3 injured when chair detaches from ski lift at Poconos resort
Three people were injured Sunday when the chair they were riding in fell off a ski lift line at Camelback Resort in Monroe County and crashed to the ground, officials said. The people fell about 15 feet near the top of the mountain and were taken away by a St....
New Greensburg shop promises decadent milkshakes, retro candy
The five Nickischer kids of Hempfield have been living out a dream, acting as taste-testers for the milkshakes their parents will serve in a new downtown Greensburg shop. Nicole and Greg Nickischer are looking for an early May opening for Main Street Sweets, in the lower level of the building...
UN official: Airstrikes on NW Syria border area worrying
BEIRUT — Airstrikes in northwest Syria near the Turkish border that killed a person and set afire trucks used to distribute aid targeted areas considered the safest in the rebel-held region, a U.N. official said Monday. The strikes on several locations a day earlier angered Turkey, prompting it to place...
Trump ally to take on embattled Georgia secretary of state
ATLANTA — A conservative Georgia congressman and acolyte of former President Donald Trump has announced his bid to unseat the Republican secretary of state who angered Trump and his allies for refusing to help overturn the November election results. Rep. Jody Hice, a Tea Party favorite, is the first major...
EU targets 11 Myanmar officials over coup, crackdown
BRUSSELS — The European Union on Monday imposed sanctions on 11 officials in Myanmar, mostly top military officers, accused of involvement in last month’s coup and the violent crackdown on peaceful protesters that followed. Ten of the 11 targeted with asset freezes and travel bans are senior members of the...
Hungary approves 2 more vaccines from outside EU amid spike
BUDAPEST, Hungary — Hungary has issued initial approval to two more covid-19 vaccines from outside the European Union’s common procurement program, officials said Monday, further expanding the national supply of jabs that has given the country one of the highest vaccination rates in the 27-member bloc. The Hungarian medicines regulator...
Putin to get coronavirus vaccine shot in Russia on Tuesday
MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin said he will get a coronavirus vaccine shot on Tuesday, several months after widespread vaccination has started in Russia. Kremlin opponents have criticized Putin for not getting vaccinated amid a comparatively slow rollout of the shot in Russia, arguing that his reluctance is fueling the...
Court could reimpose Boston marathon bomber’s death sentence
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court said Monday it will consider reinstating the death sentence for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, presenting President Joe Biden with an early test of his opposition to capital punishment. The justices agreed to hear an appeal filed by the Trump administration, which carried out executions...
Germany looks set to extend lockdown measures again
BERLIN — German authorities are expected to extend lockdown measures again on Monday and possibly tighten some restrictions as they face a steady rise in new coronavirus infections. Chancellor Angela Merkel and the country’s 16 state governors, who in highly decentralized Germany are responsible for imposing and lifting restrictions, are...
U.S., U.K. join Europe in issuing sanctions over Uighur abuse
BRUSSELS — Britain and the United States say they have taken joint action with the European Union and Canada to impose sanctions on senior Chinese officials over human rights abuses in China’s far western Xinjiang region. British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the measures were part of “intensive diplomacy” by...
Donations pour in for families of Atlanta shooting victims
Shortly after his mother was killed in the Atlanta-area shootings, Randy Park launched a GoFundMe page asking for $20,000 to pay for funeral expenses. By Sunday, the donations were approaching $3 million. With many people seeking a way to support the families of the dead, Park’s page and others have...
Amid unruly spring break crowd, police chief says Miami partying ‘couldn’t go on any longer’
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Pointing to over 1,000 arrests in one of the nation’s top party spots, Miami Beach officials warned Sunday that the unruly spring break crowd gathering by the thousands, fighting in the streets, destroying restaurant property and refusing to wear masks has become a serious threat to...
AstraZeneca: U.S. data shows vaccine effective for all ages
LONDON — AstraZeneca’s covid-19 vaccine provided strong protection against sickness and eliminated hospitalizations and deaths from the disease across all age groups in a late-stage study in the United States, the company announced Monday. AstraZeneca said its experts did not identify any safety concerns related to the vaccine, including finding...
