A private security firm founded by two people close to late country music legend Dolly Parton is at the center of an unusually complex arms deal in Haiti that several sources with knowledge of the matter say was worked out with little due diligence.

The security firm, Fencebridge Strategic Risk, entered into a multimillion-dollar agreement ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Firefighters battling a blaze that destroyed six homes in south Orange County can expect a bit of reprieve Saturday afternoon as Santa Ana winds begin to die down.

The Norte fire, which has burned 570 acres in the area of San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano, was 5% contained as of Saturday morning, according to Orange County ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — German travelers Luis Widmesser and Lukas Holzer, both 19, were heading to a campground in San Diego on the 5 Freeway on Friday afternoon when authorities blocked off the road and diverted traffic.

The pair, on an eight-month road trip from Canada to Argentina, ended up spending the night in their tent atop their Suzuki outside ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Speculation among Malibu High School students began early Thursday morning. Surely school would be canceled, they told parents — perhaps based more on wish than intel. What are the odds the power was cut? What if a fire broke out?

The Santa Ana winds picked up through the afternoon. Gusts slammed into Malibu homes with force. ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Hundreds of protesters, many saying they’re fed up with the current state of the U.S. government, gathered in downtown Los Angeles Saturday afternoon as part of the nationwide “No Kings” demonstrations calling for early voter turnout in the upcoming Nov. 3 midterm elections.

By midday, several hundred people gathered at ...Read more

Three men were sentenced Friday by a Mexican court to more than 158 years in prison each for the 2024 murder of two Australian brothers and their friend from San Diego while they were on a surfing trip south of Ensenada.

Defendants Jesús Gerardo, known as “El Kekas,” Irineo Francisco and Ángel Jesús were found guilty last week of ...Read more

Republican members of Congress blasted President Donald Trump’s decision to waive a tariff law passed last month to restrict Russian energy exports, arguing that the move will help Moscow wage its war on Ukraine.

The Trump administration has cast the waiver as a way to facilitate a deal with Russia on diesel exports — aimed at lowering ...Read more

Rioters attacked French public buildings and looted stores in cities including Paris as protests against the high cost of living drew more than half a million people, underscoring the nation’s challenges ahead of presidential elections next year.

Some 550,000 demonstrators took part in marches across France on Saturday, including 110,000 in ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — First came the letter from acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter — just three weeks before the Nov. 3 election — demanding that Los Angeles County's top elections official launch a sweeping investigation into thousands of voters the Trump administration alleges are "likely noncitizens" and withhold their ballots in ...Read more

Republican members of Congress blasted President Donald Trump’s decision to waive a tariff law passed last month to restrict Russian energy exports, arguing that the move will help Moscow wage its war on Ukraine.

The Trump administration has cast the waiver as a way to facilitate a deal with Russia on diesel exports — aimed at lowering ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — A 71-year-old Winter Garden man was killed in an alligator attack Friday, reportedly while fishing at the Dr. Bradford Memorial Park near Lake Apopka, police say.

Winter Garden’s police and fire departments responded around 5 p.m. to the park, located just off Lake Apopka, to reports that a man fishing there was being ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The rugged shrub-filled hills where the Bryson fire ignited — triggering evacuations and putting Malibu residents on edge — burned just eight years ago, a painful reminder of the speed at which freshly scarred communities are finding themselves once again at risk.

The natural chaparral’s ability to quickly regrow has ...Read more

Infighting gripping Donald Trump’s White House spilled into public view this week, with the abrupt exit of his hand-picked press secretary and the president forced to quash swirling questions about his chief of staff’s future.

The palace intrigue threatens to distract the White House at an already fraught moment, with just over two weeks ...Read more

Over the past few decades, Halloween celebrations have gained in popularity, not only with children and families, but with all those fascinated with the spooky and scary.

As a scholar of myth and religion in popular culture, I look at Halloween with particular interest – especially the ways in which today’s Halloween tradition ...Read more