North America

22 Nov 2018; AFP: A US judge has dropped federal female genital mutilation charges filed against a Michigan doctor, ruling that Congress overstepped its authority in prohibiting a practice best left to state courts.

In what was hailed a landmark case, Jumana Nagarwala was charged in April 2017 with performing the widely condemned practice on nine girls at a clinic in Livonia, Michigan over a span of 12 years.

22 Nov 2018; AFP: The levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the main driver of climate change, have hit a new record high, the UN said Thursday, warning that the time to act was running out.

Ahead of the COP 24 climate summit in Poland next month, top United Nations officials are again trying to raise the pressure on governments to meet the pledge of limiting warming to the less than two degrees Celsius, enshrined in the 2015 Paris accord.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A suburban St. Louis man has been charged with killing one woman and sexually assaulting two others after herding them at gunpoint into the back room of a religious supplies shop.

The arrest of 53-year-old Thomas Bruce ended a two-day manhunt that followed the brazen Monday afternoon attack at a Catholic Supply store in the St. Louis suburb of Ballwin. The attack frightened the region and led some schools, churches and businesses to close.

CHICAGO (AP) — Moments before her ex-fiance fatally shot her in the parking lot of the hospital where she worked, a Chicago doctor called 911 to report that she had spotted the man and feared for her life.

As investigators tried to piece together the events that ended with the deaths of the doctor, a police officer, a hospital employee and the gunman, they were able to fill in details about the attack Monday at Mercy Hospital on the city’s South Side.

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Holiday shoppers should enjoy more spending power thanks to the recent sharp drop in oil prices, though cheaper energy could also weigh on the U.S. economy by dampening investment in shale oil production.

While the fall in oil prices doesn’t yet match the 2014-2016 slump to $26 per barrel, the current decline should soon make itself felt through the global economy.

The international crude benchmark, Brent, has fallen under $65 per barrel from a four-year high in early October over $86, and U.S. crude has dropped below $55 a barrel.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the fallout from the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi (all times local):

President Donald Trump is thanking Saudi Arabia for plunging oil prices amid criticism over his decision not to further punish the kingdom for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi (jah-MAHL’ khahr-SHOHK’-jee).

Trump tweeted Wednesday from his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida it’s “Great!” oil prices are getting lower and it’s “Like a big Tax Cut for America and the World.”

NEW YORK (AP) — A nearly silent, drone-sized aircraft has shown it can fly, thanks to a scientist who was inspired by watching “Star Trek” as a child.

With neither propellers nor jets, the airplane gets its thrust by applying a strong electric field to the air. That general idea has been demonstrated at science fairs, but the new work shows it can power a free-flying airplane.

So can people look forward to traveling in planes that are almost silent and emit no air pollution?

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — For NASA’s InSight spacecraft, it all comes down to the final six minutes of a six-month journey to Mars.

The lander will enter the Martian atmosphere at supersonic speed, then hit the brakes to get to a soft, safe landing on the alien red plains.

After micromanaging every step of the way, flight controllers will be powerless over what happens at the end of the road Monday, nearly 100 million miles (160 million kilometers) away.

20 Nov 2018; AFP: NASA has picked an ancient river delta as the landing site for its uncrewed Mars 2020 rover, to hunt for evidence of past life on Earth's neighboring planet, officials said Monday.

Even though the Red Planet is now cold and dry, the landing site, Jezero Crater, was filled with a 1,600-foot (500-meter) deep lake that opened to a network of rivers some 3.5 to 3.9 billion years ago.

20 Nov 2018; AFP: An argument in a hospital parking lot escalated into a shooting that killed three people, including a police officer, in the US city of Chicago on Monday.

The violence only ended when police engaged in a shootout with the gunman inside Mercy Hospital.

"We have four deceased individuals: police officer, two female staff employees at the hospital, and the offender," police Superintendent Eddie Johnson told journalists.