U.S./World category, Page 980
Storm tears through South amid pandemic; at least 30 deadVideo
CHATSWORTH, Ga. — Storms that killed at least 30 people in the Southeast, piling fresh misery atop a pandemic, spread across the eastern United States on Monday, leaving more than 1 million homes and businesses without power amid floods and mudslides. In Alabama, people seeking shelter from tornadoes huddled in...
Health officials caution against quickly reopening businesses
WASHINGTON — Senior U.S. health officials and some governors Sunday warned against a too-rapid easing of restrictions put in place to combat the coronavirus, while President Trump’s wished-for Easter date for reopening the economy passed with most Americans remaining at home. Following a week in which the U.S. death toll...
Average U.S. gas price drops 14 cents over 2 weeks to $2.01
CAMARILLO, Calif. — The average U.S. price of regular-grade gasoline fell 14 cents over the past two weeks, to $2.01 per gallon. Industry analyst Trilby Lundberg of the Lundberg Survey said Sunday gas prices have dropped 52 cents over the past seven weeks as demand declines amid widespread stay-at-home orders...
Smithfield closes large S.D. pork plant because of coronavirus
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Virginia-based Smithfield Foods announced Sunday it is closing its pork processing plant in Sioux Falls until further notice after hundreds of employees tested positive for the coronavirus — a step the head of the company warned could hurt the nation’s meat supply. The announcement was made...
Nursing homes deaths soar past 2,600
NEW YORK — More than 2,600 deaths nationwide have been linked to coronavirus outbreaks in nursing homes and long-term care facilities, an alarming rise in only the past two weeks, according to the latest count by The Associated Press. Because the federal government has not been releasing a count of...
India, Pakistan troops trade heavy fire in Kashmir; 3 killed
SRINAGAR, India — Tensions between India and Pakistan flared again in disputed Kashmir on Sunday as the archrivals’ armies barraged each other with heavy artillery fire, killing at least three civilians, Indian police said. Each side accused the other of starting the shelling and targeting civilian areas in violation of...
Millions of tax-paying immigrants won’t get stimulus checks
PHOENIX — The $2.2 trillion package Congress approved to offer financial help during the coronavirus pandemic has one major exclusion: millions of immigrants who do not have legal status in the U.S. but work here and pay taxes. That includes Carmen Contreras Lopez, a 48-year-old housekeeper who, though she earns...
Pope urges solidarity on an Easter of both joy, virus sorrow
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis called for solidarity the world over to confront the “epochal challenge” posed by the coronavirus pandemic, as Christians celebrated a solitary Easter Sunday, blending the joyful feast day with sorrow over the toll the virus has already taken. Families who normally would attend morning Mass...
UK PM Boris Johnson out of the hospital, says staff saved his life
LONDON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was discharged from a London hospital where he was treated in intensive care for the coronavirus ahead of government figures Sunday in which the U.K. is expected to surpass 10,000 virus-related deaths. Johnson’s office said he left St. Thomas’ Hospital and will continue...
Puerto Rico extends lockdown to May to fight covid-19
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico’s governor announced Saturday that the U.S. territory will remain on lockdown until May 3 to curb coronavirus cases, marking one of the strictest measures taken in a U.S jurisdiction. Gov. Wanda Vázquez said nonessential businesses will remain closed and that people have to...
Judge: Kentucky church can conduct Easter drive-in service
FRANKFORT, Ky. — The city of Louisville, Ky., cannot halt a local church’s drive-in service planned for Easter, a federal judge on Saturday ruled. The ruling came as Republicans blasted Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s statewide plan to order people into quarantine if they attend mass gatherings, including religious ones. On...
U.S. death toll overtakes Italy’s as Midwest braces
CHICAGO — The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus eclipsed Italy’s for the highest in the world Saturday, surpassing 20,000, as Chicago and other cities across the Midwest braced for a potential surge in victims and moved to snuff out smoldering hot spots of contagion before they erupt. With the...
