AP National News

HEALDSBURG, Calif. (AP) — Authorities say a Northern California man has pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter charges in the drowning of his 4-year-old daughter in the baptismal pool of a Catholic church. Officials say Gerardo Mendoza had been smoking methamphetamine for days and thought his two youngest children were being attacked by evil. He

By MARYCLAIRE DALE Associated Press PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A federal appeals court has revived a Philadelphia newscaster’s lawsuit against Facebook over the unauthorized use of her image in advertisements for dating sites and sex-related products that ran on the site. A divided panel concluded that Facebook is not immune from Fox 29 host Karen Hepp’s

REDDING, Calif. (AP) — A woman has been arrested on suspicion of starting a Northern California wildfire that spread rapidly, burning homes and prompting evacuation orders Thursday in a rural community, authorities said. Workers at a nearby quarry reported seeing a woman acting strangely and trespassing in the area in Shasta County where the Fawn

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal officials say unruly passengers are becoming a bit less common on airline flights, but they are still causing disruptions at twice the rate of late last year. The Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday the its zero-tolerance policy — including fines against more passengers — is helping. Those fines have added up

By JONATHAN MATTISE and MARK HUMPHREY Associated Press COLLIERVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A gunman attacked a grocery store in an upscale Tennessee suburb on Thursday afternoon, killing one person and wounding 12 others before he was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound at the store, authorities said. Collierville Police Chief Dale Lane said

By MICHAEL MELIA Associated Press HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The chief investigator for a Boston museum still working to recover $500 million worth of art stolen in 1990 says he’s hoping for new leads to emerge following the death of a key figure in the case. A Connecticut mobster who died last week, Robert Gentile,

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — A movie year of fits-and-starts, delays and reversals has sometimes been difficult to track. Knowing just where and how a new movie premieres has become a sport of its own. Even for those closely following new films, it’s been a sometimes exhilarating, sometimes befuddling half-virtual,

By JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Nations, companies and foundations pledged billions of dollars to feed the world in connection with an ambitious United Nations food summit Thursday, while some grassroots anti-hunger groups and food experts blasted the event as too corporate, tech-focused and top-down. Held as part of the annual U.N.

By CHINEDU ASADU Associated Press LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Nigerian police say they have arrested three “key suspects” over the abduction for ransom of 121 students from a school in the northern Kaduna state. Assailants had stormed the Bethel Baptist High School on July 5, seizing the students from their hostels. All but 21 of

BURRILLVILLE, R.I. (AP) — The purportedly haunted Rhode Island farmhouse where the spooky happenings that inspired the 2013 horror movie “The Conjuring” occurred has hit the market for the scary price of $1.2 million. Realtor Mott & Chace Sotheby’s International Realty in its listing Thursday called the 14-room, 3,100-square-foot home on 8.5 acres in Burrillville

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Azerbaijan has filed a case at the United Nations’ top court accusing Armenia of a “policy of ethnic cleansing” targeting Azerbaijanis. The case was lodged Thursday at the International Court of Justice. It comes a week after Armenia filed suit against Azerbaijan at the same

By BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — A federal judge’s sweeping order requiring the city and county of Los Angeles to quickly shelter all homeless people living on downtown’s Skid Row was overturned Thursday by an appeals court that called it an abuse of judicial discretion. The 9th U.S. Court of Appeals found

By TERRY SPENCER Associated Press The fight over whether the site of June’s deadly Florida condominium collapse should be sold for development or turned into a memorial boiled over at a court hearing Thursday, with some victims’ relatives begging for time to find a buyer who won’t put a new luxury high-rise there. Several victims’

By JAKE BLEIBERG and JIM MUSTIAN Associated Press A former Louisiana State Police trooper has been charged with a civil rights violation for pummeling a Black motorist 18 times with a flashlight — the first criminal case to emerge from federal investigations into troopers’ beatings of at least three Black men. A grand jury on

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — A judge has ruled that a Colorado woman charged with killing her 11-year-old stepson will stand trial. Authorities allege that 38-year-old Letecia Stauch killed Gannon Stauch at their home in January 2020. His body was found in the Florida Panhandle about two months later. At a hearing earlier this month,

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Four members of an alleged California militia group have pleaded guilty to conspiring to obstruct justice in the case of a federal guard who was fatally shot in Oakland more than a year ago, federal prosecutors said. The men — followers of the “boogaloo” movement, a concept embraced by a loose

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Albuquerque city officials plan to use ground-penetrating radar as they research the history of a site where dozens of Native American boarding school students are believed to have been buried more than a century ago. They also plan to use orange markings at the city

By PEDRO SERVIN Associated Press ASUNCION, Paraguay (AP) — Paraguay’s crucial outlet to the sea has fallen to its lowest level since at least 1904, and that threatens massive economic losses to the small South American nation. Government figures Thursday show the Paraguay River at 56 centimeters (22 inches) below reference in the capital, about

ROCKFORD, Ill. (AP) — Police arrested a man who allegedly took a Subway shop employee’s purse during an Illinois robbery attempt that was caught on surveillance video. The case garnered attention this month after video of a Subway shop employee fighting with the man was posted online. The Subway store’s owner then suspended the employee