Month: March 2023

By SAM METZ Associated Press PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — Gwyneth Paltrow insisted Friday on the witness stand that a 2016 ski collision at an upscale Utah ski resort wasn’t her fault, claiming it began when the man suing her ran into her from behind. The actor-turned-lifestyle influencer testified that the crash shocked her —

BEIJING (AP) — China’s scandal-plagued football association has been rocked by new corruption probes into its chiefs of discipline and competition. The sports ministry on Friday said Wang Xiaoping, director the CFA’s Disciplinary Committee, and Huang Song, were both “suspected of serious violations” of law and discipline — the government’s usual bywords for graft. Huang

By JIM GOMEZ Associated Press MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A Philippine official says Filipino diplomats have confronted Chinese officials in closed-door talks with a slew of protests over China’s aggressive behavior in the South China Sea but no major resolution was reached on the issues. Recent incidents include a Chinese coast guard ship targeting a

MONTICELLO, Minn. (AP) — Water containing a radioactive material has leaked for a second time from a nuclear plant near Minneapolis and the plant will be shut down, but there is no danger to the public, the plant’s owner said Thursday. A leak of what was believed to be hundreds of gallons of water containing

ANACORTES, Wash. (AP) — The Federal Railroad Administration says a safety device meant to keep trains from tipping into Puget Sound knocked a train off the tracks last week, spilling 3,100 gallons of diesel fuel in Washington state. The BNSF Railway train was approaching a swinging bridge Thursday after leaving an oil refinery in Anacortes

By LOU KESTEN, BASSEM MROUE AND JON GAMBRELL Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — A strike Thursday by a suspected Iranian-made drone killed a U.S. contractor and wounded six other Americans in northeast Syria, and U.S. forces retaliated with airstrikes on sites in Syria used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, the Pentagon said. Activists

By MORGAN LEE Associated Press SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico will build its first wildlife overpasses across highways to provide safe passage to free-roaming cougars, black bears, bighorn sheep and other creatures. It is also setting aside $100 million for conservation projects. Those two initiatives were signed into law Thursday by Gov. Michelle

By ABBY SEWELL Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — Saudi Arabia is in talks with Syria to reopen its embassy in the war-torn nation for the first time in a decade. That’s according to a Saudi state television late Thursday. The development represents the latest diplomatic reshuffling in the region. The announcement on state TV comes

By CHRISTOPHER WEBER Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — A three-day strike by workers in the Los Angeles Unified School District ended Thursday, but it wasn’t immediately clear if any progress was made in negotiations for higher pay for teachers’ aides, bus drivers, custodians and other support staff in the nation’s second-largest school system. Teachers

By GABE STERN Associated Press/Report for America CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — Seven incarcerated firefighters from Nevada are suing state forestry and prison officials who they allege mocked and ignored burn injuries the prisoners received in April 2021 in a wildfire area carpeted by hot soil and burning embers. In emails, state Division of Forestry

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Scandal-embattled Japanese electronics and technology manufacturer Toshiba has accepted a $15 billion tender offer from a buyout fund made up of the nation’s major banks and companies. Tokyo-based Toshiba announced its board accepted the bid from Japan Industrial Partners at 4,620 yen, or $36, a share.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Police in Brazil have exchanged fire with gunmen during a raid on one of Rio de Janeiro’s slums to arrest alleged drug traffickers, and authorities say 13 people were killed in the violence. Police say Thursday’s raid was tied to drug traffickers originally from the northern state of Para, where

By KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea claimed Friday to have tested a nuclear-capable underwater drone designed to generate a gigantic “radioactive tsunami” that would destroy naval strike groups and ports. Analysts were skeptical that the device presents a major new threat, but the test underlines the North’s commitment to

By KEVIN FREKING and ELLEN KNICKMEYER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Two women who experienced life in Chinese “reeducation” camps for Uyghurs were among the witnesses as a special House committee focused on countering China shines a light on human rights abuses in the country. One witness told of Uyghur men and women being tortured.

HONOLULU (AP) — Four Honolulu police officers are pleading not guilty to charges related to their roles in a cover-up of a high-speed chase that resulted in a crash and a traumatic brain injury to the driver of another car. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported the officers entered their pleas in Circuit Court on Thursday. Joshua

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Ling Ma’s sharp and surreal “Bliss Montage” and Beverly Gage’s sweeping biography of the late FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, “G-Man,” are among the winners of the National Book Critics Circle awards. Other works awarded by the NBCC on Thursday night included Isaac Butler’s “The

By SAM METZ and BARBARA ORTUTAY Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Children and teens in Utah would lose access to social media apps such as TikTok if they don’t have parental consent and face other restrictions under a first-in-the-nation law designed to shield young people from the addictive platforms. Two laws signed by

AYER, Mass. (AP) — Officials say five freight train cars have derailed in Massachusetts. But no hazardous materials were being hauled, and there were no reports of injuries. Authorities say the freight cars toppled over at about 11:30 a.m. Thursday. They were carrying sealed containers of trash and recycling material. The fire department called railway

