Evidence of Russian crimes mounts as war in Ukraine drags on
KYIV, Ukraine — Ten months into Russia’s latest invasion of Ukraine, overwhelming evidence shows the Kremlin’s troops have waged total war, with disregard for international laws governing the treatment of civilians and conduct on the battlefield. Ukraine is investigating more than 58,000 potential Russian war crimes — killings, kidnappings, indiscriminate...
Philadelphia’s gun violence remained at record levels for 3rd straight year
PHILADELPHIA — When Taneesha Brodie’s eldest son turned 8, she moved her family out of North Philadelphia to Upper Darby, seeking a safer community away from the city’s gun violence. She was proud of the people her children became, especially her eldest, Quenzell Bradley-Brown. A married father of four, the...
Former IS families face neighbors’ hatred returning home
RAQQA, Syria — Marwa Ahmad rarely leaves her run-down house in the Syrian city of Raqqa. The single mother of four says people look at her with suspicion and refuse to offer her a job, while her children get bullied and beaten up at school. She and her children are...
Putin, Xi hold talks as Russia fires another Ukraine barrage
KYIV, Ukraine — Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping vowed Friday to deepen their bilateral cooperation against the backdrop of Moscow’s 10-month war in Ukraine, which weathered another night of drone and rocket attacks following a massive missile bombardment. Putin and Xi made no direct mention of...
Pa. state system universities try to rein in student costs to reverse enrollment losses
The promise of a new $90 million science hall, suite-style dorms and a scenic oak grove aren’t bad selling points for a public university. But these days, Indiana University of Pennsylvania can trumpet something else that might have seemed unlikely not long ago: It’s noticeably less expensive. The typical total...
New Alzheimer’s drug undergoes testing
PHILADELPHIA — A new drug designed to ward off Alzheimer’s is being tested at more than 100 sites around the world, including the University of Pennsylvania. Called lecanemab, it consists of antibodies that bind to the abnormal proteins that accumulate in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s. Previous efforts to...
Biden signs $1.7 trillion bill funding government operations
KINGSHILL, U.S. Virgin Islands — President Joe Biden on Thursday signed a $1.7 trillion spending bill that will keep the federal government operating through the end of the federal budget year in September 2023, and provide tens of billions of dollars in new aid to Ukraine for its fight against...
Biden outpacing Trump, Obama with diverse judicial nominees
WASHINGTON — For the Biden White House, a quartet of four female judges in Colorado encapsulates its mission when it comes to the federal judiciary. One of the judges, Charlotte Sweeney, is an openly gay woman with a background in workers’ rights. Nina Wang, an immigrant from Taiwan, is the...
Proposed sale of Camp Tuckahoe could help local Boy Scout council
A proposal to sell off buffer acres around Camp Tuckahoe on South Mountain could help replenish the financial reserves of the Boy Scouts of America New Birth of Freedom Council, scout executive and chief executive officer Ronald Gardner Jr. said Tuesday. Council executive board members have yet to finalize the...
Democrat wins Arizona attorney general race after recount
PHOENIX — A recount of votes has confirmed Democrat Kris Mayes narrowly defeated Republican Abraham Hamadeh in the Arizona attorney general’s race, one of the closest elections in state history. The highly anticipated results announced Thursday in Maricopa County Superior Court are among the last in the country to come...
Honeybees are at risk, along with the crops they pollinate
PHILADELPHIA — The honeybees looked perfectly healthy, buzzing about their boxy wooden hive on a warm autumn day in central Pennsylvania. Elizabeth Capaldi suspected otherwise. Clad in a protective white suit and hat, the biologist reached out with a gloved hand to capture one of the insects in a small...
Massive fire at Cambodia hotel casino kills at least 19
POIPET, Cambodia — A massive fire at a Cambodian hotel casino Thursday injured over 60 people and killed at least 19 — a number that officials warned would rise after the search for bodies resumes Friday. The blaze, which started around midnight Wednesday, was put out over 12 hours later...
