Air raids over eastern Syria near Iraqi border kill 6 Iran-backed militants
BAGHDAD — Three overnight airstrikes on eastern Syria near a strategic border crossing with Iraq killed six Iran-backed militants Saturday, two members of Iraqi militia groups told The Associated Press. The strikes on the border region of Boukamal came hours after an umbrella group of Iran-backed Iraqi militants known as...
Revelers set to pack into Times Square for annual New Year’s Eve ball drop
NEW YORK — The confetti has been tested for airiness. The giant numerals — 2 0 2 4 — are in place. And the luminous ball, bedazzled in 2,688 crystal triangles, is fixed to the pole from which it make its 60-second descent at 11:59 p.m. With throngs of revelers...
Airstrikes hit camps in central Gaza as Biden administration approves new weapons sales to Israel
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli warplanes struck two urban refugee camps in central Gaza on Saturday, as the Biden administration approved a new emergency weapons sale to Israel despite persistent international cease-fire calls over mounting civilian deaths, hunger and mass displacement in the enclave. Even a brief halt in...
Dozens of schools facing federal probe of alleged civil rights violations
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The U.S. Department of Education is investigating if nearly 90 elementary, secondary and higher education campuses across the nation — including at UC Davis and other University of California campuses — violated a federal civil rights law after an “alarming” rise in reports of antisemitism, anti-Muslim and...
Trump’s lawyers say he might testify at trial over how much he owes in defamation case
NEW YORK — Lawyers for former President Donald Trump say he might testify at a mid-January civil trial set to decide how much he owes a columnist for defaming her after she said he sexually abused her three decades ago in a Manhattan luxury department store. The lawyers filed papers...
NYPD ‘prepared’ for large pro-Palestine protests during New Year’s Eve bash at Times Square
NEW YORK — There are no known security threats related to this weekend’s New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square, but the New York Police Department is gearing up for the possibility that thousands of pro-Palestine protesters will be demonstrating nearby, Mayor Eric Adams and police officials said Friday. In...
Times Square confetti, ball get test runs ahead of New Year’s Eve
NEW YORK — Visitors to Times Square got a small preview of New York City’s famed New Year’s Eve party on Friday, as the event’s organizers heaved handfuls of colored paper skyward in a promotional event to test their confetti. With crowds of celebrants expected to pack into Times Square...
Police searching for Colorado mother suspected of killing her 2 children, wounding third
DENVER — Police were still searching Friday for a Colorado woman suspected of killing her two young children and wounding a third after police initially responded to a report of a burglary in their home. Kimberlee Singler, 35, was cooperative at first with police investigating the Dec. 19 deaths but...
Judge blocks most of an Iowa law banning some school library books and discussion of LGBTQ+ issues
DES MOINES, Iowa — A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked key parts of an Iowa law that bans some books from school libraries and forbids teachers from raising LGBTQ+ issues. Judge Stephen Locher’s preliminary injunction halts enforcement of the law, which was set to take effect Jan. 1 but...
Florida lawmakers want to end 3-day waiting periods for rifles, shotguns
ORLANDO, Fla. — A Southwest Florida state senator wants to eliminate a statewide three-day waiting period to buy a rifle or a shotgun, undoing one of the changes enacted after the Parkland mass shooting. State Sen. Jonathan Martin’s bill would keep the waiting period in place for handgun purchases while...
West Virginia starts distributing funds from the settlement of opioid lawsuits
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia is issuing the first checks from a fund established by the settlement of opioid lawsuits in the state, which has by far the nation’s highest drug overdose death rate. The Kanawha County Commission said Thursday it received a $2.9 million check and plans to discuss...
In Pennsylvania, any challenge to Trump being on the ballot must go through the courts
Pennsylvania’s secretary of state said Friday he does not have the authority to remove former President Donald Trump from the ballot and any such challenge here must be done through the courts. “Pennsylvania’s Election Code does not give me, as secretary of the commonwealth, the authority to reject a nomination...
Civil rights leader removed from movie theater for using his own chair
A civil rights leader was escorted by police out of a North Carolina movie theater after he insisted on using his own chair for medical reasons, prompting an apology from the nation’s largest movie theater chain. The incident occurred Tuesday in Greenville during a showing of “The Color Purple.” The...
