PARIS (AP) — French authorities say an explosion and fire hit a French factory that treats dangerous substances. One person was critically injured. The cause of the explosion is being investigated. Firefighters brought the blaze under control soon after the explosion at the Saipol oil products factory in the port of Sete, on the Mediterranean
Continue ReadingMONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Federal authorities have arrested a man they said placed a homemade explosive device outside the Alabama attorney general’s office in February. The U.S. Justice Department said 26-year-old Kyle Benjamin Douglas Calvert of Irondale was arrested Wednesday on charges of malicious use of an explosive and possession of an unregistered destructive device.
Continue ReadingBy KEVIN McGILL and SARA CLINE Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Strong storms flooded New Orleans streets and demolished buildings in one of the city’s suburbs Wednesday, part of a severe weather system that pounded communities across much of the South, killing one in Mississippi. In Slidell, Louisiana, northeast of New Orleans, multiple people
Continue ReadingWASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden says he’s considering a request from Australia to drop the decade-long U.S. push to prosecute Wikileaks founder Julian Assange for publishing American classified documents. For years, Australia has called on the U.S. to drop its prosecution against Assange, an Australian citizen who has fought U.S. extradition efforts from prison
Continue ReadingBy EVELYNE MUSAMBI Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Ethiopia’s state-appointed rights commission is calling for an investigation into the killing of a prominent opposition figure who was recently released from prison. Bate Urgessa was gunned down on Tuesday night while visiting his hometown in Oromia, Ethiopia’s biggest region. That’s according to the Oromo Liberation
Continue ReadingBy Nadeem Muaddi, Christina Maxouris, John Miller and Danny Freeman, CNN Philadelphia (CNN) — Five people have been arrested – four of whom are juveniles – after a Wednesday afternoon shooting that unfolded in a West Philadelphia park during a large Muslim religious celebration filled with families and children, police say. The shooting took place
Continue ReadingBy BRIAN MAHONEY AP Basketball Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Toronto’s Jontay Porter could face expulsion from the league if the gambling-related accusations against him are found to be true, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Wednesday. Silver, speaking after a two-day meeting of the league’s Board of Governors, did not reveal any specifics about the
Continue ReadingBy Dhruv Tikekar, CNN (CNN) — For the past quarter century, a remote corner of southwest New Zealand has provided a predator-free sanctuary for threatened species, including the world’s only flightless parrot and a lizard that’s found nowhere else on Earth. Chalky Island, a rugged yet lush 2-square-mile outcrop in the Pacific nation’s Fiordland, is
Continue ReadingALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A former high-ranking Democratic legislator in New Mexico has pleaded not guilty to numerous federal charges stemming from a corruption investigation. Sheryl Williams Stapleton entered her plea Tuesday during an initial court appearance in Albuquerque. She is accused of diverting millions of dollars meant for vocational education in the state’s largest
Continue ReadingBy BRUCE SCHREINER Associated Press A federal judge has ruled that Woodford Reserve undermined unionization efforts at its Kentucky distillery by awarding pay raises, relaxing its vacation policy and handing out bottles of whiskey to workers before a vote on whether to unionize. Andrew S. Gollin, an administrative law judge with the National Labor Relations
Continue ReadingBy BILL BARROW Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Donald Trump has stirred religious controversy again in his presidential comeback bid, questioning the mental fitness of Jewish voters who back President Joe Biden and framing Election Day as a referendum on Christianity’s strength in American society. Trump made his comments Wednesday as part of his continuing
Continue ReadingBy Arit John, CNN (CNN) — Abortion politics have been thrust into the spotlight in Arizona, where the state Supreme Court’s decision this week to revive a Civil War-era total abortion ban has sent Republicans scrambling to distance themselves and given Democrats new hope they can make gains in the battleground state. The court’s long-awaited
Continue ReadingBy AAMER MADHANI and ZEKE MILLER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has welcomed Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to the White House for talks on the delicate security situation in the Pacific, the war in Ukraine and more. Biden is honoring a leader who’s been one of his strongest allies in the
Continue ReadingBy Barbie Latza Nadeau, CNN Rome, Italy (CNN) — A 22-year-old French woman whose blood-drained body was found in an abandoned church in northern Italy’s Aosta Valley over the weekend had been looking for a haunted house believed to contain ghosts, according to police. She told family members about her plans before leaving the village
Continue ReadingBy SAMANTHA HENDRICKSON Associated Press/Report for America COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — On a cold and dreary October day, Heather C. Jarvis packed everything she had into a pink duffle and a plastic trash bag and waited for the rest of her life to begin. Sitting in the lobby of the Ohio Reformatory for Women in
Continue ReadingBy JEFFREY COLLINS Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — An off-duty police officer in South Carolina has been charged with murder after state investigators say he shot a man trying to drive away after the two fought in a fast food restaurant parking lot. The State Law Enforcement Division says 64-year-old Anthony DeLustro told investigators
Continue ReadingGUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemala’s president has issued a natural disaster declaration as 44 forest fires continue to burn across the Central American country. President Bernardo Arévalo made the announcement Wednesday, and said that 80% of the fires were started by people. Authorities canceled classes across three central provinces to protect students from the prevailing
Continue ReadingWASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden says Japan’s attempts to set up a leader-to-leader summit with North Korea is “a good thing,” and reiterated his administration’s willingness for its own talks without preconditions. Fumio Kishida and Biden were using the Japanese leader’s official visit to Washington to spotlight strengthened defense and intelligence ties to address
Continue ReadingBy LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer LAS VEGAS (AP) — Margot Robbie has her sights on another toy. The “ Barbie ” producer and star is making a Monopoly movie, with Hasbro and Lionsgate behind it, the companies announced Wednesday at the CinemaCon conference in Las Vegas. Robbie, and her production company LuckyChap, were the
Continue ReadingBy BILL BARROW and ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Donald Trump said Wednesday that an Arizona law that criminalizes nearly all abortions goes too far and called on Arizona lawmakers to change it, while also defending the overturning of Roe v. Wade that cleared states to ban the procedure. “It’ll be straightened
Continue Reading