Month: December 2021

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Four people with Denmark’s two intelligence agencies have been arrested on suspicion of “disclosing highly classified information from the intelligence services.” The Danish domestic security agency, known by its Danish acronym PET, said Wednesday the four are current and former employees of the country’s intelligence services.” Denmark’s other intelligence agency is

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark’s government has ordered nightclubs, bars and restaurants to close at midnight in an attempt to counter an uptick in COVID-19 cases. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said students up to the 10th grade must study remotely for the last few days before Christmas break and banned concerts where the audiences have

By BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — California’s rugged Lost Coast is about to become less forbidding. A conservation group on Thursday says it plans to purchase a 5-mile stretch of the scenic coastline from a lumber company to protect it from logging and eventually open it up to the public. Save the

By OLEKSANDR STASHEVSKYI and YURAS KARMANAU Associated Press MORSHYN, Ukraine (AP) — A small spa town in western Ukraine is standing out in a country where only 29% of the population has received coronavirus vaccine shots. In Morshyn, a scenic town nestled at the Carpathian foothills, 74% of 3,439 residents have been fully vaccinated. While

By NICK PERRY Associated Press WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand’s government believes it has come up with a unique plan to end tobacco smoking — a lifetime ban for those aged 14 or younger. Under a new law the government plans to pass next year, the minimum age to buy cigarettes would keep

ASHOK SHARMA Associated Press NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s defense minister says a helicopter that crashed and killed the military chief, Gen. Bipin Rawat, and 12 others lost contact with air traffic control seven minutes before it was supposed to land and sent no distress call before it was found in flames. In a statement

By REBECCA REYNOLDS Associated Press Work has begun on giving some of America’s most spectacular natural settings and historic icons a makeover. The Great American Outdoor Act was passed by Congress last year and dedicated up to $1.6 billion a year for the next five years to extensive maintenance and repairs that have been put

By AYA BATRAWY Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia’s crown prince has visited Qatar for the first time since the kingdom rallied other Arab states to end their yearslong rift and embargo on the tiny Persian Gulf country. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrived late on Wednesday to Qatar from the

By LAURAN NEERGAARD AP Medical Writer Vaccine makers are racing to update their COVID-19 shots against omicron even before it’s clear a change is needed, just in case. Experts doubt today’s vaccines will become useless, and the first hints this week suggested boosters likely do offer some protection against the newest variant threat. But further

By CALEB JONES Associated Press COCONUT ISLAND, Hawaii (AP) — Scientists are trying to speed up coral’s evolutionary clock to build reefs that can better withstand the impacts of global warming. For the past five years, researchers in Hawaii and Australia have been conducting experiments to prove their Darwinian theories work. They say they do,

By KELVIN CHAN AP Business Writer LONDON (AP) — A new report group says digital contact tracing apps, artificial intelligence and other tech tools that European governments rolled out to combat COVID-19 failed to play a key role in solving the pandemic and now threaten to make such monitoring widely accepted. The nonprofit research group

By MSTYSLAV CHERNOV Associated Press KAMAR KALAGH, Afghanistan (AP) — The worst drought in Afghanistan in decades is now entering its second year, exacerbated by climate change. The dry spell has hit 25 of the country’s 34 provinces, and this year’s wheat harvest is estimated to be down 20% from the year before. Along with

By GRANT PECK Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — According to a witness and other reports, Myanmar government troops rounded up villagers, some believed to be children, tied them up and slaughtered them. An opposition leader said the civilians were burned alive, as repression of resistance to a de facto coup takes an increasingly brutal turn.

By JIM GOMEZ Associated Press MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A gunman has shot and killed a journalist while he was watching TV at a store in a central Philippine city, in a brazen attack in what has long been regarded as one of the world’s most dangerous places for journalists. Police and officials said Thursday

By JOE McDONALD AP Business Writer BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets have followed Wall Street lower as a rally cooled and investors waited for U.S. inflation data that might influence a Federal Reserve decision on when to roll back economic stimulus. Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney all retreated. Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500

By AUDREY McAVOY and MARK THIESSEN Associated Press PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (AP) — The U.S. Navy has commissioned the USS Daniel Inouye, naming its newest ship after the long-serving U.S. senator from Hawaii and decorated World War II veteran. The military restricted attendance at the event due to COVID-19 mitigation efforts and streamed the ceremony

By JILL COLVIN Associated Press MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Former Vice President Mike Pence visited early-voting New Hampshire, where he delivered a speech railing against President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy, schmoozed with local activists, dropped by holiday parties, shopped at a local bakery and raised money for state Republicans. It’s the kind of

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER, MATTHEW LEE and NOMAAN MERCHANT Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has reached out to Ukraine’s leader as the United States moves to take a more direct role in diplomacy between that country and Russia. It’s part of a broader effort to dissuade Russia from a destabilizing invasion of its

By LISA MASCARO AP Congressional Correspondent WASHINGTON (AP) — Bob Dole is lying in state at the U.S. Capitol. President Joe Biden and others gathered Thursday to pay tribute to the man Biden called a “giant of our history.” The service is one of several over two days in Washington for the former Republican senator

By KATHLEEN RONAYNE Associated Press DAVIS, Calif. (AP) — Food waste is California’s next target as the state seeks to lower greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. Banana peels, leftover veggies and other food scraps are among organic materials that emit methane as they decay in landfills. California wants to stop that by banning

By DON BABWIN and SARA BURNETT Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — Jussie Smollett’s conviction for lying to police has come nearly three years after his report of a horrifying hate crime quickly became part of a polarized political landscape. A jury on Thursday found the former “Empire” actor guilty of staging a 2019 attack downtown

By SEAN MURPHY Associated Press McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma has executed a man for the 1985 shooting death of an Oklahoma City-area schoolteacher. Bigler Stouffer II received a three-drug lethal injection Thursday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. The 79-year-old had maintained his innocence in the attack on Linda Reaves and her boyfriend,

By DEE-ANN DURBIN and CAROLYN THOMPSON Associated Press BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Starbucks workers at a store in Buffalo, New York, voted to unionize on Thursday, a first for the 50-year-old coffee retailer in the U.S. and the latest sign that the labor movement is stirring after decades of decline. The National Labor Relations Board