UN report says nature is in worst shape in human history
Nature is in more trouble now than at any other time in human history, with extinction looming over 1 million species of plants and animals, scientists said Monday in the United Nations’ first comprehensive report on biodiversity. It’s all because of humans, but it’s not too late to fix the...
SpaceX shipment reaches space station after weekend launch
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A SpaceX shipment arrived at the International Space Station on Monday following a weekend launch. The Dragon capsule delivered 5,500 pounds of equipment and experiments. Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques used the station’s big robot arm — also made in Canada — to capture the Dragon approximately...
Pa. agencies collect 39K pounds of medication in Take Back Day
More than 39,000 pounds of unwanted prescription medication was collected in Pennsylvania during the Drug Enforcement Administration’s National Take Back Day last month. That amount was collected at 323 sites coordinated by 234 local police agencies across the state. The DEA holds National Take Back Days in the spring and...
Michael Cohen heads to prison in hush-money scheme
NEW YORK — Michael Cohen, the former lawyer, media attack dog and all-around fixer for President Donald Trump, is scheduled to begin serving a three-year prison sentence Monday for crimes including campaign finance violations related to hush-money payments made on President Donald Trump’s behalf. Cohen faces a 2 p.m. deadline...
Markets swoon after Trump threatens to hike China tariffs
BANGKOK — World markets swooned Monday after President Donald Trump threatened to increase tariffs on imports from China at a time when investors were expecting trade tensions to subside. The CAC 40 in France lost 2.2% in early trading to 5,428.65 while Germany’s DAX skidded 2.1% to 12,150.16. London’s markets...
Kraft Heinz restates earnings over period of 2+ years
PITTSBURGH — Kraft Heinz is restating its financial results for the years 2016, 2017, and for the first nine months of 2018. The company said in February that it was being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission over its procurement operations. Kraft Heinz Co. said in a regulatory filing...
Another body found at Illinois factory; death toll reaches 3Video
WAUKEGAN, Ill. — Search and recovery personnel found the body of another worker Sunday in the rubble of a northern Illinois silicone factory that exploded and burst into flames two days earlier, bringing the death toll to three employees with one more body believed to be in the debris, a...
White House announces new military assets in Middle East
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is sending an aircraft carrier and a bomber task force to the Middle East, the White House said Sunday, in a show of force aimed at Iran. “In response to a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings, the United States is deploying the...
Texas 12-year-old charged in fatal shooting of brother, 10
CONROE, Texas — Authorities say a 12-year-old boy has been charged with murder in the fatal shooting of his 10-year-old brother in Texas. The Montgomery County sheriff’s office says deputies on Saturday afternoon responded to a 911 call reporting a shooting in Conroe, about 40 miles north of Houston. Authorities...
Trump surprises officials with nomination of Mark Morgan to head ICEVideo
WASHINGTON — President Trump announced his choice to lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Sunday, tapping a former FBI official who frequently appears on cable news advocating for the president’s immigration policies. In a tweet, Trump called Mark Morgan, who briefly ran the U.S. Border Patrol under President...
North Carolina officer slain in traffic stop; suspect deadVideo
MOORESVILLE, N.C. — A police officer conducting a weekend traffic stop was fatally shot in North Carolina, authorities said Sunday, adding the suspected gunman was found dead in his nearby apartment from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Officer Jordan Harris Sheldon, 32, was shot around 10 p.m. Saturday in the Charlotte...
Muslim society: ‘Disturbing’ video of children wasn’t vettedVideo
A video showing children speaking in Arabic about sacrifice and chopping off heads wasn’t vetted before being posted on the Facebook page for the Muslim American Society’s Philadelphia chapter, and it does not represent their values, the executive director of the national group said Sunday. Executive Director Ayman Hammous said...
Israel steps up strikes as Gaza rocket attacks intensifyVideo
JERUSALEM — Gaza militants fired hundreds of rockets into southern Israel on Sunday, killing at least four Israelis and bringing life to a standstill across the region in the bloodiest fighting since a 2014 war. As Israel pounded Gaza with airstrikes, the Palestinian death toll rose to 23, including two...
