Month: August 2023

By TRAVIS LOLLER Associated Press GALLATIN, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee man who had been facing a death penalty trial in the killings of eight people in rural Westmoreland in April 2019, including his parents, uncle and a 12-year-old girl, pleaded guilty Wednesday to eight counts of first-degree murder in exchange for a sentence of

By WAYNE PARRY Associated Press TOMS RIVER, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey has accepted a revised settlement over chemical dumping that turned a Jersey Shore community into one of America’s most notorious toxic waste cleanup sites. But opponents say the deal is only marginally better than before, and plan to sue the state to block

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Most Federal Reserve officials last month still regarded high inflation as an ongoing threat that could require further interest rate increases, according to the minutes of their July 25-26 meeting released Wednesday. At the same time, the officials saw “a number of tentative signs that inflation

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A gruesome video circulated Wednesday on social media may have recorded the last moments of five kidnapped young men, and has transported Mexico back to the darkest days of drug cartel brutality in the 2000s. Prosecutors in the western state of Jalisco say they are investigating the video, and relatives of

By JOHN HANNA and JIM SALTER Associated Press MARION, Kansas (AP) — A Kansas prosecutor says a police raid on a small weekly newspaper wasn’t supported by evidence. The newspaper’s staff scrambled to print the new edition Wednesday without their cellphones and computers seized in the raid. The White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre says

BOSTON (AP) — Immigration officials say a former Brazilian military police officer who was convicted of multiple murders and sentenced to more than 200 years in prison for his role in the 2015 deaths has been arrested in New Hampshire. Immigration officials based in Boston say 29-year-old Antônio José de Abreu Vidal Filho became the

By FATIMA HUSSEIN and KAREEM CHEHAYEB Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States has imposed sanctions on a Lebanese environmental organization accused of being an arm of the militant group Hezbollah. The U.S. on Wednesday designated Green Without Borders and its leader for allegedly providing support and cover to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon along

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Tropical Storm Hilary has formed off Mexico’s southern Pacific coast, and is expected to strengthen and move north towards the Baja California peninsula. Hilary had winds of 40 mph (65 kph) Wednesday. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Hilary was located about 370 miles (590 kilometers) south of the port city

By DANICA KIRKA Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The British Museum said Wednesday that a member of its staff has been dismissed after items dating back as far as the 15th century B.C. were found to be missing, stolen or damaged. The museum said it has also ordered an independent review of security and a

By DAVID FISCHER Associated Press MIAMI (AP) — Dozens of teachers, students and labor leaders marched to a Miami school district headquarters to protest Florida’s new standards for teaching Black history, which have come under intense criticism for what they say about slavery. The protesters who marched to the School Board of Miami-Dade County on

By DASHA LITVINOVA Associated Press TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Dutch journalist Eva Hartog says Russian authorities refused to renew the visa and gave her six days to leave the country after 10 years of living and reporting in Russia. Her effective expulsion is one of several in recent years and comes amid a monthslong crackdown

By RONALD BLUM Associated Press Soprano Renata Scott has died at age 89, Scotto’s New York-based manager, Robert Lombardo, said she died Wednesday in her hometown of Savona, Italy. Scotto was a singer of uncommon intensity who became a successful director after her singing career. Scotto made 314 appearances at the Metropolitan Opera from her

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Some Bank of Ireland customers were able to withdraw money they did not have Tuesday and early Wednesday after an hours-long technical glitch that also halted many of the bank’s online services. The outage allowed some customers to transfer and withdraw funds “above their normal

By MADDIE BURAKOFF AP Science Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Oetzi the Iceman has a new look. Decades after the famous glacier mummy was discovered in the Italian Alps, scientists have dug back into his DNA to paint a better picture of the ancient hunter. They determined that Oetzi was mostly descended from farmers from

By JACK JEFFERY Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — The death toll in this week’s clashes between rival militias in Libya’s capital rose to 45 on Wednesday as troops fanned out across Tripoli to restore calm after a 24-hour bout of fighting that was the city’s most intense violence this year. The clashes erupted late on

By JOHN RABY AP Sports Writer Former West Virginia men’s basketball coach Bob Huggins has entered a 12-month diversion program to resolve a drunken driving arrest. Huggins had been scheduled for a formal arraignment on Thursday. But court records in Pittsburgh show that the hearing was canceled last month after he was accepted into the

By SEUNG MIN KIM Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden proclaims that his administration is “turning things around” for Americans when it comes to the economy. He says his signature climate, health care and tax package is giving people “more breathing room” on prices and investing anew in clean energy jobs. The White

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — U.S. State Secretary Antony Blinken has sent a message marking the anniversary of the 1943 Bialystok ghetto uprising in Poland, saying it was an act of bravery that reaffirmed the dignity of Jews during the Holocaust. Blinken’s mother, Judith Pisar, the widow of one of the ghetto survivors, Samuel Pisar, took

By JOEY CAPPELLETTI Associated Press LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The Michigan State University Board of Trustees on Wednesday authorized the school to request liquor licenses to sell alcohol at four football games beginning with a Sept. 16 game against the University of Washington. Alcohol sales had previously been banned at public university sporting venues until

By ZANE IRWIN Associated Press DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Dozens of migrants headed for Spain are believed missing and feared dead after coast guards off the Atlantic Island of Cabo Verde rescued 38 people on a boat that had left Senegal in West Africa over one month ago with more than 100 aboard, authorities and

By LAURAN NEERGAARD AP Medical Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Surgeons transplanted a pig’s kidney into a brain-dead man and for over a month it’s worked normally — a critical step toward an operation the New York team hopes to eventually try in living patients. Scientists around the country are racing to learn how to

By KAREEM CHEHAYEB Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad has doubled public sector wages and pensions as the war-torn country’s national currency spiraled further downwards, reaching a new low for the year. The value of the Syrian pound against the US dollar has declined from 7,000 pounds in January to 15,000 pounds

By MARTÍN ADAMES ALCÁNTARA Associated Press SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — The death toll from this week’s powerful explosion in the Dominican Republic rose to 27 on Wednesday as firefighters continued efforts to extinguish the persistent fire set off by the blast, the national emergency director said. Juan Manuel Méndez, director of the Center

By RAHMAT MIRZA Associated Press TEUPIN REUSEUP, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian authorities on Wednesday burned a marijuana plantation in the northern province of Aceh after it was discovered by drones. A joint team of the National Narcotic Agency, known as BNN, and the National Research and Innovation Agency using drones detected 4.5 hectares (11 acres)

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS Associated Press BROOKHAVEN, Miss. (AP) — A police dispatcher and a detective have testified in the trial of two white men in Mississippi who are accused of chasing and shooting at a Black FedEx driver. Brandon Case and his father, Gregory Case, are charged with attempted first-degree murder, conspiracy and shooting