U.S./World category, Page 1204
‘Guardian angel’ pigeon gets driver out of speeding ticket
Police in western Germany say divine intervention saved a speeding driver from getting a ticket, after a pigeon photobombed a traffic enforcement camera at just the right moment. Perhaps inspired by this week’s Ascension Day national Christian holiday, Viersen police said “the Holy Ghost must have had a plan” to...
This date in history: Ian Fleming, Phil Hartman and California baseball
The Dionne quintuplets, Ian Fleming, Phil Hartman and California baseball all made news on this date in history....
Man traveling from Colombia ingests 246 bags of cocaine, dies midflight
A passenger of Japanese origin died midflight from Colombia to Japan after ingesting hundreds of bags of cocaine, authorities said. The man, identified only as Udo N., 42, began suffering seizures Friday on the flight, prompting an emergency landing in Hermosillo, a city in Sonora, Mexico, authorities said. Upon landing,...
Service members wear ‘Make Aircrew Great Again’ patches at Trump rally
President Donald Trump visited service members abroad the USS Wasp docked in Japan on Tuesday at the end of his 4-day trip to the country. He wished “Happy Memorial Day” to 1,000 sailors and Marines and service members from other branches at the address. “I have to wish you all...
Chicago officer recorded asking teen for sex is fired
CHICAGO — A Chicago police officer who allegedly asked a 17-year-old girl for sex in return for getting her mother’s impounded car released by the city has been fired. The Chicago Tribune reports that the city’s police board agreed with Superintendent Eddie Johnson’s recommendation to fire Officer Darius Alexander in...
Michigan State chooses Stony Brook president as next leader
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Dr. Samuel Stanley Jr., a medical researcher who has led Stony Brook University in New York for nearly a decade, was named Tuesday as the next president of Michigan State University in the wake of the most extensive sexual abuse scandal in sports history. Stanley was...
MacKenzie Bezos pledges half her fortune to charity
NEW YORK — MacKenzie Bezos, who finalized her divorce from Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos earlier this year, is pledging to give away half her fortune to charity. The novelist said Tuesday that she signed The Giving Pledge, a campaign to get the ultra-wealthy to pledge at least half...
Court details woman’s spending spree: $20M at Harrods, $38K on chocolates
LONDON — Court documents reveal that a woman suspected by British authorities of having ill-gotten wealth spent $760,000 in one day at upmarket department store Harrods and once forked out $38,000 on chocolates. Zamira Hajiyeva is the first person subject to an Unexplained Wealth Order, which allows British authorities to...
Supreme Court upholds Indiana abortion law on fetal remains
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court is upholding an Indiana law that requires abortion providers to dispose of aborted fetuses in the same way as human remains. But the justices are staying out of the debate over a broader, blocked provision that would prevent a woman in Indiana from having an...
Heat forces South Carolina bridge to close for several hours
SULLIVANS ISLAND, S.C. — The extreme heat that’s been scorching the Deep South prompted the closure of a swinging bridge to a South Carolina beach town for several hours. The state Department of Transportation says the heat caused the steel in the Ben Sawyer Bridge to Sullivans Island to expand,...
‘Unacceptable state of affairs’ as at least 42 shot in Chicago over Memorial Day weekend
CHICAGO — At least 42 people were shot, five fatally, in Chicago over the Memorial Day weekend even as severe storms kept people indoors and 1,200 extra officers patrolled the streets. The toll was slightly higher than last year’s Memorial Day weekend, when 39 people were shot, seven of them...
While you’re sleeping, your iPhone stays busy
It’s 3 a.m. Do you know what your iPhone is doing? Mine has been alarmingly busy. Even though the screen is off and I’m snoring, apps are beaming out lots of information about me to companies I’ve never heard of. Your iPhone probably is doing the same - and Apple...
Commentary: UFOs exist, and everyone needs to adjust to that fact
The term “UFO” automatically triggers derision in most quarters of polite society. One of Christopher Buckley’s better satires, “Little Green Men,” is premised on a George F. Will-type pundit thinking that he has been abducted by aliens, with amusing results. UFOs have historically been associated with crackpot ideas like Big...
