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    U.S. Said to Seek Boeing Guilty Plea to Avoid Trial in 737 Max Crashes

    The Justice Department told victims’ families that it would propose a nearly $244 million fine and three years of company oversight to settle a fraud charge.The Justice Department plans to allow Boeing to avoid a criminal trial if it agrees to plead guilty to a fraud charge stemming from two fatal crashes of its 737 Max more than five years ago, according to two lawyers for families of the crash victims.Federal officials shared details of the offer on a call with the families on Sunday afternoon before bringing the deal to Boeing, according to the lawyers, Paul G. Cassell and Mark Lindquist.The terms include a nearly $244 million fine, a new investment in safety improvements, three years of scrutiny from an external monitor, and a meeting between Boeing’s board and the victims’ families, said Mr. Cassell, a University of Utah law professor.The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while Boeing declined to comment.Mr. Cassell, who represents more than a dozen of the families, said that he and the families found the deal to be “outrageous” and that it fell far short of what they had sought. He described the offer as a “sweetheart plea deal” because it would not force Boeing to admit fault in the deaths of the 346 people who died in the crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia in late 2018 and early 2019.“The families will strenuously object to this plea deal,” Mr. Cassell said in a statement. “The memory of 346 innocents killed by Boeing demands more justice than this.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    13-Year-Old Boy Shot and Killed by Police After Chase

    Officers in Utica, N.Y., believed the boy had brandished a handgun. The police chief said on Saturday that it was a pellet gun.A 13-year-old boy was shot and killed by a police officer in Utica, N.Y., after a foot chase on Friday night, according to the police.The boy was one of two juveniles stopped by the Utica Police Department’s Crime Prevention Unit at about 10:18 p.m., the police said. After they were stopped, the 13-year-old ran and displayed “what appeared to be a handgun,” the police said in a statement.After a struggle on the ground, a police officer “ultimately discharged his firearm once, striking the male,” Mark Williams, the chief of police, said at a news conference on Saturday.Lay Htoo, a close relative of the boy, identified him as Nyah Mway.Nyah was taken to a hospital, where he died, the police said. Later, officers recovered a replica of a Glock 17 Gen5 handgun with a detachable magazine, according to the news release.The replica was determined to be a pellet gun, according to Chief Williams.On Saturday evening, the police confirmed the boy’s identity and identified three officers involved. Patrick Husnay, a six-year veteran of the Utica Police Department, was the officer who shot Nyah, the police said. The others were identified as Bryce Patterson, a four-year veteran, and Andrew Citriniti, who has been on the force for two-and-a-half years.The officers stopped the boys while investigating recent robberies in the area, in which the suspects were described as Asian males who brandished a black firearm and forcibly demanded and stole property from victims, the police said in a statement.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    4 Missouri Prison Guards Charged With Murder in Death of a Black Prisoner

    The man, Othel Moore Jr., died of positional asphyxiation on Dec. 8 of last year at the Jefferson City Correctional Center in what the medical examiner’s office called a homicide.Four Missouri prison guards were charged with murder on Friday and a fifth with involuntary manslaughter for their roles in the death of a Black man who died last year after they pepper sprayed him, covered his face with a mask and left him in a restraint chair, the authorities said.The man, Othel Moore Jr., 38, died of positional asphyxiation on Dec. 8 at the Jefferson City Correctional Center, according to court records, which list homicide as the cause of death.The episode that led to Mr. Moore’s death occurred during a sweep by the Missouri Department of Corrections Emergency Response Team of one of the prison’s housing units that was being searched for contraband, according to court records.Mr. Moore was searched and stripped down to his boxer shorts, and staff members used pepper spray on him multiple times and placed him in a restraint system with a spit mask, which is supposed to prevent spit from hitting others, and a padded helmet, records show. He was then taken to a different housing unit, where he was left in a cell with the spit mask, helmet and restraint system.In a news release on Friday, the prosecuting attorney’s office said that Mr. Moore was left like this for about 30 minutes and that multiple witnesses said they had heard Mr. Moore “pleading with the corrections staff and telling them that he could not breathe.” According to court records, prison staff members did not check on Mr. Moore or provide medical assistance until he had “become unresponsive.” Mr. Moore, who was serving a 30-year sentence for convictions including robbery and domestic assault, was eventually taken to the prison’s hospital, where he was pronounced dead.Locke Thompson, the prosecuting attorney for Cole County, said that he could not comment on a pending case and added that there was surveillance video evidence that would not be publicly available until the case is closed.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Hajj Deaths in Saudi Arabia: What to Know