Southwest Airlines hopes to restore its full flight schedule by Friday
DALLAS — After taking desperate measures to try to stabilize its broken flight operations, Southwest Airlines could have its full schedule restored by Friday in time for another busy holiday travel weekend, company leaders told employees late Wednesday. Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, in the midst of the worst operational breakdown in...
Another year of mass shootings in the U.S.
Mass shootings have become part of every year’s news, and 2022 was no exception. In May, a man targeted Black shoppers at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, killing 10 people and injuring three in one of the deadliest racial massacres in recent U.S. history. Then, just days later,...
Prayers for ailing Benedict in retired pope’s native Bavaria
MARKTL AM INN, Germany — People in Pope Benedict XVI’s Bavarian homeland prayed Thursday for the retired pontiff, a favorite son of the region even 40 years after he left Germany for the Vatican and nearly a decade after his resignation stunned the world. At the St. Oswald church in...
Jan. 6 panel drops Trump subpoena as it wraps up work
WASHINGTON — The House Jan. 6 committee has dropped its subpoena against former President Donald Trump as it wraps up work and prepares to dissolve next week. Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the committee’s Democratic chairman, wrote in a letter to Trump lawyer David Warrington on Wednesday that he is formally...
Southwest cuts 2,300 flights, schedule in sustained chaos
DALLAS — Southwest Airlines continued to extract itself from sustained scheduling chaos Thursday, canceling another 2,350 flights after a winter storm overwhelmed its operations days ago. The Dallas carrier acknowledged it has inadequate and outdated operations technology that can leave flight crews out of position when adverse weather strikes. Southwest...
Israel swears in Netanyahu as PM of hard-line government
JERUSALEM — Israel on Thursday swore in Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister of the most right-wing and religiously conservative government in the country’s history. Netanyahu took the oath of office moments after Israel’s parliament, or Knesset, passed a vote of confidence in his new government. The coalition, made up of...
Gov. Wolf ends term with strong ratings after tumultuous times
HARRISBURG — Gov. Tom Wolf will wrap up eight years in office next month, having steered Pennsylvania through unpredictable times when the Democrat made life-and-death decisions in the ravaging covid-19 pandemic and managed the battleground state’s presidential election amid unprecedented Republican efforts to overturn it. Wolf, 74, leaves office with...
E.U. doesn’t follow Italy with covid checks on China arrivals
BRUSSELS — The European Union is assessing Beijing’s rollback of its strict anti-infection controls but refrained Thursday from immediately following EU member Italy in requiring coronavirus tests for airline passengers coming from China. Health officials from the 27-member bloc promised to continue talks on seeking a common approach to travel...
Christmas tree recycling is a good alternative to landfills
Taking down the Christmas tree is only one task after the holiday season. For those with a real tree, figuring out what to do with it can be as easy as placing it by the curb. In most states, it can be the gift that keeps on giving. Discarded Christmas...
Applications for U.S. unemployment aid rose slightly last week
WASHINGTON — The number of people seeking unemployment benefits rose only slightly last week with the labor market remaining strong despite the Federal Reserve’s efforts to cool the economy and hiring. Applications for unemployment aid for the week ending Dec. 24 climbed 9,000 to 225,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday....
Fire after highway crash in South Korea kills 5, injures 37
SEOUL, South Korea — A freight truck collided with a bus on a highway near the South Korean capital Seoul on Thursday, causing a fire that killed at least five people and injured 37 others, officials said. It wasn’t immediately known what caused the collision and fire, nor what cargo...
Buffalo roads reopen as search for storm victims contines
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Roads reopened Thursday in storm-besieged Buffalo as authorities continued searching for people who may have died or are stuck and suffering after last week’s blizzard. The driving ban in New York’s second-most-populous city was lifted just after midnight Thursday, Mayor Byron Brown announced. “Significant progress has been...
Starbucks refused union contract talks at 21 cafes, NLRB says
Starbucks Corp. has illegally refused to negotiate at 21 recently unionized cafes in Washington state and Oregon, U.S. labor board prosecutors alleged in a complaint. In a Tuesday filing on behalf of the National Labor Relations Board’s general counsel, the agency’s Seattle regional director wrote that Starbucks “has been failing...
