Month: March 2024

By MAURICIO SAVARESE and SYLVIE CORBET Associated Press SAO PAULO (AP) — The Brazilian and the French presidents announced on Tuesday a plan to invest 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) on the Amazon, including its part in neighboring French Guiana. President Emmanuel Macron’s and his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva are meeting many

By SUSAN HAIGH and TRÂN NGUYỄN Associated Press Famed American artist and sculptor Richard Serra has died at his home in Long Island, New York, at the age of 85. His lawyer says the artist died from pneumonia. Known for turning curving walls of rusting steel and other malleable materials into large-scale pieces of outdoor

By HANNAH SCHOENBAUM Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah woman who authorities say fatally poisoned her husband in 2022, then published a children’s book about grief, now faces another attempted murder charge for allegedly drugging him weeks earlier on Valentine’s Day. Kouri Richins, 33, is accused of killing her husband with a

By DÉBORA REY Associated Press BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Judges overseeing a high-profile human rights trial in Argentina have convicted 11 former officials of crimes against humanity. It’s the first case to focus on the former military dictatorship’s overlooked practice of committing sexual violence against transgender women. The trial at the court in La

By KIM CHANDLER Associated Press The private liberal arts school Birmingham-Southern College in Alabama has announced it will close at the end of May. The College Board of Trustees voted Tuesday to close the college located on the west side of Birmingham, one of Alabama’s major cities. The 168-year-old college with about 1,000 students said

By DENG MACHOL Associated Press JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — South Sudan’s government says schools will reopen next week following a two-week closure due to extreme heat across the country. The health and education ministries say temperatures are expected to steadily drop with the rainy season set to begin in the coming days. During the

By TALES AZZONI AP Sports Writer MADRID (AP) — Teenagers Lamine Yamal and Endrick took the spotlight and Vinícius Júnior had a quiet game as Brazil and Spain drew 3-3 in the “One Skin” international friendly that was set up to highlight the fight against racism after a series of insults aimed at the Real

By MAURICIO SAVARESE and DIARLEI RODRIGUES Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Dozens of kids and teenagers from Rio de Janeiro’s Mare neighborhood gathered for the launch of a book in which they show, with their own words and pictures, how violence in their poor, bayside community weighs on their young lives. The book,

By JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump got a break this week when an appeals court cut down the amount of money he needs to put up in order to pause collection of a huge judgment in his New York civil fraud case. Monday’s decision gives him 10 days

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The federal government is asking a court to halt California’s enforcement of a rule requiring prison guards be clean-shaven, saying it amounts to religious discrimination for Sikhs, Muslims and others who wear beards as an expression of their faith. The civil rights complaint filed Monday by the Department of Justice says

By SUMMER BALLENTINE Associated Press COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Days after Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey blamed an after-school fight on a school district’s diversity programming, a lawyer for the majority Black district in suburban St. Louis says the state’s chief attorney is showing racial bias. At issue is an assault that took place near

BOSTON (AP) — A Rwandan man who authorities say took part in the country’s 1994 genocide before making his way to the U.S. has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Boston. Eric Nshimiye of Ohio is accused of repeatedly lying about his involvement in killings and rapes in order to come to the

By JOSH FUNK Associated Press The collision of three Norfolk Southern trains in Pennsylvania early this month highlights the shortcomings of the automated braking system that was created to prevent such crashes. That’s because none of the circumstances the National Transportation Safety Board described Tuesday in its preliminary report on the March 2 derailment would

By JEFFREY COLLINS Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Federal prosecutors say convicted killer Alex Murdaugh didn’t tell the truth when FBI agents repeatedly asked him where more than $6 million he stole ended up. In a court filing Tuesday, prosecutors also say Murdaugh didn’t tell everything he knew about whether another attorney not yet

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — NBC News will cut ties with former Republican National Committee chief Ronna McDaniel, hired last week as an on-air political contributor. The decision was conveyed in a memo to staff from the top official of the network’s news division after a furious protest by some

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A former North Dakota Republican state senator has ended his campaign for the state’s only U.S. House seat. Tom Campbell, a potato farmer from Grafton, announced on Tuesday he is withdrawing from the race. Three other Republican candidates are seeking the seat held by Republican Rep. Kelly Armstrong, who is running

HOUSTON (AP) — Police are investigating the death of an 8-year-old girl whose body was found inside a large pipe for a lazy river at a Houston hotel where she’d been swimming with her family. Aliyah Jaico’s death Saturday has been ruled an accidental drowning by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences. Her autopsy

By GARY FIELDS Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark could face sanctions, including disbarment in Washington, D.C., if a three-person panel thinks he violated ethics rules in his role in trying to help former President Donald Trump overturn the 2020 presidential election. The center of the hearing before the Board

By JEFF AMY Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia’s Republican state senators are making another attempt to impose a conservative stamp on the state’s public schools. A bill passed Tuesday would ban transgender girls from playing high school sports with other girls. It would also limit sex education and would require a system for notifying

By JONATHAN LANDRUM Jr. AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs’ lawyer said Tuesday that the searches of the rapper’s Los Angeles and Miami properties by federal authorities in a sex-trafficking investigation were ”a gross use of military-level force” and that Combs is “innocent and will continue to fight” to clear his

