U.S./World category, Page 768
WHO chief concedes ‘slow’ response to Congo sex abuse claims
LONDON — The head of the World Health Organization acknowledged the U.N. health agency’s response to sexual abuse allegations involving employees who worked in Congo during an Ebola outbreak was “slow,” following an Associated Press investigation that found senior WHO management knew of multiple cases of misconduct. As WHO’s highest...
Busier summer expected at Jersey Shore in Year 2 of covid-19
BELMAR, N.J. — The second summer of covid-19 at the Jersey Shore is likely to look much different than last year’s: Many virus restrictions have been lifted, nightclubs and dance floors will be packed again, and restaurants and bars can serve full crowds indoors. Shore towns report brisk beach badge...
Report: Tennessee woman drove through vaccination tent to protest
MARYVILLE, Tenn. — A Tennessee woman accused of driving through a covid-19 vaccine distribution tent as a form of protest has been charged with seven counts of felony reckless endangerment, according to a police report. Virginia Christine Lewis Brown, 36, was arrested after a Blount County deputy witnessed her driving...
U.S. tells Russia it won’t rejoin Open Skies arms control pact
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration informed Russia on Thursday that it will not rejoin a key arms control pact, even as the two sides prepare for a summit next month between their leaders. U.S. officials said Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told the Russians that the administration had decided...
U.N. rights chief: Israeli strikes in Gaza may be war crimes
GENEVA — The top U.N. human rights body on Thursday passed a resolution aimed to intensify scrutiny of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, after the U.N. rights chief said Israeli forces may have committed war crimes and faulted the militant group Hamas for violations of international law in their 11-day war...
States tap federal aid to shore up empty unemployment funds
Businesses could be spared billions of dollars of higher taxes in coming years — potentially freeing up money to spend on employees or invest in their operations — as a result of federal coronavirus aid flowing to the states. Governors and lawmakers in more than half the states are planning...
Unearthing history: Tulsa massacre victims search resumes
OKLAHOMA CITY — As the U.S. marks 100 years since one of its most shameful historical chapters, researchers, including descendants of Black victims of the Tulsa Race Massacre, are preparing to resume a search for remains believed to have been hastily buried in mass graves. Although many details about the...
Official: San Jose shooter said he hated work years before killing 9
SAN JOSE, Calif. — A gunman who killed nine people at a California rail yard appeared to target some of the victims, a sheriff told The Associated Press on Thursday, while a Biden administration official said he spoke of hating his workplace when customs officers detained him after a 2016...
Woman in racist Central Park confrontation sues over firing
NEW YORK — The white woman who was widely condemned and fired after a videotaped dispute with a Black birdwatcher in Central Park filed a lawsuit against her former employer, accusing the company of not doing an investigation before her termination because of her race and gender. In her federal...
Karine Jean-Pierre makes history giving White House briefingVideo
WASHINGTON — Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday became the first openly gay woman to deliver the White House press briefing and only the second Black woman in history to take on the role. Jean-Pierre, the White House principal deputy press secretary, had briefed reporters aboard Air Force One, but Wednesday marked...
West Virginia transgender athlete law challenged in court
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A federal lawsuit was filed Wednesday challenging West Virginia’s new ban on transgender athletes from competing in female sports in middle and high schools and colleges. The American Civil Liberties Union and its West Virginia chapter filed the lawsuit on behalf of an 11-year-old transgender girl who...
Michigan man exonerated of murder after 32 years in prison
DETROIT — A man was exonerated Wednesday after 32 years in prison when authorities agreed that he was wrongly convicted of a fatal stabbing in suburban Detroit based on faulty evidence, including a bite mark on the victim. For years, Gilbert Poole Jr. had challenged his first-degree murder conviction with...
Biden asks U.S. intelligence officials to investigate covid-19 origin
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Wednesday asked U.S. intelligence officials to “redouble” their efforts to investigate the origins of the covid-19 pandemic, including the unlikely possibility that the origins of the virus trace to a Chinese lab. After months of minimizing the possibility as a fringe theory, the Biden...
