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By AAMER MADHANI, NOMAAN MERCHANT and VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russian planning is underway for a possible military offensive against Ukraine that could begin as soon as early 2022 and would include an estimated 175,000 personnel. That’s according to an administration official who spoke on condition

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Charlotte Mailliard Shultz, the long-reigning chief of San Francisco protocol and unofficial aide to 10 mayors, died Friday of complications from cancer. She was 88. Friends and family called Shultz a true San Franciscan, even though she was from Texas, who helped the city look its best. As the city’s chief

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council  has voted unanimously to allow international naval forces to continue using all necessary means to fight piracy off the coast of Somalia, but only for the next three months. The Somali government says there has been no piracy incident for over

By NICOLE WINFIELD and DEREK GATOPOULOS Associated Press ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Pope Francis has arrived in Athens for the second leg of a five-day visit to Cyprus and Greece aimed at bolstering recently mended ties between the Vatican and Greek Orthodox churches. Francis is set to hold meetings on Saturday about an emerging alliance

By ED WHITE Associated Press Experts say guns used in U.S. school shootings have often come from the homes of young perpetrators. But parents are rarely charged for the violence that occurs. That’s what makes the case against Ethan Crumbley’s parents unusual, following the fatal shooting of four students at Oxford High School in southeastern

By AUDREY McAVOY Associated Press HONOLULU (AP) — Honolulu’s water utility is shutting down one of its wells so it doesn’t pull petroleum from an underground aquifer it shares with the Navy and deliver it to its own customers. The move comes as the Navy grapples with a continuing crisis over fuel contaminating its tap

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Fire crews on the scene could smell gas after an explosion leveled a house in Oklahoma City. Fire Capt. Scott Douglas says neighbors reported the blast about 3:20 p.m. Friday. He says the first arriving fire crews reported smelling gas. After gas and electric power to the site was shut off,

MESQUITE, Texas (AP) — A police officer has died and a suspect has been wounded in a shooting outside a suburban Dallas supermarket. Mesquite police say it happened about 1:40 p.m. Friday outside an Albertson’s supermarket. Mesquite Police Chief David Gill said the officer was responding to a report of a disturbance in the store

By DEBORA ALVARES Associated Press BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is facing a potential investigation into comments linking COVID-19 vaccines to AIDS. Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes on Friday instructed the country’s top prosecutor to look into that statement based on an investigation by Brazil’s Senate. The president has argued he

By MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection has postponed a deposition with a former Justice Department official Saturday until Dec. 16 due to a “medical condition that precludes his participation.” Jeffrey Clark had aligned himself with former President Donald Trump last year as he