Germany: police clash with protesters against virus measures
BERLIN — Protesters in Germany clashed with police Saturday over coronavirus measures, with officers using water cannons, pepper spray and batons against people trying to break through police barriers, German news agency dpa reported. Protests against government measures to rein in the pandemic also were reported in several other countries...
5 nations demand better EU sharing of migration load
ATHENS, Greece — The interior ministers of the five Mediterranean countries on the front line of mass migration to Europe want their EU partners to share the burden more equitably. “We can no longer be punished for our geographical position,” Malta’s Byron Camilleri said Saturday, summing up his position and...
Eruption of Iceland volcano easing, not affecting flights
REYKJAVIK, Iceland — The eruption of a long-dormant volcano that sent streams of lava flowing across a small valley in southwestern Iceland is easing and shouldn’t interfere with air travel, the Icelandic Meteorological Office said Saturday. The fissure eruption began at around 8:45 p.m. Friday in the Geldinga Valley, about...
Murrysville native recruits fellow MIT students, others to battle social isolation among seniorsVideo
Bhav Jain, 19, of Murrysville knows how he felt during the early stages of covid, forced to return home from his freshman year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to learn from home. But even now, back in Boston to finish up his sophomore year, Jain is still thinking the...
Biden, Harris offer solace, denounce racism in Atlanta visit
ATLANTA — President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris offered solace to Asian Americans and denounced the scourge of racism at times hidden “in plain sight” as they visited Atlanta on Friday, just days after a white gunman killed eight people, most of them Asian American women. Addressing the...
2 journalists detained as Myanmar junta clamps down on press
YANGON, Myanmar — Two more journalists were detained in Myanmar on Friday, part of the junta’s intensifying efforts to choke off information about resistance to last month’s coup. Mizzima News reported that one of its former reporters, Than Htike Aung, and Aung Thura, a journalist from the BBC’s Burmese-language service,...
Attacked Georgia spas had been targeted by prostitution stings
ATLANTA — Two Atlanta area massage businesses where a gunman waged a deadly assault this week had been repeatedly targeted in police prostitution investigations over the years, raising questions about the mayor’s earlier comments that the spas operated legally. Police records show officers went to the businesses at least 21...
Mexico launches crackdown on migrant smuggling
MEXICO CITY — In a rare show of force Friday, Mexico sent hundreds of immigration agents, police and National Guard officers marching through the streets of the capital of the southern state of Chiapas to launch an operation to crack down on migrant smuggling. The parade Friday in the city...
Russian national pleads guilty in $150 million kickback plot
NEW BERN, N.C. — A Russian national living in North Carolina has pleaded guilty to bribery and other charges after prosecutors say he received more than $150 million in kickbacks from contractors seeking deals with the Russian military. Leonid Teyf, 59, of Raleigh, pleaded guilty Friday in federal court in...
No charges for Texas officer in killing of college student
DENTON, Texas — A grand jury declined to indict a North Texas police officer in the fatal shooting of a college student who had refused to drop a frying pan and a cleaver and then advanced toward police with the pan. The Denton County grand jury made the decision Thursday...
U.S., China spar in 1st face-to-face meetings under Biden
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Top U.S. and Chinese officials met again Friday after sparring over sharply different views of each other and the world in their first face-to-face talks since President Joe Biden took office. The two sides gathered for a new session a day after a contentious opening in which...
Montana lawmakers revisit dress code some call sexist
Montana lawmakers have revived a dress code that drew accusations of sexism when it was first introduced ahead of the 2015 legislative session before being tabled without ever taking effect. The dress code made a reappearance Thursday in response to a Republican lawmaker’s objection to a male Democrat’s decision not...
Vaccine withheld from hospital that gave Trump Tower shots
The city of Chicago on Thursday decided to withhold first doses of covid-19 vaccines from a hospital that improperly administered vaccinations to Trump Tower workers. The withholding of vaccines comes as the city conducts a review of actions by Loretto Hospital, whose president said in a memo to hospital staff...
