U.S./World category, Page 853
Arturo Di Modica, sculptor of Wall Street bull, dies at 80
ROME — The artist who sculpted Charging Bull, the bronze statue in New York which became an iconic symbol of Wall Street, has died in his hometown in Sicily at age 80. Arturo Di Modica died at his home in Vittoria on Friday evening, the town said in a statement...
Moscow court rejects opposition leader Navalny’s appeal
MOSCOW — A Moscow court on Saturday rejected Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s appeal of his prison sentence, even as the country faced an order from a top European rights court to free the Kremlin’s most prominent foe. A few hours later, a judge in a separate case ordered Navalny...
Spain: Peaceful protests for jailed rapper see more looting
BARCELONA, Spain — A fifth night of peaceful protests to denounce the imprisonment of a Spanish rap artist once more devolved into clashes between police and the members of fringe groups who set up street barricades and smashed storefront windows Saturday night in downtown Barcelona. Small groups made up mostly...
Warmer temps bring relief as cold-weary South starts cleanup
DALLAS — Warmer temperatures spread across the southern United States on Saturday, bringing some relief to a winter weary region that faces a challenging clean-up and expensive repairs from days of extreme cold and widespread power outages. In hard-hit Texas, where millions were warned to boil tap water before drinking...
Debris falls from plane during emergency landing near Denver
Debris from a United Airlines plane fell onto Denver suburbs during an emergency landing Saturday after one of its engines suffered a catastrophic failure and rained pieces of the engine casing on a neighborhood where it narrowly missed a home. The plane landed safely, and nobody aboard or on the...
Weather experts: Lack of planning caused cold catastrophe
This week’s killer freeze in the U.S. was no surprise. Government and private meteorologists saw it coming, some nearly three weeks in advance. They started sounding warnings two weeks ahead of time. They talked to officials. They issued blunt warnings through social media. And yet catastrophe happened. At least 20...
G-7 vows ‘equitable’ world vaccine access, but details scant
LONDON — Leaders of the Group of Seven economic powers promised Friday to immunize the world’s neediest people against the coronavirus by giving money, and precious vaccine doses, to a U.N.-backed vaccine distribution effort. But the leaders, under pressure over their vaccination campaigns at home, were unwilling to say exactly...
NASA scientist discusses search for life on Mars: ‘Who knows what we’ll find?’Video
Humans have long wondered about the existence of life on Mars. Now that NASA has landed the technologically advanced Perseverance Rover on the Red Planet, the search for life on Mars is being renewed. On Thursday, NASA performed a direct entry of the Martian atmosphere, surviving what NASA scientists call...
Massive breach fuels calls for U.S. action on cybersecurity
WASHINGTON — Jolted by a sweeping hack that may have revealed government and corporate secrets to Russia, U.S. officials are scrambling to reinforce the nation’s cyber defenses and recognizing that an agency created two years ago to protect America’s networks and infrastructure lacks the money, tools and authority to counter...
Lights come back on in Texas as water woes rise in the South
AUSTIN, Texas — Many of the millions of Texans who lost power for days after a deadly winter blast overwhelmed the electric grid now have it back, but the crisis was far from over in parts of the South, with many people lacking safe drinking water. About 325,000 homes and...
It’s final: Harry and Meghan won’t return as working royals
LONDON — Buckingham Palace confirmed Friday that Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, will not be returning to royal duties, and Harry will give up his honorary military titles — a decision that makes formal, and final, the couple’s split from the royal family. When Harry and Meghan stepped away...
NASA rover lands on Mars to look for signs of ancient life
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A NASA rover streaked through the orange Martian sky and landed on the planet Thursday, accomplishing the riskiest step yet in an epic quest to bring back rocks that could answer whether life ever existed on Mars. Ground controllers at the space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory...
