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The German summer may officially be just two weeks old but the Rhine river — a vital artery

Business is booming at Boston University, which is borrowing $224 million in the municipal bond market next week.

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt bought the Alfa Nero superyacht that was ditched in Antigua in March 2022

Looking at the form of Major League Soccer teams in home and away games so far in 2023.

Micron Technology Inc. warned that about half of its sales tied to China-headquartered clients may be affected by

A group of investors holding more than €1 billion ($1.09 billion) of SBB bonds have hired an adviser

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg seems increasingly likely to have his term at the helm of the world’s biggest security organization extended yet again, as members struggle to agree on another candidate to replace him. Stoltenberg, a former Norwegian prime minister, has been NATO’s top civilian official since 2014. His term was due to expire last year but was extended for a second time to keep a steady hand at the helm after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. President Joe Biden and his NATO counterparts are due to choose a successor when they meet for a summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, on July 11-12. No candidate has been proposed publicly, and leaders usually decide by consensus on who should be appointed. Stoltenberg held talks with Biden in Washington on Tuesday. According to a U.S. official familiar with the leaders’ conversations, Biden made clear that he thinks highly of some the possible candidates whose names have been privately floated to succeed him. The official said, however, Biden conveyed to the NATO secretary-general that it’s “becoming increasingly evident that there’s not going to be consensus” among NATO allies on picking a new leader, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private conversation. Biden made it clear to Stoltenberg that he would welcome him sticking around longer — particularly with no end in sight to the war in Ukraine and challenges to get Sweden approved as a member of the 31-nation alliance. “The president thinks Stoltenberg has done a remarkable job over the past year and a half leading the alliance during Russia’s invasion,” the official said. “He’s also quite comfortable with Stoltenberg hanging on. He thinks he’s been a very effective leader.” The official stopped short of saying that Biden asked Stoltenberg outright to stay on as NATO chief. Asked repeatedly Friday about his future at the helm, Stoltenberg said: “I have nothing more to say about this. I have stated again and again that I don’t seek an extension. I have no other plans than to end my work here, when my tenure ends this fall.” The U.S. official also said that Biden had spoken highly of Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. NATO is keen to name a woman to the top post, and Denmark’s prime minister was thought to be a favorite after a meeting with Biden earlier this month. But in a televised interview on Thursday, Frederiksen said: “No, I am not on my way to NATO.” She did say that she would back Stoltenberg if he was willing to extend his mandate. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius also made clear that he would back an extension for Stoltenberg if that became necessary. “If we don’t agree on a candidate for successor, NATO won’t be able to go without a secretary-general, and of course I am for an extension — particularly as I appreciate our cooperation,” he told reporters. Norwegian media said Friday that Biden has encouraged Stoltenberg to stay on. Norwegian public broadcaster NRK said it “had learned” that Biden’s message to Stoltenberg “was not to be misunderstood: Jens Stoltenberg must remain as Secretary General of NATO for a while longer.” The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has also ruled out her candidacy. Other possible names that were floated are Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and U.K. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace. ___ Madhani reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark. and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report. Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide NATO moves to protect undersea pipelines, cables as concern mounts over Russian sabotage threat How significant is the reported recapture of the first Ukrainian villages? Support mounts for Stoltenberg to stay on in NATO's top job

