U.S./World category, Page 406

A rise in gang violence and kidnappings in Haiti continues to worry the United Nations, whose top humanitarian official in Port-au-Prince has appealed to the international community to provide support for the country and its people. Ulrika Richardson, the U.N. resident and humanitarian coordinator in Haiti, said the global organization...

KYSELIVKA, Ukraine — For 10 days, Alesha Babenko was locked in a basement and regularly beaten by Russian soldiers. Bound, blindfolded and threatened with electric shocks, the 27-year-old pleaded for them to stop. “I thought I was going to die,” he told The Associated Press. In September, Babenko and his...

BOISE — Police in the college town of Moscow said Wednesday they have not identified a suspect or found a weapon in the weekend slayings of four University of Idaho students in a rental house near campus. Authorities continue to believe the attack was targeted but walked back a previous...

NEW YORK — Have U.S. drug overdose deaths stopped rising? Preliminary government data suggests they may have, but many experts are urging caution, noting that past plateaus didn’t last. U.S. overdose death rates began steadily climbing in the 1990s driven by opioid painkillers, followed by waves of deaths led by...

Pittsburgh-based Kraft Heinz may be best known for the iconic ketchup, but the food giant is hoping that a series of offbeat items and recipes can revive some of the company’s other well-known brands. Stove Top, a Kraft Heinz Company brand, is bringing back its Stuffing Pants, a pair of...

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — The University of Virginia canceled its final home football game of the season Wednesday, the same day a student accused of killing three members of the team and wounding two other students in an on-campus shooting was due in court for his first hearing. University officials and...

PRZEWODOW, Poland — NATO member Poland and the head of the military alliance both said Wednesday a missile strike in Polish farmland that killed two people did not appear to be an intentional attack, and that air defenses in neighboring Ukraine likely launched the Soviet-era projectile against a Russian bombardment...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA’s new moon rocket blasted off on its debut flight with three test dummies aboard Wednesday, bringing the U.S. a big step closer to putting astronauts back on the lunar surface for the first time since the end of the Apollo program 50 years ago. If...

VAN WERT, Ohio — Vandalism freed thousands of mink at a rural northwest Ohio farm, leaving an estimated 10,000 of the small carnivorous mammals unaccounted for Tuesday evening, the local sheriff said. So many minks were killed crossing a nearby road that a plow was brought in to help clear...

SARASOTA, Fla. — A Florida judge on Tuesday said former national security adviser Michael Flynn must testify before a special grand jury in Atlanta that’s looking into whether then-President Donald Trump and his allies illegally tried to influence the 2020 election in Georgia. Sarasota County Chief Judge Charles Roberts ordered...

SALT LAKE CITY — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said Tuesday it would back proposed federal legislation to safeguard same-sex marriages, marking the latest show of support for the measure from conservative-leaning groups. The nearly 17-million member, Utah-based faith said in a statement that church doctrine would...

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Tuesday that Philadelphia will be the next destination for migrants the state is transporting from the U.S.-Mexico border by the thousands to Democratic-led locales, putting a new bus on the road a week after the Republican easily won reelection. He did not...

DETROIT — Two new U.S. studies show that automatic emergency braking can cut the number of rear-end automobile crashes in half, and reduce pickup truck crashes by more than 40%. The studies released Tuesday, one by a government-auto industry partnership and the other by the insurance industry, each used crash...

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — A University of Virginia student who went on a field trip to see a play with classmates is the one suspected of opening fire inside the bus they were riding in when the group returned to campus, a university spokesperson confirmed Tuesday. Spokesperson Brian Coy said the...

NEW YORK — Customs officers at New York’s Kennedy International Airport seized $450,000 worth of cocaine from a traveler who was smuggling the drugs in the wheels of her wheelchair, federal authorities announced. The bust happened Nov. 10 when Customs and Border Patrol officers stopped a woman traveling from Punta...

Amazon is stepping back into virtual care with a new service that uses secure messaging to connect patients with doctors for help with nearly two dozen conditions. The retail giant said Tuesday it will launch “Amazon Clinic” in 32 states to provide medication refills and care for conditions like allergies,...

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday likened the recapture of the southern city of Kherson to the Allied landings in France on D-Day in World War II, saying both were watersheds on the road to eventual victory. Ukrainian police, meanwhile, announced plans to investigate alleged Russian torture...

Retail giant Walmart on Tuesday become the latest major player in the drug industry to announce a plan to settle lawsuits filed by state and local governments over the toll of powerful prescription opioids sold at its pharmacies with state and local governments across the U.S. The $3.1 billion proposal...