April 24, 2024 5:14 am
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Korean War veteran from Minnesota who still carries shrapnel in his leg from when he was wounded in combat will finally get his Purple Heart medal, 73 years late. The U.S. Army notified 96-year-old Earl Meyer, of St. Peter, this week that it has reversed itself and granted him a Purple Heart, which honors service members wounded or killed in combat. The decision came after a campaign by his daughters and attorney. U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota championed his case, which previously had been rejected due to a lack of documentation. Attorney Alan Anderson says they’re now hoping to arrange a presentation ceremony “in the near future.”
April 24, 2024 5:13 am
SYDNEY (AP) — Australian police say they have arrested seven teenagers accused of following a violent extremist ideology in raids around Sydney to protect the community from a potential attack. They say the seven arrested Wednesday are part of a network that includes a 16-year-old boy who is accused of the stabbing of a bishop in a Sydney church last week. Five other teenagers were still being questioned late Wednesday by the Joint Counter-Terrorism Team. Officials say more than 400 police officers executed 13 search warrants at properties across southwest Sydney on Wednesday because the teens were considered an immediate threat. They say investigators found no evidence of specific targets for any intended “violent act.”
April 24, 2024 5:12 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is considering a case that will determine when doctors can provide abortions during medical emergencies in states with bans enacted after the high court’s sweeping decision overturning Roe v. Wade. The case’s hearing begins Wednesday and comes from Idaho, which is one of 14 states that now ban abortion at all stages of pregnancy with limited exceptions. The Biden administration argues that even in states where abortion is banned, federal health care law says hospitals must be allowed to terminate pregnancies in rare emergencies where a patient’s life or health is at serious risk. Idaho contends its ban has exceptions for life-saving abortions but allowing it in more medical emergencies would turn hospitals into “abortion enclaves.”
April 24, 2024 5:10 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials say Ukraine for the first time has begun using long-range ballistic missiles, striking a Russian military airfield in Crimea and Russian troops in another occupied area overnight. The strikes come about a month after the U.S. secretly provided the weapons so Ukraine could strike targets up to 190 miles away. One U.S. official says the delivery of the Army Tactical Missile System, known as ATACMS, was approved by President Joe Biden in February, and then in March the U.S. included a “significant” number of them in a $300 million aid package announced. The official says the U.S. is providing more in the latest aid package.
April 24, 2024 5:08 am
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Police tangled with student demonstrators in Texas and California while new encampments sprouted at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests. At the University of Texas at Austin, dozens of local police and state troopers formed a line to prevent students from marching through the campus Wednesday, eventually clashing with the protesters and detaining multiple people. And at the University of Southern California, police removed several tents, then got into a tugging match with protesters before falling back. The actions across the U.S. came after Columbia University averted another confrontation between students and police earlier in the day.
April 24, 2024 5:03 am
Republican York County District Attorney Dave Sunday and Democratic former Auditor General Eugene DePasquale won their parties’ nominations for state attorney general Tuesday evening, with Sunday defeating a single opponent and DePasquale topping a field of five candidates. Sunday has been elected twice as district attorney in York County, where he lives in Spring Garden Township. He also has served as a special assistant U.S. attorney. The five-candidate fray among Democrats was the biggest field among the primary elections for statewide row offices. Incumbent Attorney General Michelle Henry, appointed to the job by Gov. Josh Shapiro in 2023 after he became governor, is not seeking election.
April 24, 2024 5:01 am
Democrats nominated Erin McClelland, a two-time congressional candidate from Harrison, Allegheny County, who has helped run various human services organizations, to challenge Republican state Treasurer Stacy Garrity, and they nominated state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta of Philadelphia to challenge Republican state Auditor General Tim DeFoor. Ms. McClelland prevailed despite being heavily outspent by her party-endorsed rival.
April 24, 2024 5:00 am
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — When cases of locally transmitted malaria were found in the United States last year, it was a reminder that climate change is reviving or migrating the threat of some diseases. But across the African continent malaria has never left, killing or sickening millions of people. Cases of resistance to antimalarial drugs and insecticides are increasing. Funding by governments and donors for innovation is slowing. And living conditions play a role, with crowded neighborhoods, stagnant water, poor sanitation and lack of access to treatment and prevention materials. For World Malaria Day on Thursday, here is what you need to know.
April 24, 2024 4:59 am
Palestinian hospital officials say Israeli airstrikes on the southern city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip have killed at least five people. Among those killed in the strikes overnight and into Thursday were two children, identified in hospital records as Sham Najjar, 6, and Jamal Nabahan, 8. More than half of the territory’s population of 2.3 million have sought refuge in Rafah, where Israel has conducted near-daily raids as it prepares for an offensive in the city. Meanwhile, a top Hamas political official told The Associated Press the Islamic militant group is willing to agree to a truce with Israel and that it would lay down its weapons if an independent Palestinian state is established along pre-1967 borders.
April 24, 2024 4:57 am
Incumbent Republican Bud Cook held off a challenger in the 50th Legislative District which includes all of Greene County and parts of Washington County. Cook defeated political newcomer Stephanie Waggett with some 63-percent of the vote. Now, the four-term incumbent is taking aim at what he calls “the politically connected and insiders”. One of those, he says, is Republican State Senator Camera Bartolotta who backed Waggett. It’s unclear if Cook will face a Democratic challenger in November.
