U.S./World category, Page 1081
Australian cities snuffing fireworks as fire danger worsens
PERTH, Australia — New Year’s Eve fireworks in Australia’s capital city have been canceled as the wildfire danger worsens in oppressive summer heat, and pressure was building Monday for Sydney’s iconic celebrations to be similarly scrapped. Temperatures on Tuesday were set to hit 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the capital, Canberra,...
NTSB: Poor condition of Louisiana wreckage will slow plane crash probe
The lack of a distress call and flight data recorder coupled with mangled and charred wreckage will make finding the cause of a fiery airplane crash in Louisiana extremely challenging, federal officials said Sunday. National Transportation Safety Board Vice Chairman Bruce Landsberg said at a news conference that it could...
U.S. Rep John Lewis of Georgia says he has pancreatic cancer
ATLANTA — Congressman John Lewis of Georgia announced Sunday that he has stage IV pancreatic cancer, vowing he will stay in office and fight the disease with the tenacity with which he fought racial discrimination and other inequalities dating to the civil rights era. Lewis, the youngest and last survivor...
Taliban council agrees to cease-fire in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban’s ruling council agreed Sunday to a temporary cease-fire in Afghanistan, providing a window in which a peace agreement with the United States can be signed, officials from the insurgent group said. They didn’t say when it would begin. A cease-fire had been demanded by Washington...
2 dead, 1 hurt in shooting at church near Fort Worth, Texas
WHITE SETTLEMENT, Texas — Congregants shot and killed a man who opened fire in a church near Fort Worth, Texas, on Sunday, killing the attacker, police said. A person shot by the suspect also died and a second parishioner has life-threatening injuries following the attack at the West Freeway Church...
5 stabbed at rabbi’s house on Hanukkah; suspect arraigned
MONSEY, N.Y. — A knife-wielding man stormed into a rabbi’s home and stabbed five people as they celebrated Hanukkah in an Orthodox Jewish community north of New York City, an ambush the governor said Sunday was an act of domestic terrorism fueled by intolerance and a “cancer” of growing hatred...
Officials confirm no survivors from Hawaii helicopter crash
HONOLULU — There were no survivors of a Hawaii tour helicopter crash that killed three minors and four adults, officials confirmed Saturday. A helicopter that was set to tour the rugged Na Pali Coast, the picturesque and remote northern shoreline of Kauai that was featured in the film “Jurassic Park,”...
A silent worship revival at an Episcopal church for the deaf
NEW YORK — The Lord’s Prayer ended with the bang of dozens of fists that landed on open palms after a circular motion and a thumbs up in a joint “Amen!” Not a voice could be heard inside the cavernous sanctuary of Holyrood Episcopal Church-Iglesia Santa Cruz in Manhattan. There...
Hundreds of accused clergy left off church’s sex abuse lists
Richard J. Poster served time for possessing child pornography, violated his probation by having contact with children, admitted masturbating in the bushes near a church school and in 2005 was put on a sex offender registry. And yet the former Catholic priest was only just this month added to a...
6 men become 1st to cross perilous Drake Passage unassisted
LOS ANGELES — As freezing water thrashed their rowboat in some of the most treacherous waters in the world, six men fought for 13 days to make history, becoming the first people to traverse the infamous Drake Passage with nothing other than sheer manpower. They dodged icebergs, held their breaths...
NYC surpasses 300 killings 3 years after modern-era low
NEW YORK — New York City’s annual homicide total has surpassed 300 for the first time since 2016, fueled by pockets of gang violence, a pair of quadruple killings and an unusual number of bookkeeping adjustments. Through Dec. 22, the city has tallied 311 homicides, compared with 290 at the...
Doctor charged in 25 deaths sues hospital for defamation
COLUMBUS, Ohio — An Ohio doctor accused of ordering drug overdoses in the deaths of 25 hospital patients has sued his former employer for defamation, saying in a lawsuit that he did nothing wrong and did not deviate from hospital policy on end-of-life care. Dr. William Husel, who is accused...
