Month: October 2021

By MEG KINNARD Associated Press Dylann Roof’s chances for a new appellate hearing continue to dwindle. Roof is challenging his death sentence and conviction in the 2015 racist slayings of nine members of a Black South Carolina congregation. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday refused to reconsider recusing itself from his appeal.

By MATTHEW PERRONE and LAURAN NEERGAARD Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration is wrestling with how to decide on booster doses of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. Other manufacturers want to offer boosters six months after primary vaccination. But J&J proposed a range of times, from two months to

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press ROME (AP) — The Catholic Church’s foremost research institute studying sexual abuse of minors is expanding its mandate to also include the sexual and spiritual abuse of adults. The Rev. Hans Zollner, one of Pope Francis’ top advisers on abuse, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the institute’s broader

By MARIA CHENG AP Medical Writer LONDON (AP) — The World Health Organization says officials have begun vaccinating people in eastern Congo against Ebola, after it was confirmed last week that the disease killed a toddler. The U.N. health agency said Wednesday that people at high risk of catching the disease, including the young boy’s

By MIKE SCHNEIDER Associated Press ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Two of Florida’s largest cities have ended water emergencies now that COVID-19 hospitalizations have declined in the state. Back in August, the city-owned Orlando Utilities Commission asked residents to stop watering their lawns or washing their cars because liquid oxygen that is used for treating the

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO AP Retail Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Moccasin maker Minnetonka is publicly apologizing for making money off of Native culture and promised to do more to support Indigenous communities in the future after 75 years in business. In a statement posted Monday on its company website, Minnetonka CEO David Miller said the

By ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON Associated Press MIAMI (AP) — Families of COVID-19 patients are asking hospitals to rethink visitor policies a year and a half into the pandemic that has killed 700,000 people in the U.S. The relatives say they’re being denied the right to be with loved ones at a crucial time. Doctors also

By ANDREW DALTON AND LINDSEY BAHR Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — The union representing film and television crews says its 60,000 members will begin a nationwide strike on Monday if it does not reach a deal that satisfies demands for fair and safe working conditions. A strike would bring a halt to filming on

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. (AP) — Police in central Florida have arrested the 22-year-old father of a toddler who fatally shot his mother while she was on a Zoom call for work. Police say the 2-year-old found a loaded handgun in his “Paw Patrol” backpack. Veondre Avery was arrested Tuesday and charged with negligent manslaughter and

By SAMY MAGDY Associated Press ROME (AP) — The U.N. refugee agency says a Sudanese migrant was beaten, shot and killed in Libya after escaping from a government-run detention center in the North African country. The 25-year-old was detained and held in the Mabani detention center in the Libyan capital, Tripoli. He was one of

By GLENN GAMBOA AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The Ms. Foundation for Women unveiled $4 million in funding Wednesday for more than 100 groups working for social justice, but the nation’s oldest women’s foundation hopes the impact of its grants will be even larger by helping reshape philanthropy. More than 90% of Ms.

By KATE BRUMBACK Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — A judge has dismissed a lawsuit that alleged fraud in Georgia’s most populous county during the 2020 election. A longtime critic of Georgia’s election systems and a group of voters sought a review of some 147,000 absentee ballots to determine whether there are illegitimate ballots among them.

By JACK JEFFERY Associated Press RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Palestinian officials say at least 250 prisoners held by Israel have begun a hunger strike to protest their relocation to isolated cells. The strike is led by the militant Islamic Jihad group . It comes amid heightened tensions in Israeli detention facilities following the escape

By AYA BATRAWY Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Qatar’s foreign minister says isolating Afghanistan and its new Taliban rulers “will never be an answer.” He said at a forum in Qatar on Wednesday that engaging with the Taliban and “urging them to take the right steps” could empower the more moderate voices

By RONALD BLUM Associated Press Nathalie Stutzmann, the French-born contralto turned conductor, will succeed Robert Spano as music director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra starting with the 2022-23 season and become the second woman to lead a major American orchestra. The 56-year-old agreed to a four-year contract, and she plans to spend 10 weeks annually

By TODD RICHMOND Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — An attorney has filed another lawsuit against a former Wisconsin police officer who fatally shot three people, saying his department taught him to view Black people as dangerous. The federal lawsuit filed Wednesday by Kimberley Motley alleges that former Wauwatosa Police Officer Joseph Mensah violated Jay

MIAMI (AP) — Police in Miami have arrested a woman who allegedly left her little girl with a stranger at a Miami hospital. An arrest report says the 33-year-old woman told authorities she did it to keep her from sleeping on the streets. Now Carolina Vizcarra faces a child abandonment charge. Police say she asked

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s leaders are paying tribute to its troops who served over nearly 20 years in Afghanistan. The country’s president said Wednesday the German answer to the Taliban’s disappointing end must not be “resignation and retreat” from global affairs. Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and other top officials joined a final roll

By RAF CASERT Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — The great Brexit brawl is heading into its next standoff as European Union concessions to improve trade in Northern Ireland are likely to be deemed insufficient by the United Kingdom. The EU’s top Brexit official has proposed major changes in the customs system for Northern Ireland. It

BALTIMORE (AP) — A Texas man will have to appear in Baltimore to answer a charge of threatening a Maryland doctor who has been a prominent advocate for COVID-19 vaccines. Federal prosecutors say Scott Eli Harris of Aubrey, Texas, is charged with making a threat across state lines. The 51-year-old Harris was expected in federal

By FRANCES D’EMILIO Associated Press ROME (AP) — Italy is wrestling with how to deal with a neo-fascist party that has violently exploited anger over the government’s anti-COVID restrictions. After a mob of protesters destroyed a union headquarters in Rome, security officials on Wednesday were mapping out new strategies to prevent more violence this weekend.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union has announced plans to open a representation in the Arctic and vowed to protect environment in a region the bloc considers of key strategic importance. The 27-nation bloc will open a European Commission office in Greenland and use EU funding to promote sustainable development in the Arctic. Acknowledging its

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press A federal judge has blocked Baltimore city officials from banning a conservative Roman Catholic media outlet from holding a prayer rally at a city-owned pavilion during a U.S. bishops’ meeting next month. The judge ruled late Tuesday that St. Michael’s Media is likely to succeed on its claims that the

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has approved crediting what was described as a miraculous healing to one of his late predecessors, John Paul I. Francis’ signing off on the 2011 recovery in Argentina of a child moves John Paul I along the path toward possible sainthood. Thirty-three days after being elected pontiff in 1978

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Britain and the European Union are once again trading insults and accusations as they wrangle over Brexit. The current conflict centers on arrangements for Northern Ireland, which shares a land border with EU member Ireland. Britain says new customs checks and other barriers to goods entering Northern

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR and CHRISTOPHER RUGABER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of retirees on Social Security will get a 5.9% boost in benefits for 2022. The biggest cost-of-living adjustment in 39 years follows a burst in inflation as the economy struggles to shake off the drag of the coronavirus pandemic. The benefits increase amounts

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Consumer prices rose 0.4% last month, slightly higher than August’s gain and pushing annual inflation back to the highest increase in 13 years. The consumer price index rose 5.4% in September from a year ago, up slightly from August’s gain of 5.3% and matching the increases