Month: October 2021

By The Associated Press Journalists, human rights groups and other activists enthusiastically welcomed the awarding of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to two journalists at a time when media groups around the world face new pressures and crackdowns from the authorities. Friday’s announcement awarding the peace prize to Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — The president of San Jose State University has announced her resignation after the California university last month agreed to pay $1.6 million to 13 female student-athletes whose complaints about being sexually assaulted by an athletic trainer were mishandled. Mary Papazian said Thursday that she will step down at the end

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — A revival of David Mamet’s “American Buffalo” with Laurence Fishburne, Sam Rockwell and Darren Criss was in rehearsal when the pandemic closed Broadway theaters. Now it’s planning a return back with the same starry cast. The Neil Pepe-directed production on Friday announced its intention to

MIAMI (AP) — U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio told the director of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons that he’s “deeply concerned” over the failure to protect inmates at a federal prison in Florida. In a letter to director Michael Carvajal, the Florida senator also inquired about the Federal Correctional Complex Coleman’s handling of a recent audit

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Portugal’s parliament has approved four bills that enshrine in law the country’s rules and procedures on blood donations, amid reports people are being turned away due to their sexual orientation. The Portuguese Constitution forbids discrimination based on a person’s sexual orientation, and discrimination in blood donations has been specifically prohibited in

By MARK SHERMAN and JESSICA GRESKO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Get tested. Wear a mask. Don’t get too close. Not your typical court orders, but that was the word from the Supreme Court to lawyers and reporters who returned to the high court this week for the first in-person arguments in more than a

By STAN CHOE, DAMIAN J. TROISE and ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writers U.S. stock indexes are closing lower Friday after a weak jobs report sparked questions about when the Federal Reserve could pare back its immense support for the markets. The S&P 500 fell 0.2% after wavering throughout the day. Government data showed far fewer

By ANDREA RODRÍGUEZ Associated Press MATANZAS, Cuba (AP) — At the end of the 19th century in Cuba, a new musical genre and dance emerged. The danzón was scandalous in some circles but it eventually became the national dance of Cuba and spread to other countries in the region. Now some danzón scores that were

BERLIN (AP) — A 100-year-old man on trial for his alleged role as a Nazi SS guard at a concentration camp during World War II has told a German court that he is innocent. The defendant is charged with 3,518 counts of accessory to murder at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin. He is alleged

CONYERS, Ga. (AP) — The state attorney general’s office says a former Georgia state lawmaker and university regent has pleaded guilty to racketeering and been sentenced to serve eight years in prison. Dean Alford had been indicted in May on charges of racketeering, fraud and forgery relating to allegations that he faked contracts while seeking

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s Foreign Ministry has summoned the top Belarusian diplomat in the country after Polish authorities alleged that Belarusian forces had fired shots at Polish troops along their common border. The incident might have involved blank ammunition, but it marks an escalation of tensions along the border between Belarus and European Union

LONDON (AP) — Britain says it it will offer new vaccinations to thousands of people who volunteered for trials of the Novavax coronavirus vaccine, which has not yet been approved for use in any country. Some 15,000 people in the U.K. got Novavax shots as part of a clinical trial. While the U.K. recognizes them

BERLIN (AP) — The junior partner in Austria’s governing coalition is calling on Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s party to replace him with an “irreproachable person” after prosecutors said Kurz is a target of a corruption investigation. The chancellor showed no sign of budging on Friday. Prosecutors’ announcement earlier this week that Kurz and nine others are

By DYLAN LOVAN Associated Press LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Years after a Kentucky lawyer orchestrated a $600 million fraud, his clients remain entangled in a legal mess. Eric Conn is in prison for running the largest Social Security scam in U.S. history. He bribed doctors and a judge to get disability payments approved. The Social

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — International Criminal Court judges have decided to ask the United Nations Secretary-General for information on who represents Afghanistan at international bodies following the Taliban’s sweep to power in August. The decision Friday is intended to clarify the status of Afghanistan’s new leadership as judges prepare to rule on a request

