U.S./World category, Page 828
Shark bites 9-year-old boy as he body surfed in Miami Beach
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — A 9-year-old Minnesota boy was bitten by a shark as he body surfed in Miami Beach over the weekend, his parents said. Kristine Weiskopf told WPLG she and her son Jay were in the water for only a few minutes when the shark bit the boy....
Police: Men found dead responsible for 22 armed robberies
FLORENCE, S.C. — Two men suspected in more than 20 armed robberies in South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia were found dead in a hotel room after police heard gunshots as they knocked on the door to arrest them, authorities said. Florence County deputies and federal marshals fired no shots...
UN official: Airstrikes on NW Syria border area worrying
BEIRUT — Airstrikes in northwest Syria near the Turkish border that killed a person and set afire trucks used to distribute aid targeted areas considered the safest in the rebel-held region, a U.N. official said Monday. The strikes on several locations a day earlier angered Turkey, prompting it to place...
EU targets 11 Myanmar officials over coup, crackdown
BRUSSELS — The European Union on Monday imposed sanctions on 11 officials in Myanmar, mostly top military officers, accused of involvement in last month’s coup and the violent crackdown on peaceful protesters that followed. Ten of the 11 targeted with asset freezes and travel bans are senior members of the...
Court could reimpose Boston marathon bomber’s death sentence
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court said Monday it will consider reinstating the death sentence for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, presenting President Joe Biden with an early test of his opposition to capital punishment. The justices agreed to hear an appeal filed by the Trump administration, which carried out executions...
U.S., U.K. join Europe in issuing sanctions over Uighur abuse
BRUSSELS — Britain and the United States say they have taken joint action with the European Union and Canada to impose sanctions on senior Chinese officials over human rights abuses in China’s far western Xinjiang region. British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the measures were part of “intensive diplomacy” by...
Donations pour in for families of Atlanta shooting victims
Shortly after his mother was killed in the Atlanta-area shootings, Randy Park launched a GoFundMe page asking for $20,000 to pay for funeral expenses. By Sunday, the donations were approaching $3 million. With many people seeking a way to support the families of the dead, Park’s page and others have...
Texas Roadhouse CEO Kent Taylor dies amid covid-19 struggle
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Kent Taylor, founder and CEO of the Texas Roadhouse restaurant chain, has died. He was 65. His family and the company say he took his own life as a result of suffering from symptoms related to covid-19, including severe tinnitus. Taylor’s family and the company on Sunday...
Georgia church removes accused spa shooter from membership roster
ATLANTA — A north Fulton County church has voted to remove accused killer Robert Aaron Long from its membership after a shooting spree that left eight people dead, including six women of Asian ancestry. Following its Sunday morning service, Crabapple First Baptist Church in Milton said it “completed the process...
Amid unruly spring break crowd, police chief says Miami partying ‘couldn’t go on any longer’Video
MIAMI — Pointing to over 1,000 arrests in one of the nation’s top party spots, Miami Beach officials warned Sunday that the unruly spring break crowd gathering by the thousands, fighting in the streets, destroying restaurant property and refusing to wear masks has become a serious threat to public safety....
AP sources: Iran threatens U.S. Army post and top general
Iran has made threats against Fort McNair, an Army post in the U.S. capital, and against the Army’s vice chief of staff, two senior U.S. intelligence officials said. They said communications intercepted by the National Security Agency in January showed that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard discussed mounting “USS Cole-style attacks” against...
Gun waiting periods rare in U.S. states but more may be coming
Not long before the deadly Atlanta-area shootings spread fear and anger through Asian American communities nationwide, police say the attacker made a legal purchase: a 9 mm handgun. Within hours, they say, he had killed eight people, seven of them women and six of Asian descent, in a rampage targeting...
A year into pandemic, veterans halls ‘barely hanging’ on
NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Paul Guilbeault knew the writing was on the wall for the last Veterans of Foreign Wars post in this city south of Boston when businesses across Massachusetts were ordered to close as the coronavirus pandemic took hold last March. Within six months, the 90-year-old Korean War...
U.S. defense chief arrives in Kabul on 1st trip to Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan — U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived Sunday in Kabul on his first trip to Afghanistan as Pentagon chief, amid swirling questions about how long American troops will remain in the country. State-owned Radio and Television Afghanistan and popular TOLO Television reported Austin’s arrival in Kabul from India....
Biden’s top aides unlikely to qualify for relief payments
WASHINGTON — At least one group in America is unlikely to get any money from President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion economic rescue plan — his own top aides. Most of Biden’s senior West Wing advisers made far more than the threshold that would qualify them for direct payments from the...
Prosecutor: Man accused of 1 murder says he really killed 16
WOODBURY, N.J. — A man charged with beating to death a New Jersey resident he says sexually abused him as a child now claims he has killed a total of 16 people, including his ex-wife and three others in New Mexico, officials said. Authorities have not corroborated his claim. Sean...
New Orleans D.A.: Priest, 2 dominatrices face vandalism charges after having sex on altar
A former priest and two women are facing charges for having sex on the altar of Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Pearl River, La. The Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate reports a passerby spotted lights on inside the church. Looking into the church’s windows and glass doors, the...
5 nations demand better EU sharing of migration load
ATHENS, Greece — The interior ministers of the five Mediterranean countries on the front line of mass migration to Europe want their EU partners to share the burden more equitably. “We can no longer be punished for our geographical position,” Malta’s Byron Camilleri said Saturday, summing up his position and...
Eruption of Iceland volcano easing, not affecting flights
REYKJAVIK, Iceland — The eruption of a long-dormant volcano that sent streams of lava flowing across a small valley in southwestern Iceland is easing and shouldn’t interfere with air travel, the Icelandic Meteorological Office said Saturday. The fissure eruption began at around 8:45 p.m. Friday in the Geldinga Valley, about...
Biden, Harris offer solace, denounce racism in Atlanta visit
ATLANTA — President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris offered solace to Asian Americans and denounced the scourge of racism at times hidden “in plain sight” as they visited Atlanta on Friday, just days after a white gunman killed eight people, most of them Asian American women. Addressing the...
2 journalists detained as Myanmar junta clamps down on press
YANGON, Myanmar — Two more journalists were detained in Myanmar on Friday, part of the junta’s intensifying efforts to choke off information about resistance to last month’s coup. Mizzima News reported that one of its former reporters, Than Htike Aung, and Aung Thura, a journalist from the BBC’s Burmese-language service,...
Attacked Georgia spas had been targeted by prostitution stings
ATLANTA — Two Atlanta area massage businesses where a gunman waged a deadly assault this week had been repeatedly targeted in police prostitution investigations over the years, raising questions about the mayor’s earlier comments that the spas operated legally. Police records show officers went to the businesses at least 21...
Mexico launches crackdown on migrant smuggling
MEXICO CITY — In a rare show of force Friday, Mexico sent hundreds of immigration agents, police and National Guard officers marching through the streets of the capital of the southern state of Chiapas to launch an operation to crack down on migrant smuggling. The parade Friday in the city...
Russian national pleads guilty in $150 million kickback plot
NEW BERN, N.C. — A Russian national living in North Carolina has pleaded guilty to bribery and other charges after prosecutors say he received more than $150 million in kickbacks from contractors seeking deals with the Russian military. Leonid Teyf, 59, of Raleigh, pleaded guilty Friday in federal court in...
No charges for Texas officer in killing of college student
DENTON, Texas — A grand jury declined to indict a North Texas police officer in the fatal shooting of a college student who had refused to drop a frying pan and a cleaver and then advanced toward police with the pan. The Denton County grand jury made the decision Thursday...