Associate of Russian opposition leader Navalny sentenced to 9 years in prison
MOSCOW — An associate of imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was sentenced to nine years in prison on Friday, the latest move in a relentless Kremlin crackdown on dissent. Ksenia Fadeyeva, a regional legislator who headed a local branch of Navalny’s organization in the Siberian city of Tomsk, was...
Woman sues Hershey’s Co. over Reese’s pumpkins without faces
A Florida woman filed a federal lawsuit against The Hershey Company over claims some of its seasonal shaped Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups were advertised deceptively. Cynthia Kelly, of the Tampa area, is suing the company for $5 million in Florida’s Middle District Court. In the lawsuit, Kelly claims the company...
2 dead after truck hits several people in city in southern Germany, police say
BERLIN — Two people have died after a truck struck several people in southern Germany on Friday morning, police said. The 63-year old truck driver struck a group of five people close to the railway station in downtown Passau, police said in a statement. A 37-year-old woman died of her...
Ohio’s GOP governor vetoes ban on gender-affirming care, transgender athletes in girls sports
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Republican Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed a measure Friday that would have banned gender-affirming care for minors and transgender athletes’ participation in girls and women’s sports, in a break from members of his party who championed the legislation. GOP lawmakers hold enough seats to override DeWine’s veto, but...
Poland says ‘everything indicates’ a Russian missile briefly entered its airspace and left
WARSAW, Poland — Poland’s defense forces said an unknown object entered the country’s airspace Friday morning from the direction of Ukraine and then vanished off radars, and that all indications pointed to it being a Russian missile. “Everything indicates that a Russian missile intruded in Poland’s airspace. It was monitored...
Slippery Rock University’s marching band set to perform in London’s New Year’s Day Parade
The tubas – five in all – went first. They and other large brass and percussion instruments, plus enough band gear to fill a 26-foot box truck, had to be packed up and shipped overseas weeks before members of the Slippery Rock University Marching Pride band boarded flights for London....
Russia fires 122 missiles, 36 drones in what Ukraine calls the biggest aerial barrage of the war
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia launched 122 missiles and dozens of drones against Ukrainian targets, officials said Friday, killing at least 24 civilians across the country in what an air force official said was the biggest aerial barrage of the war. The Ukrainian air force intercepted most of the ballistic and...
Trump is blocked from the GOP primary ballot in 2 states. Can he still run for president?
DENVER — First, Colorado’s Supreme Court ruled that former President Donald Trump wasn’t eligible to run for his old job in that state. Then, Maine’s Democratic secretary of state ruled the same for her state. Who’s next? Both decisions are historic. The Colorado court was the first court to apply...
Nikki Haley doesn’t mention slavery when asked what caused the Civil War. She later walks that backVideo
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley was asked at a New Hampshire town hall about the reason for the Civil War, and she didn’t mention slavery in her response. She walked back her comments hours later. Asked Wednesday night during a town hall in Berlin what she believed...
3 dead, 1 injured in central Pa. stabbings, police say
Police are investigating several stabbings Thursday in Hanover, York County, that left three people dead and a fourth injured. Hanover Borough Police Department responded at 10:18 a.m. where they said they encountered a 27-year-old Hanover man outside a residence with severe injuries. Police said the man, who was taken to...
Huge surf pounds West Coast and Hawaii, flooding some low-lying areasVideo
LOS ANGELES — Powerful surf rolled onto beaches Thursday on the West Coast and Hawaii as a big swell generated by the stormy Pacific Ocean pushed toward shorelines, causing localized flooding. Forecasters urged people to stay off rocks and jetties, and to not turn their backs to the ocean because...
Maine bars Trump from ballot as U.S. Supreme Court weighs state authority to block former president
PORTLAND, Maine — Maine’s Democratic secretary of state on Thursday removed former President Donald Trump from the state’s presidential primary ballot under the Constitution’s insurrection clause, becoming the first election official to take action unilaterally as the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to decide whether Trump remains eligible to continue...
