U.S./World category, Page 696

NEW ORLEANS — A Texas law outlawing an abortion method commonly used to end second-trimester pregnancies was upheld Wednesday by a federal appeals court in New Orleans. The 2017 law in question has never been enforced. It seeks to prohibit the use of forceps to remove a fetus from the...

WASHINGTON — The number of people seeking unemployment benefits fell last week for a fourth straight time to a pandemic low, the latest sign that America’s job market is rebounding from the pandemic recession as employers boost hiring to meet a surge in consumer demand. The Labor Department reported Thursday...

BERLIN — A 51-year-old man has gone on trial in Germany for a vehicle rampage that killed five people in the western city of Trier last year. The defendant, a local resident identified only as Bernd W. due to German privacy laws, was indicted on five counts of murder and...

CHICAGO — Michael Williams’ wife pleaded with him to remember their fishing trips with the grandchildren, how he used to braid her hair, anything to jar him back to his world outside the concrete walls of Cook County Jail. His three daily calls to her had become a lifeline, but...

GULF SHORES, Ala. — Tourists and servers alike dance atop tables and in the aisles at one restaurant on the “Redneck Riviera,” a beloved stretch of towns along the northern Gulf Coast where beaches, bars and stores are packed. Yet just a few miles away, a hospital is running out...

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan protesters defied the Taliban for a second day Thursday, waving their national flag in scattered demonstrations that were met with renewed violence by the militants who are facing growing challenges to their rule. A U.N. official warned of dire food shortages in this nation of 38...

FRANKFORT, Ind. — A woman and her granddaughter were fatally shot Wednesday when a gunman opened fire outside a central Indiana automotive plant where the women worked, the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office said. The shooting happened around 4:15 p.m. during a shift change in the parking lot of the NHK...

The Biden administration said Wednesday it was banning use of chlorpyrifos, a widely used pesticide long targeted by environmentalists, on food crops because it poses risks to children and farm workers. The Environmental Protection Agency acted after a federal appeals court ordered the government in April to determine quickly whether...

BELFAST, Maine — The sudden appearance of a giant rubber duck in a Maine harbor is a whimsical whodunit that’s defied sleuths so far. The yellow waterfowl emblazoned with the word “joy” appeared in Belfast Harbor over the weekend, and it’s a mystery who put it there. Harbor Master Katherine...

NEW YORK — A newspaper editor friend of former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner was hit Wednesday with state cyberstalking charges in New York, seven months after Trump pardoned him in a similar federal case just before leaving office. Manhattan prosecutors accused Ken Kurson, the New York Observer’s editor...

CANBERRA, Australia — Helaina Alati was browsing the spice aisle of an Australian supermarket when she came face-to-face with a huge snake. The head of the 10-foot-long non-venomous diamond python emerged through a space in a shelf above the spice jars in the Sydney store. “I was in the spice...

KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan health official says at least one person was killed and six were wounded Wednesday when the Taliban violently dispersed a protest in the eastern city of Jalalabad. Dozens of people raised the national flag Wednesday and lowered the Taliban’s own flag the day before Afghanistan’s...

KORTRIJK, Belgium — A Belgian-British teenager took to the skies Wednesday in her quest to become the youngest woman to fly around the world solo. With her parents looking on, 19-year-old Zara Rutherford took off from an airstrip in Kortrijk, western Belgium in gusty, overcast conditions. Rutherford is aiming to...

BRUSSELS — European Union ministers are holding emergency talks on Wednesday in response to allegations that Belarus is deliberately sending migrants to Lithuania as part of a “hybrid warfare” campaign to destabilize the Baltic EU member country. The ministers are holding a videoconference in a so-called “integrated political crisis response”...

NEW YORK — R&B star R. Kelly will be back in a criminal court on Wednesday, this time for opening statements in his long-anticipated federal trial arising from years of allegations that he sexually abused women and girls while pursuing fame and fortune. More than a decade has passed since...

TOOELE, Utah — The sound of the helicopter propeller thundered across the horizon as it dipped down toward mustangs dotting the golden brown plain. The horses burst into a gallop at the machine’s approach, their high-pitched whinnies rising into the dry air. That helicopter roundup in the mountains of western...

Members of the family that owns OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma won’t contribute billions of dollars to a legal settlement unless they get off the hook for all current and future lawsuits over the company’s activities, one of them told a court Tuesday in a rare public appearance. David Sackler, grandson...

WASHINGTON — George W. Bush, who ordered the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan to dislodge the Taliban and hunt down al-Qaida terrorists behind the Sept. 11 attacks, has watched the religious fundamentalists’ abrupt return to power with “deep sadness.” And with the Taliban back in control, he wistfully lauded a generation...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A Florida judge refused Tuesday to close pretrial hearings to the media and public in the case of the man accused of killing 17 people in a 2018 high school mass shooting. Broward County Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer rejected a motion by defendant Nikolas Cruz’s lawyers...

NEW YORK — Notices taped to the windows and front door of the Stop Inn, a diner in Queens, made it clear the eatery would comply with the city’s new edict against the coronavirus: All patrons dining indoors at restaurants, browsing works of art at museums or sweating it out...

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military is coordinating with the Taliban while accelerating the airlift of Americans and Afghan allies from the Kabul airport, and also bringing in additional U.S. troops in a scramble to complete the evacuation in two weeks, Pentagon officials said Tuesday. The disclosure by Pentagon spokesman John...

KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban declared an “amnesty” across Afghanistan and urged women to join their government Tuesday, seeking to convince a wary population that they have changed a day after deadly chaos gripped the main airport as desperate crowds tried to flee their rule. Following a blitz across Afghanistan...