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BAGHDAD (AP) — Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammed Saeed al-Hakim, one of Iraq’s most senior and influential Muslim Shiite clerics, has died of a heart attack, members of his family said. He was 85.
A relative, Mohsen al-Hakim, told The Associated Press that al-Hakim died at the Al Hayat hospital in the southern holy city of Najaf on Friday where he was taken after suffering a sudden heart attack.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — New Zealand reported its first coronavirus death in more than six months on Saturday, while the number of new cases continued to trend downward.
Health authorities said the woman who died was in her 90s and had underlying health problems.
CHICAGO (AP) — The Rev. Jesse Jackson’s wife will be released from a Chicago hospital where she has been treated for COVID-19, her family said in a statement Friday.
A statement from Jonathan Jackson, one of the couple’s five children, did not specify when his 77-year-old mother, Jacqueline, would be released from Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
DEDHAM, Mass. (AP) — Former Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the once-powerful American prelate who was expelled from the priesthood for sexual abuse, pleaded not guilty Friday to sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy during a wedding reception in Massachusetts nearly 50 years ago.
As customary, there will be celebrations and somber reflections as American Jews observe the upcoming High Holy Days — their faith’s most important period. There also will be deep disappointment, as rabbis once again cancel or limit in-person worship due to the persisting COVID-19 pandemic.
BEIJING (AP) — China’s government banned effeminate men on TV and told broadcasters Thursday to promote “revolutionary culture,” broadening a campaign to tighten control over business and society and enforce official morality.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Republican states that have passed increasingly tough abortion restrictions only to see them blocked by the federal courts have a new template in an unusually written Texas law that represents the most far-reaching curb on abortions in nearly half a century.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — As a member of the Hazara minority in Afghanistan, Azim Kakaie would have had no access to higher education under the Taliban. Instead, over the past two decades he turned a love for aviation into an air-traffic control job in Kabul, he said Thursday.
VENICE (AP) — Italian director Paolo Sorrentino has profiled some powerful figures over the years, from real-life Italian premiers to fictional popes, as well as his adopted Rome in the Oscar-winner “The Great Beauty.” But in his newest release, Sorrentino turns the camera on his own personal tragedy.
UNITED NATIONS — The president of the U.N. Security Council says the U.N.’s most powerful body will not take its focus off Afghanistan this month and “the real litmus test” for the new Taliban government will be how it treats women and girls.
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico state health officials are keeping a wary watch over demands for hospital care as sustained delta variant infections strain medical resources.
In a Wednesday online briefing, health officials said that a majority of infections, hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 statewide continue to be among the unvaccinated.
NEW YORK (AP) — The Vatican has concluded that allegations of sexual abuse dating back a half century against the Roman Catholic Bishop of Brooklyn do not "have the semblance of truth," but an attorney for the accusers said they would press forward with their civil cases.
America’s major religions and denominations, often divided on other big issues, have united behind the effort to help receive an influx of refugees from Afghanistan following the end of the United States’ longest war and one of the largest airlifts in history.
MADRID (AP) — Pope Francis has criticized the West's two-decade-long involvement in Afghanistan as an outsider's attempt to impose democracy — although he did it by citing Russian President Vladimir Putin while thinking he was quoting German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — A Sri Lankan Roman Catholic leader has said the government must win back the confidence of the church before the two sides can hold talks on the church's criticisms of inquiries into 2019 Easter Sunday bomb blasts that killed 269 people.
BEIRUT (AP) — Driving back to base after firing rockets toward Israeli positions from a border area last month, a group of Hezbollah fighters was accosted by angry villagers who smashed their vehicles' windshields and held them up briefly.
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis says thanks to surgery that removed a portion of his colon he can now eat whatever he wants and leads “a totally normal life.”
The pontiff in a pre-recorded radio interview broadcast on Wednesday spoke about his health in the aftermath of the July 4 scheduled surgery at a Rome hospital.
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea has reported more than 2,000 new coronavirus cases, approaching a daily record set last month just a day after officials cautiously expressed hope that infections may slow.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — After more than a year of attending church virtually, Monique Allen has struggled to explain to her asthmatic daughter why people from their congregation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints don’t wear masks.
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday blocked Western Michigan University from enforcing a COVID-19 vaccine requirement against four female soccer players, ruling they are likely to prevail on claims it violates their constitutional religious rights.
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland's government asked the president Tuesday to declare a state of emergency along the border with Belarus as it tries to stop migrants from entering from the neighboring country.
CANBERRA, Australia — Australia says it has reached a deal with Singapore to acquire 500,000 doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine next week in return for delivering the same number of shots to Singapore in December.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The California Legislature on Monday voted to guarantee people can call out their bosses publicly in most harassment and discrimination cases.
When companies settle complaints filed by their employees, the agreements often include a provision barring the employee from disparaging the company or talking publicly about what happened.
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi Republican Gov. Tate Reeves said Monday that he stands by remarks he made at a political fundraising event last week — that he believes Christians are “a little less scared” of COVID-19 because of their belief in eternal life.
A federal grand jury has indicted a defrocked American priest on charges of having sex with minors while running a children’s shelter in a remote part of East Timor.
Richard Daschbach, 84, faces seven counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct at the Topu Honis shelter that he founded decades ago in the mountains of the predominantly Catholic island country south of Indonesia.
MISSION, Kan. (AP) — Former Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer announced Monday that he is dropping out of the 2022 race for governor after being diagnosed with prostate cancer.
“While I have always focused on helping others, for the next few weeks I am going to focus on my health," said Colyer, a physician who served as governor for a little less than a year in 2018.
PHOENIX (AP) — Health officials in Arizona's most populous county are sounding the alarm about a growing number of COVID-19 outbreaks in schools and a rising number of children and teens infected with the coronavirus.
CHICAGO (AP) — The Rev. Jesse Jackson's wife has been moved from intensive care back into a regular room at the Chicago hospital where she's being treated for COVID-19, her family said in a statement Monday.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Some of the biggest school systems in the U.S. are taking a hard line with teachers and staff members who are not yet vaccinated against COVID-19: Get a jab or lose your job.
BALTIMORE (AP) — The first new Catholic school built in Baltimore in roughly 60 years opened its doors Monday to hundreds of youngsters, who entered the gleaming new building with a mix of enthusiasm and first-day-back jitters.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A top-ranking Roman Catholic cardinal who eschewed the COVID-19 vaccine said he will soon begin rehabilitation after contracting the coronavirus and spending days on a ventilator.
KABUL, Afghanistan — The U.S. military says a drone strike on a vehicle suspected of being used for a planned attack in Afghanistan may have caused “additional casualties” as well as killed the two Islamic State militants it targeted.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A U.S. drone strike blew up a vehicle carrying “multiple suicide bombers” from Afghanistan's Islamic State affiliate on Sunday before they could attack the ongoing military evacuation at Kabul's international airport, American officials said.