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(CNN) — United Airlines is suspending daily service from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport to Hong Kong starting next month, the company confirmed to CNN Saturday. “While our service between the United States and HKG (Hong Kong) remains a vital part of our network, we have decided to suspend service between ORD (Chicago) and HKG after the return flight from HKG on Sept. 9, 2019,” the company said in a statement. United Airlines did not cite the ongoing protests in Hong Kong as a reason to cancel the direct route. Instead, the airline said that it has seen “a reduced demand...

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to unite the country on Thursday after a big election win, with his party on course to increase its majority on a mandate of business-friendly policies and a tough stand on national security. Official data from the Election Commission showed Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead in 300 of the 542 seats being contested, up from the 282 it won in 2014 and more than the 272 seats needed for a majority in the lower house of parliament. That would give it the first back-to-back majority for a single party since 1984. “Together...

MEXICO CITY — The honeymoon for incoming President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who will be sworn in Saturday, will be sweet and short, if it happens at all. Awaiting him are a host of urgent issues, from a growing number of Central American migrants encamped at the U.S. border and the threat of a border shutdown to skyrocketing violence around the country, jittery foreign investors and energy policy issues. He'll also need to address his people's seemingly impossible expectations, such as eradicating centuries of corruption and poverty during his single six-year presidential term. But among his greatest challenges will be...

Once we have taken up the word, it is thereafter impossible to turn away: A writer is no detached judge of his countrymen and contemporaries; he is an accomplice to all the evil committed in his country or by his people. And if the tanks of his fatherland have bloodied the pavement of a foreign capital, then rust-colored stains have forever bespattered the writer’s face. And if on some fateful night a trusting Friend is strangled in his sleep—then the palms of the writer bear the bruises from that rope. And if his youthful fellow citizens nonchalantly proclaim the advantages...

U.S. Rep. John Katko holds a 14 percentage-point lead over Dana Balter heading into the final days of their campaign for Congress, according to a new poll made public Sunday. Katko, R-Camillus, leads Balter, a Syracuse Democrat, 53-39 percent among likely voters, according to the Syracuse.com/Spectrum News/Siena College poll. About 8 percent of voters are undecided ahead of the Nov. 6 election. The poll showed that despite almost $8 million in spending by both sides to win votes, there's been no significant change among voters since late August. The same poll showed Katko leading 54-39 percent two months ago in...

SCHOHARIE, N.Y. -- The limousine involved in a deadly crash that killed 20 people Saturday in Schoharie should not have been on the road, according Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo told reporters this morning in New York City that the vehicle failed a state inspection last month. Cuomo also said the limousine driver did not have a proper license for the vehicle. The crash -- the nation's worst transportation disaster in nearly a decade -- occurred at about 2 p.m. Saturday in Schoharie, about 35 miles west of Albany. A limousine carrying 17 people on their way to celebrate a 30th...

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- The offices of the Onondaga County District Attorney and the state Inspector General are investigating SUNY Upstate Medical University. Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said his office is working closely with state Inspector General Catherine Leahy Scott. He would not say what specific issues the investigation is focusing on. "I don't have a time frame, but I like to move things along expeditiously," he said. Upstate has been embroiled in controversy in recent months over a $660,500 severance agreement with its former hospital CEO and the departure of a senior vice president who quit after news...

Evidence for the largest single incident of mass child sacrifice in the Americas— and likely in world history—has been discovered on Peru's northern coast, archaeologists tell National Geographic. More than 140 children and 200 young llamas appear to have been ritually sacrificed in an event that took place some 550 years ago on a wind-swept bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, in the shadow of what was then the sprawling capital of the Chimú Empire. Scientific investigations by the international, interdisciplinary team, led by Gabriel Prieto of the Universidad Nacional de Trujillo and John Verano of Tulane University, are ongoing. The...

Syracuse, NY -- A Syracuse University student, who had stockpiled ammunition and gun accessories in his downtown apartment, was stopped before carrying out threats of a mass shooting, city police revealed today. Xiaoteng Zhan, 22, was deported back to China by federal agents March 20 as he returned to Syracuse from spring break in Mexico, Syracuse Deputy Police Chief Derek McGork said. Zhan told a friend that the "dark side" had pushed him to buy a gun, bulletproof vest and other items, McGork said, reading from an English translation of their messages. "I might use the gun to cause trouble,"...

MONTERREY (Reuters) - Mexican left-wing presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has an 18-point lead ahead of the July 1 election, according to a poll published on Monday that showed him with a growing advantage at the start of formal campaigning. Lopez Obrador, who launched his campaign on Sunday, holds 38 percent of the vote, according to the poll by Parametria, published by Reuters on Monday ahead of wider distribution. That compared to 35 percent in its previous poll. A Lopez Obrador victory could usher in a Mexican government less accommodating toward the United States, where President Donald Trump has...

