U.S./World category, Page 875
Tensions rise inside and outside of Oregon’s CapitolVideo
SALEM, Ore. — State police declared an unlawful assembly Monday morning at Oregon’s Capitol building as protesters opposed to covid-19 restrictions attempted to force their way in during the third special legislative session. Lawmakers are at the Capitol to consider measures that would provide $800 million in relief to people...
Acrobats hurt in circus accident reach $52.5M settlement
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Eight acrobats severely injured when the rigging suspending them by their hair plummeted to the floor during a circus performance in Rhode Island in 2014 have reached a $52.5 million settlement with the ownership and management of the arena where the circus was held, their lawyer confirmed...
Man dressed as Santa rescued from power lines in California
RIO LINDA, Calif. — Santa found himself a little more tied up than usual this time of year. A Northern California man impersonating Santa Claus and flying on a powered parachute was rescued Sunday after he became entangled in power lines, authorities said. The incident happened shortly after the man...
Volcano erupts on Hawaii’s Big Island, draws crowds to park
Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano on the Big Island erupted and shot a steam and ash cloud into the atmosphere that lasted about an hour, an official with the National Weather Service said early Monday. The eruption began late Sunday within Kilauea’s summit crater, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The crater, named...
Ontario to go on province-wide shutdown Dec. 26
TORONTO — Ontario on Monday announced a province-wide shutdown because of a second wave of covid-19 in Canada’s most populous province. The lockdown will be put in place for southern Ontario from Dec. 26 until Jan. 23, but will lift for northern Ontario on Jan. 9. One top infectious disease...
Virginia’s Lee statue has been removed from U.S. Capitol
WASHINGTON — A statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that has represented Virginia in the U.S. Capitol for 111 years has been removed. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said in a statement that workers removed the statue from the National Statuary Hall Collection early Monday morning. Northam had requested the...
Explosion in gunpowder factory in Italy kills 3 people
ROME — An explosion in a gunpowder processing factory in a town in south-central Italy on Monday killed three people, Italian media said. The ANSA news agency quoted Casalbordino Mayor Filippo Marinucci at the scene as providing the death toll. Italian firefighters were called to help at the site of...
Justice Dept. charges bombmaker in 1988 Pan Am explosion
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Monday unsealed charges accusing a Libyan bomb expert in the 1988 explosion of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, an attack that killed 259 people in the air and an additional 11 on the ground. The charges were announced on the 32nd anniversary...
Britain hit with travel bans over new coronavirus strain
LONDON — Trucks waiting to get out of Britain backed up for miles and people were left stranded at airports Monday as countries around the world slapped tough travel restrictions on the U.K. because of a new and seemingly more contagious strain of the coronavirus in England. A growing number...
German court convicts man of murder over synagogue attack
BERLIN — A German court on Monday convicted a right-wing extremist of murder and attempted murder and sentenced him to life in prison for his attack on a synagogue last year on Yom Kippur, Judaism’s holiest day. He killed two people after he failed to gain entry to the building....
Kilauea volcano erupts on Hawaii’s Big Island
HONOLULU, Hawaii — The Kilauea volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island has erupted, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The eruption began late Sunday within the within Halema’uma’u crater. The volcano is located within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. A magnitude 4.4 earthquake hit about an hour after the volcano began erupting. The...
Pope tells Vatican bureaucrats to stop gossipy conflicts
ROME — Pope Francis urged Vatican bureaucrats on Monday to stop their gossipy, self-absorbed conflicts, issuing another tough-love Christmas message at the end of a year marked by the coronavirus pandemic and a financial scandal at the Holy See. Francis gathered his cardinals, bishops and Vatican prelates for his annual...
Russia could cut off U.S. food and water supply in next cyberattack, Mitt Romney saysVideo
Russia acted with impunity when it hacked U.S. government servers in a global cyber-espionage campaign and could do far more damage next time — like cutting off the nation’s water and electricity supply, GOP Sen. Mitt Romney said Sunday. Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” the Utah senator said the...
