Austria’s Chancellor Karl Nehammer said he’ll step down as head of government and chairman of the conservative People’s Party after failing to form a new coalition following September elections.

The move raises the chances of repeat elections, while the conservatives could also appoint a leader who, unlike Nehammer, is willing to form a ...Read more

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Florida’s beaches draw thousands of tourists each year, in addition to residents who swim or surf in the ocean. Yet more often than the public realizes, fecal bacteria is present at high levels in some swimming areas.

In December alone, the state health department for Palm Beach County collected samples for routine ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Two weeks after the U.S. election, hundreds of allies gathered at the White House to soothe Joe Biden in defeat. Tracking the closed-door bash for clues was a group rarely interested in the routine preening of Washington: arbitrage traders.

The traders, who buy and sell the stock of companies in the middle of mergers and ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Sunah Kim was waiting for her son at a weeklong camp at Tac City Airsoft training center in Fullerton on Thursday afternoon when people rushed in screaming that they had heard a loud crash and saw dark clouds of billowing smoke nearby.

“They were yelling, ‘holy s—,’ there was a crash,” camp referee Peter Roberts said. ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A 30-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of deliberately starting a fire that ravaged the historic Bidwell Mansion, an iconic landmark in Chico and the former home of the city's founder, authorities said.

California State Parks officers arrested Kevin Alexander Carlson, of Chico, on Thursday. Preliminary charges filed ...Read more

ATLANTA — Jimmy Carter’s casket departed from the community hospital that he helped build.

National and global health leaders overflowed with praise this week for the public health accomplishments of the former president, whose programs have saved and restored tens of millions of lives worldwide, and broadened the public understanding of ...Read more

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Four Delray Beach Fire Rescue employees, including top brass, have been placed on administrative leave with pay after a Brightline train smashed into a fire truck last Saturday.

Assistant Chief Kevin Green, Division Chief Todd Lynch, Captain Brian Fiorey, and Driver Engineer David Wyatt are all on leave “pending the ...Read more

The first fighting contingents of soldiers and military policemen from Latin America arrived in Port-au-Prince on Friday to join the armed international security mission in the country’s fight against terrorizing gangs.

The 83 security personnel arrived included an advance team of eight soldiers from El Salvador and the first 75 of 150 ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is set to order a ban on new offshore oil and gas development across some 625 million acres of U.S. coastal territory, ruling out the sale of drilling rights in Atlantic and Pacific waters as well as the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

The move is a sweeping effort to permanently protect coastal waters — and ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Santa Cruz’s beloved wharf reopened to the public Saturday, after about 150 feet of the pier’s end fell into the ocean last month and prompted the city to temporarily close the popular tourist destination.

The wharf was deemed safe to reopen based on a recently completed sonar and engineering assessment conducted by ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to a group of entertainers, former government officials, athletes and philanthropists for their contributions to public service.

Nineteen people will be honored at a White House ceremony on Saturday, the latest in a series of events Biden has held in the final weeks...Read more

Russia’s defense ministry vowed unspecified “retaliatory measures” after Ukraine launched U.S.-supplied ATACMS missiles at the border region of Belgorod on Friday.

The ministry said earlier on Saturday that it had successfully downed eight of the tactical missiles as well as dozens of Ukrainian drones over the past day.

Ukraine’s ...Read more

Starting this week, farmers in California's San Joaquin Valley are banned from burning agricultural waste in the field, a legislative mandate aimed at improving air quality that has been decades in the making.

The near-complete prohibition on mass burns of agricultural prunings and field crops, as well as orchards and vineyards removed from ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — Days before she’s slated to return as the region’s top prosecutor, Orange-Osceola State Attorney-elect Monique Worrell quietly appeared with lawyers at the Polk County Courthouse on Friday, amid rumors of a grand jury investigation and speculation about what some believe is a last-ditch attempt to block her from taking ...Read more

NEW YORK — Donald Trump is set to become the first felon to serve as U.S. president after a New York judge on Friday denied his request to throw out the guilty verdicts in his hush money case and, in a stunning development, ordered him to appear for sentencing next week.

In an 18-page decision, state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan ...Read more

Police in Rhode Island removed four bodies from a West Greenwich home where there’d been a heavy law enforcement presence throughout the day on Friday.

Police arrived at the home on Cheyenne Trail around 10:30 a.m. after one of the resident’s co-workers called for a welfare check, reporting their colleague had missed two days of work.

...Read more

LAS VEGAS — The man behind the Tesla Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas likely suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and had other “personal grievances,” but held no animosity toward President-elect Donald Trump, authorities said Friday.

Officials said they did not know why 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger chose Trump International ...Read more