North America

VISALIA, Calif. (AP) — A high school teacher in central California was arrested on suspicion of felony child endangerment after forcibly cutting the hair of one of her students while singing the national anthem, authorities said. Margaret Gieszinger was arrested Wednesday after videos posted to social media showed a student at University Preparatory High School in the city of Visalia sitting in a chair at the front of the classroom as Gieszinger cuts his hair.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The second storm in a week brought record-breaking rainfall to parched Los Angeles on Thursday, jamming traffic on Southern California highways and prompting evacuations in wildfire-scarred areas.

A mudslide shut down Pacific Coast Highway and surrounding roads in and around Malibu neighborhoods charred by last month’s massive fire that destroyed hundreds of homes.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is expected to announce he will nominate State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, officials familiar with the plans said.

Two administration officials confirmed Trump’s plans Thursday. A Republican congressional aide said the president was expected to announce his decision by tweet on Friday morning. The officials were not authorized to speak publicly before Trump’s announcement.

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal jury convicted a Hong Kong businessman Wednesday of bribing the presidents of two African nations to secure oil rights for a Chinese energy conglomerate, a case that stretched from the halls of the United Nations and highlighted the often blurry line between nongovernmental organizations and private enterprise.

Dr. Chi Ping Patrick Ho was found guilty of seven of eight counts, including conspiracy, money laundering and violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in a case that involved several former presidents of the United Nations General Assembly.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The recent beating of a young man and his father at their Salt Lake City tire shop by an attacker who told police he targeted them because they were Mexican is renewing criticism of the state’s hate crime law, which one prosecutor is calling unusable.

Rather than protecting specific groups, the 1990s-era measure speaks generally about crimes that block people from freely exercising their constitutional rights.

TORONTO (AP) — Canadian authorities said Wednesday that they have arrested the chief financial officer of China’s Huawei Technologies for possible extradition to the United States.

China demanded her immediate release, and a former Canadian envoy to China warned the case might lead to retaliation by the Chinese against American and Canadian executives.

Justice Department spokesman Ian McLeod said Meng Wanzhou was detained in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Saturday.

DALLAS (AP) — A U.S. Border Patrol agent who confessed to killing four sex workers told investigators he wanted to “clean up the streets” of his Texas border hometown, a prosecutor said Wednesday while announcing that a grand jury had indicted the man for capital murder.

Webb County District Attorney Isidro Alaniz said he will seek the death penalty for the September slayings and that evidence presented to the grand jury showed Juan David Ortiz killed the women “in a cold, callous and calculating way.”

5 Dec 2018; AFP: Two key US Republican senators said a Tuesday briefing by the CIA's director only strengthened their conviction that Saudi Arabia's crown prince directed the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The explosive new declarations by members of President Donald Trump's own party run counter to the White House narrative downplaying possible links between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the October killing of journalist and palace critic Khashoggi at the kingdom's Istanbul consulate.

5 Dec 2018; AFP: Global emissions of carbon dioxide mainly from fossil fuel burning will rise 2.7 percent in 2018, scientists said Wednesday, signalling a world "completely off course" in the fight against climate change.

Last year, CO2 pollution increased by 1.6 percent after a three-year hiatus that raised hopes manmade greenhouse gas emissions had finally peaked despite an expanding world economy.

GREENSBURG, Pa. (AP) — Police say a Pennsylvania man released from jail immediately stole a car from its parking lot.

Westmoreland County Prison officials say that moments after 36-year-old Thomas Lee Williams was released, he attacked a woman in the parking lot Tuesday evening and stole her car with the victim’s 1-year-old in the back seat. The Tribune-Review reports Williams crashed about 15 minutes later and ran into the woods, where he was apprehended.