U.S./World category, Page 1052
AP source: Barr tells people he might quit over Trump tweets
WASHINGTON — Attorney General William Barr has told people close to him he’s considering quitting his post after President Donald Trump wouldn’t heed his warning to stop tweeting about Justice Department cases, an administration official told The Associated Press. The revelation came days after Barr took a public swipe at...
Iowa man kidnaps woman, forces her to watch ‘Roots’ to ‘understand her racism’
Iowa police have charged a man with harassment and false imprisonment after they say he kidnapped a woman and forced her to watch a late 1970s miniseries about slavery. The Gazette, a Cedar Rapids, Iowa, newspaper, reports 52-year-old Robert Lee Noye was arrested Monday. According to the criminal complaint, Noye...
Homeland Security waives contracting laws for border wall
SAN DIEGO — The Trump administration said Tuesday that it is waiving federal contracting laws to speed construction of a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border, moving the president closer to fulfilling a signature campaign promise in an election year but sparking criticism about potential for fraud, waste and abuse. The...
Massachusetts state representative who sits on ethics committee charged with misusing campaign fundsVideo
BOSTON — A longtime Massachusetts state representative was charged Tuesday with using tens of thousands of dollars in campaign cash for golf club dues, casino trips and other personal expenses. David Nangle, a Democrat who sits on the House Committee on Ethics, faces federal charges including wire and bank fraud...
Death toll from toxic gas leak rises to 14 in Pakistan
KARACHI, Pakistan — A gas leak in the southern port city of Karachi has killed 14 people and sickened hundreds more, Pakistani health officials said Tuesday. The leak that started Sunday has set off a panic in Karachi and raised concerns because city officials could not immediately identify the source...
Trump commutes former Illinois Gov. Blagojevich’s sentenceVideo
CHICAGO — President Donald Trump has gone on a clemency blitz, commuting the 14-year prison sentence of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and pardoning former NYPD commissioner Bernie Kerik. Trump also says he has granted clemency to financier Michael Milken, who pleaded guilty for violating U.S. securities laws. Kerik served...
U.S. sanctions Russian oil trading firm for role in Venezuela
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration announced sanctions Tuesday on a Russian state-controlled brokerage that has helped the Venezuelan government skirt an American oil embargo and enabled President Nicolas Maduro keep his grip on power in the South American country. Administration officials said Rosneft Trading S.A. and its president, Didier Casimiro,...
Judge refuses to delay sentencing of Roger StoneVideo
WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Tuesday refused to delay sentencing for Roger Stone on his conviction for witness tampering and lying to Congress. The decision by Judge Amy Berman Jackson came after President Donald Trump tweeted in defense of his longtime ally and said Stone’s conviction “should be thrown...
S.C. authorities: Neighbor strangled missing girl, killed selfVideo
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A 6-year-old girl who disappeared from her front yard after school was strangled by a neighbor who then killed himself, authorities said Tuesday. Lexington County Coroner Margaret Fisher told reporters Tuesday that Faye Marie Swetlik died just a few hours after she was abducted. “The loss of...
1 person dead when high speed train hits car in Florida
POMPANO BEACH, Fla. — One person died Tuesday morning when a car was hit by a high speed train in South Florida, officials said. The Brightline train, which operates between Miami and West Palm Beach, struck the car at an intersection in Pompano Beach about 10:12 a.m. Tuesday, said sheriff’s...
Government troops, rebels exchange fire in eastern UkraineVideo
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine and Russia-backed separatists blamed each other for an outbreak of fighting in the country’s rebel-held east on Tuesday. Ukraine’s military said in a statement that the separatists attempted to advance into the Ukraine-controlled territory but were repelled. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy denounced the attack as a...
Woman dead in another mall shooting in Thailand
BANGKOK — Gun violence struck in a Thai shopping mall for the third time in six weeks on Tuesday when a man fatally shot a woman working at a beauty clinic in a Bangkok mall and wounded another. The motive for the shooting was believed to be jealousy, and the...
