Man charged for trying to steal police car while handcuffed
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Police in West Virginia say a man who tried to steal a police cruiser while handcuffed has been charged. Criminal complaints filed in Charleston say Blake King is facing two misdemeanors and a felony after the incident Thursday. The filings say an officer first arrested King and...
Afghanistan election in doubt as U.S., Taliban near deal
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan faces a presidential election next month but few believe the vote will take place as the United States and the Taliban inch closer to a deal that could end the nearly 18-year war but bring uncertainty about almost everything else. Few candidates — 18 are running...
Man accused in plotting foiled terror attack pleads guilty
TOLEDO, Ohio — A man accused of plotting with his girlfriend to obtain guns and explosives for a foiled domestic terror attack pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge. Prosecutors said the pair had talked extensively about taking part in violent attacks on public places, visited the site of the...
Ex-officer pleads guilty to beating pedestrian on video
ASHEVILLE, N.C. — A former North Carolina police officer has pleaded guilty to beating a black pedestrian in a case that sparked outrage after graphic video of the encounter surfaced. Christopher Hickman pleaded guilty Friday in Asheville to assault by strangulation, assault inflicting serious injury and communicating threats. Buncombe County...
Homeowner reports handgun stolen during Florida sex party
DELTONA, Fla. — A Florida homeowner says someone stole a 9 mm Glock handgun from his bedroom during a weekend sex party. But Volusia County Sheriff’s Sgt. Todd Smith tells The Daytona Beach News-Journal the homeowner couldn’t give detectives the names of possible suspects because the 20 or so people...
Karaoke singer hospitalized with collapsed lung after hitting high notes
He sang his heart out. And his lung. A Chinese man ended up in the hospital with a collapsed lung after a marathon karaoke session, the South China Morning Post reports. In an interview with the video site PearVideo, the 65-year-old, mentioned only by his surname Wang, said after singing...
Canadian citizen freed from Syria after Lebanese mediation
BEIRUT — A Canadian citizen, freed after being imprisoned in Syria since last year, has appeared before reporters in Lebanon. Kristian Lee Baxter dissolved into tears at the press conference in Beirut on Friday, saying he thought he “would be there forever.” He then got off the podium. Lebanon’s General...
Man with rifle, ammunition, body armor arrested at Missouri Walmart
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Police in Springfield, Missouri, said they arrested a man who showed up at a Walmart store carrying a rifle and wearing body armor, terrifying shoppers who fled from the store. Springfield police posted on Facebook that “an armed individual” was arrested Thursday. No shots were fired. The...
Region hit hard by opioids embraces jail-based treatment
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Officials in western Massachusetts are embracing a controversial tactic amid a dramatic spike in fatal overdoses: sending men to jail for court-ordered addiction treatment. Hampden County Sheriff Thomas Cocchi has designated a jail wing for the treatment of men civilly committed for substance abuse reasons. Cocchi and...
Japan’s ex-Empress Michiko has early stage breast cancer
TOKYO — Japanese palace officials say former Empress Michiko will have an operation for breast cancer. The Imperial Household Agency said Friday that doctors found Michiko had an early stage of breast cancer in a health check in July. Michiko, 84, received the title of empress emerita after her husband,...
Belgian park trumpets arrival of twin baby pandas
BRUGELETTE, Belgium — A Belgian wildlife park is proudly announcing the birth of twin baby giant pandas. Pairi Daiza said in a tweet Friday that Hao Hao, a panda loaned to the park by China in 2014, has given birth to “two little ‘pink shrimps’ that are in good health...
‘Muggs’ was known and loved throughout South Greensburg
If you lived in South Greensburg, odds are you knew Lawrence “Muggs” Collier. “He basically was South Greensburg, and he knew everybody in South Greensburg,” said his granddaughter, Amanda Lehman. Mr. Collier spent his career at the borough’s PPG Industries plant. He worked part-time tending the bar at South Greensburg...
