U.S./World category, Page 1131
Minibus bombing outside Iraq’s Karbala kills 12, injures 5
BAGHDAD — Iraqi security officials said the death toll in an explosion on a minibus Friday outside the Shiite holy city of Karbala has climbed to 12. According to the officials, five passengers were also wounded in the blast, which occurred as the bus was passing through an Iraqi army...
Hurricane Lorena nears Mexico’s resort-studded Los Cabos
CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico — Hurricane Lorena neared Mexico’s resort-studded Los Cabos area Friday as owners pulled their boats from the water, tourists hunkered down in hotels, and police and soldiers went through low-lying, low-income neighborhoods urging people to evacuate. Lorena was forecast to pass over or near the southern...
Delta pilot accused of attempting to fly under the influence of alcoholVideo
A Delta Air Lines pilot is facing charges of attempting to fly an aircraft under the influence of alcohol. Gabriel Schroeder, 37, was charged Friday over a July 30 incident when Schroeder was due to fly from Minneapolis to San Diego, KARE 11 reported. According to the complaint, officials were...
Music starts for Earthlings around Area 51 events in NevadaVideo
HIKO, Nev. — Sound checks echoed from a distant main stage while Daniel Martinez whirled and danced at dusty makeshift festival grounds just after sunset in Rachel, the Nevada town closest to the once-secret Area 51 military base. Martinez’s muse was the thumping beat from a satellite set-up pumping a...
From Australia to Europe, climate protesters hit the streetsVideo
BERLIN — Hundreds of thousands of protesters in Australia, many of them children who skipped school, kicked off a day of demonstrations around the world against climate change in the run-up to a U.N. summit in New York. Rallies to open the “Global Climate Strike” took place on Friday in...
AP Explains: Brownface part of racist face makeup history
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The scandal surrounding Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after a yearbook photo showing him in brownface at a 2001 costume party was published is bringing attention to a practice that scholars say white people have been using for years to demean minorities. In the picture, the then-29-year-old...
Missing: Nearly 3 billion birds that used to live in North America
North America has lost nearly 3 billion birds since 1970, according to a new analysis of bird survey and radar data. The sharp decline, described in a study in the journal Science, is not just bad for birds. It also bodes ill for the ecosystems those birds inhabit, and points...
Texas cops looking for man who allegedly divorced his wife without notifying her
Police in Texas say they are looking for a Houston-area man who apparently tried to weasel his way into a divorce without his wife’s knowledge. Authorities say 51-year-old Paul Nixon is wanted for forging the names of his wife and a notary on official documents in what ended up being...
More than 1,000 rescues, evacuations as Imelda soaks TexasVideo
CHINA, Texas — The slow-churning remnants of Tropical Storm Imelda dangerously flooded parts of Texas and Louisiana on Thursday, scrambling rescue crews and volunteers with boats to reach scores of stranded drivers and families trapped in their homes during a relentless downpour that drew comparisons to Hurricane Harvey two years...
UNC-Duke program too positive on Islam, Trump officials say
The Trump administration is threatening to cut funding for a Middle East studies program run by the University of North Carolina and Duke University, arguing that it’s misusing a federal grant to advance “ideological priorities” and unfairly promote “the positive aspects of Islam” but not Christianity or Judaism. An Aug....
Navy says it’s tracking, acknowledging UFOsVideo
SAN DIEGO — Strange flying objects captured on video by Navy fighter pilots off the coast of San Diego in 2004 and in Atlantic waters in 2015 were acknowledged by the Navy as “unidentified aerial phenomena” last week, the first time the service has acknowledged the objects are real. The...
House OKs measure to prevent possible end-of-month shutdown
WASHINGTON — The House has passed a short-term ending bill to prevent a federal shutdown when the budget year ends Sept. 30. The bipartisan measure, approved by a 301-123 vote, would give lawmakers until the Thanksgiving break to negotiate and pass $1.4 trillion worth of annual agency spending bills. The...