Rebel attack in eastern Congo kills 15 civilians and soldierVideo
BENI, Congo — Rebels have killed 15 civilians and a soldier in the latest overnight attack on a village in eastern Congo, a local official said Tuesday, while frightened residents fled. “They surprised the people in their homes,” the administrator of Beni territory, Donat Kasereka Kibwana, told the Associated Press,...
India builds wall along slum ahead of Trump visit
AHMEDABAD, India — A 1,640-foot brick wall has been hastily erected in India’s Gujarat state ahead of a visit by President Donald Trump, with critics saying it was built to block the view of a slum area inhabited by more than 2,000 people. “Since they are spending so much money...
Jury to begin deliberating in Harvey Weinstein’s rape trialVideo
NEW YORK — A jury is expected to begin deliberations Tuesday in Harvey Weinstein’s trial after often-emotional testimony from multiple women who accused him of sexual assault. The panel of five women and seven men will begin to weigh the evidence that Weinstein raped a woman in a Manhattan hotel...
Queen Elizabeth II’s nephew and wife agree to divorceVideo
LONDON — Queen Elizabeth II’s nephew and his wife have amicably agreed to end their marriage, the couple said in a statement. The Earl of Snowden, David Armstrong-Jones, and his wife Serena, the Countess of Snowden, agreed to separate after more than 25 years of marriage. Armstrong-Jones is the son...
Watchman sentenced to 16 years in killing of Florida tourist
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — A hotel watchman has been convicted of killing a Florida tourist staying at an Airbnb lodging in Costa Rica and was sentenced to 16 years in prison. The court in Pavas found on Monday that Bismark Espinoza Martínez had taken advantage of his position at...
Police: Mishandling of firearm leads to boy’s shooting death in Ohio
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A 12-year-old boy was fatally shot at an Ohio home in what appeared to be a tragedy involving a mishandled firearm, police said Tuesday. Columbus police said they were called to the home a few miles west of downtown on Monday evening and found the injured boy,...
Boy Scouts file for bankruptcy over sex-abuse lawsuits
Barraged by hundreds of sex-abuse lawsuits, the Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday in hopes of working out a potentially mammoth victim compensation plan that will allow the hallowed, 110-year-old organization to carry on. The Chapter 11 filing in federal bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Delaware, sets in...
Popular sex therapist from Pa. Amie Harwick killed in balcony fallVideo
A nationally known sex therapist who hails from Lansdale, Montgomery County, is dead under suspicious circumstances and her ex-boyfriend is under arrest. All this, after Dr. Amie Harwick was found on the ground beneath a third-story balcony at her home in the Hollywood Hills with injuries consistent with a fall...
New York prosecutors mulling more charges against Giuliani associates
NEW YORK — Rudy Giuliani may not be out of the woods yet. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are considering more charges against criminally indicted associates of the former New York mayor in connection with a company that gave him a lucrative business deal, according to a report Monday. The charges...
Ball State professor suspended for calling police on black studentVideo
MUNCIE, Ind. — A white professor at an Indiana university who called police to his classroom after a black student refused to change seats will not be teaching for the remainder of the semester, the school said in a written statement. No formal charges or disciplinary action was immediately taken...
Inmate death at Ohio prison being investigated as homicide
LONDON, Ohio — The weekend death of an inmate at an Ohio prison is being investigated as a homicide. Robert Leach Jr., 23, died after “an incident” midday Saturday at Madison Correctional Institution, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction confirmed by email Monday. Spokeswoman JoEllen Smith...
U.S. House Speaker Pelosi warns allies against using HuaweiVideo
BRUSSELS — No NATO ally should succumb to the temptation of letting Chinese tech giant Huawei into their next-generation cellular networks, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday at Allied headquarters, turning U.S. opposition to Huawei into a bipartisan effort. Pelosi said the invasion of privacy that would result from...
U.S. judge dismisses lawsuit over transgender pronoun dispute
PORTSMOUTH, Ohio — A judge dismissed a professor’s lawsuit against a small, public university in Ohio that rebuked him for not addressing a transgender student using the student’s preferred gender terms. Nicholas Meriwether’s federal lawsuit alleged that Shawnee State University officials violated his rights by compelling him to speak in...