Pope: Easter gives hope in our ‘darkest hour,’ despite fear
VATICAN CITY — Easter offers a message of hope in people’s “darkest hour,” Pope Francis said, as he celebrated a late-night vigil Mass on Saturday in St. Peter’s Basilica, with the public barred because of the covid-19 pandemic. The pontiff in his homily likened the fears of current times to...
Chicago mayor takes hard line fighting coronavirus outbreak
CHICAGO — As large American cities try various strategies to keep people home to limit the coronavirus’s spread, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has balanced a blend of stern — and occasionally scolding — news conferences with lighthearted social media to drive home her point. Lightfoot’s hard-line approach began with an...
Judge releases Michael Avenatti from jail over virus threat
LOS ANGELES — A judge has allowed Michael Avenatti to be temporarily freed from a federal jail in New York City and to ride out the coronavirus scare at a friend’s house in Los Angeles. The attorney, who rose to fame representing porn star Stormy Daniels in lawsuits against President...
Are schools open? Governor, NYC mayor give different answers
NEW YORK — Governor and mayor locked horns again Saturday, this time over whether school buildings in the nation’s largest district would close for the rest of the year, with classes continuing online. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a news briefing that public school sites in...
Kansas’ high court weighs virus limits on religious services
BELLE PLAINE, Kan. — An attorney for Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly told the state Supreme Court on Saturday that a Republican-dominated legislative panel exceeded its authority when it overturned the Democratic governor’s executive order banning religious and funeral services of more than 10 people during the coronavirus pandemic. Lawmakers countered...
6 hospitalized after shooting breaks out at California party
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — A shooting broke out at a party in central California, sending six people to the hospital on Saturday and launching a search for four suspects, authorities said. The party, happening amid statewide stay-at-home orders intended to slow the spread of the coronavirus, might have gone unnoticed until...
Covid-19 and AIDS crisis: NYC gays see parallels, contrasts
NEW YORK — LGBT New Yorkers who lived through the AIDS crisis of the 1980s see some bleak parallels in the COVID-19 pandemic now wracking their city. But more so, they stress the differences. Now, they share the same plight as their fellow citizens while the federal government is pledging...
California’s coronavirus death toll is way below New York’s. Here’s why.
LOS ANGELES — California’s relatively quick action to close businesses and order residents to stay home has tamped down the coronavirus pandemic and left many hospitals largely empty, waiting for a surge that has yet to come. The initial success of the unprecedented shutdown of schools, businesses and other institutions...
New York area walloped as global virus deaths pass 100,000
NEW YORK — The worldwide death toll from the coronavirus surged past 100,000 Friday as the epidemic in the U.S. cut a widening swath through not just New York City but the entire three-state metropolitan area of 20 million people connected by a tangle of subways, trains and buses. In...
Crime drops around the world as covid-19 keeps people inside
CHICAGO — The coronavirus pandemic that has crippled big-box retailers and mom and pop shops worldwide may be making a dent in illicit business, too. In Chicago, one of America’s most violent cities, drug arrests have plummeted 42% in the weeks since the city shut down, compared with the same...
Libertarians debate: How to respond to coronavirus pandemic?
NEW YORK — Steve Baker, one of the British parliament’s leading libertarians, was nearly in tears as he addressed the House of Commons in support of a bill that once seemed unthinkable: a massive economic aid package in response to the coronavirus pandemic. “Libertarian though I may be, this is...
Coronavirus ravages storied New Orleans Mardi Gras group
NEW ORLEANS — On Fat Tuesday, 51-year-old Cornell Charles was taking part in a storied New Orleans Mardi Gras tradition central to the city’s African American community — driving a car in the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club’s parade. A month later his wife of three decades was watching...
‘Hope’ the calf arrives in New Orleans amid pandemic
NEW ORLEANS — The Audubon Nature Institute in New Orleans welcomed a new resident, a baby giraffe named Hope. Sue Ellen, a middle-aged giraffe at the Freeport-McMoRan Audubon Species Survival Center, gave birth Monday, according to a Friday news release. Audubon Nature Institute President and CEO Ron Forman said Hope...
