BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romania’s Defense Ministry says some 1,600 sailors are taking part in navy training exercises in the Black Sea amid tensions in neighboring Ukraine. The ministry said in a statement that Romania’s “Vector 2014” exercises are part of a regular and long-planned naval drill. It began Monday and is to run through […]

PORTLAND (AP) — The City of Portland is owed more than $3.7 million in unpaid parking tickets at a time when it is considering raising property taxes to boost the budget. WGME-TV reports that more than 171,000 parking tickets issued in the city have gone unpaid since 2008. The city’s power to collect on those […]

DONETSK, Ukraine — Thirty pro-Russia insurgents and four government troops have been killed during operations to expunge anti-government forces around a key eastern city, Ukraine’s interior minister reported Tuesday. In the southwest, Kiev authorities also attempted to reassert control over the key Black Sea region of Odessa by appointing a new governor there. Interior Minister […]

ALFRED — Eight full-time corrections officers and one part-time reserve officer graduated from a seven-week training program through the York County Sheriff’s Office Friday, and were penciled into the schedule for work at York County Jail. The new officers started Monday, prompting York County Sheriff Maurice Ouellette to lift the staffing emergency he had instituted […]

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — A spokesman says Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have held a rare meeting and agreed to move forward with a reconciliation deal between their rival movements. The Palestinian split goes back to 2007 when the Islamic militant Hamas seized Gaza from the Western-backed Abbas, leaving him with […]

BIDDEFORD (AP) — A plot of land in Biddeford where a convicted murderer’s house once stood may soon be a park. The city council is scheduled to vote tonight on design plans for Williams Court Park’s expansion into the land where Rory Holland’s house once stood. Holland was convicted of two counts of murder in […]

WASHINGTON — Reports of sexual assaults by members of the military rose 50 percent after the Pentagon began a vigorous campaign to get more victims to come forward, prompting defense officials to order a greater focus on prevention programs, including plans to review alcohol sales and policies. But officials are still unhappy with the low […]