On Christmas, pope prays for pandemic’s end, peace dialogues
ROME — Pope Francis prayed Saturday for an end to the coronavirus pandemic, using his Christmas Day address to urge health care for all, vaccines for the poor and for dialogue to prevail in resolving the world’s conflicts. Amid a record-setting rise in covid-19 cases in Italy this week, only...
Uber driver charged with raping passenger during Vegas ride
LAS VEGAS — An Uber driver is charged with raping a female passenger who police said fell asleep before waking up as she was attacked during a ride in metro Las Vegas. Dawed Oumer Mekonene, 30, was arrested Tuesday and remained in jail Friday pending a court hearing on charges...
South African minister objects to sale of Mandela’s cell key
JOHANNESBURG — A South African Cabinet minister on Friday urged the cancellation of an upcoming U.S. auction of a key to the Robben Island prison cell where Nelson Mandela, the country’s first Black president, was long jailed for his opposition to apartheid. The key is among Mandela memorabilia being sold...
Judge: Penn State can buy frat house where student fatally hurt
STATE COLLEGE — Penn State can buy a former fraternity house where a student was fatally injured during a night of drinking and hazing, a judge has ruled. Centre County Judge Brian Marshall gave the university and the Beta Theta Pi fraternity’s national chapter six months to negotiate a deal,...
U.S. to lift travel ban on 8 southern African countries
WASHINGTON — The U.S. will lift travel restrictions to eight southern African countries on New Year’s Eve, the White House announced Friday. The restrictions, imposed last month, were meant to blunt the spread of the covid omicron variant. The Nov. 29 ban barred nearly all non-U.S. citizens who had recently...
TSA officer saves infant who stopped breathing at airport
NEWARK, N.J. — A security officer leapt over conveyor belt rollers and saved a 2-month-old boy who stopped breathing at a security checkpoint at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, newly released video shows. The footage, released Thursday by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, shows TSA officer Cecilia Morales...
U.K. Queen’s Christmas speech set to be particularly personal
LONDON — Queen Elizabeth II is expected to offer a particularly personal Christmas Day message to the nation this year after Buckingham Palace released a photo of the monarch recording the speech alongside a picture of her and her husband, who died earlier this year. The image provided by the...
Massive ferry fire kills at least 39 in southern Bangladesh
DHAKA, Bangladesh — A massive fire swept through a crowded river ferry in Bangladesh early Friday, leaving at least 39 people dead and 70 injured, officials said. Many passengers leapt from the vessel into cold waters to escape the blaze. It took 15 fire engines two hours to control the...
Delta, United, Lufthansa report flight cancellations over Christmas
FRANKFURT, Germany — At least three major airlines have reported canceling dozens of flights as illnesses largely tied to the omicron variant of covid-19 take a toll on flight crew numbers during the busy holiday travel season. Germany-based Lufthansa said Friday that it was canceling a dozen long-haul transatlantic flights...
Teen girl killed by Los Angeles police in clothing store shooting
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles police fatally shot a 14-year-old girl who was in a clothing store dressing room Thursday when officers fired on an assault suspect and a bullet went through the wall and struck the girl, authorities said. Police also fatally shot the suspect Thursday morning at a...
4 people injured after shooting at Chicago-area mall
OAK BROOK, Ill. — A shooting at a suburban Chicago mall full of Christmas shoppers left four people injured Thursday, police said. The incident at Oakbrook Center in Oak Brook began with two males involved in a shootout in a corridor around 5:45 p.m., police Chief James Kruger said. He...
Georgia election workers file second suit over fraud claims
ATLANTA — Two Georgia election workers filed a lawsuit Thursday accusing a right-wing cable news channel and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani of defaming them by falsely claiming they engaged in ballot fraud during the 2020 election. It was the second defamation lawsuit by Fulton County election workers...
