Month: October 2021

By EDDIE PELLS AP National Writer A new documentary on the late snowboarding pioneer Jake Burton is more than a glossy retrospective of his life. It’s a raw, unflinching examination of the trials and tribulations Burton went through over a four-decade career in which he shaped both the snowboard and the billion-dollar industry that forever

By SIGAL RATNER-ARIAS Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Caetano Veloso had written so many songs that he truly believed he was done creating music almost a decade ago. But at 79, the Brazilian legend has more things to say. Veloso is back with “Meu Coco,” his first solo album since 2012. Released Friday by

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syria’s state news agency says the electricity ministry has signed a $115 million contract with an Iranian company to rehabilitate a power station in a central province in the war-torn country. Tuesday’s agreement involving the two allies — who are both under U.S. sanctions — will see the Iranian company rehabilitate

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A clemency hearing for Oklahoma death row inmate Julius Jones has been delayed for a week while his legal challenge is pending in federal court. The five-member Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board was set to hear Jones’ request for clemency on Tuesday. But that hearing has been moved to next Tuesday

By LAURAN NEERGAARD and MATTHEW PERRONE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health advisers have endorsed kid-size doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for young children. The vote Tuesday by the Food and Drug Administration panel moves the nation closer to vaccinating children ages 5 to 11. The FDA isn’t bound by the recommendation and is

By MICHAEL BALSAMO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Law enforcement officials in the U.S. and Europe have arrested 150 people and seized more than $31 million in an international drug trafficking investigation stemming from sales on the darknet. The Justice Department says the arrests are connected to a 10-month investigation between federal law enforcement officials

By DAVID A. LIEB Associated Press Courts across the U.S. are still grappling with how to balance public health concerns amid the coronavirus pandemic with the right to a public trial. In some high-profile cases, such as R. Kelly’s sex trafficking trial, judges cited COVID-19 precautions as a reason to bar the press and public

By KATHERINE ROTH Associated Press Japanese gardens have long been popular in the U.S. But they’ve evolved. Landscapers who specialize in the style say the Japanese garden is appealing particularly now when people are looking to forge a closer connection between indoor and outdoor spaces. The style aims to integrate the home and garden by

By CARLEY PETESCH Associated Press DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Senegal and Rwanda have signed an agreement with German company BioNTech for the construction of its first start-to-finish factories to make messenger RNA vaccines in Africa. BioNTech, which developed and produces the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, said Tuesday that construction on the facilities will start in mid-2022.

LONDON (AP) — Climate activists in hard hats scaled a U.K. government building Tuesday, unfurling a banner demanding that countries attending the U.N. climate conference invest in plant-based alternatives to meat. The activists campaigning for Animal Rebellion climbed between 10 meters and 20 meters (32 feet to 65 feet) up the latticework decoration of the

FARGO, N.D. (AP) — The Associated Press has withdrawn its story about a North Dakota man accused in the death of a 14-year-old girl. The man entered an Alford plea, not a guilty plea. AP will publish a corrected version of the story. 

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Sweden which has stood out among European nations for its comparatively hands-off response to the pandemic, has passed the threshold of 15,000 deaths with COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, according to official figures released Tuesday. Thomas Linden of the  National Board of Health and Welfare, told Swedish public radio

By LYNN ELBER AP Television Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Television shows that reflect the nation’s increasing racial and ethnic diversity are finding favor with industry gatekeepers and viewers. That’s according to a newly released University of California, Los Angeles, study of the 2019-20 TV season. The UCLA study found audience enthusiasm for shows such

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. home prices jumped in August by a near-record amount from a year earlier, as Americans eager to buy a home drove up prices on a dwindling number of properties. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index soared 19.7% in August compared with a year

By MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — President Joe Biden’s administration is canceling two environmental rollbacks under former President Donald Trump that limited habitat protections for imperiled plants and wildlife. The proposal to drop the two Trump-era rules was announced Tuesday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service.

By VANESSA GERA Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s ruling party leader has presented plans for a homeland defense bill. Jaroslaw Kaczynski said Tuesday that the legislation is aimed at “radically” strengthening the military as the European Union nation faces migration pressure from its eastern neighbor Belarus. Kaczynski, the most powerful politician in the

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s parliamentary standards watchdog says a Conservative lawmaker should be suspended from the House of Commons for breaking lobbying rules. Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Kathryn Stone said Owen Paterson lobbied the government in 2016 and 2017 on behalf of two companies that were paying him. They were the clinical diagnostics company Randox

Sheriff’s deputies found a grenade inside a pickup truck a routine traffic stop in north Florida. The 65-year-old driver was pulled over for expired tags, and then they found his driver’s license had expired. A search turned up two glass pipes, and then they spotted the grenade. The man said it came from a military

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Police in Indian-controlled Kashmir are investigating students and staff at two medical colleges under a harsh anti-terror law for celebrating India’s loss to archrival Pakistan in a T20 World Cup cricket game. Police says some students and staff at the government-run colleges cheered and shouted pro-Pakistan slogans during the match Sunday

By YURAS KARMANAU Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine has reported another record daily number of COVID-19 deaths as vaccinations in the nation of 41 million people lags. Ukraine’s Health Ministry registered 734 deaths in 24 hours, raising the country’s pandemic death toll to 64,936. Ukrainians can choose between the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has announced a $100 million initiative meant to beef up the U.S. relationship with Southeast Asian nations. Biden made the announcement at a virtual summit with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations on Tuesday. It’s the first time since 2017, when President Donald Trump participated in the summit,

By DAVID KLEPPER and AMANDA SEITZ Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Last spring, as false claims about vaccine safety threatened to undermine the world’s response to COVID-19, researchers at Facebook found they could reduce vaccine misinformation by tweaking how vaccine posts show up on users’ newsfeeds. Yet despite evidence that it worked, Facebook took a

By AMRITA JAYAKUMAR of NerdWallet Caregiving for your parents and figuring out what happens to your finances when you die are things no one wants to think about until they have to. But planning for them now can spare you and your loved ones a lot of hassle later on. The pandemic may have forced

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Samsung’s de facto chief Lee Jae-yong has been fined 70 million won, or about $60,000, for illegally using the anesthetic drug propofol. Tuesday’s ruling came about two months after Lee was released on parole over a separate corruption case. The Seoul Central District Court said it convicted Lee, vice chairman