North Korea says it carried out ‘very important test’
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said Sunday it carried out a “very important test” at its long-range rocket launch site that U.S. and South Korean officials said the North had partially dismantled as part of denuclearization steps. The announcement comes amid dimming prospects for a resumption of nuclear negotiations...
Rudy Giuliani will file report on findings from Ukraine, Trump says
WASHINGTON — President Trump said his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, plans to prepare a report for the U.S. Justice Department and Congress about allegations of misconduct the former New York mayor says he uncovered during a recent trip to Ukraine. Trump said Giuliani, a central figure in the impeachment investigation...
House impeachment report looks at abuse, bribery, corruption
WASHINGTON — Previewing potential articles of impeachment, the House Democrats on Saturday issued a lengthy report drawing on history and the Founding Fathers to lay out the legal argument over the case against President Trump’s actions toward Ukraine. The findings from the House Judiciary Committee do not spell out the...
Tuskegee Airman celebrates 100th birthday with flight
FREDERICK, Md. — A member of the Tuskegee Airmen celebrated his 100th birthday by taking a flight. Retired Army Air Forces Col. Charles McGee flew a private jet Friday between Frederick, Maryland, and Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, news outlets reported. The Tuskegee Airmen is the nickname of the...
Iran frees Chinese-American scholar for U.S.-held scientist
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A Princeton scholar held for three years in Iran on widely criticized espionage charges was freed Saturday as part of a prisoner exchange that saw America release a detained Iranian scientist, a rare diplomatic breakthrough between Tehran and Washington after months of tensions. The trade...
Venice tide barriers pass another test, but skeptics remain
VENICE, Italy — Floated along by barge , one of the 10-ton barriers designed to relieve Venice’s perennial flooding looks like a giant plaything: an oversized hinged yellow Lego. Central to the plan to protect the city, some or all of the 78 barriers will one day be raised when...
Caroline Kennedy christens father’s namesake carrier
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — John F. Kennedy’s daughter Caroline has christened a new aircraft carrier that is named after the 35th U.S. president. Caroline Kennedy smashed a bottle across the USS John Kennedy carrier’s hull Saturday at the shipyard in Newport News, Virginia. She is the sponsor of her father’s...
Protests subside, but economic aftershocks rattle Haitians
Port-au-Prince — The flaming barricades are mostly gone, protesters have largely dissipated and traffic is once again clogging the streets of Haiti’s capital, but hundreds of thousands of people are now suffering deep economic aftershocks after more than two months of demonstrations. The protests that drew tens of thousands of...
Oakmont food truck looks to small loans for big expansion
An Oakmont food truck seeking to make the leap to a full restaurant and bar isn’t going about raising money for the jump in the traditional fashion. Ken Shields, a full-time IT worker and grilling hobbyist who founded the Oakmont Barbeque Company food truck, could go to a bank or...
Chicago chief’s firing again rattles confidence in force
CHICAGO — The unceremonious firing of Chicago’s police superintendent just weeks before his retirement has rattled a department that, under his leadership, was seeking to restore public confidence since the release of a 2014 video showing a white officer killing a black teenager with 16 gunshots. Mayor Lori Lightfoot blasted...
Minnesota National Guard identifies 3 killed in copter crash
ST. CLOUD, Minn. — The Minnesota National Guard says the three soldiers who were killed when their helicopter crashed near St. Cloud this week were part of a unit that returned last May from a nine-month deployment to the Middle East. The Guard identified the men who were killed in...
Naval base shooter investigated for possible terrorism links
PENSACOLA, Fla. —U.S. officials investigating the deadly attack by a Saudi aviation student at a naval air station in Florida were working Saturday to determine whether it was motivated by terrorism. An aviation student from Saudi Arabia opened fire in a classroom at the Naval Air Station Pensacola on Friday...
