U.S./World category, Page 581
‘Out of control’ STD situation prompts call for changes
NEW YORK — Sharply rising cases of some sexually transmitted diseases — including a 26% rise in new syphilis infections reported last year — are prompting U.S. health officials to call for new prevention and treatment efforts. “It is imperative that we … work to rebuild, innovate, and expand (STD)...
California woman Sherri Papini gets 18 months for kidnapping hoax in 2016Video
SACRAMENTO — A Northern California mother of two was sentenced Monday to 18 months in prison for faking her own kidnapping so she could go back to a former boyfriend, which led to a three-week, multi-state search before she resurfaced on Thanksgiving Day in 2016. Sherri Papini, 40, pleaded guilty...
A day after blackout, Fiona dumps more rain on Puerto Rico
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Hurricane Fiona unleashed more rain on Puerto Rico on Monday, a day after the storm knocked out power and water to most of the island, and National Guard troops rescued hundreds of people who got stranded. The governor warned that it could take days to...
‘Serial’ case: Adnan Syed released, conviction tossedVideo
BALTIMORE — A Baltimore judge on Monday ordered the release of Adnan Syed after overturning Syed’s conviction for the 1999 murder of high school student Hae Min Lee — a case that was chronicled in the hit podcast “Serial,” a true-crime series that transfixed listeners and revolutionized the genre. At...
NASA Mars lander captures strikes by 4 incoming space rocks
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A NASA lander on Mars has captured the vibrations and sounds of four meteoroids striking the planet’s surface. Scientists reported Monday that Mars InSight detected seismic and acoustic waves from a series of impacts in 2020 and 2021. A satellite orbiting the red planet confirmed the...
California’s dead will have a new burial option: Human composting
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California will begin allowing an alternative burial method known as human composting in 2027, under a bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday. Assembly Bill 351 by Assemblymember Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens) will create a state regulatory process for natural organic reduction, a method in which...
How to get a student loan refund if you paid during pandemic
NEW YORK — When President Joe Biden announced a plan to forgive student loan debt, many borrowers who kept making payments during the pandemic wondered if they’d made the right choice. Borrowers who paid down their debt during a pandemic freeze that started in March 2020 can in fact get...
Locked Up: The prison labor that built business empires like U.S. Steel
More than 150 years ago, a prison complex known as the Lone Rock stockade operated at one of the biggest coal mines in Tennessee. It was powered largely by African American men who had been arrested for minor offenses — like stealing a hog — if they committed any crime...
Ukraine says Russian missile struck close to nuclear plant
KYIV, Ukraine — A Russian missile struck close to a nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine without damaging the three reactors but hit other industrial equipment in what Ukrainian authorities denounced Monday as an act of “nuclear terrorism.” The strike followed warnings from Russian President Vladimir Putin of possible stepped-up...
Family of American says he was freed by Taliban in swap
WASHINGTON — An American contractor held hostage in Afghanistan for more than two years by the Taliban has been released, his family said Monday, as a Taliban drug lord jailed by the United States was also freed and returned to Kabul. Mark Frerichs, a Navy veteran who had spent more...
Russia, China agree to expand security ties
MOSCOW — A top Russian security official declared Monday on a visit to China that the Kremlin considers beefing up ties with Beijing as a top policy goal. Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the national Security Council chaired by Russian President Vladimir Putin, described the “strengthening of comprehensive partnership and strategic...
U.S. aircraft carrier to visit S. Korea amid N. Korean threats
SEOUL, South Korea — A U.S. aircraft carrier is to visit South Korea this week for its first joint training with South Korean warships in five years, officials said Monday, in an apparent show of force against increasing North Korean nuclear threats. The USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier and its...
Queen Elizabeth II mourned by Britain and world at funeralVideo
LONDON — Britain and the world said a final goodbye to Queen Elizabeth II at a state funeral Monday that drew presidents and kings, princes and prime ministers — and crowds who thronged the streets of London to honor a monarch whose 70-year reign defined an age. In a country...