4 men linked to Proud Boys charged in plot to attack Capitol
Four men described as leaders of the far-right Proud Boys have been charged in the U.S. Capitol riots, as an indictment ordered unsealed on Friday presents fresh evidence of how federal officials believe group members planned and carried out a coordinated attack to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s...
West Virginia announces 20 more unreported covid-19 deaths
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said Friday that 20 coronavirus deaths went unreported, on top of the 165 deaths he announced last week that were previously not publicized. The Republican governor vowed a “complete investigation, all the way down, to pinpoint exactly where the shortcomings are.” Those...
Pa. expiration date for license to carry firearms extended again
Pennsylvania gun owners received another extension on license-to-carry permits, the sixth extension Gov. Tom Wolf has issued since the covid-19 pandemic began. The previous extension, issued late last year, was set to expire at the end of the month. Wolf has issued extensions every few months for a year now...
You’ll need more cash to play Pa. Lottery’s Cash 5
It will take double the cash to play Cash 5, the Pennsylvania Lottery’s longest-running jackpot game. The base ticket price will jump from $1 to $2, and Cash 5 will offer a revised game with a chance to win more prizes, the Pennsylvania Lottery announced. The changes will begin with...
Ruffs Dale bassoonist, 17, earns Friday Evening Music Club’s Gardner Scholarship
Until Walter Vinoski was 11, he couldn’t have told you what a bassoon even was. Now the 17-year-old Yough senior is the Friday Evening Music Club’s 2021 Mildred Gardner Scholarship Competition winner, earning $1,000 through this year’s virtual competition. He is a member of the Westmoreland Youth Symphony Orchestra and...
Biden picks former Florida senator who flew in space to lead NASA
President Joe Biden has chosen a former senator from Florida who flew on the space shuttle right before the Challenger accident to lead NASA. Biden on Friday announced his intent to nominate Bill Nelson as the space agency’s administrator. If confirmed by the Senate, Nelson will become NASA’s 14th administrator,...
Bucks County prosecutor demoted for DoorDash moonlighting during work
A top aide to a district attorney in suburban Philadelphia has been demoted because he was caught moonlighting for DoorDash during work hours. Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub announced the punishment Thursday against prosecutor Gregg Shore, who was demoted from the office’s first assistant district attorney to being a...
Michigan requires teen athlete testing amid climbing covid case rates
LANSING, Mich. — Michigan on Friday eased outdoor stadium capacity restrictions before baseball’s Opening Day but ordered weekly testing of teen athletes amid a climbing coronavirus case rate that ranks fourth nationally over the past week. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said, for now, she does not plan to tighten covid-19 restrictions...
5 White House staffers lose jobs over drugs, marijuana use
Five White House staffers have been fired because of their past use of drugs, including marijuana, press secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday. Marijuana has become a delicate issue for President Joe Biden’s administration because 15 states and Washington, D.C., allow for recreational usage, despite a federal prohibition. The administration...
Lou Barletta to decide soon on whether to run for Pa. governor
HARRISBURG — Lou Barletta, the former congressman who unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Sen. Bob Casey in 2018, said Friday that he will make a decision in the next few weeks on whether to seek the Republican nomination for governor of Pennsylvania in 2022. Barletta began considering a run late last year,...
Kremlin: Putin’s offer of a call with Biden was to save ties
MOSCOW — The Kremlin said Friday that President Vladimir Putin’s offer to speak by phone with U.S. President Joe Biden was intended to prevent bilateral ties from completely falling apart over the American’s remark that the Russian leader was a killer. Putin made it clear that “it makes sense to...
Happiness Report: World shows resilience in face of covid-19
STOCKHOLM — The coronavirus brought a year of fear and anxiety, loneliness and lockdown, and illness and death, but an annual report on happiness around the world released Friday suggests the pandemic has not crushed people’s spirits. The editors of the 2021 World Happiness Report found that while emotions changed...
