U.S./World category, Page 658

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Magdalena Andersson, who last week was Sweden’s first female prime minister for a few hours before resigning because a budget defeat made a coalition partner quit, was on elected again Monday as the Nordic nation’s head of government. In a 101-173 vote with 75 abstentions, the 349-seat...

JERUSALEM — Israel’s government on Sunday approved the immigration of several thousand Jews from war-torn Ethiopia, some of whom have waited for decades to join their relatives in Israel. The decision took a step toward resolving an issue that has long complicated the government’s relations with the country’s Ethiopian community....

LONDON — South African scientists identified a new version of the coronavirus that they say is behind a recent spike in covid-19 infections in Gauteng, the country’s most populous province. It’s unclear where the new variant first emerged, but scientists in South Africa alerted the World Health Organization in recent...

LONDON — Tens of thousands of people in Scotland and northern England remained without power Sunday after a storm brought sleet, subzero temperatures and disruptions across much of the U.K. Icy gusts caused power cuts around the border between Scotland and England, with Northern Powergrid saying it recorded 1,100 instances...

HIRAM, Ga. — A freight train derailed late Saturday in Atlanta’s northwest suburbs, blocking roads and slightly injuring two crew members. Local news outlets report a Norfolk Southern Railway locomotive and seven freight cars overturned in Hiram, part of a 88-car train. Atlanta-based Norfolk Southern said two crew members were...

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The Netherlands confirmed 13 cases of the new omicron variant of the coronavirus on Sunday and Australia found two as the countries half a world apart became the latest to detect it in travelers arriving from southern Africa. Israel decided to bar entry to foreigners and...

WASHINGTON — Americans will see prices at the pump fall “before long,” President Biden said after tapping U.S. oil reserves to ease price pressures and risk a feud with OPEC. In a tweet Saturday while the president was in Nantucket, he said the U.S. effort to ease gasoline prices spans...

NUEVO URECHO, Mexico — Extortion of avocado growers in western Mexico has gotten so bad that 500 vigilantes from a so-called “self-defense” group known as United Towns, or Pueblos Unidos, gathered Saturday and pledged to aid police. The vigilantes gathered for a rally in the town of Nuevo Urecho, in...

LONDON — News reports in Italy and Germany say that both countries have confirmed cases of the omicron covid-19 variant. The Italian news agency LaPresse says an Italian who traveled to Mozambique has tested positive for the omicron variant. The business traveler landed in Rome on Nov. 11 and returned...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A shooting in a Tennessee apartment left three people dead, including a suspect, police said Saturday. Four other people were wounded. Six members of a family were shot at the Nashville apartment Friday night, including a 15-year-old and 18-year-old who were both killed, police said in a...

DAYTON, Ohio — The Dayton Board of Zoning Appeals has approved the city’s request to demolish a 129-year-old historic building that once was the site of the Wright brothers’ first bike shop. The city wants to tear down the site because the building has deteriorated to a point where it...

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan’s Taliban prime minister defended the group’s rule in a public address Saturday, saying it was not to blame for a worsening economic crisis and is working to repair the corruption of the ousted government. He also dismissed international pressure for the formation of a more inclusive...

OAKLAND, Calif. — A security guard has died after he was shot while he protected a San Francisco Bay Area television news crew covering a smash-and-grab theft, part of a rash of organized retail crime in the region. “We are devastated by the loss of security guard and our friend,...

MOSCOW — A Russian court on Saturday ordered five people to remain in pre-trial detention for two months pending an investigation into a devastating blast in a coal mine in Siberia that resulted in dozens of deaths. Russian authorities reported 51 deaths after a methane explosion rocked the Listvyazhnaya mine...

BELGRADE, Serbia — Skirmishes on Saturday erupted in Serbia between police and anti-government demonstrators who blocked roads and bridges in the Balkan country in protest against new laws they say favor interests of foreign investors devastating the environment. Hundreds of people on Saturday appeared simultaneously in the capital Belgrade, the...

LONDON — The U.K. tightened up rules Saturday on mask-wearing and on testing of international arrivals after finding two cases of the new potentially more contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus as governments around the world sought to shore up their defenses. Amid fears that the recently identified new variant...

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday claimed that his country’s intelligence service has uncovered plans for a Russia-backed coup d’etat in the country set for next week that allegedly involves one of Ukraine’s richest oligarchs. Both the oligarch and the Russian government rejected the allegations. In Nantucket,...

The brother of a British socialite charged with helping Jeffrey Epstein exploit underage girls says her prosecution is “the most over-hyped trial of the century,” designed to break a woman targeted by authorities desperate to blame someone for the late financier’s crimes. Ghislaine Maxwell continues to have the backing of...

Golf, cricket and rugby became the first major sports to be affected by the new covid-19 variant on Friday, prompting fears of renewed travel restrictions and disrupted events just as they were returning to normal nearly two years into the pandemic. European golfers withdrew midway through the season-opening DP World...

Slovenian snowboarder Marko Grilc died Tuesday in a tragic accident in the Austrian ski resort of Solden, authorities said. He was 38. Police in the western Austrian state of Tyrol released a press release late on Tuesday saying that a “38-year-old Slovene” had “suffered fatal head injuries” after a snowboarding...

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned Russia Friday that any attempt to invade Ukraine would have costs, as concern mounts about a Russian military buildup near its former Soviet neighbor’s borders. Ukraine says Moscow kept about 90,000 troops near their common border following massive war games in western Russia earlier this...

A Russian cargo craft carrying a new docking module successfully hooked up with the International Space Station Friday after a two-day space journey. The new spherical module, named Prichal (Pier), docked with the orbiting outpost at 6:19 p.m. Moscow time (1519 GMT). It has six docking ports and will allow...

The Biden administration on Friday recommended an overhaul of the nation’s oil and gas leasing program to focus on areas that are most suitable for energy development and raise costs for energy companies to drill on public lands and water. The long-awaited report by the Interior Department stops short of...

An Alabama sheriff is trying to figure out how hundreds of FedEx packages ended up dumped in the woods. An estimated 300 to 400 packages of various sizes were found in a ravine near the small town of Hayden on Wednesday, the Blount County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement....

Five U.S. lawmakers met with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Friday in a surprise one-day visit intended to reaffirm America’s “rock-solid” support for the self-governing island that is claimed by China. The visit came as tensions between Taiwan and China have risen to their highest level in decades. Taiwan has...