8 dead in shooting at rail yard serving Silicon ValleyVideo
SAN JOSE, Calif. — An employee opened fire Wednesday at a California rail yard serving Silicon Valley, killing eight people before ending his own life, authorities said. The shooting took place around 6:30 a.m. in two buildings that are part of a light rail facility for the Valley Transportation Authority,...
Change may allow scientists to grow human embryos longer
LONDON — New guidelines released Wednesday remove a decades-old barrier to stem cell research, recommending that researchers be allowed to grow human embryos longer under limited conditions. The “14-day rule,” an international ethical standard that limits laboratory studies of human embryos, has been in place for decades and has been...
Pope kisses Auschwitz survivor’s tattoo
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has kissed the tattoo of an Auschwitz survivor during a general audience on Wednesday. Lidia Maksymowicz, a Polish citizen who was deported to Auschwitz from her native Belarus by the age of 3, showed the pope the number tattooed on her arm by the Nazis,...
Wisconsin Republicans to hold hearing on UW abortion ban
MADISON, Wis. — All University of Wisconsin System and UW health workers would be banned from performing abortions or training others to perform abortions under a Republican bill up for a public hearing Wednesday in a state legislative committee. The bill’s chief sponsor. Sen. Andre Jacque, said the measure is...
Taliban warns departing U.S. against new bases in region
ISLAMABAD — The Taliban on Wednesday warned the departing U.S. military against setting up bases in the region, and Pakistan vowed no American bases will be allowed on its territory. Pakistan also said drone strikes from Pakistani territory were also a non-starter. The statements come amid speculation the United States,...
Former Sen. John Warner dies at 94, married Elizabeth Taylor
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Former Sen. John W. Warner of Virginia, a centrist Republican who served as Navy secretary and one of the Senate’s most influential military experts, has died at 94, his longtime chief of staff said Wednesday. Warner died Tuesday of heart failure at home in Alexandria, Virginia, with...
Earth’s shadow creeps across moon ahead of super blood moon
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Earth’s shadow crept across the moon on Wednesday night as people in New Zealand and around the world waited for a cosmic event known as a super blood moon. As the eclipse deepened, it appeared as though half the moon had vanished. The other half looked...
Rallies, moments of silence honor George Floyd a year later
MINNEAPOLIS — A family-friendly street festival, musical performances and moments of silence were held Tuesday to honor George Floyd and mark the year since he died at the hands of Minneapolis police, a death captured on wrenching bystander video that galvanized the racial justice movement and continues to bring calls...
Wisconsin priest who ignored covid limits is asked to resign
LA CROSSE, Wis. — A priest in Wisconsin who has been ignoring covid-19 gathering restrictions at his masses and criticized Democrats for their stance on the virus vaccines says the leader of the Diocese of La Crosse has asked him to resign. The Rev. James Altman announced the request from...
4 found dead at central Ohio home after shooting, police say
WEST JEFFERSON, Ohio — The bodies of three men and a woman were found after a shooting at a home on a dead-end street in central Ohio, police said. Officers responded to the scene around 5:30 p.m. Monday after a passerby called 911, police said. One man was found Monday...
Lawyer: U.S. got ex-Ukranian officials’ data in Giuliani probe
NEW YORK — U.S. prosecutors in 2019 sought the electronic messages of two ex-Ukrainian government officials and a Ukrainian businessman as part of their probe of Rudy Giuliani’s dealings in that country, a lawyer accidentally revealed in a court filing Tuesday. The filing said federal prosecutors in New York had...
Sheriff: Suspicious package at Sen. Rand Paul’s home is non-toxicVideo
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A suspicious package sent to the Kentucky home of Republican U.S. Sen. Rand Paul appears to contain a non-toxic substance, the local sheriff’s office said. Paul, a libertarian-leaning former presidential candidate, tweeted Monday that he takes any such “threats immensely seriously” and said he has been “targeted...
