Associated Press stories, Page 2202

Police in Philadelphia are looking for a thief who sported a hat that said “I Believe” as he swiped a tip jar stuffed with $250 on Christmas Day. Yalli Avitan at first thought an employee had moved the jar to empty it during the Christmas dinner rush at her family’s...

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Employees at a record store in North Carolina say a mural of pop star Tina Turner has been defaced with a red swastika. The Citizen Times reported Thursday that the mural is outside Static Age Records in downtown Asheville. Store owner Jesse McSwain said someone unconnected to...

A crash on a highway in Berks County killed an 81-year-old man and his adult daughter. The crash on Route 422 in Heidelberg Township occurred around 12:30 p.m. Thursday, when a car driven by Richard Raihl was trying to turn onto Route 422 West. The vehicle and a pickup truck...

WICHITA, Kan. — More than a dozen people were injured Friday when a nitrogen line ruptured at the Beechcraft aircraft manufacturing facility in Wichita, Kansas, causing part of the building to collapse, authorities said. Daniel Wegner, deputy fire chief for Sedgwick County, said the explosion happened at around 8 a.m....

NEW YORK — This year, the germs roared back. Measles tripled. Hepatitis A mushroomed. A rare but deadly mosquito-borne disease increased. And that was just the United States. Globally, there was an explosion of measles in many countries, an unrelenting Ebola outbreak in Africa and a surge in dengue fever...

ALMATY, Kazakhstan — A jetliner with 98 people aboard struggled to get airborne and crashed shortly after takeoff Friday in Kazakhstan, killing at least 12 people, authorities said. The Bek Air jet, identified as a 23-year-old Fokker 100, hit a concrete wall and a two-story building soon after departing from...

LONDON — One of pop superstar George Michael’s sisters has died exactly three years after her brother’s Christmas Day death in 2016. A statement from family lawyer John Reid confirmed the unexpected death of Melanie Panayiotou, 55, on Wednesday and appealed for privacy. “We can confirm that very tragically Melanie...

ORLANDO, Fla. — Walt Disney World employees who portray Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and Donald Duck each filed police reports this month claiming they were inappropriately touched by tourists. The woman inside the Mickey Mouse costume went to the hospital with neck injuries caused by a grandmother patting the character’s...

Tom Hanks may officially consider himself Greek. Greece’s President Prokopis Pavlopoulos has signed an honorary naturalization order allowing the 63-year-old actor to claim Greek citizenship, his office told the Associated Press on Friday. Hanks frequently spends his summer vacation on the Greek island of Antiparos and his wife, actress and...

BRUSSELS — The European Union and Britain will struggle to seal an agreement on trade and other aspects of their future ties after Brexit next year and should consider extending the negotiations beyond 2020, a top EU official said in an interview published Friday. The U.K. is scheduled to leave...

A close adviser to Boeing’s ousted CEO will also leave the company. Mike Luttig was Boeing’s general counsel from 2006 until this spring. Shortly after the crash of a second Boeing 737 Max, the companies premiere aircraft, he was assigned to head the company’s legal strategy and to advise the...

NEW DELHI — A group of protesters in New Delhi was beaten and shoved into buses by police on Friday as they attempted to demonstrate against a new citizenship law that has triggered nationwide protests in recent weeks. About two dozen people gathered near an Uttar Pradesh state government building...

MOSCOW — Russia’s defense minister reported to President Vladimir Putin that a new hypersonic weapon of intercontinental range became operational Friday following years of tests. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu informed Putin that the first missile unit equipped with the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle entered combat duty, the Defense Ministry said....

Another growing season is building momentum with the arrival of the 2020 seed catalogs, and gardeners are drafting plans for new harvests. There’s such a thing as being too enthusiastic, though, especially among novices. Beginners can achieve their best planting results by thinking small. “Starting too large is the most...

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A Colorado woman accused of hiding 26 children behind a false wall at her daycare center was arrested for investigation of misdemeanor child abuse, police said Thursday. Carla Faith, 58, was arrested Monday in Colorado Springs on suspicion of two counts of reckless child abuse without...

NEWARK, Ohio — An Ohio man has been indicted on involuntary manslaughter and other charges after his 2-year-old daughter was fatally shot at home. In a 911 call about the Dec. 14 shooting, the girl’s mother said Noelle Massuros was accidentally shot by her 6-year-old brother, who had found a...

CHICAGO — The Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday announced Pine-Richland product Brandon Saad will be sidelined three weeks with a right ankle injury. The 27-year-old forward got hurt during last week’s 4-1 victory at Winnipeg. He has 11 goals and eight assists in 36 games this season. The news is much...

NEW YORK — A 14-year-old boy suspected of fatally stabbing a Barnard College freshman was released from police custody on Thursday, mere hours after New York City police said he had been located and taken into custody following a two-week manhunt. Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison tweeted that finding the...