At least 20 dead in South African club; cause not yet known
JOHANNESBURG — South African police are investigating the deaths of at least 20 people early Sunday at a nightclub in the coastal town of East London. It is unclear what led to the deaths of the young people, who were reportedly attending a party to celebrate the end of winter...
Ex-Minneapolis officer who killed 911 caller to be released
MINNEAPOLIS — The former Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot an unarmed woman who called 911 to report a possible sexual assault in the alley behind her home is scheduled to be released from prison next week, months after his murder conviction was overturned and he was resentenced on a...
Ghislaine Maxwell placed on suicide watch before sentencing
Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite convicted of sex trafficking with former boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein, has been put on suicide watch at the jail in Brooklyn where she’s been since her July 2020 arrest, her lawyer said. Bobbi Sternheim, a lawyer for Maxwell, said in a letter to the judge slated...
Poll: Majority of Americans disapprove of Supreme Court’s Roe decisionVideo
WASHINGTON — A CBS News poll found that a majority of Americans disapprove of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision overturning the constitutional right to an abortion, which is inflaming a partisan divide on display in comments by senior lawmakers. The poll, conducted Friday and Saturday, found 59% disapproved of the...
Biden urges Western unity on Ukraine amid war fatigue
ELMAU, Germany — President Joe Biden and western allies opened a three-day summit in the Bavarian Alps on Sunday intent on keeping economic fallout from the war in Ukraine from fracturing the global coalition working to punish Russia’s aggression. Britain’s Boris Johnson warned the leaders not to give in to...
A ‘sucker punch’: Some women fear setback to hard-won rights
At 88, Gloria Steinem has long been the nation’s most visible feminist and advocate for women’s rights. But at 22, she was a frightened American in London getting an illegal abortion of a pregnancy so unwanted, she actually tried to throw herself down the stairs to end it. Her response...
As Senate-confirmed justices end Roe, how will voters react?
WASHINGTON— The end of Roe v. Wade started in the Senate. It was the Senate Republican partnership with President Donald Trump to confirm conservative judges, and transform the federal judiciary, that paved the way for the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling to overturn the constitutional right to abortion. Senate Republican leader...
Pride parades march on with new urgency across U.S.
NEW YORK — Parades celebrating LGBTQ pride kick off in some of America’s biggest cities Sunday amid new fears about the potential erosion of freedoms won through decades of activism. The annual marches in New York, San Francisco, Chicago and elsewhere take place just two days after one conservative justice...
Russia fires missiles across Ukraine, cements gains in east
KYIV, Ukraine — Russian forces are seeking to swallow-up the last remaining Ukrainian stronghold in the eastern Luhansk region, the governor said Saturday, while pressing their momentum following the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the charred ruins of Sievierodonetsk. Russia also launched dozens of missiles on several areas across the...
Milan to turn off fountain spigots as drought bakes Italy
MILAN — The mayor of Milan signed an ordinance Saturday turning off the spigots of public decorative fountains and the city’s archbishop prayed for rain in a tour of churches as northern Italy endures one of its worst droughts in decades. The city ordinance follows the declaration Friday of a...
What GOP-named justices had said about Roe to Senate panel
WASHINGTON — The nine justices of the Supreme Court, in a landmark ruling Friday, made clear their views on abortion, with the conservative majority overturning the Roe v. Wade decision from 1973 and stripping away women’s constitutional protections for abortion. The vote was 6-3 to uphold Mississippi’s law banning most...
3 wounded, suspect arrested in Illinois warehouse shooting
BOLINGBROOK, Ill. — Three people were wounded and one person was arrested following a shooting Saturday at an automotive interior products warehouse in suburban Chicago. Bolingbrook police responded about 6:25 a.m. to reports of the shooting at the WeatherTech facility, Capt. Anthony Columbus told WLS-TV. The suspected shooter fled the...
