AP-National

By JOSHUA GOODMAN and RICHARD LARDNER Associated Press With the 95,000-ton cargo ship Dali powerless and hurtling helplessly toward the Francis Scott Key Bridge, the harbor pilot commanding the vessel had just minutes to make his last, desperate attempts to avoid disaster. He declared distress, dropped anchor and, notably, called for help from nearby tugboats.

Don’t count on a favorite store being open on Easter Sunday. Several stores will be closed March 31 in observance of the holiday. Walmart, Kroger and Meijer stores will be open. Target, Trader Joe’s, T.J. Maxx and others will be closed.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — U.N. independent experts are denouncing chronic water cuts in the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe and say they are concerned about tap water pollution, excessive prices and attempts to silence critics. They noted that scientists and others who have spoken out are being censored. The experts on Thursday accused

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The office of Poland’s President Andrzej Duda says he has vetoed a law that would have allowed over-the-counter access to the morning-after pill for girls and women ages 15 and above. He says he was driven by concerns for the health of minors and heeding the voices of parents. Last month,

By KEVIN McGILL Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A former mayor of New Orleans who was convicted on federal corruption charges wants the right to carry a gun, but the path to that is complicated. Ray Nagin has filed a court motion in New Orleans, noting that his federal prison time and supervision ended

By SCOTT McFETRIDGE Associated Press For a Minnesota minor league baseball team known for a history of outlandish promotions, the idea of naming its longtime live pig mascot after the weight loss drug Ozempic made perfect sense. The St. Paul Saints quickly found out that not everyone was amused by the pig’s name, Ozempig, or

ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar (AP) — A tropical cyclone that swept across Madagascar has killed 18 people and left four missing after making landfall on the island’s north earlier this week. The storm has also caused severe flooding that partly submerged entire villages. The National Office for Disaster Management also said on Friday that Cyclone Gamane has

MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) — A former New York City police officer has been acquitted of murder in the shooting of his childhood friend during a confrontation on Long Island. A jury on Thursday convicted 30-year-old Errick Allen only of menacing in the  May 12, 2020, shooting of Christopher Curro. Allen was off duty when he

By The Associated Press A Moscow court has ordered a Russian journalist who covered the trials of late Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny and other dissidents to remain in custody pending an investigation and trial on charges of extremism. Antonina Favorskaya, also identified by court officials as Antonina Kravtsova, was arrested earlier in March. On

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Doris Kearns Goodwin, Laurie Anderson and the president of the Harlem School of the Arts, James C. Horton, are being honored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Goodwin, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, is receiving a Gold Medal for biography. Anderson, the avant-garde performer,

By CHRISTINA LARSON AP Science Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — While eclipse watchers look to the skies, people who are blind or visually impaired will be able to hear and feel the celestial event. Sound and touch devices will be available at public gatherings on April 8, when a total solar eclipse crosses North America, the

DETROIT (AP) — Five people are wounded in Detroit after what police say was a dispute over a parking space outside a blues club and bar. Assistant Police Chief Charles Fitzgerald says the argument started about 2:45 a.m. on Friday and became physical. One man involved then got a gun from a vehicle and fired

By KANIS LEUNG Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — The president of U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia says its Hong Kong bureau has been closed because of safety concerns under a new national security law, deepening worries about the city’s media freedoms. Bay Fang, the president of RFA, said in a statement on Friday that the

By DANICA KIRKA Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Northern Ireland’s finely balanced power-sharing arrangements have been thrown into disarray as the leader of the region’s largest unionist party stepped down after being charged with historical sexual offenses. Jeffrey Donaldson informed the Democratic Unionist Party that was leaving his post due to the investigation. He has

By JULIA FRANKEL Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — Hundreds of Christians participated in a customary Good Friday procession through the limestone walls of Jerusalem’s Old City, commemorating one of the faith’s most sacred days with noticeably thinner crowds amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. The procession, which normally draws thousands of foreign visitors, was unusually local

By COLLEEN LONG Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — President Joe Biden says the U.S. is working every day to secure the release of a Wall Street Journal reporter detained in Russia. The Democratic president said on the one-year anniversary of Evan Gershkovich’s detention that he “went to Russia to do his job as a

By MATTHEW DALY and TOM KRISHER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency has set strict emissions standards for heavy-duty trucks, buses and other large vehicles. EPA officials say Friday’s action will help clean up some of the nation’s largest sources of planet-warming greenhouse gases. The EPA says the new rules will take

By BETH HARRIS Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — Louis Gossett Jr., the first Black man to win a supporting actor Oscar and an Emmy winner for his role in the seminal TV miniseries “Roots,” has died. He was 87. Gossett’s first cousin Neal L. Gossett told The Associated Press that the actor died in

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Officials say a team of Chinese investigators has arrived in Pakistan to join a probe into a suicide attack that killed five of its nationals earlier this week. Pakistani authorities are carrying out their own investigations into one of the deadliest attacks on Chinese in the country. The Chinese engineers and workers were heading

By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — A measure of inflation that is closely tracked by the Federal Reserve slipped last month in a sign that price pressures continue to ease. Prices rose 0.3% from January to February, decelerating from a 0.4% increase the previous month in a potentially encouraging trend for President