U.S./World category, Page 791
Sheriff: California rail yard shooter had gun, ammo stockpile at house
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Authorities say the gunman who killed nine co-workers at a California rail yard had 12 guns and 22,000 rounds of ammunition at his home that he set on fire. Officials said Friday that the shooter, Samuel James Cassidy, had coordinated a fire at his house to...
Biden’s $6T budget: Social spending, taxes on business
President Joe Biden on Friday unveiled a $6 trillion budget for next year that’s piled high with new safety net programs for the poor and middle class, but his generosity depends on taxing corporations and the wealthy to keep the nation’s spiking debt from spiraling totally out of control. Biden...
Microsoft: SolarWinds hackers target 150 organizations with phishing
The state-backed Russian cyber spies behind the SolarWinds hacking campaign launched a targeted spear-phishing assault on U.S. and foreign government agencies and think tanks this week using an email marketing account of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Microsoft says. The effort targeted about 3,000 email accounts at more than...
Plague of ravenous, destructive mice tormenting Australians
BOGAN GATE, Australia — At night, the floors of sheds vanish beneath carpets of scampering mice. Ceilings come alive with the sounds of scratching. One family blamed mice chewing electrical wires for their house burning down. Vast tracts of land in Australia’s New South Wales state are being threatened by...
European regulator recommends Pfizer vaccine for children 12-15
The European Medicines Agency on Friday recommended that the use of the coronavirus vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech be expanded to children ages 12 to 15, a decision that offers younger and less at-risk populations across the continent access to a covid-19 shot for the first time. The Pfizer-BioNTech...
Kamala Harris cites challenges of ‘fragile’ world in Navy speech
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Vice President Kamala Harris focused on the challenges of the pandemic, climate change and cybersecurity threats during her keynote speech to graduates at the U.S. Naval Academy on Friday, the first by a woman at the 175-year-old institution. Harris, the nation’s first female vice president and the...
Tanker’s impossible voyage signals new sanction evasion ploy
The Cyprus-flagged oil tanker Berlina was drifting near the Caribbean island of Dominica earlier this year when the safety signals it is required to transmit showed it stopping in its tracks and in two minutes turning around 180 degrees. It was an amazingly quick pivot since the 274-meter (nearly 900-foot)...
GOP blocks probe of deadly Jan. 6 riot at Capitol; Toomey misses vote
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans on Friday blocked creation of a bipartisan panel to investigate the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, displaying continuing party loyalty to former President Donald Trump and firm determination to shift the political focus away from the violent insurrection by his GOP supporters. The Senate...
Florida boy, 14, held without bond in 13-year-old’s death
ST. JOHNS, Fla. — A judge on Friday ordered a 14-year-old Florida boy held without bond on a first-degree murder charge in the death of a 13-year-old classmate. Aiden Fucci will be tried in adult court and faces a possible life sentence in the stabbing death of Tristyn Bailey earlier...
Boat accident on Nigerian river kills 60, more feared dead
LAGOS, Nigeria — Nigerian authorities confirmed that at least 60 people have died in a boat accident on the Niger River and that 83 missing passengers are also feared dead. The boat with more than 160 passengers, including many children and women, sank after hitting an object and breaking up...
Russia: Ex-officers convicted of planting drugs on reporter
MOSCOW — Five former Russian police officers were convicted Friday on charges of fabricating evidence in the 2019 drug arrest of a prominent investigative journalist. Ivan Golunov of the independent Meduza online news outlet was arrested in Moscow on drug-dealing charges that he rejected as a sham. The journalist argued...
Spain criticized for unequally priced ‘equality stamps’
MADRID — Spain’s postal service is feeling a backlash from its attempt to highlight racial inequality. State-owned Correos España this week issued a set of four stamps in different skin-colored tones. The darker the stamp, the lower the price. The lightest color costs 1.60 euros ($1.95). The darkest one costs...
