AP National News

By JAMES POLLARD Associated Press/Report for America LAKE CITY, S.C. (AP) — Photos of a peewee football player flashed across a slideshow. The image of a smiling young man adorned memorial T-shirts. But the body of the American gunned down three weeks ago by the Gulf cartel in Mexico was kept shielded from funeral-goers. Over

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM and RON TODT Associated Press WEST READING, Pa. (AP) — An explosion at a chocolate factory in Pennsylvania on Friday killed three people and left four people missing, authorities said. One person was pulled alive from the rubble overnight. Rescue crews using dogs and imaging equipment continued to search through the rubble

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS, MICHAEL GOLDBERG and ROGELIO SOLIS ROLLING FORK, Miss. (AP) — Rescuers raced Saturday to search for survivors and help hundreds of people left homeless after a powerful tornado cut a devastating path through Mississippi, killing at least 25 people, injuring dozens, and flattening entire blocks as it carved a path of

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military says two soldiers were wounded, one severely, in a drive-by shooting in the occupied West Bank, the latest in months-long violence between Israel and the Palestinians. Saturday’s attack was the third to take place in the Palestinian town of Hawara in less than a month. The military said a

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Saturday he has been released from the rehabilitation facility where he had physical therapy for a concussion caused by a fall earlier this month. The 81-year-old Kentucky Republican said in a statement released by his office that he will work from home for the next few

By The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Nicholas Lloyd Webber, the Grammy-nominated composer, record producer and eldest son of Andrew Lloyd Webber, died Saturday in England after a protracted battle with gastric cancer and pneumonia. He was 43. “His whole family is gathered together and we are all totally bereft,” the 75-year-old Webber said

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A former Navy rescue swimmer is charged with attempted murder after Florida authorities say he tried to drown a security guard. Okaloosa County sheriff’s investigators say 33-year-old Seth Beavers of Mount Sterling, Illinois, attacked the guard at a Florida Panhandle condominium Friday night after being told the pool was

By MICHAEL GOLDBERG and CLAIRE RUSH Associated Press SILVER CITY, Miss. (AP) — Nothing remained of William Barnes’ home in the tiny western Mississippi town of Silver City after a killer tornado tore it off its foundations. He stood in disbelief Saturday as he surveyed the lot where he’d lived for 20 years, twisted debris

By JILL COLVIN Associated Press WACO, Texas (AP) — Staring down a possible indictment, a defiant Donald Trump is hoping to put on a show of force Saturday at the first rally of his 2024 presidential campaign, held in a city made famous by deadly resistance against law enforcement. Trump’s supporters began lining up the

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Former soccer star Robinho has been ordered to hand over his passport while Brazilian judicial authorities determine if he should serve his nine-year sentence for rape in Brazil. He was convicted in Italy in 2017 for his part in the group sexual assault in Milan that took place four years

By BOBBY CAINA CALVAN Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Throngs of protesters gathered at the courthouse steps, chanting for freedom for their embattled hero. Police kept watch as passions flared and voices roared. Squad cars and television trucks encircled the commotion. It’s a scene New York City authorities have been bracing for as prosecutors

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s attorney general says 21 people, including senior officials in President Nicolás Maduro’s government and business leaders, have been arrested in connection with a corruption scheme involving international oil sales. Prosecutor Tarek William Saab said the scheme involved selling oil through Venezuela’s cryptocurrency oversight agency in parallel to the state-run PDVSA.

By TOM KRISHER AP Auto Writer DETROIT (AP) — The challenger in the race for the United Auto Workers’ top leadership post claimed victory Saturday in a close election that is likely to give his slate of candidates control of the huge union. In a statement, challenger Shawn Fain’s slate said that a federal court-appointed

The Associated Press With at least 25 people dead in Mississippi, tornadoes that ravaged parts of the Deep South overnight were the deadliest in the state in more than a decade, according to National Weather Service records. By comparison, 31 people died in Mississippi in April 2011 during tornadoes that tore through several states, mostly

By JARI TANNER Associated Press HELSINKI (AP) — Finland’s leaders have strongly condemned an assault on a Jewish lawmaker who was assaulted and punched in the face while campaigning for the country’s April 2 general election. Veteran conservative politician Ben Zyskowicz told Finnish media that a large man confronted him at a metro station in

By KEN MILLER Associated Press Two people found dead in a railroad car in south Texas were Honduran men, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a statement Saturday, indicating it was investigating the case as possible human smuggling. “We will continue to address the serious public safety threat posed by human smuggling organizations

PARIS (AP) — French police and environmental campaigners have fought violent pitched battles around a giant agricultural irrigation reservoir in rural western France. The interior minister reported more than 30 people injured in the clashes on Saturday. He said police detonated more than 4,000 non-lethal dispersion grenades as they fended off protesters armed with machetes,

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is calling for an immediate and temporary halt to the far-right government’s contentious plan to overhaul the judiciary, the first public dissent from within Prime Minister Benjamin’s coalition. Citing the need for dialogue with the opposition, Gallant on Saturday asked Netanyahu’s coalition to wait until after the

KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) — Two Cuban migrants used a motorized hang glider to fly the approximately 90 miles (145 kilometers) from the communist island to Key West on Saturday, Florida officials said. The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said the duo landed safely at Key West International Airport at about 10:30 a.m. and were turned