The Latest: Council member calls women's deaths a hate crime

LAREDO, Texas (AP) — The Latest on the deaths of four women who authorities say were killed by a Border Patrol agent (all times local): 10:20 p.m. An elected leader in a South Texas city rocked by a string of brutal killings says the deaths of four women is a hate crime and that the case should be a call...

Russia to study Israeli data related to downed plane

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has accepted Israel's offer to share detailed information on the Israeli airstrike in Syria that triggered fire by Syrian forces which downed a Russian reconnaissance plane, the Kremlin said Wednesday. Syrian forces mistook the Russian Il-20 for Israeli...

GOP goes back to the immigration well in Arizona

ARIVACA, Ariz. (AP) — Jim Chilton stood before the four strands of barbed wire that separate his ranchland from Mexico and pointed at a nearby ridge. "Very often, I see scouts on that mountain, right there," he told Rep. Martha McSally. McSally, a Republican who represents a stretch of the Arizona border...

Relatives have vigil for 4 allegedly killed by border agent

LAREDO, Texas (AP) — Dozens of family members and friends of four slain women who investigators say were the victims of a U.S. Border Patrol supervisor gathered Tuesday evening in South Texas to remember them at a vigil. In a park near San Agustin Cathedral in downtown Laredo, they held small candles and...

Putin seeks to defuse downing of Russian plane off Syria

MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian reconnaissance aircraft was shot down by Syrian forces responding to an Israeli airstrike, killing all 15 people aboard, in what President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday was "a chain of tragic accidental circumstances." The downing of the Il-20 highlighted the dangers posed by the...

The Latest: Mattis says plane downing won't affect IS fight

MOSCOW (AP) — The Latest on a Russian military aircraft shot down over the Mediterranean Sea and other issues related to Syria (all times local): 12 p.m. U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says the shootdown of a Russian military aircraft by Syrian forces complicates relations between President Bashar Assad...

Arrest shows challenge of keeping rogues off Border Patrol

HOUSTON (AP) — The arrest of a Border Patrol supervisor on allegations that he killed four women calls new attention to the agency's problems keeping rogue officers off its force as it faces intense pressure to hire thousands more agents. Juan David Ortiz, who worked in the agency's Laredo sector, is...

Defense lawyer casts Ugandan war crimes defendant as victim

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A lawyer defending an alleged commander in Uganda's shadowy Lord's Resistance Army accused of crimes including murder, sexual slavery and using child soldiers cast him Tuesday him as a victim of the rebel group and its brutal leader, Joseph Kony. In his opening statement at...

Russia's Defense Ministry blames Israeli Air Force for pushing Russian aircraft into the line of fire of Syrian missiles

Air Force: Space Force would cost $13 billion over 5 years

WASHINGTON (AP) — Creating a Space Force as a separate military service, as proposed by President Donald Trump, would cost an estimated $12.9 billion in its first five years, according to a detailed Air Force plan for how to go about it. This is the first publicly available cost estimate. When the White...