U.S./World category, Page 931
Libya’s government announces cease-fire, calls for elections
CAIRO — Libya’s U.N.-supported government Friday announced a cease-fire across the oil-rich country and called for demilitarizing the strategic city of Sirte, which is controlled by rival forces. In a separate statement Aguila Saleh, speaker of the rival east-based House of Representatives, also called for a cease-fire. The announcements came...
Biden seeks Democratic, national unity in convention finale
WILMINGTON, Del. — Joe Biden vowed to unite an America torn by crisis and contempt Thursday night, accepting the Democratic presidential nomination in an unfinished personal quest that has spanned three decades and been marred by personal tragedy, political stumbles and more dynamic rivals. The past hurdles fell away as...
Family members of murder victims assail Golden State Killer
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Tearful family members of people killed by Joseph DeAngelo assailed him Thursday for stealing away their loved ones as he escalated his attacks from burglaries and rapes to a series of horrific murders that terrorized California four decades ago. “Today the devil loses and justice wins,” Debbi...
Wisconsin election officials: Kanye off presidential ballot
MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin election officials decided Thursday to keep rapper Kanye West off the battleground state’s presidential ballot in November because his campaign turned his nomination papers moments after the deadline. West announced in July he’s running for president on a ticket he calls the “Birthday Party.” West has...
California firefighters `taxed to the limit’ seeking help
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — More than two dozen major fires were scorching California on Thursday and taxing the state’s firefighting capacity, sparked by an unprecedented lightning siege that dropped nearly 11,000 strikes over several days. The fires have destroyed 175 structures, including homes, and are threatening 50,000 more, said Daniel...
Video shows Muslim man’s faith mocked during fatal arrest
PHOENIX — An advocacy group released what they say is previously unseen body camera footage Thursday showing Phoenix police mocking the religion of a Black Muslim man who later died in their custody. Muslim Advocates, a national civil rights organization, released video from the 2017 death of Muhammad Abdul Muhaymin...
Record melt: Greenland lost 586 billion tons of ice in 2019
Greenland lost a record amount of ice during an extra warm 2019, with the melt massive enough to cover California in more than four feet of water, a new study said. After two years when summer ice melt had been minimal, last summer shattered all records with 586 billion tons...
Russia’s Navalny in coma, allegedly poisoned by toxic tea
MOSCOW — Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was in a coma and on a ventilator Thursday in an intensive care unit in Siberia after falling ill from suspected poisoning that his allies believe is linked to his political activity. The 44-year-old critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin felt unwell on...
Trump wants Supreme Court’s OK to let him block critics on Twitter
President Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court to allow him to block critics from his personal Twitter account. The administration said in a high-court filing Thursday that Trump’s realdonaldtrump account with more than 85 million followers is his personal property and blocking people from it is akin to elected...
Trump reaffirms plan to withdraw all U.S. troops from IraqVideo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday reaffirmed his plan to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq as quickly as possible as he met with the prime minister of Iraq to discuss ways to rein in pro-Iran militias in the country and counter residual threats from Islamic State sleeper cells....
Judge OKs Manhattan DA getting Trump tax returns, president to appeal
NEW YORK — As President Donald Trump’s lawyers moved swiftly Thursday to appeal a federal judge’s ruling that granted Manhattan’s top prosecutor access to his tax returns, Trump blasted the long-running quest for his financial records as a “continuation of the most disgusting witch hunt in the history of our...
China, U.S. say talks on implementing trade pact coming soon
BEIJING — Chinese and U.S. trade envoys will hold a meeting by phone “in the near future” to discuss an agreement aimed at resolving a tariff war, a Commerce Ministry spokesman said Thursday. The spokesman, Gao Feng, gave no details of the timing at a ministry news briefing. White House...
Ex-Trump aide Bannon pleads not guilty in border wall scheme
NEW YORK — President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, was pulled from a luxury yacht and arrested Thursday on allegations that he and three associates ripped off donors trying to fund a southern border wall, making him the latest in a long list of Trump allies to be...
