Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — A former Syrian military official who oversaw a prison where alleged human rights abuses took place has been charged with several counts of torture. Samir Ousman al-Sheikh was arrested in July for visa fraud charges. He oversaw Syria’s infamous Adra Prison from 2005 to 2008 under recently ousted President
Continue ReadingAssociated Press The U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee has placed an employee on administrative leave after The Associated Press reported that one of its coaches was accused of sexually abusing a young biathlete, causing her so much distress that she attempted suicide. USOPC officials sent an email to the U.S. Biathlon national team saying it
Continue ReadingAssociated Press LAS VEGAS (AP) — Nevada’s attorney general has revived the state’s 2020 fake electors case. Democrat Aaron Ford said Thursday that six Nevada Republicans are again charged with a felony tied to the bogus certificate they submitted to Congress declaring Donald Trump the 2020 winner in Nevada. A Las Vegas-area judge dismissed the
Continue ReadingAssociated Press SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico would make new investments in early childhood education, pilot projects to recycle oil-fracking water, and expand treatment for drug addiction and mental health disorders under a new annual spending proposal from Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. The budget blueprint would increase general fund spending by about
Continue ReadingAssociated Press RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and Gov.-elect Josh Stein have challenged a portion of a law just enacted by the Republican-dominated General Assembly that erodes Stein’s powers and those of other top Democrats elected last month. The lawsuit filed Thursday in state court focuses on a provision that would
Continue ReadingAssociated Press After Luigi Mangione made the difficult decision to undergo spinal surgery last year for chronic back pain, he became a proponent of the procedure that changed his life for the better. He repeatedly posted on Reddit about his recovery and offered words of encouragement for people with similar conditions, telling them to push
Continue ReadingAssociated Press McALLEN, Texas (AP) — SpaceX is launching a new mission: making its Starbase site a new Texas city. Billionaire Elon Musk ‘s company on Thursday sent a letter to local officials requesting an election to turn what it calls Starbase — the South Texas site where SpaceX builds and launches its massive Starship
Continue ReadingAssociated Press HONOLULU (AP) — The National Transportation Safety Board says in a report that a Hawaiian Airlines flight hit severe turbulence that injured passengers and crewmembers because of the flight crew’s decision to fly over a hazardous storm cell instead of around it. Four people suffered serious injuries during the December 2022 flight from
Continue ReadingAssociated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump is offering his support for the dockworkers union before their contract expires next month at Eastern and Gulf Coast ports. He posted on social media Thursday that he met with union leaders and that any further “automation” of the ports would harm workers. He wrote that the
Continue ReadingAssociated Press BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Dozens of environmental nonprofits issued a manifesto Thursday condemning new laws in Brazilian states that threaten to dismantle the Amazon soy moratorium. This landmark voluntary agreement stipulates that traders and oil producers do not buy soybeans grown on land cleared after 2008. The soy moratorium gathered strange bedfellows, ranging
Continue ReadingAssociated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House has announced what it called the first-ever national strategy to counter Islamophobia. A proposal released Thursday details more than 100 possible steps to curb hate, violence, bias and discrimination against Muslims and Arab Americans. It follows a similar national plan to battle antisemitism that President Joe Biden
Continue ReadingAssociated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The deputy executive director of the U.N. World Food Program has been on whirlwind visits to hotspots in the Middle East and Sudan to assess dire humanitarian situations and escalating demands for food from millions of people trapped or fleeing conflicts. But Carl Skau said in an interview with
Continue ReadingAssociated Press Drones for commercial and recreational use have grown rapidly in popularity, despite restrictions on who can operate them and where they can be flown. No-fly zones are enforced around airports, military installations, nuclear plants, certain landmarks including the Statue of Liberty, and sports stadiums during games. Not everybody follows the rules. Sightings at
Continue ReadingSAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The U.S. Department of Energy says $365 million is available to install solar and battery storage systems in homes and healthcare centers across Puerto Rico. Up to $190 million is available to Puerto Rico’s Housing Administration and a private company to pay for solar and battery installations in public
Continue ReadingAssociated Press DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Niger’s ruling junta suspended the BBC for three months over its coverage of an extremist attack that allegedly killed dozens of Nigerien soldiers and civilians. Niger’s ruling junta suspended the BBC for three months over its coverage of an extremist attack that allegedly killed dozens of Nigerien soldiers and
Continue ReadingRIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — An Argentine tourist has been shot in the head and chest in Rio de Janeiro after he mistakenly drove his car into a low-income community, police said. He was using a GPS device to make his way to the Christ the Redeemer statue, local media reported. Gastón Fernando, 51, was
Continue ReadingAssociated Press NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — The company that owns the salvage rights to the Titanic says it hasn’t settled on any future plans to retrieve more artifacts from the shipwreck. Thursday’s announcement could cool down a legal battle with the U.S. government. RMS Titanic Inc. wrote in a court filing that it won’t visit
Continue ReadingNEW YORK (AP) — The man charged with killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was not a client of the medical insurer and may have targeted it because of its size and influence, a senior police official said Thursday. NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told NBC New York in an interview Thursday that investigators have
Continue ReadingAssociated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Three men have sued Sean “Diddy” Combs, claiming the hip-hop mogul drugged and raped them. The lawsuits were filed anonymously Thursday in New York state court. They add to a wave of sexual assault litigation against the rapper, producer and record executive as he also faces federal sex trafficking
Continue ReadingAssociated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A northern Wisconsin tribe and a coalition of groups are moving to block plans to reroute an aging pipeline around the tribe’s reservation. The Bad River Band of Lake Superior filed a lawsuit in Ashland County on Thursday challenging the validity of the environmental impact statement on rerouting Enbridge’s
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