Palm Desert

'Sonic the Hedgehog' Dominates Box Office With Mighty $57 Million Debut

The better-than-expected start is even more notable since movies based on video games tend to be rejected by moviegoers. "Downhill," a black comedy starring Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, debuted at No. 10 with $4.6 million over the weekend and should bring in $5.2 million through Presidents Day.

Buttigieg: I won't 'take lectures on family values' from Rush Limbaugh

Pete Buttigieg had a simple response on Sunday when asked about talk show host Rush Limbaugh's questioning whether Americans are ready to back a gay candidate for president.

Man who left puppy to drown in cage sentenced to 1 year for animal cruelty

The 36-year-old New Jersey man left the puppy in a cage along the rising tide of Sandy Hook Bay after a fight with his ex-girlfriend.

Teen charged in Raleigh murder of another teen last week

Raleigh police have arrested one teen in the murder of another teen from last week. James Jarquin, an 18-year-old from Zebulon, was charged with murder and possession of a firearm by a felon on Sunday morning, according to ABC 11. Police believe Jarquin killed 17-year-old Zaequan Deloatch last Wednesday, ABC 11 reported.

Costa Rican police find six tonnes of cocaine in biggest ever haul

Police in Costa Rica have found almost 6 tonnes of cocaine in a shipping container, leading to the country’s biggest ever drug seizure.The drugs, which weighed 5,800kg, were discovered on Friday evening in Limón in a container of flowers due to be sent to Rotterdam, Holland, according to the Costan Rican national newspaper La Nación.

Coronavirus death reported in Taiwan, US cruise passengers released from quarantine

Another coronavirus-related death was reported outside of China this weekend. An unidentified man in his 60s was first admitted to a hospital on Feb. 3 after he developed a cough a week earlier, Taiwan's Ministry of Health and Welfare said in a statement. This death is the fourth reported coronavirus fatality to take place outside mainland China.

Tom Steyer hoping a strong showing in Nevada, South Carolina will get 'some attention' for his campaign

California businessman Tom Steyer defended his exorbitant spending to boost his presidential bid in an interview on ABC News’ "This Week" on Sunday, arguing that despite a poor showing in the first two nominating contests, his progressive message and policy agenda will resonate with voters of color in the more diverse states of Nevada and South Carolina. “I’m not a famous person but I've been on the ground in Nevada and South Carolina, meeting people face-to-face and doing really well," Steyer said. "And if I can show I can put together that coalition and take that momentum into Super Tuesday with the kind of diverse coalition that I believe I'm building ... that will give me the momentum,” he added.

Two people were shot overnight at Clinton College gym in Rock Hill, police say

The victims, who are expected to survive, are neither students nor employees of the college.

UN: Antarctic high temp records will take months to verify

Record high temperatures reportedly measured in Antarctica will take months to verify, the U.N. weather agency said Sunday. A spokesman for the World Meteorological Organization said the measurements made by researchers from Argentina and Brazil earlier this month have to undergo a formal process to ensure that they meet international standards. “A formal decision on whether or not this is a record is likely to be several months away,” said Jonathan Fowler, the WMO spokesman.

'I need people to get to know me': Sen. Klobuchar on growing minority support

'I need people to get to know me': Sen. Klobuchar on growing minority support originally appeared on abcnews.go.comLess than a week after her surprise third place finish in New Hampshire’s primary, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., acknowledged she is struggling to build support with minority voters, saying people need "to get to know me.""We see ourselves on an upward path. ...

Regulators should allow RTL and ProSieben to merge: Rabe

The head of publisher Bertelsmann said its TV arm RTL should be allowed to merge with German rival ProSiebenSat.1 , to give them a fighting chance against U.S. streaming giants. Thomas Rabe's comments - in an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung published on Sunday - come as European broadcasters explore ways to join forces against the onslaught from established players Netflix and Amazon Prime that are now being joined by Disney and Apple. "Otherwise, national companies will simply have no chance in a few years against the giants from Silicon Valley," added the Bertelsmann boss, who took personal charge over its largest unit RTL last year.

Fancy felines hit Hanoi for first ever cat show

Vietnam, where cats are viewed by some as food, hosted its first ever cat show on Sunday, gathering around 60 pedigree cats with feisty stage names such as Angry Alice, Di Maria The Great and Timosa Sumo. The show, run by the World Cat Federation, the world's largest federation for cats, featured a dozen different breeds. Event organizer Nguyen Xuan Son said the aim was to make people see that cats are worthy of love.

Car full of teenagers drives at, runs over officer who tried to stop them

A police officer suffered serious injuries requiring surgery after a car full of teenagers accelerated and drove directly at authorities in what was an alleged deliberate attempt to hit them. The incident occurred just after 1 a.m. on the morning of Feb. 15 in Billings, Montana, when police officers located a vehicle that had been evading them multiple times previously in the evening. Officers say that they were in the process of giving commands to the vehicle’s occupants while the car was stopped facing the police when all of a sudden the driver of the car accelerated and drove straight toward the officers.

Two shot overnight, including one found outside southwest Charlotte bar, CMPD says

One of the men was found shot in the parking lot of the bar

Lebanon's MEA reverses move to charge in dollars

Lebanon's state-owned carrier Middle East Airlines (MEA) reversed a decision to accept payment only in U.S. dollars after a backlash on Sunday, Lebanese media and an MEA source said. The decision was taken as Lebanon grapples with a foreign currency liquidity crisis that has led the Lebanese pound to lose more than a third of its value against the dollar. News of the decision, which was first reported late on Saturday, drew dozens of people to MEA's ticket office at Beirut airport where they tried to buy tickets in Lebanese pounds before the decision was due to take effect on Monday.

Colombia to decide on historic abortion ruling

Fourteen years after Colombia's landmark decision to legalize abortions in some cases, the country is once more bracing itself for a historic vote. The Colombian Constitutional Court has until Feb. 19th to decide whether it will legalize abortion for pregnancies up to 12 weeks. The current law allows for abortion in only three instances: if the mother's life is at risk, if a fetus is malformed or if the pregnancy is a result of rape.

Rain in the forecast for parts of the water-logged South

Much of the nation is seeing a rather quiet Sunday, however, a new storm is set to track across the country, and another blast of cold air is lurking right behind it. The previous blast of cold air that hit the Midwest and Northeast late last week was the coldest the regions saw so far this winter. A storm is moving through the northern Rockies this morning and there is some snow falling from Oregon to Montana and into parts of Wyoming and Colorado.

Taiwan's health ministry confirms first coronavirus death on island, cases at 20

A man has died from the coronavirus in Taiwan, marking the first such death on the island since the epidemic spread from maninland China, the island's health minister said on Sunday. Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said during a news conference on Sunday that the deceased person was a man in his sixties, who had not traveled abroad recently and had diabetes and hepatitis B.