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Omicron, the highly contagious coronavirus variant sweeping across the country, is driving the daily American death toll higher than during last fall's delta wave, with deaths likely to keep rising for days or even weeks.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — When the coronavirus began spreading around the world, the remote Pacific archipelago of Kiribati closed its borders, ensuring the disease didn't reach its shores for nearly two full years.
TOKYO (AP) — Japan's government said Friday it will watch the World Health Organization's investigation into staff complaints over racism and abuse by a top Japanese official at the agency but denied it inappropriately received sensitive vaccine information from him.
NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian health officials said there were signs of COVID-19 infections plateauing in some parts of the country but cautioned that cases were still surging in other states, linked to a new, stealthier version of the omicron variant.
Scientists and health officials around the world are keeping their eyes on a descendant of the omicron variant that has been found in more than 50 countries, including the United States.
This version of the coronavirus, which scientists call BA.2, is widely considered stealthier than the original version of omicron because particular genetic traits make it somewhat harder to detect.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The government's main health agency is failing to meet its responsibilities for leading the national response to public health emergencies including the coronavirus pandemic, extreme weather disasters and even potential bioterrorist attacks, a federal watchdog said Thursday.
Gas stoves are contributing more to global warming than previously thought because of constant tiny methane leaks while they’re off, a new study found.
The same study that tested emissions around stoves in homes raised new concerns about indoor air quality and health because of levels of nitrogen oxides measured.
NEW YORK (AP) — How many times can I reuse my N95 mask?
It depends, but you should be able to use N95s and KN95s a few times.
The U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention says health care workers can wear an N95 mask up to five times.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea plans to add hundreds of small neighborhood hospitals and clinics to treat the thousands more people expected to get COVID-19 during a developing omicron surge.
WASHINGTON (AP) — At least 14.5 million Americans are getting private health insurance for this year under the Obama-era health law, thanks to help from the Biden administration.
EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Evander Kane knows he will not be universally loved by by fans of the Edmonton Oilers.
Edmonton is the fourth franchise for the 30-year-old forward whose contract was dumped by the San Jose Sharks.
A turbulent week for markets ended with a late burst of buying, breaking a three-week losing streak and giving major indexes their biggest gains of the year. The S&P 500 added 2.4%, nearly all of it coming in the last hour of trading.
State and local governments lost at least $117 billion of expected revenue early in the pandemic, according to an Associated Press analysis, but many are now awash in record amounts of money, boosted partly by federal aid.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A federal judge resentenced “Tiger King” Joe Exotic to 21 years in prison on Friday, reducing his punishment by just a year despite pleas from the former zookeeper for leniency as he begins treatment for early-stage cancer.
LONDON (AP) — Doubt about the content and release of a key report into lockdown-breaching parties within the British government deepened Friday, when police said they wanted parts of it to remain unpublished until they finish a criminal investigation.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — State colleges and universities in Virginia cannot require students to get vaccinated against COVID-19, under a legal opinion issued Friday by Virginia’s new Republican attorney general.
CHAMPLAIN, N.Y. (AP) — Whenever a bus arrives at the Greyhound station in Plattsburgh, New York, a small band of taxi drivers waits to drive passengers on a half-hour trip to a snowy, dead-end road that turns to dirt near the Canadian border.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A measure of prices that is closely tracked by the Federal Reserve rose 5.8% last year, the sharpest increase since 1982, as brisk consumer spending collided with snarled supply chains to raise the costs of food, furniture, appliances and other goods.
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian authorities on Friday reported over 98,000 new confirmed coronavirus cases, but the Kremlin said the actual number is likely to be much greater as the highly contagious omicron variant continues to rage through the vast country.
ROME (AP) — The Vatican said Friday it has signed a contract to sell a luxury London building that is at the heart of a fraud and embezzlement trial under way in the Vatican's criminal tribunal, recovering more than it expected from the loss-making investment.
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union's executive arm is responsible of “maladministration" for mishandling a request for access to text messages between its president and the CEO of pharmaceutical company Pfizer regarding COVID-19 vaccine purchases, the bloc's ombudsman said Friday.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — When the pandemic hit Rio de Janeiro, Sabrina Crespo da Silva and her girlfriends were forced to live — for the first time — without the beach. But they couldn’t bear losing their tans, so they started lying out on her rooftop.
BUDVA, Montenegro (AP) — Tennis star Novak Djokovic received honors at a small Adriatic Sea resort in Montenegro on Friday even as doubts re-emerged about the positive COVID-19 test he used to try to compete in the Australian Open.
BEIJING (AP) — A snowboarder from Slovenia has tested positive for the coronavirus after landing in Beijing for the Olympics, the country’s national Olympic committee said Friday.
Žan Košir, who had been chosen as one of Slovenia’s flag bearers for next Friday’s opening ceremony, took a second test to confirm the result and is now in isolation.
BEIJING (AP) — Hong Kong’s economy grew by 6.4% last year after activity weakened as anti-coronavirus controls were tightened.
Economic output expanded by 4.8% over a year earlier in the three months ending in December, down from the previous quarter’s 5.5%, government data showed Friday.
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese are traveling to their hometowns for the Lunar New Year, the country’s biggest family holiday, despite a government plea to stay where they are as Beijing tries to contain coronavirus outbreaks.
BERLIN (AP) — Germany's coronavirus surge fueled by the omicron variant remains “under control” despite a string of new infection records, the country's health minister said Friday.
Cases as a result of the highly contagious variant in the European Union's most populous nation shot up at a later stage than in several other countries in the region.
LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Filipe Orfao, a 37-year-old emergency room nurse in Lisbon, voices grievances that have long been heard in Portugal.
The familiar gripes include a tradition of low pay, a public service career structure that thwarts ambitions to get ahead in life, the nagging enticement of going to work abroad instead of staying at home, and politicians’ broken promises of improvement, especially for health workers like Orfao who have weathered the coronavirus pandemic.