Stampede at religious ceremony in Liberia kills 29 people
MONROVIA, Liberia — At least 29 people in Liberia, including 11 children and a pregnant woman, have died in a stampede of worshippers at a Christian ceremony in a densely populated area of the capital, Monrovia, officials said Thursday. The stampede erupted when a gang of thugs armed with knives...
Aiming to make CDC nimble, agency director has rankled many
From the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic, the top U.S. public health agency has been criticized as too slow to collect and act on new information. Now, increasingly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is also being criticized for moving too fast. One year into Dr. Rochelle Walensky’s tenure...
Budd Dwyer’s suicide at press conference still shocks after 35 years
An unhinged politician. A room full of reporters and photographers. And a .357 magnum tucked in a manila envelope. These three volatile elements combusted on Jan. 22, 1987, into one of the most enduring and shocking episodes in Pennsylvania history. It began as a press conference in which everyone expected...
How the body’s immune system tries to fight off covid
Vaccines have shown themselves to be the best defense against a serious case of covid-19: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, unvaccinated adults were about 13 times more likely to be hospitalized with the disease than vaccinated adults as of late November. But vaccines and the antibodies...
Nearly 28,000 miles of Pennsylvania’s streams are impaired by pollution, report finds
PHILADELPHIA — One-third of all Pennsylvania waterways are now considered polluted enough to harm wildlife, recreation or drinking water, according to a report released this week by the state’s Department of Environmental Protection. The DEP listed 27,886 miles of streams it found impaired in one or more ways, which is...
Russia accuses West of plotting ‘provocations’ in Ukraine
MOSCOW — Russia accused the West on Thursday of plotting “provocations” in Ukraine and disguising its alleged intentions by fomenting concerns about Moscow planning aggressive military action in the neighboring country. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova alleged that Ukrainian and Western claims of an imminent Russian attack on Ukraine...
Report on sexual abuse in German diocese faults retired pope
BERLIN — A long-awaited report on sexual abuse in Germany’s Munich diocese on Thursday faulted retired Pope Benedict XVI’s handling of four cases when he was archbishop in the 1970s and 1980s. The law firm that drew up the report said that Benedict strongly denies any wrongdoing. The findings, though,...
U.K. lawmaker says Johnson critics face government ‘blackmail’
LONDON — A lawmaker from Britain’s governing Conservatives accused the government on Thursday of blackmailing opponents of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, as the party’s internal rifts deepened. William Wragg, a Tory member of Parliament, said legislators calling for a challenge to Johnson’s leadership have faced “intimidation,” and urged them to...
TV Talk: Future WTAE reporter hit by a car live on the airVideo
Local TV news reporter Tori Yorgey will begin her new job at Pittsburgh’s WTAE-TV in February, but her last week on the job at WSAZ-TV in Huntington, W.Va., has been eventful: She was struck by a car during a live broadcast and continued reporting, becoming a viral sensation on Twitter...
Voting bill collapses, Democrats unable to change filibusterVideo
WASHINGTON — Voting legislation that Democrats and civil rights leaders say is vital to protecting democracy collapsed Wednesday when two senators refused to join their own party in changing Senate rules to overcome a Republican filibuster after a raw, emotional debate. The outcome was a stinging defeat for President Joe...
New York City mayor says even he doesn’t feel safe on subway systemVideo
NEW YORK — After a woman was pushed to her death in front of a New York City subway train beneath Times Square over the weekend, Mayor Eric Adams acknowledged to reporters Tuesday that even he didn’t feel entirely safe riding the rails. The Democrat recounted when he rode the...
West Virginia lawmakers seek to ban school mask, testing requirements
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A group of Republican lawmakers in West Virginia is trying to pass a law forbidding mask mandates in K-12 schools and restricting districts from requiring covid-19 testing for people who don’t have symptoms. The “Public School Health Rights Act” would also prevent students or school employees from...
Biden reviews first year of ‘challenges but also enormous progress’Video
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Wednesday sought to reframe his presidency as one of “challenges but also enormous progress,” saying he would restart efforts to pass his signature legislative agenda and use the midterm election campaigns to push harder against Republican obstinance. “For all this progress, I know there’s...
