UN, G7 decry Russian attack on Ukraine as possible war crime
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) - Russian forces showered Ukraine with more missiles and munition-carrying drones Tuesday after widespread strikes killed at least 19 people in an attack the U.N.
human rights office described as "particularly shocking" and amounting to potential war crimes.
Air raid warnings sounded throughout Ukraine for a second straight morning as officials advised residents to conserve energy and stock up on water.
The strikes have knocked out power across the country and pierced the relative calm that had returned to Kyiv and many other cities far from the war's front lines.
"It brings anger, not fear," Kyiv resident Volodymyr Vasylenko, 67, said as crews worked to restore traffic lights and clear debris from the capital's streets.
"We already got used to this. And we will keep fighting."
The leaders of the Group of Seven industrial powers condemned the bombardment and said they would "stand firmly with Ukraine for as long as it takes." Their pledge defied Russian warnings that Western assistance would prolong the war and the pain of Ukraine's people.
Russia launched the widespread attacks in retaliation for a weekend explosion that damaged the Kerch Bridge between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.
Russian President Vladimir Putin alleged that Ukrainian special services masterminded the blast. The Ukrainian government has applauded it but not claimed responsibility.
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Prosecutors drop charges against Adnan Syed in 'Serial' case
ANNAPOLIS, Md.
(AP) - Prosecutors dropped charges against Adnan Syed on Tuesday in the 1999 killing of Hae Min Lee after additional DNA testing excluded him as a suspect in a case chronicled by the hit podcast "Serial."
Marilyn Mosby, the state´s attorney for the city of Baltimore, said her office would continue to pursue justice for Lee but that it had closed its case against Syed, who spent 23 years in prison for the killing.
She said the decision was made after additional DNA testing excluded Syed as a suspect in the strangulation of Lee, whom Syed had dated.
"This case is over. There are no more appeals necessary," Mosby said during a news conference.
She said her office decided to drop the charges after receiving the results on Friday of DNA testing on Lee's skirt, pantyhose, jacket and shoes that was conducted using a more modern technique than when evidence in the case was first tested.
Although no DNA was recovered from the skirt, pantyhose or jacket, some was recovered from Lee's shoes, "and most compellingly, Adnan Syed, his DNA was excluded," she said.
Mosby said that even though her administration wasn't responsible for the pain inflicted on Hae Min Lee's family or the wrongful conviction of Syed, "as a representative of the institution, it is my responsibility to acknowledge and to apologize to the family of Hae Min Lee and Adnan Syed."
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Smashing success: NASA asteroid strike results in big nudge
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.
(AP) - A spacecraft that plowed into a small, JetBlack harmless asteroid millions of miles away succeeded in shifting its orbit, NASA said Tuesday in announcing the results of its save-the-world test.
The space agency attempted the test two weeks ago to see if in the future a killer rock could be nudged out of Earth´s way.
"This mission shows that NASA is trying to be ready for whatever the universe throws at us," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said during a briefing at the space agency's headquarters in Washington.
The Dart spacecraft carved a crater into the asteroid Dimorphos on Sept.
26, hurling debris out into space and creating a cometlike trail of dust and rubble stretching several thousand miles (kilometers). It took consecutive nights of telescope observations from Chile and South Africa to determine how much the impact altered the path of the 525-foot (160-meter) asteroid around its companion, a much bigger space rock.
Before the impact, the moonlet took 11 hours and 55 minutes to circle its parent asteroid.
Scientists had anticipated shaving off 10 minutes, but Nelson said the impact shortened the asteroid's orbit by 32 minutes.
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Trump lawyer who vouched for documents meets with FBI
WASHINGTON (AP) - A lawyer for former president Donald Trump who signed a letter stating that a "diligent search" for classified records had been conducted and that all such documents had been given back to the government has spoken with the FBI, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Christina Bobb told federal investigators during Friday's interview that she had not drafted the letter but that another Trump lawyer who she said actually prepared it had asked her to sign it in her role as a designated custodian of Trump's records, said the person, who insisted on anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
The process is of interest to investigators because the Justice Department says the letter was untrue in asserting that all classified records sought by the government had been located and returned.
Though the letter, and 38 documents bearing classification markings, were presented to FBI and Justice Department officials during a June 3 visit to Mar-a-Lago, agents returned to the Florida estate with a search warrant on Aug. 8 and seized about 100 additional classified records.
According to an August court filing, the signed certification letter was presented to investigators who visited Mar-a-Lago on June 3 to collect additional classified material from the home.
The Justice Department had weeks earlier issued a subpoena for the records after it says it developed evidence that more classified documents remained at the estate beyond those contained in 15 boxes recovered in January by the National Archives and Records Administration.
The letter produced for investigators asserted that, in response to the subpoena, "a diligent search was conducted of the boxes that were moved from the White House to Florida" and that "any and all responsive documents accompany this certification." The letter also included the caveat that the statements in it were true "based upon the information that has been provided to me."
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Angela Lansbury, 'Murder She Wrote' star, dies at 96
NEW YORK (AP) - Angela Lansbury, the scene-stealing British actor who kicked up her heels in the Broadway musicals "Mame" and "Gypsy" and solved endless murders as crime novelist Jessica Fletcher in the long-running TV series "Murder, She Wrote," has died.
She was 96.
Lansbury died Tuesday at her home in Los Angeles, according to a statement from her three children. She died five days shy of her 97th birthday.