Nobel win for Swede who unlocked secrets of Neanderthal DNA
STOCKHOLM — Swedish scientist Svante Paabo won the Nobel Prize in medicine Monday for his discoveries on human evolution that provided key insights into our immune system and what makes us unique compared with our extinct cousins, the award’s panel said. Paabo has spearheaded the development of new techniques that...
Hurricane Orlene roars toward Mexico’s Pacific coast
MAZATLAN, Mexico — Hurricane Orlene swept toward landfall on Mexico’s Pacific coast near the tourist town of Mazatlan on Monday. Orlene lost some strength after roaring over the Islas Maria, a former prison colony being developed as a tourist draw. The main island is sparsely populated, mainly by government employees,...
In Hurricane Ian’s wake, dangers persist, worsen in parts
FORT MYERS, Fla. — People kayaking down streets that were passable just a day or two earlier. Hundreds of thousands without power. National Guard helicopters flying rescue missions to residents still stranded on Florida’s barrier islands. Days after Hurricane Ian carved a path of destruction from Florida to the Carolinas,...
Bolsonaro, Lula headed to runoff after tight Brazil electionVideo
RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil’s top two presidential candidates will face each other in a runoff vote after neither got enough support to win outright Sunday in an election to decide if the country returns a leftist to the helm of the world’s fourth-largest democracy or keeps the far-right incumbent...
Phone alerts responders after car hits tree, killing all 6 in Nebraska
LINCOLN, Neb. — A passenger’s cellphone automatically alerted responders after a car hit a tree early Sunday in a Nebraska crash that killed all six of its young occupants, authorities said. Five men in the Honda Accord died at the scene of the crash around 2:15 a.m. in Lincoln, about...
Hackers release data after Los Angeles school district refuses to pay ransom
LOS ANGELES — Hackers released data from the Los Angeles school district on Saturday, a day after Superintendent Albert Carvalho said he would not negotiate with or pay a ransom to the criminal syndicate. Some screenshots from the hack were reviewed by the Los Angeles Times and appear to show...
Police: ‘Highly intoxicated’ man killed by troopers after hitting 1, striking SUVVideo
PLAINS — State police shot and killed a man who struck a trooper with his pickup truck and then crashed into a police sport utility vehicle after an altercation at a northeastern Pennsylvania bar, authorities said. State police and Luzerne County prosecutors said troopers from Wilkes-Barre were called to the...
Ukraine presses on with counteroffensive; Russia uses drones
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia attacked the Ukrainian president’s hometown and other targets Sunday with suicide drones, and Ukraine took back full control of a strategic eastern city in a counteroffensive that has reshaped the war. Russia’s loss of the eastern city of Lyman, which it had been using as a...
Biden pledge to make federal fleet electric faces slow start
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden, a self-described “car guy,” often promises to lead by example on climate change by moving swiftly to convert the sprawling U.S. government fleet to zero-emission electric vehicles. But efforts to eliminate gas-powered vehicles from the fleet have lagged. Biden last year directed the U.S. government...
Trump: ‘King’ to some in Pennsylvania, but will it help GOP?
MONONGAHELA — The Trump-Pence sign still hangs on the older building off Main Street in this historic town, a lasting vestige of the campaign fervor that roused voters, including many who still believe the falsehood that the former president didn’t lose in 2020 and hope he’ll run in 2024. The...
Feds vow major aid for Hurricane Ian victims amid rescuesVideo
FORT MYERS, Fla. — With the death toll from Hurricane Ian rising and hundreds of thousands of people without power in Florida and the Carolinas, U.S. officials vowed Sunday to unleash an unprecedented amount of federal disaster aid as crews scrambled to rescue people still trapped by floodwaters. Days after...
Defendant to represent himself in Wisconsin parade trial
Darrell Brooks’ trial was never going to be easy for the Milwaukee suburb of Waukesha. Now it could hurt even more. Brooks plowed through the city’s Christmas parade in his Ford Escape last year, killing six people and injuring dozens more, prosecutors allege. His trial opens Monday with jury selection...
