U.S./World category, Page 678
Navy to court-martial sailor accused of starting fire that destroyed $1.2B warship
SAN DIEGO — A 20-year-old sailor will face a military trial on charges he deliberately set the fire that destroyed a $1.2 billion warship on the San Diego waterfront in 2020, the Navy announced Friday. Seaman Recruit Ryan Sawyer Mays, a former deck seaman on the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme...
‘Stand your ground’ laws proliferate after Trayvon Martin spotlight
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The “stand your ground” self-defense law had been in effect in Florida for more than six years when it became part of the national vocabulary with the death of Trayvon Martin in 2012. When the 17-year-old was fatally shot, Florida was still one of the few...
Popcorn? Fear of death? Theater killing trial goes to jury
A Florida prosecutor told jurors Friday that a retired police SWAT commander fatally shot a fellow moviegoer because he threw popcorn in his face during an argument over cellphone use, angering him because it violated his self-image as an “alpha male.” Prosecutor Scott Rosenwasser told jurors during closing arguments that...
Ukrainians flee war, seeking safety across western bordersVideo
PRZEMYSL, Poland — Thousands of Ukrainians crossed into neighboring countries to the west in search of safety as Russia pounded their capital and other cities with airstrikes for a second day. Most of those arriving on Friday were women, children and the elderly after Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday...
Biden nominates Ketanji Brown Jackson, first Black woman, to Supreme Court
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Friday nominated federal appeals court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court, making her the first Black woman selected to serve on a court that once declared her race unworthy of citizenship and endorsed segregation. Introducing Jackson, Biden called her a “proven...
NATO leaders meet to reassure allies near Russia, Ukraine
BRUSSELS — U.S. President Joe Biden and his NATO counterparts will seek Friday to reassure member countries on the alliance’s eastern flank that their security is guaranteed as Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine closes in on the capital Kyiv. With Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealing for help, NATO members ranging...
German court convicts Catholic priest of abusing girls
BERLIN — A German court on Friday convicted a Catholic priest of sexual abuse of children in cases that spanned many years and sentenced him to 12 years in prison. The Cologne state court also ordered the 70-year-old to pay three co-plaintiffs in the cases damages totaling $56,000, news agency...
Pope Francis voices concern in visit to Russian embassy in Rome
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis went to the Russian embassy in Rome on Friday to personally express his concern about the war in Ukraine, in an extraordinary papal gesture that has no recent precedent. Popes usually receive ambassadors and heads of state in the Vatican. For Francis to travel a...
Ukrainian president expects conflict with Russia to intensify
KYIV, Ukraine — Russian troops bore down on Ukraine’s capital Friday while the president grimly predicted that the conflict would soon intensify, and fears of wider war in Europe triggered new international efforts to make Moscow stop, including direct sanctions on President Vladimir Putin. Amid reports of hundreds of casualties...
Mental issue raised in boy’s body in freezer case in Las Vegas
LAS VEGAS — A defense attorney said Thursday he wants a mental health evaluation for a Las Vegas man now jailed in protective custody after being accused of keeping a widow and her daughter captive at his home, killing the woman’s 4-year-old son and storing the boy’s body in a...
3 ex-cops convicted of rights violations in George Floyd killingVideo
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Three former Minneapolis police officers were convicted Thursday of violating George Floyd’s civil rights. Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane were charged with depriving Floyd of his right to medical care when Officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for 9 1/2...
Parents of Michigan teen charged in school shooting to stand trial
A judge on Thursday ordered the parents of a 15-year-old boy charged with killing four students at his Michigan high school to stand trial on involuntary manslaughter charges. Rochester Hills District Court Judge Julie Nicholson said following the preliminary examination for Jennifer and James Crumbley that she found enough evidence...
Wintry weather disrupts travel across the heartland
DALLAS — Freezing rain and drizzle is disrupting travel from Central Texas to the Great Lakes, with ice-glazed roads leading to hundreds of traffic accidents, including one in Kentucky that killed a toddler. Hundreds of flights were canceled Wednesday at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport as Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas...
Hundreds arrested as shocked Russians protest Ukraine attackVideo
MOSCOW — Shocked Russians turned out by the thousands Thursday to decry their country’s invasion of Ukraine as emotional calls for protests grew on social media. Some 1,702 people in 53 Russian cities were detained, at least 940 of them in Moscow. Hundreds of posts came pouring in condemning Moscow’s...
Biden hits Russia with new sanctions, says Putin ‘chose’ war
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Thursday announced a new round of sanctions targeting Russia after its invasion of Ukraine, charging that Russian leader Vladimir Putin “chose this war” and that his country will bear the consequences of his action. The sanctions target Russian banks, oligarchs and high-tech sectors, Biden...
Officials say Ukraine no longer in control of Chernobyl site
KYIV, Ukraine — A presidential adviser says Ukraine lost control of the Chernobyl nuclear site, where Ukranian forces had waged a fierce battle with Russian troops. Adviser Myhailo Podolyak told The Associated Press that Ukrainian authorities did not know the current condition of the facilities at Chernobyl, the site of...
What’s behind Russia’s invasion of Ukraine?
Russian President Vladimir Putin has sparked one of the biggest security crises in Europe since World War II by invading Ukraine, with barrages of missiles and artillery accompanying troops as they entered the country from multiple directions. Putin said he acted to protect civilians in separatist regions from Ukraine’s military,...
Man fatally shoots Texas officer working security at mall
HOUSTON — A Texas deputy constable working an off-duty security job at a Houston mall was fatally shot by a man who gained control of the officer’s own gun, police said. The suspect was shot by police and died at a hospital. Deputy Neil Adams was working a second job...
U.S. slightly revises up its GDP estimate for Q4 to 7%
WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy ended 2021 by expanding at a brisk 7% annual pace from October through December, the government reported Thursday in a slight upgrade from its earlier estimate. For all of 2021, the nation’s gross domestic product — its total output of goods and services — jumped...
World reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron says France and its European allies did everything to try to head off the attack on Ukraine. He said that they will show “no weakness” in their response. Macron said in a televised address to the nation Thursday that Russia’s attack is a “turning...
Ukraine attack leaves Baltics wondering: Are we next?
VILNIUS, Lithuania — Viewed from Paris, London and Washington, the events unfolding in Ukraine may seem like a new Cold War taking shape in Europe. From the Baltic countries, it looks much worse. To Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians — particularly those old enough to have lived under Soviet control —...
Fear, calm among Ukrainians as Russian troops enter
KYIV, Ukraine — Although Ukrainians had been warned for weeks that war with Russia was imminent, when the attacks finally came Thursday many seemed not to know how to react. Civil defense sirens wailed in the air of the capital, Kyiv, in the gray and drizzly morning, but the city’s...
Explosions heard in Kyiv as Russia presses Ukraine assaultVideo
KYIV, Ukraine — Explosions were heard early Friday in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv as Russian forces pressed on with a full-scale invasion that resulted in the deaths of more than 100 Ukrainians in the first full day of fighting and could eventually rewrite the global post-Cold War security order....
AP-NORC poll: Most in U.S. oppose major role in Russia strife
WASHINGTON — There’s little support among Americans for a major U.S. role in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, according to a new poll, even as President Joe Biden imposes new sanctions and threatens a stronger response that could provoke retaliation from Moscow. Biden has acknowledged a growing likelihood that war in Eastern...
Prosecutors in charge of Trump criminal probe have resignedVideo
NEW YORK — The two prosecutors in charge of the Manhattan district attorney’s criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump and his business dealings suddenly resigned Wednesday, throwing the future of the probe into question just as pressure was building on Trump on several legal fronts. A spokesperson for District...
