Month: January 2022

HOUSTON (AP) — The mother of a 2-year-old girl whose body was found in a Houston bayou in 2020 has pleaded guilty for her role in the child’s death. Court records show Sahara Ervin pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence, a human corpse, during a court hearing Wednesday. Maliyah Bass had been playing in her

By ZEKE MILLER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will deliver his first State of the Union address on March 1, the White House confirmed Friday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent the president a formal invitation to speak to Congress and the American public one year into his term. It will mark the

BERLIN (AP) — A Berlin teacher has been convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison for the killing of another man that the court said was carried out as part of “cannibalism fantasies.” The 42-year-old also was convicted of disturbing the peace of the dead after a trial that opened in August. The

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Authorities in Mexico’s Gulf coast state of Veracruz say a heap of nine bodies has been found piled on a roadside. The state public safety department calls the killings “a reaction to the results of work being done to fight crime.” Veracruz Gov. Cuitláhuac Garcia said Friday that a total of

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Republican Wisconsin lawmakers are pushing for tougher bail policies after a man who is charged with driving his SUV through a suburban Milwaukee Christmas parade, killing six people and injuring more than 60, had been released on $1,000 bail in a domestic violence case. There have been bipartisan calls for bail

By SAM METZ AP / Report for America RENO, Nev. (AP) — The challenges facing former U.S. Sen. Dean Heller as he runs for Nevada governor were on full display on Thursday at the first gubernatorial debate leading up the June 2022 Republican primary election. Heller was booed multiple times over claims about his conservative

By ASTRID SUÁREZ Associated Press CALI, Colombia (AP) — For the first time in years, Víctor Escobar stopped taking most of the medicines needed for his lung disease. There was no longer any need. On Friday evening he became the first Colombian to be euthanized despite not yet being in a terminal condition. He had

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Hundreds of Novak Djokovic’s supporters have gathered at a rally in downtown Belgrade to protest his confinement in Australia after his entry was denied by border authorities because of COVID-19 vaccination regulations. The top-ranked Serb is hoping to defend his title at the Australian Open and win a men’s record 21st

BRISTOL, Conn. (AP) — Former players David Cone and Eduardo Perez are joining Karl Ravech to form a new broadcast team for ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” telecasts. Alex Rodriguez, the scandal-tainted three-time MVP who had been on the telecasts during the past four seasons, will shift to eight Sunday night alternate telecasts on ESPN2 with

By LINDSEY TANNER and MIKE STOBBE AP Medical Writers Hospitalizations of U.S. children under 5 with COVID-19 have soared to unprecedented levels, a worrisome trend in youngsters too young to be vaccinated. That’s according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data released Friday. Since early December, as the highly contagious omicron variant has spread

MOSCOW (AP) — As Kazakhstan struggles to cope with an increasingly violent uprising this week, it has turned for help to a Russian-led security bloc, the Collective Security Treaty Organization. Known as the CSTO, it was created in the early 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Thousands of Russian troops have now been

BERLIN (AP) — Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s office says he has tested positive for the coronavirus after apparently being infected by a member of his security team. The chancellery said Friday that Nehammer currently has no symptoms and is working from quarantine at home. It said that he has received three vaccine shots, and that

By KATE BRUMBACK Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia gubernatorial candidate David Perdue and his campaign are challenging a new state law that they say gives incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp a huge and unfair fundraising and spending advantage in the Republican primary. The law passed by lawmakers last year and signed by Kemp allows certain

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece’s Culture Ministry launched an investigation Friday following the online release of a short film showing two men having sex at the ancient Acropolis in Athens. The 36-minute movie, titled “Departhenon,” was released on Dec. 21 but came to the attention of authorities this week. The Culture Ministry said Friday that

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Sidney Poitier, who played roles of such dignity and intelligence that he transformed how Black people were portrayed on screen, becoming along the way the first Black actor to win an Oscar for best lead performance and the first to be a top box-office draw,

By DAVID EGGERT Associated Press LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A ballot drive being launched in Michigan would protect a woman’s right to an abortion in case the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. Supporters of the petition that Reproductive Freedom for All launched on Friday say it would amend the state constitution to affirm

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — A Portuguese court has acquitted a former defense minister but convicted 11 others in connection with the theft of weapons from the national armory more than four years ago. The former defense minister stood accused of malfeasance in relation to the mysterious reappearance of the weaponry in a nearby field four

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. regulators are shortening the time that people who received Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine have to wait for a booster — to five months rather than six. The Moderna vaccine is open to Americans 18 and older. Friday’s decision by the Food and Drug Administration means recipients are eligible for a booster at

CHESTER, England (AP) — Manchester City player Benjamin Mendy has been released from prison on bail ahead of his trial on rape charges, which has been put back until June at the earliest. Mendy remains suspended by City and has been in custody for 134 days, since first being arrested and charged in August last

By JEFFREY COLLINS Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Governors across the U.S. took sweeping action during earlier surges of the COVID-19 pandemic, but are taking a much different approach during the record-setting caseloads caused by the omicron variant. Previously, many of them closed schools or ordered businesses shut down. They issued mask mandates, vaccine

BOSTON (AP) — Prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into the Boston area’s public transit agency to determine whether there was a “lack of oversight or negligence” that contributed to a trolley crash in July that sent 27 people to the hospital. The investigation into the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority was announced Thursday by Suffolk

By JOHN PYE AP Sports Writer Novak Djokovic isn’t alone in having his visa canceled after flying in for the Australian Open without the required evidence to support a medical exemption to the country’s strict COVID-19 vaccination rules. Djokovic was denied entry when he arrived at Melbourne’s airport on Wednesday. He was still in an

By MATTHEW LEE and LORNE COOK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States and NATO are roundly rejecting Russian demands that the alliance not admit new members amid growing concerns that Russia may invade Ukraine, which aspires to join the alliance. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Friday

By CHINEDU ASADU Associated Press MAKURDI, Nigeria (AP) — More than 100 people have been killed in three days of violence in Nigeria’s troubled northern region, survivors told The Associated Press, as authorities continue to search for bodies and for suspects. Bandits arrived in large numbers in the Anka and Bukkuyum local government areas of

By MARK PRATT Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — A winter storm in the eastern U.S. has snarled travel and given hundreds of school districts struggling amid a surge in coronavirus cases an excuse to shut down for a respite. Many spots in New England got more than a foot of snow Friday. Schools in Boston