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Are cuts on the table for Southern Command as the Pentagon kicks off review?
DORAL, Fla. -- Defense Secretary Mark Esper launched a review of U.S. Southern Command on Thursday as part of the Pentagon's worldwide look at where it can reallocate forces, raising the possibility that the already small Florida-based command could see additional cuts.
The worldwide review of all combatant commands was directed by Esper to ...Read more
Trump's silence on Bezos hack shows risk of close ties to Saudi prince
WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump is again facing questions about his relationship with Mohammed bin Salman after the Saudi crown prince was accused of spying on Amazon.com Inc. chief Jeff Bezos.
The alleged hacking of Bezos -- the world's richest man and owner of The Washington Post -- creates a new foreign policy headache for Trump, whose ...Read more
3 US firefighters die in Australia plane crash
SYDNEY -- Three U.S. firefighters have died after their water-bombing plane crashed while battling a blaze near the Kosciuszko National Park, as Australia's wildfire crisis flares again.
The three were working for Coulson Aviation, which bills itself as the global leader in aerial firefighting, and was contracted by the New South Wales Rural ...Read more
Families reunite after nearly 2 years apart: 'Beginning of a whole other journey'
LOS ANGELES -- The boy rocked back and forth as he searched every face at the airport, trying to find his father.
Byron Xol blended with dozens of others waiting at Los Angeles International Airport to greet their loved ones. But then a man behind Xol asked how long it'd been seen the 9-year-old had seen his dad.
"Over 600 days," said Holly ...Read more
Trump administration announces new rules limiting visas for pregnant foreign women
WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration moved Thursday to impose restrictions on tourist visas for pregnant foreign women to prevent so-called birth tourism aimed at gaining U.S. citizenship for the child.
"Birth tourism poses risks to national security," the State Department said in the new regulations.
The rules, which take effect Friday, ...Read more
1 of 3 suspects booked after shooting in downtown Seattle that left 1 dead and 7 injured, mayor says
SEATTLE -- One of three suspects has been arrested and booked into jail following the shooting Wednesday in downtown Seattle that killed a woman and injured seven other people, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan said Thursday.
At a news conference, Durkan expressed condolences to the people injured in the gunfire at a busy intersection, including a 9-...Read more
No phones. No coffee. No talking. How senators are coping with long days of impeachment arguments
WASHINGTON -- No cellphones, no reading material, no talking. Not even coffee -- just uncomfortable chairs to sit in, water or milk to drink and the monologues of the House impeachment managers and President Donald Trump's lawyers for eight or more hours per day.
These are the rules imposed on 100 senators as they proceed through what could be ...Read more
FBI restricts evidence collected from Carter Page surveillance
WASHINGTON -- The FBI has decided to restrict all information collected from surveillance of former Trump campaign aide Carter Page in 2016 and 2017 after serious mistakes were uncovered in court applications for the wiretaps, according to a new court filing.
Two of four court applications to conduct surveillance on Page weren't valid because ...Read more
Trump says Mideast peace plan to be unveiled before Tuesday
WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump said he plans to release the Middle East peace plan that he's been promising since his 2016 campaign, pledging to reveal it before Israeli leaders visit the White House on Tuesday.
"Sometime prior to that," Trump told reporters Thursday aboard Air Force One when asked when the White House will put forward ...Read more
Schiff's role in Trump impeachment trial draws usual fire, but also unlikely praise
WASHINGTON -- House prosecutors began their second day of arguments in the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump on Thursday, as lead manager Rep. Adam B. Schiff drew some unexpected praise from Republicans for his steady performance so far during the hourslong, often tedious presentations.
"Good job," Sen. Lindsey Graham of South ...Read more
Bank apologizes for calling police on black customer trying to deposit checks
DETROIT -- TCF Bank says it should not have called police on an African American customer who was trying to deposit three checks that were part of a race discrimination lawsuit settlement with his former employer.
The bank suspected the checks were fraudulent and called police, triggering a race discrimination lawsuit against the bank on ...Read more
Judge allows R. Kelly girlfriend to retrieve belongings from condo weeks after fight
CHICAGO -- A girlfriend of R. Kelly's will be allowed to return to Trump Tower to retrieve her belongings weeks after she was accused of attacking another girlfriend at the singer's residence in the downtown skyscraper, a Cook County judge ruled Thursday.
Joycelyn Savage, 24, faces a misdemeanor count of domestic battery for allegedly becoming ...Read more
Autopsy of family killed in Florida finds stab wounds, decomposition
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Federal agents were watching the Todt family's Celebration home the morning of Jan. 13 when Anthony Todt, who was wanted for health care fraud, arrived and walked inside.
After nobody answered the door, the agents and Osceola County deputies entered the house and found Todt, who said his wife Megan Todt was upstairs and that he...Read more
In a lawless stretch of Mexico, child soldiers as young as 6 are being drafted to fight crime
MEXICO CITY -- In a lawless stretch of western Mexico, children as young as 6 years old are taking up arms against organized crime.
On Wednesday, 19 children were inducted into a vigilante group that for years has been battling drug gangs in restive Guerrero state. Local journalists published photographs and videos of the induction ceremony -- ...Read more
Man traded fentanyl and heroin for grenades and machine guns, federal officials say
LOS ANGELES -- A U.S. citizen living in Tijuana has been indicted on charges of trading drugs for weapons, including machine guns and grenade launchers, which he intended to provide to Mexican gangs, federal authorities said this week.
A federal grand jury in Los Angeles charged Pedro Roberto Hernandez-Gomez with possession of machine guns, ...Read more
'Doomsday Clock' creeps closer to midnight than it ever has in history
CHICAGO -- Calling world affairs "profoundly unstable," scientists on Thursday moved the fateful minute hand of the Doomsday Clock another 20 seconds closer to midnight, signifying that humanity is more perilously near global catastrophe than any other time in recent history.
The metaphorical clock is now set to 100 seconds to midnight, the ...Read more
'Time is short to get Maduro to leave' power in Venezuela, Pompeo says
MIAMI -- The United States has not seen signs that Venezuelan ruler Nicolas Maduro is willing to allow free elections to resolve the political crisis in that country, and "time is short" to get him to leave, the top U.S. diplomat said Thursday in an exclusive interview with el Nuevo Herald and the Miami Herald.
"We have not seen any indication,...Read more
Will thousands of Rohingya refugees be sent to a remote island?
SINGAPORE -- The biggest refugee camps in the world, on a coastal strip in southern Bangladesh, house 1 million Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar in flimsy shacks vulnerable to flooding and deadly encounters with elephants.
Now Bangladesh says it has readied a new, purpose-built refugee settlement complete with concrete housing, flood defenses, ...Read more
Schiff's role in Trump impeachment trial draws usual fire, but also unlikely praise
WASHINGTON -- House prosecutors began their second day of arguments in the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump on Thursday, as lead manager Rep. Adam B. Schiff drew some unexpected praise from Republicans for his steady performance so far during the hourslong, often tedious presentations.
"Good job," Sen. Lindsey Graham of South ...Read more
Chinese cities sealed off over virus
BEIJING -- Four more cities in China's Hubei province said on Thursday that they have imposed travel bans as a new virus that has infected hundreds of people continues to spread from the province's capital city of Wuhan.
Huanggang, Xiantao and Ezhou have joined Wuhan in shutting down railway stations and suspending long-distance buses as well ...Read more
Popular Stories
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- House and White House impeachment legal teams offer stark contrast on facts and style
- Impeachment cellphone ban gives Senate pages a workout
- Auschwitz was liberated 75 years ago. But politics are complicating the celebration
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