Associated Press stories, Page 2629
New Zealand mosque killings spark debate over free speech
DUNEDIN, New Zealand — New Zealanders are debating the limits of free speech after their chief censor banned a 74-page manifesto written by the man accused of slaughtering 50 people at two mosques in the city of Christchurch. The ban, issued Saturday, means anybody caught with the document on their...
FDA takes up decades-long debate over breast implant safety
WASHINGTON — U.S. health officials are taking another look at the safety of breast implants, the latest review in a decades-long debate. At a two-day meeting that starts Monday, a panel of experts for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will hear from researchers, plastic surgeons and implant makers, as...
Capitals accept differences of opinion on White House visit
WASHINGTON — The news is constantly on television at the Washington Capitals’ practice facility, and like any workplace, there’s no shortage of opinions. “We’re human beings, and people share different opinions and different political views,” veteran team leader Brooks Orpik said. “It’s no different than anybody else. People that are...
Powerball jackpot now $750M after no winning ticket drawn
DES MOINES, Iowa — Lottery officials say the Powerball jackpot has ballooned to $750 million after no ticket matched all six numbers in the most recent drawing. The numbers drawn Saturday night are 24, 25, 52, 60 and 66, with a Powerball of 5. The next drawing for what would...
NCAA Tournament roundup: LSU gets last-second layup to defeat Maryland
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — It’s probably the same play suspended LSU coach Will Wade would have called. After all, it worked several times during the regular season. And now it has sent the Tigers to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2006. Tremont Waters drove by three defenders and...
No timetable for reopening Texas ship channel following leak
HOUSTON — Officials have no timetable for reopening a portion of the Houston Ship Channel, one of the busiest commercial waterways in the country, after another setback caused flammable chemicals to seep into the water near a fire-ravaged petrochemical tank farm, a Coast Guard commander said Saturday. Coast Guard Capt....
Atlanta police set up hotline for ‘child murders’ case
ATLANTA — Atlanta’s mayor and police chief are leading a push to re-examine evidence from a string of murders that terrorized the city’s black community between 1979 and 1981. As a result, authorities are being inundated with calls. Now, officials have set up a central hotline for anyone with information...
U.S. underground nuclear waste dump explained
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — It wasn’t long after the atomic bomb was dropped on Japan and World War II ended that the United States began to realize it had to do something with the waste that was being generated by defense-related nuclear research and bomb-making that would continue through the Cold...
Zion vs. Tacko: Tournament’s most dynamic player meets its tallest player
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Tacko Fall really hopes the UCF-Duke NCAA Tournament game is not all about the Knights’ 7-foot-6 center and the Blue Devils’ explosive freshman star Zion Williamson. Sorry, Tacko, it’s way too late for that with excitement strong for the East Region’s marquee matchup Sunday between college basketball’s...
Barbra Streisand apologizes for remarks on Michael Jackson accusers
NEW YORK — Barbra Streisand apologized Saturday for her remarks about Michael Jackson and two men who have accused him of sexual abuse, saying that she should have chosen her words more carefully and that she admires the accusers for “speaking their truth.” Streisand had received bitter criticism online after...
LSU gets last-second layup to defeat Maryland, advance
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — It’s probably the same play suspended LSU coach Will Wade would have called. After all, it worked several times during the regular season. And now it has sent the Tigers to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2006. Tremont Waters drove by three defenders and...
Man accused of fatally stabbing woman after freeway crash
PEORIA, Ariz. — A 25-year-old Arizona man who was driving a San Diego-area woman’s car is accused of fatally stabbing her after the vehicle veered off a freeway and crashed in a Phoenix suburb, resulting in a chaotic scene involving passers-by who stopped to help. Fernando Acosta of Phoenix got...
Patriots owner Robert Kraft apologizes in Florida prostitution case
MIAMI — New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft is apologizing after being charged in a Florida massage parlor prostitution investigation. “I am truly sorry,” Kraft said in a statement Saturday. “I know I have hurt and disappointed my family, my close friends, my co-workers, our fans and many others who...
