AP-National

By JAMIE STENGLE Associated Press FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — An explosion at a historic Texas hotel in Fort Worth on Monday blew out windows, littered downtown streets with large sections of debris from the building and injured 21 people, including one who was in critical condition, authorities said. The blast flung doors and entire

By HANNAH SCHOENBAUM Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A U.S. fugitive accused of faking his death to avoid rape charges has been booked in a Utah jail. Nicholas Rossi, 36, was extradited from Scotland last week and was booked in Utah’s Davis County Jail on Friday. He is charged with sexually assaulting women

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Lisa Bonet has filed for divorce from Jason Momoa 18 years after the two actors became a couple. The 56-year-old Bonet filed documents to end her marriage to the 44-year-old Momoa in Los Angeles County court Monday. The petition cites irreconcilable differences as the reason for the split. The filing says

BESSEMER, Ala. (AP) — Police in Alabama said a 5-year-old boy has been killed when someone shot into a home where he was getting his hair cut. The shooting happened at about 10 a.m. Sunday in Bessemer. The Jefferson County Coroner’s officer says the child was identified as Brandon Jamal Nation, III, of Fairfield. Police

By STEVE DOUGLAS AP Sports Writer Franz Beckenbauer put himself a step ahead on the soccer field by taking a step back. The “libero” position is taken from the Italian word for “free” and describes a player who had a covering role behind a defensive line. It was not an entirely new concept to soccer

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan says he’s quitting the network rather than accept a demotion. The prominent Muslim journalism announced his exit on the final edition of his weekly hour on Sunday night. The network eliminated Hasan’s show without explanation during a November schedule shuffle, but said

By ABDULRAHMAN ZEYAD Associated Press BAGHDAD (AP) — Health officials say a fire erupted at a hospital in southern Iraq, sending smoke through a maternity ward and killing four premature babies. Iraqi health minister Saleh al-Hasnawi tells journalists at the scene that the fire at the Women and Children’s Hospital in Diwaniyiah started at a

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — Five companies have agreed to pay the federal government more than $7.2 million overall to resolve claims stemming from longstanding pollution in two adjacent creeks in the Maumee River watershed in northwestern Ohio. The settlement with Ohio Refining Co., Chevron USA, Energy Transfer LLC, Pilkington North America and Chemtrade Logistics was

Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A crash between a minibus transporting tourists and a truck in Brazil’s northeastern state of Bahia late Sunday night left 25 dead and 6 injured. The accident happened around 10:30 p.m. local time on a highway near the city of Sao Jose do Jacuipe. Newspaper Folha de S.Paulo

By MARK STEVENSON Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — A campaign to save Benito the giraffe from extreme temperatures and a small enclosure in Mexico’s arid northern border city of Ciudad Juarez has finally paid off, with officials promising to move him to a more spacious animal park 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers) to the south.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — Wander Franco, a shortstop for the Tampa Bay Rays, was released Monday from a jail in the Dominican Republic amid an ongoing investigation into allegations he had a relationship with a 14-year-old girl. Franco paid 2 million Dominican pesos ($34,000) as a type of deposit required by a judge

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana’s Gov. Greg Gianforte and first lady Susan Gianforte have purchased a historic Helena mansion built by one of the state’s territorial governors that they eventually plan to donate to the state. Gianforte’s office said Monday that the couple purchased the house last week for $4 million and it will be

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS has announced January 29 as the official start date of the 2024 tax season, and expects more than 128.7 million tax returns to be filed by the April 15 tax deadline. The announcement comes as the agency undergoes a massive facelift, attempting to improve its

By FRANCES D’EMILIO Associated Press ROME (AP) — Opposition politicians in Italy are demanding that police investigate a rally in Rome where hundreds of participants raised an arm in the banned fascist salute. Use of fascist symbolism, including the salute which harks back to the dictatorship of Benito Mussolini, is banned in post-war Italy. On

By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer New research shows that the average liter of bottled water has nearly a quarter million invisible pieces of ever so tiny nanoplastics. Scientists long figured there were lots of these microscopic plastic pieces, but until researchers at Columbia and Rutgers universities did their calculations they never knew how many

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (AP) — Police say workers at a South Florida roofing company have found a baby’s body in a large trash bin outside an apartment complex. A Hollywood police spokesperson says officers began lifesaving measures when they arrived around 8 a.m. Monday, but the baby was unresponsive. The spokesperson says an investigation is continuing.

By OMAR FARUK Associated Press MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Somaliland’s defense minister has resigned to protest his government signing an agreement to allow landlocked Ethiopia to access Somaliland’s coastline. He told local television that “Somalia has lost land to Ethiopia in the past, and Ethiopia remains our number one enemy.” Somalia has protested the deal

By BASSEM MROUE Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — The elite Hezbollah commander who was killed in an Israeli airstrike Monday in southern Lebanon fought for the group for decades and took part in some of its biggest battles. Wissam al-Tawil, a 48-year-old commander in Hezbollah’s secretive Radwan Force deployed along the border with Israel, was

By ÉDGAR H. CLEMENTE Associated Press ARRIAGA, Mexico (AP) — About 2,000 migrants have resumed their journey through southern Mexico, after participants were left without the papers the Mexican government appeared to have promised. The original caravan of about 6,000 migrants from Venezuela, Cuba and Central America started walking on Christmas Eve. But after New

JACK DURA Associated Press BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A federal judge has ordered a new legislative district for two Native American tribes who successfully challenged North Dakota’s 2021 redistricting map as violating the Voting Rights Act in diluting Native American voters’ strength. U.S. District Court Chief Judge Peter Welte’s decision Monday comes after a flurry