Plane crash kills 5, including LSU coach’s daughter-in-law
ATLANTA — A small plane en route to a college football playoff game crashed into a post office parking lot in Louisiana shortly after takeoff Saturday, killing five people, including a well-known sports reporter who was the daughter-in-law of one of the team’s coaches. The two-engine Piper Cheyenne crashed in...
US astronaut sets record for longest spaceflight by a woman
A U.S. astronaut set a record Saturday for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, breaking the old mark of 288 days with about two months left in her mission. Christina Koch, a 40-year-old electrical engineer from Livingston, Montana, arrived at the International Space Station on March 14. She broke...
Jim Beam fined in massive bourbon spill that killed fish
VERSAILLES, Ky. — Jim Beam was fined $600,000 earlier this month after a July warehouse fire sent a nearly 23-mile plume of alcohol into the Kentucky and Ohio rivers, killing fish. The distiller agreed to the fine in a Dec. 6 order from the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet, The...
Science teachers, students get Times Square New Year’s stage
NEW YORK — This year’s New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square will spotlight efforts to combat climate change when high school science teachers and students press the button that begins the famous 60-second ball drop and countdown to next year. “On New Year’s Eve, we look back and reflect...
NYC man, 60, dies after beating in $1 Christmas Eve mugging
NEW YORK (AP) — A 60-year-old man who was kicked and punched while defending his partner during a $1 mugging on Christmas Eve has died. Juan Fresnada died Friday afternoon at the Bronx hospital where he was taken in critical condition after the mugging early Tuesday, the New York Police...
Video: Tractor trailer narrowly misses crushing several first responders at Texas highway pileupVideo
Talk about a near miss. A tractor trailer narrowly missed crushing several first responders at the scene of a major pileup on Highway 84 in Lubbock County, Texas on Friday. Video captured by NBC-affiliate KCBD, which happened to be on the scene, shows crew wearing neon vests scrambling for their...
Texas sheriff: 2 dead, multiple shot in music video ‘ambush’
HOUSTON — Two people were shot and killed and multiple others were wounded when a group filming a music video was “ambushed” near Houston, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said. After holding a media briefing in which he said two people were killed and four wounded, Gonzalez in a tweet...
US judge calls for retrial of 1 count in Texas attack
PHOENIX — A U.S. judge refused to toss out the entire case against a Phoenix man convicted of providing guns and training two friends who attacked a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest outside Dallas but said he should be retried on a a single count of transporting weapons across state lines....
Man who made 27,000 crosses for shooting victims is retiring
AURORA, Ill. — An Illinois man who made more than 27,000 crosses to commemorate victims of mass shootings across the country is retiring. Greg Zanis came to realize, after 23 years, his Crosses for Losses ministry was beginning to take a personal and financial toll on him, according to The...
DJ Don Imus, made and betrayed by his mouth, dead at 79
COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Disc jockey Don Imus, whose career was made and then undone by his acid tongue during a decades-long rise to radio stardom and an abrupt public plunge after a nationally broadcast racial slur, has died. He was 79. Imus died Friday morning at Baylor Scott and...
Prosecutors in day spa prostitution sting turn up the heat on Patriots owner Robert Kraft
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Florida prosecutors just raised the stakes in New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s fight against prostitution charges. It’s been nearly a year since the 78-year-old part-time Palm Beach resident paid for sex acts at a Jupiter massage parlor likened to a brothel. But now lawyers for...
Tina Turner mural defaced at North Carolina record store
ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Employees at a record store in North Carolina say a mural of pop star Tina Turner has been defaced with a red swastika. The Citizen Times reported Thursday that the mural is outside Static Age Records in downtown Asheville. Store owner Jesse McSwain said someone unconnected to...
About a dozen hurt in blast at Beechcraft plant in Kansas
WICHITA, Kan. — More than a dozen people were injured Friday when a nitrogen line ruptured at the Beechcraft aircraft manufacturing facility in Wichita, Kansas, causing part of the building to collapse, authorities said. Daniel Wegner, deputy fire chief for Sedgwick County, said the explosion happened at around 8 a.m....
