U.S./World category, Page 868
France charges an alleged organizer of giant New Year’s rave
PARIS — An alleged organizer of an illegal New Year’s Eve rave that at least 2,500 people attended for more than a day in western France was charged Monday with endangering lives amid a coronavirus curfew and other restrictions. The 22-year-old man also faced property damage and drug charges among...
Amazon’s Bezos tops list of richest charitable gifts in 2020
SILVER SPRING, Md. — The world’s richest person made the single-largest charitable contribution in 2020, according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s annual list of top donations, a $10 billion gift that is intended to help fight climate change. Amazon’s founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, whose “real-time” worth Forbes magazine estimates...
Saudi Arabia to lift Qatar embargo, open airspace and border
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Kuwait’s foreign ministry on Monday announced that Saudi Arabia will lift a years-long embargo on Qatar, opening its air and land borders in the first steps toward ending the Gulf crisis. The state-run Kuwait News Agency reported the announcement, saying that Saudi Arabia would open...
Kentucky officers in Breonna Taylor face termination hearing
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Two Kentucky police detectives involved in the raid that left Breonna Taylor dead, including the one who shot her, were scheduled Monday to face a termination hearing. Detectives Myles Cosgrove and Joshua Jaynes received notice last week from Louisville Police interim Chief Yvette Gentry that she intends...
Lava spatters, flows inside crater of Hawaii volcano
HONOLULU — Lava spattered and flowed over the weekend inside the crater of a Hawaii volcano that began erupting in December. The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said the lava is confined to the summit crater of Kilauea, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Sunday. The eruption began Dec. 20 within Hawaii Volcanoes National...
Hundreds demonstrate over fatal Minneapolis police shooting
MINNEAPOLIS — Hundreds of protesters marched in Minneapolis to demand justice in the fatal police shooting of a 23-year-old man, the city’s first police-involved death since George Floyd died after being restrained by officers in May. As many as 1,000 demonstrators marched and chanted Sunday near the site where Dolal...
Iran starts 20% uranium enrichment, seizes tanker in Strait of HormuzVideo
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran began enriching uranium Monday to levels unseen since its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and also seized a South Korean-flagged tanker near the crucial Strait of Hormuz, a double-barreled challenge to the West that further raised Mideast tensions. Both decisions appeared aimed at...
U.K. judge refuses extradition of WikiLeaks founder Assange
LONDON — A British judge on Monday rejected the United States’ request to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to face espionage charges, saying he was likely to kill himself if held under harsh U.S. prison conditions. District Judge Vanessa Baraitser rejected allegations that Assange is being prosecuted for political reasons...
Sheriff: Pastor dead, 2 hurt in shooting at Texas churchVideo
WINONA, Texas — A pastor was killed and two other people were injured in a shooting at an East Texas church Sunday after the pastor confronted a man who had hidden from police in the church overnight, a local sheriff said. Authorities had been using dogs and drones to search...
Trump, on tape, presses Georgia official to ‘find’ Trump votesVideo
ATLANTA — President Donald Trump pressured Georgia’s Republican secretary of state to “find” enough votes to overturn Joe Biden’s win in the state’s presidential election, repeatedly citing disproven claims of fraud and raising the prospect of “criminal offense” if officials did not change the vote count, according to a recording...
Head-on crash kills 7 kids, 2 adults in central California
FRESNO, Calif. — Investigators are asking for the public’s help to determine what led up to a head-on crash that killed seven children and two adults in central California on New Year’s Day. The California Highway Patrol says everyone who reported Friday’s fiery crash on rural State Route 33 came...
Fauci: Vaccinations are ramping up in a ‘glimmer of hope’
The U.S. ramped up covid-19 vaccinations in the past few days after a slower-than-expected start, bringing to 4 million the number of Americans who have received shots, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday. The government’s top infectious-disease expert also said on ABC’s “This Week” that President-elect Joe Biden’s pledge to administer...
In their own words: Families talk about their endless search for Mexico’s missing
BAJA CALIFORNIA, Mexico — They are called los desaparecidos — the disappeared. The term gained popularity among extralegal military and police forces in Argentina in the mid-1970s, describing people taken by government-backed armed forces. They vanished without a trace into a world void of human and legal rights. Today there...
