Jurors listen to Illinois suspect say he killed scholar from China
PEORIA, Ill. — Jurors in a federal death-penalty trial heard secretly recorded audio Friday in which a former University of Illinois doctoral student describes to his girlfriend how he killed a visiting scholar from China, calling the 26-year-old woman “valiant” as she tried to fight back. The (Champaign) News-Gazette reports...
U.S. Naval War College names 1st female president
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A helicopter pilot who heads a military command in Guam will be the first female leader of the U.S. Naval War College, the Navy announced Friday, days after removing the college president who came under investigation over questionable behavior. Rear Adm. Shoshana Chatfield will be the new...
Trump says he’d ‘of course’ tell FBI if he gets foreign dirt
WASHINGTON — President Trump shifted gears Friday on election interference, saying “of course” he would go to the FBI or the attorney general if a foreign power offered him dirt about an opponent. Trump’s new stance was a walk back — to a degree — after he set off a...
Small donors, not French tycoons, help pay Notre Dame works
PARIS — The billionaire French donors who publicly proclaimed they would give hundreds of millions to rebuild Notre Dame have not yet paid a penny toward the restoration of the French national monument, according to church and business officials. Instead, it’s mainly American and French individuals, via Notre Dame charitable...
Trump taps former immigration official as his border czar
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday said he was bringing a longtime lawman and enthusiastic supporter out of retirement to serve as “border czar” as his administration struggles with a worsening crisis that his hard-line immigration policies have failed to stem. Thomas Homan most recently led U.S. Immigration and...
Alligator with a knife in its head is living in a Texas lake
Residents of a Texas community are concerned after a recent alligator sighting. Not for their own well-being, but that of the reptile. Alligators are common in this part of Fort Bend. County near Houston but this particular one has what appears to be a knife sticking in its head. Orchard...
Debate lineups: Biden, Sanders on 2nd night, Warren on 1st
NBC set the lineup for its two-night debate of 2020 presidential contenders later this month, with a top-heavy second session that will pit former Vice President Joe Biden onstage against 2016 Democratic runner-up, Bernie Sanders, the youthful Mayor Pete Buttigieg and California Sen. Kamala Harris. The first night, June 26...
Police: South Carolina woman stopped for driving drunk on toy truck
WALHALLA, S.C. — A South Carolina woman who police say was driving drunk will not be cited with a DUI because her vehicle of choice was a toy truck. News outlets quote police as saying that instead they charged 25-year-old Megan Holman with public intoxication. They say they spotted her...
Tribe in northeast India prays for good harvest
PANTAN, India (AP) — The Rabha tribal community in India’s northeastern state of Assam celebrates the Baikho festival each year, performing traditional rituals to please a deity of wealth and ask for good rains and a good harvest. On the first day of the weeklong rituals, people scrub their homes...
Canada to allow the sale of cannabis edibles late this year
OTTAWA, Ontario — The Canadian government says a limited selection of cannabis-laced food products won’t hit retail shelves in the country before mid-December. Last October, Canada became the second and largest country with a legal national marijuana marketplace but it has delayed the sale of edibles containing pot. The government...
Florida governor signs bill banning sanctuary policies
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — All law enforcement agencies in Florida will have to cooperate with federal immigration authorities under a bill signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday during a ceremony that often felt like a campaign rally for him and President Donald Trump. The bill prohibits local governments from enacting...
Amy Klobuchar supports Trump impeachment process ‘beginning now’
NEW YORK — Democratic presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar says she would support impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump “beginning now.” The Minnesota senator’s comment to CNN Friday followed Trump’s statement this week that he’d take information from a foreign power that offered dirt on an opponent. Klobuchar says “it’s illegal”...
Gorilla back in Cincinnati Zoo after long California stay
CINCINNATI — The Cincinnati Zoo on Friday welcomed back a 37-year-old male silverback gorilla after a legal battle and some 28 years after he went to California. The zoo said Ndume arrived Friday morning and was settling in behind the scenes in its Gorilla World area. “We are thrilled that...
