U.S./World category, Page 1055
Queen’s grandson Peter Phillips and wife Autumn to divorceVideo
LONDON — Peter Phillips, the eldest grandson of Queen Elizabeth II, and his wife Autumn are divorcing after 12 years of marriage. The couple said in a statement Tuesday that the separation was sad but amicable. They plan to share custody of daughters Savannah, 9 and Isla, 7. The 42-year-old...
Budgets boost plans to deepen Mississippi River in Louisiana
WASHINGTON — The Army Corps of Engineers plans to spend more than $85 million this year on a project to deepen the main channel of the Mississippi River in Louisiana. U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana announced the funding in a news release Monday. It comes after the Corps endorsed...
EU official rejects Johnson’s idea of loose U.K. trade deal
BRUSSELS — The European Union will only offer Britain unique access to its vast single market if the U.K. agrees to stick to the bloc’s standards, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Tuesday, dismissing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s idea of brokering a loose trade deal with the...
Head of German Catholics says he’ll step down at end of term
BERLIN — The Roman Catholic cardinal who leads the German Bishops’ Conference said Tuesday he plans to step down at the end of his term in March. Cardinal Reinhard Marx, 66, said in a letter to fellow bishops in Germany that he would not seek a second term leading the...
Legal sportsbooks in U.S. take $13 billion in action in 2019; Pa. 3rd with $1.5B
Last year marked the first full year of legal sports betting in the United States, and Pennsylvania was one of just three states to take in more than $1 billion in wagers in 2019, according to the American Gaming Association. Pennsylvania was one of the first states to launch legal...
Pentagon: 109 troops suffer brain injuries from Iran strike
WASHINGTON — The number of U.S. service members diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries has shot up to more than 100, the Pentagon said Monday, as more troops suffer the aftereffects of the Iranian ballistic missile attack early last month in Iraq. The department said the latest total is 109 military...
Feds seek 7 to 9 years in prison for Trump ally Roger Stone
WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors are asking a judge to sentence President Donald Trump’s Trump confidant Roger Stone to serve between 7 and 9 years in prison after his conviction on witness tampering and obstruction charges. Stone, who is scheduled to be sentenced next week, was convicted in November of a...
Cruise ship infections nearly double as China virus deaths spike
BEIJING — The number of people infected on a cruise ship south of Tokyo with a new strain of coronavirus almost doubled Monday, as authorities in China and beyond pursued greater quarantine measures to contain the disease. Deaths from the new coronavirus have hit 909, the Chinese government announced, with...
Guilty plea in Louisiana to federal charges in black church burnings
LAFAYETTE, La. — The aspiring ‘black metal’ musician who was arrested in a series of fires set at African American churches in Louisiana last spring pleaded guilty Monday to federal and state criminal charges. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release that Holden Matthews pleaded guilty to three...
Amazon wants to question Trump over losing $10B contract bidVideo
Amazon wants President Donald Trump to submit to questioning over the tech company’s losing bid for a $10 billion military contract. The Pentagon awarded the cloud computing project to Microsoft in October. Amazon later sued, arguing that Trump’s interference and bias against the company harmed Amazon’s chances. Amazon was considered...
Florida man who drove van at GOP voter sign-up worked as stagehandVideo
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A man charged with driving a van into a tent where local Republicans were registering voters worked as a stagehand and had lived in northeast Florida for two years, according to jail records and an arrest report. Gregory Timm, 27, had been referred work through the local...
Police: 3 people shot at Walmart in eastern Arkansas
FORREST CITY, Ark. — At least three people were shot Monday morning at a Walmart in eastern Arkansas, police said. The shooting was reported mid-morning in Forrest City, a dispatcher with the Forrest City Police Department told the Associated Press. Forrest City Police dispatcher Chastity Boyd told the Associated Press...
