U.S./World category, Page 1242
Trump urges even more defense spending by NATO allies
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump praised NATO countries for increasing their financial contributions to the Western alliance, but he hounded them to pay even more, saying America still shoulders a disproportionate share of the cost of protecting Europe. The president met Tuesday with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who was in...
Trump pivots on pledges, exploring the art of the climb-down
WASHINGTON — His border shutdown went from imminent to uncertain. A major health care push was declared and then delayed. Funding cuts were inserted in his proposed budget and just as quickly taken out. President Donald Trump has been exploring the art of the climb-down. Trump pivoted on two big...
‘Obamacare’ repeal off the table for GOP until after 2020
WASHINGTON (AP) — “Not any longer.” And with that, a triumphant Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell appeared to close the book Tuesday on a divisive Republican debate, convincing President Donald Trump to shelve plans to replace the Affordable Care Act until after the 2020 election. “I made it clear to...
Police: Mom says she might have misjudged man who touched child
BARBOURSVILLE, W.Va. — Police in West Virginia say a woman now says she might have misinterpreted an incident when she reported that a man was trying to abduct her 5-year-old daughter at a mall. News outlets report the woman told police Monday that she stopped the man by pulling out...
Kentucky judge rules against unvaccinated student in lawsuit
WALTON, Ky. — A Kentucky judge has ruled against a student who sued after he wasn’t allowed to play basketball because he wasn’t vaccinated for chickenpox. In the lawsuit against the Northern Kentucky Health Department, 18-year-old Jerome Kunkel claimed the vaccine is against his religious beliefs. WXIX-TV in Cincinnati reports...
Reports: Avocados would run out in 3 weeks if border shuts down
Americans could run out of avocados in three weeks, if President Trump follows through on a threat to shut down the U.S./Mexico border, according to the head of the largest avocado distributor and grower in the world. Steven Barnard, president and chief executive of Mission Produce, claims shutting down the...
Police: Suspected killer of rapper Nipsey Hussle arrested
LOS ANGELES — Police on Tuesday arrested the man suspected of fatally shooting rapper Nipsey Hussle, authorities said. Eric Holder, 29, had been on the run for two days before he was captured in Bellflower, a Los Angeles-area city about 20 miles southeast of where Hussle was gunned down two...
Venezuelans storm border as Colombia warns Russia
BOGOTA, Colombia — Hundreds of Venezuelans desperate for food and services stormed the Colombian border on Tuesday, while Bogota indirectly warned Russia against a military deployment in support of Venezuela’s embattled president, Nicolas Maduro. Parliament speaker Juan Guaido, whom dozens of countries have recognized as the country’s interim president, is...
April storm to sock the Northeast, has even brought snow to North Carolina
No, April’s not fooling. A powerful bomb cyclone will develop off the Carolina coast Tuesday, skirting the Eastern seaboard with wind, heavy precipitation and even some late-season snow. Flakes were flying in Charlotte on Tuesday morning, where the local National Weather Service office hoisted a statement cautioning “snow showers through...
Ex-governor candidate found guilty in Oklahoma murder-for-hire plot
OKLAHOMA CITY — A federal jury on Tuesday convicted a former Oklahoma gubernatorial candidate and zookeeper in an attempted murder-for-hire plot. Jurors returned the guilty verdict following six days of testimony in the trial of Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage, 56, who was accused of trying to arrange the killing of Florida...
More condoms, fewer cigarettes found in annual beach cleanup
SANDY HOOK, N.J. — Volunteers cleaning up New Jersey beaches last year found everything but the kitchen sink. Oh wait, they found one of those, too. Unsurprisingly, nearly 82% of the trash removed during Clean Ocean Action’s beach sweeps last spring and fall was plastic, including beverage bottles, shopping bags,...
Lithuanian man discovers he’s sole passenger on huge jetliner to Italy
VILNIUS, Lithuania — A Lithuanian man flying to Italy got a pleasant surprise when he boarded the plane: He was the only passenger on the Boeing 737-800. Skirmantas Strimaitis, who was flying from capital Vilnius to the northern Italian city of Bergamo for a skiing holiday March 16, had the...
