U.S./World category, Page 747
Girl who survived Florida massacre says gunman falsely believed parents were ‘sex traffickers’
ORLANDO, Fla. — The 11-year-old girl who survived her family’s massacre Sunday in Polk County said the former U.S. Marine gunman told her that he killed her parents because they were “sex traffickers,” which authorities said Thursday was “a figment of his imagination.” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said 33-year-old...
Hurricane Olaf heading toward Mexico’s Los Cabos resortsVideo
CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico — Hurricane Olaf was heading toward a strike on the Los Cabos resort region at the tip of Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula on Thursday. As the storm approached, authorities closed ports in the area, prepared temporary shelters and urged people to monitor public announcements. The U.S....
Florida’s GOP-backed ‘anti-riot’ law struck down by judge
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Florida’s new “anti-riot” law championed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis as a way to quell violent protests is unconstitutional and cannot be enforced, a federal judge ruled Thursday. The 90-page decision by U.S. District Judge Mark Walker in Tallahassee found the recently-enacted law “vague and overbroad”...
Florida man wins $1 million the day he opened his auto shop
CALLAHAN, Fla. — A Florida man won $1 million in a lottery game the same day he and his wife opened an auto repair shop. Brian Woodle, 46, bought the $5 Gold Rush Supreme scratch-off ticket from a Circle K in Callahan. “I love working on vehicles and it has...
Fast hiring: UPS to hire 100,000, many in 30 minutes or less
NEW YORK — Besides packages, UPS is promising to deliver something else fast: job offers. The package delivery company said Thursday that it plans to hire more than 100,000 people for the busy holiday shipping season, many of whom will get job offers within 30 minutes of applying. UPS needs...
50 years after Attica uprising, families want apology
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Fifty years after the revolt at the Attica Correctional Facility, unanswered questions still bother those touched by what remains the nation’s deadliest prison uprising. What unknown details are buried inside hundreds of pages of records that remain sealed? And will New York state ever apologize for the...
About 200 foreigners, including Americans, fly out of KabulVideo
KABUL, Afghanistan — An estimated 200 foreigners, including Americans, left Afghanistan on a commercial flight out of Kabul on Thursday with the cooperation of the Taliban — the first such large-scale departure since U.S. forces completed their frantic withdrawal over a week ago. The Qatar Airways flight to Doha marked...
Ground zero rebuilding still unfinished, 20 years later
NEW YORK — Two decades after its destruction in the Sept. 11 attacks, the work to rebuild the World Trade Center complex remains incomplete. Two planned skyscrapers, a performing arts center and a church are still unfinished at the site, which plays host Saturday to the annual ceremony honoring nearly...
South Carolina abortion law challenge backed by 20 states
Twenty Democratic attorneys general have voiced their support for a lawsuit challenging South Carolina’s new abortion law, arguing that the restrictive measure could harm their states by taxing resources if women cross borders to seek care. “The effects of the law are not confined to limits on particular procedures in...
Work stalls in search for Confederate statue’s time capsule
Work crews searching for a time capsule they believed was buried inside the pedestal under a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that had towered over Richmond, Virginia, hit a snag Thursday. Crews were having difficulty finding the capsule’s precise location. Then late Thursday morning, a crane they were...
N. Korea, slimmed down Kim Jong Un, enjoy toned-down parade
SEOUL, South Korea — Military search dogs and goose-stepping trainers. Health workers wearing gas masks and red hazmat suits. And a slimmed down, beaming Kim Jong Un in a cream-colored business suit. The parade marking North Korea’s celebration of its 73rd anniversary was a marked departure from past militaristic displays,...
France to offer free birth control to all women up to 25
PARIS — France will offer free birth control to all women up to age 25 starting next year, the health minister announced Thursday. The measure will also include free medical visits about contraception, and will start Jan. 1, Health Minister Olivier Veran announced on France-2 television. All contraceptive methods were...
From election to covid, 9/11 conspiracies cast a long shadow
Korey Rowe served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and returned to the U.S. in 2004 traumatized and disillusioned. His experiences overseas and nagging questions about Sept. 11, 2001 convinced him America’s leaders were lying about what happened that day and the wars that followed. The result was “Loose Change,” a...