New York Republican Rep. Tom Reed, accused of misconduct, will retire
U.S. Rep. Tom Reed, a Republican from western New York who was accused last week of rubbing a female lobbyist’s back and unhooking her bra without her consent in 2017, apologized to the woman on Sunday and announced that he will not run for reelection next year. Reed, 49, said...
Married 66 years, husband, wife die minutes apart from coronavirus
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Bill and Esther Ilnisky spent nearly seven decades together as Christian ministers and missionaries, working in the Caribbean and Middle East before preaching for 40 years in Florida. They complemented each other — he the bookworm, she outgoing and charismatic. One without the other seemed unthinkable....
Texas Roadhouse CEO Kent Taylor dies amid covid-19 struggle
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Kent Taylor, founder and CEO of the Texas Roadhouse restaurant chain, has died. He was 65. His family and the company say he took his own life as a result of suffering from symptoms related to covid-19, including severe tinnitus. Taylor’s family and the company on Sunday...
Georgia church removes accused spa shooter from membership roster
ATLANTA — A north Fulton County church has voted to remove accused killer Robert Aaron Long from its membership after a shooting spree that left eight people dead, including six women of Asian ancestry. Following its Sunday morning service, Crabapple First Baptist Church in Milton said it “completed the process...
Julia Letlow wins northeast Louisiana-based U.S. House seat
BATON ROUGE — Republican Julia Letlow easily won a Saturday special election for the northeast Louisiana-based U.S. House seat that her husband, Luke, couldn’t fill because of his death from complications related to covid-19. With the victory, Julia Letlow becomes the third woman ever elected to the U.S. House from...
Amid unruly spring break crowd, police chief says Miami partying ‘couldn’t go on any longer’Video
MIAMI — Pointing to over 1,000 arrests in one of the nation’s top party spots, Miami Beach officials warned Sunday that the unruly spring break crowd gathering by the thousands, fighting in the streets, destroying restaurant property and refusing to wear masks has become a serious threat to public safety....
AP sources: Iran threatens U.S. Army post and top general
Iran has made threats against Fort McNair, an Army post in the U.S. capital, and against the Army’s vice chief of staff, two senior U.S. intelligence officials said. They said communications intercepted by the National Security Agency in January showed that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard discussed mounting “USS Cole-style attacks” against...
Rivals take aim at Pa. state Sen. Doug Mastriano’s WWI research
HARRISBURG — The World War I exploits of Sgt. Alvin C. York netted Gary Cooper a best actor Academy Award and Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano a degree, a book deal — and academic backlash. Mastriano had a deep interest in York long before he led anti-mask protests last year,...
Gun waiting periods rare in U.S. states but more may be coming
Not long before the deadly Atlanta-area shootings spread fear and anger through Asian American communities nationwide, police say the attacker made a legal purchase: a 9 mm handgun. Within hours, they say, he had killed eight people, seven of them women and six of Asian descent, in a rampage targeting...
A year into pandemic, veterans halls ‘barely hanging’ on
NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Paul Guilbeault knew the writing was on the wall for the last Veterans of Foreign Wars post in this city south of Boston when businesses across Massachusetts were ordered to close as the coronavirus pandemic took hold last March. Within six months, the 90-year-old Korean War...
U.S. defense chief arrives in Kabul on 1st trip to Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan — U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived Sunday in Kabul on his first trip to Afghanistan as Pentagon chief, amid swirling questions about how long American troops will remain in the country. State-owned Radio and Television Afghanistan and popular TOLO Television reported Austin’s arrival in Kabul from India....
Rapid covid-19 vaccine rollout backfired in some U.S. states
Despite the clamor to speed up the U.S. vaccination drive against covid-19 and get the country back to normal, the first three months of the rollout suggest faster is not necessarily better. A surprising new analysis found that states such as South Carolina, Florida and Missouri that raced ahead of...
