U.S./World category, Page 719
Facebook: Fake scientist used to spread anti-U.S. propaganda
A disinformation network with ties to China used hundreds of fake social media accounts — including one belonging to a fictitious Swiss biologist — to spread an unfounded claim that the U.S. pressured scientists to blame China for the coronavirus, Facebook said Wednesday. The company based in Menlo Park, Calif.,...
U.S. reports 1st case of omicron variant in returning traveler
SAN FRANCISCO — The U.S. recorded its first confirmed case of the omicron variant Wednesday — in a vaccinated traveler who returned to California after a trip to South Africa — as scientists around the world race to establish whether the new, mutant version of the coronavirus is more dangerous...
New dinosaur species from Chile had a unique slashing tail
Fossils found in Chile are from a strange-looking dog-sized dinosaur species that had a unique slashing tail weapon, scientists reported Wednesday. Some dinosaurs had spiked tails they could use as stabbing weapons and others had tails with clubs. The new species, described in a study in the journal Nature, has...
Volcanic lava threatens church, more homes on La Palma
LOS LLANOS DE ARIDANE, Canary Islands — A fresh river of lava from the volcano on Spain’s La Palma island threatened Wednesday to engulf a parish church that has so far survived the eruption that shows no signs of relenting after 10 weeks. The nearest lava flow to the Los...
Putin demands NATO guarantees not to expand eastward
President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Moscow would seek Western guarantees precluding any further NATO expansion and deployment of its weapons near his country’s borders, a stern demand that comes amid fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian and Western officials have worried about a Russian troop buildup near...
Justices signal they’ll OK new abortion limits, may toss Roe
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court’s conservative majority on Wednesday signaled it would uphold Mississippi’s 15-week ban on abortion and may go much further to overturn the nationwide right to abortion that has existed for nearly 50 years. The fate of the court’s historic 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion...
Conservatives eagerly await Supreme Court abortion arguments
It’s the moment conservatives have been waiting for. Oral arguments at the Supreme Court on Wednesday represent the best opportunity leaders on the right have had in decades to gut the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which codified a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion before a fetus can...
Brazil and Japan report 1st cases of the omicron variant
Brazil and Japan joined the rapidly widening circle of countries to report cases of the omicron variant Tuesday, while new findings indicate the mutant coronavirus was already in Europe close to a week before South Africa sounded the alarm. The Netherlands’ RIVM health institute disclosed that patient samples dating from...
Arizona officer fired after shooting of shoplifting suspect
TUCSON, Ariz. — A Tucson police officer has been fired after he was accused of shooting a shoplifting suspect in a wheelchair nine times, killing him, after the man brandished a knife, authorities said Tuesday. Police announced at a news conference that Officer Ryan Remington was being terminated for excessive...
Wife of drug kingpin ‘El Chapo’ gets 3 years on U.S. chargesVideo
The wife of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was sentenced Tuesday to three years in prison after pleading guilty to helping her husband run his multibillion-dollar criminal empire. Emma Coronel Aispuro also helped her husband plan a dramatic escape through a tunnel dug underneath a prison in Mexico...
CNN suspends Chris Cuomo for helping brother in scandal
NEW YORK — CNN said Tuesday it was suspending anchor Chris Cuomo indefinitely after details emerged about how he helped his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, as he faced charges of sexual harassment. The network said that documents released by New York’s attorney general Monday indicated a greater...
Appeals court orders release of some Mueller report passages
WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Tuesday directed the Justice Department to disclose certain redacted passages from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation report that relate to individuals who were investigated by prosecutors but not ultimately charged. The ruling came in a public records complaint from the news organization...
Attorney: Ex-officer Kim Potter to testify at trial in Daunte Wright deathVideo
MINNEAPOLIS — The suburban Minneapolis police officer who shot Daunte Wright will testify at her trial, her attorney said Tuesday as jury selection began with potential panelists being questioned closely about their attitudes on policing, protests and the Black Lives Matter movement. One of Kim Potter’s attorneys, Paul Engh, told...