On his return from a recent two-day trip to Israel -- where he met with high-level officials -- Adonis Georgiadis, the vice president of Greece's opposition party, New Democracy, declared his support for recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital. In an interview with Skai Radio on March 7, Georgiadis called it "almost funny to discuss whether Jerusalem is a Jewish city or not." "[It] was founded by the Jews... in ancient times. You can read Flavius Josephus or read Diodoros Siceliotis and see the references to the city of Jerusalem, where there was the High Priest of Solomon's Temple and that...

The European Parliament's president says no one will ever recognize Catalonia as an independent country. Antonio Tajani says Catalonia's independence referendum was illegal and state of law should be restored. He also spoke against EU mediation, saying the crisis is an internal Spanish issue. Catalonia's separatist leader on Saturday called on Catalans to peacefully oppose Spain's takeover.

CNN senior correspondent Clarissa Ward said on Thursday that Mark Halperin’s alleged sexual harassment was an “open secret” at ABC News “for years.” Ward — who was an international correspondent for ABC News from 2007 to 2010 — took to Twitter to respond to the CNN report that spoke with five women who accused the now NBC News analyst of sexual harassment while he was at the news network: This was an open secret when I was at @ABC for years- brave of these women to speak up. https://t.co/xQgu2xZMUk — Clarissa Ward (@clarissaward) October 26, 2017

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner will not run for Congress in 2018. Miner has long been mentioned as a potential challenger to U.S. Rep. John Katko for Central New York's 24th Congressional District. Thursday morning, she ruled out a run. "After much thoughtful consideration and conversations with my family, I have decided I will not be a candidate for Congress in 2018," Miner said in a statement Thursday. "This was not an easy decision given magnitude of issues faced by our community, but I believe we are best served supporting other progressive leaders in this election both at...

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A deputy accidentally shot himself Monday night inside an Onondaga County Justice Center locker room, deputies said. Deputy Justin Brannock, 28, was taking his personal firearm out of its holster at 10:28 p.m. when the gun fired, said Sgt. Jon Seeber, an Onondaga County Justice Center. Brannock was in the employee locker room in an unsecured section of the jail, he said. Seeber said Brannock was expected to be released from the hospital early this morning. Initial police scanner reports indicated a bullet grazed the deputy's leg.

On Tuesday the New Yorker published Ronan Farrow’s expose of Harvey Weinstein, describing in detail the famous Hollywood producer’s long history of sexual abuse and assaults of actresses and other women in the movie industry. Coming on the heels of a New York Times article published last Thursday about Weinstein, the Farrow article seems to clinch the case against a major figure in the world of entertainment, media, and politics. The question is why, after years of protecting Weinstein, did the American press publish two pieces about him in less than a week? Was it because after stories detailing the...

The New York Daily News, a tabloid that once boasted one of the highest daily circulations in the nation, has been sold to tronc, the Chicago-based former Tribune Publishing company, the companies said Monday night. The News, a nearly 100-year-old media company, is based in Manhattan and was owned by Mortimer B. Zuckerman. “Adding an iconic media property like The Daily News not only expands our tremendous portfolio of newspaper brands, it also allows us to grow our digital platform and broaden our services for advertisers and marketers,” Dearborn said.

The state appeals court on Thursday overturned the Sheldon Silver's 2015 corruption conviction for pocketing $4 million in kickbacks from a cancer researcher and real estate developers. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison in May 2016. But he appealed earlier this year after the Supreme Court narrowed the definition of "official act" for the purposes of proving corruption cases. That Supreme Court case centered on alleged criminal conduct by former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell. In Silver's case, the court ruled his jury was given a too-broad definition of what constitutes an "official act" in light of the Supreme...

An award-winning journalist who broke the story of the group of Jewish women ejected from an LGBTQ march in Chicago last month has been reassigned to non-journalistic duties at the paper which ran the original report, the Windy City Times. Gretchen Rachel Hammond — whose June 24 story caused a national storm after she detailed how three women flying Jewish Pride flags embossed with the Star of David were instructed to leave the gathering by organizers from the Dyke March Collective — confirmed to The Algemeiner on Monday that while she was still employed by the paper, she was not...

As far as I know, Rodney Stooksbury is an actual living human being. I have even spoken with someone who has spoken with someone who swears he exists. Certain people, however, are convinced that Rodney Stooksbury does not exist. This is because, even though Rodney Stooksbury was the 2016 Democratic congressional candidate in Georgia’s 6th District, nobody could ever actually seem to find a photograph of the guy. Or a campaign website. Or any campaign material. Or anyone who has actually met Rodney Stooksbury. News outlets tried to track down Stooksbury, to no avail. According to one investigation, “when reporters...