U.S./World category, Page 1168

LONGMONT, Colo. — National Guard troops were using specialized vehicles with tank-like treads to rescue stranded drivers in Colorado in the wake of a massive late-winter storm that was expected to unleash heavy rain and snow on the Midwest plains on Thursday. Wednesday’s blizzard caused widespread power outages, forced the...

PHOENIX — Two years after New Mexico’s largest county barred local law enforcement from cooperating with immigration authorities, its leaders learned that the policy was being subverted from within. Staff members at the Bernalillo County jail in Albuquerque were still granting immigration authorities access to its database and, in some...

LOS ANGELES — A college admissions scandal caught actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, a fashion designer, lawyers, CEOs and other wealthy families in an elaborate scheme to pay top dollar to ensure their kids got into elite universities. William “Rick” Singer, who ran a for-profit college admissions company in...

SAN FRANCISCO — Two college students have filed a lawsuit against the University of Southern California, Yale University and other colleges where prosecutors have accused rich and famous parents paying bribes to ensure their children’s admission. The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in federal court in San Francisco and alleges the...

NEW YORK — Gambino crime family boss Frank (Franky Boy) Cali was gunned down and run over Wednesday night in a gory hit in front of his Staten Island home, police sources said. Cali, 53, was shot six times in the chest, and run over by a blue pickup truck...

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysia’s government backtracked Wednesday on abolishing capital punishment, saying instead that the death penalty would no longer be mandatory for selected offenses. Rights groups slammed the reversal and urged it to reconsider. Deputy Law Minister Hanipa Maidin made the announcement in parliament but didn’t give any...

Beto O’Rourke starts a three-day trip to Iowa on Thursday, taking a first — and very high profile ◊ step into the crowded Democratic field for president, four months after narrowly losing a Texas Senate race that propelled him to national stardom. By Saturday night, the three-term congressman from El...

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles prosecutors say they won’t charge a synagogue security guard accused of shooting a person who was recording video of the building. The Los Angeles Times reports the announcement Thursday came as the woman who was shot filed a civil lawsuit against the guard and his...

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — A federal judge, citing an “unprecedented measles outbreak” in suburban Rockland County, New York, has denied a request to let 44 unvaccinated children return to school. Parents of students in the Green Meadow Waldorf School in Chestnut Ridge have sued the county health department. They say...

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A window-rattling late winter storm sent blizzards, floods and a tornado across more than 25 states Wednesday, stretching from the northern Rocky Mountains to Texas and beyond. “This is a very epic cyclone,” said Greg Carbin, chief of forecast operations for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s...

NEW YORK — More than 1,000 people packed a New York concert venue for an act that wasn’t on guitar and drums. It was Elizabeth Warren, vocalizing hard numbers. The Massachusetts Democratic senator wove data points into a stump speech that riffed on the policy proposals she’s rolled out in...

The company that has made billions selling the prescription painkiller OxyContin said Wednesday that it is considering legal options including bankruptcy, a move that could upend hundreds of lawsuits claiming it had a major role in causing the U.S. opioid drug crisis. “As the company has stated, it is exploring...

SALT LAKE CITY — Michelle Aldana gave birth to her first child chained to a hospital bed. Then serving time at the Utah state prison on a drug charge, she says she labored through the difficult 2001 birth for nearly 30 hours, her ankles bleeding as the shackles on both...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Tennessee Supreme Court on Wednesday expanded protections for reporters by ruling they can only be held libel for defamation if their reporting is not fair and accurate, regardless of their personal feelings toward a subject. Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk sued investigative reporter Phil Williams for...

WASHINGTON — Cyberattacks from Russia, China, North Korea and Iran are increasingly sophisticated and, until recently, were done with little concern for the consequences, the top Pentagon cyber leaders told a congressional committee on Wednesday. Army Gen. Paul Nakasone, head of U.S. Cyber Command, laid out the escalating threats, following...

SUZANO, Brazil — Two masked men armed with guns, knives, axes and crossbows descended on a school in southern Brazil on Wednesday, killing five students and two adults before taking their own lives, authorities said. The men, identified as former students at the school in a suburb of Sao Paulo,...

LAGOS, Nigeria — Emergency crews sifted through debris as night fell on frantic efforts to rescue scores of school children and others feared trapped inside a three-story building that collapsed Wednesday in Nigeria’s densely populated commercial capital, Lagos. At least eight people were confirmed dead and 37 others were rescued...

LONDON — British lawmakers have gone on record saying they don’t want the U.K. to leave the European Union without a divorce agreement in place, increasing the odds that Brexit won’t take place as planned at the end of the month. With an approaching deadline intensifying fears that economic and...

LOS ANGELES — Colleges and companies moved swiftly to distance themselves from employees swept up in a nationwide college admissions scheme, many of them coaches accused of taking bribes and others prominent parents accused of angling to get their children into top schools by portraying them as recruited athletes. That...

WASHINGTON — The State Department on Wednesday characterized the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi by government agents as a human rights abuse but avoided implicating Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who the CIA concluded was likely to have ordered it. In its annual human rights report of abuses in...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas lawmakers have sent the governor legislation banning most abortions 18 weeks into a woman’s pregnancy, a prohibition that could be the strictest in the country. The House on Wednesday gave final approval by an 86-1 vote to the bill, which Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson has...

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump says the U.S. is issuing an emergency order grounding all Boeing 737 Max 8 and Max 9 aircraft in the wake of a crash of an Ethiopian Airliner that killed 157 people. Many nations in the world had already barred the Boeing 737 Max 8...

JERUSALEM — An Israeli organization has minted a coin emblazoned with the face of Nikki Haley, President Donald Trump’s former ambassador to the United Nations, to commemorate her defense of Israel in the world body. The Sanhedrin, a Jewish organization that dreams of restoring the Jewish Temple, where ancient temples...

A week after disagreeing with the FDA about asbestos in three of its makeup products, girls’ fashion chain Claire’s did what the FDA wanted: issued an official recall of the three products. Claire’s pulled Eyeshadows, Compact Powder and Contour Palette from stores last week. So, this recall concerns those who...

ROME — Italy’s Justice Ministry has ordered a preliminary inquiry into an appeals court ruling that overturned a rape verdict in part by arguing that the woman who was attacked was too ugly to be a credible rape victim. The ruling has sparked outrage in Italy, prompting a flash mob...