Trump picks Joseph Maguire as new acting national intelligence director
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Thursday named Joseph Maguire, the nation’s top counterterrorism official, as acting national intelligence director, part of a leadership shake-up at the agency that oversees 17 U.S. spy agencies. Maguire will become acting director on Aug. 15, the same day that National Intelligence Director Dan Coats’...
Mitch McConnell wants to consider gun background checks in fall
WASHINGTON — Shifting the gun violence debate, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday he now wants to consider background checks and other bills, setting up a potentially pivotal moment when lawmakers return in the fall. The Republican leader won’t be calling senators back to work early, as some are...
Trump fundraiser puts billionaire host Stephen M. Ross on the defensiveVideo
WASHINGTON — A billionaire New York investor and owner of the Miami Dolphins who is hosting a high-dollar fundraiser for Donald Trump on Friday also has a financial interest in the president’s business empire — including his iconic Manhattan tower. Shortly after Trump’s election, Stephen M. Ross tried to take...
Ex-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe sues Justice Department over his firingVideo
WASHINGTON — Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe sued the Justice Department and Attorney General William Barr, claiming he was illegally fired last year for allegedly failing to fully disclose conversations he had with a reporter about pending investigations. Barr’s predecessor, Jeff Sessions, fired McCabe in March 2018, just before...
First Eurasian Lynx born in Pyrenees in almost a century
BARCELONA, Spain — A Spanish nature conservation center says that the first baby lynx has been born in the Pyrenees in nearly a century. The Eurasian lynx is considered extinct in the Spanish and French Pyrenees, and the last time it was witnessed in these mountains was in the 1930s....
Funeral instead of 14th birthday for teen killed at Gilroy Garlic Festival
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Mourners used colored markers to write messages on Keyla Salazar’s white casket before a funeral Tuesday for the middle-school teenager killed in a mass shooting at a California food festival. “Keyla, you’re an angel. We will never forget you!” read one. Another said, “Keyla, I love...
Ferguson has changed, but racial tension lingers 5 years after Michael Brown death
FERGUSON, Mo. — Michael Brown’s death at the hands of a white Missouri police officer stands as a seismic moment in American race relations. The fledgling Black Lives Matter movement found its voice, police departments fell under intense scrutiny, progressive prosecutors were elected and court policies revised. Yet five years...
El Niño fades so forecasters expect busier hurricane season
Government meteorologists say this year’s hurricane season may be busier than initially expected now that summer’s weak El Niño has faded away. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center said Thursday the Atlantic season looks more active than normal as peak hurricane season begins. Forecasters now expect 10...
Cause of boy’s roller coaster death ‘undetermined,’ parents sue
Experts have no idea why a boy died on an Indiana roller coaster in June but his parents are suing the amusement park. Brayden Cooper-Douglas, 12, from Lafayette, Indiana, was riding the Hoosier Hurricane at Indiana Beach in White County when he died on June 27, reports the Journal &...
19 bodies hung from bridge or hacked up in Mexico gang feud
MEXICO CITY — Mexican police found nine bodies hanging from an overpass Thursday alongside a drug cartel banner threatening rivals, and seven more corpses hacked up and dumped by the road nearby. Just down the road were three more bodies, for a total of 19. The killing spree in the...
Magnitude 6 quake shakes western Turkey; more than 20 hurt
ANKARA, Turkey — A strong earthquake hit western Turkey on Thursday, damaging homes, causing residents to run into the streets in panic and injuring over 20 people. The quake was centered on the town of Bozkurt, in Denizli province, according to Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency, AFAD. It said...
16-year-old earns National Merit Scholarship following freshman year at Carnegie Mellon
For Carnegie Mellon University students in the “Fundamentals of Programming and Computer Science” course, it may have taken a little time to adjust to a teaching assistant two years their junior. On the other side of the equation, that 16-year-old teaching assistant, Elena Swecker of Murrysville, was also adjusting to...
Ivanka Trump to promote women’s initiative in South America
WASHINGTON — Ivanka Trump will call attention to issues that make it difficult for women in developing countries to prosper financially when she travels to South America in September. Aides to President Donald Trump’s daughter and adviser say she plans to visit Paraguay and Argentina to promote her Women’s Global...
