Police: 43 bank hostages freed in ex-Soviet republic Georgia
TBILISI, Georgia — Police in the ex-Soviet nation of Georgia said 43 people were freed after an armed assailant took them hostage in a bank Wednesday, an announcement that came shortly after local media reported the gunman escaped and remained at large still holding three hostages. An armed man took...
Feds arrest 15 foreign students for work-status fraud in ‘Operation OPTical Illusion’
Federal immigration authorities have arrested 15 nonimmigrant students for alleged education-related fraud, authorities said Wednesday. The arrests took place in a number of cities, including Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Boston, Houston and more, the federal authorities said. The 15 arrested allegedly claimed they worked for companies that did not exist. “Nonimmigrant” status...
Rudy Giuliani caught in hotel bedroom scene in new ‘Borat’ film
NEW YORK — Rudy Giuliani is shown with his hand down his pants after flirting with an actress playing a young woman pretending to be a television journalist in a scene in Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest mockumentary, a sequel to his hit “Borat” film. The scene shot in a New...
5 questions as Trump, Biden prepare for final debate
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, meet on the debate stage for the second and final time Thursday night in Tennessee. The 90-minute prime-time meeting comes just 12 days before Election Day. Some key questions heading into the debate: CAN TRUMP CHANGE THE TRAJECTORY...
Ireland focuses on Christmas as it enters new lockdown
DUBLIN — Ireland is already focused on Christmas. It’s a major national priority. Unless the country can get the COVID-19 pandemic under control, there won’t be much Christmas cheer this year in Galway, Cork or Dublin. With infections on the rise, the government has imposed a tough new lockdown that...
Record 9 million people register to vote in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania has eclipsed 9 million registered voters for the first time and is expecting record turnout as voters cast ballots by mail or drop box and in person at county elections offices before the election and at the polls on Nov. 3. As of Wednesday, the state had processed 9,050,870...
Virus spikes nationwide have officials looking to shore up hospitals
BOISE, Idaho — Hospitals across the United States are starting to buckle from a resurgence of covid-19 cases, with several states setting records for the number of people hospitalized and leaders scrambling to find extra beds and staff. New highs in cases have been reported in states big and small...
Pa. election officials stress security precautions, warn against voter intimidation
Threatening emails purported to be from a far-right, neo-fascist group that targeted voters in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Florida and Alaska may have originated in the Baltics. While the email appeared to come from the Proud Boys, an analysis of the metadata suggested it originated in Estonia, the New York Times reported....
Pennsylvania adds 1,425 coronavirus cases, 48 hospitalizations
Pennsylvania reported more than 1,000 new coronavirus cases for the 16th straight day Wednesday. The Pennsylvania Department of Health added 1,425 cases on Wednesday, bringing the total to 186,297. For comparison, in the past 16 days, there have been 22,090 new covid-19 cases, while in the 16 days prior to...
Worsening opioid crisis overshadowed in presidential race
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Like millions of Americans, Diane Urban watched the first presidential debate last month at home with her family. When it was over, she turned off the television and climbed into the bed her 25-year-old son Jordan used to sleep in. It was where she found Jordan’s lifeless...
Man accused of threatening Biden, Harris in note to neighbor
BALTIMORE — A Maryland man was charged Wednesday with making death threats against Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and running mate U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris in a letter left on the doorstep of a neighbor who had yard signs supporting the candidates. James Dale Reed, 42, of Frederick, told investigators...
Mission impossible? Kristen Welker on tap to moderate 2nd debate
NEW YORK — This fall’s presidential debates have chewed up moderators. President Donald Trump steamrolled Chris Wallace with constant interruptions in the first one, a performance that cost the Republican incumbent support in the polls. Susan Page struggled to make the vice presidential candidates adhere to time limits their campaigns...
