Associated Press stories, Page 2538
Self-help guru convicted in lurid sex-trafficking case
NEW YORK — The former leader of a purported self-help group was convicted Wednesday of federal charges that centered on lurid details of what prosecutors called a secret society of “sex slaves” within a community of followers in upstate New York. A jury in federal court in Brooklyn took less...
The legacy of Denzel: Key moments from Washington AFI honors
A night dedicated to an artist as prolific as Denzel Washington is bound to be an emotional one. The Oscar-winning actor, director, and producer is the face of some of the best-known films of the last few decades, including “Fences,” ”Training Day,” ”Malcolm X,” and “Philadelphia.” Naturally, he’s touched a...
Netflix’s first Arabic original sparks backlash on home turf
AMMAN, Jordan — On a high school trip to Jordan’s ancient city of Petra, a group of teenagers sneak out at night to drink beer, smoke weed and gossip around a bonfire. A girl asks her frisky boyfriend to take things slow. By global Netflix standards, its first original Arabic...
American Airlines deal boosts Airbus’s new long-range jet
PARIS — American Airlines is buying 50 new long-range planes from Airbus, giving a big boost to the just-launched A321XLR model and spurring Boeing to push ahead to develop a rival aircraft. Airbus and the American Airlines — the world’s largest carrier — announced the deal Wednesday at the Paris...
Cracker Barrel bars church event over LGBT execution remarks
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Cracker Barrel says it won’t host an event by a Tennessee church whose pastor was a detective who preached that the government should execute gay people. Cracker Barrel said Tuesday on Twitter that it’s not affiliated with All Scripture Baptist Church or its pastor, ex-Knox County sheriff’s...
10-year-old Colorado girl scales Yosemite’s famed El Capitan
SAN FRANCISCO — A 10-year-old Colorado girl has scaled Yosemite National Park’s El Capitan, taking five days to reach the top of the iconic rock formation. Selah Schneiter of Glenwood Springs completed the challenging 3,000-foot (910 meters) climb last week with the help of her father and a family friend....
Boxing body near bankrupt, facing 2020 Olympic exclusion
LAUSANNE, Switzerland — The International Boxing Association says it is near bankruptcy, days before a decision to formally exclude the body from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. AIBA chief executive Tom Virgets has told board members it will be insolvent if International Olympic Committee members derecognize the troubled body as expected...
Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer to start despite broken nose
WASHINGTON — Washington Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer is scheduled to pitch Wednesday night against the Philadelphia Phillies, a day after breaking his nose during batting practice. Scherzer was injured Tuesday when he took a ball off his face while attempting a bunt. The team says a CT scan was negative....
Moscow’s Pushkin Museum presents Modernist art treasures
Iconic art works by Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gaugin, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso went on show Wednesday in a major exhibition at Moscow’s Pushkin Museum. The treasures hail from the early 20th century collection of Russian businessman Sergei Shchukin, whose collection was confiscated and then divided up by...
Push for marijuana legalization falls flat in New York
ALBANY, N.Y. — A push to legalize recreational marijuana in New York state has fallen flat. The sponsor of the main legalization bill in the state Senate says the bill will not pass before lawmakers adjourn for the year this week. Manhattan Democrat Liz Krueger says supporters came close to...
Woman charged in death of infant found in paint can
A woman has been charged in the death of her newborn son, whose body was found in a paint can in her eastern Pennsylvania home. The Lehigh County district attorney said Wednesday that 30-year-old Ashley Caraballo of Allentown is charged with criminal homicide, concealing the death of a child and...
Man accused of stealing WWII dog tags from National Archives
COLLEGE PARK, Md. — A Virginia National Guard sergeant is accused of stealing World War II-era dog tags from the National Archives and Records Administration research facility in Maryland. A criminal complaint filed in federal court last month says 29-year-old Robert Rumsby of Fredericksburg, Virginia, told investigators he took dog...
