PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — They say birds of a feather flock together, but not at Rhode Island campgrounds. Tom Wharton didn’t think twice about bringing his cockatoo with him on camping trips until they were kicked out of two campsites following complaints about his feathered companion. Rhode Island lawmakers are considering changing the law that […]

NEW YORK (AP) — Six letters by “To Kill a Mockingbird” author Harper Lee to one of her close friends could bring as much as $250,000 at auction. Christie’s is selling the signed and typed letters today. They were written to New York architect Harold Caufield between 1956 and 1961. Four of them date from […]

MOXEE, Wash. (AP) — These are good times for farmers who grow hops. The beer-flavoring plant is in short supply because of the dramatic increase in the popularity of craft breweries. That has growers in the Yakima Valley — which produces 75 percent of the nation’s hops — rushing to expand their production. In Washington, […]

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — A special grand jury has indicted a Norfolk police officer for voluntary manslaughter in the shooting death of a mentally ill man. The grand jury returned its indictment Thursday charging Michael Carlton Edington Jr. in the 2014 death of David Latham. Police have said Latham was shot after he threatened the […]

CLEVELAND (AP) — A judge has ruled that evidence exists to charge two Cleveland police officers in the fatal shooting of a 12- year-old boy who was holding a pellet gun outside a recreation center. The judge’s ruling is largely symbolic because he cannot compel prosecutors to charge the officers in the death of Tamir […]

BERLIN German prosecutors say the co-pilot who crashed Germanwings Flight 9525 researched how to get hold of deadly drugs and the possibility of a living will — a finding that suggests he was mulling other means of killing himself until the last minute. Duesseldorf prosecutor Christoph Kumpa confirmed a report today in German daily Sueddeutsche […]

KABUL, Afghanistan They call it the “ mini- Pentagon” — a white marble building in the heart of Afghanistan’s capital built with U.S. funds to serve as the headquarters of a modern military more than a decade in the making. But the newly constructed building is a world apart from the front- lines of Afghanistan’s […]

MILAN (AP) — Authorities are questioning two men suspected of a machete attack on a railway ticket inspector whose arm was nearly detached. Police said a group of at least four men attacked the inspector late Thursday night on a regional train north of Milan. The dynamics of the attack were not immediately clear. The […]

PARIS (AP) — A bill which aims to make it illegal to buy sex is back at France’s lower house of Parliament for the second time with the two houses sharply divided. Supporters argue it would help fight human trafficking networks, while opponents defend those who buy sex from France’s 40,000 prostitutes. The lower house […]

BEIJING (AP) — Several local Chinese officials have been fired or suspended following the suicides of four siblings, aged 5 to 13, who were abandoned by their parents and neglected by local government workers in one of China’s poorest regions. The Qixingguan district government in the southwestern city of Bijie announced today that two village […]