U.S./World category, Page 881
Executioners sanitized accounts of deaths in federal cases
Executioners who put 13 inmates to death in the last months of the Trump administration likened the process of dying by lethal injection to falling asleep and called gurneys “beds” and final breaths “snores.” But those tranquil accounts are at odds with reports by The Associated Press and other media...
Rush Limbaugh, ‘voice of American conservatism,’ dies at 70
PALM BEACH, Fla. — Rush Limbaugh, the talk radio host who ripped into liberals, foretold the rise of Donald Trump and laid waste to political correctness with a merry brand of malice that made him one of the most powerful voices on the American right, died Wednesday. He was 70....
California lawmaker proposes ban on fracking by 2027
Heeding the call of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a state senator introduced legislation Wednesday that would ban all fracking in the nation’s most populated state by 2027 and halt the oil and gas extraction method around schools and homes by Jan. 1. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a technique used...
NASA rover attempting most difficult Martian touchdown yet
Spacecraft aiming to land on Mars have skipped past the planet, burned up on entry, smashed into the surface, and made it down amid a fierce dust storm only to spit out a single fuzzy gray picture before dying. Almost 50 years after the first casualty at Mars, NASA is...
Kamala Harris calls for teachers to get covid vaccine priority
Speaking in her first sit-down network television interview since taking office, Vice President Kamala Harris stressed the importance of getting educators vaccinated since their work is so important and they work in an environment where protective measures are tough to implement. “Teachers should be a priority,” said Harris on Wednesday....
British queen’s husband, Prince Philip, admitted to hospital
LONDON — Britain’s 99-year-old Prince Philip has been admitted to a London hospital after feeling unwell, Buckingham Palace said Wednesday. The palace said the husband of Queen Elizabeth II was admitted to the private King Edward VII Hospital on Tuesday evening. It called the admission “a precautionary measure” taken on...
U.S. retail sales jumps 5.3%, thanks to $600 stimulus checks
NEW YORK — The $600 stimulus checks got Americans shopping again. After three months of declines, retail sales soared a seasonally adjusted 5.3% in January from the month before, the U.S. Commerce Department said Wednesday. It was the biggest increase since June and much larger than the 1% rise Wall...
100 million Americans brace for more cold, ice and snow
The winter weather that has overwhelmed power grids unprepared for climate change and left millions without electricity in record-breaking cold kept its grip on the nation’s midsection Wednesday. At least 20 people have died, some while struggling to find warmth inside their homes. In the Houston area, one family succumbed...
Watch live: Trump Plaza being imploded in Atlantic City
The former Trump Plaza in Atlantic City, shuttered in 2014 and vacant since, is set to be demolished around 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 17. Unlike the implosion of the Sands casino in 2007 — which was held on a Friday night and featured a fireworks display and drew 100,000...
Man set fire to his lawn to clear snow and ice, cops say
If you encounter a particularly rough patch of ice or snow while shoveling this winter, don’t reach for a can of gasoline like a Midland Park, N.J., man did on Friday, police say. Police and firefighters responded to the man’s home on Paterson Avenue where he had set a small...
Seattle woman, 90, walks 6 miles through snow for vaccine
SEATTLE — A rare winter storm that dumped a foot of snow on Seattle couldn’t keep a 90-year-old woman from her first appointment for the coronavirus vaccine. The Seattle Times reports that Fran Goldman walked six miles round trip to get her shot. “I have been calling to get an...
Some dinosaur migration was delayed by climate, study shows
Plant-eating dinosaurs probably arrived in the Northern Hemisphere millions of years after their meat-eating cousins, a delay likely caused by climate change, a new study found. A new way of calculating the dates of dinosaur fossils found in Greenland shows that the plant eaters, called sauropodomorphs, were about 215 million...
‘A complete bungle:’ Texas’ energy pride goes out with frigid temperaturesVideo
AUSTIN — Anger over Texas’ power grid failing in the face of a record winter freeze mounted Tuesday as millions of residents in the energy capital of the U.S. remained shivering with no assurances that their electricity and heat — out for 24 hours or longer in many homes —...
