Month: December 2021

By KAREN MATTHEWS and MICHELLE L. PRICE Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Mayor Bill de Blasio says New York City will ring in 2022 in Times Square as planned despite record numbers of COVID-19 infections in the city and around the nation. De Blasio said on NBC’s “Today” show on Thursday that he wants

By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell below 200,000, more evidence that the job market remains strong in the aftermath of last year’s coronavirus recession. Jobless claims dropped by 8,000 to 198,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The four-week average, which smooths out week-to-week

By PATRICK WHITTLE Associated Press PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The news is a mixed bag for people in need of heating assistance who see a cold winter bearing down. The average cost of heating a home this winter is expected to be $972, which is up from $888 last year. The Biden Administration has more

NAPLES, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say a sheriff’s deputy shot a Malayan tiger that grabbed the arm of a man who was either feeding or petting the animal near its enclosure at a Florida zoo. The Collier County Sheriff’s Office said the man was seriously injured Wednesday evening when he entered an unauthorized area. The

By PHILIP MARCELO and AMY TAXIN Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — Federal immigration officials have denied hundreds of Afghans seeking temporary entry into the country for humanitarian reasons. Immigrant advocates say the Biden administration has failed to honor its promise to help Afghans who were left behind after the U.S. military withdrew from the country

By ZEYNEP BILGINSOY Associated Press ISTANBUL (AP) — A Turkish court has accepted an indictment against suspects from a religious association in a case that could have political and legal repercussions on the opposition-held Istanbul municipality. The trial against 23 people for purported links to outlawed Kurdish militants will begin on Feb. 18. Nine of

BEIRUT (AP) — Satellite images taken this week over the port of Latakia show the smoldering wreckage after an Israeli missile strike, hours after firefighters contained a massive blaze. The raid launched from the Mediterranean Sea on Tuesday was among biggest launched by Israel into Syria, igniting a fire in the container terminal that raged

LONDON (AP) — Members of Ghislaine Maxwell’s family say they still believe she is innocent after a New York jury found her guilty of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by American millionaire Jeffrey Epstein. The Maxwell family said in a statement that it would support the British socialite’s appeal of her her conviction

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Police say six suspected rebels and an Indian soldier were killed in two separate counterinsurgency operations in disputed Kashmir. The killings came during a surge in the government’s offensive against anti-India rebels in Kashmir, which is divided between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan and claimed by both. Police say the fighting erupted

By DANICA KIRKA Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The U.K. has reported a sharp increase in coronavirus-related deaths as the National Health Service says it is building temporary structures at hospitals in England to prepare for a possible surge of patients infected with the highly transmissible omicron variant. The government reported 332 deaths Thursday, the

By HUIZHONG WU Associated Press TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Chinese officials are promising steady deliveries of groceries to residents of Xi’an, an ancient capital with 13 million people that is under the strictest lockdown of a major Chinese city since Wuhan was shut early last year at the start of the pandemic. The Commerce Ministry

By STEPHEN McGRATH Associated Press SIBIU, Romania (AP) — Officials and experts in low-vaccinated Eastern Europe are anticipating a post-holiday explosion of COVID-19 cases in much of the region. Many countries in Eastern Europe only recently emerged from infection waves that put a catastrophic strain on their health care systems. Now, as the fast-spreading coronavirus

By TIA GOLDENBERG Associated Press TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel’s Environment Minister said Thursday a clandestine oil deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates has effectively been blocked. Tamar Zandberg told Israeli Army Radio Thursday the deal “cannot be realized.” The secret deal would have increased the amount of oil tankers docking and

By NASSER KARIMI and ISABEL DEBRE Associated Press TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian state television says Tehran has launched a rocket with a satellite carrier bearing three devices into space, though it’s unclear if any object entered orbit. The state TV report on Thursday did not say when the launch was conducted or what devices

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — United States navy vessels have seized 385 kilograms (849 pounds) of heroin in the Arabian Sea worth some $4 million in a major bust by the international maritime operation in the region. The task force said Thursday that the USS Tempest and USS Typhoon seized the drugs hidden aboard

By FARAI MUTSAKA Associated Press MUTARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — African leaders are paying tribute to Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu for his fearless campaign that helped end South Africa’s brutal apartheid regime. But many of the same leaders have remained silent about the late Nobel Peace Prize winner’s support for issues such as LGBTQ rights, democratic

By ZEN SOO Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — Two former editors from a Hong Kong online pro-democracy news outlet have been charged with sedition and denied bail. It comes one day after one of the last openly critical voices in the city said it would cease operations following a police raid on its office

By ASHOK SHARMA Associated Press NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian police have arrested a Hindu religious leader for allegedly making a derogatory speech against India’s independence leader Mohandas Gandhi and praising his assassin. Mahatma Gandhi was shot dead by a Hindu extremist during a prayer meeting in the Indian capital in 1948, because he was

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer BANGKOK (AP) — Shares are mixed in Asia after a late slide pulled major indexes into the red on Wall Street, leaving the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slightly below record highs they set a day earlier. Hong Kong jumped in New Year’s Eve trading and

By COLLEEN SLEVIN and THOMAS PEIPERT Associated Press DENVER (AP) — A man accused of killing five people in a rampage in Denver is believed to have written fictional books self-published online that named some of his real-life victims and described similar attacks. Denver police spokesman Doug Schepman says the writings are part of the

By AAMER MADHANI and VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — President Joe Biden has warned Russia’s Vladimir Putin that the U.S. could impose new sanctions against Russia if it takes further military action against Ukraine. Putin has responded that such a U.S. move could lead to a complete rupture of ties between the

By SAM McNEIL, DAVID RISING and RISHABH R. JAIN Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — An AP investigation reveals signs Myanmar’s military is reverting to a strategy of massacres as a weapon of war. The massacres and scorched-earth tactics _ such as the razing of entire villages _ represent the latest escalation in the military’s violence

By SAM McNEIL, DAVID RISING and RISHABH R. JAIN Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — An AP investigation reveals signs Myanmar’s military is reverting to a strategy of massacres as a weapon of war. The massacres and scorched-earth tactics _ such as the razing of entire villages _ represent the latest escalation in the military’s violence

By HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea has urged its 1.2 million troops to unite behind leader Kim Jong Un and defend him with their lives, as the country marked the 10th anniversary of Kim’s ascension to supreme commander of the military. Thursday’s anniversary comes as North Korea holds a