Bomb kills at least 30 near girls’ school in Afghan capital
A bomb exploded near a girls’ school in a majority Shiite district of west Kabul on Saturday, killing at least 30 people, many of them young pupils between 11 and 15 years old. The Taliban condemned the attack and denied any responsibility. Ambulances evacuated the wounded as relatives and residents...
Archaeologists discover remains of 9 Neanderthals near Rome
Italian archaeologists have uncovered the fossilized remains of nine Neanderthals in a cave near Rome, shedding new light on how the Italian peninsula was populated and under what environmental conditions. The Italian Culture Ministry announced the discovery Saturday, saying it confirmed that the Guattari Cave in San Felice Circeo was...
Major U.S. pipeline halts operations after ransomware attack
The operator of a major pipeline system that transports fuel across the East Coast said Saturday that it had been victimized by a ransomware attack and that it had halted all pipeline operations to deal with the threat. The attack is unlikely to affect gasoline supply and prices unless it...
Pennsylvania’s covid cases, hospitalizations continue to drop as more get vaccinated
Cases of covid-19 continue to trend downward in Pennsylvania, decreasing related hospitalizations and deaths. The state on Saturday added 2,610 cases, staying below 4,000 for the eighth consecutive day, according to data from the Department of Health. The seven-day average sank to 2,598 cases, the lowest since it was 2,570...
Thailand wants to buy more vaccines as surge worsens
Thailand’s prime minister said he wants to secure more vaccines for his country and give as many first doses as possible, as it battles a surge of the pandemic with Bangkok reporting a record number of cases. The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration announced Friday night it will extend restrictions that were...
Rachel Zoll, much-admired AP religion writer, dead at 55
Rachel Zoll, who for 17 years as religion writer for The Associated Press endeared herself to colleagues, competitors and sources with her warm heart and world-class reporting skills, died Friday in Amherst, Massachusetts, after a three-year bout with brain cancer. She was 55. Zoll covered religion in all its aspects,...
Stefanik’s rise toward GOP leadership position in House irks conservatives
Conservatives in and out of Congress are expressing opposition to Rep. Elise Stefanik’s rise toward House Republicans’ No. 3 leadership job, grumbling that’s unlikely to derail her but serves notice that the right wing is battling again to affect the party’s future. House Republicans plan to meet privately next week,...
Washington Post says U.S. secretly obtained reporters’ records
The Trump Justice Department secretly seized the phone records of three Washington Post reporters who covered the federal investigation into ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, the newspaper said Friday. The disclosure sets up a new clash between the federal government and news organizations and advocates for...
Authorities: Fake vaccination cards sold at California bar
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The owner of a Northern California bar where authorities say made-to-order fake covid-19 vaccination cards were sold to undercover state agents for $20 each was arrested in what officials call the first such foiled operation they are aware of nationwide. The plainclothes agents from California’s Department of...
California reports 1st ever yearly population decline
California’s population fell by more than 182,000 people in 2020, marking the first year-over-year loss ever recorded for the nation’s most populous state. State officials announced Friday that California’s population dipped 0.46% to just under 39.5 million people from January 2020 to January 2021. The news comes one week after...
19 charged in ride-hailing fake driver account scheme
BOSTON — Federal prosecutors charged 19 people Friday for their alleged roles in a nationwide scheme that used stolen identities to cheat ride-hailing and delivery service companies. The suspects, all Brazilian citizens, set up fraudulent driver accounts with multiple ride-hailing and delivery companies using about 2,000 stolen identities, federal prosecutors...
China discounts possibility of harm from falling rocket
China says the upper stage of its Long March 5B rocket that launched the core module of its space station will mostly burn up on re-entry, posing little threat to people and property on the ground. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbing said Chinese authorities will release information about the -re-entry...
NASA Mars helicopter heard humming through thin Martian air
First came the amazing pictures, then the video. Now NASA is sharing sounds of its little helicopter humming through the thin Martian air. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California released this first-ever audio Friday, just before Ingenuity was set to soar on its fifth test flight. The low hum from...