Delay sought on California ruling allowing high-capacity ammo magazines
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California’s attorney general said Tuesday it appears the sale of high-capacity ammunition magazines has started in the state for the first time in nearly two decades after a federal court judge tossed out a statewide ban. Attorney General Xavier Becerra asked a federal judge to delay implementing...
Dam’s spillway gets first use since 2017 California crisis
OROVILLE, Calif. — Officials at the nation’s tallest dam unleashed water down a rebuilt spillway Tuesday for the first time since it crumbled two years ago and drove hundreds of thousands of California residents from their homes over fears of catastrophic flooding. Water flowed down the spillway and into the...
Defense Ministry tells Algeria’s leader to quit immediately
ALGIERS, Algeria — The Algerian Defense Ministry called Tuesday for President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to quit “immediately” after two decades in office, saying “there is no more time to waste” after six weeks of nationwide protests against the chief of state and his inner circle. The ministry’s appeal came in a...
Amtrak wasted $23M on unneeded office space, inspector general says
WASHINGTON — Amtrak wasted at least $23 million by acquiring unneeded office space in Boston, New York, Washington and several other cities, according to a report by the railroad’s inspector general. The report by Stephen Lord, the assistant inspector general for Amtrak, sketches a picture of a quasi-public, federally-subsidized passenger...
High school robotics team gives toddler mobilityVideo
FARMINGTON, Minn. — The parents of a 2-year-old Minnesota boy who needed an expensive power wheelchair turned to an unlikely source for help — a high school robotics team. Farmington High School’s robotics team created a functioning wheelchair for Cillian Jackson by retrofitting a Power Wheels riding toy. Cillian’s father,...
Pope: Women have ‘legitimate claims’ for justice, equality
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis said in a document released Tuesday that women have “legitimate claims” to seek more equality in the Catholic Church, but he stopped short of endorsing recent calls from his own bishops to give women leadership roles. In the text, Francis also told young adults they...
Police identify North Dakota business owner, 3 slain employees
MANDAN, N.D. — Police on Tuesday identified the owner of a North Dakota property management business and three employees as the people whose bodies were found there a day earlier, and said they don’t yet have a suspect in the attack. Chief Jason Ziegler didn’t say how the victims died...
May: U.K. to seek further Brexit delay, try to break logjam
LONDON — Prime Minister Theresa May said Tuesday that she will seek to further delay Britain’s exit from the European Union and seek to make an accord with the political opposition in a bid to break the Brexit impasse. May made the announcement after the EU’s chief negotiator warned that...
Another Texas chemical fire kills 1 worker, injures 2
HOUSTON — A fire at a Texas chemical plant Tuesday that sent plumes of black smoke into the air killed one worker and injured at least two others, authorities said, in the second major blaze at a Houston-area chemical facility in about two weeks. Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez confirmed...
Ohio proposal would honor presidential popular vote
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio’s coveted 18 electoral votes would be delivered to the presidential candidate who wins the national popular vote under a proposal making its way toward the state’s fall ballot. The proposed constitutional amendment, whose summary language was certified Monday, would force state lawmakers to assure the powerful...
Amsterdam’s ban of red-light district tours irks sex workers
The sex trade in the Netherlands draws participants and gawkers from around the globe. But the Dutch capital is now cracking down on guided tours to respect sex workers and ease congestion in the red-light district. The first limits began Monday night with a ban on tours from 7 p.m.,...
U.K. police say railway sabotage attempt linked to Brexit
LONDON — British police said Tuesday that they are investigating two attempts to sabotage railway lines that are believed to be linked to Brexit. The British Transport Police force said two “malicious obstructions” hit sections of rail line in central and eastern England on March 21 and 27. In both...
5 former federal workers sue CIA, NSA claiming censorship
Five former federal employees filed a lawsuit against several agencies Tuesday, alleging that the government’s pre-review process for publication is an unconstitutional “system of censorship.” The review process, which applies to millions of government workers, requires former intelligence agency and military personnel to get approval before writing, publishing or speaking...
