Month: March 2023

CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) — A dilapidated house where Martin Luther King Jr. stayed in southern New Jersey has been severely damaged in an early morning fire. Chief Michael Harper of the Camden Fire Department told the Courier-Post that the blaze at the three-story row home was reported shortly after 2:30 a.m. Saturday. A city spokesperson

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Tens of thousands of Israelis demonstrated Saturday against a contentious plan to overhaul the judiciary as the government pressed ahead with the plan. The nationwide demonstrations have been a regular weekly event for more than two months. Netanyahu and his allies have pledged to press ahead with a series of

By DAVE CAMPBELL AP Pro Football Writer MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Bud Grant, the stoic and demanding Hall of Fame coach who took the Minnesota Vikings and their mighty Purple People Eaters defense to four Super Bowls in eight years and lost all of them, died Saturday. He was 95. The Vikings announced Grant’s death on

By ELAINE GANLEY Associated Press PARIS (AP) — Opponents of French President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 have staged a new round of protests to try to push the government to withdraw the unpopular plan. Determination was high on Saturday, but the crowds were smaller than in past

By SCOTT SONNER Associated Press RENO, Nev. (AP) — Last winter, most ski resorts at Lake Tahoe had to postpone their usual November openings because there wasn’t enough snow. This season, several have been forced to close at times because there’s been too much. A relentless winter has dumped more than 50 feet (15 meters)

ISTANBUL (AP) — The head of Turkey’s disaster and emergency management agency has raised the country’s death toll from a magnitude 7.8 earthquake last month to 47,975. AFD head Yunus Sezer said during a news conference on Saturday that the people who died included 6,278 foreigners, with Syrian nationals accounting for the largest share. The

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — U.S. health agencies have sent a letter to Florida’s surgeon general, warning him that his claims about COVID-19 vaccine risks are harmful to the public. The letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was sent Friday to Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An autopsy has concluded that the death of one of two Ohio twin boys who became the center of an AMBER Alert last year was due to “sudden unexplained infant death” that involved an “unsafe sleep environment.” The Franklin County Coroner’s Office said there was no evidence of trauma, abuse or

By JULIE WATSON, JAMES POLLARD, and ALFREDO PEÑA Associated Press/Report for America LAKE CITY, S.C. (AP) — It was supposed to be a fun road trip to Mexico, a post-pandemic adventure for a group of childhood friends. One was treating herself to cosmetic surgery after having six children. It was a 34th birthday celebration for

By MSTYSLAV CHERNOV and EVGENY MALOLETKA Associated Press KOSTIANTYNIVKA, Ukraine (AP) — The firefighters find thick grey smoke pouring from the roof of a brick house that is one of several homes hit by Russian shelling in a residential neighborhood of Kostiantynivka. The city in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk province has come under intense bombardment in

Associated Press REDMOND, Wash. (AP) — Police say a longhaul truck driver from Texas who became obsessed with a software engineer after meeting her through a social media chatroom app broke into her suburban Seattle home and killed her, her husband and himself after stalking them for months. Redmond Police Chief Darrell Lowe said officers

PRAGUE (AP) — Thousands of people in the Czech Republic rallied in Prague to protest high inflation and to demand an end to the country’s military support for Ukraine. A new political group, PRO, organized the rally at Prague’s Wenceslas Square as an anti-poverty event. Participants called on the coalition government to resign. The party’s

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A Pakistani official says a landmine explosion in the country’s southwest has killed two people and critically injured another. The blast went off as a local politician was traveling in a convoy to his hometown in Baluchistan province. He escaped unhurt, the official said Saturday. The province has long struggled with

By KAWEEWIT KAEWJINDA Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — Two Thai women activists have given up their hunger strike of more than seven weeks and say they’ll continue their fight for political and judicial reforms. They were on hunger strike since Jan. 18, much of that time refusing water as well. Doctors several times had announced

By BOBBY CAINA CALVAN Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A film buff from Oklahoma City, Elyssa Mann has scant time to waste, needing to cross just four more movies off her Oscars list before Sunday’s Academy Awards broadcast: Two animated films, one for cinematography and another for costume design. In the San Francisco Bay

