National News

Today is Sunday, Jan. 26, the 26th day of 2020. There are 340 days left in the year. Today's Highlights in History: On Jan. 26, 2005, a U.S. Marine helicopter crashed in western Iraq, killing 30 Marines and a Navy medic aboard. A man parked his SUV on railroad tracks in Glendale, California, setting off a crash of two commuter trains that killed 11 people. (The SUV's driver, Juan Alvarez, was convicted of murder and sentenced to 11 consecutive life terms.)...

WASHINGTON -- House Democrats warned as they closed their arguments Friday in Donald Trump's impeachment trial the president will persist in abusing his power and endanger American democracy unless Congress intervenes to remove him before the 2020 election...

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump vowed to stand with anti-abortion activists Friday as he became the first sitting president to speak at the March for Life, an annual gathering that is one of the movement's highest profile and most symbolic events...

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon disclosed on Friday that 34 U.S. service members suffered traumatic brain injury in Iran's missile strike this month on an Iraqi air base, and although half have returned to work, the casualty total belies President Donald Trump's initial claim no Americans were harmed. He later characterized the injuries as "not very serious."...

BEIJING -- China expanded its lockdown against the deadly new virus to an unprecedented 36 million people and rushed to build a prefabricated, 1,000-bed hospital for victims Friday as the outbreak cast a pall over Lunar New Year, the country's biggest, most festive holiday...

BAGHDAD -- Waving national flags and banners denouncing U.S. President Donald Trump, tens of thousands of Iraqis marched peacefully through Baghdad on Friday to demand the ouster of U.S. troops from their country in a protest organized by a populist Shiite cleric...

Today is Saturday, Jan. 25, the 25th day of 2020. There are 341 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On Jan. 25, 1915, America's first official transcontinental telephone call took place as Alexander Graham Bell, who was in New York, spoke to his former assistant, Thomas Watson, who was in San Francisco, over a line set up by American Telephone & Telegraph...

WASHINGTON -- Democratic House prosecutors made an expansive case Thursday at Donald Trump's impeachment trial that he abused power like no other president in history, swept up by a "completely bogus" Ukraine theory pushed by attorney Rudy Giuliani...

WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration lifted federal protections Thursday for some of the nation's millions of miles of streams, arroyos and wetlands, completing one of its most far-reaching environmental rollbacks. The changes will scale back which waterways qualify for protection against pollution and development under the half-century-old Clean Water Act. ...

WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration on Thursday imposed new visa rules aimed at restricting "birth tourism," in which women travel to the United States to give birth so their children can have U.S. citizenship. Applicants will be denied a tourist visa unless they can prove they must come to the U.S. to give birth for medical reasons and they have money to pay for it -- not just because they want their child to have a passport...

LONDON -- A viral illness in China that has sickened hundreds of people is not yet a global health emergency, the World Health Organization said Thursday. WHO issued its evaluation came after Chinese authorities moved to lock down three cities earlier in the day and canceled major events in the capital, Beijing, during the Lunar New Year holiday period to try to contain the new virus...

WARSAW, Poland -- Muslim religious leaders joined members of a U.S. Jewish group at Auschwitz on Thursday for what organizers described as "the most senior Islamic leadership delegation" to visit the site of a Nazi German death camp. The interfaith visit came four days before the 75th anniversary of the camp's Jan. 27, 1945, liberation by Soviet forces and as world leaders gathered in Jerusalem to commemorate the Holocaust...

GEORGETOWN, S.C. — A sheriff’s deputy responding to a burglary call in South Carolina was forced to settle a beef between his K9 and a spooked cow by using a stun gun. ...

Today is Friday, Jan. 24, the 24th day of 2020. There are 342 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On Jan. 24, 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill concluded a wartime conference in Casablanca, Morocco...

WASHINGTON -- House Democrats launched into marathon arguments in President Donald Trump's impeachment trial Wednesday, appealing to skeptical Republican senators to join them in voting to oust Trump from office to "protect our democracy." Trump's lawyers sat by, waiting their turn, as the president blasted the proceedings from afar, threatening jokingly to face off with the Democrats by coming to "sit right in the front row and stare at their corrupt faces."...

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump said Wednesday the U.S. would soon be imposing visa restrictions on more countries -- though it's not clear yet how many nations will be affected by his expansion of the travel ban. Seven additional nations were listed in a draft of the proposed restrictions -- but the countries were notified by Homeland Security officials they could avoid being included if they make changes before the announcement is made, according to two administration officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing negotiations.. ...

