Associated Press stories, Page 2565

WASHINGTON — It took President Donald Trump one day to flex his executive power back at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, denying her an aircraft for a planned trip abroad in apparent response to her attempt to delay his State of Union address amid their government shutdown clash. The nation’s two...

WASHINGTON — Giant rocks from space are falling from the sky more than they used to, but don’t worry. For the past 290 million years, large asteroids have been crashing into Earth more than twice as often as they did in the previous 700 million years, according to a new...

SAN FRANCISCO — The storm that pummeled much of California for three days began moving east Thursday after causing at least six deaths, forcing wildfire victims threatened by floods to flee their homes and plunging nearly 300,000 utility customers into darkness. The winter storm is forecast to drop heavy rain,...

LONDON — Buckingham Palace says the 97-year-old husband of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, has been in a car accident but wasn’t injured. The palace said the two-vehicle accident happened Thursday afternoon near Sandringham Estate, the queen’s country retreat in eastern England. The Norfolk Constabulary says officers responded to...

ROME — The first-ever scientific study of the oldest known drawing by Leonardo da Vinci has found that he added details to an earlier sketch of a countryside landscape, said the Uffizi Galleries, whose collections include the fragile work. The Galleries said the 1473 “Landscape Drawing for Santa Maria della...

NEW YORK — Netflix’s post-apocalyptic survival film “Bird Box” is drawing criticism for using footage of a real fiery train disaster but the streaming giant has no plans to remove it. The footage concerns a 2013 tragedy in the Quebec town of Lac-Megantic when an unattended train carrying crude oil...

GENOA TOWNSHIP, Mich. — More than 200 items belonging to “Little House on the Prairie” star Melissa Gilbert and her husband, Emmy-winning actor Timothy Busfield, have been purchased in an estate sale in Michigan. Items sold in the American Eagle Auction & Appraisal Co. online auction this month included a...

NEW YORK — Mary Oliver, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet whose rapturous odes to nature and animal life brought her critical acclaim and popular affection, has died. She was 83. Bill Reichblum, Oliver’s literary executor, said she died Thursday at her home in Hobe Sound, Florida. The cause of death was...

NEW YORK — Health officials are looking into a possible link between prescription opioids and a horrific birth defect. Babies born with the defect have their intestines hanging outside the stomach, due to a hole in the abdominal wall. Surgery is often needed to fix it. Roughly 1,800 such cases...

LOS ANGELES — Teachers walked rainy picket lines Thursday at Los Angeles schools for a fourth day ahead of a new round of contract negotiations that a union leader said is unlikely to quickly end the walkout. “After 21 months of negotiations I think it would be an unrealistic expectation...

JACKSON, Miss. — Nissan Motor Co. says it’s cutting up to 700 contract workers at its Mississippi assembly plant, citing slow sales for Titan pickup trucks and vans. The company employs 6,400 employees and contractors in Canton, Miss. The move follows Nissan’s December announcement that it’s cutting 1,000 jobs at...

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — An employee and a customer at an IHOP restaurant in northern Alabama were killed in a Wednesday night shooting that also injured another employee. Huntsville Police Lt. Michael Johnson told news outlets the shooting happened shortly before 10 p.m. Wednesday after a male customer argued with a...

HANOVER — Police say they have identified three suspects in a pair of arsons at a Walmart store in central Pennsylvania that injured three people. West Manheim Township police say two fires were set inside the South Hanover store during store hours Tuesday night. Three Walmart employees reported smoke inhalation...

BEIRUT — Syrian activists are reporting intense airstrikes on the last area held by the Islamic State group in the country’s east where the extremists’ control has been shrinking over the past weeks. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Thursday the airstrikes hit the 5.8 square miles controlled...

BOTOGA, Colombia — At least nine people were killed and dozens more injured in a car bombing at a police academy in Colombia’s capital on Thursday, recalling the high-profile attacks associated with bloodiest chapters of the country’s drug-fueled guerrilla conlfict. The scene outside the General Santander police academy in southern...

Indiana State Police say the driver of a truck that rear-ended a school bus in December, killing one student, was removing a jacket and a sweatshirt just before the collision. A crash report released Wednesday says the truck driver was traveling behind the bus Dec. 5 when he “pulled the...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Military authorities have announced the identification of remains of a Pennsylvania airman and two other servicemen who died in Europe during World War II. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said Thursday that 19-year-old Air Forces Sgt. Vernon L. Hamilton of Monongahela was accounted for last month. On...

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — A man was charged Thursday with stealing 65 million kronor — $7.2 million — worth of Swedish royal treasure including a jeweled crown from a cathedral where they were on display. The two crowns and an orb used for the funerals of King Karl IX and Queen...

LOS ANGELES — Steve Carell is starring in a new workplace comedy that could be out of this world. Netflix said Wednesday that Carell is re-teaming with “The Office” producers Greg Daniels and Howard Klein on the series “Space Force.” It’s about the people assigned to create a sixth branch...

LOS ANGELES — Many from Metallica and the Foo Fighters rocked on with electrifying performances as family members gave heartfelt speeches in memory of the late Chris Cornell. Cornell’s wife, Vickey, stepped onstage struggling to speak at first. But after gathering herself, she eventually thanked everyone for their support and...

LONDON — Facebook says it has removed hundreds of Russia-linked pages, groups and accounts that it says were part of two big disinformation operations, in its latest effort to fight fake news. The social media company said Thursday it took action after finding two networks “that engaged in coordinated inauthentic...

SIOUX CITY, Iowa — When Sen. Elizabeth Warren took the stage earlier this month at this city’s ornate Orpheum Theatre, Tricia Currans-Sheehan posed a pointed question to the expected presidential contender. “Why did you undergo the DNA testing and give Donald Trump more fodder to be a bully?” the Iowa...

WASHINGTON— A grand Washington ritual became a potential casualty of the partial government shutdown as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked President Donald Trump to postpone his Jan. 29 State of the Union speech. She cited concerns about whether the hobbled government can provide adequate security, but Republicans cast her move...

SEATTLE — Microsoft pledged $500 million to address homelessness and develop affordable housing in response to the Seattle region’s widening affordability gap. Most of the money will be aimed at increasing housing options in the Puget Sound region for low- and middle-income workers at a time when they’re being priced...

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — Marcus Peters stood at a podium Wednesday and spoke about his respect for Sean Payton and the New Orleans Saints. He insisted his feisty comments about the coach two months ago had been misinterpreted and blown out of proportion by controversy-hungry fans and media. And then...