U.S./World category, Page 894
1st woman free-climbs El Capitan’s Golden Gate route in day
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. — Rock climber Emily Harrington has become the first woman, and fourth person, to free-climb the Golden Gate route on Yosemite National Park’s 3,000-foot granite wall in a single day. While most of the country was focused on the results of the U.S. presidential election early...
Elation and anger: Catharsis in the streets around U.S. as election ends
As soon as the news buzzed on their phones, Americans gathered spontaneously on street corners and front lawns — honking their horns, banging pots and pans, starting impromptu dance parties — as an agonizingly vitriolic election and exhausting four-day wait for results came to an end Saturday morning. And for...
Biden wins White House, will become 46th president of U.S., vows new direction for divided country
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania catapulted its native son, Democrat Joe Biden, to victory and the White House on Saturday after a long, hard-fought and expensive campaign in which Democrats wrested the battleground state’s 20 electoral votes back from President Donald Trump after the Republican’s surprise victory in 2016. Biden also carried...
Suspended animation: Count drags on as Biden nears victory
WASHINGTON — Four days after the election, the U.S. presidential race hovered in suspended animation Saturday as the long, exacting work of counting votes brought Democrat Joe Biden ever closer to a victory over President Donald Trump. The delay in producing a verdict can be attributed to high turnout, a...
Trump chief of staff Meadows diagnosed with covid-19
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows has been diagnosed with the coronavirus as the nation sets daily records for confirmed cases for the pandemic. Two senior administration officials confirmed Friday that Meadows had tested positive for the virus, which has killed more than 236,000 Americans so...
Criminal justice reformer wins LA district attorney’s race
LOS ANGELES — Advocates for criminal justice reform who have elected a wave of progressive prosecutors nationwide captured the crown jewel Friday as former San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon defeated Los Angeles DA Jackie Lacey. The bitter race to run the nation’s largest prosecutor’s office was a referendum on...
Incendiary texts traced to outfit run by top Trump aide
BOSTON — A texting company run by one of President Donald Trump’s top campaign officials sent out thousands of targeted, anonymous text messages urging supporters to rally where votes were being counted in Philadelphia on Thursday, falsely claiming Democrats were trying to steal the presidential election. The messages directed Trump...
Increasingly normal: Guns seen outside vote-counting centers
The most turbulent and norm-breaking presidential election of a lifetime has led to an extraordinary spectacle in the United States over the past three days: armed protesters gathering nightly outside offices where local workers are counting the votes that will decide who wins the White House. Some carry shotguns. Some...
Protesters crying foul over vote counts stir safety concerns
Pro-Trump protesters — some of them openly carrying rifles and handguns — rallied outside vote-tabulation centers in a few cities around the country Friday, responding to groundless accusations from President Donald Trump that the Democrats were trying to steal the White House. Elections officials in several states where Democrat Joe...
Tennessee governor gives death row inmate temporary reprieve
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has granted a death row inmate a temporary reprieve from execution. Lee issued a short statement Friday afternoon saying he is granting a reprieve to Pervis Payne until April 9 “due to the challenges and disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.” Payne is...
Demolition starts on big ship stranded 14 months off Georgia
SAVANNAH, Ga. — Using a heavy anchor chain like a saw, a towering crane Friday began cutting apart a cargo ship that’s been stranded on the Georgia coast since it overturned nearly 14 months ago. Demolition of the South Korean ship Golden Ray finally started after months of planning and...
UK, EU leaders to discuss state of post-Brexit trade talks
LONDON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are set to speak by telephone Saturday to assess the state of post-Brexit trade talks between the U.K. and the European Union. A spokesman at Johnson’s Downing Street office said Friday that the prime minister’s...
Why Ethiopia is suddenly on brink of civil war
NAIROBI, Kenya — Suddenly, Ethiopia appears on the brink of civil war, threatening the stability of one of the world’s most strategic regions, the Horn of Africa, and the fracturing of one of Africa’s most powerful and populous countries. But the crisis in Ethiopia, a key U.S. security ally, has...