BEIJING -- The Chinese city of Wuhan shut down outbound flights and trains as the world's most populous country battled the spread of a new virus that has sickened hundreds of people and killed 17, Chinese state media said early Thursday. The state-owned People's Daily newspaper said no one would be allowed to leave the city of several million people. ...

BAGHDAD -- U.S. President Donald Trump hinted sanctions on Iraq were still a possibility in a bilateral meeting with Iraq's president Wednesday, the first since a U.S. drone strike on Iraqi soil killed a top Iranian general, straining Washington-Baghdad ties...

JACKSON, N.J. — An ad in the Waze navigation app is misdirecting motorists headed to Atlantic City’s Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa into the wilderness of New Jersey’s Pine Barrens, police said. Jackson Township police posted on Facebook that officers in recent weeks have had to help motorists who followed the directions into the Colliers Mills Wildlife Management Area, where they became stuck on unpaved roads. ...

Today is Thursday, Jan. 23, the 23rd day of 2020. There are 343 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On Jan. 23, 1964, the 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution, eliminating the poll tax in federal elections, was ratified as South Dakota became the 38th state to endorse it...

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Senate plunged into President Donald Trump's impeachment trial Tuesday with Republicans abruptly abandoning plans to cram opening arguments into two late-night sessions and Democrats arguing for more witnesses to expose Trump's "trifecta" of offenses...

TOKSOOK BAY, Alaska -- Lizzie Chimiugak has lived for 90 years in the windswept western wilds of Alaska, born to a nomadic family who lived in mud homes and followed where the good hunting and fishing led. Her home now is an outpost on the Bering Sea, Toksook Bay, and she is about to become the first person counted in the U.S. Census, taken every 10 years to apportion representation in Congress and federal money...

SEATTLE -- The U.S. on Tuesday reported its first case of a new and potentially deadly virus circulating in China, saying a Washington state resident who returned last week from the outbreak's epicenter was hospitalized near Seattle. The man, identified only as a Snohomish County resident is in his 30s, was in good condition and wasn't considered a threat to medical staff or the public, health officials said...

WASHINGTON -- Hillary Clinton refused to say whether she would endorse Bernie Sanders, her 2016 rival, if he wins the Democratic nomination and offered a broad condemnation of the progressive candidate's style of politics. "I'm not going to go there yet," she said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter published Tuesday in response to whether she'd back Sanders. ...

DAVOS, Switzerland -- Greta Thunberg isn't easily intimidated. The 17-year-old Swedish activist wasted little time on Tuesday to push back against U.S. President Donald Trump's description of climate campaigners as "the perennial prophets of doom" who predict the "apocalypse."...

Today is Wednesday, Jan. 22, the 22nd day of 2020. There are 344 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On Jan. 22, 1998, Theodore Kaczynski pleaded guilty in Sacramento, California, to being the Unabomber responsible for three deaths and 29 injuries in return for a sentence of life in prison without parole...

WASHINGTON -- On the eve of President Donald Trump's impeachment trial, the Senate leader proposed a compressed calendar for opening statements, White House lawyers argued for swift rejection of the "flimsy" charges and the Capitol braced for the contentious proceedings unfolding in an election year...

YUBA CITY, Calif. — Authorities are investigating the theft of nearly 100 beehives from an orchard in northern California. The beehives, which are used to pollinate almond orchards, were discovered missing Friday, beekeeper Mike Potts said. He estimated the theft of the 92 hives, about a third of his operation, would cost him about $44,000 in revenue. ...

Today is Tuesday, Jan. 21, the 21st day of 2020. There are 345 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On Jan. 21, 1861, Jefferson Davis of Mississippi and four other Southerners whose states had seceded from the Union resigned from the U.S. Senate...

Today is Monday, Jan. 20, the 20th day of 2020. There are 346 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On Jan. 20, 2001, George Walker Bush became America's 43rd president after one of the most turbulent elections in U.S. history. On this date:...

Today is Sunday, Jan. 19, the 19th day of 2020. There are 347 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On Jan. 19, 1937, millionaire Howard Hughes set a transcontinental air record by flying his monoplane from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey, in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds...

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia -- The most serious outbreak of locusts in 25 years is spreading across East Africa and posing an unprecedented threat to food security in some of the world's most vulnerable countries, authorities say. Unusual climate conditions are partly to blame...

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's supreme leader lashed out at Western countries as he led Friday prayers in Tehran for the first time in eight years, dismissing "American clowns" who he said pretend to support the Iranian nation but want to stick their "poisoned dagger" into its back...

