NEW YORK — Pakistani businessman Asif Merchant, who tried to hire hit men to kill a political figure, potentially President Donald Trump, was found guilty Friday of murder-for-hire and terrorism charges — despite his claims that his Iranian intelligence handler forced him into the scheme by threatening his family.

A federal jury in Brooklyn...Read more

ADRIAN, Mich. — Jury deliberations in the murder trial involving a woman whose body was discovered in a resealed fertilizer tank were abruptly postponed Friday until Tuesday.

The jury had barely begun weighing the fate of prominent Tecumseh farmer Dale Warner on Friday when one of the jurors told the court he or she had an unspecified ...Read more

DENVER — A Colorado voter initiative that would require sentences to life in prison for people convicted of child sex trafficking has qualified for the November ballot.

Protect Kids Colorado, the group backing Initiative 108, submitted nearly 170,000 signatures to qualify for the ballot. The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office announced ...Read more

Capt. Cody Khork, from Winter Haven, Florida, one of the six U.S. soldiers killed in a Kuwait drone attack Sunday, was enrolled as a current student at a Missouri university.

Webster University, in St. Louis, announced on Facebook earlier this week that Khork was an online student pursuing a master’s degree in Business and Organization ...Read more

Attorneys for 18 California youths are asking the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to allow them to go forward with claims that climate change is already affecting them disproportionately.

The youths, now 10 to 19 years old, argue that the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency discriminates against children by giving more ...Read more

The Federal Drug Enforcement Administration opened an investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and a dozen other individuals in 2015 that centered on allegations of money laundering, drug trafficking and the procurement of Eastern European prostitutes for high-profile clients, according to five people familiar with the case.

The investigation, which ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — The mother of Ju’Juan Jeffers, the 20-year-old man killed during a shooting at Lincoln University homecoming last November, has filed a lawsuit against the school, the university police chief, and others.

Attorneys for Marchelle Hargroves, Jeffers’ mother, allege that Lincoln prioritized the “college experience” over ...Read more

MIAMI — President Donald Trump will host leaders from across Latin America and the Caribbean in Doral on Saturday for what the White House describes as a landmark summit aimed at reshaping regional alliances and reinforcing U.S. influence in the Western Hemisphere.

The gathering, which the Trump administration is calling the “Shield of the ...Read more

Nancy Guthrie’s neighbors are reportedly being asked about internet glitches around the time the 84-year-old woman went missing.

It’s not clear if investigators in Arizona believe there’s a link to possible technological issues in Tucson and Guthrie’s Feb. 1 disappearance.

Three of Guthrie’s neighbors were quizzed about their web ...Read more

After more than 25 years, magician and illusionist David Copperfield announced his Las Vegas residency is coming to an end after his name again appeared in the latest Jeffrey Epstein evidence dump.

“My journey began as a kid in New Jersey with a dream of one day making magic in my life. I saw magic then — and I see magic now — as more ...Read more

CHICAGO — A crescendo of voices from the worlds of religion, politics, business, sports and entertainment converged Friday at the South Side’s House of Hope, providing a requiem to the vast reach of the leadership, inspiration and teachings that made the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson a national civil rights icon.

More than 1,000 people attended the...Read more

Robert Marzan was a bear of a man, round chested and with hands as big as catcher’s mitts.

But he was a gentle giant, said niece Irene Fernandez, who called Marzan “my loving and fun uncle, grandma’s baby, a devoted husband, protective and loving father, baby brother, cousin and best friend to many.”

Marzan, 54, a chief warrant officer...Read more

Six months ago, Nick Reiner tried to participate in a display of family unity as he posed on a Hollywood red carpet with his parents, Rob and Michele Reiner, and his siblings to celebrate the premiere of his father’s new movie, a sequel to his groundbreaking 1984 comedy, “This is Spinal Tap.”

But following Reiner’s arrest in the murder ...Read more

NEW YORK — A massive blaze tore through 11 businesses along busy East Gun Hill Road in the Bronx, destroying several stores, FDNY officials said Friday.

The four-alarm fire broke out at 11:50 p.m. on East Gun Hill Road near Givan Ave. in the Williamsbridge section of the Bronx, inside a single-story building that houses both a storefront ...Read more

One of the men accused of trying to invade Cuba and destabilize its government died this week while in detention, Cuban authorities said.

The island’s Interior Ministry announced on Thursday night that Roberto Álvarez Ávila died as a result of his injuries during a shootout at sea with the Cuban coast guard. He had been previously ...Read more

SEATTLE — Washington’s proposed new income tax for people earning more than $1 million a year appears headed for passage, with Gov. Bob Ferguson saying he’ll sign the latest version of the measure proposed by legislative Democrats.

Ferguson and Democratic leaders had been haggling over details of the proposal, with disagreements over how ...Read more

Kenya’s national security minister, who oversaw her country’s leadership in deploying a multinational security force to gang-ridden Haiti, will lead one of the United Nations crime-fighting agencies.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres announced Friday that he has appointed Monica Kathina Juma of Kenya as executive director of the U.N....Read more

WASHINGTON — Sens. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., called for the Department of Homeland Security to return a California woman with DACA who was recently deported a day after her green card interview.

DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, is the Obama-era program that since 2012 has shielded certain immigrants ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s decades-old fixation on Iran threatens to derail his second term, as he displays the kind of “magical thinking” about the Middle East that has hobbled previous commanders in chief.

Overly optimistic views helped spawn the lengthy and expensive post-9/11 conflicts that Trump ran against during three ...Read more

BOSTON — An attorney for the O’Keefe family has apologized in court for misinterpreting a remark he believed Karen Read made to Aidan Kearney, also known as "Turtleboy," saying she never said, “I’m dead. I’m (expletive) dead.”

“I also want to acknowledge to this court and to Ms. Read that I was mistaken when I interpreted her ...Read more