Month: January 2024

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations has issued a somber global economic forecast for 2024, pointing to challenges from escalating conflicts, sluggish global trade, persistently high interest rates and increasing climate disasters. In its flagship economic report launched Thursday, the U.N. projected that global economic growth would slow

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A 53-year-old Asian elephant has been euthanized at the Los Angeles Zoo after she was unable to stand up. The zoo says Shaunzi, one of two female elephants at the zoo, went down in the yard of her exhibit space and was discovered unable to stand on Tuesday night. She was

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City subway train derailed Thursday after colliding with another train at low speed, leaving more than 20 people with minor injuries and causing major service disruptions across Manhattan during the afternoon rush hour. Police say the minor derailment took place on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. A 1 train

By SAMANTHA HENDRICKSON and GEOFF MULVIHILL Associated Press/Report for America COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A transgender woman has been disqualified from running for the Ohio House after omitting her former name from circulating petitions to get on the ballot. Vanessa Joy’s disqualification raises concern that other transgender candidates in the state and nationwide may face

By The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Before and after he was exposed as a pedophile, Jeffrey Epstein loved to mingle with the world’s elite. The millionaire invited politicians and academics to his private island and luxury homes. He offered celebrities rides on his private jet. He and his girlfriend, the socialite Ghislaine Maxwell,

By MAURICIO SAVARESE Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A right-wing Brazilian politician’s push to have the city of Sao Paulo investigate a city priest has prompted a strong defense from Roman Catholic leaders and government officials. They’re praising the clergyman’s work with the homeless. The Rev. Júlio Lancellotti ministers to the homeless in

DALLAS (AP) — The family of former U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson said Thursday that the trailblazing Texas congresswoman, who died over the weekend at age 89, passed away after getting an infection and accused a Dallas rehabilitation facility of neglect. Johnson, who was the first registered nurse elected to Congress, died on Dec. 31

By BRUCE SCHREINER Associated Press FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear says access to medical marijuana in the state should expand to include more health conditions. He says the change would make 437,000 more Kentuckians eligible for treatment when the program begins next year. The measure passed by lawmakers in 2023 specified that

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Northern California prosecutors have decided to only charge the father of a 10-year-old boy in connection with the death of a child the boy allegedly shot. The decision on charges in the fatal shooting Saturday outside Sacramento was announced during the father’s court appearance Wednesday. In an email Thursday to The

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A judge says a Tennessee man accused of raping a woman a year before he was charged with kidnapping and killing a schoolteacher will have his fate decided by a Memphis-area jury when he goes to trial in the sexual assault case. News outlets report that Shelby County Judge Lee Coffee

By SARA MELINI Associated Press GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Former Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina was released from prison after posting bond of more than $10.3 million quetzales ($1.3 million), according to his lawyer. The former president was convicted and sentenced to 16 years in prison in December 2022 for a bribery scheme known locally

By JEFF AMY Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Long-held Republican opposition to broader health care coverage may be softening in Georgia and Mississippi. Legislative leaders in both states say they want to examine plans to expand Medicaid. North Carolina began offering Medicaid to uninsured adults on Dec. 1. But an expert who studies Medicaid says

By TOM MURPHY AP Health Writer Eli Lilly has launched a unique website to connect U.S. patients seeking obesity treatment to doctors, dieticians and its new weight-loss drug, Zepbound. The drugmaker said Thursday it will use the site, called LillyDirect, to pair visitors with third-party mail-order pharmacies for prescriptions and to care providers through a

CAPITOLA, Calif. (AP) — Police say a founding member of an experimental rock band has been arrested on suspicion of killing his girlfriend. Investigators say Theo Lengyel of Mr. Bungle became a suspect after human remains were found at a park near San Francisco. Alice “Alyx” Kamakaokalani Herrmann went missing in December. Lengyel was arrested

By SUDHIN THANAWALA Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter says the world urgently needs to study and adopt her father’s philosophy of nonviolence to avoid self-destruction. The Rev. Bernice King used an address Thursday to announce events for the upcoming holiday in honor of her father to warn that

By GERALD IMRAY Associated Press CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Sudanese paramilitary leader Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo says he is committed to a cease-fire to end the devastating war that has wrecked his country. But fighting continues and there has been no progress on proposed peace talks between Dagalo and Sudan military chief Gen.

By LISA RATHKE Associated Press A Connecticut woman who pushed for expanded access to Vermont’s law that allows people who are terminally ill to end their lives has died in Vermont. Lynda Bluestein, who had terminal cancer, ended her life by taking prescribed lethal medication on Thursday. Her husband says her last words were that

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ and TERRY CHEA Associated Press BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — Police officers in riot gear have removed activists from Berkeley’s People’s Park and crews began placing double-stacked shipping containers to wall off the historic park overnight Thursday. The move comes as the University of California, Berkeley waits for a court ruling it

By ASHRAF KHALIL Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A top federal transportation safety official is harshly criticizing Washington’s regional transit agency, saying a “poor safety culture” led to an October 2021 derailment that caused hundreds of new Metro railcars to be pulled from service. National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said Thursday that a

By DAVE SKRETTA AP Basketball Writer The AP Top 25 men’s college basketball poll has been a mainstay for 75 years, but much like the game itself, it has evolved with the times. What was once a top 20, and contracted to a top 10, reached its now-familiar 25-team ranking in 1989. The panel of

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ Associated Press New York (AP) — New York City is suing more than a dozen charter bus companies for $700 million, accusing them of illegally transporting tens of thousands of migrants from the southern border to the city under the direction of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. The lawsuit accuses 17 bus companies

By BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press LONDON (AP) — A neo-Nazi podcaster who called for the deaths of Prince Harry and his young son has been sentenced to prison with his co-host for encouraging terrorism. A London judge on Thursday called Christopher Gibbons and Tyrone Patten-Walsh “dedicated and unapologetic white supremacists.” Gibbons had said the Duke

By LAURAN NEERGAARD AP Medical Writer Crib cameras are offering a clue to a rare but devastating tragedy _ when seemingly healthy young children suddenly die in their sleep and autopsies can’t tell why. Similar to SIDS in babies, it’s called sudden unexplained death in childhood, or SUDC, when it happens after age 1. In