Zelenskyy promises no ‘lull’ in taking back Ukrainian towns
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy promised his country there would be no letup in the counteroffensive that has reclaimed towns and cities from Russian troops, as shelling continued Sunday across a wide stretch of Ukraine. Zelenskyy ran through a list of towns that Ukraine has taken back in...
Lawsuits to save Confederate icons dropped in South Carolina
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Lawsuits filed to stop the removal of memorials to Confederate leaders and a pro-slavery congressman in a South Carolina city have been dropped. The Post and Courier reports that the American Heritage Association helped fund one of the lawsuits. It had been filed by descendants of John...
Biden, Jill Biden share memories of 2021 visit with queen
LONDON — U.S. President Joe Biden, in London for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, said Sunday that his heart goes out to her family because her death has left it with a “giant hole.” “Sometimes you think you’ll never, you’ll never overcome it,” said Biden, who often speaks in...
Report: Some census takers who fudged data didn’t get fired
Some census takers who falsified information during the 2020 count didn’t have their work redone fully, weren’t fired in a timely manner and in some cases even received bonuses, according to the U.S. Commerce Department’s watchdog group. The findings released Friday by the Office of Inspector General raise concerns about...
Hurricane Fiona rips through powerless Puerto RicoVideo
HAVANA — Hurricane Fiona struck Puerto Rico’s southwest coast on Sunday as it unleashed landslides, knocked the power grid out and ripped up asphalt from roads and flung the pieces around. Forecasters said the storm would cause massive flooding and threatened to dump “historic” levels of rain, with up to...
Bidens among thousands to pay respects to Queen Elizabeth II
LONDON — U.S. President Joe Biden paid his respects at Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin on Sunday as thousands of police, hundreds of British troops and an army of officials made final preparations for the queen’s state funeral — a spectacular display of national mourning that will also be the biggest...
Voter challenges, records requests swamp election offices
Spurred by conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election, activists across the country are using laws that allow people to challenge a voter’s right to cast a ballot to contest the registrations of thousands of voters at a time. In Iowa, Linn County Auditor Joel Miller had handled three voter...
Fire at Los Angeles strip mall kills 17 cats at pet hotel
LOS ANGELES — Seventeen cats were killed at a Los Angeles pet hotel and a firefighter was injured early Saturday when a blaze ripped through a strip mall where the facility is located, the Los Angeles Fire Department said. More than 120 firefighters were dispatched to the blaze in the...
U.S.-backed Syrian forces free women in 3-week raid of IS camp
BEIRUT — U.S.-backed Syrian fighters said Saturday they have concluded a 24-day sweep at a sprawling camp in northeast Syria housing tens of thousands of women and children linked to the Islamic State group. Dozens of extremists were detained and weapons were confiscated in the operation at al-Hol camp, which...
For Russia’s Putin, military and diplomatic pressures mount
KYIV, Ukraine — Pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin mounted on the battlefield and in the halls of global power as Ukrainian troops pushed their counteroffensive Saturday to advance farther into Ukraine’s partly recaptured northeast. At a high-level summit in Uzbekistan, Putin vowed to press his attack on Ukraine despite...
Court hearing set for Monday in Baltimore’s Adnan Syed case
BALTIMORE — A court hearing has been set for Monday in Baltimore to consider a request from prosecutors to vacate the 2000 murder conviction of Adnan Syed, whose case was chronicled in the hit podcast “Serial.” Baltimore Circuit Judge Melissa Phinn scheduled the hearing for 2 p.m., The Baltimore Sun...
Puerto Rico under hurricane warning as Tropical Storm Fiona approaches
HAVANA — Tropical Storm Fiona was expected to become a hurricane as it neared Puerto Rico on Saturday, threatening to dump up to 20 inches of rain as people braced for potential landslides, severe flooding and power outages. The storm previously battered various eastern Caribbean islands, with one death reported...
