Rabbi hurt in California synagogue shooting admits fraud

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The longtime leader of a Southern California synagogue who was wounded in a deadly attack at the house of worship he founded pleaded guilty Tuesday to participating in a multimillion-dollar fraud that disguised charitable contributions for personal gain. Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein faces a...

New Zealand mosque gunman to represent himself at sentencing

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The Australian white supremacist who admitting killing 51 worshippers in a mass shooting at two New Zealand mosques has dismissed his lawyers and will represent himself when he is sentenced next month. Brenton Harrison Tarrant had pleaded guilty in March to 51 charges of...

5 dead in hostage situation at troubled South Africa church

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Five people are dead and more than 40 have been arrested after an early-morning hostage situation at a long-troubled church near Johannesburg, police in South Africa said Saturday. A statement said police and military who responded to reports of a shooting at the International...

Report: Anti-Semitic crimes rose in California in 2019

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Anti-Semitic hate crimes in California rose nearly 12% in 2019, including a fatal shooting at a Southern California synagogue, even as hate crimes overall declined statewide by 4.8%, according to a state report released Wednesday. Hate crimes are historically under-reported and the 2019...

Trial moved back for accused Colorado synagogue bomb plotter

DENVER (AP) — A federal judge rescheduled a trial for an alleged white supremacist accused of plotting to bomb a historic Colorado synagogue. U.S. District Court Judge Raymond Moore set a Feb. 22 trial date for the case against Richard Holzer, The Pueblo Chieftain reported Sunday. The judge granted the...

Thomas Blanton, KKK bomber of 16th St Baptist Church, dies

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr., the last of three one-time Ku Klux Klansmen convicted in a 1963 Alabama church bombing that killed four Black girls and was the deadliest single attack of the civil rights movement, died Friday in prison, officials said. He was 82. Gov. Kay Ivey’s...

The last surviving KKK member convicted in a 1963 Alabama church bombing that killed four black girls has died in prison

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — The last surviving KKK member convicted in a 1963 Alabama church bombing that killed four black girls has died in prison.

Arab League: Israeli annexation could ignite a religious war

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The head of the Arab League warned a high-level U.N. meeting Wednesday that Israel’s annexation of parts of the West Bank would inflame tensions and endanger peace in the Middle East, and could ignite “a religious war in and beyond our region.” Ahmed Aboul Gheit,...

California bill ups scrutiny of hunting license in gun sales

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California's state Senate has approved a measure prompted by last year's fatal shooting at a San Diego-area synagogue. Investigators say the suspect, John T. Earnest, then 19, used a hunting license to buy the weapon he is accused of using in April 2019 at Chabad of Poway. Earnest...

Charleston officials to remove statue of slavery advocate

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Despite a South Carolina law protecting monuments, officials in the historic city of Charleston announced Wednesday that they plan to remove a statue of slavery advocate John C. Calhoun from a downtown square. Mayor John Tecklenburg announced he will send a resolution to the City...