Biden’s strategy for a predecessor who won’t go away: Ignore him
WASHINGTON — Joe Biden faces historic challenges when he enters the White House on Jan. 20: a raging pandemic, persistently high unemployment, simmering tensions with China and Russia — and a predecessor who won’t go away. Aware of the chaos and distraction Donald Trump has proved he can muster, the...
U.S. coronavirus death toll hits 350,000; surge feared
BALTIMORE — The covid-19 death toll in the United States has surpassed 350,000 as experts anticipate another surge in coronavirus cases and deaths stemming from holiday gatherings over Christmas and New Year’s. Data compiled by Johns Hopkins University shows the U.S. passed the threshold early Sunday morning. More than 20...
A Florida-bound boat with 20 aboard went missing. The Coast Guard’s search has ended
MIAMI — The first sign something was wrong came Tuesday when Bahamian authorities reached out to the U.S. Coast Guard’s Southeast Division to alert them that 20 people aboard a blue and white 29-foot Mako Cuddy Cabin vessel had gone missing. The passengers were in the oft-cited Bermuda Triangle. The...
There’s good and bad news for immigrants waiting to take steps toward naturalization
MIAMI — More than a million immigrants in the United States who have applied for U.S. citizenship through naturalization, adjustment of status and other benefits have been waiting for their biometric services appointment at a local Application Support Center (ASC) to provide their fingerprints, photograph and/or signature. Due to the...
McConnell, Pelosi homes vandalized after $2,000 relief fails
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Vandals lashed out at the leaders of the U.S. House and Senate over the holiday weekend, blighting their homes with graffiti and in one case a pig’s head as Congress failed to approve an increase in the amount of money being sent to individuals to help cope...
Fast rollout of virus vaccine trials reveals tribal distrust
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — The news came during a hopeful time on the largest Native American reservation. Daily coronavirus cases were in the single digits, down from a springtime peak of 238 that made the Navajo Nation a U.S. hot spot. The tribe, wanting to ensure a covid-19 vaccine would be...
Massachusetts policeman pays for shoplifting suspects’ holiday dinner
SOMERSET, Mass. — A Massachusetts police officer declined to charge two women accused of trying to steal groceries for the children — and instead bought them Christmas dinner. Somerset Officer Matt Lima responded to a report of shoplifting Dec. 20 at Stop & Shop, where two women with two young...
Judge tosses out Gohmert suit against Pence over electoral votes
A federal judge in Texas threw out a Hail Mary lawsuit filed against Vice President Mike Pence by a Republican congressman who argued the vice president has the authority to unilaterally reverse Donald Trump’s election loss during a joint session of Congress Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Jeremy Kernodle on Friday...
Bolsonaro’s tough 2021 balance between ideology, pragmatism
BRASILIA — Brazil’s pugnacious president, Jair Bolsonaro, survived 2020 in surprisingly good shape personally and politically, with buoyant popularity ratings despite his own bout of covid-19 and a broader pandemic that has killed nearly 200,000 of his countrymen. But the new year — and a looming reelection campaign — bring...
Chicago ends 2020 with 769 homicides as gun violence surges
CHICAGO — The number of homicides and shootings in Chicago spiked dramatically in 2020, ending with more bloodshed than in all but one year in more than two decades, statistics released by police on Friday revealed. After three years of falling homicide totals, 2020 ended with 769 homicides — 274...
Curfew-busting New Year party-goers attack French police
PARIS — Ravers at an underground, curfew-busting New Year’s Eve party that drew at least 2,500 people in western France attacked the police sent to shut them down, torching one police vehicle and injuring officers with volleys of bottles and stones, officials said Friday. Ravers aboard hundreds of vehicles started...
Mexico City ban on single-use plastics takes effect
MEXICO CITY — A broad ban on single-use containers, forks, straws and other ubiquitous items takes effect in Mexico’s capital, one of the world’s largest cities, after more than a year of preparation. On Friday, Mexico City’s environmental secretary said via Twitter that “from today on Mexico City without single-use...
