Cargo ship arrives in Philippines to return Canadian trash
SUBIC, Philippines — A Philippine official says a cargo ship has arrived in a northern port to pick up and return 69 containers of Canadian garbage which the government in Manila says was shipped illegally to the Philippines years ago. Administrator Wilma Eisma of Subic Bay freeport says the containers...
Paris wants a ‘Princess Diana Square’ at site of her death
PARIS — Paris City Hall wants to name a small plaza after Princess Diana, at the site of the 1997 car crash that killed the cherished British royal. The site already holds a golden flame-shaped monument in her honor, adjacent to the Alma Tunnel where the accident occurred. The plaza...
Child dies after falling into above-ground pool in Michigan
LANSING, Mich. — Authorities say a young child has died after falling into an above-ground swimming pool at a mid-Michigan home. The Lansing State Journal reports police say the 15-month-old boy was found Wednesday and was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The child’s name wasn’t immediately...
Man dead after setting himself on fire outside White House
WASHINGTON — A Maryland man who set himself on fire on the White House Ellipse on Wednesday afternoon has died, according to the U.S. Park Police. The incident occurred about 12:20 p.m. near 15th Street NW and Constitution Avenue NW. The man was taken to a hospital Wednesday and was...
2 people rescued after clinging to boat for 3 hours
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — A man and a woman are safe after they spent three hours clinging to their capsized sailboat in the Atlantic Ocean about 65 miles off Atlantic City. The Coast Guard received a satellite distress signal from the 55-foot vessel Bertie on Wednesday evening. Coast Guard Petty...
7 dead, 21 missing in Budapest boat disaster
BUDAPEST, Hungary — Rescue divers and boats using spotlights and radar scanners made a last-ditch attempt to find survivors on Thursday after a sightseeing boat sank on the River Danube in Budapest during an evening downpour, leaving seven people confirmed dead and a further 21 missing. The dead and 19...
White House wanted USS John S. McCain covered up during Trump’s Japan visit
The White House asked Navy officials to obscure the USS John S. McCain while President Trump was visiting Japan, Pentagon and White House officials said Wednesday night. A senior Navy official confirmed that he was aware someone at the White House sent a message to service officials in the Pacific...
Girl believed to be tiniest newborn weighed as much as an apple
SAN DIEGO — When she was born, the baby girl weighed about the same as an apple. A San Diego hospital on Wednesday revealed the birth of the girl and said she is believed to be the world’s tiniest surviving micro-preemie, who weighed just 8.6 ounces when she was born...
Two years after fire, West Newton’s Pizza House reopensVideo
Patrons of the popular West Newton Pizza House have patiently waited for nearly two years to taste their favorite pies again, and some are even willing to wait a day longer. Almost two years to the day that a fire caused major damage to the fourth-generation eatery, it opened for...
Body believed to be missing Utah girl ‘Lizzy’ Shelley is foundVideo
SALT LAKE CITY — A body believed to be a missing 5-year-old Utah girl was found Wednesday less than a block from her home, bringing a wide-ranging search to a grim close five days after the child was taken from her home and killed by her uncle, police said. The...
Louisiana lawmakers send ‘fetal heartbeat’ abortion bill to governor
BATON ROUGE — Louisiana lawmakers on Wednesday passed a strict new abortion ban that would prohibit the procedure before some women even know they are pregnant, joining a half-dozen conservative states with similar measures. In a 79-23 vote, the Louisiana House gave final passage to a bill barring abortion once...
Israel to hold new elections as Netanyahu fails to form a governmentVideo
JERUSALEM — In an unprecedented move, Israel will head to elections for a second time in less than six months after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form a government before a midnight deadline. Rather than give someone else the chance to do so, he forwarded legislation to dissolve the...
Health care industry resists White House proposal for pricing transparency
WASHINGTON — President Trump is preparing to issue an executive order to foster greater price transparency across a broad swath of the health care industry while consumer concerns about their costs for medical treatment emerge as a major issue in the leadup to next year’s presidential election. The most far-reaching...
Ethiopian pilot pleaded for training weeks before Boeing 737 Max crash
NEW YORK — Just days after a Lion Air Boeing 737 Max nosedived in Indonesia and killed all 189 people aboard, an Ethiopian Airlines pilot began pleading with his bosses for more training on the Max, warning that crews could easily be overwhelmed in a crisis and that one of...
Pennsylvania abortion law unlikely to budge
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has vowed to veto any anti-choice bill that crosses his desk as a wave of new laws limiting abortions floods the country, but his pledge is not stopping state Republicans from working to pass stricter laws. The Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed a bill this month...
Mueller’s public statement fuels calls for Trump impeachmentVideo
WASHINGTON — Special counsel Robert Mueller’s first — and possibly last — public statement on the Russia investigation is fueling fresh calls on Capitol Hill to begin impeachment proceedings against President Trump, a step that Democratic leaders have so far resisted. Surprising Washington with brief remarks Wednesday, Mueller indicated it’s...
Finance experts call for charter school funding reforms
Echoing complaints of school superintendents across Western Pennsylvania, public school finance experts Wednesday warned that charter school costs are reaching a breaking point for many of Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts. Finance experts with the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials (PASBO) said lawmakers must change the way charter costs are...
‘Unexploded device’ in London is just giant Christmas ornament
Officials got a pretty serious scare in east London on Wednesday. However, the large bomb that some people had reported on the banks of the River Thames turned out to be a giant Christmas decoration. The Tower Hamlets bureau of the Metropolitan Police Department responded to the call of a...
Trump urges Roy Moore not to run for U.S. Senate in Alabama
President Donald Trump on Wednesday discouraged Alabama Republican Roy Moore from running for U.S. Senate again in 2020, saying the GOP must regain the once reliably red state and Moore “cannot win.” Moore, who contends establishment Republicans are trying to keep him from running, disputed the assertion saying, “everybody knows...
New Hampshire man bit by rabid bat hiding in iPad case
A New Hampshire man closing his iPad got a big surprise: A bat was wedged between the back of the device and its cover and bit his finger. Roy Syvertson of South Hampton tells WMUR-TV it felt like a bee sting at first. When he realized he was dealing with...
McConnell says he would fill a Supreme Court vacancy in 2020
When President Barack Obama nominated Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court in 2016, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., refused to consider him, blocking the nominee until after the year’s presidential election. But with his party in the White House, McConnell said Tuesday he’d try to push through any...
Travelers leave nearly $1 million in TSA bins every year
Stressed passengers cruising through airport security checkpoints are abandoning nearly a million dollars in cash each year. And the Transportation Security Administration has been claiming finders keepers. But now someone else wants that money. The Department of Homeland Security is looking to fund border security and they spotted that $3...
U.S. officials to put off oil leases near sacred tribal land
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt has agreed to put off oil and gas leasing for a year on land that tribes consider sacred surrounding Chaco Canyon National Historical Park in northwestern New Mexico. Officials say that will allow time to finish an updated management plan to guide...
4 dead, 8 wounded in church van crash in Virginia
FORD, Va. — Virginia state police released the identity Wednesday of a pickup truck driver who allegedly slammed into the back of a church van, killing four people and injuring eight others. Police said the van carrying 11 people was slowing down to make a right turn into a church...
Pa. State Police count 9 deaths in holiday weekend crashes
The Pennsylvania State Police investigated eight fatal crashes over the holiday weekend that killed nine people. While fatalities for the 2019 Memorial Day Holiday were three times higher than the same period in 2018, the actual number of crashes state police investigated declined from 787 last year to 755 this...