U.S./World category, Page 664
Mass shooting suspect served less time due to California law
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A suspect arrested in connection with last weekend’s mass shooting outside bars in Sacramento served less than half his 10-year sentence because of voter-approved changes to state law that lessened the punishment for his felony convictions and provided a chance for earlier release. Smiley Allen Martin was...
Rape exceptions to abortion bans were once widely accepted. No more
WASHINGTON — As conservative states enacted stringent abortion bans in recent decades, there was one threshold they were loath to cross: Abortion was nearly always allowed in cases of rape or incest. It was a veneer of acceptance embraced by every GOP president from Reagan to Trump, and even the...
Missile kills at least 52 at crowded Ukrainian train station
KYIV, Ukraine — A missile hit a train station in eastern Ukraine where thousands had gathered Friday, killing at least 52 and wounding dozens more in an attack on a crowd of mostly women and children trying to flee a new, looming Russian offensive, Ukrainian authorities said. The attack that...
Major outage forces Puerto Rico to shutter schools, offices
SAN JUAN — More than a million customers in Puerto Rico remained without electricity on Thursday after a fire at a main power plant caused the biggest blackout so far this year across the U.S. territory, forcing it to cancel classes and shutter government offices. The blackout also left nearly...
Israeli forces kill Palestinian attacker; third victim diesVideo
A third Israeli has died following the attack by a Palestinian man who opened fire into a crowded bar in central Tel Aviv. Israeli security forces said they hunted down and killed the attacker early Friday. The shooting on Thursday evening in a downtown area packed with people in bars...
Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg: Trump criminal investigation is continuing
NEW YORK — Refuting suggestions that he’s lost interest in going after Donald Trump, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Thursday a criminal investigation into the former president and his business practices is continuing “without fear or favor” despite a recent shakeup in the probe’s leadership. In a rare public...
U.S.: Man impersonated federal agent, claimed ties to Pakistani intelVideo
WASHINGTON — One of two men accused of impersonating federal agents and giving actual Secret Service agents gifts and free apartments in Washington has claimed to have ties to Pakistani intelligence and had visas showing travel to Pakistan and Iran, federal prosecutors said Thursday. The men, Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and...
Key particle weighs in a bit heavy, confounding physicists
The grand explanation physicists use to describe how the universe works may have some major new flaws to patch after a fundamental particle was found to have more mass than scientists thought. “It’s not just something is wrong,” said Dave Toback, a particle physicist at Texas A&M University and a...
Jackson confirmed as 1st Black female high court justice
The Senate confirmed Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court on Thursday, shattering a historic barrier by securing her place as the first Black female justice and giving President Joe Biden a bipartisan endorsement for his effort to diversify the court. Jackson, a 51 year-old appeals court judge with nine...
Pelosi positive for covid-19, was at White House with Biden
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has tested positive for covid-19, a day after appearing unmasked at a White House event with President Joe Biden. Pelosi, D-Calif., received a positive test result for covid-19 and is currently asymptomatic, her spokesman Drew Hammill said Thursday in a tweet. He said she...
Avalanche in northern Norway kills 3 members of skiing group
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — An avalanche in northern Norway on Thursday killed three people, police said. Another six members of the same skiing group were unhurt. Norwegian broadcaster NRK said the three victims were quickly found because they wore avalanche detectors, but were declared dead on the spot. Their identities and...
House panel: Justice Dept. ‘obstructing’ Trump records probe
WASHINGTON — A congressional oversight committee on Thursday said the Justice Department is “obstructing” its investigation into former President Donald Trump’s handling of White House records by preventing the release of information from the National Archives. The House Committee on Oversight and Reform sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick...
Gunmen shoot deputy governor of Myanmar Central Bank
BANGKOK — A deputy governor of Myanmar’s Central Bank was shot Thursday at her home, less than a week after tough new regulations were issued ordering that foreign money held in bank accounts in the military-ruled nation must be exchanged for the local currency. There were conflicting accounts of whether...
Turkey suspends trial of Saudi suspects in Khashoggi killing
ISTANBUL — A Turkish court ruled Thursday to suspend the trial in absentia of 26 Saudis accused in the gruesome killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and for the case to be transferred to Saudi Arabia, raising fears of impunity for a crime that sparked international outrage. Khashoggi, a...
U.S. jobless claims stay at historically low levels last week
WASHINGTON — Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week as layoffs remain at historically low levels. Jobless claims fell by 5,000 to 166,000 for the week ending April 2, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The previous week’s number was revised down a whopping 31,000 claims. In recent weeks, claims...
Russian retreat reveals destruction as Ukraine asks for help
CHERNIHIV, Ukraine — Russian troops retreating from this northern Ukrainian city left behind crushed buildings, streets littered with destroyed cars and residents in dire need of food and other aid — images that added fuel to Kyiv’s calls Thursday for more Western help to halt Moscow’s next offensive. Dozens of...
U.S. Navy intends to decommission some of its newest warships
PORTLAND, Maine — The Navy that once wanted smaller, speedy warships to chase down pirates has made a speedy pivot to Russia and China — and many of those recently built ships could be retired. The U.S. Navy wants to decommission nine ships in the Freedom-class of littoral combat ships...
Senate votes 100-0 to end Russia trade status, enact oil ban
WASHINGTON — The Senate voted unanimously Thursday to suspend normal trade relations with Russia and ban the importation of its oil, ratcheting up the U.S. response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine amid reports of atrocities. Lawmakers overwhelmingly support the substance of the two bills, but they had languished for weeks...
Dan Scavino, Peter Navarro held in contempt of Congress in Jan. 6 probeVideo
WASHINGTON — Former Trump advisers Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino were held in contempt of Congress on Wednesday for their monthlong refusal to comply with subpoenas rendered by the House committee’s investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The two men became the latest members of former...
No charges filed in no-knock warrant killing of Amir Locke
MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota prosecutors declined to file charges Wednesday against a Minneapolis police SWAT team officer who fatally shot Amir Locke while executing an early morning no-knock search warrant in a downtown apartment in February. Locke, 22, who was Black, was staying on a couch in his cousin’s apartment when...
The 6 lives lost in the Sacramento mass shooting
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A father of four. A best friend with a positive personality. A vivacious partygoer. The six people who were killed in a mass shooting in California’s capital city are being remembered by their friends and family as police worked to piece together what happened when two groups...
Nursing home care, funding system need overhaul, report says
NEW YORK — Nursing home residents are subjected to ineffective care and poor staffing, while facility finances are shrouded in secrecy and regulatory lapses go unenforced, according to a report Wednesday that called for wholesale changes in an industry whose failures have been spotlighted by the pandemic. To anyone who...
Late Iowa man linked to 1980s killings in Indiana, Kentucky
INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana State Police said Tuesday that they used genealogical data and crime scene evidence to link an Iowa man who died in 2013 to the killings of three female motel clerks and sexual assault of a fourth in Indiana and Kentucky from 1987 through 1990. Harry Edward...
Mariupol’s dead put at 5,000 as Ukraine braces in the east
ANDRIIVKA, Ukraine — The mayor of the besieged port city of Mariupol put the number of civilians killed there at more than 5,000 Wednesday, as Ukraine collected evidence of Russian atrocities on the ruined outskirts of Kyiv and braced for what could become a climactic battle for control of the...
Supreme Court reinstates Trump-era water rule for now
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday reinstated for now a Trump-era rule that had curtailed the power of states and Native American tribes to block pipelines and other energy projects that can pollute rivers, streams and other waterways. The justices agreed to halt a lower court judge’s order throwing...