Trump reverses, now says Robert Mueller should not testify before CongressVideo
WASHINGTON — President Trump said Sunday that special counsel Robert Mueller should not testify before Congress, reversing course from his previous position that the decision is up to Attorney General William Barr. “Bob Mueller should not testify,” Trump said in an afternoon tweet. “No redos for the Dems!” Trump also...
Pressure grows to loosen party grip on Pennsylvania primary
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania: Land of Disenfranchisement? It’s not the state slogan, but Pennsylvania is in the minority of states with closed primary elections as the number of independent voters grows quickly and sparks a debate in Pennsylvania’s Legislature for the first time in memory about opening up party primaries. It...
Longtime McKeesport Daily News sports editor covered kids, pros
For more than three decades, Norman Vargo wrote about everything from high school volleyball to Super Bowls. He was there to chronicle the Pittsburgh Steelers’ dynasty in the 1970s, the Pittsburgh Pirates’ World Series title in 1979 and the Pittsburgh Penguins Stanley Cup runs in the early 1990s. As the...
Police find body in Cyprus lake, tie rape to serial killings
NICOSIA, Cyprus — Police in Cyprus recovered a second suitcase containing decomposing human remains Sunday from a contaminated lake where a military officer who confessed to killing seven foreign women and girls told authorities he dumped the bodies of three victims. The lake is part of an abandoned copper pyrite...
Kim Jong Un’s weapon test may have included ballistic missile
Kim Jong Un oversaw a live-fire military exercise Saturday that potentially included North Korea’s first ballistic missile launch since 2017 — challenging President Trump’s bottom line in nuclear talks. Kim watched as “large-caliber, long-range multiple-rocket launchers and tactical guided weapons” were fired off North Korea’s eastern coast Saturday, according to...
At least 40 dead in Russian plane’s fiery emergency landingVideo
MOSCOW — At least 40 people died when an Aeroflot airliner burst into flames while making an emergency landing at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport Sunday evening, officials said. The Sukhoi SSJ100 operated by national airline Aeroflot had 73 passengers and five crew members on board when it touched down and sped...
Passenger video shows people lining up on wing of plane in Florida river
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A passenger shouted “Watch out! Watch out!” as other passengers and crew members cautiously walked out on a wing of the Boeing 737, just moments after it had landed at a Florida military base, crashed through a stone seawall, and ended up in a river. Another passenger...
Trump picks Obama-era Border Patrol chief Mark Morgan to lead ICE
President Donald Trump said Sunday that he has selected an Obama-era chief of the U.S. Border Patrol to be the next director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “I am pleased to inform all of those that believe in a strong, fair and sound Immigration Policy that Mark Morgan will be...
Latrobe outdoorsman blazed new trails
When Kevin Seremet went into the woods, he went as far off the beaten path as he could go. “He always said he wanted to step on land that no other man had ever stepped on before,” said his brother, Kenneth Seremet. Kevin Seremet was always happiest outside. He gardened,...
Fines, jail time? Trump team resists oversight, Dems dig in
WASHINGTON — They’re talking at the Capitol about jailing people. Imposing steep fines. All sorts of extraordinary, if long-shot, measures to force the White House to comply with Democratic lawmakers’ request for information about President Trump stemming from the special counsel’s Russia investigation. This is the remarkable state of affairs...
Critical injuries avoided as military-chartered jet ends up in river
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A military-chartered jet carrying 143 people landed hard, then bounced and swerved as the pilot struggled to control it amid thunder and lightning, ultimately skidding off the runway and coming to a crashing halt in a river at Naval Air Station Jacksonville. It meant chaos and terror...
Preparation limits toll of cyclone
DHAKA, Bangladesh — A mammoth preparation exercise that included the evacuation of more than 1 million people appears to have spared India a devastating death toll from one of the biggest storms in decades, though the full extent of the damage was yet to be known, officials said Saturday. Cyclone...