Trump won’t promise to endorse Pence for president in 2024
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Friday morning that if Vice President Mike Pence runs for president in 2024, he wouldn’t automatically have his endorsement. The president was asked the hypothetical during a wide-ranging interview on “Fox & Friends.” “You’re talking about a long time. You can’t put me in...
Trump: Iran a ‘nation of terror,’ was behind tanker attacks
WASHINGTON — Calling Iran “a nation of terror,” President Donald Trump confirmed the assessment of his top advisers and publicly accused the Persian Gulf nation of responsibility for recent attacks on oil tankers near the strategic Strait of Hormuz. Trump said Friday that Iran’s culpability was “exposed” by the United...
Family: Baby cut from slain Chicago woman’s womb dies
CHICAGO — An infant boy who was cut from a Chicago woman’s womb with a butcher knife died Friday at a hospital where he had been in grave condition since the April attack that killed his mother, family spokeswomen said. Family spokeswoman Cecilia Garcia confirmed a family statement posted on...
Former assistant principal charged with murder of Florida educator
MIAMI — A former assistant principal at Norland High School in Miami Gardens, Fla., has been arrested and charged with murdering educator Kameela Russell, whose body was discovered floating in a Miami Gardens canal. Police detectives took Ernest Joseph Roberts, 39, into custody early Friday morning. Police obtained an arrest...
Trump says he won’t fire Kellyanne Conway over Hatch Act violations
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump said Friday that he will not fire White House counselor Kellyanne Conway for repeated violations of the Hatch Act, which bars federal employees from engaging in political activity in the course of their work. “Well I got briefed on it yesterday, and it looks to...
Tenn. pastor preaches that the government should execute LGBTQ people
Standing at the front of the All Scripture Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, Pastor Grayson Fritts had the rapt attention of his congregation. It was June 2, the first Sunday of Pride Month, and Fritts had planned a timely sermon. For roughly an hour, Fritts, who is also a detective...
Inert grenade in Detroit airport luggage causes brief scare
ROMULUS, Mich. — Authorities say what turned out to be an inert grenade in a piece of luggage caused a brief scare and drew a heavy law enforcement presence at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. The airport in the Detroit suburb of Romulus says Transportation Security Administration officers on Thursday evening spotted...
American detained at Cairo airport for carrying Yemen dagger
CAIRO — Egyptian officials say a Yemeni American was detained at the Cairo airport for carrying a traditional Yemeni dagger in his luggage. Customs officials say the man, a dual U.S.-Yemeni national, landed in Cairo on Friday on a flight from the Yemeni port city of Aden. The officials say...
Rescue group: Missing pony named ‘Pikachu’ found dead
FOUNTAIN INN, S.C. — A group dedicated to finding missing horses says a South Carolina pony named Pikachu has been found dead. Stolen Horse International got involved after Hidden Pasture Farm owner Kate Nichols said last week that her miniature palomino filly had vanished overnight. She said she had searched...
German court lifts city’s ban on burkini swimsuits
BERLIN — A German court has lifted a city’s ban on the burkini, an all-encompassing swimsuit used by some Muslim women. Wearing the garments in municipal pools in the western city of Koblenz was forbidden at the beginning of this year after the local council narrowly approved a ban. Officials...
UK leader race down to 6 contenders, Boris Johnson in front
LONDON — One of seven contenders to replace Prime Minister Theresa May quit the Conservative Party leadership race on Friday, as front-runner Boris Johnson was accused of trying to dodge media scrutiny. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said after the first round of voting, it was clear he did not have...
Thai vets nurture lost baby dugong with milk and sea grass
BANGKOK — A baby dugong that has developed an attachment to humans after being separated from its mother and getting lost in the ocean off southern Thailand is being nurtured by marine experts in hopes that it can one day fend for itself. The estimated 5-month-old female dugong named Marium...