    The number of deaths during the annual Islamic pilgrimage raised questions about Saudi Arabia’s preparations for intense heat and unregistered participants.At least 1,300 people died during the annual hajj pilgrimage in Mecca this year. It was unclear whether the death toll was higher than usual, as each year pilgrims die from heat stress, illness and chronic disease. But the toll has raised questions about whether Saudi Arabia made adequate preparations for intense heat and the influx of unregistered pilgrims who, the authorities say, relied on illicit tour operators to skirt the official permit process.Here’s what to know about this year’s hajj.What is the hajj?The hajj, a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, is one of the five pillars of Islam, and all Muslims who are physically and financially able are obliged to perform it at least once in their lives.People spend years saving up to travel to Mecca, the holiest city in Islam, to embark on the five-day pilgrimage, which takes place in the days before and during the holy period of Eid al-Adha. Pilgrims visit several holy sites, including circling the Kaaba and praying near Mount Arafat.Muslim worshipers this month at the Grand Mosque in Saudi Arabia’s holy city of Mecca.Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesEven for the young and fit, the hajj is physically challenging, and many pilgrims are elderly or ailing. Some believe that the hajj might be their final rite and that dying in Mecca will confer great blessings.How did it look this year?More than 1.8 million Muslims participated in the hajj this year, 1.6 million of them from outside Saudi Arabia, according to the Saudi General Authority for Statistics.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Pilgrim Deaths in Mecca Put Spotlight on Underworld Hajj Industry

    More than 1,300 people died, and a Saudi official said most of them were not registered for the pilgrimage. That left them with little protection from the heat.More than 1,300 people died making the Islamic pilgrimage of hajj in Saudi Arabia this month, the vast majority of whom the Saudi government said did not have permits. Many walked for miles in scorching heat after paying thousands of dollars to illicit tour operators.While pilgrims with permits are transported around the holy city of Mecca in air-conditioned buses and rest in air-conditioned tents, unregistered ones are often exposed to the elements. In recent days, as temperatures surpassed 120 degrees, some pilgrims described watching people faint and passing bodies in the street.On Sunday, in an interview on state television, the Saudi health minister, Fahd al-Jalajel, said that 83 percent of the 1,301 reported deaths involved pilgrims who lacked permits.“The rise in temperatures during the hajj season represented a big challenge this year,” he said. “Unfortunately — and this is painful for all of us — those who didn’t have hajj permits walked long distances under the sun.”Mr. al-Jalajel’s remarks came after days of silence from the Saudi government over the fatalities during the hajj, an arduous and deeply spiritual ritual that Muslims are encouraged to perform at least once in their lifetimes if they can.With nearly two million participating each year, it is not unusual for pilgrims to die from heat stress, illness or chronic disease. It is unclear if the number of deaths this year was higher than usual, because Saudi Arabia does not regularly report those statistics. In 1985, more than 1,700 people died around the holy sites, most of them from heat stress, a study at the time found.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    A Tourist From New Mexico Is Killed by an Elephant in Zambia

    The incident came months after another tourist was killed in Zambia when an elephant charged her group. One wildlife expert said the attacks were most likely “freak accidents.”A tourist from New Mexico was killed in Zambia when an elephant charged her, according to the police commissioner who investigated the incident. She is the second tourist to be fatally attacked by an elephant in the southern African country this year.The woman who was killed, Juliana G. Letourneau, 64, of Albuquerque, had just visited Victoria Falls, a 350-foot waterfall that straddles the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe, and was heading back to her hotel on Wednesday when the group that she was traveling with encountered a herd of elephants on the road.She and others stepped out of their vehicle to observe the animals, said Auxensio Daka, the police commissioner for the southern province of Zambia, in a telephone interview on Saturday.“They stopped to watch the elephants, and unfortunately one of them charged towards them as they were standing there watching,” Mr. Daka said.Mr. Daka said that Ms. Letourneau was taken to a clinic in Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park near Livingstone, Zambia, where she was declared dead on arrival. Her injuries included deep wounds on the right shoulder blade and forehead, a fractured left ankle and a slightly depressed chest, according to a police statement.No other injuries were reported from the encounter with the elephant.Ms. Letourneau’s brother said on Saturday that he had no details about the incident, and declined to be interviewed. Other relatives could not be reached.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    After Hajj Deaths, Egypt Suspends 16 Companies

