Wisconsin bishop takes rare step of removing defiant priest
MADISON, Wis. — A Wisconsin bishop has taken the unusual step of removing a priest from the ministry after he made a series of divisive remarks about politics and the pandemic. The Diocese of La Crosse said in a statement Friday that Bishop William Patrick Callahan has issued a decree...
Dig at Pilgrim and Native American memorial sparks intrigue
Archaeologists combing a hill near Plymouth Rock where a park will be built in tribute to the Pilgrims and their Native American predecessors have made a poignant discovery: It’s not the first time the site has been used as a memorial. David Landon of the University of Massachusetts-Boston’s Fiske Center...
Vaccinated teachers, students don’t need masks, CDC says
NEW YORK — Vaccinated teachers and students don’t need to wear masks inside school buildings, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday in relaxing its covid-19 guidelines. The changes come amid a national vaccination campaign in which children as young as 12 are eligible to get shots, as...
52 dead in Bangladesh factory fire as workers locked inside
A fire engulfed a food and beverage factory outside Bangladesh’s capital, killing at least 52 people, many of whom were trapped inside by an illegally locked door, fire officials said Friday. The blaze began Thursday night at the five-story Hashem Foods Ltd. factory in Rupganj, just outside Dhaka, sending huge...
France to pull more than 2,000 troops from Africa’s Sahel
PARIS — France will withdraw more than 2,000 troops from an anti-extremism force in Africa’s Sahel region and pivot its military presence to specialized regional forces instead, President Emmanuel Macron said Friday. Macron announced last month a future reduction of France’s military presence, arguing it’s no longer adapted to the...
Widow of former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat dies in Egypt
CAIRO — Jehan Sadat, widow of former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, the first Arab leader to make peace with Israel, died in Egypt on Friday. She was 87. In recent weeks, Egyptian media press reported that she had been hospitalized and was battling cancer. Last year, she received medical treatment...
U.K. police officer admits killing woman abducted on walk home
LONDON — A British police officer pleaded guilty Friday to murdering a 33-year-old woman who was abducted as she walked home from a friend’s house in south London. Wayne Couzens previously admitted kidnapping and raping Sarah Everard, a marketing executive who went missing on March 3. Couzens entered a guilty...
Taiwan says 11 arrested at its Haiti embassy
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan’s foreign ministry says Haitian police have arrested 11 armed suspects who tried to break into the its embassy in Port-au-Prince. It gave no details of the suspects’ identities or a reason for the break-in. “As for whether the suspects were involved in the assassination of the...
Taliban say they now control 85% of Afghanistan’s territory
MOSCOW — The Taliban claimed on Friday that they now control 85% of Afghanistan’s territory amid a surge in wins on the ground and as American troops complete their pullout from the war-battered country. The announcement came at a press conference at the end of a visit by a senior...
Amid growing frustration, Biden administration pushes voting rights
WASHINGTON — Facing a call to “save American democracy,” the Biden administration has unveiled new efforts to help protect voting rights amid growing complaints from civil rights activists and other Democrats that the White House has not done enough to fight attempts by Republican-led state legislatures to restrict access to...
DeSantis parts with Trump in response to Surfside tragedy
SURFSIDE, Fla. — When the coronavirus ravaged Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis defiantly bucked mask mandates. He later cracked down on protesters advocating racial justice, blasted President Joe Biden on immigration, jumped into the fight over transgender athletes and signed sweeping legislation to toughen voting rules. But after a deadly building...
Zaila Avant-garde breezes to National Spelling Bee win
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Whether dribbling a basketball or identifying obscure Latin or Greek roots, Zaila Avant-garde doesn’t show much stress. The 14-year-old from Harvey, La., breezed to the championship at the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday night, becoming the first African American winner and only the second...
Gov. Tom Wolf calls election audit plan a ‘disgrace to democracy’
HARRISBURG — Gov. Tom Wolf on Thursday said it is a “disgrace to democracy” that a Republican state lawmaker is trying to launch what he calls a “forensic investigation” of Pennsylvania’s 2020 presidential election, similar to what is happening in Arizona. Wolf, a Democrat, said on Twitter that the “sham...