Michigan school shooting suspect detailed plans to kill in videos and journal, authorities sayVideo
OXFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. — The 15-year-old charged in the killings of four of his Oxford High School classmates recorded videos on his cellphone the night before the shootings and wrote in a journal recovered in his backpack of plans to shoot and kill students, authorities said Wednesday. School officials spoke...
Texas woman sentenced in death of 2 Kansas carnival vendors
GREAT BEND, Kan. — A Texas woman has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for her role in the deaths of a Kansas couple who were killed on the orders of a carnival worker as part of a fictitious “carnival mafia” initiation. Kimberley Stacey Younger, 55, of Aransas...
Appeals court weighs Trump arguments to withhold records
WASHINGTON — A panel of judges on Tuesday questioned whether they had the authority to grant former President Donald Trump’s demands and stop the White House from allowing the release of documents related to the Jan. 6 insurrection led by Trump’s supporters. But the judges also noted that there may...
New York City OKs safe sites for drug use, aiming to curb overdoses
NEW YORK — The first officially authorized safe havens for people to use heroin and other narcotics have been cleared to open in New York City in hopes of curbing deadly overdoses, the mayor and health commissioner said Tuesday. The “overdose prevention centers” — commonly known as supervised injection sites...
U.S. lifts terror designation for Colombia’s ex-guerrilla army
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration formally revoked the terrorist designation of Colombia’s former FARC guerrilla army on Tuesday, but newly imposed the designation on commanders and offshoots of the group who have refused to lay down their arms. Lifting of the terrorist designation for FARC — the commonly used Spanish...
Man sentenced in deadly crash involving West Virginia newlyweds
PRINCETON, W.Va. — A Virginia man has been sentenced to a term of five to 25 years in prison on charges stemming from a fatal crash in West Virginia involving a newlywed couple. Ricky Lynn Olivo Jr., 41, of Woodstock appeared Monday in Mercer County for sentencing in the 2020...
German court convicts ex-IS member in Yazidi girl’s death
BERLIN — A former member of the Islamic State group was convicted by a German court on Tuesday of genocide and committing a war crime over the death of a 5-year-old Yazidi girl he had purchased as a slave and then chained up in the hot sun to die. The...
Space junk forces spacewalk delay, too risky for astronauts
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA called off a spacewalk Tuesday because of menacing space junk that could puncture an astronaut’s suit or damage the International Space Station. Two U.S. astronauts were set to replace a bad antenna outside of the space station. But late Monday night, Mission Control learned that...
Prosecutor: Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein were ‘partners in crime’
NEW YORK — Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein were “partners in crime” in the sexual abuse of teenage girls, a prosecutor said Monday, while Maxwell’s lawyers said she was being made a scapegoat for a man’s bad behavior as the British socialite’s sex trafficking trial got underway in New York....
New details on CNN’s Chris Cuomo’s role advising brother Andrew
NEW YORK — Transcripts released Monday shed new light on CNN anchor Chris Cuomo’s behind-the-scenes role advising his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in the face of sexual harassment allegations that forced him from office. Chris Cuomo told investigators he spoke regularly with his brother, exchanged text messages...
Bill Cosby prosecutors ask U.S. Supreme Court to review case
PHILADELPHIA — Prosecutors asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the ruling that overturned Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction, arguing in a petition Monday that a dangerous precedent could be set if press releases are treated as immunity agreements. Cosby’s lawyers have long argued that he relied on a promise...
Jan. 6 panel sets contempt vote for former DOJ official Jeffrey ClarkVideo
WASHINGTON — A House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection will vote Wednesday to hold a former Justice Department official in contempt, seeking criminal charges against a defiant witness for a second time after holding former White House aide Steve Bannon in contempt last month. The committee on Monday...