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court will consider allowing the Trump administration to enforce rules that allow more employers to deny insurance coverage for contraceptives to women. The justices agreed Friday to yet another case stemming from President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, this time about cost-free birth control...

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday broke nearly 72 hours of silence over alleged surveillance and threats to the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, saying he believed the allegations would prove to be wrong but that he had an obligation to evaluate and investigate the matter...

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump is adding experience in constitutional law and the politics of impeachment to his legal defense team, bringing in retired law professor Alan Dershowitz and Ken Starr, the independent counsel who investigated President Bill Clinton...

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- Ann Stromquist watched this week's Democratic presidential debate like the research scientist she is. She studied the candidates' answers carefully, looking for something to help her make a final decision between supporting Sen. Bernie Sanders or Sen. Elizabeth Warren when Iowa holds the nation's first caucus in a few weeks...

BAGHDAD -- Two protesters were killed and over a dozen wounded in central Baghdad on Friday in renewed violence between anti-government demonstrators and Iraqi security forces, activists and officials said. The deaths follow weeks of calm. Riot police fired tear gas and hurled sound bombs to disperse crowds on the strategic Sinak Bridge after protesters attempted to breach cement barriers previously erected by security forces, causing the casualties, activists and medical and security officials said.. ...

BEIJING -- China's economic growth sank to a new multi-decade low in 2019 as Beijing fought a tariff war with Washington, but forecasters said a U.S.-Chinese trade truce might help to revive consumer and business activity. The world's second-largest economy grew by 6.1%, down from 2018's 6.6%, already the lowest since 1990, government data showed Friday. Growth in the three months ending in December held steady at the previous quarter's level of 6% over a year earlier...

KYIV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy rejected his prime minister's offer to resign and asked him to stay on the job Friday after he was caught on tape saying Zelenskiy -- a former sitcom star with no previous political experience -- knows nothing about the economy...

Today is Saturday, Jan. 18, the 18th day of 2020. There are 348 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On Jan. 18, 1993, the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday was observed in all 50 states for the first time. On this date: In 1778, English navigator Captain James Cook reached the present-day Hawaiian Islands, which he named the "Sandwich Islands."...

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Senate opened the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump with quiet ceremony Thursday -- senators standing at their desks to swear an oath of "impartial justice" as jurors, House prosecutors formally reciting the charges and Chief Justice John Roberts presiding...

WASHINGTON -- The Senate overwhelmingly approved a new North American trade agreement Thursday rewriting the rules of trade with Canada and Mexico and gives President Donald Trump a major policy win before senators turn their full attention to his impeachment trial...

GREENBELT, Md. -- A former Canadian Armed Forces reservist and two other men who authorities say are linked to a violent white supremacist group were arrested Thursday, just days before they were believed to be headed to a pro-gun rally in Virginia's capital...

KYIV, Ukraine -- Police in Ukraine are investigating whether the U.S. ambassador came under illegal surveillance by an unknown party before the Trump administration recalled her from Kyiv, Ukrainian authorities said Thursday. The announcement came two days after Democratic lawmakers in the United States released documents and text messages showing an associate of President Donald Trump's personal lawyer communicating with Rudy Giuliani about Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch's removal...

CANTON, N.C. — The Avengers may have gained a canine sidekick after a North Carolina family’s dog gave birth to a bright green puppy named “Hulk.” Gypsy, a white shepherd owned by Haywood County resident Shana Stamey, delivered eight puppies the morning of Jan. 10. Gypsy’s three-hour labor was going smoothly until the fourth puppy came out as a small, but mighty tuft of lime green fur. ...

Today is Friday, Jan. 17, the 17th day of 2020. There are 349 days left in the year. Today's Highlights in History: On Jan. 17, 1995, more than 6,000 people were killed when an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 devastated the city of Kobe, Japan. On this date:...

WASHINGTON -- In a dramatic procession across the U.S. Capitol, House Democrats carried the formal articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump to the Senate late Wednesday, setting the stage for only the third trial to remove a president in American history...

WASHINGTON -- The United States and China reached a trade deal Wednesday that eases tensions between the world's two biggest economies, offers massive export opportunities for U.S. farms and factories and promises to do more to protect American trade secrets...

WASHINGTON -- The decade that just ended was by far the hottest ever measured on Earth, capped off by the second-warmest year on record, two U.S. agencies reported Wednesday. And scientists said they see no end to the way man-made climate change keeps shattering records...