By KEVIN MCGILL Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The White House is defending President Joe Biden’s order that federal employees get vaccinated against COVID-19 after a federal appeals court blocked it. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans on Thursday rejected arguments the nation’s chief executive has the same authority as

By JESSE BEDAYN Associated Press/Report for America DENVER (AP) — Lawmakers in states including Colorado, California, Texas and New York are taking big, legislative swings at the eating disorder crisis. It’s estimated that around 30 million Americans — about the population of Texas — will struggle with an eating disorder in their lifetime. Every year

BROOKINGS, S.D. (AP) — Attorneys have taken their fight over whether to unseal more documents in the 2019 child pornography investigation of billionaire banker T. Denny Sanford to the South Dakota Supreme Court. The banker and philanthropist is seeking to bar the release of affidavits used to issue search warrants in the case. But the

NEW YORK (AP) — A cleric arrested in his native Jamaica and extradited to New York to face state terrorism charges on accusations of recruiting support for the Islamic State group has been sentenced to 18 years in state prison. Abdullah el-Faisal was convicted in January in state Supreme Court in Manhattan on counts including

By JAMIE STENGLE Associated Press DALLAS (AP) — The company responsible for maintaining a Texas interstate where 130 vehicles crashed in icy conditions two years ago, killing six and injuring dozens, failed to address the deteriorating road conditions, federal officials said Thursday. That portion of Interstate 35 West in Fort Worth was not treated with

By MICHAEL R. SISAK and ERIC TUCKER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The Manhattan grand jury investigating Donald Trump over hush money payments turned to other matters on Thursday and is not scheduled to meet on Friday, delaying until next week at the earliest a vote on whether to indict the former president. That’s

By STEVE KARNOWSKI Associated Press ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota is moving to strengthen the state’s protections for children and their families who come for gender-affirming care by making itself a “trans refuge state,” bucking a national backlash against transgender rights. Democratic Gov. Tim Walz signed an executive order two weeks ago to protect

By ARIJETA LAJKA and PHILIP MARCELO NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump getting gang-tackled by riot-gear-clad New York City police officers. Russian President Vladimir Putin in prison grays behind the bars of a dimly lit concrete cell. The highly detailed, sensational images have inundated Twitter and other platforms in recent days, amid news

By MIKE SCHNEIDER Associated Press ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Unions for service workers at Walt Disney World have reached a tentative deal with the company that would raise the starting minimum wage from $15 to $18. Disney World service workers who are in the six unions that make up the Service Trades Council Union coalition

By CHRISTINA LARSON AP Science Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Our capacity to care about others may have very, very ancient origins, a new study suggests. It might have been deep-rooted in prehistoric animals that lived millions of years ago, before fish and mammals like us diverged on the tree of life, according to researchers who

By JOHN FLESHER AP Environmental Writer TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — The Biden administration and groups representing the forest products industry have reached a deal to promote logging practices intended to protect imperiled species on private lands. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to cooperate on projects that could boost struggling populations of pollinating

LOS ANGELES The Los Angeles police chief and the department’s constitutional policing director are under investigation after the names and photographs of undercover officers were released to a technology watchdog group that posted them online. That’s according to the Los Angeles Times. LAPD Chief Michel Moore has offered “deep apologies” to the undercover officers, who

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The lawyer for a one-time Trump supporter caught up in a Jan. 6 conspiracy theory is demanding that Fox News and Tucker Carlson apologize for the many “falsehoods” he says they have spread about his client. The actions taken on behalf of Raymond Epps specifically

By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve is getting some unwanted help in its drive to slow the U.S. economy and defeat the worst bout of inflation in four decades: a cutback in bank lending. The upheaval in the financial system that’s followed the collapse of two major U.S. banks

WINCHESTER, Ohio (AP) — Seven law enforcement officers have sued rap artist Afroman, accusing him of improperly using footage from a police raid on his Ohio home last year in his music videos. Four deputies, two sergeants and a detective with the Adams County Sheriff’s Office brought the suit earlier this month, claiming invasion of

By JIM SALTER Associated Press A Missouri grade school that was shut down last year amid concerns of possible radioactive contamination will not reopen. Jana Elementary School, in the St. Louis County town of Florissant, closed in October after a private study indicated the presence of contamination. The study was funded by lawyers whose clients

By TAMMY WEBBER Associated Press TikTok’s CEO was relatively unknown to the U.S. public before Thursday, when he testified before a congressional committee concerned about data protections on the popular video-sharing app. Singapore-born, Harvard-educated Shou Zi Chew tried to reassure lawmakers that TikTok has not shared the data of 150 million U.S. users with the

By LUIS ANDRES HENAO and MARIAM FAM Associated Press Muslims around the world are welcoming the start of Ramadan, a month of fasting, increased worship, heightened charity, good deeds and community. Christians are also fasting during Lent, the 40-day period of penance and prayer ahead of Easter, which marks the resurrection of Jesus Christ from

By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A lack of drinking water and healthy sanitation infrastructure around the world is dire and getting worse, United Nations experts warned in a report issued Thursday. The report finds that many millions of the world’s 7.78 billion people don’t have enough clean water or sanitation infrastructure