AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EST

The Latest: New York prosecutors charge suspect in United Healthcare CEO's killing with murder

Police arrested a “strong person of interest” Monday in the brazen Manhattan killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO after a quick-thinking McDonald’s employee in Pennsylvania alerted authorities to a customer who was found with a weapon and writings linking him to the ambush.

The 26-year-old man had a gun believed to be the one used in the killing and writings suggesting his anger with corporate America, police officials said. He was taken into custody after police got a tip that he was eating at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a news conference.

Police identified the suspect as Luigi Mangione. Mangione was born and raised in Maryland, has ties to San Francisco, and his last known address is in Honolulu, Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said at a news briefing.

Mangione was charged with weapons, forgery and other charges in Pennsylvania on Monday. He was arraigned and ordered held without bail.

Here's the latest:

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New York prosecutors charge suspect in UnitedHealthcare CEO killing with murder, court records show

ALTOONA, Pa. (AP) — Authorities arrested a suspect and charged him with murder Monday in the brazen Manhattan killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO after a quick-thinking McDonald’s customer in Pennsylvania spotted a man who officers found with a gun, mask and writings linking him to the ambush.

The chance sighting at the restaurant in Altoona led to a dramatic break in a challenging but fast-moving investigation that captivated the public in the five days since the shooting that shook the business world.

Luigi Nicholas Mangione, a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate from a prominent Maryland real estate family, had a gun believed to be the one used in last Wednesday’s shooting of Brian Thompson, as well as writings suggesting anger with corporate America, police said.

Late Monday, Manhattan prosecutors filed murder and other charges against Mangione, according to an online court docket. He remained jailed in Pennsylvania, where he was charged with possession of an unlicensed firearm, forgery and providing false identification to police.

Mangione was sitting in the rear of the McDonald's wearing a blue medical mask and looking at a laptop computer, court documents said. A customer saw him and an employee called 911, said Kaz Daughtry, an NYPD deputy commissioner.

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Syrian government services come to a 'complete halt' as state workers stay home after rebel takeover

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syria's prime minister said Monday that most cabinet ministers were back at work after rebels overthrew President Bashar Assad, but some state workers failed to return to their jobs, and a United Nations official said the country's public sector had come “to a complete and abrupt halt."

Meanwhile, streams of refugees crossed back into Syria from neighboring countries, hoping for a more peaceful future and looking for relatives who disappeared during Assad's brutal rule.

There were already signs of the difficulties ahead for the rebel alliance now in control of much of the country. The alliance is led by a former senior al-Qaida militant who severed ties with the extremist group years ago and has promised representative government and religious tolerance.

The rebel command said Monday they would not tell women how to dress.

“It is strictly forbidden to interfere with women’s dress or impose any request related to their clothing or appearance, including requests for modesty,” the command said in a statement on social media.

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Polygamous sect leader gets 50 years in prison in scheme to orchestrate sex involving children

PHOENIX (AP) — A polygamist religious leader who claimed more than 20 spiritual “wives” including 10 underage girls was sentenced to 50 years in prison on Monday for coercing girls as young as 9 years old to submit to criminal sex acts with him and other adults, and for scheming to kidnap them from protective custody.

Samuel Bateman, whose small group was an offshoot of the sect once led by Warren Jeffs, had pleaded guilty to a yearslong scheme to transport girls across state lines for his sex crimes, and later to kidnap some of them from protective custody.

Under the agreement, Bateman pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit transportation of a minor for sexual activity, which carries a sentence of 10 years to life imprisonment, and one count of conspiracy to commit kidnapping, which is punishable by up to life imprisonment. He was sentenced to 50 years on each count, to be served concurrently.

The rest of the charges were dismissed as part of the agreement.

Authorities say that Bateman, 48, tried to start an offshoot of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints based in the neighboring communities of Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah. The fundamentalist group, also known as FLDS, split from the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after Mormons officially abandoned polygamy in 1890.

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Chinese gold mining threatens a protected UN heritage site in Congo

OKAPI WILDLIFE RESERVE, Congo (AP) — Scattered along the banks of the Ituri River, buildings cram together, cranes transport dirt and debris scatters the soil. The patches of trees are a scant reminder that a forest once grew there.

Nestled in eastern Congo's Ituri province, the Chinese-run gold mine is rapidly encroaching on an area that many say it shouldn’t be operating in at all - the Okapi Wildlife Reserve, an endangered World Heritage site.

The original boundaries of the reserve were established three decades ago, by Congo’s government and encompassed the area where the Chinese company now mines. But over the years under opaque circumstances, the boundaries shrunk, allowing the company to operate inside the plush forest.

The reserve was already on the endangered list, amid threats of conflict and wildlife trafficking. Now the rapid expansion of the Chinese mines threatens to further degrade the forest and the communities living within. Residents and wildlife experts say the mining's polluting the rivers and soil, decimating trees and swelling the population, increasing poaching, with little accountability.

“It is alarming that a semi-industrial mining operation is being given free rein in what’s supposed to be a protected World Heritage Site, that was already on the danger list,” said Joe Eisen, executive director, of Rainforest Foundation UK.