Man accused of killing 22 older women goes on trial again
DALLAS — After Mary Brooks was found dead on the floor of her Dallas-area condo, grocery bags from a shopping trip still on her countertop, authorities decided the 87-year-old had died of natural causes. Even after her family discovered jewelry was missing — including a coral necklace she loved and...
Venezuela releases 7 jailed Americans; U.S. frees 2 prisoners
WASHINGTON — In a rare softening of hostile relations, Venezuela has freed seven imprisoned Americans in exchange for the United States releasing two nephews of President Nicolás Maduro’s wife who had been jailed for years on drug smuggling conspiracy convictions, the White House said Saturday. The swap of the Americans,...
Vegas survivors signal hope even as mass shootings persist
LAS VEGAS — It’s been five years since carnage and death sent his family running into the night, leaving them separated and terrified as a gunman rained bullets into an outdoor country music festival crowd on the Las Vegas Strip. The memories don’t fade, they sharpen, William “Bill” Henning said...
Supreme Court poised to keep marching to right in new term
WASHINGTON — With public confidence diminished and justices sparring openly over the institution’s legitimacy, the Supreme Court on Monday will begin a new term that could push American law to the right on issues of race, voting and the environment. Following June’s momentous overturning of nearly 50 years of constitutional...
Russia withdraws troops after Ukraine encircles key city
KYIV, Ukraine — After being encircled by Ukrainian forces, Russia pulled troops out Saturday from an eastern Ukrainian city that it had been using as a front-line hub. It was the latest victory for the Ukrainian counteroffensive that has humiliated and angered the Kremlin. Russia’s withdrawal from Lyman complicates its...
Untested rape kits plagued Memphis long before jogger case
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Problems with rape kit evidence testing keep haunting Memphis. A city long plagued by a heavy backlog of untested sexual assault kits was shaken by Cleotha Henderson’s arrest in the killing of Eliza Fletcher after she was abducted during a morning jog last month. So when authorities...
Two prophets, century-old prayer duel inspire Illinois mosque
ZION, Illinois — A holy miracle happened in Zion 115 years ago. Or so millions of Ahmadi Muslims around the world believe. The Ahmadis view this small-sized city, 40 miles north of Chicago on the shores of Lake Michigan, as a place of special religious significance for their global messianic...
Ian leaves dozens dead as focus turns to rescue, recovery
FORT MYERS, Fla. — Dozens of Florida residents left their flooded and splintered homes by boat and by air on Saturday as rescuers continued to search for survivors in the wake of Hurricane Ian, while authorities in South Carolina and North Carolina began taking stock of their losses. The death...
Hurricane Ian shows the risks and costs of living on barrier islands
SANIBEL ISLAND, Fla. — When Hurricane Ian struck Florida’s Gulf Coast, it washed out the bottom level of David Muench’s home on the barrier island of Sanibel along with several cars, a Harley-Davidson and a boat. His parents’ house was among those destroyed by the storm that killed at least...
Pa. Supreme Court Chief Justice Max Baer, a Pittsburgh native, dies, called ‘a tireless champion for children’
Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court has been in the eye of the storm in recent years as it decided a series of hot-button issues that ranged from covid responses and reapportionment to election reform. At its center was Chief Justice Max Baer. Baer, 74, died Friday night at his home near Pittsburgh....
Explainer: A deep dive into risks for undersea cables, pipes
PARIS — Deep under water, the pipes and cables that carry the modern world’s lifeblood — energy and information — are out of sight and largely out of mind. Until, that is, something goes catastrophically wrong. The suspected sabotage this week of gas pipelines that tied Russia and Europe together...
Uvalde families make presence felt at Texas governor debate
EDINBURG, Texas — Parents of some of the 19 children killed in the Uvalde school massacre in Texas lashed out at Republican Gov. Greg Abbott over his opposition to tougher gun control on Friday before the issue was likely to take center stage in his only debate with Democratic challenger...
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson says she has ‘a seat at the table’
WASHINGTON — Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said Friday she has “a seat at the table now and I’m ready to work,” leaning into her history-making role as the first Black woman on the Supreme Court. Jackson spoke at the Library of Congress several hours after she made her first appearance...
