March 10, 2025 5:01 am
Investigators are working to find a missing University of Pittsburgh student last seen at a resort in the Dominican Republic. Sudiksha Konanki went missing Thursday in a resort area of Punta Cana, according to a spokesperson for the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office in Virginia. Konanki is also a citizen of India. Konanki traveled to Punta Cana with five other women who are all Pitt students. The group of women reported Konanki missing on Thursday evening, the spokesperson confirmed. The spokesperson says the Department of State has been contacted and the embassy of India in the Dominican Republic is taking the lead, working closely with local law enforcement. Loudoun County authorities are also supporting the investigation. A Pitt spokesperson said in a statement that the university has been in contact with Konanki’s family. “We have offered our full support in their efforts to find her and bring her home safely,” the statement reads in part. The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson says, “it is our understanding that the US is deploying considerable federal assets” to locate Konanki and support the Dominican National Police. The Pitt spokesperson suggests that anyone with information on Konanki’s whereabouts call the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office at 703-777-1021.
March 10, 2025 4:55 am
A single-engine airplane with five people on board crashed and burst into flames in a parking lot near a small airport in suburban Pennsylvania. Police say all five occupants survived the fiery crash around 3 p.m. Sunday just south of Lancaster Airport in Manheim Township. Nobody on the ground was hurt. The Federal Aviation Administration confirms there were five people aboard the Beechcraft Bonanza. Footage shared on social media showed black smoke billowing from the plane’s wreckage and multiple parked cars engulfed in flames at the crash site about 75 miles (120 km) west of Philadelphia.
March 10, 2025 2:52 am
WASHINGTON COUNTY —(WPXI)- Two puppies were abandoned along a busy highway, a Washington County shelter said. The animal rescue Pet Search said they received two puppies who were rescued on Friday. The person who brought the dogs to the shelter said they saw a car stop on I-79, drop the dogs off on the side of the road and drive away. The dogs are only 3 months old and are chihuahua and chi-weenie types, the shelter said. Anyone with information about the abandoned dogs is asked to call Pet Search at 724-228-7335.
March 10, 2025 2:34 am
A car chase that began in Fayette County and continued at high rates of speed ended with an arrest in the City of Washington. Pennsylvania State Police received information that Eric Johnson, 36 of Canonsburg, who was wanted on arrest warrants from Washington County for failure to appear at a hearing, was in Fayette County near State Rt. 119. According to Trooper Rocco Gagliardi, Public Information Officer for Pennsylvania State Police, troopers tried to pull Johnson over but he took off. The pursuit ran along Rt. 119, Interstate 70 and Rt. 40 before Johnson was apprehended in a parking lot Washington. Johnson was wanted for felony possession with intent to deliver, possession of firearms prohibited and firearms not to be carried without a license charges. Police expect to add at least a felony attempt to elude police charge. Johnson is being processed in the Washington County Jail.
March 10, 2025 2:29 am
A Washington County Court Jury deliberated for a just few hours Thursday before returning a not guilty verdict in the trial of 81-year-old Victor Ardeno of Canton Township. Ardeno was facing multiple charges related to the alleged rape of a girl over a period of several years, from the time she was five-years-old until she was eleven. Prosecutors laid out their case during the trial, by calling on the victim’s divorced parents who had entrusted the care of the victim and her brother to Ardeno several days a week when the mother had to work at night during her days of custody. Testimony revealed that Ardeno told the girl not say anything to anyone regarding the assaults. Finally, a school counselor was told of the assaults while they were trying to figure out the victim’s chronic absenteeism at school and failing grades. Victim testimony described the assaults that started as inappropriate touching all the way to full acts of intercourse. Defense attorneys tried to poke holes in the victim testimony pointing to differences in a forensic interview and direct testimony on the stand regarding the timeline of events. Ardeno’s attorney, Lane Turturice told WJPA that the verdict gives him hope for our system of justice and that things went the way for someone whom he thinks is a good man.
March 9, 2025 8:02 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump’s style of diplomacy is a whole lot like a high-stakes business deal, and his No. 1 goal is to come out of the transaction on top. The tactics are clear in his trade war with Canada and Mexico, in his approach to Russia’s war on Ukraine and in his selection of Saudi Arabia as the first country he’ll visit in his second term. For Trump, it’s about leverage, not friendship, and dollars as much as values, and hard power versus soft. It’s not just a matter of negotiating style. At stake is the post-World War II international order as Trump’s actions raise doubts about American leadership around the globe.
March 9, 2025 8:00 am
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s military and Russian war bloggers say Russian special forces walked inside a gas pipeline to strike Ukrainian units from the rear in the Kursk region. Russian forces are trying to recapture territory in Kursk that was seized by Ukraine last August. Months later, Ukrainian troops in Kursk run the risk of being encircled. According to Telegram posts by a pro-Kremlin blogger, Russian operatives walked about 9 miles inside the pipeline that Moscow had until recently used to send gas to Europe.
March 9, 2025 7:56 am
ROME (AP) — Pope Francis has issued a message thanking volunteers for the “miracle of tenderness” they offer the sick as he continues his recovery from double pneumonia. For the fourth Sunday in a row, the 88-year-old Francis didn’t appear for his weekly noon blessing. But the Vatican distributed the text he would have delivered if he were well enough. In it, the Argentine pope thanked all those who were caring for him and others who are sick and experiencing a “night of pain.” Doctors on Saturday reported some positive news: After more than three weeks in the hospital, the 88-year-old pope is responding well to treatment and has shown a “gradual, slight improvement” in recent days.
March 9, 2025 5:58 am
Emergency responders from South Strabane Township were dispatched to the Interstate 70 West exit ramp at East Beau Street for a rollover crash just after 4:00 pm Saturday afternoon. A car exiting the highway flipped and landed on its roof trapping three people inside. Medical helicopters were stationed at the Washington Mall until needed. The victims were all flown to Pittsburgh area hospitals with unknown injuries.
March 9, 2025 3:34 am
WASHINGTON, Pa. —(WPXI)- A Washington & Jefferson College student is facing criminal charges after a threat was made against the campus on an anonymous social media app. A threatening post was made against the school on the app YikYak in February. It said, “No cap, how many people you think I can kill if I shoot the joint up” and then was followed by a response saying, “I’m thinking like 30-50.” Attendance to in-person classes was made optional as a result. Police got a search warrant and got user information from YikYak. They say the person who made the original post and response was Trevor Jon McDonald, 23. McDonald was suspended from Washington & Jefferson College before the post was made for an unrelated incident. Members of the FBI met him at his house in Chalfont and showed him a picture of the post. Police said he admitted to making it. McDonald faces a felony charge of terroristic threats causing the evacuation of a building and criminal use of a communication facility.
