Paris police barricade Eiffel Tower after bomb threat
PARIS — Paris police have blockaded the area around the Eiffel Tower after a phone-in bomb threat. Police cars and tape surrounded the streets below the tower and the bridge stretching across the Seine River to Trocadero Plaza. Some tourists were still walking in the area, but it was unclear...
Group sues Austrian government over ski resort virus outbreak
VIENNA — An Austrian consumer protection group said Wednesday it has filed four civil lawsuits against the country’s government for failing to contain a coronavirus outbreak at an Alpine ski resort that has been blamed for thousands of infections worldwide during the early phase of the pandemic. The chairman of...
Late-stage study of first single-shot vaccine begins in U.S.Video
Johnson & Johnson is beginning a huge final study to try to prove if a single-dose covid-19 vaccine can protect against the virus. The study starting Wednesday will be one of the world’s largest coronavirus vaccine studies so far, testing the shot in 60,000 volunteers in the U.S., South Africa,...
U.S. government executes killer obsessed with witchcraft
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — The U.S. government on Tuesday executed a former soldier who said an obsession with witchcraft led him to kill a Georgia nurse he believed had put a spell on him. William Emmett LeCroy, 50, was pronounced dead at 9:06 p.m. EDT after receiving a lethal injection...
Gov. Tony Evers extends Wisconsin’s mask mandate until Nov. 21Video
MADISON, Wis. — Faced with soaring coronavirus cases across Wisconsin, particularly on college campuses, Gov. Tony Evers on Tuesday extended a statewide mask mandate until Nov. 21. The order, which has been in effect since August, was scheduled to expire on Monday. Evers extended the order even as his authority...
House passes stopgap funding bill shortly after bipartisan deal
WASHINGTON — The House swiftly passed a stopgap funding measure needed to avert a partial government shutdown in eight days after top congressional leaders reached a deal resolving a fight over farm payments. On a lopsided vote of 359-57, the House sent to the Senate a revised continuing resolution that...
Parents tackle man accused of spying on girl in restaurant bathroom
DUNCAN, S.C. — A group of parents tackled and restrained a registered sex offender accused of spying on a 15-year-old girl in the women’s bathroom of a South Carolina Cracker Barrel restaurant over the weekend, authorities said. Douglas Lane, 53, has been charged with voyeurism, as well as possession of...
Recorded attack on Black runner in New York charged as a hate crimeVideo
NEW YORK — A woman who was captured on video throwing a bottle at a Black runner in New York City and yelling a racial slur at her has been charged with attempted assault as a hate crime and aggravated harassment, authorities said Tuesday. Lorena Delaguna, 53, was arraigned in...
Cindy McCain endorses Biden for president in rebuke of Trump
PHOENIX — Democrat Joe Biden said Tuesday that Cindy McCain plans to endorse him for president, a stunning rebuke of President Donald Trump by the widow of the GOP’s 2008 nominee. Trump has had a fraught relationship with members of John McCain’s family since he disparaged the Arizona senator during...
Arctic sea-ice extent nears a record low, despite growth during a frigid winterVideo
Despite a growth spurt during quite a cold winter in the far north, Arctic sea ice has fallen to its second-lowest extent in 42 years of satellite observations, the National Snow and Ice Data Center reported. “The year 2020 will stand as an exclamation point on the downward trend in...
Migrant women to no longer see Georgia gynecologist accused of misconduct
HOUSTON — Immigration authorities have stopped sending detained women to a rural Georgia gynecologist accused of performing surgeries without consent, a government spokesman said Tuesday. Dr. Mahendra Amin faces allegations that he administered hysterectomies and other procedures that women held at the Irwin County Detention Center didn’t seek or fully...
West Virginia’s former health officer, state senator catch coronavirusVideo
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia’s former public health director and the majority leader of the state senate said they have tested positive for covid-19. Dr. Cathy Slemp, who the governor forced out of her role as state health officer in June, wrote in an op-ed that she was quarantining in...
