Month: September 2021

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Cyprus will begin administering booster shots against COVID-19 to people over 65, those with weakened immune systems irrespective of age and health care professionals. Cyprus’ health minister said booster shots will be given to those who are eligible once a six-month period elapses from the time they completed their vaccination. Earlier

By JOHN RABY Associated Press CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A program offering cash incentives for out-of-state workers to move to West Virginia has welcomed its first round of new residents, and more people can now apply. The public-private program says 53 newcomers are getting settled in to the northern college town of Morgantown. The window

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A growing number of companies big and small are now dropping requirements that made it harder to hire, from minimum education levels to amount of experience. Drug store chain CVS announced earlier in August it would no longer require a minimum high school degree to

By MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats have promoted Republican Rep. Liz Cheney to vice chairwoman of a committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. The Democrats placed the Wyoming congresswoman in a leadership spot on the panel Thursday as some Republicans were threatening to oust her from the GOP conference

By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell last week to 340,000, a pandemic low, another sign that the job market is steadily rebounding from the economic collapse caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Jobless claims dropped by 14,000. Vaccinations for COVID-19 have been supporting the job

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The future of steel production at a sprawling plant west of Amsterdam is being called into question after an investigation found elevated levels of lead and other deposits in dust falling in nearby residential areas. The investigation published Thursday by the government Public Health and Environment Institute says exposure to

MADRID (AP) — A humanitarian aid group that monitors the plight of migrants taking perilous seaborne routes to Spain fears that 21 women and one girl have died and several dozen more people were lost at sea while trying to reach the Canary Islands. Walking Borders founder Helena Maleno says that 22 bodies have been

By RODNEY MUHUMUZA Associated Press KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Vaccine doses produced by a plant in South Africa will no longer be exported to Europe after the intervention of South Africa’s government, the African Union’s COVID-19 vaccine envoy said Thursday. Strive Masiyiwa told reporters that South African drug manufacturer Aspen, which has a contract with

By JOE McDONALD Associated Press BEIJING (AP) — China’s government has banned effeminate men on TV and told broadcasters to promote “revolutionary culture,” broadening a campaign to tighten control over business and society and enforce official morality. The measure adds to official limits this week on children’s access to online games and a campaign to

By KATHLEEN FOODY Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — Rowers, kayakers and other users of the Chicago River are getting a real-time look at one measure of water quality in the system that weaves through downtown and some neighborhoods. Chicago nonprofit Current in 2019 installed three sensors in the river’s three main branches to continuously estimate

By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer After over a decade away from film, New Zealand’s Jane Campion returns to the form with “The Power of the Dog,” a sweeping but intimate family drama set in the isolated hills of 1925 Montana and starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons. It premieres Thursday at the

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s state TV is reporting that the country’s Interior Ministry has approved a new hard-line mayor for the capital, Tehran, after a city council election. Alireza Zakani, 55 heads a parliamentary research center, and he was one of the seven approved 2021 presidential candidates. He withdrew from the race to support

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Hundreds of Greek health care workers accompanied by ambulances with sirens blaring have marched through central Athens to protest regulations mandating coronavirus vaccines for anyone working in their sector. The regulation went into effect Wednesday. Any health care worker who is not vaccinated against COVID-19 or hasn’t recovered from the disease

BERLIN (AP) — German prosecutors say they have filed charges against six suspects in the spectacular theft of 18th-century jewels from a Dresden museum in 2019. The men are all German nationals in their 20s and are accused of organized robbery and arson. They are alleged to have broken into the eastern city’s Green Vault

By LORNE COOK Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control is urging countries to ramp up their primary coronavirus vaccine programs and playing down the need for booster shots among the general public. The EU’s infectious diseases agency says approved vaccines are “currently highly effective” in limiting the impact

By BEV O’SHEA of NerdWallet Medical bills can throw a wrench in anyone’s budget. If you’re also trying to maintain a good credit score, the challenge is especially tough. Credit bureaus have some special provisions for medical debt, though, that can help you avoid, or at least delay, damage if you’re struggling to pay. Take

By OLEG CETINIC and SYLVIE CORBET Associated Press MARSEILLE, France (AP) — Twelve million children in France are back to school for the new academic year. They must wear a mask from age 6 as part of rules aimed at slowing down the spread of the virus in the country. French President Emmanuel Macron visited

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s state TV says 16 people were killed and 12 injured in the country’s west when a mini-bus plunged off a road into a valley. The report says the accident happened in Kurdish province of the Kordestan region on Thursday around noon. According to the report, 12 injured people were taken

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Bulgarian lawmakers have decided that the country will go to the polls on Nov. 14 to elect a new president. A parliamentary election could be held on the same date — the third one this year as the deeply fragmented parliament repeatedly fails to come up with a viable government coalition.

