U.S./World category, Page 1185

VATICAN CITY — The organizers of Pope Francis’ summit on preventing clergy sex abuse will meet this week with a dozen abuse victims who have descended on Rome to protest the Catholic Church’s response to the crisis and demand an end to decades of cover-up by church leaders, officials said...

A Florida student is facing misdemeanor charges after a confrontation with a teacher that began with his refusal to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and escalated into what officials described as disruptive behavior. The student, a sixth-grader at Lawton Chiles Middle Academy in Lakeland, Florida, east of Tampa, refused to...

A man is dead after apparently catching fire inside a portable toilet in a parking lot outside M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. The Baltimore City Fire Department reported on social media that three of the bathrooms units were engulfed in flames. BCFD on scene in the 1100blk of Russell St....

WASHINGTON — In the nation’s capital, it can be hard for protesters to stand out. Fifty people — or even 500 — holding signs and shouting hardly merits a second glance in this city of protests. That’s why Washington activists have to get creative. There’s an ethos of performative prankster-style...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The ecstatic sailor shown kissing a woman in Times Square celebrating the end of World War II has died. George Mendonsa was 95. Mendonsa’s daughter, Sharon Molleur, told The Providence Journal Mendonsa fell and had a seizure Sunday at the assisted living facility in Middletown, Rhode Island,...

NEW YORK — New York City doesn’t want people to have their hairstyles held against them, and it has unveiled novel anti-discrimination guidelines. The city Human Rights Commission released the guidelines Monday. The New York Times first reported the guidelines and says they’re believed to be the first such measures...

AYER, Mass. — Disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner has been released from federal prison after being convicted of having illicit online contact with a 15-year-old girl in 2017. The Federal Bureau of Prisons website shows the 54-year-old New York Democrat is currently in the custody of its Residential Re-entry Management...

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A mistake in writing up an Ohio bill could inadvertently ban several types of already legal guns and must be fixed quickly, gun rights advocates say. At issue is legislation approved by lawmakers last year that allows off-duty police officers to carry firearms and phases in pre-emption...

CHICAGO — Chicago police said Sunday they’re still seeking a follow-up interview with Jussie Smollett after receiving new information that “shifted” their investigation of a reported attack on the “Empire” actor. The trajectory of the investigation “shifted” after detectives questioned two brothers about the attack and released them late Friday...

AURORA, Ill. — An initial background check failed to detect a felony conviction that should have barred the man who killed five co-workers and wounded six others at a suburban Chicago manufacturing plant from buying the gun. Months later, a second background check of Gary Martin found his 1995 aggravated...

BAGHOUZ, Syria — From a self-proclaimed caliphate that once spread across much of Syria and Iraq, the Islamic State group has been knocked back to a speck of land on the countries’ shared border. In that tiny patch on the banks of the Euphrates River, hundreds of militants are hiding...

AUGUSTA, Maine — Documents obtained by a Maine newspaper show the state’s former Republican governor and his staff spent at least $22,000 in public money at a hotel owned by the family of President Trump. The Portland Press Herald reports Sunday that former Gov. Paul LePage and staff paid for...

In what could be a defining moment for his papacy, more than 100 top Catholic bishops from around the world will travel to the Vatican Rome this week for a conference aimed at dealing with the issue of clergy sex abuse. Pope Francis is the first church leader to convene...

NEW YORK — Drums, dragons and dancers paraded through New York’s Chinatown on Sunday to usher in the Year of the Pig in the metropolis with the biggest population of Chinese descent of any city outside Asia. Confetti and spectators a half-dozen or more deep at points lined the route...

HESPERIA, Calif. — Firefighters have rescued a very big cat — a mountain lion — from a tree outside a home in the Southern California desert. The homeowner called authorities Saturday after spotting the animal near the edge of the San Bernardino Mountains. San Bernardino County firefighters found the large...

CUCUTA, Colombia — U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio is warning Venezuelan soldiers that they would commit a “crime against humanity” if they block the entry of U.S. aid that is being channeled through rivals of socialist President Nicolas Maduro. The Florida Republican on Sunday visited the border town of Cucuta, where...

KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban has postponed an unscheduled round of peace talks with the United States set for Monday in Pakistan saying “most” members of their negotiating team are unable to travel because they’re on the U.S. and United Nations’ blacklists. The statement Sunday offered no other details. It...

NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. — Some work-release inmates made a Valentine’s Day rescue when a Florida couple accidentally locked their baby inside their SUV. Pasco County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Kevin Doll told WFLA-TV the parents could not afford a locksmith, and the father intended to break a window. That’s when...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A top adviser to President Donald Trump indicated Sunday that Trump is prepared to issue the first veto of his term if Congress votes to disapprove of his declaration of a national emergency along the U.S.-Mexico border. The West Wing is digging in for fights...

OREGON, Ohio — A fire continues to burn inside a Lake Erie docked vessel as Ohio firefighters try to cool the ship in an incident with no injuries. The fire broke out on the deck of the St. Clair Saturday night at the Port of Toledo in northern Ohio. The...

MUNICH — An annual security conference where Western allies have long forged united fronts erupted Saturday into a full-scale assault on the Trump administration’s foreign policy. European leaders, would-be Democratic challengers and even the president’s Republican backers took the floor to rebuke the president’s go-it-alone approach. German Chancellor Angela Merkel...

ORLANDO, Fla. — A Florida firefighter fired for a positive drug test got his job back after arguing the cocaine in his system was from a tea made with coca leaves. The Orlando Sentinel reports that public records show firefighter Kevin Reynolds told investigators he brought a box of coca...

Filing your taxes involves the honor system. You fill in all your data and sign your name promising that everything is true. If you asked for one, the government then sends you a refund. Eventually things get reviewed, verified and, supposedly, settled up. A Tampa man put the system to...

COLUMBIA, S.C. — When he took the job 15 years ago, Horry County Emergency Manager Randy Webster figured his biggest disasters would be wind and surge rolling over his county’s beaches, South Carolina’s top tourist destination. Instead, his worries have shifted inland, where rivers overflowing their banks have caused two...

NEW YORK — Police arrested a man Friday suspected of being the lookout during a robbery that led to the friendly fire death of a New York City police detective, an official briefed on the investigation told The Associated Press. The man was taken into custody in Queens hours after...