WHO chief concedes ‘slow’ response to Congo sex abuse claims
LONDON — The head of the World Health Organization acknowledged the U.N. health agency’s response to sexual abuse allegations involving employees who worked in Congo during an Ebola outbreak was “slow,” following an Associated Press investigation that found senior WHO management knew of multiple cases of misconduct. As WHO’s highest...
Busier summer expected at Jersey Shore in Year 2 of covid-19
BELMAR, N.J. — The second summer of covid-19 at the Jersey Shore is likely to look much different than last year’s: Many virus restrictions have been lifted, nightclubs and dance floors will be packed again, and restaurants and bars can serve full crowds indoors. Shore towns report brisk beach badge...
Report: Tennessee woman drove through vaccination tent to protest
MARYVILLE, Tenn. — A Tennessee woman accused of driving through a covid-19 vaccine distribution tent as a form of protest has been charged with seven counts of felony reckless endangerment, according to a police report. Virginia Christine Lewis Brown, 36, was arrested after a Blount County deputy witnessed her driving...
U.S. tells Russia it won’t rejoin Open Skies arms control pact
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration informed Russia on Thursday that it will not rejoin a key arms control pact, even as the two sides prepare for a summit next month between their leaders. U.S. officials said Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told the Russians that the administration had decided...
U.N. rights chief: Israeli strikes in Gaza may be war crimes
GENEVA — The top U.N. human rights body on Thursday passed a resolution aimed to intensify scrutiny of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, after the U.N. rights chief said Israeli forces may have committed war crimes and faulted the militant group Hamas for violations of international law in their 11-day war...
States tap federal aid to shore up empty unemployment funds
Businesses could be spared billions of dollars of higher taxes in coming years — potentially freeing up money to spend on employees or invest in their operations — as a result of federal coronavirus aid flowing to the states. Governors and lawmakers in more than half the states are planning...
Unearthing history: Tulsa massacre victims search resumes
OKLAHOMA CITY — As the U.S. marks 100 years since one of its most shameful historical chapters, researchers, including descendants of Black victims of the Tulsa Race Massacre, are preparing to resume a search for remains believed to have been hastily buried in mass graves. Although many details about the...
Official: San Jose shooter said he hated work years before killing 9
SAN JOSE, Calif. — A gunman who killed nine people at a California rail yard appeared to target some of the victims, a sheriff told The Associated Press on Thursday, while a Biden administration official said he spoke of hating his workplace when customs officers detained him after a 2016...
Woman in racist Central Park confrontation sues over firing
NEW YORK — The white woman who was widely condemned and fired after a videotaped dispute with a Black birdwatcher in Central Park filed a lawsuit against her former employer, accusing the company of not doing an investigation before her termination because of her race and gender. In her federal...
Karine Jean-Pierre makes history giving White House briefingVideo
WASHINGTON — Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday became the first openly gay woman to deliver the White House press briefing and only the second Black woman in history to take on the role. Jean-Pierre, the White House principal deputy press secretary, had briefed reporters aboard Air Force One, but Wednesday marked...
West Virginia transgender athlete law challenged in court
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A federal lawsuit was filed Wednesday challenging West Virginia’s new ban on transgender athletes from competing in female sports in middle and high schools and colleges. The American Civil Liberties Union and its West Virginia chapter filed the lawsuit on behalf of an 11-year-old transgender girl who...
Michigan man exonerated of murder after 32 years in prison
DETROIT — A man was exonerated Wednesday after 32 years in prison when authorities agreed that he was wrongly convicted of a fatal stabbing in suburban Detroit based on faulty evidence, including a bite mark on the victim. For years, Gilbert Poole Jr. had challenged his first-degree murder conviction with...
Biden asks U.S. intelligence officials to investigate covid-19 origin
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Wednesday asked U.S. intelligence officials to “redouble” their efforts to investigate the origins of the covid-19 pandemic, including the unlikely possibility that the origins of the virus trace to a Chinese lab. After months of minimizing the possibility as a fringe theory, the Biden...
