spain’s running of the bulls: 1 person gored in Pamplona
PAMPLONA, Spain — One person was gored and several people had very close shaves in the sixth running of the bulls at Pamplona’s San Fermín Festival, Spanish authorities reported Tuesday. A total of eight people were treated for injuries, including a Spaniard who was gored in the left armpit, the...
Ukraine reports striking Russian ammunition depot in south
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian authorities said Tuesday that their forces targeted a Russian ammunition depot in southern Ukraine overnight, resulting in a massive explosion captured on social media. The Ukrainian military’s southern command said a rocket strike targeted the depot in Russian-held Nova Kakhovka, about 35 miles east of the...
Ukraine gets $1.7B in fresh aid to pay health care workers
WASHINGTON — Ukraine is getting an additional $1.7 billion in assistance from the U.S. government and the World Bank to pay the salaries of its beleaguered health care workers and provide other essential services. The money coming Tuesday from the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Treasury Department and the...
Cars hit pack of wild boars in Greece; 2 killed, 4 injured
THESSALONIKI, Greece — A three-car pileup caused by a pack of wild boars in northern Greece killed two people and left four more hospitalized, police said Tuesday. The accident happened shortly before midnight Monday on a two-lane road about 37 miles north of Thessaloniki. A patrol car carrying three police...
Biden to discuss immigration, trade with Mexico’s president
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is meeting with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Tuesday for discussions the White House says will showcase the underlying strength of a relationship that of late has been more notable for the leaders’ disagreements on issues including energy and Ukraine policy. López Obrador...
Jan. 6 committee to connect Oath Keepers, Proud Boys and QAnon to Trump alliesVideo
WASHINGTON — The committee investigating the Capitol insurrection will focus for the first time this week on the relationship between people in former President Donald Trump’s orbit and the extremist groups that planned and orchestrated the violence on Jan. 6, 2021. The hearing could be one of the most consequential...
Teen died from smoke inhalation in Albuquerque house fireVideo
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Authorities conducting an arson investigation at a southeast Albuquerque house fire say a 15-year-old boy whose body was found inside died from smoke inhalation. Albuquerque Fire Department officials said Sunday it might take about two weeks to complete the investigation to determine the cause of last week’s...
