Month: February 2023

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A herd of city goats well-known in Portland, Oregon, were temporarily set free Tuesday morning in what appeared to be an act of protest against a planned sweep of a nearby homeless encampment. The fence of the goats’ enclosure in north Portland was cut, allowing them to get out. The Oregonian/OregonLive

By JUAN A. LOZANO and MICHAEL GRACZYK Associated Press HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — Texas has executed an inmate convicted of killing three teenagers while they slept in a Texas Panhandle home more than 25 years ago. John Balentine’s attorneys had argued his trial and death sentence were marred by racial bias. He received a lethal

By JEFFREY COLLINS Associated Press Alex Murdaugh’s paralegal is testifying at his double murder trial about the betrayal she felt when she discovered he lied and manipulated to steal millions of dollars from clients. But Annette Griswold also told jurors on Wednesday that Murdaugh was a dedicated family man. She says he was so distraught

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Norway’s justice minister has apologized for having failed to admit, when quizzed in Parliament, that she had installed and used TikTok on her government-issued phone. The popular video-sharing app is Chinese owned, which has raised fears in the West that Beijing could use it to scoop up user data or push

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Bulgarian prosecutors have charged a former energy minister in the previous, pro-Western government with mismanagement that allegedly caused losses of 45 million euros ($48 million) to the country’s major state-run gas operator. The Sofia prosecution office said in a statement Wednesday that Alexander Nikolov and two other energy officials had threatened

By RIO YAMAT Associated Press NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. (AP) — A former “Dances With Wolves” actor accused of sexually abusing Indigenous women and girls for decades was charged with federal crimes Wednesday, adding to the growing list of criminal cases against Nathan Chasing Horse since his arrest last week in Nevada. Chasing Horse, 46,

By KATHERINE ROTH Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — It was Valentine’s Day 1917 in the Minnesota farming village of Lewiston, and Fred Roth — a fourth grader — seems to have come up with just the way to express his love for his sweetheart, Louise Wirt. He gave her a card. The folding, pop-up

By MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — As the new chairman of the Senate committee that oversees health and labor issues, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders says some corporations “should be nervous.” And the longtime liberal crusader’s first target is Howard Schultz, the interim CEO of Starbucks who has aggressively fought his workers’ efforts

By KIMBERLEE KRUESI and JONATHAN MATTISE Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A top Tennessee Republican lawmaker says the state should stop accepting the nearly $1.8 billion of federal K-12 education dollars that help provide support for low-income students, English learners and students with disabilities. House Speaker Cameron Sexton told The Associated Press that he

By ERIC TUCKER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Chinese surveillance balloon that traversed the United States before being shot down last weekend captivated public attention and drew sharp denunciations as a brazen spying effort. But if the vehicle for espionage seemed novel, the concept was anything but. In far less public ways, U.S. officials

By RAF CASERT and SAMUEL PETREQUIN Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — A whirlwind 36 hours are taking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy from Kyiv to London, on to Paris and probably to the European Union headquarters in Brussels on Thursday. The EU would thus finally get the global political man of the moment on its home

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Authorities in northern Mexico say they have found the bodies of 14 people in an overturned pickup truck submerged in a canal. The civil defense office in the northern border state of Nuevo Leon said Wednesday that five Guatemalan identification cards or passports were found on the bodies. The bodies of

By BEN FINLEY Associated Press NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — The families of two students at a Virginia elementary school where a 6-year-old shot his teacher have filed notices of potential legal action against the school system. The parents of a first-grader say their daughter was in the classroom when the shooting occurred and “suffered emotional

BOSTON (AP) — An effort to digitize more than 200 Boston Pops radio broadcasts conducted by John Williams from 1979 until 1991 is almost complete. The Boston Symphony Orchestra made the announcement Wednesday, Williams’ 91st birthday. The project to preserve 233 live radio broadcasts recorded on quarter-inch reel-to-reel analog tapes that were becoming increasingly fragile

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen met yet again Wednesday with New York City prosecutors who have spent years examining the former president’s financial dealings. Cohen stopped briefly to talk with reporters as he entered the Manhattan district attorney’s office. He said it was the 15th time he had met with

By ANDREW DAMPF AP Sports Writer MERIBEL, France (AP) — Mikaela Shiffrin woke up to the news that LeBron James had broken the NBA scoring record and the American skier immediately drew comparisons to her own record-breaking season. An inspired Shiffrin went out a few hours later and put an end to her uncharacteristically miserable

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press ROME (AP) — European bishops are demanding the immediate release of Nicaraguan clergy who have been detained in the government’s crackdown on the Catholic Church. Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, president of the Commission of the Bishops Conferences of the European Union, said European bishops would do “everything in their power” to

HAMDEN, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut teenager has been jailed on numerous charges after a fight in school led to the discovery of a gun and a high-capacity magazine hidden in a classroom closet. Police say the 18-year-old was first charged with assault and disorderly conduct after a fight with a 16-year-old at the Hamden

MADRID (AP) — Spain’s government has pledged stronger action against cybercrime, which has come to account for about a fifth of all offenses registered in the country. Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said police would be given additional staff, funding and resources to address online crime. He said Wednesday that reported cases of cybercrime were up

By EDMAR BARROS and FABIANO MAISONNAVE ALTO ALEGRE, Brazil (AP) — Brazilian authorities have launched an operation to reclaim Yanomami Indigenous territory from thousands of illegal gold miners who have contaminated rivers and brought famine and disease to one of the most isolated populations of the world. On Tuesday, federal agents destroyed a helicopter, an

By HANNA ARHIROVA Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian tennis player and Olympic bronze medalist Elina Svitolina has pushed for a total ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes from the 2024 Paris Games in an interview with The Associated Press. Svitolina won her bronze medal in singles at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. She

By GRAHAM DUNBAR AP Sports Writer GENEVA (AP) — The International Olympic Committee has pushed back against the mayor of Paris by insisting there are no plans for “a Russian or Belarusian delegation” at the 2024 Games while also acknowledging that some athletes from those countries could be welcomed. The IOC statement came a day

By DIOMANDE BLE BLONDE and KRISTA LARSON Associated Press YAMOUSSOUKRO, Ivory Coast (AP) — Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been honored for her efforts to allow more than 1.2 million migrants between 2015-2016. Merkel was awarded a UNESCO peace prize on Wednesday in Ivory Coast that is named for the country’s first president after

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark’s royal palace says Queen Margrethe II will undergo “major back surgery” later this month. The palace said Wednesday that the 82-year-monarch would be hospitalized afterward and undergo “a longer rehabilitation process.” Margrethe has reigned for a half-century and is Europe’s longest-serving monarch. She is Denmark’s head of state but has

Associated Press KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — A driver whose car hit and killed a Rwandan investigative journalist has pled guilty and been fined by the court. Moise Emmanuel Bagirishya was fined $920 for involuntary manslaughter, three weeks after John William Ntwali was killed. Ntwali was riding as a passenger on a motorbike when the accident

By NOEL SICHALWE Associated Press LUSAKA, Zambia (AP) — A Zambian official has announced that eight Croatians rearrested in the southern African country will face new charges of child trafficking and are expected to appear in court on Thursday. Earlier this week a court dropped child trafficking charges against the eight — four couples —