US News Roundup: Abortion question in court; Tornado threat eases

Pope denies prior knowledge of now expelled U.S. cardinal McCarrick's sexual misconduct

Pope Francis has denied he knew about sexual misconduct by former U.S. cardinal Theodore McCarrick before the start of Church investigations that found him guilty. McCarrick, once one of the most powerful men in the U.S. Catholic hierarchy, was expelled from the Roman Catholic priesthood in February after he was found guilty of sexual crimes against minors and adults.

Supreme Court avoids abortion question, upholds fetal burial measure

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday sent a mixed message on abortion, refusing to consider reinstating Indiana's ban on abortions performed because of fetal disability or the sex or race of the fetus while upholding the state's requirement that fetal remains be buried or cremated after the procedure is done. Both provisions were part of a Republican-backed 2016 law signed by Vice President Mike Pence when he was Indiana's governor. The action by the justices comes at a time when numerous Republican-governed states including Alabama are approving restrictive abortion laws that the Supreme Court may be called upon to rule on in the future.

Tornado threat eases but will resume next week across U.S. Plains states

The tornadoes and heavy rains sweeping across the United States from the southern Plains into New Jersey will ease by late Thursday but resume early next week, forecasters said. Rain, hail, thunderstorms and the threat of tornadoes will return from east Texas, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri and on into Illinois and parts of the East Coast, David Roth, a forecaster with the National Weather Service, said early on Wednesday.

Word whiz kids compete for $50,000 prize in U.S. spelling bee

Nearly 500-word wizards were still in contention on Wednesday as the Scripps National Spelling Bee entered its second day, as the best young spellers strive for the top cash prize of $50,000. Some 562 youngsters aged seven to 15 faced off at the start of the tournament in Maryland on Tuesday to tease out vocabulary in dictionary perfection for the three-day challenge.

Democrat O'Rourke unveils "community-based" immigration plan

Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke proposed a new immigration plan on Wednesday that will allow churches and local communities to sponsor immigrants to the United States in becoming American citizens. O'Rourke, a former Texas congressman from the Texas border city of El Paso, said the plan would also give citizenship to 11 million undocumented immigrants living in American faster than previous plans, which have all failed to get through Congress.

Overdose victim's father to testify in Oklahoma opioid trial of J&J

The father of a university football player who died of a drug overdose is expected to testify on Wednesday on the second day of trial in a lawsuit by the state of Oklahoma accusing the drugmaker Johnson & Johnson of fueling the U.S. opioid epidemic. The trial in a state court in Norman, Oklahoma, in the first to result from more than 2,000 similar lawsuits against opioid manufacturers nationally.

U.S. military identifies more remains of American war dead handed over by North Korea

The U.S. military said on Tuesday that it had identified a total of six American troops from 55 boxes of human remains from the 1950-53 Korean War that North Korea handed over last year, even as the Pentagon has said it has given up hope of recovering more of them in the near future. The U.S. Defense POW/MIA Account Agency (DPAA), which works to recover missing American troops around the world, earlier this month said it had not heard from North Korea since the second U.S.-North Korean summit, held in Hanoi in February, ended with no agreement. The agency said it had suspended efforts for 2019.

Judge in war crimes case against Navy SEAL weighs dismissal motion

The judge in the court-martial of a Navy SEAL platoon leader accused of war crimes in Iraq was expected to hear arguments on Thursday on defence motions to dismiss the charges or otherwise remove the lead prosecutor and the judge himself from the case. The hearing comes 12 days before Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher is set to go on trial charged with killing a helpless, wounded Islamic State fighter in his custody and of shooting two unarmed civilians, a schoolgirl and an elderly man.

U.S. activist faces up to 20 years in prison for harbouring migrants

An Arizona activist charged with harbouring two undocumented migrants faces trial on Wednesday in a case likely to set a precedent over what aid U.S. citizens can give to illegal border crossers. U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested Scott Warren in a January 2018 raid near Ajo, Arizona after they found two migrants hiding in the shower of a ramshackle building used by humanitarian groups.

Biden education plan would boost U.S. teacher pay, ban assault weapons

Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, the front-runner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, on Tuesday released an education plan aimed at boosting teacher pay and reducing the funding gap between wealthy and low-income public schools. Biden also said he would seek to make schools safer by pressing Congress to enact a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, a proposal almost certainly to be opposed by Republicans and gun-lobby groups.