Where have the wild birds gone? 3 billion fewer than 1970
WASHINGTON — North America’s skies are lonelier and quieter as nearly 3 billion fewer wild birds soar in the air than in 1970, a comprehensive study shows. The new study focuses on the drop in sheer numbers of birds, not extinctions. The bird population in the United States and Canada...
Possible ‘Storm Area 51’ crowds worry Nevada desert towns
LAS VEGAS — Visitors descending on the remote Nevada desert for “Storm Area 51” are from Earth, not outer space. No one knows what to expect, but the two tiny towns of Rachel and Hiko near the once-secret military research site are preparing for an influx of people over the...
U.S. takes back $100M from Afghan government over corruption
KABUL, Afghanistan — Washington is taking back $100 million intended for an Afghan energy infrastructure project, citing unacceptably high levels of corruption in the Afghan government, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Thursday in a harshly worded statement. The U.S. will still finish the massive project, Pompeo said, which...
Canada’s Justin Trudeau faces furor over brownface photo from 2001
TORONTO — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s campaign moved to contain a growing scandal Thursday after a yearbook photo surfaced of him in brownface at a 2001 “Arabian Nights” costume party and two other similar incidents came to light. With the election a month away, he apologized and begged Canadians to...
Indonesian police arrest hundreds linked to forest fires
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesian police said Thursday they have arrested 230 people suspected of starting some of the fires that are spreading health-damaging haze across a large part of Southeast Asia. Among those arrested are three men who were caught Monday while trying to clear land to plant crops in...
Philippines declares new polio outbreak after 19 years
MANILA, Philippines — Philippine health officials declared a polio outbreak in the country on Thursday, nearly two decades after the World Health Organization declared it to be free of the highly contagious and potentially deadly disease. Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said at a news conference that authorities have confirmed...
1 dead, 7 injured in crash involving tour bus carrying country singer Josh Turner’s road crew
SHANDON, Calif. — Authorities in central California say a passenger bus has crashed while carrying the road crew for country and gospel singer Josh Turner, leaving one dead and seven injured. Turner and his band were not on the bus. Two of the passengers are said to have sustained major...
Iran diplomat warns of ‘all-out war’ if hit for Saudi attack
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran’s foreign minister warned Thursday that any attack on his country over a drone-and-missile strike on Saudi Arabia’s oil industry will result in “all-out war,” further pushing up tensions across the Persian Gulf. The comments by Mohammad Javad Zarif represent the starkest warning offered yet...
Belgian fighter jet crashes in France, pilot hits power line
PARIS — A Belgian F-16 fighter jet crashed Thursday in western France, damaging a house, setting a field ablaze and leaving a pilot suspended for two hours from a high-voltage electricity line after his parachute got caught, according to French authorities. Emergency workers extracted the pilot safely after cutting off...
‘A dumb thing to do’: Justin Trudeau apologizes for brownfaceVideo
TORONTO — Canadian leader Justin Trudeau’s campaign for national elections was hit Wednesday by the publication of a yearbook photo showing him in brownface makeup at a costume party in 2001. The prime minister apologized and said “it was a dumb thing to do.” Time magazine posted the photo, which...
Woman sues Jeffrey Epstein estate, saying she was abused at age 14
NEW YORK — A woman whose claims of sexual abuse against Jeffrey Epstein were outlined in a federal indictment sued his estate Wednesday, saying the wealthy financier took advantage of her family’s poor financial position to abuse her from age 14 to 17. The lawsuit in Manhattan federal court sought...
American Airlines mechanic accused of sabotaging jet may have terrorist ties, feds contendVideo
MIAMI — An American Airlines mechanic accused of sabotaging a navigation system on a flight with 150 people aboard at Miami International Airport was denied bond by a federal judge Wednesday after prosecutors suggested he may have links to a Middle East terrorist organization. Abdul-Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani, a 60-year-old...
Washington Monument reopens after 3-year closure for repairsVideo
WASHINGTON — After a three-year closure, the Washington Monument is reopening to the public. The 555-foot stone obelisk was closed in September 2016 in order to replace the aging elevator and upgrade security systems. The monument will reopen to the public at noon on Thursday, and first lady Melania Trump...