CDC guidelines recommend avoiding trick-or-treating during HalloweenVideo
The Centers for Disease Control has advised against door-to-door trick-or-treating, attending crowded and indoor parties and wearing costume masks this Halloween to prevent the spread of covid-19. The health agency released new guidelines this week that outlined several traditional Halloween activities that could be high-risk for spreading viruses and offered...
Some Democrats, not yet Biden, talk of expanding Supreme Court
WASHINGTON — The prospect that President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans will fill Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Supreme Court seat before the year is out has ignited a call for major changes on the court, including expanding the number of justices. Some Democratic senators, who had been averse to increasing...
Iran strikes defiant tone at U.N. under crushing U.S. sanctions
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani delivered a defiant and fiery speech Tuesday to the U.N. General Assembly as his nation grapples with the Middle East’s worst coronavirus outbreak and a weakened economy, but he insisted that it is the U.S. that will surrender to the resilience...
Pennsylvania nears launch of new health insurance website
Pennsylvania is getting ready to launch its own website to sell Affordable Care Act-compliant policies that will replace the federally operated Healthcare.gov to enroll people for the 2021 insurance year, state officials said Tuesday. It is named “Pennie” and lawmakers approved the idea last year in a bid to get...
‘Unfathomable’: U.S. death toll from coronavirus hits 200,000
The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus topped 200,000 Tuesday, a figure unimaginable eight months ago when the scourge first reached the world’s richest nation with its state-of-the-art laboratories, top-flight scientists and stockpiles of medicines and emergency supplies. “It is completely unfathomable that we’ve reached this point,” said Jennifer Nuzzo,...
Sen. Toomey says he will consider Trump’s high court nominee
U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey will not try to block President Donald Trump’s attempt to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court less than 40 days before the election, he said Tuesday. The Lehigh Valley Republican joined the successful effort to block President Barack Obama from filling a vacancy on...
Bill freezing pay for Pa.’s legislators, judges, top executive branch officials heading to Gov. Wolf’s desk
Pennsylvania lawmakers this year likely will be spared the grief that often accompanies the annual automatic pay raise that state law authorizes them to receive. Legislation is on its way to Gov. Tom Wolf’s desk that would not only freeze lawmakers’ salaries at their current level through 2021 but judges...
Pennsylvania sees 7th straight day with double digit new covid-19 deaths
Pennsylvania has 834 new covid-19 cases Tuesday, per the state Department of Health. The state also reported 19 additional coronavirus-related deaths. Total cases are now 151,646, and the death total is 8,023. Pennsylvania surpassed 150,000 covid-19 cases Sunday. The state surpassed 100,000 cases on July 18 and 50,000 cases on...
U.S. homes sales rise 2.4% in August
Sales of existing homes rose 2.4% in August to its highest level since 2006 as the housing market recovers from a widespread shutdown in the spring brought on by the coronavirus outbreak. The National Association of Realtors said Tuesday that sales rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6...
Louisville restricts access before decision in Breonna Taylor caseVideo
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Officials in Kentucky’s largest city were preparing Tuesday for more protests and possible unrest as the public nervously awaits the state attorney general’s announcement about whether he will charge officers in Breonna Taylor’s shooting death. With timing of the announcement still uncertain, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer declared...
Louisiana trooper who faced firing in Black man’s death dies in crash
A Louisiana state trooper has died following a single-vehicle highway crash that happened just hours after he learned he would be fired for his role last year in the in-custody death of a Black man. Master Trooper Chris Hollingsworth was pronounced dead Tuesday following a brief hospitalization, Warren Lee, chief...
Romney OKs voting on Supreme Court nominee, all but assures approvalVideo
WASHINGTON — Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney said Tuesday he supports voting to fill the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat on the Supreme Court, all but ensuring President Donald Trump has the backing needed to push the nomination over Democratic objections that it’s too close to the November election....
Complaint flushed: No charge in toilet election display
MASON, Mich. — A prosecutor in Michigan has flushed a complaint about a toilet that was promoted as a place to drop absentee ballots. The election clerk in Ingham County informed police about a toilet on the front lawn of a home in Mason, near Lansing. A sign said, “Place...
