Month: December 2021

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Keenan Scott II made his Broadway acting debut this week in “Thoughts of a Colored Man,” which is a remarkable milestone. It’s even more remarkable when you consider he also wrote it. The playwright was pressed into acting duties at the last moment Tuesday night

By MATTHEW PERRONE AP Health Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Two antiviral pills are the latest additions to the handful of therapies to treat COVID-19 in the U.S. The Food and Drug Administration authorized the drugs from Merck and Pfizer as the first treatments that patients can take at home to treat mild-to-moderate symptoms. The drugs

By ASHRAF KHALIL Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. will lift travel restrictions on eight southern African countries that it imposed to try to blunt the spread of the COVID omicron variant. The White House says the temporary travel bans bought scientists necessary time to study the new virus variant first discovered in South

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — The Kremlin says it expects the U.S. to respond next month to Moscow’s request for security guarantees precluding NATO’s expansion to Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin urged the West Thursday to “immediately” meet Russia’s demand for security guarantees precluding NATO’s expansion to Ukraine, saying the U.S. is

By The Associated Press Children younger than 5 can’t get COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S. yet, but there are steps you can take to protect them from infection over the holidays. The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends surrounding those youngsters with adults and siblings who are vaccinated, and boosted if

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey has frozen the assets of 770 Turkish nationals and a Chicago-based foundation it accuses of having links to terror groups. A list published Friday in the country’s official gazette includes 454 people with alleged links to Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who lives in the United States. The Turkish government accuses Gulen

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Newly released video shows a security officer leaping over conveyor belt rollers and saving a 2-month-old boy who stopped breathing at a New Jersey airport security checkpoint. The footage from Newark Liberty International Airport was released Thursday by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration. It shows TSA officer Cecilia Morales springing into

By ULIANA PAVLOVA Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — A Moscow court has fined Google nearly $100 million and Facebook’s parent company Meta $27 million over their failure to delete content banned by local law. The Tagansky District Court ruled on Friday that Google repeatedly neglected to remove the banned content, and ordered the company to

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has fired more than a dozen of surface-to-surface ballistic missiles. The Friday report by the official IRNA news agency said the Guard fired 16 missiles during an ongoing military exercise across the country’s south. It said the missiles ranged up to 2000 kilometers (about 1250 miles) and

By DANICA KIRKA Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Queen Elizabeth II is expected to offer a particularly personal Christmas Day message to the nation this year. Buckingham Palace on Friday released a photo of the monarch recording the speech alongside a picture of her and her husband, who died earlier this year. The image provided

By NOHA ELHENNAWY Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — Hundreds took to the streets in several Libyan cities to protest the cancellation of Friday’s long-awaited presidential election, a blow to hopes of ending a decade of chaos in the oil-rich North African country. Several Libyan parliamentary candidates and political groups have called for nationwide protests over

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s health minister says the proportion of coronavirus infections with the new omicron variant will increase sharply in the days ahead. He appealed to people not to get infected during Christmas festivities. German authorities are anticipating another wave of COVID-19 cases as a result of omicron, though so far the delta variant

By DAVID McHUGH and TALI ARBEL Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Airlines are canceling hundreds of flights as the omicron variant jumbled schedules and drew down staffing levels at some carriers during the busy holiday travel season. Delta Air Lines and United Airlines together canceled more than 600 flights on Friday and Saturday, while

By DEREK GATOPOULOS Associated Press ATHENS, Greece (AP) — At least 13 people have died after a migrant boat capsized in the Aegean Sea. That brought to at least 27 the combined death toll from three separate accidents in as many days involving migrant boats in Greek waters. The sinkings came as smugglers increasingly favor

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s Central Group and Signa of Austria have confirmed plans to buy luxury British department store chain Selfridges. The deal, reportedly worth 4 billion pounds ($5.4 billion), adds to Central and Signa’s collection of posh retailers that includes Rinascente in Italy, Illum in Denmark, Switzerland’s Globus and The KaDeWe Group in Germany

PARIS (AP) — Protesters angry over virus and vaccine rules have occupied Guadeloupe’s regional legislature because of stalled negotiations over their grievances about management of the French Caribbean island. Officials in Guadeloupe and Paris denounced Thursday’s incursion as unacceptable and a threat to the democratically elected Regional Council. Officials posted images online that showed a