Millions endure record cold without power; at least 20 dead across U.S.Video
OCEAN ISLE BEACH, N.C. — A winter storm that left millions without power in record-breaking cold weather claimed more lives Tuesday, including three people found dead after a tornado hit a seaside town in North Carolina and four family members who perished in a Houston-area house fire while using a...
Report: Iran and Russia begin joint naval drill
TEHRAN, Iran — The Iranian and Russian militaries have kicked off a joint naval drill in the Indian Ocean aimed at boosting security of maritime trade in the region, Iran’s state TV reported on Tuesday. The TV said units from Iran’s Navy and the powerful Revolutionary Guard’s naval forces will...
Case dropped after woman in racist NYC run-in gets therapy
NEW YORK — Amy Cooper, the white woman arrested last year for calling 911 on a Black birdwatcher in New York’s Central Park, had her criminal case thrown out Tuesday after completing a diversionary counseling program that prosecutors said was meant to educate her on the harm of her actions....
Muted Mardi Gras: Closed bars, barricaded Bourbon Street
NEW ORLEANS — Music blared from the courtyard of a French Quarter restaurant on Mardi Gras morning but nobody was there to hear it until Tom Gibson and Sheila Wheeler of Philadelphia walked out of their hotel’s nearly empty lobby. “We were expecting a little bit lower key than the...
Belarus targets journalists, activists in new raids
KYIV, Ukraine — Authorities in Belarus raided homes and offices of journalists and human rights activists Tuesday in the latest move to squelch protests against authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko. Police searched the offices of the Belarusian Association of Journalists and the Viasna human rights center as well as the apartments...
Myanmar’s Suu Kyi faces new charge as crackdown intensifies
YANGON, Myanmar — Police in Myanmar filed a new charge against ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi, her lawyer said Tuesday, in a move that may allow her to be held indefinitely without trial as part of an intensifying crackdown by authorities who seized power in a coup. Suu Kyi,...
In Athens, rare snow blankets Acropolis, halts vaccinations
ATHENS, Greece — Heavy snowfall blanketed the Acropolis and other ancient monuments in Athens and halted covid-19 vaccinations in the Greek capital Tuesday as the weather brought many services across the country to a standstill. The snow, an unusual sight in the city of more than 3 million residents, also...
Biden extends pandemic help for homeowners, renters wait
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is extending a ban on housing foreclosures to June 30 to help homeowners struggling during the coronavirus pandemic. The moratorium on foreclosures of federally guaranteed mortgages had been set to expire on March 31. On his first day in office, Biden had extended the moratorium...
France, West Africa to step up counterterrorism efforts
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday urged West African leaders to step up efforts in the fight against Islamic extremists in the Sahel region both on the military and political fronts, with support from the international community. Macron joined by video from Paris Tuesday a summit held in...
Rockets strike near U.S. base in Iraq, killing 1, wounding 8
BAGHDAD — Rockets struck Monday outside Irbil international airport near where U.S. forces are based in northern Iraq, killing one U.S.-led coalition contractor and wounding at least eight people, Iraqi security and coalition officials reported, sparking fears of new hostilities. At least three rockets hit areas between the civilian airport...
Egypt: Archaeologists unearth ancient beer factory in Abydos
CAIRO — American and Egyptian archaeologists have unearthed what could be the oldest known beer factory at one of the most prominent archaeological sites of ancient Egypt, a top antiquities official said. Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the factory was found in Abydos, an...
Okonjo-Iweala becomes 1st woman, African to lead WTO
FRANKFURT, Germany — Nigerian economist Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was appointed Monday to head the World Trade Organization, becoming the first woman and first African to take on the role amid rising protectionism and disagreement over how the body decides cases involving billions in sales and thousands of jobs. Okonjo-Iweala, 66, was...
