Associated Press stories, Page 1719

Mike Bowen’s warehouse outside Fort Worth, Texas, was piled high with cases of medical-grade N95 face masks. His company, Prestige Ameritech, can churn out 1 million masks every four days, but he doesn’t have orders for nearly that many. So he recently got approval from the government to export them....

NEW YORK — Amy Cooper, the white woman arrested last year for calling 911 on a Black birdwatcher in New York’s Central Park, had her criminal case thrown out Tuesday after completing a diversionary counseling program that prosecutors said was meant to educate her on the harm of her actions....

NEW ORLEANS — Music blared from the courtyard of a French Quarter restaurant on Mardi Gras morning but nobody was there to hear it until Tom Gibson and Sheila Wheeler of Philadelphia walked out of their hotel’s nearly empty lobby. “We were expecting a little bit lower key than the...

KYIV, Ukraine — Authorities in Belarus raided homes and offices of journalists and human rights activists Tuesday in the latest move to squelch protests against authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko. Police searched the offices of the Belarusian Association of Journalists and the Viasna human rights center as well as the apartments...

YANGON, Myanmar — Police in Myanmar filed a new charge against ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi, her lawyer said Tuesday, in a move that may allow her to be held indefinitely without trial as part of an intensifying crackdown by authorities who seized power in a coup. Suu Kyi,...

ATHENS, Greece — Heavy snowfall blanketed the Acropolis and other ancient monuments in Athens and halted covid-19 vaccinations in the Greek capital Tuesday as the weather brought many services across the country to a standstill. The snow, an unusual sight in the city of more than 3 million residents, also...

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is extending a ban on housing foreclosures to June 30 to help homeowners struggling during the coronavirus pandemic. The moratorium on foreclosures of federally guaranteed mortgages had been set to expire on March 31. On his first day in office, Biden had extended the moratorium...

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean hackers attempted to steal information about coronavirus vaccines and treatments, South Korea’s intelligence service said Tuesday, but it denied a lawmaker’s claim that vaccine maker Pfizer Inc. was targeted. Earlier Tuesday, Ha Tae-keung, a member of parliament’s intelligence committee, told reporters that the National...

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday urged West African leaders to step up efforts in the fight against Islamic extremists in the Sahel region both on the military and political fronts, with support from the international community. Macron joined by video from Paris Tuesday a summit held in...

BOSTON — The right-wing friendly social network Parler, which was forced offline as a result of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump, says it is re-launching. The Twitter alternative has been struggling to return online since Amazon stripped it of web-hosting service...

BAGHDAD — Rockets struck Monday outside Irbil international airport near where U.S. forces are based in northern Iraq, killing one U.S.-led coalition contractor and wounding at least eight people, Iraqi security and coalition officials reported, sparking fears of new hostilities. At least three rockets hit areas between the civilian airport...

RALEIGH — The North Carolina Republican Party unanimously approved a resolution Monday to censure Sen. Richard Burr over his vote to convict former President Donald Trump during Trump’s second impeachment trial. Michael Whatley, the state party chairman, said the central committee’s decision serves as a symbolic gesture of the party’s...

MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin’s Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson downplayed the storming of the U.S. Capitol last month, saying on conservative talk radio Monday that it “didn’t seem like an armed insurrection to me.” Johnson’s comments on WISN-AM in Milwaukee came after he voted Saturday to acquit former President Donald...

BRANDON, Fla. — Former NFL wide receiver Vincent Jackson was found dead Monday at a Florida hotel room, days after authorities spoke with him as part of a welfare check, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. A housekeeper discovered the 38-year-old’s body at around 11:30 a.m. Monday, official said....

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday that Congress will establish an independent, Sept. 11-style commission to look into the deadly insurrection that took place at the U.S. Capitol. Pelosi said the commission will “investigate and report on the facts and causes relating to the January 6, 2021, domestic...

CAIRO — American and Egyptian archaeologists have unearthed what could be the oldest known beer factory at one of the most prominent archaeological sites of ancient Egypt, a top antiquities official said. Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the factory was found in Abydos, an...

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s Republican Party is planning a meeting to potentially censure U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey amid a growing GOP backlash over his vote to convict Donald Trump during the former president’s second impeachment trial, county party officials said Monday. County party chairs said the state GOP chairman, Lawrence Tabas,...