Supreme Court allows Jan. 6 committee to get Trump documentsVideo
WASHINGTON — In a rebuff to former President Donald Trump, the Supreme Court is allowing the release of presidential documents sought by the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection. The justices on Wednesday rejected a bid by Trump to withhold the documents from the committee until the issue is...
3 of Tonga’s smaller islands badly damaged by tsunami
SYDNEY — Three of Tonga’s smaller islands suffered serious damage from tsunami waves, officials and the Red Cross said Wednesday, as a wider picture begins to emerge of the destruction caused by the eruption of an undersea volcano near the Pacific archipelago nation. U.N. humanitarian officials report that about 84,000...
Pennsylvania Senate passes bills aimed at ransomware, data breaches
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s state Senate passed a package of legislation on Wednesday aimed at preventing data security breaches and requiring victims and law enforcement officials to be notified when they do happen. The bills’ passage comes barely two weeks after the state’s unemployment compensation system acknowledged that hackers changed bank...
Bronx native Cardi B to cover funeral costs for all 17 victims of deadly borough high-rise blazeVideo
NEW YORK — Grammy-winning Bronx native Cardi B pledged Wednesday to cover the funeral costs of all 17 victims of a high-rise building fire in her home borough. The hip-hop star’s commitment includes the expenses to return some of the dead for burial in their native Gambia, and Cardi B...
Sotomayor, Gorsuch deny report they were at odds over masksVideo
WASHINGTON — Two Supreme Court justices say a media report that they were at odds over the wearing of masks in court during the recent surge in coronavirus cases is false. The court on Wednesday issued an unusual three-sentence statement from Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Neil Gorsuch. It read: “Reporting...
Yvette Mimieux, ’60s starlet of ‘Time Machine,’ dies at 80
Yvette Mimieux, the blond and blue-eyed 1960s film star of “Where the Boys Are,” “The Time Machine” and “Light in the Piazza,” has died. She was 80. Michelle Bega, a family spokeswoman, said Mimieux died in her sleep of natural causes overnight Monday evening at her home in Los Angeles....
1st for Louisiana: Drug-resistant fungus found at hospital
A hospital in New Orleans says it has identified two patients infected with a rare, drug-resistant fungus — the first time it’s been found in Louisiana. Candida auris has already been found in Washington, D.C., and at least 20 other states including Georgia, Florida and Texas, according to the Centers...
What the No Surprises Act means for your medical bills
More Americans worry about unexpected medical bills than any other expense, according to polls by the Kaiser Family Foundation in 2018 and 2020. Unfortunately, those bills aren’t rare: 18% of emergency visits and 16% of in-network hospital stays had at least one out-of-network charge, a 2020 Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker...
French actor Gaspard Ulliel, 37, dies after ski accident
French actor Gaspard Ulliel, known for appearing in Chanel perfume ads as well as film and television roles, died Wednesday after a skiing accident in the Alps, according to his agent’s office and local authorities. He was 37. Ulliel portrayed the young Hannibal Lecter in 2007’s “Hannibal Rising” and fashion...
Is the allure of cryptocurrency fading?
Bitcoin dropped to a three-month low recently and its movement has closely mirrored financial markets in its decline. Bitcoin bulls often describe it as an asset that is uncorrelated to traditional financial markets, CNBC reported, however experts have noticed growing parallels in the price movements of bitcoin and stocks. It...
U.S. begins offering free covid test kits, but doubts persist
WASHINGTON (AP) — For the first time, all Americans can log on to a government website and order free, at-home covid-19 tests. But the White House push may do little to ease the omicron surge, and experts say Washington will have to do a lot more to fix the country’s...
Germany criticizes Czech tycoon’s 257 mph Autobahn rideVideo
BERLIN — Germany’s Transport Ministry has criticized a stunt that saw a Czech millionaire drive his high-powered sportscar along a public highway at speeds of up to 414 kilometers per hour — 257 mph. A video posted online this month shows Radim Passer pushing his Bugatti Chiron to extreme speeds...
