Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 165
ABOARD THE ADMIRAL ESSEN (AP) — Russia fired a salvo of cruise missiles from the Mediterranean on Thursday and said they struck Islamic State targets in eastern Syria. Activists there said at least 20 civilians were killed in what they described a "fanatical" bombardment — blaming some of it on Russia and some on the United States. It was not clear whether there was a connection between the Russian military strikes and the activists' accounts, reflecting the challenge of verifying the conflicting claims in the hostile environment of Syr...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The blaring, grinding noise jolted the American diplomat from his bed in a Havana hotel. He moved just a few feet, and there was silence. He climbed back into bed. Inexplicably, the agonizing sound hit him again. It was as if he'd walked through some invisible wall cutting straight through his room. Soon came the hearing loss, and the speech problems, symptoms both similar and altogether different from others among at least 21 U.S. victims in an astonishing international mystery still unfolding in Cuba. The top U.S. d...
GENEVA (AP) — Amnesty International says it has turned up evidence of an "orchestrated campaign of systematic burnings" by Myanmar security forces targeting dozens of Rohingya villages over the last three weeks. The human rights group is releasing a new analysis of video, satellite photos, witness accounts and other data that found over 80 sites were torched in Myanmar's northern Rakhine State since an Aug. 25 militant attack on a border post. The U.N. children's agency estimates that as many as 400,000 people have fled to Bangladesh since t...
MINSK, Belarus (AP) — Russia and Belarus began major war games Thursday, an operation involving thousands of troops, tanks and aircraft on NATO's eastern edge practicing how to hunt down and destroy armed spies, among other maneuvers. The Zapad (West) 2017 maneuvers, which are mainly taking place in Belarus this year, have caused concern among members of the Western military alliance and in neighboring countries. Some NATO members, including the Baltic states and Poland, have criticized a lack of transparency about the exercises and questioned...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican-led House on Thursday passed a sweeping $1.2 trillion spending bill that provides billions more dollars for the military while sparing medical research and popular community development programs from deep cuts sought by President Donald Trump. The vote was 211-198 for the massive measure that wrapped the 12 annual spending bills into one in advance of the end of the budget year on Sept. 30. Even though the Senate still must act, the government will keep operating through Dec. 8, thanks to legislation Congress p...
BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on the Syrian conflict (all times local): 8:20 p.m. Syrian activists say at least 20 civilians have been killed in air and missile strikes across east Syria, where U.S. and Russian-backed forces are racing to take territory from the Islamic State group's shrinking Euphrates river valley domain. Turkey-based activist Omar Abou Layla says local activists reported "fanatical" levels of strikes on three IS-held towns and villages on the Euphrates River valley on Thursday, including an attack on the national hospital in the...
MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. (AP) — He inspected a mock-up nuclear warhead, but there was no Kim Jong Un lookalike posing for photographs. He chatted with nuclear missile launch officers in their underground command post, but there was no talk of unleashing nuclear hell on North Korea. A subtle, unspoken message of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis' visit to this nuclear weapons base Wednesday was that America is a mature nuclear power not intimidated by threats from an upstart North Korean leader who flaunts his emerging nuclear muscle. Mattis was q...
FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. (AP) — Here's a very tall tail: Two record-setting cats are living together near Detroit. Arcturus Aldebaran Powers holds the Guinness World Records mark for tallest domestic cat, measuring at about 19 inches (48 centimeters). Housemate Cygnus Regulus Powers holds the record for the domestic cat with the longest tail, measuring more than 17 inches (43 centimeters). The cats live in Farmington Hills with Will and Lauren Powers. Guinness says they sought the records to raise awareness about a cat shelter. Will Powers t...
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A Norwegian archaeologist says a well-preserved, if rusty, iron sword dating to the Viking era has been found in southern Norway. Lars Holger Piloe says the nearly one-meter-long (3-foot) sword was found slid down between rocks with the blade sticking out, and may have been left by a person who got lost in a blizzard and died on the mountain from exposure. Piloe said Thursday the sword, dating from about 850-950 A.D., was found in Lesja, some 275 kilometers (170 miles) north of Oslo. Piloe said the sword's p...
NEW YORK (AP) — Five prominent species of ash tree in the eastern U.S. have been driven to the brink of extinction from years of lethal attack by a beetle, a scientific group says. Tens of millions of trees in the U.S. and Canada have already succumbed, and the toll may eventually reach more than 8 billion, the International Union for Conservation of Nature said Thursday. Ash trees are a major part of eastern forests and urban streets, providing yellow and purplish leaves to the bounty of fall colors. Their timber is used for making f...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Medicare cards are getting a makeover to fight identity theft. No more Social Security numbers plastered on the card. Next April, Medicare will begin mailing every beneficiary a new card with a unique new number to identify them. "Criminals are increasingly targeting people age 65 and older for medical identity theft," Medicare chief Seema Verma told The Associated Press. "We are committed to preventing fraud." Medicare is revealing the cards' new design on Thursday as the government gears up for a massive transition that w...
NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Enhanced security measures will be in place at North Little Rock High School football games after a shooting last week that injured a teenager. The North Little Rock School District says all bags and purses will be scanned at the high school's stadium, and more police officers will be present at Friday's game against Little Rock Parkview. The district is beefing up security in response to last week's shooting, which occurred in the school's parking lot after a North Little Rock football game. A 14-year-old boy w...
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The University of Kansas Hospital Authority is facing a lawsuit from a former cafeteria worker who says the hospital's human resources department neglected to stop sexual harassment by a co-worker. The Kansas City Star reports that the sexual harassment lawsuit was filed in federal court Tuesday. The suit alleges Demi Trimble began working as a hospital cook in May 2016 when another cook began sexually harassing her that same month. Trimble alleges she told human resources about the harassment, but the issues were n...