Wireless carriers’ 5G legislation stalls in Pennsylvania
HARRISBURG — Wireless carriers including Verizon and AT&T are struggling to get a vote on legislation to make it easier and cheaper for them to attach small-cell antennas to utility poles to carry 4G and next-generation 5G services across Pennsylvania. A House Consumer Affairs Committee meeting scheduled for Tuesday was...
Billions of mosquito lookalikes plague New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS — Billions of mosquito lookalikes are showing up in the New Orleans area, blanketing car windshields, littering the ground with little bodies and even scaring some folks. They’re aquatic midges, often called “blind mosquitoes.” They don’t bite, and they’re good for the environment, but they sure can be...
GM seeks to avoid Takata recalls for fourth straight year
DETROIT — General Motors is trying to avoid recalling potentially deadly Takata air bag inflators in thousands of full-size pickup trucks and SUVs for the fourth straight year, leaving owners to wonder if vehicles are safe to drive. The automaker petitioned the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to exempt it...
New England newspaper owner fights to save local journalism
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — These days, the news about local news seems relentlessly bad: Newsroom employment, down by nearly half over the past 15 years. Waves of layoffs continuing to hit both traditional newspaper chains and digital news startups. Cities and towns so denuded of coverage that they’re described as “news...
Arctic Norway island wants to be ‘time-free’ during summer
Residents on an Arctic Norwegian island with 69 days of constant light in the summer say they want to go “time-free” and be more flexible with school and working hours to make the most of the long days. Resident Kjell Ove Hveding says people on the island of Sommaroey —...
Polar bear spotted in Russian city, far from normal habitat
An emaciated polar bear has been sighted in a Russian industrial city in Siberia, far south of its normal hunting grounds. Emergency officials in the city of Norilsk in a statement on Tuesday warned local residents about a bear that has been spotted in one city district. Anatoly Nikolaichuk, chief...
Driver dead after carjacking, being run over by officer
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Police in Alabama say a person is dead after being assaulted during a carjacking and then run over by an off-duty officer. Birmingham police Sgt. Johnny Williams tells news outlets a driver crashed into a motorcycle early Wednesday and was then carjacked by people who stopped at...
Woman trapped in St. Louis jail stairwell for 2.5 days
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Authorities say a woman was trapped in a St. Louis jail stairwell for more than two days after not understanding how to get out of the building. St. Louis Corrections Commissioner Dale Glass said the woman didn’t appear to be suffering when she was found and...
Hicks rebuffs questions on Trump White House in interview
WASHINGTON — Former top White House adviser Hope Hicks on Wednesday refused to answer questions related to her time in the White House in an interview with the House Judiciary Committee, dimming Democrats’ chances of obtaining new or substantive information about President Trump as part of their investigation into obstruction...
Trial over downing of MH17 to start in March; 4 suspects charged
NIEUWEGEIN, Netherlands — The mother of one of the 298 victims of the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 says at least four suspects will be tried for murder in a case set to start in March 2020. Silene Fredriksz-Hoogzand, whose son Bryce was among the dead, expressed relief that...
Urn with Pa. man’s ashes stolen after funeral
YORK — Family members say someone stole an urn with a man’s ashes after his funeral in Pennsylvania. A service for 42-year-old Sam Abreght was held over the weekend at the Salvation Army in York. His cremains were divided into three urns, one of which was to go to his...
Trump EPA rolls back Obama rule on coal-fired power plants
WASHINGTON - The Trump administration on Wednesday completed one of its biggest rollbacks of environmental rules, replacing a landmark Obama-era effort that sought to wean the nation’s electrical grid off coal-fired power plants and their climate-damaging pollution. Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler, a former coal industry lobbyist, signed a...
Trump rehashes gripes, rips ‘radical’ Dems in 2020 launch
ORLANDO — Jabbing at the press and poking the eye of the political establishment he ran against in 2016, President Trump officially kicked off his reelection campaign Tuesday with a grievance-filled Florida rally that focused more on settling scores than laying out his agenda for a second term. Addressing a...
