Month: June 2022

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says Croatia is ready to join the group of countries using the euro single currency at the start of next year. The move, should it go ahead on Jan 1. 2023, would bring to 20 the number of countries using the euro. But the commission’s

By CURT ANDERSON Associated Press ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — U.S. wildlife officials have agreed to revise the critical habitat designation for Florida manatees, which have been dying in record numbers because water pollution is killing a main food source. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in a court settlement made public Wednesday that

By MARIA CHENG Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The World Health Organization assumes the coronavirus outbreak in North Korea is “getting worse, not better,” despite the secretive country’s recent claims that COVID-19 is slowing there. WHO’s emergencies chief Dr. Mike Ryan appealed to North Korean authorities for more information about its outbreak, saying the lack

By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin circuit court judge has ruled that it was legal for private grants from a group funded by Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg to be sent to the Democratic stronghold of Madison to help it run the 2020 election during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dane County Circuit

By SIGAL RATNER-ARIAS Associated Press HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — John Leguizamo is back with a new stage project that has a historical bent. He’s the co-writer of the musical “Kiss My Aztec!”  — a fusion of salsa, gospel, hip-hop, funk and merengue that explores the story of the Spanish conquest of Latin America. Like “Latin

By ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON and JAY REEVES Associated Press UVALDE, Texas (AP) — Mourners gathered Wednesday at a Catholic church to say goodbye to Robb Elementary School teacher Irma Garcia — who died in the shooting at the Uvalde, Texas, grade school — and her husband, Joe — who died two days later from a

By STEPHEN WHYNO AP Sports Writer ASHBURN, Va. (AP) — The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform has invited NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder to appear at a hearing later this month. Committee members say they sent letters to the league and team requesting Goodell and Snyder appear June

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — Amnesty International is urging Croatia not to extradite to Turkmenistan a member of a Russian music band known for its strident opposition to the policies of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Lawyers said Wednesday that Croatia detained Pussy Riot member Aysoltan Niyazov on the strength of a 2002 Interpol warrant issued by

By WILL WEISSERT Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is hailing Adm. Linda Fagan as new Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard and the armed forces’ first female service chief. He declared during a change of command ceremony on Wednesday, “It’s about time.” Biden said that “the trailblazing career of Admiral Fagan shows

By SUSAN HAIGH Associated Press NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — As new abortion restrictions are imposed in some parts of the U.S., states with more liberal leadership have been passing laws to let a wider range of medical providers to do the procedures. The goal has been to expand the pool of certified providers, partly

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s prime minister says his country is improving its transport infrastructure to help increase the export of grain and other key products from neighboring Ukraine that has been severely restricted by Russia’s invasion. He spoke in the Ukrainian town of Borodyanka, near Kyiv, that was heavily damaged by Russian shelling. He

By JOSHUA GOODMAN Associated Press MIAMI (AP) — Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela, an elderly leader of the former Cali cartel that smuggled vast amounts of cocaine from Colombia to the United States in the 1980s and 1990s, has died in a U.S. prison, his lawyer said Wednesday. In 2020, a judge had denied Rodríguez Orejuela, who

By ED WHITE Associated Press DETROIT (AP) — Two Republican candidates for Michigan governor have lost their bids to get on the Aug. 2 primary ballot. The Michigan appeals court first ruled against Perry Johnson, a wealthy businessman considered to be a leading candidate for the GOP nomination. Then it applied the decision to Michael

By GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO Associated Press MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The chant in Arabic blasted from rooftop loudspeakers, drowning out both the growl of traffic from nearby interstates and the chatter and clinking glasses on the patio of the dive bar that shares a wall with Minneapolis’ oldest Somali mosque. Dozens of men in fashionably ripped jeans

FLORENCE, S.C. (AP) — An 8-year-old boy visiting South Carolina from New Hampshire was shot and killed by a man randomly firing a gun at passing cars from woods near his house, authorities said. Quarius Naqua Dunham died Sunday, a day after he was struck in the neck by a bullet while riding on a

By ALAN FRAM Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is headed for “a lot of unnecessary loss of life,” the Biden administration says, if Congress fails to provide billions more dollars to brace for the pandemic’s next wave. Yet the quest for that money is in limbo, the latest victim of election-year gridlock that’s

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Hurricane Agatha left at least 11 people dead and 33 missing in the southern Mexico state of Oaxaca, where it set off flooding and landslides, Gov. Alejandro Murat said Wednesday. More than 40,000 people in the state have been affected, primarily along the coast and in the mountains just beyond, Murat

By MICHAEL CASEY Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — Brenda Hampton first came across the toxic industrial compound PFAS after finding it was part of the cocktail of contaminants that tainted the drinking water in her North Alabama community. Hampton, who believes the contaminated water contributed to kidney problems she and other residents suffer, soon learned

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — One of the drivers in a crash that killed two women and injured 20 bystanders watching classic cars cruise down a Nebraska street tested positive for marijuana, police said. The 18-year-old Omaha man was driving a Ford Taurus that smashed into a Toyota Corolla carrying the two women who were killed

OWENSBORO, Ky. (AP) — A Confederate statue that stood outside a western Kentucky courthouse for more than a century has been removed. The Messenger-Inquirer reported the “Soldiers Monument” at the Daviess County Courthouse was taken down Tuesday morning and moved to the road department. That’s according to the county’s top official, Judge-Executive Al Mattingly. He

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — A group of people evacuated from Afghanistan as the Taliban returned to power last year have held a protest in Albania over the failure to expedite their move to the United States. A small group of families in a resort town located 45 miles northwest of Albania’s capital, Tirana, called on

By ERIC TUCKER and ALAN SUDERMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI Director Christopher Wray says agents thwarted a planned cyberattack on a Boston children’s hospital that was to have been carried out by hackers sponsored by the Iranian government. Wray told a Boston College cybersecurity conference on Wednesday that the FBI learned of the

Germany’s defense ministry says the country plans to buy 60 Boeing Chinook transport helicopters as part of a massive procurement drive to upgrade its military. Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced shortly after Russia invaded in February that Germany would commit 100 billion euros ($107 billion) to a special fund for its military and to raise its

BOSTON (AP) — A Boston memorial to a famed Civil War unit made up of Black soldiers is being rededicated after a three-year long restoration. Civic and military leaders are expected to be on hand for the Wednesday ceremony at the Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts 54th Regiment Memorial on the Boston Common. The