A Vermont man has died in custody while awaiting trial on charges of killing his mother at sea, federal authorities said on Thursday. Nathan Carman, 29, was accused of the first-degree murder of his mother Linda Carman during a 2016 boating trip in what prosecutors alleged was a plot to inherit millions of dollars. Carman pleaded not guilty last year to fraud and first-degree murder and had been due to go on trial in October. The cause of his death was not immediately known. In September 2016, Carman arranged a fishing trip from a Rhode Island marina with his mother, during which his boat reportedly sank and his mother disappeared. Carman was found floating in an inflatable raft eight days later, while his mother has never been found. Prosecutors allege that Carman made alterations to the boat to make it more likely to sink. He was also accused of killing his grandfather, John Chakalos, who was shot dead in his home in Windsor, Connecticut, in 2013. Chakalos’s killing was part of a scheme by Carman to obtain millions of dollars from his grandfather’s estate, according to an eight-count indictment. He had not been charged in that case. Chakalos had made a fortune of tens of millions of dollars by building and renting nursing homes. Last May, Carman was arrested and charged with his mother’s murder. Prosecutors urged him to be held in custody pending trial as he was a flight risk. Carman was being held by US Marshalls at the time of his death. His attorney Martin Minnella told the Associated Press that he had been in good spirits when they spoke on Wednesday, and they had been due to meet again on Thursday. “We were meeting with some experts today over Zoom at 12 o’clock. We were prepared to start picking a jury on October 10 and we were confident we were going to win,” he said. “It’s just a tragedy, a tragedy.” According to prosecutors, Carman’s inheritance scheme began nearly a decade ago when he purchased a rifle in New Hampshire and used it to shoot Chakalos while he was asleep in his Connecticut home on 20 December 2013. Carman then discarded his own computer hard drive and the GPS unit that had been in his truck, according to the indictment. After his grandfather’s death, Carman received $550,000. He moved from Bloomfield, Connecticut, to Vernon, Vermont, in 2014, was unemployed, and by 2016 had squandered most of his inheritance, they alleged. He then organised the fatal boating trip with his mother Linda, of Middletown, Connecticut. In 2019, Chakalos’ three surviving daughters filed a lawsuit in New Hampshire seeking to block Carman from receiving any more of his grandfather’s inheritance. The case was dismissed after a judge ruled that Chakalos was not a New Hampshire resident. It was later refiled in Connecticut and was still pending. The three sisters issued a statement to the AP saying they were “deeply saddened” by Carman’s death. “While we process this shocking news and its impact on the tragic events surrounding the last several years we ask for your understanding and respect relative to our privacy,” they said through a lawyer. Read More Man charged with murdering mother on fishing boat to inherit grandfather’s riches Man found on raft after mother's mystery death at sea was suspect in grandfather's killing Treat Williams death: Everwood and Hair star dies aged 71 following motorcycle accident

A Harvard Medical School morgue manager and his wife are among five people who have been charged with stealing and selling human remains. Cedric Lodge, who was fired on 6 May, allegedly stole “heads, brains, skin and bones” from cadavers that were donated to the school, federal prosecutors in Pennsylvania said on Wednesday. He and his wife Denise sold the body parts to buyers in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, sending them in the post, according to the indictment. In one case, the buyer allegedly intended to tan skin into leather. The scheme, which is part of a larger black market, is alleged to have gone on from 2018 to 2022. Mr Lodge, who was hired by Harvard in Boston, Massachusetts in 1995, allegedly sometimes allowed potential buyers into the morgue to choose which body parts they wanted. After the horrifying allegations emerged, family members who donated their loved ones’ bodies to medical research spoke of their horror. “We were just disgusted,” Paula Peltonovich, whose father’s remains were donated to the school, told the Boston Globe on Thursday. “Sick, like we were going to throw up.” Read More ‘Disgusted’: Woman speaks out after father’s remains trafficked by Harvard morgue manager ‘Heads, brains, skin and bones’: Everything we know about the Harvard morgue body parts case Niece says she feels ‘sick’ after learning Harvard morgue worker accused of selling human remains Harvard morgue manager ‘sold body parts and human skin that was made into leather’ Harvard Medical School morgue manager, 4 others indicted in theft, sale of human remains

Michael Jordan has reached an agreement to sell his majority stake in the Charlotte Hornets to a group led by Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall, it was announced Friday.