Iraqi army: 8 rockets target U.S. Embassy in Baghdad
BAGHDAD — Eight rockets targeted the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone late Sunday, Iraq’s military and Iraqi officials said, sparking fears of renewed unrest as next month’s anniversary of the U.S. slaying of an Iranian general draws near. An Iraqi military statement said an “an outlawed group”...
Arizona migrant border deaths on track for record amid heat
DOUGLAS, Ariz. — Heat exposure killed 19-year-old Cesar de la Cruz on an Arizona trail in July during his trek up from southern Mexico. The body of Juan Lopez Valencia, another young Mexican man, was discovered Aug. 3 along a dry wash on Native American land. After the hottest, driest...
2nd covid-19 vaccine authorized in US is shipped out
OLIVE BRANCH, Miss. — Initial shipments of the second covid-19 vaccine authorized in the U.S. left a distribution center Sunday, a desperately needed boost as the nation works to bring the coronavirus pandemic under control. The trucks left the Memphis-area factory with the vaccine developed by Moderna and the National...
Racism targets Asian food, business during covid-19 pandemic
As the coronavirus spread throughout the U.S., bigotry toward Asian Americans was not far behind, fueled by the news that covid-19 first appeared in China. Some initial evidence suggested the virus began in bats, which infected another animal that may have spread it to people at one of Wuhan, China’s...
Lacking legal immunity, businesses fear covid-19 lawsuits
PORTLAND, Maine — Plans for a lawsuit against a Maine venue that hosted what became a “superspreader” wedding reception underscore the liability risks to small businesses amid the coronavirus pandemic and an uphill push by Republicans in Congress to give such outfits legal immunity. Behemoths like Walmart and Tyson Foods,...
Several EU nations halt UK flights, fearing virus variant
BERLIN — One by one, several European Union nations banned flights from the U.K. on Sunday and others were considering similar action in a bid to block a new strain of coronavirus sweeping across southern England from establishing a strong foothold on the continent. Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and...
Pentagon plan on cyber split draws strong Hill criticism
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is proposing to end an arrangement in which a single military officer leads two of the nation’s main cybersecurity organizations, a move that a leading Democrat said Saturday makes him “profoundly concerned” amid a large-scale hacking campaign on U.S. government computer systems. Rep. Adam Smith, chairman...
Trump downplays Russia in 1st comments on cyberattack
WASHINGTON — Contradicting his secretary of state and other top officials, President Donald Trump on Saturday suggested without evidence that China — not Russia — may be behind the cyberattack against the United States and tried to minimized its impact. In his first comments on the breach, Trump scoffed at...
‘Hurting for hope,’ South Dakota rural churches mark Advent
CANTON, S.D. — The Nativity stable at Canton Lutheran Church will be silent this year, breaking from a community tradition of gathering for a live Christmas performance. Instead, churches in this rural corner of South Dakota are grappling with how to approach an Advent filled with quiet mourning after the...
Mississippi former Gov. Winter dies; pushed education reform
JACKSON, Miss. — Former Mississippi Gov. William Winter, a Democrat who pushed to strengthen public education in one of the poorest states in the U.S. and to improve race relations across the nation, has died. He was 97. Winter, who was governor from 1980 to 1984, died Friday night at...
California hospitals struggle as coronavirus cases explode
LOS ANGELES — California hospitals are battling to find beds to house patients amid fears that the exploding coronavirus infection rate will exhaust resources and health care workers. As of Friday, nearly 17,000 people were hospitalized with confirmed or suspected covid-19 infections — more than double the previous peak reached...
General sorry for ‘miscommunication’ over vaccine shipments
The Army general in charge of getting covid-19 vaccines across the United States apologized on Saturday for “miscommunication” with states over the number of doses to be delivered in the early stages of distribution. “I failed. I’m adjusting. I am fixing and we will move forward from there,” Gen. Gustave...
