Greater than 60,000 view Benedict XVI’s body at Vatican
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI ‘s body, his head resting on a pair of crimson pillows, lay in state in St. Peter’s Basilica on Monday as tens of hundreds queued to pay tribute to the pontiff who shocked the world by retiring a decade ago.
On the eve of the primary of three days of viewing, Italian security officials had said at the least 25,000-30,000 people would come on Monday. But by the tip of the primary day’s viewing, some 65,000 individuals had passed by the bier, the Vatican said.
As daylight broke, 10 white-gloved Papal Gentlemen — lay assistants to pontiffs and papal households — carried the body on a cloth-covered wood stretcher after its arrival on the basilica to its resting place in front of the predominant altar under Bernini’s towering bronze cover.
A Swiss Guard saluted as Benedict’s body was brought in through a side door after it was transferred in a van from the chapel of the monastery grounds where the increasingly frail, 95-year-old former pontiff died on Saturday morning.
His longtime secretary, Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, and a handful of consecrated laywomen who served in Benedict’s household, followed the van by foot for just a few hundred yards in a silent procession toward the basilica. A few of the women stretched out a hand to the touch the body with respect.
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Moscow says Ukrainian rocket strike kills 63 Russian troops
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian forces fired rockets at a facility within the eastern Donetsk region where Russian soldiers were stationed, killing 63 of them, Russia’s defense ministry said Monday, in one in all the deadliest attacks on the Kremlin’s forces for the reason that war began greater than 10 months ago.
Ukrainian forces fired six rockets from a HIMARS launch system and two of them were shot down, a defense ministry statement said. It didn’t say when the strike happened.
The strike, using a U.S.-supplied precision weapon that has proven critical in enabling Ukrainian forces to hit key targets, delivered a latest setback for Russia which in recent months has reeled from a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
In line with the governor of Russia’s Samara region, Dmitry Azarov, an unspecified variety of residents of the region were amongst those killed and wounded by the strike in town of Makiivka.
Russian military bloggers, whose information has largely been reliable in the course of the war, said ammunition stored near the power had exploded within the attack and contributed to the high variety of casualties.
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Brazilians mourn Pelé on the stadium where he got his start
SANTOS, Brazil (AP) — Hundreds of mourners, including highschool students and supreme court justices, began filing past the body of Pelé on Monday on the century-old field where he made his hometown team one in all Brazil’s best.
The soccer great died on Thursday after a battle with cancer. The one player ever to win three World Cups was 82.
Pelé’s coffin, draped within the flags of Brazil and the Santos FC football club, was placed on the midfield area of Vila Belmiro, the stadium outside Sao Paulo that was his home for many of his profession. A Catholic Mass will likely be celebrated there Tuesday morning before his burial at a close-by cemetery. Brazil’s newly inaugurated President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will come to Vila Belmiro shortly before Pelé’s coffin is faraway from the stadium.
The storied 16,000-seat stadium was surrounded by mourning fans, and covered with Pelé-themed decorations inside.
Fans coming out of the stadium said they’d waited three hours in line, standing under a blazing sun.
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Idaho slayings suspect’s family voices sympathy for victims
STROUDSBURG, Pa. (AP) — Relatives of a person arrested in Pennsylvania within the slayings of 4 University of Idaho students expressed sympathy for the victims’ families but additionally vowed to support him and promote “his presumption of innocence.”
Bryan Kohberger, 28, is desirous to be exonerated and plans to inform a judge Tuesday in Pennsylvania that he won’t fight extradition to Idaho, said his public defender, Jason LaBar.
Moscow, Idaho, police Capt. Anthony Dahlinger said that may speed up the means of bringing Kohberger to Idaho to face charges, but that he wasn’t sure yet when which may occur.
Kohberger, a doctoral student and teaching assistant within the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Washington State University, was taken into custody early Friday by state police at his parents’ home in Chestnuthill Township in eastern Pennsylvania, authorities said.
His parents, Michael and Maryann, and his two older sisters, Amanda and Melissa, said in a press release released Sunday by his attorney that they “care deeply for the 4 families who’ve lost their precious children. There are not any words that may adequately express the sadness we feel, and we pray every day for them.”
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Utah cracks women’s AP top 10 for 1st time; Gamecocks No. 1
South Carolina finished 2022 the way it began the 12 months: No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 women’s basketball poll.
While the top-ranked Gamecocks cruised to a win of their lone game last week, then-No. 4 Indiana, No. 6 N.C. State and No. 7 Virginia Tech all lost as they scrambled to exchange injured players.
There have been 22 losses by teams within the AP top 10 this season before Jan. 1. That was tied for essentially the most prior to now 23 years before January, matching the 2014-15 season, in keeping with ESPN. Seven of those losses got here to unranked teams, tied with 1999-2000 and 2004-05 for essentially the most ever.
The Latest Yr didn’t start off any higher for top teams as then-No. 10 UCLA lost to Oregon State.
“Essentially the most difficult week putting together my poll in my 12 years as a voter,” ESPN analyst Deb Antonelli said in any case the ranked-team losses last week. “I’m taking a look at records, injuries, NET and my experienced eye as a basketball analyst, and it’s difficult. We wanted parity and we got it! It’s a terrific measurement of growth in game.”
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NYC machete attack: Man arrested on attempted murder charges
NEW YORK (AP) — A person accused of attacking police with a machete near Latest York’s Times Square on Latest Yr’s Eve was arrested on charges of attempting to murder cops, authorities said Monday as they continued to analyze whether he was motivated by Islamic extremism.
