AP National News

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) — Opening statements were scheduled for Wednesday in the federal trial for former reality TV star Josh Duggar, who faces child pornography charges. Duggar, who appeared in TLC’s “19 Kids and Counting,” was charged in April with two counts of downloading and possessing child pornography. Duggar faces up to 20 years in

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s top diplomat has warned NATO against redeploying U.S. atomic weapons to Eastern Europe if Germany refuses to keep hosting them. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday that moving the weapons east would be irresponsible and provocative. Lavrov was responding to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s comment this month that the

By KIM COOK Associated Press Weather vanes were invented for one important job — to tell which way the wind was blowing. Gradually however they have become appreciated as an art form. A new exhibition at the American Folk Art Museum in New York showcases the history, technical virtuosity and artistic beauty of weather vanes

By RYAN KRYSKA and MIKE HOUSEHOLDER Associated Press OXFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Authorities say a 15-year-old sophomore opened fire at his Michigan high school, killing three students, including a 16-year-old boy who died in a deputy’s patrol car on the way to a hospital. Eight other people were wounded, some critically. Oakland County Sheriff

GAUHATI, India (AP) — A passenger train has hit and killed two wild elephants in northeastern India. A ranger says the elephants were walking on the railway track when the train hit them, killing them almost instantly. Authorities buried the bodies after carrying out an autopsy. Wild elephants often stray into human habitations this time

HAYDEN, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama sheriff says a FedEx driver dumped packages into a ravine in the woods at least six times. Now the company and investigators are sorting through the mess. Blount County Sheriff Mark Moon says they’ve now identified about 450 victims whose packages were discovered dumped last month in a ravine

By KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea has confirmed its first five cases of the new omicron coronavirus variant in people linked to arrivals from Nigeria. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency says the cases include a couple who arrived from Nigeria on Nov. 24 and a friend who

By RAF CASERT and MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — The coronavirus’s omicron variant kept the world off balance Wednesday as reports of infections linked to the mutant strain cropped up in more parts of the globe, and one official said that the wait for more information on its dangers felt like “an eternity.”

By MARCY GORDON AP Business Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. lawmakers are putting forward proposals to curb social media giants by limiting their free-speech protections against legal liability. Their efforts are coming after a former Facebook product manager presented a case that the company’s systems amplify online hate and extremism and fail to protect young

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — Russia has warned that a number of U.S. diplomats will have to leave Russia before the end of next month, the latest salvo in a diplomatic tug-of-war between Moscow and Washington. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Wednesday that those U.S. Embassy personnel who would have

BERLIN (AP) — Police in Germany say a World War II bomb has exploded at a construction site next to a busy railway line in Munich. The blast on Wednesday injured three people.  One of them was seriously hurt. A column of smoke was seen rising from the site near a train station. The site

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Authorities say airport police in Tulsa shot and wounded a man after he opened fire on a vehicle carrying his wife, whom he tried to confront in a parking garage after her flight landed. The wife wasn’t injured in the shooting late Tuesday outside Tulsa International Airport. During the shootout, an

BERLIN (AP) — Police in Germany say three people have been injured including seriously in an explosion at a construction site next to a busy railway line in Munich. It wasn’t immediately clear what led to Wednesday’s blast after which a column of smoke was seen. Police said they had no immediate indication of foul

By MICHELLE L. PRICE and MICHAEL R. SISAK Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — New York City’s troubled jail system is facing the suspension of hundreds of corrections officers for failing to meet a Tuesday deadline to get vaccinated against COVID-19. The city’s Department of Correction reported 77% of its uniformed staff had gotten at

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin says that Moscow would seek Western guarantees that would preclude any further NATO expansion and the deployment of its weapons near Russia’s borders. Putin’s statement Wednesday came amid Ukrainian and Western worries about a Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russian diplomats have countered by

By CHANELLE BESSETTE of NerdWallet Cash management accounts are offered by brokerages and provide many banking-like services, such as checking and savings. CMAs tend to have above-average interest rates, and they can make money management and investing easy. But interest rates aren’t as high as they used to be, and these accounts are usually online-only,

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet separately with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts at a time of tension over Russian military deployments on Ukraine’s borders. A State Department official confirmed the meetings, which will happen Thursday on the sidelines of a meeting of the Organization for

By DAVID KOENIG and YURI KAGEYAMA Associated Press Tourism businesses that were just finding their footing after nearly two years of devastation wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic are being rattled again as countries throw up new barriers to travel in an effort to contain the omicron variant. Meanwhile, travelers eager to get out there have

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Authorities say a man armed with multiple knives stabbed two Indianapolis police officers early Wednesday before they shot and wounded him. Officers responding to a reported disturbance about 1 a.m. came in contact with the man, who said another person was harassing him. Police say the officers told the man they would

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — Russia has expressed concern about Ukraine’s military buildup near the area of the separatist conflict in the country’s east, a statement that comes amid Ukrainian and Western worries about an alleged plan by Moscow to invade its neighbor. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday that the