    The action against 16 tour companies came as governments look into whether many travelers were not properly registered to make the journey into the desert.After hundreds of pilgrims died in the scorching desert heat during the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, the Egyptian government announced on Saturday that it had suspended the licenses of 16 tour companies that had facilitated travel for some pilgrims to Saudi Arabia.At least 450 people have died during this year’s pilgrimage, in which travelers endured maximum temperatures that ranged from 108 degrees to 120 degrees Fahrenheit (42 to 49 degrees Celsius). But the actual number of fatalities is expected to climb as governments get more accurate tallies of the deaths. (Egypt, for one, has officially acknowledged only 31 deaths.)In announcing the suspension of the 16 travel companies, the Egyptian government said the businesses failed to offer the pilgrims important services like medical care. It said the companies did not provide the pilgrims with “appropriate accommodation,” which caused them to suffer from “exhaustion due to the high temperatures.”Reuters reported that some travel agencies may not have officially registered for the pilgrimage, to get around the high costs of package tours. And, Reuters said, companies were being blamed for letting pilgrims travel to Saudi Arabia on personal visas, rather than hajj visas, which provide access to medical care and the holy sites.Mahmoud Qassem, a member of Egypt’s Parliament, said the travel companies “left the pilgrims stranded and turned off their mobile phones” so they could not hear the travelers’ calls for help.There were also complaints that pilgrims were not given access to enough cooling stations or water amid the intense heat.The number of unregistered visitors — in addition to the intense desert heat — could have left Saudi Arabia unprepared for dealing with such a large influx of people.Tunisia’s government has said that the death toll of pilgrims from that country was expected to rise from the 49 reported on Friday, as the number of people traveling on tourist visas became more clear.The hajj has been the site of several tragedies, including a stampede in 2015 that killed more than 2,200 people. In recent years, with rising temperatures, many pilgrims have also succumbed to heat stress.The Saudi government has said that during this year’s hajj, more than 1.8 million Muslims traveled to Mecca, 1.6 million of them from outside Saudi Arabia.Hager Al-Hakeem contributed reporting from Luxor, Egypt. More

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    Toxic Moonshine Leaves at Least 53 Dead in India’s South

    Consumption of tainted bootleg alcohol has caused several instances of mass deaths in recent years as drinkers seek out illicit liquor to save money or evade the law.The death toll from tainted liquor in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu has reached 53, officials say, and is likely to rise, with many others in critical condition. The victims were sickened by drinking a bootleg alcohol with a high content of methanol.Rajat Chaturvedi, the police superintendent in the Kallakurichi District, where the past week’s deaths have occurred, said that 98 people had been hospitalized. “The dead and hospitalized people are mostly daily wage laborers,” he said.The first death, from drinking local alcohol sold in small pouches for about 50 cents, Mr. Chaturvedi said, was reported on Wednesday. The village of Karunapuram was the worst hit, with more than a dozen victims receiving last rites in a mass cremation on Thursday.Consumption of tainted alcohol has caused several mass-casualty events across India in recent years. In some states that prohibit alcohol, people turn to smuggled or unregulated liquor. Elsewhere, villagers choose the bootleg product because of its lower price.In 2019, at least 150 people died in two districts of the northeastern state of Assam from drinking bootleg alcohol. Weeks earlier, 100 people had died in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.In August 2020, at least 120 people died in Punjab from drinking toxic local alcohol, with 92 of the deaths in just one district.In December 2022, at least 70 people died from drinking tainted alcohol in the eastern state of Bihar. Bihar has banned the sale and consumption of alcohol since 2016, but people consume illegal smuggled alcohol or cross the border into Nepal for cheap local alcohol.Last year, at least 22 people died from consuming similar toxic local alcohol in two other districts of Tamil Nadu. The latest mass casualty has put the state’s government under pressure from opposition leaders as well as from the state’s high court. Opposition lawmakers, who arrived at the assembly dressed in black, called for the resignation of Tamil Nadu’s chief minister, M.K. Stalin.Mr. Stalin announced an investigation headed by a retired judge and ordered the police across the state to crack down on the homemade liquor trade.The man accused of making this week’s batch of poisonous alcohol has been arrested, along with his wife and at least one other person, according to police officials. The Kallakurichi District’s top civilian official has been transferred, while several police officers have been suspended.Local residents have said that the police were complicit, taking a cut from the bootlegger’s peddlers who brought the alcohol to the villages, according to the Indian news outlet The News Minute.“We cannot say direct involvement of local police, but due to their lack of action, police people were suspended, right from constable to deputy superintendent of police,” said Mr. Chaturvedi, who took charge of the district’s police force after the tragedy. More