AP-National

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A Pennsylvania man described by authorities as the lead defendant in a drug distribution and human smuggling case has pleaded guilty to federal crimes in Louisiana. Court records show that 47-year-old Carl Allison of Pittsburgh pleaded guilty Thursday in New Orleans. Sentencing was scheduled for March 28. The U.S. Justice Department

By KATHY McCORMACK Associated Press CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A judge has found the New Hampshire publisher of a weekly community newspaper guilty of five misdemeanor charges that she ran advertisements for local races without properly marking them as political advertising. The judge acquitted Debra Paul, publisher of the Londonderry Times, of a sixth misdemeanor

By BRUCE SCHREINER and KIMBERLEE KRUESI Associated Press LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A pregnant woman in Kentucky filed a lawsuit Friday demanding the right to an abortion, the second legal challenge in days to sweeping abortion bans that have taken hold in more than a dozen U.S. states since Roe v. Wade was overturned last

By DANICA KIRKA Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Scotland’s highest civil court has upheld the British government’s move to block a landmark gender-recognition law passed by the Scottish parliament. The decision underscores the growing divide over local control of legislation in the nations of the United Kingdom. The ruling by the Court of Session in

KISSIMMEE, Fla. (AP) — An extremely rare white leucistic alligator has been born at a Florida reptile park. Gatorland Orlando said Thursday that the 19.2-inch female slithered out of its shell and into the history books as one of only a few known leucistic alligators, three of which are at the park. The park is

NEWARK N.J. (AP) — Authorities in New Jersey say two nurses and a medical resident were stabbed inside a pediatric intensive care unit. The hospital workers suffered cuts and are in stable condition. A woman has been arrested and charged in the violence, which unfolded as a domestic dispute involving two visitors to the unit

By The Associated Press This week’s new streaming entertainment releases include a Christmas TV special from country star Cody Johnson, Taylor Swift’s concert movie “The Eras Tour” lands in homes to celebrate her birthday and the second season of “Reacher” starring Alan Ritchson hits of Prime Video. Also arriving is “Barbie” on Max. More than

By LAURA UNGAR AP Science Writer Regulators on Friday approved two gene therapies for sickle cell disease that doctors hope can cure the painful, inherited blood disorder that afflicts mostly Black people in the U.S. The Food and Drug Administration said the one-time treatments can be used for patients 12 and older with severe forms

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis on Friday made his first public appearance outdoors since being stricken by bronchitis two weeks ago, which forced him to cancel a planned trip to the COP-28 climate conference in Dubai. The pope has been steadily recovering, and for the Dec. 8 holiday devoted to Mary kept a traditional appointment

ROMEOVILLE, Ill. (AP) — Police say the suspect in the September shooting deaths of a suburban Chicago family was in a relationship with one of the four people slain and his girlfriend allegedly helped plan the killings. Alberto Rolon, Zoraida Bartolomei, and their two sons, ages 7 and 9, were found shot to death on

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A St. Louis man who spent 11 years behind bars for a killing before his conviction was overturned is suing the city and detectives who worked on his case, claiming the conviction for a crime he didn’t commit violated his constitutional rights. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Lamont D. Cambell’s

By THALIA BEATY Associated Press Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott gave $2.1 billion in donations since November 2022, she said in an online post, bringing her total reported giving to more than $16 billion since 2019.  Scott wrote Wednesday on her website in a three-sentence post that she was, “excited to call attention to these 360 outstanding

NEW YORK (AP) — Spotify’s chief financial officer will step down next year, according to the music streaming service, just days after it announced its third round of layoffs for 2023. In a statement announcing CFO Paul Vogel’s departure, CEO Daniel Ek said that the two had “come to the conclusion that Spotify is entering

By EDNA TARIGAN and RAHMAT MIRZA Associated Press JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s president says his government blames a surge in human trafficking for the increasing number of Rohingya Muslims who have entered the country over the past few weeks. President Joko Widodo said in a televised news conference on Friday that he received “reports

By COLLIN BINKLEY and MARC LEVY Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Harvard University’s president apologized as pressure mounted for the University of Pennsylvania’s president to resign over their testimony at a congressional hearing on antisemitism that critics from the White House on down say failed to demonstrate they would stand up to antisemitism on campus.

ELAINE GANLEY Associated Press PARIS (AP) — The bar was already high, but the security challenge ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games only grew with a knife attack last weekend that killed a tourist near the Eiffel Tower. Still, the assault at the hand of a suspected Islamic radical, a kind of invisible enemy,

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Fourteen years ago, Tony Shalhoub said goodbye to one of his most beloved creations — the obsessive-compulsive private detective Adrian Monk. But the pandemic suddenly made us all catch up with Monk — stocking up on antibacterial wipes and shuddering at the sight of crowded

By JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A bold, innovative project begun nearly a generation ago to erect a “green-city” in the United Arab Emirates has run into realities and largely missed its mark. It offers a cautionary tale about the risk of overblown environmental ambition even for an oil-rich,

By WILL WEISSERT Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden are in California for six fundraising events and meetings this weekend, as they hope to rake in record-breaking campaign contributions. With the strikes by writers and actors now over, “Union Joe” is pitching his Hollywood story to some

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The publishing world made plenty of news in 2023, but not only because of the books themselves. Bannings continued to soar in the U.S., the Middle East war impacted everything from authors events to the National Book Awards and numerous authors took legal action in