By DAVID BILLER and DIANE JEANTET Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Inflation has come roaring back in Brazil and surpassed 10% for the first time since 2016, according to data released Friday. Soaring prices of gas, meat, electricity and more are plunging tens of millions of poor Brazilians deeper into uncertainty. Pricier fuels

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s daily coronavirus death toll has hit a new record amid the country’s sluggish vaccination rate and the government’s reluctance to tighten restrictions. Russia’s state coronavirus task force reported 936 new deaths on Friday, the third straight day when daily COVID-19 deaths topped 900. Russia already has

By MICHELLE R. SMITH, SCOTT BAUER and MIKE CATALINI Associated Press PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — An investigation by The Associated Press has found that a vocal group of chiropractors has become an influential force in stirring up anti-vaccine misinformation during the pandemic. Some of them have been lobbying against vaccine mandates and capitalizing on the

By JOSHUA GOODMAN Associated Press MIAMI (AP) — A Colombian national police officer who was part of an elite unit that worked closely with U.S. anti-narcotics agents has been extradited to Miami to stand trial on charges he betrayed the Drug Enforcement Administration to the same traffickers they were jointly fighting. Capt. Juan Pablo Mosquera

ROME (AP) — The northern Italian city of Turin will host the next edition of the Eurovision Song Contest in the spring. Turin Mayor Chiara Appendino tweeted on Friday that “we have brought to Turin the most followed musical event in the world.” The final of the widely popular song competition, which includes voting by

ROME (AP) — The Vatican says Pope Francis won’t be attending the upcoming U.N. climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland. Francis said in a recent interview that he intended to participate in the Oct. 12-Nov. 12 event and had a speech being drafted. But Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said the Vatican delegation would be led by

PARIS (AP) — French anti-racism activists have telephoned temporary employment agencies posing as a construction firm that wanted to hire only workers with “European profiles.” And a national association of anti-discrimination groups, workers say that more than one-third of the firms agreed to help with the discriminatory search. SOS Racisme released audio recordings Friday of

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s defense ministry says a company of the military’s guard battalion has been suspended from official duty amid an investigation of initiation rituals, suspected sexual abuse and far-right activity. A ministry spokesperson said Friday the internal investigation covers “several dozen” soldiers. He says the alleged incidents came to light as a result

By JUSTIN SPIKE Associated Press BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — The mayor of Hungary’s capital has announced he would withdraw from a primary contest which will choose a joint opposition nominee to challenge right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban in an election next year. Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony’s withdrawal Friday ended his candidacy in a race in

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) — Slovenia’s interior minister has rejected accusations that police used excessive force to curb anti-government protests with water cannons and tear gas on the eve of a major European Union summit in the country earlier this week. The demonstrations were the third in a month against virus measures and the use of

By SAMUEL PETREQUIN Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — Senior officials from two founding members of the European Union have expressed fears that a Polish court’s ruling that Poland’s Constitution has supremacy over EU laws could trigger the the country’s exit from the 27-nation bloc. France’s Europe minister insisted that the decision by Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer KAMINO KAWA, Japan (AP) — Nissan’s “intelligent factory” hardly has any human workers. The robots do the work, including welding and mounting. They not only do the paint job; they also inspect their own paint job. The assembly line for the Ariya sport-utility vehicle at Nissan’s Tochigi plant, set

HONG KONG (AP) — One worker died and others were trapped when a major rainstorm blew traditional bamboo scaffolding off the side of a building under construction in Hong Kong. The city was battered by heavy rain and high winds as other parts of China also experienced dangerous weather conditions. Local media reported that construction

By SAMYA KULLAB and TAMEEM AKHGAR Associated Press KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An Islamic State suicide bomber struck at a mosque packed with Shiite Muslim worshippers in northern Afghanistan on Friday, killing at least 46 people and wounding dozens in the latest security challenge to the Taliban as they transition from insurgency to governance. In