Month: November 2021

By ADAM BEAM and MICHAEL CASEY Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Unemployment agencies across the country were bombarded with fraudulent claims during the pandemic. But so far states have reported few fraud attempts among their rental assistance programs. Congress has approved $45 billion to help eligible tenants pay their rent during the pandemic. More

AMSTERDAM (AP) — The European Union’s medicines authority says it has begun evaluating a new drug for treating COVID-19 patients who do not require extra oxygen but are at increased risk of developing severe symptoms of the disease. The drug developed by U.S. company Vir Biotechnology and Britain-based GlaxoSmithKline uses lab-made versions of virus-blocking antibodies

By KAREL JANICEK Associated Press PRAGUE (AP) — The Czech and Slovak governments have approved new coronavirus restrictions that specifically target unvaccinated people amid a record surge of infections. They come into effect Monday. The Czech health minister says most unvaccinated people will no longer be allowed to show coronavirus test results in order to

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A 14-year-old runaway accused of trying to shoot central Florida sheriff’s deputies during a standoff has been ruled competent to stand trial. The girl answered a judge’s questions about whether she understood the charges during a Wednesday hearing. She has been charged as an adult with attempted first-degree murder of

By ADEL OMRAN and NOHA ELHENNAWY Associated Press TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Libya’s former interior minister has announced his bid to run for president in the much-anticipated elections next month that face growing uncertainty. The former minister submitted his candidacy papers on Thursday in the capital of Tripoli. He says his political platform envisages a

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Bulgarian military prosecutors have indicted a group of serving and retired military officials on charges of spying for Russia. The indictment filed in a military court on Thursday accuses six people of collecting and passing classified information to a foreign country. Prosecutors said they include a former senior official in Bulgaria’s

By PAN PYLAS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The British government has came under fire for scrapping a long-planned high-speed rail line to the northern English city of Leeds as part of a package of revisions that potentially reduces costs by tens of billions of pounds. Critics argue that the scaling back of plans will

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) — Sweden’s top soccer leagues have signed an Amnesty International protest that gives “a red card to FIFA” and demands that the governing body stand up for the rights of migrant workers in Qatar during next year’s World Cup. Swedish Professional Soccer Leagues chairman Jens T. Andersson says “we can put pressure

By SYLVIA HUI Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The U.K. government has authorized a public inquiry to better examine any possible Russian involvement in the death of a British woman poisoned by a Soviet-developed nerve agent in 2018. Dawn Sturges and her partner collapsed in the England town of Amesbury after coming into contact with

By FARAI MUTSAKA Associated Press PONGARA NATIONAL PARK, Gabon (AP) — Gabon remains the “last stronghold” of African forest elephants, new research shows, as loss of habitat and poaching have made the pachyderms a critically endangered species. A survey by the Wildlife Conservation Society and Gabon’s parks agency released Thursday reports that the country has

By TOM MURPHY AP Health Writer The U.S. government will pay drugmaker Pfizer $5.29 billion for 10 million treatment courses of its potential COVID-19 treatment if regulators authorize it. Pfizer asked U.S. regulators on Tuesday to authorize emergency use of its experimental pill, which has been shown to significantly cut the rate of hospitalizations and

By DANIEL NIEMANN and KIRSTEN GRIESHABER Associated Press COLOGNE, Germany (AP) — Germany’s Roman Catholic archdiocese of Cologne has held a service of penance for cases of sexual abuse by clergy. The auxiliary bishop serving as the archdiocese’s interim administrator said the ritual was not intended as an absolution for the perpetrators but a “confession