By SHEIKH SAALIQ and KRUTIKA PATHI Associated Press NEW DELHI (AP) — The death of a top separatist leader in disputed Kashmir has sparked a crackdown on public movement and communications by Indian authorities and highlighting the turmoil seething just below the surface in the region. Syed Ali Geelani, was the face of Kashmiri resistance

By SAMUEL PETREQUIN Associated Press BRDO CASTLE, Slovenia (AP) — European Union ministers discussed Thursday their options to beef up the 27-nation bloc’s strategic autonomy and improve its capacity to respond to future crises. EU defense and foreign affairs ministers met in Slovenia to talk about lessons learned from their rushed departure from Afghanistan. That

By AHMED AL-HAJ Associated Press SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Fighting has flared up between Yemen’s pro-government forces and Houthi rebels in the oil-rich government stronghold of Marib province, with at least 28 fighters killed over the last 24 hours. Security officials from both sides and tribal leaders say that most of the fatalities were among

By The Associated Press President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden have visited injured U.S. troops at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. There are 15 Marines at the hospital who were wounded in an Aug. 26 suicide bombing at the Kabul airport. The attack occurred as the U.S. government was arranging evacuations of

By CHINEDU ASADU Associated Press LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — The recent release of three separate groups of students who had been abducted in northern Nigeria brought joyful reunions and the hope that others still held might soon be freed. Now just days later gunmen have again attacked a school in the northwest, taking 73 new

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese court has sentenced a 90-year-old former senior government official to five years in prison for a 2019 car accident which killed a 3-year-old girl and her mother, in a high-profile case in a fast-aging country where elderly drivers have become a safety concern. The Tokyo

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Doctors at Poland’s main children’s hospital say a 5-year-old Afghan boy, recently evacuated from Kabul, has died and his 6-year-old brother, who has undergone a liver transplant, remained in life-threatening condition after they ate poisonous mushrooms. The family picked and ate highly poisonous death cap mushrooms in the forest around the

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The international team investigating the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine seven years ago is appealing to Russians in the city of Kursk to come forward with information about the deployment of the missile that investigators say downed the plane, killing all

By STEPHEN WADE AP Sports Writer TOKYO (AP) — Afghan athlete Zakia Khudadadi got her chance to compete in the Tokyo Paralympics. Khudadadi is one to two Afghans participating in the Paralympics. She lost her first-round match in taekwondo to Ziyodakhon Isakova of Uzbekistan 17-12. She also lost a losers’ bracket match against Viktoriia Marchuk

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark’s rarely used Court of Impeachment has gathered to try a former immigration minister accused for a 2016 order to separate asylum-seeking couples when one of the pair was a minor. Inger Stoejberg served as integration minister from June 2015 to 2019. She appeared Thursday before the court that was convening

By JOAN MATEU Associated Press ALCANAR, Spain (AP) — Many Spaniards are counting their losses and damage to homes and businesses caused by flooding produced by intense rain that continued falling over large areas of the country. The flash flooding didn’t lead to any direct casualties. But two young German women drowned overnight from Wednesday

BY LEAH WILLINGHAM and JAY REEVES Associated Press HOUMA, La. (AP) — Many residents who wanted to flee from Hurricane Ida were left to fend for themselves as hurricane ravaged Louisiana. That was despite mandatory and voluntary evacuation orders in many parishes. Those affected include homeless people, those on fixed or low incomes, and others

BERLIN (AP) — A court has rejected a bid by German train operator Deutsche Bahn for an emergency injunction to stop a strike by many train drivers that has disrupted rail traffic in the country for a third time this summer. Deutsche Bahn said it considers the latest strike by the GDL labor union to

BERLIN (AP) — German police have carried out raids against biker groups in several western cities in connection with three killings. Police said tactical operations units and hundreds of regular officers conducted raids Thursday in Duisburg, Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen and Muelheim an der Ruhr. German news agency dpa reported that at least 20 premises were searched.

BEIJING (AP) — U.S. envoy John Kerry says China needs to expand its efforts to reduce carbon emissions to hold back the rise in global temperatures. The State Department says Kerry told Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng in a virtual meeting that there is “no way” for the world to solve the climate crisis without

BERLIN (AP) — A German regional official’s plan to let authorities receive anonymous online tip-offs about potential tax evaders has prompted a flood of hate mail. Some critics accuse Danyal Bayaz of reviving habits from Germany’s totalitarian past. The finance minister in southwestern Baden-Wuerttemberg state on Thursday retweeted some of the messages sent to him

By DEREK GATOPOULOS Associated Press ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Mikis Theodorakis, the beloved Greek composer whose rousing music and life of political defiance won acclaim abroad and inspired millions at home, has died. He was 96. His death Thursday at his home in central Athens was announced on state television and followed multiple hospitalizations in

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s Victoria state is drafting legislation that would make it the first in the country to ban the public display of Nazi symbols as local neo-Nazi activity increases. The proposed ban on Nazi symbols such as the swastika, except for educational or historical purposes, will be

By DANIEL COLE Associated Press LE CANNET-DES-MAURES, France (AP) — Winemakers are taking stock of the damage after a wildfire blazed through a once-picturesque nature reserve near the French Riviera. Rows of charred grapevines stand next to a vast expanse of steaming black vegetation devastated by the fire, which raged for a week in late

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Authorities say attackers believed to be West Papua rebels killed four soldiers and wounded two others at a military post in Indonesia’s troubled easternmost region. A military spokesman says about 50 attackers believed to be from the West Papua Liberation Army stormed the post and attacked the six soldiers with arrows,