Gen. Lee statue taken down in former Confederate capitalVideo
RICHMOND, Va. — A statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee that towered over Richmond for generations was taken down, cut into pieces and hauled away Wednesday, as the former capital of the Confederacy erased the last of the Civil War figures that once defined its most prominent thoroughfare. Hundreds of...
Tropical Storm Mindy makes landfall on Florida PanhandleVideo
MIAMI — A swath of the Florida Panhandle was under a tropical storm warning after Tropical Storm Mindy made landfall Wednesday night. The storm touched down over St. Vincent Island, about 10 miles west southwest of Apalachicola, according to the National Hurricane Center. BREAKING: #Mindy has formed and tropical storm...
Police planning to reinstall Capitol fence ahead of rallyVideo
WASHINGTON — Law enforcement concerned by the prospect for violence at a rally in the nation’s capital next week are planning to reinstall protective fencing that surrounded the U.S. Capitol for months after the Jan. 6 insurrection there, according to a person familiar with the discussions. Though no specific measures...
Vermont governor saddened by claim troopers made fake vaccine cardsVideo
MONTPELIER, Vt. — Vermont Gov. Phil Scott said Wednesday he was “incredibly disappointed” by the allegations that three Vermont State Police troopers who have since resigned were involved in a scheme to create fraudulent covid-19 vaccination cards. Scott said he didn’t think the resignations, which were announced late Tuesday, were...
Explainer: What was, and is, al-Qaida?
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Born out of the 1980s war against the Soviet Union’s occupation of Afghanistan, the terror group al-Qaida under Osama bin Laden grew into a generational threat to America that culminated in its Sept. 11, 2001, attack that brought down the World Trade Center in New...
Republicans, elections experts say Wisconsin probe is flawed
MADISON, Wis. — Former Republican officeholders and elections experts said Wednesday that the GOP-ordered investigation into the 2020 presidential election in Wisconsin lacks credibility, transparency and raises security risks and legal concerns. Former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman and Kentucky’s former secretary of state, Trey Grayson, said the ongoing...
Ethel Kennedy: RFK assassin Sirhan Sirhan shouldn’t be freed
BOSTON — Ethel Kennedy, the wife of the late Robert F. Kennedy, says assassin Sirhan Sirhan should not be released from prison, further roiling a family divide over whether the man convicted of killing her husband in California in 1968 should be freed on parole. In a brief statement released...
Report: Solar could power 40% of U.S. electricity by 2035
WASHINGTON — Solar energy has the potential to supply up to 40% of the nation’s electricity within 15 years — a 10-fold increase over current solar output, but one that would require massive changes in U.S. policy and billions of dollars in federal investment to modernize the nation’s electric grid,...
Macy’s Thanksgiving parade returns to New York City streets
NEW YORK — The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will return to New York City’s streets this year with covid-19 protocols including a vaccination requirement for parade volunteers, Macy’s and city officials announced Wednesday. The Nov. 25 parade will be broadcast on NBC and will feature the traditional giant balloons, celebrity...
Fires flare in Israeli prisons amid manhunt for 6 escapees
TEL AVIV, Israel — Pressure built around Israel’s prison system Wednesday after fires broke out at several facilities and the government hunted for six Palestinian escapees who have been on the run since they tunneled out two days earlier. Fires were reported at several prisons amid efforts to try to...
Fire kills 41 inmates, 80 hurt at crowded Indonesian prison
JAKARTA, Indonesia — A massive fire raged through an overcrowded prison near Indonesia’s capital early Wednesday, killing at least 41 inmates, two of them foreigners serving drug sentences, and injuring 80 others. Firefighters battled through the early morning hours to extinguish the flames as black smoke billowed from the compound...
Russia’s emergency situations minister dies in Arctic drill
MOSCOW — Russia’s emergency situations minister has died during drills, the ministry said Wednesday. Yevgeny Zinichev, 55, “tragically died in the line of duty during inter-agency exercises to protect the Arctic zone from emergency situations, while saving a person’s life,” the ministry said in a statement carried by Russian news...