Religious schools may face another hurdle to state tuition
AUGUSTA, Maine — Religious schools got what they wanted when the Supreme Court allowed them to participate in a state tuition program. But the state attorney general said the ruling will be for naught unless the schools are willing to abide by the same antidiscrimination law as other private schools...
Gunman’s act kills 2, injures over 20 at Oslo Pride fest; terror suspected
OSLO, Norway — A gunman opened fire in Oslo’s nightlife district early Saturday, killing two people and leaving more than 20 wounded in what the Norwegian security service called an “Islamist terror act” during the capital’s annual LGBTQ Pride festival. Investigators said the suspect, identified as a 42-year-old Norwegian citizen...
Pfizer says tweaked covid-19 shots boost omicron protection
Pfizer announced Saturday that tweaking its covid-19 vaccine to better target the omicron variant is safe and works — just days before regulators debate whether to offer Americans updated booster shots this fall. The vaccines currently used in the U.S. still offer strong protection against severe covid-19 disease and death...
To some defenders, gun ruling could right a racial wrong
NEW YORK — When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down New York’s tight restrictions on who can carry a handgun, condemnation erupted from liberal leaders and activists. But some public defenders, often allies of progressive activists, praised the court’s ruling, saying gun-permitting rules like New York’s have long been a...
Police at Arizona Capitol fire tear gas, disperse protesters
PHOENIX — Police fired tear gas to disperse anti-abortion demonstrators from outside the Arizona Capitol on Friday night, forcing lawmakers to huddle briefly in a basement inside the building as they rushed to complete their 2022 session. Thousands of protesters had gathered earlier on the Capitol grounds in Phoenix, divided...
Biden signs landmark gun measure, says ‘lives will be saved’
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Saturday signed the most sweeping gun violence bill in decades, a bipartisan compromise that seemed unimaginable until a recent series of mass shootings, including the massacre of 19 students and two teachers at a Texas elementary school. “Lives will be saved,” he said at...
Aftershock in Afghanistan as quake toll rises to 1,150 dead
GAYAN, Afghanistan — Tents, food and medical supplies rolled into the mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan where thousands were left homeless or injured by this week’s powerful earthquake, which state media said killed 1,150 people. An aftershock Friday took five more lives and deepened the misery. Among the dead from...
Wisconsin doctors halt abortions following court ruling
MADISON, Wis. — Doctors across Wisconsin immediately stopped providing abortions on Friday, turning away women in waiting rooms and calling to cancel pending appointments following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling striking down its Roe v. Wade decision. The immediate halt to abortions came even as questions remained about the enforceability...
With Roe over, some fear rollback of LGBTQ and other rights
TOPEKA, Kan. — The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision allowing states to ban abortion stirred alarm Friday among LGBTQ advocates, who feared that the ruling could someday allow a rollback of legal protections for gay relationships, including the right for same-sex couples to marry. In the court’s majority opinion overturning the...
North Korea ratchets up tensions amid nuclear buildup
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un doubled down on his nuclear arms buildup to overwhelm “hostile forces” at a key meeting where military leaders approved unspecified new operational duties for front-line army units. Members of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Military Commission decided to supplement an...
ABORTION DECISION: The ruling, the reaction, the future
On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court ended constitutional protections for abortion. The 6-3 ruling puts the issue back in the hands of states for the first time in nearly 50 years. The court’s conservative majority overturned the 1973 case of Roe v. Wade and 1992’s Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The...
After Roe, Dems seek probe of tech’s use of personal data
WASHINGTON — With the Supreme Court ending the constitutional protections for abortion, four Democratic lawmakers are asking federal regulators to investigate Apple and Google for allegedly deceiving millions of mobile phone users by enabling the collection and sale of their personal data to third parties. The decision Friday by the...
Idaho will ban most abortions after U.S. Supreme Court ruling
BOISE, Idaho — The overturning of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court with a 6-3 vote on Friday triggers a 2020 Idaho law banning all abortions except in cases of reported rape or incest, or to protect the mother’s life. That law takes effect 30 days after the...