Is climate change to blame for booming tick population? Will diseases increase?
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports the number of tick-borne diseases is increasing at a record pace while the geographic range of ticks continues to expand. Lyme disease is the most commonly-known tick-borne disease, but other diseases, such as ehrlichiosis and STARI, have been discovered and the...
Thousands of kindergartners unvaccinated without waivers
COLUMBUS, Ohio — States are heatedly debating whether to make it more difficult for students to avoid vaccinations for religious or philosophical reasons amid the worst measles outbreak in decades, but schoolchildren using such waivers are outnumbered in many states by those who give no excuse at all for lacking...
Normandy tries to keep alive ‘infinite gratitude’ for D-Day
SAINTE-MERE-EGLISE, France — At 10 years old, Henri-Jean Renaud watched U.S. paratroopers landing through the window of his Normandy home in the early hours of D-Day. Like other French who lived through the war, he’s trying to pass on to younger generations the gratitude he feels. With fewer veterans and...
Trump wishes ‘happy Memorial Day’ to U.S., Japanese troops
ABOARD THE USS WASP — President Donald Trump on Tuesday wished “Happy Memorial Day” to U.S. service members aboard an American assault ship docked in Japan. They shouted “U.S.A. U.S.A.” Trump called them a “tough bunch of people” and dubbed them “daring and mighty warriors in the Pacific.” The president...
Overnight Ohio tornadoes leave trail of destruction
BROOKVILLE, Ohio — A rapid-fire line of apparent tornadoes tore across Indiana and Ohio overnight, packed so closely together that one crossed the path carved by another. There were no immediate reports of any deaths or serious injuries in the twisters, among 52 tornadoes that may have touched down Monday...
Judge rules attacker of Brazil’s Bolsonaro is mentally ill
RIO DE JANEIRO — A Brazilian judge ruled Monday that the man charged with nearly killing far-right President Jair Bolsonaro during a campaign event last year should not be punished because he is mentally ill. Adelio Bispo de Oliveira was charged with stabbing the then presidential candidate in September at...
Romania ruling party boss gets 3½ years in prison for graft
BUCHAREST, Romania — Romania’s most powerful politician was sentenced Monday to 3½ years in prison for official misconduct in a graft case. The jail time for Liviu Dragnea, party leader of the ruling Social Democrats, came after a conviction last year for having two party members paid by a public...
Knife-wielding man attacks schoolgirls in Japan, killing 2
KAWASAKI, Japan — A man carrying a knife in each hand and screaming “I will kill you!” attacked a group of schoolgirls and adults as he walked toward a school bus parked at a bus stop just outside Tokyo on Tuesday, killing two and injuring 16 before killing himself, officials...
Conservatives helped radicalize Nazi sympathizer, lawyer says
After Nolan Brewer pleaded guilty to charges in connection with painting swastikas on an Indiana synagogue and setting the yard ablaze, his attorney argued in court documents that the 21-year-old man did not deserve prison time. He had been influenced heavily by his wife, Kyomi Brewer, his attorney wrote in...
Austria’s Kurz forced from office, loses no time to prepare comeback
VIENNA — Austria’s conservative leader Sebastian Kurz was ousted as chancellor in a no-confidence vote in parliament Monday, but launched his re-election campaign just hours later. “I am still here,” Kurz told a crowd of fans and cheering People’s Party officials that were bused to Vienna. The far right and...
Colorado climber dies after reaching top of Mount Everest
DENVER — A Colorado climber died shortly after getting to the top of Mount Everest and achieving his dream of scaling the highest peaks on each of the seven continents, his brother said Monday. Christopher Kulish, a 62-year-old Boulder attorney, died Monday at a camp below the summit during his...
Trump in Japan: Pomp and tense circumstance
TOKYO — All the pomp and pageantry in the world couldn’t paper over the tensions between President Donald Trump and Japan’s Shinzo Abe on two of their most pressing issues: North Korea and trade. The president and prime minister tried mightily to minimize their differences during Trump’s four-day state visit...
