Maggie Smith, scene-stealing actor famed for Harry Potter and ‘Downton Abbey,’ dies at 89

Maggie Smith, scene-stealing actor famed for Harry Potter and ‘Downton Abbey,’ dies at 89

LONDON — LONDON (AP) — Maggie Smith, the masterful, scene-stealing actor who won an Oscar for 1969 film “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” and gained new fans in the 21st century as the dowager Countess of Grantham in “ Downton Abbey” and Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter films, died Friday. She was … Read more

Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Wander Franco will go to trial in sexual abuse case

Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Wander Franco will go to trial in sexual abuse case

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Wander Franco will go to trial on charges that he sexually abused a minor, a judge in the Dominican Republic said on Thursday. After an investigation that lasted over a year, judge Pascual Valenzuela of the northern province of Puerto Plata ruled that the evidence presented … Read more

10th death reported in Boar’s Head deli meat listeria outbreak

10th death reported in Boar’s Head deli meat listeria outbreak

A 10th person has died in the listeria outbreak that shuttered a Boar’s Head deli meat plant, federal health officials said Wednesday. At least 59 people in 19 states have been sickened by the bacteria first detected in liverwurst made at the Jarratt, Virginia, plant. Illnesses were reported between late May and late August, the … Read more

How to watch the vice presidential debate between Walz and Vance

How to watch the vice presidential debate between Walz and Vance

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Sen. JD Vance of Ohio are meeting Tuesday for their first and only scheduled vice presidential debate. Walz, who is Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, and Vance, who is on the Republican ticket with former President Donald Trump, will make the case for their respective candidates five weeks … Read more

Dak Prescott throws 2 TD passes and Cowboys win 7th straight over Giants, 20-15

Dak Prescott throws 2 TD passes and Cowboys win 7th straight over Giants, 20-15

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — There was a sense of relief in a somewhat subdued Dallas Cowboys locker room after a hard-fought victory over the New York Giants. There was little celebration. What was important Thursday night were the numbers on the scoreboard at MetLife Stadium. Dallas Cowboys 20, New York Giants 15. The two-game losing … Read more

West Virginia’s new drug czar was once addicted to opioids himself

West Virginia’s new drug czar was once addicted to opioids himself

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia’s new drug czar has a very personal reason for wanting to end the state’s opioid crisis: He was once addicted to prescription painkillers himself. Dr. Stephen Loyd, who has been treating patients with substance use disorder since he got sober two decades ago, says combating opioid addiction in the state … Read more

Somali-Canadian rapper K’naan charged with 2010 sexual assault in Quebec City

Somali-Canadian rapper K’naan charged with 2010 sexual assault in Quebec City

QUEBEC CITY — Canadian rapper K’naan, known for the global hit “Wavin’ Flag,” has been charged over an alleged sexual assault in Quebec City dating back more than 14 years. A charge sheet filed at the courthouse in Quebec City on Thursday says the rapper, whose given name is Keinan Abdi Warsame, is charged with … Read more

A top government scientist engaged in research misconduct, NIH finds

A top government scientist engaged in research misconduct, NIH finds

A National Institutes of Health investigation has found research misconduct by one of its top neuroscientists, the agency said Thursday. In a statement, the NIH said the findings involve images in two studies co-authored by Dr. Eliezer Masliah, who in 2016 joined the agency’s National Institute on Aging as its neuroscience division director. NIH said … Read more

A misspelled memorial to the Brontë sisters gets its dots back at last

A misspelled memorial to the Brontë sisters gets its dots back at last

LONDON — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back. More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname. The … Read more

Old newspaper boxes are being used to distribute the overdose reversal drug Narcan

Old newspaper boxes are being used to distribute the overdose reversal drug Narcan

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — For decades, Jeff Card’s family company was known for manufacturing the once ubiquitous tin boxes where people could buy newspapers on the street. Today, reach into one of his containers and you may find something entirely different and free of charge: Naloxone, the opioid overdose reversal drug. Naloxone distribution containers have been … Read more