U.S./World category, Page 719

MOSCOW — The Russian military said one of its warships fired warning shots and a warplane dropped bombs Wednesday to force a British destroyer away from an area in the Black Sea near Crimea that Moscow claims as its territorial waters, but Britain denied that account and insisted its ship...

NEW YORK — Warren Buffett resigned Wednesday as trustee of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which says it will announce plans in July to answer questions raised about its leadership structure as it deals with the divorce of its two founders. The announcement from Buffett comes weeks after Bill...

SAN DIEGO — Thousands of asylum-seekers whose claims were dismissed or denied under a Trump administration policy that forced them to wait in Mexico for their court hearings will be allowed to return for another chance at humanitarian protection, the Homeland Security Department said Tuesday. Registration begins Wednesday for asylum-seekers...

ST. LOUIS — A shooting in St. Louis left three people dead and four others wounded, authorities said. Police were called about 7:30 p.m. Monday to the city’s Greater Ville neighborhood in north St. Louis. Two men were found dead outside a convenience store, police Chief John Hayden said. A...

RICHMOND, Va. — If a court clears the way, the state of Virginia expects to remove not just a soaring statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from Richmond’s historic Monument Avenue but also a little-known piece of history tucked inside the massive sculpture’s base: a 134-year-old time capsule. Historical...

SALT LAKE CITY — The number of people stopped from buying guns through the U.S. background check system hit an all-time high of more than 300,000 last year amid a surge of firearm sales, according to new records obtained by the group Everytown for Gun Safety. The FBI numbers provided...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — When U.S. law enforcement officials need to cast a wide net for information, they’re increasingly turning to the vast digital ponds of personal data created by Big Tech companies via the devices and online services that have hooked billions of people around the world. Data compiled by...

CHICAGO — A tornado that swept through Chicago’s western suburbs, damaging more than 100 homes and injuring several people, was packing 140 mph winds when it hit the heavily populated area, the National Weather Service said. A weather service team that surveyed the aftermath of Sunday night’s tornado found that,...

Air travel can be difficult in the best of times, with cramped planes, screaming babies, flight delays and short tempers. Throw in a pandemic, and the anxiety level can rise quickly. That has led to confrontations with flight attendants and other unruly behavior, including occasional fights that get captured and...

Civilians in Afghanistan have taken up arms to push back against the Taliban as the militants fight for control of a crucial northern city and make deeper territorial inroads with the U.S. set to withdraw all troops by September. The insurgents are battling to take control of strategic cities in...

HONOLULU — Dozens of baby squid from Hawaii are in space for study. The baby Hawaiian bobtail squid were raised at the University of Hawaii’s Kewalo Marine Laboratory and were blasted into space earlier this month on a SpaceX resupply mission to the International Space Station. Researcher Jamie Foster, who...

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court decided Monday to put on hold a judge’s decision to overturn California’s 30-year ban on assault weapons. In a brief order, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay of Judge Roger T. Benitez’s decision on June...

WASHINGTON — A federal judge has dismissed a majority of the claims filed by activists and civil liberties groups who accused the Trump administration of violating the civil rights of protesters who were forcefully removed by police using chemical agents from a park near the White House before then-President Donald...

WAVERLY, Ohio — A trial has been scheduled next spring for a man who along with his brother and parents was charged in the slayings of eight people from another Ohio family. A judge announced the April 4 trial date for George Wagner IV during his brief court appearance Monday...

DELANO, Calif. — California detectives say they’ve solved the curious caper of the purloined pistachios. The heist was a nutty one, but nothing new to investigators in America’s most productive farmland. In a nutshell, an audit by the Touchstone Pistachio Company in the San Joaquin Valley discovered that 42,000 pounds...

ELKINS, W.Va. — A West Virginia postal carrier who pleaded guilty to altering mail-in requests for absentee voter ballots was sentenced to five years’ probation Monday. Thomas Cooper was charged in May 2020 after eight mail-in requests for absentee voter ballots had their party affiliations altered. He pleaded guilty last...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran’s president-elect staked out a hard-line position Monday in his first remarks since his landslide election victory, rejecting the possibility of meeting with President Joe Biden or negotiating Tehran’s ballistic missile program and support of regional militias. The comments by Ebrahim Raisi offered a blunt...

MOSCOW — A court in central Russia on Sunday arraigned a suspect on murder charges in the death of an American woman who was studying at a local university. The body of 34-year-old Catherine Serou was found Saturday in a wooded area near the city of Nizhny Novgorod, 250 miles...

EDEN, N.C. — The body of a fourth tuber has been found in a North Carolina river following a deadly accident in which a family on a recreational float went over a dam, local officials said Sunday. The Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office confirmed in a news release that Isiah Crawford,...

VIENNA — Top diplomats said Sunday that further progress had been made at talks between Iran and global powers to try to restore a landmark 2015 agreement to contain Iranian nuclear development that was abandoned by the Trump administration. They said it was now up to the governments involved in...

Annette Steele isn’t destitute or unemployed. But for a year she’ll be receiving $500 per month in no-strings-attached payments as part of an experimental universal basic income program in upstate New York. Places from Compton, California, to Richmond, Virginia, are trying out guaranteed income programs, which gained more attention after...