Associated Press stories, Page 2207

A fifth inmate has died violently in a Mississippi prison, raising further questions about security as clashes between prisoners continue. Sunflower County Coroner Heather Burton told local news outlets that 36-year-old Dennoris Howell was stabbed to death before dawn Friday at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. Howell is the...

WASHINGTON — U.S. manufacturing activity fell to the lowest level in more than a decade, as the sector was hurt by weakening demand and last year’s global economic slowdown. The Institute for Supply Management, an association of purchasing managers, said Friday that its manufacturing index dropped to 47.2 in December,...

AUSTIN, Texas — One person was killed and three others hurt in a reported “stabbing incident” Friday morning in downtown Austin and a suspect was in custody, police and emergency officials said. Austin-Travis County EMS said a man in his 20s was pronounced dead and a man in his 50s...

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — A building under construction in southern Cambodia collapsed Friday, killing at least two workers and trapping others inside, police said. The seven-story building in the coastal province of Kep collapsed while about 20 workers were inside. By nightfall, 17 injured workers had been rescued, said Nguon...

Hollywood kicked off the year’s compressed awards season with an emotional night in the desert. The Palm Springs International Film Festival’s annual opening gala is often treated by honorees as a businesslike, pro forma stop on the industry’s self-congratulation circuit. But Thursday found Laura Dern, Jennifer Lopez and Quentin Tarantino...

JAKARTA, Indonesia — The death toll from floods in Indonesia’s capital rose to 43 on Friday as rescuers found more bodies amid receding floodwaters, disaster officials said. Monsoon rains and rising rivers submerged at least 182 neighborhoods in greater Jakarta and caused landslides in the Bogor and Depok districts on...

It may be time to say goodbye to Pete in the garden. Peat Moss, that is. Peat has been a great helper for years, especially with seedlings. It’s made our potting mixes better able to hold both water and air, so important for confined roots, and it’s helped grab onto...

WASHINGTON — Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort said he knew he “had no chance at trial” when he pleaded guilty in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, according to a summary of an interview with investigators that was made public Thursday. “When he saw the jury pool questionnaire for...

SAN DIEGO — The owners and operators of a San Diego-based porn website must pay $12.7 million after a judge found them liable for fraud and breach of contract for lying to women about how their explicit videos would be distributed, according to a court ruling Thursday. The site, GirlsDoPorn,...

SALT LAKE CITY — The son of television producer Jenji Kohan, who created the series “Örange Is the New Black,” died in a New Year’s Eve ski accident in Utah, police said Thursday. Charles “Charlie” Noxon, 20, was pronounced dead after hitting a sign Tuesday on an intermediate-level trail at...

FORT WORTH, Texas — A Texas man who used “affluenza” as a defense at his trial for killing four people while driving drunk was arrested Thursday when authorities say he violated the terms of his probation. Ethan Couch, 22, was booked into a jail in Fort Worth after he tested...

TUCSON, Ariz. — Three mountain lions found feeding on human remains near a popular Tucson hiking trail have been killed, Arizona authorities said Wednesday. They were not suspected of killing the person, but were determined to be a danger to the public because they showed no fear of officers trying...

A video of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden that was selectively edited to falsely suggest he made racist remarks during a recent speech made the rounds Thursday on social media, raking in more than a million views on one tweet alone. Experts have been warning about the dangers of selectively...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A West Virginia sheriff was fined Thursday for hitting a car with a shopping cart then lying about what happened so his county would have to pay for repairs, officials said. Brooke County Sheriff Larry C. Palmer has agreed to pay the state $5,000 and undergo ethics...

SAND SPRINGS, Okla. — A man stole a pickup truck with a sleeping passenger and a goat inside it and drove it all the way from Missouri to Oklahoma before releasing the terrified victim and animal and eventually being arrested, authorities say. According to an arrest report, two men in...