Thousands of chicks arrive dead to farmers amid USPS turmoil
PORTLAND, Maine — At least 4,800 chicks shipped to Maine farmers through the U.S. Postal Service have arrived dead in the recent weeks since rapid cuts hit the federal mail carrier’s operations, U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree said. Pingree, a Maine Democrat, is raising the issue of the dead chicks and...
Obama, in scathing Trump rebuke, warns democracy on the lineVideo
WASHINGTON — Former President Barack Obama warned Wednesday night that American democracy may not survive if President Donald Trump is reelected, a damning assessment of his successor intended to jolt Democrats into rallying around Joe Biden in the November election. “This administration has shown it will tear our democracy down...
Victims want Golden State Killer sent to toughest prison
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Victims of California serial killer and rapist Joseph DeAngelo want him locked away in a distant maximum security prison with other inmates since he isn’t going to spend the rest of his life on death row. But they may not hold much sway over where the 74-year-old...
Navy experiments with ‘cyborg locusts’ to find explosives
Call the swat team. Bomb-sniffing “cyborg locusts” could be the next wave in national security, according to military news agency Stars and Stripes. Washington University researchers, funded by the U.S. Navy, reportedly indicate that locusts can differentiate between TNT, ammonium nitrate and other bomb-making materials, and locate their origins almost...
Ex-Navy SEAL who claims he killed Osama bin Laden tweets, then deletes, maskless selfie aboard flight
**This story contains explicit language** He went to war to fight for his country … but won’t wear a mask during a pandemic? Former Navy SEAL Robert O’Neill, who claims to have fired the shots that killed Osama bin Laden, tweeted a selfie Wednesday bragging about not wearing a mask...
Firefighters contain large blaze at Dallas-area factory
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas — A massive daylong fire at a Dallas-area plastics factory Wednesday that sent a dense column of toxic black smoke over North Texas before fire crews could tame it has been contained, fire officials said. There were no reports of injuries from the midnight Tuesday blaze at...
California governor: Hundreds of wildfires blazing statewide
VACAVILLE, Calif. — Crews were battling wildfires in the San Francisco Bay Area and thousands of people were under orders to evacuate Wednesday as hundreds of wildfires blazed across the state amid a blistering heat wave now in its second week. Gov. Gavin Newsom blamed “this extraordinary weather we’re experiencing...
Pandemic fear: Church to apologize for funeral refusal
Noel Alexander had helped build Pine Hill Baptist Church in west-central Louisiana. He’d been its music minister, served on numerous committees and he and his wife kept the church’s books. After he died from covid-19 at age 79, his visitation and funeral were scheduled for the church he loved. But...
Senate, House races with all women a first in Equality State
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Women are all but guaranteed to claim a majority of Wyoming’s congressional delegation for the first time after voters picked four — two Republicans and two Democrats — to compete for U.S. Senate and House seats in November. It’s another milestone for women in the Equality State,...
U.N. crisis looms as U.S. readies demand for Iran sanctions
UNITED NATIONS — After a resounding defeat in the U.N. Security Council, the United States is poised to call for the United Nations to reimpose sanctions on Iran under a rarely used diplomatic maneuver — a move that is likely to further isolate the Trump administration and may set off...
Iowa governor’s push to reopen schools descends into chaos
IOWA CITY, Iowa — An aggressive push by Iowa’s pro-Trump governor to reopen schools amid a worsening coronavirus outbreak has descended into chaos, with some districts and teachers rebelling and experts calling the scientific benchmarks used by the state arbitrary and unsafe. The clash in the Midwest has illustrated in...
Mexican students take college entrance exam amid pandemic
MEXICO CITY — Tens of thousands of prospective students hoping to get into Mexico’s largest public university on Wednesday began taking the notoriously competitive entrance exam for the National Autonomous University of Mexico, better known as the UNAM. Held each year, it’s the exam of a lifetime and and an...