U.S. has reunited 100 children taken from parents under Trump
WASHINGTON — A Biden administration effort to reunite children and parents who were separated under President Donald Trump’s zero-tolerance border policy has made increasing progress as it nears the end of its first year. The Department of Homeland Security announced Thursday that 100 children, mostly from Central America, are back...
Low pay is causing a staffing crisis for disability care in Pa.
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. Before the pandemic, Lisa Stagon and her son Chris had their care routine figured out. Chris, who is 26 and has...
U.S. sets shorter covid-19 isolation rules for health workers
NEW YORK — Worried that a new covid-19 wave could overwhelm understaffed U.S. hospitals, federal officials on Thursday loosened rules that call on health care workers to stay out of work for 10 days if they test positive. Those workers now will be allowed to come back to work after...
U.S. says Russia must de-escalate as troops mass near UkraineVideo
WASHINGTON — The United States said Moscow needs to take steps to de-escalate tensions on the Ukraine border as Western nations and officials in Kyiv said Russian troops continue to amass ahead of a potential attack. A U.S. official, briefing reporters Thursday on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. continues...
Lack of emergency order or regulation doomed Pennsylvania mask mandate
HARRISBURG — The state Supreme Court on Thursday released its rationale for why it ruled that Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration had no legal authority to require masks in Pennsylvania’s schools and child care centers, even amid a pandemic and surging cases of covid-19. The Democratic-majority court ruled 6-0 on Dec....
Woman who texted boyfriend to kill himself pleads guilty
BOSTON — A former Boston College student who prosecutors say drove her boyfriend to take his own life with thousands of text messages pleaded guilty Thursday to involuntary manslaughter. Under terms of a plea deal, Inyoung You, 23, received a 2 1/2 year suspended jail sentence and 10 years of...
Californian pleads guilty to punching attendant on flightVideo
SAN DIEGO — A California woman who punched a flight attendant in the face during a flight, breaking her teeth, pleaded guilty to a federal charge, authorities said. Vyvianna Quinonez, 28, of Sacramento, entered a plea to interfering with a flight attendant, the U.S. attorney’s office said. Quinonez was on...
Interior Department reaffirms status of Mashpee Wampanoag tribe’s reservation
BOSTON — A Massachusetts tribe’s long-disputed reservation was reaffirmed by the Biden administration. The decision by the U.S. Interior Department confirmed the status of the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribe’s Reservation, Tribe Chair Brian Weeden said in a written statement. The decision means the tribe’s reservation has remained in federally protected...
Hedge fund CEO David McCormick draws high-level support in GOP Senate race
HARRISBURG — David McCormick, CEO of one of the world’s largest hedge funds and a former senior official in President George W. Bush’s administration, is accumulating support from longtime party fundraisers and officials in Pennsylvania even before he has formally announced his candidacy for U.S. Senate. Christine Toretti, Pennsylvania’s longtime...
Cuomo won’t be charged for touching trooper at racetrack
NEW YORK — Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo won’t face criminal charges after a female state trooper said she felt “completely violated” by his unwanted touching at an event at Belmont Park in September 2019, a Long Island prosecutor said Thursday. Acting Nassau County District Attorney Joyce Smith said...
U.K. data suggest hospitalization is less likely with omicron
LONDON — Preliminary data suggest that people with the omicron variant of the coronavirus are between 50% and 70% less likely to need hospitalization than those with the delta strain, Britain’s public health agency said Thursday. The U.K. Health Security Agency findings add to emerging evidence that omicron produces milder...
Trump asks Supreme Court to block release of documents
WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump turned to the Supreme Court on Thursday in a last-ditch effort to keep documents away from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol led by his supporters. Trump’s attorneys asked the Supreme Court to reverse lower court rulings against the...
‘Unabomber’ Ted Kaczynski moved to prison medical facility
The man known as the “Unabomber” has been transferred to a federal prison medical facility in North Carolina after spending the past two decades in a federal Supermax prison in Colorado for a series of bombings targeting scientists. Theodore “Ted” Kaczynski, 79, was moved to the U.S. Bureau of Prison’s...
