U.S./World category, Page 798
Islamic nations slam Israel — and each other’s ties to it
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A league of Muslim nations on Sunday demanded that Israel halt attacks killing Palestinian civilians amid heavy fighting between it and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, even as fissures between countries over their recognition of Israel emerged. A statement by the 57-nation Organization of Islamic...
CDC’s big mask change went from science to secret to surprise
WASHINGTON — For a nation mired in a pandemic for more than a year, the biggest step toward a return to normal came suddenly, even to President Joe Biden. After warning the country on Monday to stay vigilant amid the threat of coronavirus variants, the president found himself three days...
Afghan cease-fire ends amid calls for fresh peace talks
KABUL, Afghanistan — A three-day cease-fire marked by violent attacks — most claimed by the Islamic State group — ended Sunday in Afghanistan amid calls for renewed peace talks between the government and Taliban. Taliban political spokesman Suhail Shaheen said the negotiating teams of the government and the Islamic Emirate,...
Israel stages new round of heavy airstrikes on Gaza CityVideo
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israeli warplanes unleashed a series of heavy airstrikes at several locations of Gaza City early Monday, hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaled the fourth war with Gaza’s Hamas rulers would rage on. Explosions rocked the city from north to south for 10 minutes...
Colonial Pipeline operator says ‘normal operations’ have resumed
ATLANTA — The operator of the nation’s largest gasoline pipeline — hit earlier this week by a ransomware attack — announced Saturday that it has resumed “normal operations,” delivering fuel to its markets, including a large swath of the East Coast. Georgia-based Colonial Pipeline had begun the process of restarting...
Italy’s Berlusconi leaves hospital amid post-virus struggles
MILAN — Former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi was released from Milan’s San Raffaele Hospital on Saturday, where he was treated for complications related to his earlier bout with coronavirus. Berlusconi, 84, recovered from covid-19 last September but has been in and out of the hospital in recent weeks. He was...
Police fire tear gas on banned Palestinian march in Paris
PARIS — French riot police fired tear gas and used water cannons Saturday in Paris as protesters supporting Palestinians in the Gaza Strip defied a ban on marching in the French capital. Thousands of people marched peacefully in other cities in France and elsewhere in Europe — including in London,...
U.S. climate envoy Kerry meets with pope on climate crisis
VATICAN CITY — John Kerry, President Joe Biden’s climate envoy, met privately with Pope Francis on Saturday, afterward calling the pope a “compelling moral authority on the subject of the climate crisis” who has been “ahead of the curve.” The former U.S. Secretary of State told Vatican News that the...
Ex-Border agent admits illegally bringing woman into U.S.
LAREDO, Texas — A former U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent in Texas has pleaded guilty to illegally bringing a Mexican woman into the U.S. to work as her nanny, according to federal court documents. Rhonda Lee Walker, 40, of Laredo, admitted in a signed plea agreement Friday in U.S....
Israeli strike destroys Gaza building with AP, other media
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — An Israeli airstrike on Saturday targeted and destroyed a high-rise building in Gaza City that housed offices of the Associated Press and other media outlets. AP’s president said the agency was “shocked and horrified” at the strike. AP staffers and other tenants safely evacuated the...
Ethiopia again delays national election amid deadly tensions
NAIROBI, Kenya — Ethiopia has again delayed its national election after some opposition parties said they wouldn’t take part and as conflict in the country’s Tigray region means no vote is being held there. The head of the national elections board, Birtukan Mideksa, in a meeting with political parties’ representatives...
China lands on Mars in latest advance for its space program
BEIJING — China has landed a spacecraft on Mars for the first time in the latest advance for its space program. The official Xinhua News Agency said Saturday that the lander had touched down, citing the China National Space Administration. Plans call for a rover to stay in the lander...