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Tulsi Gabbard, Trump's pick for intel chief, faces questions on Capitol Hill amid Syria fallout

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump's pick for intelligence chief, Tulsi Gabbard, faced fresh scrutiny Monday on Capitol Hill about her proximity to Russian-ally Syria amid the sudden collapse of that country's hardline Assad rule.

Gabbard ignored shouted questions about her 2017 visit to war-torn Syria as she ducked into one of several private meetings with senators who are being asked to confirm Trump's unusual nominees.

But the Democrat-turned-Republican Army National Reserve lieutenant colonel delivered a statement in which she reiterated her support for Trump's America First approach to national security and a more limited U.S. military footprint overseas.

“I want to address the issue that’s in the headlines right now: I stand in full support and wholeheartedly agree with the statements that President Trump has made over these last few days with regards to the developments in Syria,” Gabbard said exiting a Senate meeting.

The incoming president’s Cabinet and top administrative choices are dividing his Republican allies and drawing concern, if not full opposition, from Democrats and others. Not just Gabbard, but other Trump nominees including Pentagon pick Pete Hegseth, were back at the Capitol ahead of what is expected to be volatile confirmation hearings next year.

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Veteran Daniel Penny is acquitted in NYC subway chokehold case over Jordan Neely's death

NEW YORK (AP) — A Marine veteran who used a chokehold on an agitated subway rider was acquitted on Monday in a death that became a prism for differing views about public safety, valor and vigilantism.

A Manhattan jury cleared Daniel Penny of criminally negligent homicide in Jordan Neely ’s 2023 death. A more serious manslaughter charge was dismissed last week because the jury deadlocked on that count.

Penny, who had shown little expression during the trial, briefly smiled as the verdict was read. While celebrating later with his attorneys, he said he felt “great.”

Both applause and anger erupted in the courtroom, and Neely's father and two supporters were ushered out after audibly reacting. Another person also left, wailing with tears.

“It really, really hurts,” Neely’s father, Andre Zachery, said outside the courthouse. “I had enough of this. The system is rigged."

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Trump promises to end birthright citizenship: What is it and could he do it?

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump has promised to end birthright citizenship as soon as he gets into office to make good on campaign promises aiming to restrict immigration and redefining what it means to be American.

But any efforts to halt the policy would face steep legal hurdles.

Birthright citizenship means anyone born in the United States automatically becomes an American citizen. It's been in place for decades and applies to children born to someone in the country illegally or in the U.S. on a tourist or student visa who plans to return to their home country.

It's not the practice of every country, and Trump and his supporters have argued that the system is being abused and that there should be tougher standards for becoming an American citizen.

But others say this is a right enshrined in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, it would be extremely difficult to overturn and even if it's possible, it's a bad idea.

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Mass evacuation of Philippine villages underway after a brief but major volcanic eruption

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — About 87,000 people were being evacuated in a central Philippine region Tuesday a day after a volcano briefly erupted with a towering ash plume and superhot streams of gas and debris hurtling down its western slopes.

The latest eruption of Mount Kanlaon on central Negros island did not cause any immediate casualties, but the alert level was raised one level, indicating further and more explosive eruptions may occur.

Volcanic ash fell on a wide area, including Antique province, more than 200 kilometers (124 miles) across seawaters west of the volcano, obscuring visibility and posing health risks, Philippine chief volcanologist Teresito Bacolcol and other officials said by telephone.

At least six domestic flights and a flight bound for Singapore were canceled and two local flights were diverted in the region Monday and Tuesday due to Kanlaon’s eruption, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines.

The mass evacuations were being carried out urgently in towns and villages nearest the western and southern slopes of Kanlaon which were blanketed by its ash, including in La Castellana town in Negros Occidental where nearly 47,000 people have to be evacuated out of a 6-kilometer (3.7-mile) danger zone, the Office of Civil Defense said.

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6 Guatemalans arrested and charged with human smuggling in deadly 2021 Mexico truck crash

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Six Guatemalans were arrested in Guatemala and in Texas Monday on human smuggling charges linked to a 2021 semitrailer truck crash in Mexico that killed more than 50 migrants, authorities said.

The truck had been packed with at least 160 migrants, many of them Guatemalans, when it crashed into a support for a pedestrian bridge in Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital of the southern state of Chiapas. The arrests were announced on the three-year anniversary of the accident.

According to an indictment unsealed Monday in Laredo, Texas, Guatemalan authorities arrested Tomas Quino Canil, 36; Alberto Marcario Chitic, 31; Oswaldo Manuel Zavala Quino, 24; and Josefa Quino Canil de Zavala, 42.

Another man, Jorge Agapito Ventura, was arrested at his home in Cleveland, Texas, U.S. authorities said. Guatemalan officials noted a sixth arrest. A sixth name listed on the U.S. federal indictment was blacked out.

The accused were charged with conspiracy, placing life in jeopardy, causing serious bodily injury, and resulting in death.

The Associated Press