Month: December 2021

By AAMER MADHANI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has unveiled his new HIV/AIDS strategy to end the more than 40-year-old epidemic, calling for a renewed focus on vulnerable Americans. The new strategy asserts that gay and bisexual Black and Latino men are too often stigmatized even as they are disproportionately affected by

By HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has arrived in South Korea for annual security talks expected to bolster the countries’ decades-long military alliance in the face of North Korean nuclear threats and mounting challenges from China. Austin tweeted after landing that “The U.S.-South Korea alliance “is

By JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press GENEVA (AP) — The U.N. migration agency says the coronavirus pandemic has “radically altered” mobility around the world, projecting in a new report that the growth in the number of international migrants is likely to remain weaker as long as travel and other restrictions remain. The International Organization for Migration

By ZEKE MILLER, OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ and MICHAEL BALSAMO Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The U.S. identified its first known case of the omicron variant Wednesday — in a vaccinated traveler returning to California from South Africa — as scientists around the world raced to establish whether the new, mutant version of the coronavirus

ATLANTA (AP) — Police say four people are dead, including a police officer and the shooter, after officers responded to a domestic disturbance call Tuesday in Clayton County, south of Atlanta. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation says Clayton County police Officer Henry Laxson was killed when a man started shooting at officers when they arrived.

By RAF CASESRT Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — A European Union official says the bloc has decided against holding a special remote summit of EU leaders on the omicron coronavirus variant for the time being. The official said Wednesday that the EU’s 27 health ministers will first assess the situation  next Tuesday before it will

By LORNE COOK and DAVID KEYTON Associated Press RIGA, Latvia (AP) — NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says the military organization was a victim of mission creep in Afghanistan as the international community went from fighting extremists to trying to rebuild the conflict-torn country. Stoltenberg addressed NATO’s role on Wednesday after foreign ministers debated a

BERLIN (AP) — Austria’s lockdown has officially been extended until Dec. 11 as planned amid signs that the measures are helping to bring down a sky-high coronavirus infection rate. A parliamentary committee signed off Tuesday on the extension of the country’s fourth national lockdown of the pandemic that started on Nov. 22. That was necessary

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia says it has detected its first case of the new coronavirus variant omicron. The kingdom’s state-run Saudi Press Agency said the case was a citizen coming from what it described as a “North African country.” The report said the infected individual and his close contacts had been

By CHINEDU ASADU Associated Press LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria has detected its first case of the omicron coronavirus variant in travelers that arrived from South Africa in the past week, the country’s national public health institute said Wednesday, correcting its earlier statement that it found the variant in samples taken in October. The Nigeria

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Chris Cuomo says it “hurts to even say” he’s been suspended from CNN after revelations that he was more involved in damage control for his politician brother than his bosses had been aware. Cuomo said Wednesday on his SiriusXM show that “the last thing I

BEIJING (AP) — China is urging its citizens to leave three provinces in eastern Congo as violence intensifies in the mineral-rich region. A posting Wednesday from the Chinese Embassy in Kinshasa on the WeChat online messaging says a number of Chinese citizens had been attacked and kidnapped over the past month in the provinces of

By NICK PERRY Associated Press WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand will send up to 65 military and police personnel to the Solomon Islands in the coming days after rioting and looting broke out there last week over several issues, including concerns about the country’s increasing links with China. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda

By KEN SWEET AP Business Writer SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Fueled by several financial technology companies as well as an entry by the big credit card companies, Americans now have the option to “buy now, pay later” on everything from a $1,500 Peloton bicycle to a $60 floral bouquet. Retailers’ websites often come with an

By JOE McDONALD AP Business Writer BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets are mixed after a turbulent day on Wall Street as traders tried to forecast the impact of the coronavirus’s omicron variant. Shanghai and Tokyo fell while Hong Kong and Seoul advanced. Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index ended down 1.2%. That was despite

By MARCY GORDON AP Business Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Ex-Facebook employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen implored lawmakers to avert the usual congressional stalemates as they weigh proposals to curb abuses on social media platforms by limiting the companies’ free-speech protections against legal liability. Still, Haugen urged caution in making changes to the 1996 law that

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — The parties of Algeria’s ruling majority dominated local and regional elections while Islamist parties saw their support diminish. The head of the election authority announced the results Tuesday evening. Saturday’s elections came amid widespread worry and frustration over rising prices for basic goods, housing and health care. The long-ruling FLN party

By FRANCESCO SPORTELLI and NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press ROME (AP) — A villa in the heart of Rome that features the only known ceiling mural painted by Caravaggio is being put up for auction by court order. The Casino dell’Aurora, also known as Villa Ludovisi, was built in 1570 and has been in the Ludovisi family

BEIJING (AP) — China is launching an aggressive campaign to promote Mandarin, saying 85% of its citizens will use the national language by 2025. The move appears to put threatened Chinese regional dialects such as Cantonese and Hokkien under even greater pressure, along with minority languages such as Tibetan, Mongolian and Uyghur. The order issued

By DAVID RISING and ANNABELLE LIANG Associated Press SINGAPORE (AP) — When Singapore embarked upon its strategy of living with COVID-19, backed by one of the world’s leading vaccine programs, the wealthy city-state saw a spike in its rate of infections, leading many to question whether the time was right. But with the numbers now