Shortly after Kholoud al-Faqeeh was appointed judge in an Islamic religious court in the Palestinian territories, a woman walked in, laid eyes on her and turned around and walked out, murmuring that she didn’t want a woman to rule in …
Month: December 2021
The eldest daughter of pioneering U.S. astronaut Alan Shepard is set for a ride to the edge of space aboard Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin commercial rocket ship on Saturday, 60 years after her late father’s famed suborbital NASA flight at …
More U.S. states desperate to fight COVID-19 are calling on the National Guard and other military personnel to assist virus-weary medical staffs at hospitals and other care centers. Unvaccinated people are overwhelming hospitals in certain states, especially in the Northeast …
As the two-day virtual Summit for Democracy hosted by President Joe Biden wrapped up on Friday, the U.S., Australia, Denmark and Norway announced an export control program to monitor and restrict the spread of technologies used to violate human rights. …
A software vulnerability exploited in the online game Minecraft is rapidly emerging as a major threat to internet-connected devices around the world. “The internet’s on fire right now,” said Adam Meyers, senior vice president of intelligence at the cybersecurity firm …
Lung cancer is the deadliest form of the disease, according to the American Cancer Society. But it doesn’t get nearly the same amount of research dollars as breast or prostate cancer. That may be changing, thanks to one man’s efforts …
Al Unser, one of only four drivers to win the Indianapolis 500 a record four times, died Thursday following a long illness. He was 82. Unser died at his home in Chama, New Mexico, with his wife, Susan, by his …
South Korea, widely seen as a global model of coronavirus containment, faces its biggest pandemic challenge yet, as COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to rise after the country began removing pandemic related restrictions. Daily caseloads surpassed 7,000 Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. …
The United States rushed millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses for children ages 5-11 across the nation, but demand for inoculations for younger kids has been low, more than a dozen state public health officials and physicians said. Of the 28 …
Former Empire actor Jussie Smollett was convicted Thursday on charges he staged an anti-gay, racist attack on himself nearly three years ago and then lied to Chicago police about it. In the courtroom as the verdict was read, Smollett stood …
Experts say that for the U.S. diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics to be effective, more countries will need to participate. But that could be challenging given some countries’ economic ties to China or recognized prowess in winter sports. …
Despite a growing number of Western countries announcing diplomatic boycotts of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the United Nations secretary-general, António Guterres, will attend the Games. “The Secretary-General received an invitation from the International Olympic Committee to attend the Beijing …
Health officials in the United States, Israel and other nations have for months been pushing for COVID-19 booster shots among older populations, and those calls are now growing worldwide. The issue was discussed at an extraordinary meeting at World Health …
As cases of COVID-19 caused by the omicron variant soar in South Africa, hospital officials monitoring the outbreak say patient reports offer compelling evidence the variant causes illness that is less severe than previous forms of the disease. “Most of …
South Africa recorded more than 20,000 new coronavirus cases Wednesday, nearly double the number from one week earlier. The government is making a renewed push for people to get vaccinated, but so far is avoiding new lockdown measures, in an …
During COVID when all the theaters were closed, two sisters decided to take their musical talents to the only stage available: the street. The rest, as they say, is history. Anna Nelson reports. Anna Rice narrates her story. Camera: Natalia …
Pakistan has detected its first case of the omicron variant of the coronavirus. Official said Thursday the infection was found in a 57-year-old unvaccinated woman in Karachi, the country’s largest city and capital of the southern Sindh province. Local media …
New Zealand’s government believes it has come up with a unique plan to end tobacco smoking — a lifetime ban for those 14 or younger. Under a new law the government announced Thursday and plans to pass next year, the …
U.S. health authorities on Wednesday authorized the use of synthetic antibodies developed by AstraZeneca to prevent COVID-19 infections in people who react badly to vaccines. It was the first time the Food and Drug Administration has given emergency authorization for …
The Senate narrowly approved a resolution Wednesday to nullify the Biden administration’s requirement that businesses with 100 or more workers have their employees be vaccinated against the coronavirus or submit to weekly testing. The vote was 52-48. The measure now …
More than 40 people in the U.S. have been found to be infected with the omicron variant so far, and more than three-quarters of them had been vaccinated, the chief of the CDC said Wednesday. But she said nearly all …
Robotic vacuum cleaners halted in their tracks. Doorbell cameras stopped watching for package thieves, though some of those deliveries were canceled anyway. Netflix and Disney movies were interrupted, and The Associated Press had trouble publishing the news. A major outage …
The World Health Organization says new data is emerging every day about the potential impact of the new omicron variant on the coronavirus pandemic, but that it is premature to draw conclusions about the severity of the infection. Since omicron …
U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order Wednesday to “leverage” the federal government’s scale and purchasing power to make it carbon neutral, cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 65% in less than a decade and establish an all-electric fleet of …