Flock of giant California condors trashes woman’s home
TEHACHAPI, Calif. — Giant California condors are rare — but not at Cinda Mickols’ home. About 15 to 20 of the giant endangered birds have recently taken a liking to the house in the city of Tehachapi and made quite a mess. Mickols’ daughter, Seana Quintero of San Francisco, began...
Sherpa guide scales Mount Everest for record 25th time
A Sherpa guide scaled Mount Everest for the 25th time on Friday, breaking his own record for the most ascents of the world’s highest peak. Kami Rita and 11 other Sherpa guides reached the summit at about 6 p.m., Department of Tourism official Mira Acharya said. They are the first...
NYC still storing covid-19 victims in refrigerated trucks
New York City is still using refrigerated trucks to store bodies of coronavirus victims, more than a year after they were first set up as temporary morgues as deaths surged at at the height of the pandemic. The city’s medical examiner’s office said Friday that 750 bodies are being kept...
Pa. Department of Health moves to new federally run vaccine locator map
Pennsylvania has revamped the map used to help residents locate covid-19 vaccine providers, moving to a federally run search tool that will let users narrow their search to a specific brand of vaccine, officials said Friday. It is another move in the state’s push to get 70% of adults vaccinated....
Georgia judge sets October trial in slaying of Ahmaud Arbery
SAVANNAH, Ga. — A Georgia judge Friday scheduled an October trial for three white men charged with murder in the slaying of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man who was chased and shot while running in the defendants’ neighborhood. Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley issued a notice stating that jury...
Former Bradford County DA drops ‘vicious lies’ defense, pleads guilty in sex case
A Pennsylvania district attorney who had cast the sex case against him as a pack of “vicious lies” pleaded guilty Friday to pressuring clients for sex when he was a defense attorney and then coercing them to keep quiet about it. Bradford County District Attorney Chad Salsman admitted guilt and...
Ohio becomes latest state to propose transgender sports ban
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Transgender girls would be banned from participating in female sports teams in high school or college in two bills introduced by Republican lawmakers in Ohio, which became the latest state to take up the contentious debate. The proposals, titled the Save Women’s Sports Act, would require schools...
WHO panel OKs emergency use of China’s Sinopharm vaccine
GENEVA — The World Health Organization on Friday gave its authorization for emergency use of a covid-19 vaccine manufactured by China’s Sinopharm, potentially paving the way for millions of the doses to reach needy countries through a U.N.-backed program rolling out coronavirus vaccines. The decision by a WHO technical advisory...
Ohio GOP censures 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump
LEWIS CENTER, Ohio — The Ohio Republican Party censured U.S. Rep. Anthony Gonzalez and nine other GOP representatives Friday for voting in February to impeach former President Donald Trump, in a nearly unanimous vote of the powerful central committee. The vote made the Cleveland congressman the eighth of the 10...
Brazil’s Amazon deforestation surged in April after pledges
RIO DE JANEIRO — Preliminary data released Friday signaled deforestation of Brazil’s Amazon in April was the highest for that month in at least five years, a report that comes two weeks after Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro said his government would dedicate more energy and resources toward curbing deforestation. Deforestation...
TripAdvisor removes insensitive review of Auschwitz Museum
NEEDHAM, Mass. — Travel website TripAdvisor has removed an insensitive review of the Auschwitz Museum after initially saying it complied with its submission guidelines. The museum at the site of the Nazi concentration camp in Poland on Thursday tweeted that it had asked the Massachusetts-based travel website to take down...
EU leaders attend summit in person for 1st time this year
PORTO, Portugal — European Union leaders and their large following of diplomats and advisers met Friday in Portugal for two days of in-person talks, signaling their belief that the threat from covid-19 on the continent is waning amid a quickening vaccine rollout. The pandemic was a constant presence, however. Meeting...