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s Cabinet has approved a record 5.4 trillion yen ($47 billion) defense budget for fiscal 2022 that includes funding for research and development of a new fighter jet and other “game-changing” weapons as Japan bolsters its defense capabilities in response to China’s growing military might and its

BEIJING (AP) — The Chinese government has denounced a U.S. law that restricts imports from Xinjiang as a violation of international law and dismissed complaints of abuses against mostly Muslim minorities in the region as lies. President Joe Biden signed the measure amid mounting tension including appeals by activists for a boycott of February’s Winter

By JACK JEFFERY, DAVID McHUGH and BOBBY CAINA CALVAN Associated Press From Bethlehem and Frankfurt to London and Boston, the surging coronavirus dampened Christmas Eve festivities for a second year. Churches are canceling or scaling back services. Travel plans are being disrupted because of flight cancellations, as the pandemic once again casts a pall on

BERLIN (AP) — Police and prosecutors say a German man who fled after losing his final appeal of a murder conviction for the 1993 killing of a teenager has been arrested in the Netherlands after more than two days on the run. The 56-year-old was arrested shortly after midnight Friday at an apartment in Enschede,

By PAT EATON-ROBB AP Sports Writer STORRS, Conn. (AP) — While many college athletes have profited from recent rules allowing them to make money from the use of their names, images and likenesses, one group has been left on the sidelines — international athletes. Most of the more than 3,000 foreign nationals playing sports at

By PHILIP MARCELO, ANNE D’INNOCENZIO and BOBBY CAINA CALVAN Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — The surge in coronavirus cases driven by the new omicron variant is the latest blow to hospitals, police departments, supermarkets and other critical operations struggling to maintain staffing levels. COVID-19 absences among workers at London hospitals tripled this month, and nearly

By FARAI MUTSAKA Associated Press HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — As 2021 comes to a close, many people in richer parts of the globe are fretting over the risk of contracting COVID-19 and how rising infections are upending their holiday plans. In Zimbabwe and much of Africa, the virus’s resurgence at a time of year that

HONG KONG (AP) — Universities in Hong Kong are removing memorials to the bloody suppression of the 1989 Chinese pro-democracy movement centered on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. The Chinese University of Hong Kong early Friday took down the “Goddess of Democracy,” a statue based on a figure created by art students and brought to the square

By ISABEL DEBRE Associated Press LIWA, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Tens of thousands of camels from across the region have descended on the desert of the United Arab Emirates to compete for the title of most beautiful. The annual camel beauty pageant in southwestern UAE drew thousands of breeders this week, despite the coronavirus

BANGKOK (AP) — Reports from Myanmar say the military has unleashed airstrikes and heavy artillery on a small town controlled by ethnic guerrillas, sending hundreds of people fleeing across a river into Thailand. Government forces targeted Lay Kay Kaw, a small town near the border that is controlled by the Karen guerrillas who are seeking

By BEN FINLEY and STEVE HELBER Associated Press RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The spot in Richmond, Virginia, where a towering statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee once stood is now just a pile of rubble. But workers will continue their search for a famed 1887 time capsule that was said to be buried under

By ABDUR RAHMAN JAHANGIR Associated Press DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Officials say a massive fire swept through a crowded river ferry in Bangladesh, leaving at least 39 people dead and 70 injured. Many passengers leapt from the vessel into cold waters to escape the blaze early Friday. A fire officer said it took 15 fire

By JOE McDONALD AP Business Writer BEIJING (AP) — Global stocks were mixed in quiet trading on Friday, with many markets closed or ending early in observance of Christmas. Stocks slipped in Paris and Tokyo, inched higher in Seoul and Hong Kong and were nearly unchanged in London. Financial markets took the day off in

By ROBERT JABLON Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — Forecasters say winter storms that have killed at least two people will bring flooding threats, snow and bitter cold throughout much of the West through Christmas. The new storms could drop rain and snow over much of the region into next week and plunge the Pacific

By STEFANIE DAZIO Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — The coroner’s office has identified the 14-year-old girl who was fatally shot by Los Angeles police Thursday when officers fired on an assault suspect and a bullet went through the wall and struck the girl as she was in a clothing store dressing room. The teen

By SUMAN NAISHADHAM and FELICIA FONSECA Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Native American tribes are awaiting a one-time windfall that could help deliver reliable, clean water to their residents. The federal infrastructure bill signed last month includes $2.5 billion for tribal water rights settlements. The Interior Department hasn’t said how it will be doled out.