Man arrested for damaging American jet in Honduras released
A passenger arrested in Honduras for damaging the cockpit of an American Airlines jet during boarding was released by authorities hours later. The flight scheduled to depart for Miami on Tuesday afternoon was delayed for hours until a replacement plane could be arranged. The flight arrived in Florida early Wednesday,...
Christmas tree behind Philadelphia fire that killed 12, officials confirm
PHILADELPHIA — A Christmas tree fire caused the blaze that killed 12 relatives in a Philadelphia rowhome duplex, investigators confirmed Tuesday as they identified victims and announced preliminary findings, but stopped short of officially saying a 5-year-old boy playing with a lighter was behind it. Fire Commissioner Adam Thiel hesitated...
Medicare limits coverage of $28,000-a-year Alzheimer’s drug
WASHINGTON — Medicare said Tuesday it will limit coverage of a $28,000-a-year Alzheimer’s drug whose benefits have been widely questioned, a major development in the nation’s tug-of-war over the fair value of new medicines that offer tantalizing possibilities but come with prohibitive prices. The initial determination from the Centers for...
Planners of Jan. 6 Trump rally subpoenaed by House panel
WASHINGTON — The House panel investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection issued subpoenas on Tuesday to two Republican strategists and a Trump administration official regarding their involvement in the planning and preparation of one of the rallies that preceded the attack. Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, Democratic chairman of the panel, issued...
North Carolina deputy made frantic 911 call after shooting
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — An off-duty sheriff’s deputy had a frantic conversation with a 911 operator after fatally shooting a Black man last weekend in North Carolina, saying the pedestrian did “jump on my vehicle and broke my windshield,” according to an audio recording released Tuesday. Deputy Jeffrey Hash can then...
Omicron may be headed for a rapid drop in U.S. and BritainVideo
Scientists are seeing signals that covid-19′s alarming omicron wave may have peaked in Britain and is about to do the same in the United States, at which point cases may start dropping off dramatically. The reason: The variant has proved so wildly contagious that it may already be running out...
Medical helicopter crashes near Delaware County church; all 4 aboard surviveVideo
UPPER DARBY — A pilot crash-landed a medical helicopter Tuesday without loss of life in a residential area of suburban Philadelphia, somehow avoiding a web of power lines and buildings as the aircraft fluttered, hit the street and slid into bushes outside a church, authorities and witnesses said. It was...
Police: Nurse in Italy caught faking shots, ditching vaccine
ROME — Police in Italy have arrested a nurse on charges that he faked giving coronavirus vaccinations to at least 45 people so they could get a health pass fraudulently, ditching vaccines in a bin and even putting bandages on his “patients” so no one would suspect the scam. Police...
Oklahoma death row inmates offer firing squad as alternative
OKLAHOMA CITY — Two men on Oklahoma’s death row — at the prodding of a federal judge — agreed to choose execution by firing squad as a way to delay their upcoming lethal injections, one of their attorneys told the judge. The two inmates, Donald Grant and Gilbert Postelle, want...
Justice Department creating unit focused on domestic terrorism
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is establishing a specialized unit focused on domestic terrorism, the department’s top national security official told lawmakers Tuesday as he described an “elevated” threat from violent extremists in the United States. Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, testifying just days after the nation observed the one-year...
How fleeting choices, circumstances doomed 17 in Bronx fire
NEW YORK — It started as just another January morning, the damp chill prompting a family on the third floor of a drafty Bronx apartment tower to run a space heater for extra warmth, as residents had done countless times before. In the moment, that decision hardly deserved a second...
A record 1,101 Florida manatees died in 2021. When will it end?
TAMPA, Fla. — It’s been clear for months that 2021 would be the deadliest year on record for Florida’s manatees. When the death count surpassed 1,000 in November, experts sounded the alarm, fearing the toll the winter months ahead would continue to inflict. The final death count is in —...
Tarnished Gold: Aircraft, fuel key to illegal Amazon mining
BOA VISTA, Brazil — The scorching Amazon sun beats down as a group of agents inspect the body of a black helicopter. Nearby, in the backyard of the federal police headquarters in the city of Boa Vista, sit more than twenty aircraft — all seized. Some bear signs of violent...
Pennsylvania has rules to follow for taking care of your pets in winter
Temperatures this week aren’t expected to climb out of the 20s most days. For dog owners, that means time limits on tying them outside. Under Pennsylvania’s Libre’s Law, dogs may be tied outside for no more than 30 minutes when temperatures are lower than 32 degrees (or higher than 90...
Some escapees pay bribes, cross rivers, risk lives to return to Kim Jong Un’s North Korea
SEOUL, South Korea — Not long after nightfall on New Year’s Day, a short, slight man picked a spot along one of the most heavily fortified borders in the world, a quarter-mile from the nearest platoon of soldiers, and scaled a 10-foot-tall wire fence. Warning lights flashed and an alarm...
U.S. announces $308 million in aid for Afghans as crisis grows
WASHINGTON — The White House has announced $308 million in additional humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan, offering new aid to the country as it edges toward a humanitarian crisis since the Taliban takeover nearly five months ago. White House spokesperson Emily Horne said in a statement Tuesday that the new aid...