Barbra Streisand under fire for Michael Jackson remarks
NEW YORK — Barbra Streisand is coming under intense criticism on social media for telling a British newspaper that two men who say they were molested as children by Michael Jackson were “thrilled to be there” and that the alleged abuse “didn’t kill them.” In a wide-ranging interview with the...
Florida newspaper posts video of 2017 high-wire accident
SARASOTA, Fla. — A Florida newspaper has posted video of a 2017 high-wire accident that sent five performers in tightrope-walking star Nik Wallenda’s troupe tumbling more than 30 feet to the ground. The Sarasota Herald-Tribune obtained the video from the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office. Wallenda was among eight performers rehearsing...
Experts warn Midwest flood risk could persist for months
ST. LOUIS — Even as floodwaters receded in hard-hit places in in the Midwest, experts warned Saturday that with plenty of snow still left to melt in northern states, the relief may only be temporary. Rainfall and some snowmelt spurred flooding in recent weeks that’s blamed in three deaths so...
Man convicted of manslaughter in fatal post-Super Bowl fight
MOUNT HOLLY, N.J. — A man has been convicted of passion provocation manslaughter in the stabbing death of another man after a fight in New Jersey during celebrations over the Philadelphia Eagles’ victory in the Super Bowl last year. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that jurors acquitted 57-year-old Supreme Life of...
Cruise ship passengers hauled off ailing ship by helicopter
HELSINKI — A cruise ship with engine problems sent a mayday call off Norway’s western coast on Saturday, then began evacuating its 1,300 passengers and crew amid stormy seas and heavy winds in a high-risk helicopter rescue operation. The Norwegian newspaper VG said the Viking Sky cruise ship ran into...
Florida city dismantles, relocates Confederate statue
LAKELAND, Fla. — A statue of a Confederate soldier is being removed from a Florida park. The statue had stood at the center of Lakeland’s Munn Park for 109 years. City officials began dismantling the monument Friday. City commissioners voted in December 2017 to start the process to move the...
Ohio governor wants to raise age to buy tobacco to 21
DAYTON, Ohio — Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is proposing raising the minimum age to buy tobacco from 18 to 21 as part of his two-year state budget. The Dayton Daily News reports the plan also would include vaping products, which are growing in popularity among high school students. About 20...
Dispute over refinery near national park heats up in court
BISMARCK, N.D. — Parties involved in a dispute over whether North Dakota regulators should be involved in the siting of an oil refinery near Theodore Roosevelt National Park are battling in state court. The dispute is over whether state regulators should have reviewed the site of the $800 million Davis...
U.S.-backed Syrian force says IS defeated in Syria
BAGHOUZ, Syria — A Kurdish commander has formally announced the “physical defeat” of the Islamic State group and appealed for continued assistance until the full eradication of the extremist group. General Mazloum Kobani, the commander-in-chief of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, says his forces have destroyed the group’s so-called caliphate...
Pope replaces Santiago bishop accused of sex abuse cover-up
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis on Saturday replaced Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati, the embattled archbishop of Santiago, Chile, after he became embroiled in the country’s spiraling sex abuse and cover-up scandal. Francis accepted Ezzati’s resignation and named a temporary replacement to govern Chile’s most important archdiocese: the Spanish-born Capuchin friar and...
Georgia Senate OKs governor-backed ‘heartbeat’ abortion ban
ATLANTA — Amid protests and a heavy police presence, the Georgia Senate on Friday passed a bill banning almost all abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected. The bill, backed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, passed on a 34-18 party-line vote and would be one of the nation’s strictest...
Kentucky-Wofford provides study in contrasts
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — They are the bluebloods of the Bluegrass, a storied program loaded with future NBA players who come to Kentucky with the very reasonable expectation of contending for a national championship during their brief tenure. Then there’s Wofford. Where is that exactly? Terriers standout Fletcher Magee can tell...