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Top officials were gathering Tuesday in southern New Mexico to mark the 25th anniversary of the nation’s only underground repository for radioactive waste. The nuclear pollution came from decades of research and bomb making. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant has taken in around 13,850 shipments

By JULIE CARR SMYTH and SAMANTHA HENDRICKSON Associated Press COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Two families of transgender minors have filed a constitutional challenge to an Ohio law that severely limits gender-affirming healthcare for youth under 18. Tuesday’s lawsuit, brought in Franklin County Common Pleas Court by the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Ohio and

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A federal court has dismissed an attempt by conservative Pennsylvania lawmakers to overturn automatic voter registration, along with lawmakers’ other challenges to actions designed to boost voter access. Pennsylvania U.S. District Judge Jennifer Wilson wrote in her decision Tuesday that the lawmakers did not have legal standing in their filing. The

By HANNAH FINGERHUT Associated Press DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa attorney general’s office said it is still working on an audit of its victim services that has held up emergency contraception funding for victims of sexual assault despite having a completed draft in hand. Attorney General Brenna Bird, a Republican, paused the funding

By MATTHEW PERRONE, AMANDA SEITZ and CHRISTINE FERNANDO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday did not appear ready to limit access to the abortion pill mifepristone, in a case that could have far-reaching implications for millions of American women and for scores of drugs regulated by the Food and Drug

By MICHAEL CASEY Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — Two former officials of a Massachusetts veterans home where at least 76 people died during the COVID-19 pandemic will avoid jail time in the case. Bennett Walsh, the former superintendent of the Veterans’ Home in Holyoke, and Dr. David Clinton, its former medical director, settled their criminal

By CHRISTOPHER WEBER Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — A mountain lion killed a man and seriously wounded his brother last weekend in northern California. But such attacks on humans are rare. The mauling last weekend was the first fatal encounter with a mountain lion in the state in two decades. The big cats that

By WAYNE PARRY Associated Press The bridge that collapsed into a Maryland river after a ship strike was iconic — erected almost five decades ago, named after the author of the Star Spangled Banner, and part of the very fabric of Baltimore. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore calls its loss Tuesday unprecedented and heartbreaking. Erected in

By TARA COPP Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon says a controversial policy that allows service members to be reimbursed for travel if they or a family member have to go out of state for reproductive health care — including abortions — was only used 12 times from June to December of last year.

By STEFANIE DAZIO Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Southern California police department has been handcuffed by Lego. The Danish toy company asked the agency to stop adding Lego heads to cover the faces of suspects in the photos it publishes on social media. The Murrieta Police Department has been using Lego heads and

By YURAS KARMANAU Associated Press TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A prominent journalist in Belarus has been designated a political prisoner by the country’s leading human rights group. The classification on Tuesday came following Ihar Karne’s conviction on charges widely seen as part of an ongoing crackdown on dissent. Karnei used to write for Radio Free

BOSTON (AP) — The city of Boston will pay about $4.6 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit stemming from the police killing of a mentally ill man in 2016. The mother of Terrence Coleman, 31, filed the federal lawsuit six years ago. Hope Coleman had called for an ambulance to take her son to

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana officials have revoked the liquor license of an Indianapolis bar where one person was killed and five others, including a police officer, were wounded during a weekend shooting. The Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to revoke a liquor license extension for 11:11 Bar & Grille on the city’s

By KEVIN McGILL Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Advocates for adult victims of childhood sexual abuse say they will ask Louisiana’s Supreme Court to reconsider a ruling that wiped out 2021 legislation giving them a renewed opportunity to file damage lawsuits. The ruling bucked a trend. Advocates say 24 other states have laws that

By MEG KINNARD Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has picked a California lawyer and philanthropist who’s never held elected office to be his running mate in his independent bid for president. Kennedy made the announcement about Nicole Shanahan on Tuesday in Oakland. Shanahan was married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — The city of Berkeley, California, has agreed to halt enforcement of a ban on natural gas piping in new homes and buildings that was successfully opposed in court by the California Restaurant Association. The organization says a settlement follows the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ refusal to reconsider a 2023

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Nevada judge tentatively set an August trial date for a former Las Vegas-area elected official accused of killing an investigative journalist. But the judge on Tuesday acknowledged that still more time might be needed to finish searching slain Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German’s computers for possible evidence in the

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican legislators have approved a bill that would require Kansas abortion providers to ask their patients why they want to terminate their pregnancies and then report the answers to the state. The Senate passed the bill on a 27-13 vote Tuesday. The House approved it earlier this month. It goes next

By TIM BOOTH AP Sports Writer SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Utah coach Lynne Roberts said her team experienced a series of “racial hate crimes” after arriving at its first NCAA Tournament hotel and was forced to change accommodations during the event for safety concerns. Roberts revealed what happened after Utah lost to Gonzaga in the

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A convicted child molester has been sentenced to 220 years in federal prison for producing child sexual abuse material and hacking the jumbotron at the Jacksonville Jaguars stadium. Samuel Arthur Thompson did this after the team learned he was a registered sex offender and fired him. A federal judge sentenced the

By MICHAEL R. SISAK Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A New York judge has issued a gag order barring Donald Trump from making public statements about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush money criminal trial. Judge Juan M. Merchan on Tuesday cited Trump’s previous comments about him and others involved