Month: November 2021

ALTOONA, Pa. (AP) — A jail guard was shot and killed at a Pennsylvania courthouse by what appears to be friendly fire during a struggle with an inmate who had grabbed her weapon, and authorities said Thursday they were investigating how it happened. The inmate had been taken from the Blair County jail to Central

By KAREL JANICEK Associated Press PRAGUE (AP) — The Czech and Slovak governments have approved new coronavirus restrictions that specifically target unvaccinated people amid a record surge of infections. They come into effect Monday. The Czech health minister says most unvaccinated people will no longer be allowed to show coronavirus test results in order to

By SAMUEL PETREQUIN Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Commission says it could approve aid to fund production of semiconductors in the 27-nation bloc amid a global chip shortage. Most chipmakers are based in Asia, and the bloc wants to reduce its dependence on chips manufactured abroad by developing production on its soil. The

NEW YORK (AP) — Neil deGrasse Tyson is reaching very high with his next book. Henry Holt and Company announced Thursday that the celebrated commentator and best-selling author will release “Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization” in fall 2022.  The astrophysicist says the book, a call for science, exploration and rational thought as paths to

AMSTERDAM (AP) — The European Union’s medicines authority says it has begun evaluating a new drug for treating COVID-19 patients who do not require extra oxygen but are at increased risk of developing severe symptoms of the disease. The drug developed by U.S. company Vir Biotechnology and Britain-based GlaxoSmithKline uses lab-made versions of virus-blocking antibodies

By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell for the seventh straight week to a pandemic low 268,000. U.S. jobless claims dipped by 1,000 last week from the week before, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The applications for unemployment aid are a proxy for layoffs,

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A 14-year-old runaway accused of trying to shoot central Florida sheriff’s deputies during a standoff has been ruled competent to stand trial. The girl answered a judge’s questions about whether she understood the charges during a Wednesday hearing. She has been charged as an adult with attempted first-degree murder of

By ADEL OMRAN and NOHA ELHENNAWY Associated Press TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Libya’s former interior minister has announced his bid to run for president in the much-anticipated elections next month that face growing uncertainty. The former minister submitted his candidacy papers on Thursday in the capital of Tripoli. He says his political platform envisages a

By PAN PYLAS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The British government has came under fire for scrapping a long-planned high-speed rail line to the northern English city of Leeds as part of a package of revisions that potentially reduces costs by tens of billions of pounds. Critics argue that the scaling back of plans will

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) — Sweden’s top soccer leagues have signed an Amnesty International protest that gives “a red card to FIFA” and demands that the governing body stand up for the rights of migrant workers in Qatar during next year’s World Cup. Swedish Professional Soccer Leagues chairman Jens T. Andersson says “we can put pressure

By SYLVIA HUI Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The U.K. government has authorized a public inquiry to better examine any possible Russian involvement in the death of a British woman poisoned by a Soviet-developed nerve agent in 2018. Dawn Sturges and her partner collapsed in the England town of Amesbury after coming into contact with

By FARAI MUTSAKA Associated Press PONGARA NATIONAL PARK, Gabon (AP) — Gabon remains the “last stronghold” of African forest elephants, new research shows, as loss of habitat and poaching have made the pachyderms a critically endangered species. A survey by the Wildlife Conservation Society and Gabon’s parks agency released Thursday reports that the country has

By TOM MURPHY AP Health Writer The U.S. government will pay drugmaker Pfizer $5.29 billion for 10 million treatment courses of its potential COVID-19 treatment if regulators authorize it. Pfizer asked U.S. regulators on Tuesday to authorize emergency use of its experimental pill, which has been shown to significantly cut the rate of hospitalizations and

By DANIEL NIEMANN and KIRSTEN GRIESHABER Associated Press COLOGNE, Germany (AP) — Germany’s Roman Catholic archdiocese of Cologne has held a service of penance for cases of sexual abuse by clergy. The auxiliary bishop serving as the archdiocese’s interim administrator said the ritual was not intended as an absolution for the perpetrators but a “confession

By NOHA ELHENNAWY Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — Britain’s Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, have arrived in Cairo for the first time in 15 years, hoping to promote tolerance and cement bilateral ties. The royal couple received a formal welcome on Thursday by President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi at the presidential palace. Charles and Camilla

MIAMI (AP) — A 23-year-old woman called her former high school teacher a “monster,” cursed at him and then clapped as he was handcuffed and led from a Miami-Dade courtroom. Seventy-two-year-old retired teacher Tom Privett pleaded guilty to sexually battering the woman when she was a teen. His sentence also includes two years of house

By HUIZHONG WU Associated Press TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A Chinese professional tennis player not seen in public since she accused a former top government official of sexual assault purportedly sent an email claiming she was safe and that the allegation was false. But the message has only amplified concerns about Peng Shuai’s safety and

By MICHAEL BALSAMO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is giving $139 million to police departments across the U.S. as part of a grant program that would bring on more than 1,000 new officers. The grant funding announced Thursday comes through the Justice Department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services and will be

By ROSALIE MURPHY of NerdWallet Many small businesses close within a few years of opening. If that’s true for yours, work with a lawyer or financial adviser to make sure you shut down correctly. Take time to care for yourself and mourn the loss. Then, perform a postmortem to understand what mistakes you made, what

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s Central Bank has cut interest rates by 1 percentage point a day after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke out against high borrowing rates. The lira dropped to a new record low of 11.07 against the dollar following Thursday’s announcement, continuing a long run of losses. The rate cut comes despite

By ZEINA KARAM, DARIA LITVINOVA and YURAS KARMANAU Associated Press BAGHDAD (AP) — Hundreds of Iraqis have returned home from Belarus after abandoning their hopes of reaching the European Union in a repatriation that follows more than a week of tensions at Poland’s eastern border, where thousands of migrants were stuck in a cold and