U.K. looks at building bridge linking Scotland, Northern Ireland
LONDON — The British government said Monday it is seriously studying the feasibility of a bridge between Scotland and Northern Ireland, an audacious idea that has been floated by Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Johnson’s spokesman, James Slack, said the proposal was being taken seriously and “a range of officials” were...
Lawsuit: TSA agent purposely groped woman at N.C. airport
ASHEVILLE, N.C. — A woman says in a lawsuit that a security screener at a North Carolina airport intentionally groped her. The lawsuit was filed Feb. 4 in federal court against the U.S. government as well as the female Transportation Security Administration agent. The lawsuit says the passenger was screened...
Michigan police fatally shoot man who stabbed police dog
SAGINAW, Mich. — Police officers fatally shot a man who stabbed a police dog in the head during a hostage situation at a home in a mid-Michigan city, law enforcement officials said. Officers in Saginaw were responding to a reported domestic disturbance that became a hostage situation at the house...
South Sudan’s leader wins dubious ‘spoiler of peace’ awardVideo
KAMPALA, Uganda — South Sudan President Salva Kiir on Monday was named the top “spoiler of peace” in a new award that seeks to shame him and others into taking serious steps to end bloody conflict in the world’s youngest country. Kiir and rival leader Riek Machar are under growing...
Chinese military stole masses of Americans’ data, U.S. says
WASHINGTON — Four members of the Chinese military have been charged with breaking into the networks of the Equifax credit reporting agency and stealing the personal information of tens of millions of Americans, the Justice Department said Monday, blaming Beijing for one of the largest hacks in history to target...
Russia: Youth group members found guilty of plotting attacks
MOSCOW — A Russian military court convicted seven members of a left-wing youth group of terrorism charges Monday and sentenced them to prison terms ranging from six to 18 years, in a case that human rights groups called fabricated. A three-judge panel of the court in Penza in western Russia...
Oh deer!: Man gets trampled in North Carolina parking lotVideo
LOCUST, N.C. — A suspect escaped from a hit and run in a North Carolina McDonald’s parking lot last month. But police aren’t looking for who’s responsible. Ken Worthy was leaving the restaurant in Locust with his wife and a Diet Coke in hand, when he saw something approaching him,...
5 Turkish troops killed in clashes with Syrian armyVideo
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey said it hit back at Syrian government forces on Monday, after “intense” Syrian shelling killed five of its soldiers and wounded five others in Syria’s northern Idlib province. The fighting in Idlib led to the collapse of a fragile cease-fire that was brokered by Turkey and...
More than 450 civilians killed in central Mali last year
DAKAR, Senegal — Islamic militants and ethnic-based militias killed more than 450 civilians in central Mali last year, making it the deadliest year in the region since the country’s crisis began in 2012, Human Rights Watch said in a new report Monday. Militants have even begun pulling men off of...
Death toll rises as storm moves eastwards across Europe
BERLIN — A strong winter storm that has battered Europe with hurricane-force winds and heavy rains has killed several people and caused severe travel disruption on Monday. There were reports of deaths directly linked to the storm with three drivers, one in the southwest of the Czech Republic, one in...
U.K. calls virus ‘serious’ health threat; will detain peopleVideo
LONDON — Britain has declared the new coronavirus that emerged from China a “serious and imminent threat to public health” and announced new measures Monday to combat the spread of the disease. The U.K. Department of Health and Social Care said people with the virus can now be forcibly quarantined...
German leader Merkel’s party in crisis as successor quits
BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s designated successor unexpectedly threw in the towel Monday, plunging her conservative party into deeper crisis as it struggles to agree on its future political direction after losing votes to the far right. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer told leading members of the Christian Democratic Union that she...
Puerto Rico governor rejects new deal to cut debt by 70%
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Officials announced a settlement late Sunday with bondholders that would reduce Puerto Rico’s public debt by 70%, but the U.S. territory’s governor swiftly rejected it, saying it puts too heavy a burden on the island’s retirees. The settlement is the biggest one to date since...