Longtime Pennsylvania courts clerk in Schuylkill County gets 27 months for fraud
SCRANTON — A longtime Pennsylvania clerk of courts has been sentenced to 27 months in prison on federal charges that he stole public money and then tried to hide his tracks by forging records. Former Schuylkill County Clerk of Courts Stephen Lukach Jr., was sentenced Tuesday in Scranton after pleading...
UK-EU trade talks back on after the bloc’s olive branch
BRUSSELS — The British government and the European Union will resume stalled trade negotiations in London, the U.K. government said — days after Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared the talks over. Johnson declared the talks at an end last week, accusing the bloc of expecting Britain to make all the...
Police: 3 dead, 1 critically hurt in Houston club shooting
HOUSTON — Three people were killed in a shooting at a Houston nightclub where about 30 people had gathered for an open mic night and authorities were searching early Wednesday for suspects, police said. Police had been called to the DD Sky Club at about 9:45 p.m. Tuesday on reports...
Amy Coney Barrett was trustee at private school with anti-gay policies
Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett served for nearly three years on the board of private Christian schools that effectively barred admission to children of same-sex parents and made it plain that openly gay and lesbian teachers weren’t welcome in the classroom. The policies that discriminated against LGBTQ people and...
U.S. officials: OxyContin maker to plead to 3 criminal charges
WASHINGTON — Purdue Pharma, the company that makes OxyContin, the powerful prescription painkiller that experts say helped touch off an opioid epidemic, will plead guilty to three federal criminal charges as part of a settlement of more than $8 billion, Justice Department officials told The Associated Press. The company will...
U.S. surgeon general to be in court on Hawaii virus citation
HONOLULU — The U.S. surgeon general is set to be arraigned Wednesday in a virtual court hearing in Hawaii on charges he illegally entered a public park that was closed because of the coronavirus. The criminal complaint against Jerome Adams, who was on Oahu in August helping with surge testing...
Pope Francis endorses same-sex civil unions in new documentary film
ROME — Pope Francis endorsed same-sex civil unions for the first time as pope while being interviewed for the feature-length documentary “Francesco,” which premiered Wednesday at the Rome Film Festival. The papal thumbs-up came midway through the film that delves into issues Francis cares about most, including the environment, poverty,...
Poll: Many in U.S. distrust campaign info
In a presidential election year that has thrown the country’s divisions into stark relief, Americans can agree on this: Misinformation about government and politics is a major problem. A new survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Opinion Research and USAFacts finds that while voters say it’s pretty easy...
Police: Pet cat shot with crossbow in Dauphin County
Pennsylvania State Police are looking for the person who shot a pet cat in the head with a crossbow over the last week in Dauphin County. Two South Hanover Township residents, of the 7200 block of Union Deposit Road, told state police their black cat was missing for about a...
Barack Obama to hold his first in-person event for Biden in Philadelphia
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Barack Obama is returning to Philadelphia on Wednesday for his first in-person 2020 campaign event for Joe Biden. In 2016, the man known as one of the Democratic Party’s strongest orators delivered Hillary Clinton’s closing argument in the same place — at a rally for...
Trump tends to his electoral map, Biden prepping for debate
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is hopping from one must-win stop on the electoral map to the next in the leadup to a final presidential debate that may be his last, best chance to alter the trajectory of the 2020 campaign. Democrat Joe Biden has been taking the opposite approach,...
Nigeria protesters break curfew amid gunfire, chaos in Lagos
LAGOS, Nigeria — Nigeria’s anti-police protesters stayed on the streets in Lagos on Wednesday, breaking the government curfew following a night of chaotic violence in which demonstrators were fired upon, sparking global outrage. Shots were fired Wednesday as young demonstrators set up barricades by the Lekki toll plaza in Lagos,...
EU says U.K. ‘can’t have cake, eat it, too’ but eyes new talks
BRUSSELS — The European Union struck a defiant tone Wednesday as the standoff over resuming post-Brexit trade negotiations with the United Kingdom intensified, telling London that “you cannot have your cake and eat it, too.” But the bloc’s chief negotiator offered an olive branch to Britain by saying that both...
