Wisconsin kayaker who faked his death and fled the country is charged after returning to U.S.
GREEN LAKE, Wis. — A Wisconsin man who faked his own drowning and left his wife and three children for Eastern Europe willingly returned to the U.S. after four months and was charged Wednesday with obstructing an intense lake search for his body. The criminal complaint charging Ryan Borgwardt with...
Alex Jones keeps Infowars for now after judge rejects The Onion’s winning auction bid
A federal judge in Texas rejected the auction sale of Alex Jones’ Infowars to The Onion satirical news outlet, criticizing the bidding for the conspiracy theory platform as flawed as well as how much money families of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary shooting stood to receive. The decision late Tuesday...
Gallery: Photos from Dec. 11, 2024
Embark on a visual journey around the Western Pennsylvania region with TribLive’s latest collection of captivating images for Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024....
Explosion in Afghan capital kills the Taliban refugee minister
ISLAMABAD — A suicide bombing in the Afghan capital on Wednesday killed the Taliban refugee minister and two others, officials said, in the most brazen attack on a member of the Taliban inner circle since they returned to power three years ago. The explosion struck inside the ministry, killing Khalil...
U.K. spy agency releases annual Christmas card puzzle to uncover future codebreakers
LONDON — What does a spy agency give for Christmas? How about a riddle wrapped in an enigma inside a mystery. GCHQ, Britain’s electronic and cyber-intelligence agency, on Wednesday published its annual Christmas Challenge — a seasonal greeting card that doubles as a set of fiendishly difficult puzzles designed to...
Haiti’s main international airport reopens 1 month after gang violence forced it to close
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti’s main international airport reopened on Wednesday to commercial flights, one month after it closed for the second time this year because of gang violence. Haitian soldiers and police, bolstered by Kenyan police leading a U.N.-backed mission to quell gang violence, boosted security in the area, and...
Gun found on suspect in killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO matches shell casings at scene, police say
ALTOONA — The gun found on the suspect in the killing of United Healthcare’s CEO matched shell casings found at the site of the shooting, New York City’s police commissioner said Wednesday. Suspect Luigi Mangione ‘s fingerprints also matched a water bottle and a snack bar wrapper that police found...
Atmospheric river brings weather whiplash to East Coast as bomb cyclone develops
PORTLAND, Maine — The U.S. East Coast was beginning a whiplash-inducing stretch of weather on Wednesday that was rainy, windy and potentially dangerous, due in part to an atmospheric river and developing bomb cyclone. Parts of Maine experienced freezing rain that caused vehicles to slide off roads followed by a...
Trump says he’ll name Andrew Ferguson head of FTC and Kimberly Guilfoyle as ambassador to Greece
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump made another flurry of job announcements on Tuesday, selecting Andrew Ferguson as the next chair of the Federal Trade Commission, Kimberly Guilfoyle as the ambassador to Greece and Tom Barrack as the ambassador to Turkey. Ferguson, who is already one of the FTC’s five commissioners,...
Donald Trump is returning to the world stage. So is his trolling
NEW YORK — President-elect Donald Trump’s recent dinner with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his visit to Paris for the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral were not just exercises in policy and diplomacy. They were also prime trolling opportunities for Trump. Throughout his first term in the White...
South Korea’s national police chief and Seoul’s top officer detained over enforcement of martial law
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s national police chief and top police officer for the capital, Seoul, were detained for their roles in enforcing President Yoon Suk Yeol’s short-lived martial law decree last week, police said Wednesday. The development comes hours before the main liberal opposition Democratic Party submits a...
Deadly chocolate factory blast caused by faulty gas fitting, safety board finds
Cascading failures involving a corroded steam pipe and a defective natural gas fitting caused a powerful explosion in 2023 at a Pennsylvania chocolate factory, killing seven workers when the company failed to evacuate, a federal safety board said Tuesday. About 70 production workers and 35 office staff at R.M. Palmer...
