U.S./World category, Page 292
Former Honduran president sentenced for helping traffickers get tons of cocaine into U.S.
NEW YORK — Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was sentenced Wednesday in New York for his conviction on charges that he enabled drug traffickers to use his military and national police force to help get tons of cocaine into the United States. Judge P. Kevin Castel sentenced Hernández to...
Feds charge 5, including man acquitted at trial, for attempting to bribe Minnesota juror with $120K
MINNEAPOLIS — Five people were charged on Wednesday for trying to bribe a juror in one of the country’s largest pandemic aid fraud cases with a bag of $120,000 in cash, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI announced Wednesday. The bribe attempt, which Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson previously...
He flipped off a trooper and got charged. Now Vermont is on the hook for $175,000
ST. ALBANS, Vt. — Vermont has agreed to pay $175,000 to settle a lawsuit on behalf of a man who was charged with a crime for giving a state trooper the middle finger in 2018, the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday. The lawsuit was filed...
Supreme Court overturns ex-mayor’s bribery conviction, narrowing scope of public corruption law
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court overturned the bribery conviction of a former Indiana mayor on Wednesday in an opinion that narrows the scope of public corruption law. The high court’s 6-3 opinion along ideological lines sided with James Snyder, who was convicted of taking $13,000 from a trucking company after...
Supreme Court rules for Biden administration in a social media dispute with conservative states
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday sided with the Biden administration in a dispute with Republican-led states over how far the federal government can go to combat controversial social media posts on topics including covid-19 and election security. By a 6-3 vote, the justices threw out lower-court rulings that...
U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich goes on trial in Russia on espionage charges that he and his employer deny
YEKATERINBURG, Russia — Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich went on trial behind closed doors in Yekaterinburg on Wednesday, 15 months after his arrest in the Russian city on espionage charges that he, his employer and the U.S. government vehemently deny. The 32-year-old journalist appeared in the court in a...
Mother of Chicago woman missing in the Bahamas says she’s ‘deeply concerned’ about her disappearance
CHICAGO — The mother of a Chicago woman who vanished last week in the Bahamas while attending a yoga retreat says she’s “deeply concerned” about her daughter’s disappearance in the Caribbean nation. Taylor Casey, 41, was last seen on June 19 at the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat on Paradise Island,...
New Jersey man flies to Florida to attack another player over an online gaming dispute, deputies say
FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. — An online gaming dispute made its way to the real world when a New Jersey man flew to Florida to attack another player with a hammer, authorities said. Edward Kang, 20, is charged with attempted second-degree murder and armed burglary with a mask, according to Nassau...
WikiLeaks’ Assange pleads guilty in deal with U.S. that secures his freedom, ends legal fightVideo
SAIPAN, Northern Mariana Islands — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has pleaded guilty to obtaining and publishing U.S. military secrets in a deal with Justice Department prosecutors that secures his liberty and concludes a drawn-out legal saga that raised divisive questions about press freedom and national security. The plea was entered...
Iowa floodwaters breach levees as even more rain dumps onto parts of the MidwestVideo
DES MOINES, Iowa — Tornado warnings, flash flooding and large hail added insult to injury for people in the Midwest already contending with heat, humidity and intense flooding after days of rain. The National Weather Service on Tuesday afternoon and evening issued multiple tornado warnings in parts of Iowa and...
Arkansas man pleads not guilty to murder charges for mass shooting at grocery store
CAMDEN, Ark. — The Arkansas man accused of killing four people and injuring 10 others, including two police officers, in a mass shooting at a grocery store pleaded not guilty Tuesday to multiple charges connected to the attack. Appearing in court for the first time, Travis Eugene Posey, 44, pleaded...
North Korea fires ballistic missile toward sea, South Korea says
SEOUL, South Korea — A North Korean ballistic missile test Wednesday likely ended in failure, South Korea’s military said, days after the U.S. deployed an aircraft carrier for a new trilateral military drill with South Korea and Japan. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that North...
Detroit is banning gas stations from locking customers inside, a year after a fatal shooting
DETROIT — The city of Detroit is taking steps to ban gas stations from locking people inside the store, a year after a man was fatally shot during an argument with another customer. Police said a clerk’s decision to lock the door while he was safely behind protective glass contributed...