Italy OKs port for rescue ship with 572 migrants aboard
ROME — Italy on Thursday agreed to allow the disembarking of 572 rescued migrants following a charity ship’s desperate plea that food was running short and tensions rising on the crowded Ocean Viking. Hours earlier, Luisa Albera, search and rescue coordinator of SOS Mediterranee, launched an urgent appeal from the...
Pfizer to seek OK for 3rd covid-19 vaccine dose
Pfizer is about to seek U.S. authorization for a third dose of its covid-19 vaccine, saying Thursday that another shot within 12 months could dramatically boost immunity and maybe help ward off the latest worrisome coronavirus mutant. Research from multiple countries shows the Pfizer shot and other widely used covid-19...
Investigators: 2 Florida men involved in Haitian President Moïse’s assassination
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Two Florida men have been arrested in connection with the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, the Miami Herald has learned. James Solages, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was identified as one of the assailants by Mathias Pierre, a minister in charge of Haitian elections. Pierre did not...
Tropical storm pounds East Coast after killing 1 in Florida
SAVANNAH, Ga. — Tropical Storm Elsa carved a destructive and soaking path up the East Coast after killing at least one person in Florida and spinning up a tornado at a Georgia Navy base that flipped recreational vehicles upside-down and blew one of them into a lake. Elsa’s winds strengthened...
Lawyer Michael Avenatti sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for extortion
NEW YORK — Michael Avenatti, the brash California lawyer who once represented Stormy Daniels in lawsuits against President Donald Trump, was sentenced Thursday to 2 1/2 years in prison for trying to extort up to $25 million from Nike by threatening the company with bad publicity. Avenatti, 50, was convicted...
Alabama officer still getting paid after murder conviction
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — An Alabama police officer is still getting paid two months after he was convicted of murder. Huntsville officer William Ben Darby was stripped of his law enforcement certification after a jury May 7 found him guilty of murdering Jeff Parker, a man who told police he was...
Bucks County hunter sentenced to 7 to 20 years in prison for fatally shooting teen at state park
Profusely apologizing for his actions, a Bucks County, Pennsylvania, hunter was sentenced to seven to 20 years in state prison Wednesday after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the accidental shooting death of a teenager at Nockamixon State Park last fall. Kenneth Heller, 52, of Warminster, told Common Pleas Court...
Global covid-19 deaths hit 4 million amid rush to vaccinate
The global death toll from covid-19 eclipsed 4 million Wednesday as the crisis increasingly becomes a race between the vaccine and the highly contagious delta variant. The tally of lives lost over the past year and a half, as compiled from official sources by Johns Hopkins University, is about equal...
Study: Northwest heat wave impossible without climate change
The deadly heat wave that roasted the Pacific Northwest and western Canada was virtually impossible without human-caused climate change that added a few extra degrees to the record-smashing temperatures, a new quick scientific analysis found. An international team of 27 scientists calculated that climate change increased chances of the extreme...
Pa. man charged in attack on AP photographer, police at Capitol
COLLEGE PARK, Md. — A Pennsylvania man was arrested Wednesday on charges that he assaulted an Associated Press photographer and police officers during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Alan William Byerly, 54, was armed with what appeared to be a stun gun when he charged at officers...
Search crews give up hope of finding survivors at Miami-area condo collapse site; death toll hits 54
SURFSIDE, Fla. — Emergency workers gave up Wednesday on any hope of finding survivors in the collapsed Florida condo building, telling sobbing families that there was “no chance of life” in the rubble as crews shifted their efforts to recovering more remains. The announcement followed increasingly somber reports from emergency...
California governor kicks off $1B statewide cleanup plan
SAN FRANCISCO — Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday kicked off California’s $1.1 billion plan to clean trash and graffiti from highways, roads and other public spaces, an effort he said will beautify the state and create up to 11,000 jobs. “This is an unprecedented effort to acknowledge what all of...
