Month: January 2022

PARIS (AP) — France’s government spokesman says more than 1 million adults have got their first vaccine shot over the past month. The move comes after the government announced a plan to exclude unvaccinated people from all restaurants, sports arenas and other venues. The French parliament approved the new law over the weekend. The measure

By MIKE STOBBE AP Medical Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The top U.S. public health agency has long been criticized as too slow to collect and act on new information. Now, increasingly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is also being criticized for moving too fast. One year into Dr. Rochelle Walensky’s tenure as

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — The foreign and defense ministers of Japan and France have held virtual talks as the two countries seek to deepen their security ties in the Indo-Pacific region, where tensions have been rising amid China’s military buildup and North Korea’s nuclear and missile development. Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa

By ALICIA RANCILIO Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Jamie Dornan, whose latest film “Belfast” is being recognized with award nominations, says he looks to the movie’s director, Kenneth Branagh, as an example of a career to aspire to. Branagh is a stage, film and TV actor, who writes and has directed films including Shakespeare

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press ROME (AP) — The Vatican has included a group that advocates for women’s ordination on a website promoting a two-year consultation of rank-and-file Catholics. The inclusion of the Women’s Ordination Conference on the website promoting the Vatican’s 2023 “synod,” or bishops’ meeting, is significant since the Vatican has long held

By CHALIDA EKVITTHAYAVECHNUKUL Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand, which in 2020 became the first Southeast Asian nation to decriminalize the production and use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, is moving to further loosen regulations on the drug. Its Food and Drug Administration is proposing that cannabis — which includes marijuana and hemp plants —

By BARRY HATTON Associated Press LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Portugal’s government is under fire over its preparations for people infected with COVID-19 to vote in an upcoming snap election. Officials estimate that as many as 600,000 eligible voters could be infected and confined at home on the day of the Jan. 30 election. They are

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s central bank has kept a key interest rate unchanged, halting a string of rate cuts that triggered a currency crisis and sent prices skyrocketing. The bank’s Monetary Policy Committee said Thursday that it has decided to keep its policy rate “constant” at 14%. The moves puts on hold a rate-cutting

By NOMAAN MERCHANT Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials say the CIA believes it’s unlikely that Russia or another foreign adversary is using microwaves or other forms of directed energy to attack hundreds of American diplomats and intelligence officers who attribute their brain injuries and other symptoms to what’s come to be known as

By NINIEK KARMINI Associated Press JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s leader says the country holding the presidency of the Group of 20 biggest economies wants to strengthen global partnership to aid the economic recovery from COVID-19. In an online address Thursday to the World Economic Forum, Indonesian President Joko Widodo committed to making the G-20

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The party of Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley appears to have won every legislative seat in the first elections that the island has held since casting off the British monarchy. Preliminary results released Thursday indicate Mottley’s Barbados Labor Party has secured all 30 seats in the House of Assembly,

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — A lawmaker from Britain’s governing Conservatives has accused the government of blackmailing opponents of Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Tory member of Parliament William Wragg said Thursday that legislators calling for a challenge to Johnson’s leadership have faced “intimidation.” That allegedly included threats of a loss of funding

PRAGUE (AP) — A heavy snowstorm that has hit the Czech Republic caused a multiple-car crash and completely shut down one of the major highways near the capital, Prague. Police say about 40 cars and trucks were involved in the pileup that took place 33 kilometers (20 miles) southwest of the capital on the D5

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — NATO has started work to upgrade Albania’s communist-era Kucova Air Base, which will allow it to be used for alliance operations. The 51 million-euro ($58 million) upgrade will include renovating the runway, taxiways, and storage facilities and is designed to increase NATO interoperability and support airborne early warning missions over the

NEW YORK (AP) — Ghislaine Maxwell has formally requested a new trial, less than a month after her conviction on sex trafficking charges. In a Wednesday letter to U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan, Maxwell lawyer Bobbi Sternheim said the motion for a new trial had been filed under seal and requested that all submissions

By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose to the highest level in three months as the fast-spreading omicron variant disrupted the job market. Jobless claims rose for the third straight week — by 55,000 to 286,000, highest since mid-October, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

By LEANNE ITALIE Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Team USA’s opening ceremony uniforms for the Beijing Olympics include some sneaky new warming technology. There’s also a handy front pouch and a cinch waist on anoraks in navy and white. The jackets were unveiled Thursday by official outfitter Ralph Lauren. They include a smart, honeycomb-like

NEW YORK (AP) — The bus-loving Pigeon of children’s picture books fame is back on the move. Author-illustrator Mo Willems has a five-book deal with Union Square Kids, including for “The Pigeon Will Ride the Roller Coaster!”, scheduled to come out Sept 6. Willems’ previous works include the beloved bestseller “Don’t Let the Pigeon Ride

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Veterinarians in Poland say they have euthanized a brown bear cub after more than a week of treatment failed to ease its serious neurological symptoms. The veterinarians said the bear, named Ada, would not have been able to survive on his own. He was suffering from advanced anaplasmosis, spread by ticks.

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) — Slovenia’s president says parliamentary election in Slovenia will be held on April 24. The vote will test the popularity of right-wing Prime Minister Janez Jansa amid political divisions in the small European Union nation. President Borut Pahor said Thursday he will formally schedule the vote in early February. The April 24

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s foreign minister says that the country’s diplomats during the Nazi era shared blame for the Holocaust and she wants more training for staff to speak up against all forms of discrimination. In a statement marking the 80th anniversary of the Wannsee Conference, Annalena Baerbock said Thursday it was important to recognize

By BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI Associated Press COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka has paid $500 million due on sovereign bonds from its badly depleted foreign reserves despite calls by experts to defer it and use the sum to import essential food and medicine. The Indian ocean island nation is in its worst crisis in decades,

By LAURAN NEERGAARD AP Medical Writer U.S. researchers are reporting the latest in a surprising string of experiments in the quest to save human lives with organs from genetically modified pigs. This time, surgeons in Alabama transplanted a pair of pig kidneys into a brain-dead man. It was a step-by-step rehearsal for an operation they

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand will ease entry requirements for vaccinated visitors from all countries next month as concerns about the omicron variant of the coronavirus decline. The country’s tourism-dominated economy was devastated by travel restrictions imposed in 2020 to fight the spread of COVID-19. The number of foreign tourists has remained low despite a relaxation

By MARTA FIORIN and RAF CASERT Associated Press KORTRIJK, Belgium (AP) — The 19-year-old Belgian-British pilot Zara Rutherford has set a world record as the youngest woman to fly solo around the world. Her small airplane down in western Belgium on Thursday. It came 155 days after she departed. Rutherford will find herself in the

By RODNEY MUHUMUZA Associated Press KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — A dispute over COVID-19 testing fees for truckers has created a fuel crisis in Uganda, highlighting an economic impact of the pandemic in a landlocked country with virtually no fuel reserves of its own. Mandatory COVID-19 testing at the country’s border with Kenya caused traffic congestion