Karen Read’s jurors must now decide: Was it deadly romance or police corruption?Video
DEDHAM, Mass. — The fate of Karen Read was handed Tuesday to jurors who must decide whether she ended a rocky romance by angrily striking her boyfriend with her SUV and leaving him mortally injured in the snow, or is a victim of police corruption, framed to cover up a...
Suspect kills himself after 5 people fatally shot, teen injured in shootings near Las Vegas, police say
NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. — A man who fatally shot five people and critically injured a 13-year-old girl at apartments near Las Vegas has killed himself, authorities said Tuesday. The North Las Vegas Police Department said the suspected shooter, 47-year-old Eric Adams, killed himself Tuesday morning as he was confronted...
Health officials tell U.S. doctors to be alert for dengue
NEW YORK — U.S. health officials Tuesday warned doctors to be alert for dengue cases as the tropical disease breaks international records. The virus, which is spread by mosquitoes, has been surging worldwide, helped by climate change. In barely six months, countries in the Americas have already broken calendar-year records...
Judge alters Trump’s gag order, letting him talk about witnesses, jury after hush money conviction
NEW YORK — A judge on Tuesday modified Donald Trump’s gag order, freeing the former president to comment publicly about witnesses and jurors in the hush money criminal trial that led to his felony conviction, but keeping others connected to the former president’s case off limits at least until he...
Oklahoma Supreme Court rules publicly funded religious charter school is unconstitutional
OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma board’s approval of what would be the nation’s first publicly funded religious school is unconstitutional and must be rescinded, the state Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday. The high court determined the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board’s 3-2 vote last year to approve the application by...
NTSB chair says Norfolk Southern interfered with derailment probe after botching vent-and-burn call
EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — The head of the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday that Norfolk Southern repeatedly tried to interfere with the agency’s investigation into the East Palestine derailment and shape its conclusions about the flawed decision to blow open five tank cars and burn the vinyl chloride inside....
Lawmakers in a New York county pass transgender athlete ban after earlier ban is thrown out in court
MINEOLA, N.Y. — A county legislature outside New York City has voted to bar transgender female athletes from playing on girls’ and women’s teams at county-owned facilities after a bid to restrict trans athletes by executive order was thrown out in court. The Republican-controlled Nassau County Legislature voted 12-5 on...
On heartland roads, and a riverboat, devout Catholics press on with 2-month nationwide pilgrimage
STEUBENVILLE, Ohio — “Bye bye, Jesus!” a child called out as the riverboat chugged away from shore into the Ohio River, a solemn bell tolling amid the thrumming of an old-fashioned sternwheel. Two Catholic bishops on board, representing dioceses on each side of the river, took turns holding aloft the...
Missouri, Kansas judges temporarily halt much of President Biden’s student debt forgiveness plan
TOPEKA, Kan. — Federal judges in Kansas and Missouri on Monday together blocked much of a Biden administration student loan repayment plan that provides a faster path to cancellation and lower monthly payments for millions of borrowers. The judges’ rulings prevent the U.S. Department of Education from helping many of...
Ukraine realizes a dream as it launches EU membership talks, but joining is likely to take years
BRUSSELS — The European Union launched membership talks with Ukraine on Tuesday, a decade after Russian troops seized the Crimean Peninsula to deter the country from moving closer to the West, part of a chain of events that set the two neighbors on the path to war. Ukraine’s accession negotiations...
More than 500 people have been charged with federal crimes under the gun safety law Biden signed
WASHINGTON — More than 500 people — some linked to transnational cartels and organized crime rings — have been charged with gun trafficking and other crimes under the landmark gun safety legislation President Joe Biden signed two years ago Tuesday. A White House report obtained by The Associated Press on...
Kenya’s parliament burns as protesters object to new taxes; clashes spread, bodies counted
NAIROBI, Kenya — Part of Kenya’s parliament building was burned Tuesday as thousands of protesters against a new finance bill entered and legislators fled, in the most direct assault on the government in decades. Journalists saw at least three bodies outside the complex where police had opened fire, and medical...
