Month: January 2024

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A retrial for the man who fatally shot New Orleans Saints star Will Smith almost eight years is underway in New Orleans. In opening statements to a newly selected jury, a prosecutor cast 36-year-old Cardell Hayes as the violent aggressor in the 2016 confrontation that followed a car crash. A defense

By ALBERT AJI and OMAR AKOUR Associated Press DAMASCUS (AP) — Syria’s foreign ministry has condemned recent presumed Jordanian airstrikes against suspected drug traffickers on Syrian territory, including one last week that killed women and children.  In response, Jordan has accused the Syrians of failing to take action to halt smuggling across the border. The

By SARAH RANKIN Associated Press RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Public universities would be prohibited from giving preferential treatment in admissions to applicants who are related to alumni or donors under a bill that has sailed out of the Virginia Senate. The measure passed the General Assembly’s upper chamber Tuesday on a 39-0 vote. It now

By DAVID BILLER and DIANE JEANTET Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — After decades of delay and pressure, Brazil announced Tuesday that it will henceforth use “favelas and urban communities” to categorize thousands of poor, urban neighborhoods, instead of the previous term “subnormal agglomerates” that was widely viewed as stigmatizing. Starting in the 1990s,

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron has told top athletes he hopes that France will reach the top five of the Paris Olympics medal table, but he doesn’t want to put “excessive pressure.” He says France will have a record delegation of about 800 Olympic and Paralympic athletes when the games begin in July.

By MICHAEL R. SISAK Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Former Houston Rockets guard Kevin Porter Jr. has reached a plea deal in a New York City domestic assault case that will keep him out of jail if he completes a court-ordered treatment program and stays out of trouble. Porter, 23, pleaded guilty Tuesday to

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS wants to rewrite its complicated letters to taxpayers and speak to people in plain English. The federal tax collector is rewriting and sending out commonly received notices ahead of the 2024 tax filing season as part of its new “Simple Notice Initiative.” “Redesigned notices will

WASHINGTON (AP) — Washington’s federal appeals court has rejected Donald Trump’s request to reconsider a gag order restricting the former president’s speech in the case charging him with plotting to overturn the 2020 election. Lawyers for the Republican presidential front-runner had asked the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to examine the

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Activists in Mexico have published photos of steel and cement pilings from a government project driven directly through the roofs of sensitive limestone caves on the Yucatan peninsula. The cave networks and their underground rivers are both environmentally sensitive, and have been found to hold some of the oldest human remains

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Canadian authorities say that three people have died in a heli-ski helicopter crash. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police in west-central British Columbia said Tuesday that seven people were aboard. Three people were killed and four others were badly injured. Terrace Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the aircraft was one of

ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — Former Georgia mascot Uga X, whose eight-year run included back-to-back national championships, has died. Uga X was part of the line of English bulldog mascots that began in 1955. He was 2 when he began his run on the Sanford Stadium sideline in 2015. The bulldog known as “Que” retired in

By COLLEEN BARRY AP Business Writer MILAN (AP) — The European Commission has announced an in-depth investigation of German airline Lufthansa’s planned takeover of Italian carrier ITA Airways citing competitive concerns. Lufthansa signed a deal last year for a 41% minority share in the long-struggling ITA Airways formerly Alitalia. The deal calls for a 325-million-euro

WASHINGTON (AP) — Officials say the federal home energy assistance program served more than 7 million families in the last fiscal year, an all-time high that coincides with a record number of utility customers behind on payments. The National Energy Assistance Directors Association said the troubling numbers underscore the importance for Congress to act to

By LEANNE ITALIE AP Entertainment Writer After a bruising year for the film industry, Christopher Nolan’s atomic hit “Oppenheimer” has emerged the winner of the Academy Awards nomination race. The drama focused on the Manhattan Project’s J. Robert Oppenheimer earned 13 Oscar nods. It was followed in the nomination count by the Frankenstein-esque dark comedy

By The Associated Press JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft is defending himself against the state auditor’s claim that Ashcroft violated state law. Ashcroft is accused of failing to turn over cybersecurity reviews of Missouri’s 116 local election authorities. Ashcroft on Tuesday refuted what he called “false accusations” made by

ATLANTA (AP) — Rapper YFN Lucci pleaded guilty Tuesday to a gang-related charge after reaching a deal with prosecutors nearly three years after he was indicted on murder, gang and racketeering charges in Atlanta. The rapper, whose given name is Rayshawn Bennett, was one of a dozen people charged in a wide-ranging indictment targeting alleged

By ROB GILLIES Associated Press TORONTO (AP) — Canada’s government is preparing for the possibility that Donald Trump could reach the White House again. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has told a Cabinet retreat that Trump “represents uncertainty.” But he said his government was able to manage Trump previously by showing that Canada and the U.S.

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City police sergeant who hurled a plastic cooler at a man fleeing officers on a motorcycle, causing a crash that killed the rider, was charged with manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and assault. Erik Duran pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Tuesday in the Bronx and made bail, which

By NOEL SICHALWE Associated Press LUSAKA, Zambia (AP) — Authorities in Zambia say they are frantically pumping water and mud from a Chinese-owned copper mine where seven miners are trapped underground. The two Chinese workers and five Zambian ones were caught on Monday when water and mud entered the shaft where they worked at the

By ELENA BECATOROS Associated Press ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The European Court of Human Rights has condemned Greece for violating the privacy rights of a group of women arrested and publicly identified in 2012 as HIV-positive prostitutes who allegedly endangered public health. The case was brought to the Strasbourg, France-based court by 11 Greek women,

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The U.K. government is giving Northern Ireland politicians until Feb. 8 to restore their collapsed regional government. The deadline extension was announced Tuesday. A boycott by Northern Ireland’s largest British unionist party has kept the power-sharing administration on ice for almost two years. The British government is

By OMAR FARUK Associated Press MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — The U.S. military says that it conducted airstrikes in Somalia over the weekend that killed three al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab militants and that there were no civilian casualties. The Germany-based U.S. Africa Command said in a statement Tuesday that the strikes were done at the request of Somalia’s

By KATHLEEN FOODY, SOPHIA TAREEN and KEN MILLER Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — A man suspected of shooting and killing eight people in suburban Chicago this weekend was related to most of the victims, authorities said Tuesday, a day after the 23-year-old fatally shot himself during a confrontation with law enforcement in Texas. The Illinois

By DEE-ANN DURBIN AP Business Writer Unions commanded big headlines last year, but that didn’t translate into higher membership rates, according to government data released Tuesday. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said 10% of hourly and salaried workers were members of unions in 2023, or around 14.4 million people. That is an all-time low,

By SUZAN FRASER Associated Press ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish legislators on Tuesday endorsed Sweden’s membership in NATO, lifting a major hurdle on the previously nonaligned country’s entry into the military alliance. The legislators ratified Sweden’s accession protocol by 287 votes to 55, with four abstentions. The ratification will come into effect after its publication