Slideshow: Top News Photos, Dec. 17

(DALLAS) — They’re six-legged, hairy home invaders that just won’t die, no matter how hard you try. Cockroaches are experts at surviving indoors, hiding in kitchen pipes or musty drawers. But they didn’t start out that way. A new study uses genetics to chart cockroaches’ spread across the globe, from humble beginnings in southeast Asia to Europe and beyond.

Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Austin Maddox was arrested in Florida as part of an underage sex sting, authorities announced Monday. Maddox was one of 27 people arrested as part of a multi-agency operation late last month, Jacksonville Sheriff T. K. Waters said. They are accused of soliciting sex over the internet from people who they believed were children, officials said. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] James Hill, a defense attorney for Maddox, said he intends to fight the allegations against him and will enter a plea of not guilty should formal charges be filed. Maddox, 33, began communicating with an undercover agent pretending to be an underage girl on April 28, an arrest report said.

mdash; A video link between New York City and Dublin that was shut down due to inappropriate behavior on both sides of the Atlantic has reopened with new security measures. The open-air video link between the two cities, which opened May 8 and was taken offline last week, reopened Sunday and will operate between the hours of 6 a.m.

Amal Clooney is one of the legal experts who recommended that the chief prosecutor of the world’s top war crimes court seek arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and leaders of the militant Hamas group. The human rights lawyer and wife of actor George Clooney wrote of her participation in a letter posted Monday on the website of the couple’s Clooney Foundation for Justice.

(WASHINGTON) — Cyberattacks against water utilities across the country are becoming more frequent and more severe, the Environmental Protection Agency warned Monday as it issued an enforcement alert urging water systems to take immediate actions to protect the nation’s drinking water. About 70% of utilities inspected by federal officials over the last year violated standards meant to prevent cyberthreats, the agency said.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, a protege of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, as well as Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian were killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday. The pair were returning to Tehran after attending a ceremony with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on the Iran-Azerbaijan border to inaugurate the building of the new Qiz Qalasi Dam. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Khamenei said that the country would undergo a five-day mourning period.