ST. LOUIS (AP) — Health officials have confirmed the first case of the omicron coronavirus variant in Missouri. The St. Louis Health Department said Saturday that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had confirmed the virus case in a resident of St. Louis that was first reported Friday as a presumed case of…
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden plans to require essential nonresident travelers crossing U.S. land borders, such as truck drivers and emergency response officials, to be fully vaccinated beginning on Jan. 22. A senior administration official said the requirement brings the rules for essential travelers in line with those that took effect earlier this month…
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Four astronauts are back on Earth after a 200-day space station mission. They rode home Monday in a SpaceX capsule, parachuting into the Gulf of Mexico near Pensacola, Florida, in darkness. The astronauts from the U.S., France and Japan departed the International Space Station eight hours earlier. The toilet in…
CHARLES DE GAULLE AIRPORT, France (AP) — The U.S. is lifting restrictions on travel from a long list of countries including Mexico, Canada and most of Europe, allowing tourists to make long-delayed trips and family members to reconnect with loved ones after more than a year and a half apart because of the pandemic. COVID-19…
LONDON (AP) — The U.S. government has asked Britain’s High Court to overturn a judge’s decision that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should not be sent to the United States to face espionage charges. A lower court judge who refused extradition in January ruled Assange was likely to kill himself if held under harsh U.S. prison…
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — U.S. officials are working with Haitian authorities to try to secure the release of 12 adults and five children with a U.S.-based missionary group who were abducted by a gang notorious for killings, kidnappings and extortion. Police say the group was snatched by the 400 Mawozo gang on Saturday. As authorities…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration says the U.S. will reopen its land borders to nonessential travel next month, ending a 19-month freeze due to the COVID-19 pandemic. International visitors will need to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. Vehicle, rail and ferry travel between the U.S. and Canada and Mexico has been largely restricted to…
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel is pressing ahead with its aggressive campaign of offering coronavirus boosters to almost anyone over 12 and says its approach was further vindicated by a U.S. decision to give the shots to older patients or those at higher risk. Israeli officials credit the booster shot with helping suppress the country’s latest…
DEL RIO, Texas (AP) — U.S. officials say many Haitian migrants camped in a small Texas border town are being released in the United States, undercutting the Biden administration’s public statements that Haitians who enter the country illegally face immediate expulsion. One official says Haitians have been freed on a “very, very large scale” in…
KUWAIT CITY (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says the al-Qaida extremist group that used Afghanistan as a staging base to attack United States 20 years ago may attempt to regenerate there following an American withdrawal that has left the Taliban in power. “That’s the nature of the organization,” he told a small group…