Walmart, Sam’s Club to begin offering youth vaccinations
Following recommendation by the Federal Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control, Walmart and Sam’s Club pharmacy locations will be extending its vaccine supply to children ages 12 to 15, company officials announced Friday. “This is great news, not just for the newly eligible cohort, but for the entire...
Mississippi justices toss voter-backed marijuana initiative
JACKSON, Miss. — Mississippi will remain in the minority of states without a medical marijuana program after the state Supreme Court on Friday overturned an initiative that voters approved last fall — a decision that also limits other citizen-led efforts to put issues on the statewide ballot. At the heart...
N.C. judge accused of nearly hitting protester with SUV
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — A woman on Friday formally accused a North Carolina appeals court judge of nearly striking Black Lives Matter protesters in downtown Fayetteville last month with an SUV. A criminal court summons orders Court of Appeals Judge John Tyson to appear in a courtroom next month to answer...
Israeli military accused of using media to trick Hamas
JERUSALEM — Just after midnight Friday, the Israeli military put out an ominous statement to the media: “IDF air and ground troops are currently attacking in the Gaza Strip.” The terse statement set off frenzied speculation that Israel had launched a ground invasion of Gaza — a much-feared scenario that...
Cuba rolls out mass vaccines while awaiting study results
The jab didn’t even hurt, and Mabel Aguilera figures it may finally let her see granddaughters on the other side of Cuba who she hasn’t glimpsed during many months of pandemic restrictions. “Sometimes I thought I wouldn’t be able to stand not seeing my granddaughters,” said the 75-year-old woman, who...
Parkland sheriff gets job reviewing red light tickets
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A former South Florida sheriff who was removed from office by the governor because of his agency’s response to the Parkland school shooting that left 17 people dead has found a new job reviewing the footage of red light cameras. Former Broward Sheriff Scott Israel was...
‘Foot soldiers’ of Birmingham to BLM: ‘Keep on keeping on’
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Charles Avery had barely started marching when police arrested him, forced him into a police vehicle and took him to jail for participating in landmark civil rights protests that helped change the nation in 1963. He spent days in custody and then lived decades haunted by a...
Diplomats, donors concerned about sex abuse reports at WHO
LONDON — British, European and American diplomats and donors have voiced serious concerns about how the World Health Organization handled sex abuse allegations involving its own staff during an outbreak of Ebola in Congo, as reported this week by The Associated Press. On Tuesday, the AP published an investigation documenting...
Idaho man killed by falling ice in Alaska national park
A climber was killed and another was seriously injured when they were hit by a falling block of glacier ice in Alaska’s Denali National Park and Preserve, an official said Friday. The two were hit by the hanging serac after it dislodged from a peak off the West Fork of...
Gas crunch from cyberattack intensifies in nation’s capital
Gas shortages at the pumps have spread from the South, all but emptying stations in Washington, D.C., following a ransomware cyberattack that forced a shutdown of the nation’s largest gasoline pipeline. Though the pipeline operator paid a ransom, restoring service was taking time. As Georgia-based Colonial Pipeline reported making “substantial...
NFL families seek to end ‘race-norming’ in $1B settlement
Thousands of retired Black professional football players, their families and supporters are demanding an end to the controversial use of “race-norming” to determine which players are eligible for payouts in the NFL’s $1 billion settlement of brain injury claims, a system experts say is discriminatory. Ken Jenkins, 60, and his...
Woman says $26M California lottery ticket destroyed in wash
The winner of a $26 million California Lottery prize may have literally washed the chance of a fortune down the drain. The winning SuperLotto Plus ticket for the Nov. 14 drawing was sold at an Arco AM/PM convenience store in the Los Angeles suburb of Norwalk. Thursday was the last...
Columbus reaches $10M settlement for family of Andre Hill
Ohio’s capital city will pay a $10 million settlement for the family of Andre Hill, a Black man who was fatally shot by a white Columbus police officer in December as he emerged from a garage holding a cellphone, the Columbus city attorney announced Friday. It’s the largest such settlement...
