Month: December 2021

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s highest court has ruled that officials must draw up rules to protect disabled people if hospitals end up having to triage patients in the pandemic. The Federal Constitutional Court said on Tuesday that the parliament violated a clause in the constitution stating that no one can be discriminated against because of

By SAMY MAGDY Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — Yemen’s Iran-backed rebels say they’re temporarily allowing U.N. humanitarian flights to land at the airport in the capital of Sanaa. The development follows a week-long halt in flights after the Houthi rebels closed the airport, saying it was unsafe. They accused their adversary, the Saudi-led coalition, of

By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA Associated Press Desmond Tutu was, for many around the world, an icon. A spiritual compass. A champion of the anti-apartheid struggle. But those who saw the Nobel Peace Prize winner up close basked in his rollercoaster laughter, reveled as his eyes widened theatrically, soaked up his pristinely enunciated remarks, and came away

By TIA GOLDENBERG Associated Press TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel’s prime minister says he doesn’t oppose a “good” nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. Naftali Bennett spoke on Tuesday, a day after negotiators from Iran and five world powers resumed talks on restoring Tehran’s tattered 2015 nuclear deal. Bennett voiced skepticism in an

By LINDSEY TANNER AP Medical Writer New York nurse Sandra Lindsay became a vaccine activist after being hailed as the first person in the United States to get a COVID-19 shot a year ago. In the months since, Lindsay has appeared on panels, in Zoom town halls and at other events in the U.S. and

By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER Associated Press CHEMNITZ, Germany (AP) — Lutheran pastors across Germany’s Saxony state have used their sermons and opened their churches to promote vaccines as the most efficient way to prevent severe illness and to end the pandemic. Several churches hosted vaccine clinics this month, hoping that offering jabs in a familiar environment

By LINDSEY TANNER AP Medical Writer From South African undertakers to ultra-Orthodox Israeli rabbis, an unconventional cadre of people has joined global efforts to increase COVID-19 vaccination rates. Launching campaigns that traditionally have been the realm of public health authorities, they’re opening church doors, going door to door, village to village, touting the benefits of

By TIA GOLDENBERG Associated Press BNEI BRAK, Israel (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Jews have yet to receive their COVID-19 shots. The community has some of the lowest vaccination rates in the country despite being pummeled by the virus throughout the pandemic. And now the new omicron variant has arrived. Officials scramble

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares are mostly lower amid lingering worries about the omicron coronavirus variant’s potential to damage the regional economy and mixed cues from Wall Street. Benchmarks fell in Japan, South Korea and China, while the index jumped in Australia. Although reported infection cases from the omicron

By ZEKE MILLER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The top U.S. infectious disease expert says the nation should consider a vaccination mandate for domestic air travel. Dr. Anthony Fauci’s comments signal a potential embrace of an idea the Biden administration has previously eschewed. He says such a mandate might drive up the lagging U.S. vaccination

By GERMAN DE LOS SANTOS and RODRIGO ABD Associated Press ROSARIO, Argentina (AP) — Evangelical pastors have become increasingly influential inside Argentine prisons, especially in Santa Fe province. Officials there say about 40% of inmates live in cellblocks run on evangelical rules. Those units are much like those in the rest of the prison, but

By COLLEEN SLEVIN Associated Press DENVER (AP) — Authorities say a gunman who went on a deadly shooting rampage in several locations in the Denver area was targeting at least some of his victims. Police say the suspect in Monday’s shootings killed five people, including one who succumbed to her injuries Tuesday. They say the

By JANIE HAR Associated Press SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — A San Francisco Bay Area health clinic founded four decades ago to screen refugees from Southeast Asia is part of the U.S. effort to resettle tens of thousands of people from Afghanistan. Most of the technicians, nurses and assistants at the TB and Refugee Clinic

By BRETT MARTEL AP Sports Writer NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Rookie sensation Jaylen Waddle returned from the COVID-19 list to catch 10 passes for 92 yards and touchdown, and the Miami Dolphins beat the short-handed New Orleans Saints 20-3. Miami became the first NFL team to win seven straight after losing seven in a row.

By MANUEL VALDES Associated Press SEATTLE (AP) — Snow, ice and unseasonable cold in the Pacific Northwest and the Sierra Nevada are continuing to disrupt traffic, cause closures and force people to find refuge in emergency warming shelters. Across western Washington and Oregon, officials and private groups opened emergency spaces for people as forecasters said

By STEFANIE DAZIO, CHRISTOPHER WEBER and MORGAN LEE Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — Relatives of a 14-year-old girl who was killed by Los Angeles police last week say she loved skateboarding and had dreams of becoming an engineer to build robots. Valentina Orellana-Peralta was struck while hiding in a dressing room as an officer

By JAMES MacPHERSON Associated Press MANDAN, N.D. (AP) — A man convicted of killing four people in what authorities say was one of the most gruesome crimes in North Dakota history has been sentenced to multiple life prison terms without the possibility of parole. Judge David Reich sentenced 47-year-old Chad Isaak on Tuesday to four

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Keri Hulme, the New Zealander whose 1984 debut novel The Bone People won the Man Booker Prize, has died. She was 74. Family members confirmed Hulme died at Waimate on New Zealand’s South Island. They did not specify a cause. Hulme worked as a tobacco picker, dropped out of law

By JOE McDONALD AP Business Writer BEIJING (AP) — China’s ruling Communist Party is pressing entrepreneurs to make the country a “technology superpower” that doesn’t need the United States or other foreign suppliers. The aim is to develop Chinese creators of computer, energy, medical and other technologies that can generate wealth and global influence. That

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syria media are reporting that Israeli missiles fired from the Mediterranean struck the port of Latakia, igniting a fire in the containers area. The early Tuesday strike was the second such attack on the vital facility this month. It is also a rare targeting of the port handling much of Syria’s

SYDNEY (AP) — Australia’s Victoria and Queensland states have reported record levels of new daily coronavirus infections as pressure on testing centers prompts calls for wider use of rapid antigen tests. Queensland state reported 1,158 cases, the first time the state has seen more than 1,000 cases in a day, but hospitalizations remained low. The

By HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea says it has opened a key political conference to review past projects and discuss new policies amid the pandemic and a diplomatic deadlock with the United States. The official Korean Central News Agency said Tuesday that leader Kim Jong Un presided over a

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A college student who authorities say was killed by a handyman at an apartment complex where they both worked died by “homicide of undetermined means.” An autopsy report obtained Monday by Miami television station WPLG says Miya Marcano’s body was found in October bound with duct tape near a dilapidated apartment

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Prosecutors have filed a murder charge against a man suspected of killing a good Samaritan who tried to detain him after an attempted carjacking and burglary near Los Angeles. Joey Casias was among several residents of Covina who confronted a man who police said broke into a parked BMW and then

CHICAGO (AP) — An attorney says a lawsuit filed against the Chicago Blackhawks by a former Michigan high school student who said he was sexually assaulted by ex-assistant coach Brad Aldrich has been dismissed. Susan Loggans, who represents the former student, told The Associated Press Monday that an order in the case was entered last