Trevor Bickford, 19, also faces attempted assault charges from the attack that injured two officers at the sting of the high-security zone where throngs of latest 12 months’s revelers were gathered, the Latest York Police Department said in a news release.
Bickford, who lives in Wells, Maine, remained hospitalized Monday with a gunshot wound to the shoulder from police fire in the course of the confrontation. He was awaiting arraignment, and it wasn’t immediately clear if he had a lawyer who could speak to the allegations. The Associated Press left messages for his relatives.
A law enforcement official aware of the matter told the AP on Sunday that investigators imagine Bickford traveled to Latest York City earlier within the week. They’re examining whether he made the trip specifically to attack police on the Times Square festivities, the official said.
Latest York City police and federal officials are still trying to establish a motive, and investigators are reviewing Bickford’s online postings, which included some mentions of Islamic extremist views, the official said. The official couldn’t publicly discuss details in regards to the ongoing investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
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On the Supreme Court, it’s taking longer to listen to cases
WASHINGTON (AP) — When lawyers argue before the Supreme Court, a small white light goes on to inform them when their time is sort of expired after which a red light signals once they should stop. But arguments this term are extending well beyond the red light’s cue.
Arguments that typically lasted an hour within the morning have stretched well beyond two, and on many days it’s gone lunchtime before the court breaks.
The lengthy arguments need to do with a change the justices have made to their argument style, a switch tied to the coronavirus pandemic, resulting in the justices asking more questions. Justices have said prior to now that lawyers’ written briefs, not oral arguments, most influence their decisions, so it’s unclear if the overtime is admittedly helping them determine cases. Whether that trend will proceed can also be an open query.
In December, an argument about whether a Colorado graphic artist can refuse to create wedding web sites for same-sex couples lasted two hours and 25 minutes. And a very important elections case that was scheduled for an hour and a half clocked in at two hours and 53 minutes. Already, a handful of arguments have been longer than any argument the high court heard within the term that resulted in June — and that term included major cases on abortion and guns.
Within the graphic artist case on Dec. 5, Justice Neil Gorsuch engaged in friendly banter with attorneys in regards to the length of arguments.
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Transgender woman’s scheduled execution can be US first
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Unless Missouri Gov. Mike Parson grants clemency, Amber McLaughlin, 49, will turn into the primary transgender woman executed within the U.S. She is scheduled to die by injection Tuesday for killing a former girlfriend in 2003.
McLaughlin’s attorney, Larry Komp, said there are not any court appeals pending.
The clemency request focuses on several issues, including McLaughlin’s traumatic childhood and mental health issues, which the jury never heard in her trial. A foster parent rubbed feces in her face when she was a toddler and her adoptive father used a stun gun on her, in keeping with the clemency petition. It says she suffers from depression and attempted suicide multiple times.
The petition also includes reports citing a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, a condition that causes anguish and other symptoms consequently of a disparity between an individual’s gender identity and their assigned sex at birth.
“We expect Amber has demonstrated incredible courage because I can inform you there’s lots of hate in the case of that issue,” her attorney, Larry Komp, said Monday. But, he said, McLaughlin’s sexual identity is “not the predominant focus” of the clemency request.
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Rose Parade avoids California rain because it welcomes Latest Yr
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Flower-covered floats, marching bands and equestrian units celebrated the Latest Yr on a cold but dry Monday because the 134th Rose Parade slipped through a spot in California’s siege of drenching storms.
Pasadena’s annual floral spectacle offered the optimistic theme of “Turning the Corner” for 2023, and former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords of Arizona, who survived a 2011 shooting, served as grand marshal.
“The Latest Yr is a time for renewal, a possibility for a fresh start,” Tournament of Roses President Amy Wainscott told the tv audience.
The parade, which by tradition is held on Jan. 2 when Latest Yr’s Day falls on a Sunday, kicked off with the Los Angeles band Fitz and the Tantrums! performing “Let Yourself Free” and a crowd-pleasing flyby of two U.S. Air Force B-1B jets.
Rain has rarely fallen on the parade, but this 12 months it got here close. Downpours pounded Southern California over the weekend and rain was expected to return by Monday evening, possibly affecting the Rose Bowl college football game between Utah and Penn State.
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Looted ancient sarcophagus returned to Egypt from US
CAIRO (AP) — An ancient wood sarcophagus that was featured on the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences was returned to Egypt after U.S. authorities determined it was looted years ago, Egyptian officials said Monday.
The repatriation is an element of Egyptian government efforts to stop the trafficking of its stolen antiquities. In 2021, authorities in Cairo succeeded in getting 5,300 stolen artifacts returned to Egypt from internationally.
Mostafa Waziri, the highest official on the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the sarcophagus dates back to the Late Dynastic Period of ancient Egypt, an era that spanned the last of the Pharaonic rulers from 664 B.C. until Alexander the Great’s campaign in 332 B.C.
The sarcophagus, almost 3 meters (9.5 feet) tall with a brightly painted top surface, could have belonged to an ancient priest named Ankhenmaat, though a few of the inscription on it has been erased, Waziri said.
It was symbolically handed over at a ceremony Monday in Cairo by Daniel Rubinstein, the U.S. chargé d’affaires in Egypt.
This story was originally published January 2, 2023 6:17 PM.