HOUSTON (AP) — Houston's mayor on Thursday chose the man who oversaw Shell Oil Co.'s efforts after Hurricane Katrina to lead the city's Harvey recovery work, hoping he'll help make the community "more resilient" for when the next big storm hits. Marvin Odum, former head of U.S. operations for Shell, one of the world's largest oil companies, said he'll work closely with state and federal officials. Texas A&M University Chancellor John Sharp, who was tapped by the governor to lead the state's Harvey recovery effort, will be among them. Odum s...
KILLEEN, Texas (AP) — A 20-year-old Texas sailor killed when his ship, the USS John McCain, collided with an oil tanker one day before he was to be promoted last month has been buried with full military honors. Electronics Technician 3rd Class John Henry Hoagland III was buried Thursday in the Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery in Killeen after a funeral service. The Killeen Daily Herald reports Hoagland's commanding officer, Capt. Victor Granados, and at least 30 sailors attended the funeral. Hoagland is one of 10 sailors who died Aug. 2...
Less than 20 percent of a 461,000-gallon (1.7-million-liter) gasoline spill in Texas during Hurricane Harvey was recovered by the company responsible, while the rest evaporated or soaked into the ground, a U.S. Coast Guard official said Thursday. Only a minor amount of the spill appeared to have escaped the Magellan Midstream Partners storage tank farm in the Houston suburb of Galena Park, said Coast Guard Lt. Commander Jarod Toczko. It's the largest spill reported to date from the storm that made landfall in Texas last month. The Oklahoma-base...
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Richmond police say 19 people were arrested during an anti-pipeline protest outside the headquarters of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. Police spokeswoman Chelsea Rarrick says the protesters were arrested for obstructing free passage. The protesters were calling on the department to deny water quality permits developers are seeking for the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley natural gas pipelines. Around 40 people gathered on Capitol Square and marched to the DEQ, where they staged a peaceful sit-in u...
LONDON (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Thursday urged China to use its leverage as North Korea's principal supplier of oil to press the isolated nation into reconsidering its development of nuclear weapons. The Trump administration sought an embargo on oil imports to North Korea at the U.N. Security Council this week in response to the North's most powerful nuclear test to date. But opposition from China and Russia forced the U.N. to approve weaker measures, although it did ban textile exports, an important source of its revenue...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Higher gas and housing costs boosted U.S. consumer prices 0.4 percent in August, the most in seven months. The increase suggests inflation could be picking up, but the figures were likely distorted by Hurricane Harvey. Consumer prices climbed 1.9 percent last month compared with a year earlier, the Labor Department said Thursday, up from an annual gain of 1.7 percent in August and the second straight increase. Excluding volatile energy and food costs, prices rose 0.2 percent in August and 1.7 percent from a year earlier. The p...
COPPELL, Texas (AP) — Retail gasoline prices in Texas and the rest of the country declined 2 cents per gallon this week amid recovery from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. AAA Texas on Thursday reported the average price at the pump statewide was $2.52 per gallon. The nationwide retail gasoline price was $2.65 per gallon. Association officials say Dallas has the most expensive gasoline in Texas this week at $2.61 per gallon. Drivers in Amarillo have the cheapest gasoline statewide at $2.36 per gallon. AAA experts say the national gasoline price a...
TOKYO (AP) — Japan's nuclear policy-setting Atomic Energy Commission called Thursday for nuclear power to remain a key component of the country's energy supply despite broad public support for a less nuclear-reliant society. The commission recommended in a report that nuclear power account for at least 20 percent of Japan's energy supply in 2030, citing a previous government energy plan. It said rising utility costs caused by expensive fossil fuel imports and slow reactor restarts have affected Japan's economy. The 322-page "nuclear white p...
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnamese police have widened their investigation into alleged graft and mismanagement connected with the state-owned oil and gas giant PetroVietnam that caused $69 million in losses. Three PetroVietnam subsidiaries are being investigated for alleged abuse of power in appropriating $5.3 million, the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement late Wednesday. The case centers on Ocean Bank, which was taken over by State Bank in 2015 at no cost after reporting losses of $445 million. PetroVietnam had owned 20 percent o...
YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) — A Washington landowner has been fined $28,000 for an oil spill that contaminated the Yakima River in March 2015. The Tri-City Herald reported (http://bit.ly/2h47510 ) Wednesday that the spill contaminated dozens of ducks and geese, with 77 mallards and gray geese brought to an empty Pasco warehouse to have oil cleaned off and be rehabilitated. The spill also fouled wetlands, Yakama Nation reservation lands and a fish hatchery. Some of the birds died. The landowner, Ward Deaton, says he regrets the spill occurred and is w...
DETROIT (AP) — Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt has told a group of senators he never made any promises to billionaire investor Carl Icahn about renewable fuel credits that were costing one of Icahn's companies millions of dollars. Pruitt was responding to letters from five senators looking into potential conflicts of interest involving Icahn, who resigned in August as a special adviser to President Donald Trump on regulatory reform. The senators, all Democrats, had questions about Icahn's role in shaping policy about o...
FREMONT, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan biodigester that turns food scraps into green energy has reopened after shutting down two years ago over financial problems. The new owner, Generate Capital Inc., wants the revamped Fremont Regional Digester to start running at capacity later this fall. The digester is expected to turn 165,000 tons of organic waste a year into enough green energy to power at least 2,500 homes. The original $22 million plant opened by Novi Energy in 2012 produced energy to power about 1,500 homes annually. That plant closed in 2...