From wealth and success to murder suspect, the life of Luigi Mangione took a hard turn
Luigi Nicholas Mangione, the suspect in the fatal shooting of a healthcare executive in New York City, apparently was living a charmed life: the grandson of a wealthy real estate developer, valedictorian of his elite Baltimore prep school and with degrees from one of the nation’s top private universities. Friends...
Woman killed in crash as officer responds to threat at Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s home
ROME, Ga. — A motorist was killed as police responded to a bomb threat at the Georgia home of U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, authorities said. A police officer on the local bomb squad was traveling to the scene when he collided with another car on Monday, Rome police said...
Justice Department ignored some policies when seizing reporters’ phone records, watchdog finds
WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors sidestepped some Justice Department rules when they seized the phone records or emails of reporters as part of media leak investigations during the Trump administration, according to a new watchdog report being released as the aggressive practice of hunting for journalists’ sources could again be resurrected....
McConnell falls and sprains wrist after GOP luncheon, colleague says he is ‘fine’
WASHINGTON — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell fell and sprained his wrist while walking out of a GOP luncheon on Tuesday, the latest in a series of medical incidents for him in recent years. McConnell, who is stepping down from his leadership post at the end of the year, was...
Trump launches fragrance line featuring photo of Jill Biden
President-elect Donald Trump has launched a new fragrance line titled “Fight, Fight, Fight” — for men and women. Selling for $199 each, Trump announced the line on Sunday in a Truth Social post, USA Today reported. “A fragrance your enemies can’t resist!” the post reads, on top of a photo...
Key details about the arrest of a man in the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO
The 26-year-old man charged in last week’s killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO appeared in a Blair County courtroom on Tuesday, where he was denied bail and his lawyer said he’d fight extradition to New York City, where the attack happened. Luigi Nicholas Mangione was arrested Monday in last Wednesday’s attack on...
DA suggests judge could permanently halt Trump’s hush money case while upholding his conviction
NEW YORK — Prosecutors are urging a judge not to throw out President-elect Donald Trump’s hush money criminal conviction but suggesting a willingness to end the case in a way that would preserve the verdict while avoiding punishment or a protracted legal fight. In court papers made public on Tuesday,...
U.S. says it will support new Syrian leaders who protect women and renounce terrorism
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration said Tuesday it will recognize and support a new Syrian government that renounces terrorism, destroys chemical weapons stocks and protects the rights of minorities and women. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that the U.S. would work with groups in Syria and...
Japanese survivor of atomic bomb recalls its horrors in Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech
OSLO, Norway — A 92-year-old Japanese man who lived through the American atomic bombing of Nagasaki described on Tuesday the agony he witnessed in 1945, including the charred corpses of his loved ones and the ruins of his city, as he accepted this year’s Nobel Peace Prize on his organization’s...
After withdrawing as attorney general nominee, Matt Gaetz lands a talk show on OANN television
NEW YORK — Following the short-circuited effort to become President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general, Matt Gaetz is joining the conservative One America News Network to host a weeknight political talk show. The network said Tuesday that Gaetz’s new one-hour show will air at 9 p.m. Eastern, starting in January. He...
Trump promises to end birthright citizenship: What is it and could he do it?
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump has promised to end birthright citizenship as soon as he gets into office to make good on campaign promises aiming to restrict immigration and redefining what it means to be American. But any efforts to halt the policy would face steep legal hurdles. Birthright citizenship...
Biden is rushing aid to Ukraine. Both sides are digging in. And everyone is bracing for Trump
WASHINGTON — The grinding war between Ukraine and its Russian invaders has escalated ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration, with President Joe Biden rushing out billions of dollars more in military aid before U.S. support for Kyiv’s defenses is thrown into question under the new administration. Russia, Ukraine and their global...
Hempfield Area to tackle 1 of 3 roof replacements, test pool ahead of high school renovation
As Hempfield Area moves forward with a nearly $281,000 roof repair at Fort Allen Elementary, the district also plans to address projected million dollar roof projects at two of its other schools next summer. The school board voted Monday to hire Garland Company Inc. to replace the roof covering Fort...