Unemployment drops to 6.9% and U.S. adds a solid 638,000 jobs
WASHINGTON — U.S. employers added 638,000 jobs in October, a solid pace though far fewer than needed to regain most of the jobs lost to the pandemic recession just as new viral cases are setting record highs. The gain suggested that a tentative economic recovery may remain intact even in...
3 killed, 2 wounded in Toledo apartment building shooting
TOLEDO, Ohio — A shooting at an apartment building in Toledo has left three people dead and two others wounded, authorities said. Police responding to reports of shots fired at the Parqwood Apartments found the victims shortly after 5 p.m. Thursday. It’s not yet known what sparked the shooting or...
Spain: Former king is target of 3rd corruption investigation
MADRID — Spanish Supreme Court prosecutors have opened a third corruption investigation involving former monarch Juan Carlos I of Spain, officials said Friday. Attorney General Dolores Delgado and top anti-corruption prosecutor Alejandro Luzón told reporters the probe is still at an “embryonic” stage, private news agency Europa Press reported. They...
2 Wisconsin officers shot, wounded in exchange of gunfire
DELAFIELD, Wis. — Two officers were shot and wounded early Friday after confronting a hit-and-run suspect in Wisconsin, police said. Delafield Police Chief Erik Kehl said that one of his officers and another from nearby Hartland confronted a man suspected in the hit-and-run crash outside a Holiday Inn at Interstate...
Armed men arrested near Philadelphia vote counting location
PHILADELPHIA — Two men armed with loaded handguns were arrested Thursday near the Philadelphia convention center where an ongoing vote count could decide the presidential election, police said. Joshua Macias, 42, and Antonio LaMotta, 61, traveled from the Virginia Beach, Virginia, area in a Hummer and did not have permits...
A more conservative court hears same-sex foster parent case
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed likely to side with a Catholic social services agency in a dispute with Philadelphia over the agency’s refusal to work with same-sex couples as foster parents. The case is a big test of religious rights on a more conservative court. Catholic Social...
Election officials worried by threats and protesters
Election officials in several states said Thursday they are worried about the safety of their staffs amid a stream of threats and gatherings of angry protesters outside their doors, drawn by President Donald Trump’s baseless claims of widespread fraud in the race for the White House. “I can tell you...
Trump steps to podium, lets loose on integrity of election
WASHINGTON — For 40 hours, President Donald Trump fumed in private and tweeted his grievances in all caps. When he at last emerged, it was to stand behind the presidential seal in the White House and deliver a diatribe most notable for his litany of false statements about the election...
Counties with worst virus surges overwhelmingly voted Trump
U.S. voters went to the polls starkly divided on how they see President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. But in places where the virus is most rampant now, Trump enjoyed enormous support. An Associated Press analysis reveals that in 376 counties with the highest number of new cases...
Guatemala president says 37 dead in landslides caused by Eta
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Guatemala President Alejandro Giammattei said Thursday that a water-soaked mountainside in the central part of the country had slid onto the town of San Cristobal Verapaz, burying homes and leaving at least 25 dead. Two other slides in Huehuetenango had killed at least 12 more, he said....
Missing girl, 14, found hidden in closet; authorities uncover trapdoor in California home
A weeklong search to find a missing 14-year-old in Northern California’s Calaveras County has ended after authorities discovered a trapdoor leading to a makeshift sleeping area under a home where the girl had gone to spend the night and found the teen hiding in a closet, sheriff’s officials said. Three...
Kosovo’s president resigns to face war crimes charges
The president of Kosovo, who served as a guerrilla leader during Kosovo’s war for independence from Serbia in the late 1990s, resigned Thursday and was sent to a special court in The Hague where he will face charges for war crimes and crimes against humanity. President Hashim Thaci said he...