South Dakota’s AG charged with 3 misdemeanors in fatal crash
PIERRE, S.D. — South Dakota’s Republican attorney general has been charged with misdemeanor careless driving after he struck and killed a man with his car, authorities said Thursday. Jason Ravnsborg is also facing misdemeanor charges of operating a motor vehicle while using a mobile electronic device and veering out of...
Depleted uranium from tanks, ammo not tied to Gulf War syndrome, new study finds
WASHINGTON — Depleted uranium in tanks and ammunition used in the 1991 Gulf War “played no role” in the unexplained illnesses, known as Gulf War syndrome, that veterans faced in the years afterward, according to a new study. The findings by the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and the...
Bob Dole says he’s been diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer
TOPEKA, Kan. — Bob Dole, a former longtime senator and the 1996 Republican presidential nominee, announced Thursday that he has been diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer. Dole, 97, said in a short statement that he was diagnosed recently and would begin treatment on Monday. “While I certainly have some...
Baby whale found dead on beach south of Israel’s Tel Aviv
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli officials said Thursday that a dead whale has washed up on a beach south of Tel Aviv. David Halfon of the Nature and Parks Authority said the animal was a fin whale calf about half the size of an adult, which can grow to more...
U.S. jobless claims rise to 861,000 as layoffs stay high
WASHINGTON — The number of Americans applying for unemployment aid rose last week to 861,000, evidence that layoffs remain painfully high despite a steady drop in the number of confirmed viral infections. Applications from laid-off workers rose 13,000 from the previous week, which was revised sharply higher, the Labor Department...
Myanmar protests focus on junta’s economic support
YANGON, Myanmar — State railway workers in Myanmar continued to strike Thursday despite a police rampage the previous night targeting them in a sign of the military junta’s concern over growing civil disobedience by public workers protesting the coup. Three-quarters of the country’s civil servants are on strike, all private...
German police crack down on Berlin organized crime families
BERLIN — Hundreds of German police and other investigators raided more than 20 buildings in Berlin and the surrounding state of Brandenburg early Thursday in a crackdown on two feuding organized crime families, authorities said. Two people, a 44-year-old and a 22-year-old, were arrested, police said. No names were given...
NASA rover lands on Mars to look for signs of ancient lifeVideo
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A NASA rover streaked through the orange Martian sky and landed on the planet Thursday, accomplishing the riskiest step yet in an epic quest to bring back rocks that could answer whether life ever existed on Mars. Ground controllers at the space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory...
Even without listening, U.S. lives in Rush Limbaugh’s media world
NEW YORK — You didn’t have to like or even listen to Rush Limbaugh to be affected by what he did. Conservative talk radio wasn’t a genre before him. Without Limbaugh, it’s hard to imagine a Fox News Channel, or a President Donald Trump, or a media landscape defined by...
U.S. life expectancy drops a year in pandemic, most since WWII
Life expectancy in the United States dropped a staggering one year during the first half of 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic caused its first wave of deaths, health officials are reporting. Minorities suffered the biggest impact, with Black Americans losing nearly three years and Hispanics, nearly two years, according to...
Some power restored in Texas but water woes persist
AUSTIN, Texas — Power was restored to more homes and businesses in Texas on Thursday after a deadly blast of winter this week overwhelmed the electrical grid and left millions shivering in the cold. But the crisis was far from over, with many people still in need of safe drinking...
2 Belarusian journalists sent to prison for covering protest
KYIV, Ukraine — A court in Belarus on Thursday sent two female journalists to prison on charges of violating public order after they covered a protest against the nation’s authoritarian president. The court in the Belarusian capital of Minsk handed two-year sentences to Katsiaryna Bakhvalava, 27, who goes by the...
Spain: Dozens arrested in fresh riots over rapper’s jailing
MADRID — More than 50 people were arrested and dozens injured during a second night of protests that turned violent in several Spanish cities. The protests were sparked by the imprisonment of a rapper who had insulted the monarchy and praised terrorism. The protests began peacefully late Wednesday in dozens...
