AP-National

By DASHA LITVINOVA Associated Press TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — To no one’s surprise, President Vladimir Putin secured another six years in power in a preordained election landslide that comes amid the harshest crackdown on the opposition and free speech since Soviet times. The three days of balloting, in which Putin faced three token contenders but none

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — An Afghan refugee has been found guilty of first-degree murder in one of three fatal shootings that shook Albuquerque’s Muslim community during the summer of 2022. Jurors returned the verdict Monday. Muhammad Syed faces life in prison for killing 41-year-old Aftab Hussein in July 2022.

OSSIPEE, N.H. (AP) — A New Hampshire man has appeared in court on charges that he killed a pregnant woman and her unborn child by means of multiple blunt force injuries, the first time the state has charged someone with murder in the death of a fetus. Twenty-eight-year-year-old William Kelly appeared in Ossipee. He did

FRAZIER PARK, Calif. (AP) — The California Lottery has revealed the name of one of the winners of the second-largest U.S. lottery jackpot, last October’s $1.765 billion Powerball bonanza. The lottery says Theodorus Struyck represents a group of winners who bought the ticket at a store in the small Kern County mountain town of Frazier

By CHINEDU ASADU Associated Press ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Armed gangs attacked two villages in Nigeria’s northwest over the weekend and seized at least 100 people from their homes. That’s according to residents and a state official who spoke to The Associated Press on Monday. The attacks occurred in Nigeria’s Kaduna state, where nearly 300

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The British government hopes one last push can revive its stalled plan to send some asylum-seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda. A bill aimed at overcoming a U.K. Supreme Court block on deportation flights returns to the House of Commons on Monday. It could be passed into

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A state police official and her bodyguards were killed in a highway attack in Mexico’s western state of Michoacan. The state’s security agency said Monday that three members of the state Civil Guard had died in the line of duty Sunday night. One of them, Cristal García Hurtado, was a regional

By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE Associated Press ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York will evaluate its troubled recreational marijuana licensing program as lawsuits and bureaucratic stumbles have severely hampered the legal market and black-market sellers have flourished. Gov. Kathy Hochul ordered the review Monday, eager to find ways to speed up license processing times and allow legal

By TARA COPP and MATTHEW LEE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon is working through all channels with Niger officials on whether there is a viable way for U.S. troops to stay in the country following a March 16 directive that they leave. Last week a high level delegation of U.S. officials traveled to

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Writer and actor Kate Taney Billingsley has been thinking a lot about America’s racial history and her family’s part in it. One of her ancestors had an outsized role. Billingsley’s great-great-great-great uncle was Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney, who made arguably the worst decision in

By STEPHEN WADE AP Sports Writer SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The Dodgers are paying $700 million for Shohei Ohtani. That means his loyal fans in Japan will be paying big time for his merchandise. A store called Selection in Tokyo’s Shijuku area sells gear for all 30 MLB teams, but store employees say about

HOUSTON (AP) — Authorities say a 1-year-old girl has died after being hit by an Uber driver who had just dropped her family at their apartment complex in Houston. Harris County Sheriff’s officials say the driver apparently didn’t see the girl in front of his car as he pulled away Sunday. Authorities say the girl’s

By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The NASA astronaut who commanded the dress rehearsal mission for the 1969 moon landing has died. Thomas Stafford died Monday in a Florida hospital. He was 93. Before Apollo 10, Stafford also took part in the first rendezvous of two U.S. spacecraft in 1965. A decade

By RONALD BLUM AP Sports Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The Biden administration sided with a promoter who filed an antitrust suit against FIFA and the U.S. Soccer Federation over the world governing body’s policy against hosting league matches from other countries, urging the U.S. Supreme Court to allow the case to proceed to trial.

By AAMER MADHANI, ZEKE MILLER and JULIA FRANKEL Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday agreed to send a team of Israeli officials to Washington to discuss with Biden administration officials a prospective Rafah operation as each side is looking to make “clear to the other its perspective,” White House

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Israel has urged the top U.N. court to reject the latest request by South Africa for interim orders to prevent starvation in Gaza as part of a case accusing Israel of breaching the Genocide Convention with its military offensive against Hamas. In a written response

GILA BEND, Ariz. (AP) — Authorities are investigating the crash of an experimental, homemade plane that left one person dead and another seriously injured about 70 miles southwest of Phoenix. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office says the plane went down about 9:45 a.m. Sunday near the Gila Bend Municipal Airport with two people aboard. It

By JIM SALTER Associated Press A pair of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz” were returned to their owner, nearly 20 years after the iconic shoes were stolen from a museum in the late actor’s hometown. But “No place like home?” Not exactly. The memorabilia collector who owns the iconic

By GERALD IMRAY Associated Press CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South African rescue services searching for a missing charter boat captain are concerned about possible foul play after they discovered his boat burned and abandoned on a beach in neighboring Mozambique. There was no sign of the captain or the unknown man who hired

By MATTHEW DALY Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency has announced a comprehensive ban on asbestos, a deadly carcinogen still used in some chlorine bleach, brake pads and other products. The final rule marks a major expansion of EPA regulation under a landmark 2016 law that overhauled regulations governing tens of thousands