By JUAN A. LOZANO and PAUL J. WEBER Associated Press HOUSTON (AP) — In four years of Houston schools being under threat of one of the biggest state takeovers ever in the U.S., teacher Arnetta Murray says the district has come a long way. As Houston braces for a decision from the state on whether

By JOHN FLESHER AP Environmental Writer EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (AP) — Heather Bable speaks rapidly, recalling the terror of the night when a train loaded with hazardous chemicals derailed less than a half-mile from her home in East Palestine, Ohio. She heard an earthshaking boom and, from her bathroom window, “all you saw was the

ARE, Sweden (AP) — American skier Mikaela Shiffrin has set the outright World Cup record for most career victories with 87 by winning a slalom. Shiffrin broke a tie with Ingemar Stenmark on the all-time overall winners list between men and women. The Swede competed in the 1970s and 80s. Shiffrin had matched Stenmark’s mark

By CHEYANNE MUMPHREY and ARLEIGH RODGERS Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — America’s schools say kids are hungry — just as pandemic-era benefit programs have lapsed. There is growing concern about the effects on kids’ ability to learn. Congress temporarily made school meals free to all American schoolkids, but since that ended last fall, the need

MULTAN, Pakistan (AP) — An official say a tractor-pulled trolley transporting villagers to a shrine fell into an irrigation canal in eastern Pakistan, killing at least 10 people. The head of the rescue service in the Dera Ghazi Khan district of Punjab province, said 27 of the 46 people onboard the trolley were rescued after

By GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO Associated Press DORAL, Florida (AP) — Several of Florida’s conservative faith leaders have the ear of two early frontrunners for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination – former president Donald Trump, who lives in Palm Beach, and Gov. Ron DeSantis. The clergy’s top political priorities are thus likely to resonate in the national

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — Federal law enforcement agents were involved in a standoff at a Kansas apartment complex Friday evening after a suspect and an agent exchanged gunfire while authorities attempted to serve a warrant. WDAF-TV reports that John Lacy of the Overland Park Police Department says the U.S. Marshals Service and the FBI

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The BBC faces an escalating crisis over its suspension of program host Gary Lineker for comments criticizing the British government’s new asylum policy. Britain’s national broadcaster has been accused of political bias and suppressing free speech and received praise from Conservative politicians. It suspended former England captain

By MAURICIO SAVARESE and CARLA BRIDI Associated Press SAO PAULO (AP) — When rioters stormed Brazil’s top government buildings in January to dispute the outcome of the presidential election, many soldiers stood by as far-right protesters broke windows, defecated in offices and destroyed valuable art. The images from Brasilia that day still haunt the left-leaning

BEIJING (AP) — China says it has no hidden motives and isn’t trying to fill any vacuum in the Middle East after it hosted talks at which Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed to reestablish diplomatic relations. The Foreign Ministry on Saturday quoted an unidentified spokesperson saying China “pursues no selfish interest whatsoever” and opposes geopolitical

By KARL RITTER Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces have made progress in their campaign to capture the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, the focus of the war’s longest ground battle, but their assault will be difficult to sustain without more significant personnel losses, British military officials said Saturday. The U.K. Defense

By SAMY MAGDY Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — The U.N. says Yemen’s warring sides have begun talks aimed at implementing a U.N.-brokered deal on a prisoner exchange. The discussions between Yemen’s internationally recognized government and the Houthi rebels are talking place in Switzerland. They are co-chaired by U.N. envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg and the

By BRIAN P. D. HANNON The campus of a liberal arts college in Maine was on a temporary lockdown early Saturday after a shot was fired in a student housing complex during what one student called a massive annual party. Colby College said no students were hurt during an altercation that involved a firearm being

By SAM MEDNICK Associated Press DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for killing more than 35 people and wounding dozens in eastern Congo. In a statement posted Friday by Aamaq, the militants’ news agency, it said it killed “Christians” with guns and knives and destroyed their property in Mukondi village

By SLAMET RIYADI Associated Press MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s Mount Merapi erupted Saturday with avalanches of searing gas clouds and lava, forcing authorities to halt tourism and mining activities on the slopes of the country’s most active volcano. Merapi, on the densely populated island of Java, unleashed clouds of hot ash and a