Aging survivors return to Pearl Harbor to recall ’41 attack
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii — A dozen frail survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor returned Saturday to honor those who perished when Japanese planes pierced a quiet sunny morning 78 years ago and rained bombs on battleships lined up below. About 30 World War II veterans and some 2,000 members...
New Hampshire to Supreme Court: Leave nudity laws to locals
CONCORD, N.H. — There’s no reason for the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on New Hampshire’s “Free the Nipple” case, the state attorney general said this week. The high court is deciding whether to accept the appeal of three women who were convicted of public nudity at Weirs Beach...
Voting site reopened in Georgia after grassroots fight
HAZLEHURST, Ga. — When local election officials shut down a polling site in a predominantly black area of a rural Georgia county, displaced voters couldn’t look to the federal government to intervene as it once did in areas with a history of racial disenfranchisement. So residents banded together, circulating petitions...
PG&E says it has reached $13.5 billion wildfire settlement
SAN FRANCISCO — Pacific Gas and Electric says it has reached a $13.5 billion settlement that will resolve all major claims related to devastating wildfires blamed on its outdated equipment and negligence. The settlement, which the utility says was reached Friday, still requires court approval. PG&E says it is a...
Deserted 5-year-old takes toddler to neighbor in bitter cold
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A 5-year-old child left alone in a house in a remote Alaska village carried a toddler half a mile to a neighbor’s home in the bitter cold wearing only socks and light clothing after the power went out, authorities said Friday. Both children suffered cold-weather injuries in...
Haley: Killer ‘hijacked’ Confederate flag meaning for some
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said in an interview that a man who gunned down nine worshipers at an African American church in 2015 “hijacked” the ideals many connected to the Confederate battle flag. Haley told conservative political commentator and Blaze TV host Glenn Beck that the flag had...
Biden: ‘Best people’ for posts, but they could be donors
DECORAH, Iowa — Joe Biden declined Friday to rule out appointing political donors to ambassadorships or other posts if he wins the 2020 presidential election. But he pledged that his nominees, regardless of their contributor status, would be the “best people” for their posts. Biden’s position diverges from fellow Democratic...
Pearl Harbor shooting unfolded in 23 seconds in packed area
HONOLULU — The U.S. Navy sailor who fatally shot two people at Pearl Harbor before killing himself was unhappy with his commanders and had been undergoing counseling, a military official said Friday. Gabriel Romero, 22, also faced non-judicial punishment, which is a lower-level administrative process for minor misconduct, said the...
Cowboys for Trump group now says sand wasn’t from monument
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Iconic gypsum sand that the group Cowboys for Trump had said was from White Sands National Monument in New Mexico and was sent to Washington for the U.S. Capitol Tree lighting ceremony this week was actually gathered just outside the monument, one of the group’s co-founders said...
Netflix executive touts ‘golden era’ of streaming service
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An executive with Netflix says the streaming giant has boosted its original content exponentially over the last several years and that will mean more action for its production hub in New Mexico, where state officials have been busy trying to woo more big partners in the industry....
Illinois prison guards face federal charges in inmate death
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Three Illinois prison guards were arraigned in federal court Friday on charges of assault and civil rights violations in the May 2018 death of an inmate at Western Illinois Correctional Center. A grand jury indicted the correctional officers, who also face charges that they falsified reports...
Stepdad blasts cops in shootout that killed UPS driver. ‘They murdered him,’ he says
MIRAMAR, Fla. — A police chase that ended in a wild shootout left a UPS driver taken hostage and another innocent bystander among the dead Thursday afternoon in Miramar — and the hostage’s family demands to know how police could let that happen. Officers chased armed robbers who held up...
Lawmakers call for alternatives to indefinite drivers’ license suspensions
Ever-soaring traffic fines have created a new class of desperadoes in Pennsylvania. Young drivers who fail to pay traffic fines are then slapped with indefinite drivers’ license suspensions, and they risk even higher fines when they get behind the wheel. Make no mistake, this is a large class. A pair...