“Suitcase killer” Heather Mack is facing up to 28 years in US prison after she pleaded guilty to conspiring to murder her socialite mother Sheila von Wiese-Mack at a luxury 5-star resort in Bali back in 2014. Mack, now 27, reached a plea deal with prosecutors in federal court in Illinois on Friday morning, pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to kill a US national and finally bringing some sort of conclusion to a horror case that has rumbled on for almost eight years. “I plead guilty, your honor,” she told US District Judge Matthew Kelley during the short hearing. Under the terms of the agreement, prosecutors recommend that she faces a maximum sentence of 28 years in prison, with consideration given to the seven years that she’s already served in Indonesian jail. If she is sentenced to 28 years, she could be eligible for release in 2042 – taking into account the time served in Indonesia and behind bars in the US. She would be 46 years old. The daughter – Stella – that she gave birth to in Bali prison would be an adult. However, Judge Kelley warned that he could ignore the sentencing guidelines, with the charge carrying a maximum penalty of life in prison. “I have to make up my own mind,” he said. A sentencing date was set for 18 December. Under the deal, Mack is unable to file any appeals in her case. Earlier in the hearing, Mack told the judge that she had been hospitalised “a few times” with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder while growing up. Mack has spend almost every day of her life behind bars since she was arrested in August 2014 in Bali. On 12 August 2014, Mack, then 18, and her then-boyfriend Tommy Schaefer, 21, bludgeoned von Wiese-Mack to death with the metal handle of a fruit stand at the luxury 5-star St. Regis resort in Bali. They then stuffed her body into a suitcase, hailed down a taxi and loaded it into the trunk of the car. When they were unable to check out of the luxury resort – using her mother’s credit card – the couple fled the scene, leaving the bloodstained suitcase behind. They were soon tracked down to a budget motel and arrested on suspicion of murder. At the time of the murder, Mack – the daughter of socialite von Wiese-Mack and famed musician James L Mack – was pregnant with Schaefer’s child. Prosecutors revealed that she had flown her lover out on a $12,000 business-class ticket just hours earlier charged to her mother’s credit card. Surveillance footage later captured the trio arguing in the hotel lobby after he arrived. Less than 12 hours after Schaefer flew in, Mack was dead. Chilling text messages later surfaced showing how the couple likened themselves to the notorious duo Bonnie & Clyde and plotted methods of murder. They were both convicted of premeditated murder in Indonesia and narrowly avoided facing the firing squad. Mack was released from prison in Bali in October 2021 after serving seven years – three years early due to good behaviour – and was briefly reunited with her daughter Stella, then six, who she planned to begin a new life with. But her newfound freedom was short-lived. Five days later, the then 26-year-old was deported from the Indonesian island back to the US and was arrested by FBI agents as soon as she touched down on American soil at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. She was indicted on two counts of conspiring to commit murder in a foreign country and one count of obstruction of justice. The indictment, which was filed in 2017 but remained sealed while she remained in Indonesian prison, also charged Schaefer with the same counts. Since then, she has been behind bars in Illinois awaiting trial and had been fighting against the charges, insisting that she had served her time for her crime in Indonesia. The case was set to go to trial on 1 August in Chicago before Mack revealed her intentions to change her plea earlier this month. Speaking to The New York Post last week, Mack said: “I have served nearly 10 years in prison. I felt that I had done my time, so I was gung-ho for trial,” she said. “Now, after sitting for so long, I know what I have to do. I’m going to be a felon in America, and that is fine. I understand from [the US government’s] perspective that, if I don’t plead guilty and they didn’t indict me, I wouldn’t be a felon.” She added: “I could become a police officer and work for the government… I could carry a firearm on the street.” Schaefer is still serving his 18-year sentence in Indonesia before he too will face charges on US soil. Read More Heather Mack plea hearing – live: ‘Suitcase killer’ to plead guilty in US over Bali murder of socialite mom A body in a suitcase, Bonnie and Clyde fantasy and baby born in Bali prison: The chilling case of Heather Mack Heather Mack, convicted in Bali of killing mother, set to plead guilty in US

US short-term inflation expectations fell in early June to a more than two-year low, helping drive consumer sentiment