By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell below 200,000, more evidence that the job market remains strong in the aftermath of last year’s coronavirus recession. Jobless claims dropped by 8,000 to 198,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The four-week average, which smooths out week-to-week
Continue Reading By NASSER KARIMI and ISABEL DEBRE Associated Press TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian state television says Tehran has launched a rocket with a satellite carrier bearing three devices into space, though it’s unclear if any object entered orbit. The state TV report on Thursday did not say when the launch was conducted or what devices
Continue Reading NAPLES, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say a sheriff’s deputy shot a Malayan tiger that grabbed the arm of a man who was either feeding or petting the animal near its enclosure at a Florida zoo. The Collier County Sheriff’s Office said the man was seriously injured Wednesday evening when he entered an unauthorized area. The
Continue Reading By KATHY GANNON Associated Press ISLAMABAD (AP) — Afghanistan’s former president says he had just minutes to decide to flee in the hours before the Taliban took control of the capital in August. Ashraf Ghani told Britain’s BBC in a rare interview aired on Thursday that he had “no inkling” he would be leaving by
Continue Reading By PHILIP MARCELO and AMY TAXIN Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — Federal immigration officials have denied hundreds of Afghans seeking temporary entry into the country for humanitarian reasons. Immigrant advocates say the Biden administration has failed to honor its promise to help Afghans who were left behind after the U.S. military withdrew from the country
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By PHILIP MARCELO and AMY TAXIN Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — Federal immigration officials have denied hundreds of Afghans seeking temporary entry into the country for humanitarian reasons. Immigrant advocates say the Biden administration has failed to honor its promise to help Afghans who were left behind after the U.S. military withdrew from the country
Continue Reading By ZEN SOO Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — Two former editors from a Hong Kong online pro-democracy news outlet have been charged with sedition and denied bail. It comes one day after one of the last openly critical voices in the city said it would cease operations following a police raid on its office
Continue ReadingCNN, WPLG, WSVN By Paul R. La Monica, CNN Business Cruise company stocks had been holding up remarkably well in December despite concerns about Covid outbreaks on ships and the rapidly spreading Omicron variant. But that’s no longer the case. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday that even vaccinated people should
Continue Reading By PATRICK WHITTLE Associated Press PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The news is a mixed bag for people in need of heating assistance who see a cold winter bearing down. The average cost of heating a home this winter is expected to be $972, which is up from $888 last year. The Biden Administration has more
Continue ReadingBy Jack Bantock, CNN Typically, the New Year is welcomed with the promise of hope and change, yet the Premier League title race looks set to run an increasingly familiar course — Manchester City winning at a canter. One game past the halfway mark, Pep Guardiola’s side command an eight and nine point lead over
Continue ReadingBy Taylor Romine and Naomi Thomas, CNN Business The cruise liner Queen Mary 2 will not make its planned return to the Big Apple after a Covid outbreak onboard. The Queen Mary 2 dropped off 10 Covid-19 infected passengers in New York earlier this month. Instead of returning to call in New York as originally
Continue ReadingBy Teele Rebane and Wayne Chang, CNN China has banned footballers from getting tattoos and ordered those with existing ones to remove or cover them up to set a “good example for society,” according to a directive issued by the General Administration of Sport of China (GAS). The directive — titled “Suggestions for strengthening the
Continue ReadingBy Christy Somos, CTVNews.ca writer Click here for updates on this story Toronto, Canada (CTV Network) — New research out of the Gauteng province of South Africa is providing more data on how effective the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine is against the Omicron variant. Published in the New England Medical Journal, the study found that a
Continue ReadingBy Jordan Valinsky, CNN Business JetBlue Airways is reducing its schedule by about 1,280 flights from Thursday through January 13 because a growing number of crew members are falling sick from Covid infections. “We expect the number of Covid cases in the northeast — where most of our crewmembers are based — to continue to
Continue Reading By ZEYNEP BILGINSOY Associated Press ISTANBUL (AP) — A Turkish court has accepted an indictment against suspects from a religious association in a case that could have political and legal repercussions on the opposition-held Istanbul municipality. The trial against 23 people for purported links to outlawed Kurdish militants will begin on Feb. 18. Nine of
Continue ReadingBy Sarah Turnbull, CTVNews.ca producer Click here for updates on this story Ottawa, Canada (CTV Network) — Canada has no immediate plans to follow the lead of the U.S. and shorten the isolation period for those who contract COVID-19 from 10 to five days. The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) told CTVNews.ca in a
Continue ReadingJacqui Palumbo, CNN Each year, over one million people visit Neuschwanstein, a 19th-century castle in the Bavarian alps, famous for its Romanesque Revival style and Gothic details, including vertical limestone towers and turrets topped with deep blue pointed roofs. Once home to a famously introverted Bavarian monarch known as “the fairytale king,” the idyllic architecture
Continue Reading By HUIZHONG WU Associated Press TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Chinese officials are promising steady deliveries of groceries to residents of Xi’an, an ancient capital with 13 million people that is under the strictest lockdown of a major Chinese city since Wuhan was shut early last year at the start of the pandemic. The Commerce Ministry
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By HUIZHONG WU Associated Press TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Chinese officials are promising steady deliveries of groceries to residents of Xi’an, an ancient capital with 13 million people that is under the strictest lockdown of a major Chinese city since Wuhan was shut early last year at the start of the pandemic. The Commerce Ministry
Continue ReadingCNN By Maggie Fox, CNN Two reports released Thursday show that people who get booster doses of Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine are well protected against severe disease and hospitalization from the Omicron variant of coronavirus, the company said. Researchers said the findings indicate that most of the Covid-19 vaccines will protect people against the
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