AP National News

By MATTHEW DALY Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — For the second time this month, House Republicans have advanced a measure to restrict presidential use of the nation’s emergency oil stockpile — a proposal that has already drawn a White House veto threat. A GOP bill approved Friday would require the government to offset any non-emergency

By ED DAVEY The manufacture of “green steel” moved one step closer to reality Friday as Massachusetts-based Boston Metal announced a $120 million investment from the world’s second-largest steelmaker, ArcelorMittal. Boston Metal will use the injection of funds to expand production at a pilot plant in Woburn, near Boston, and help launch commercial production in

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican immigration authorities say they have found 57 Guatemalan adolescents packed into a trailer on a highway near the U.S. border. The National Immigration Institute says that during an inspection Thursday officers discovered the 43 boys and 14 girls were crammed into the truck’s trailer, along with eight men and a

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares advanced Friday, tracking a rally on Wall Street following reports suggesting the economy and corporate profits may be doing better than feared. In Tokyo, data showed the core consumer price index was up 4.3%, slightly higher than expected and higher than the Bank of

By KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea says it will continue to restrict the entry of short-term travelers from China through the end of February over concerns that the spread of COVID-19 in that country may worsen following the Lunar New Year’s holidays. South Korea had stopped issuing most short-term

By RIO YAMAT and ANDREW SELSKY Associated Press SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Police in southern Oregon were searching Thursday for a man accused of torturing a woman he held captive, less than two years after he was convicted in Nevada of keeping another woman in captivity for weeks before the victim managed to escape. Grants

By CHALIDA EKVITTHAYAVECHNUKUL Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — A court in Thailand sentenced a 27-year-old political activist to 28 years in prison on Thursday for posting messages on Facebook that it said defamed the country’s monarchy, while two young women charged with the same offense continued a hunger strike after being hospitalized. The court in

FLINT, Mich. (AP) — A mid-Michigan man says he’s innocent of the charges brought against him in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot in Washington. Isaac Thomas of Genesee County appeared in U.S. District Court in Flint on Thursday. The 10 federal charges Thomas faces include entering or remaining in a restricted building;

By AAMER MADHANI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has signed off on a two-year extension of a program that protects Hong Kong residents in the U.S. from deportation. Biden first authorized the program in August 2021 for 18 months. It was set to expire on Feb. 5 and is now extended until

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Powerful Santa Ana winds across Southern California were clocked as high as 112 mph, toppling trees, prompting the closure of San Diego’s iconic Balboa Park after a woman was briefly pinned by a eucalyptus, and blowing over big rigs on several highways. The National Weather Service says top gusts Thursday hit

NEW YORK (AP) — A lawyer who purchased gasoline that another lawyer used in firebombing an unoccupied New York City police car during protests over George Floyd’s death in 2020 has been sentenced to a year and a day in prison. Colinford Mattis appeared in federal court Thursday. He was also ordered to pay just

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A prosecutor has asked a judge not to dismiss a second-degree murder charge against a former Grand Rapids police officer accused of shooting a Black motorist in the back of the head during a struggle over a Taser. Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker filed court papers this week opposing a

By ADAM BEAM Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Weeks of historic rainfall in California won’t be enough to end a severe drought, but it will provide public water agencies serving 27 million people with much more water than the suppliers had been told to expect a month ago, state officials announced Thursday. The Department

By WAYNE PARRY Associated Press TOMS RIVER, N.J. (AP) — A proposed settlement between New Jersey and the current owner of a notoriously polluted industrial site is drawing fire from residents of Toms River, where memories of children getting cancer at elevated rates are still a fresh source of pain. The state and Germany-based BASF

By MICHAEL GOLDBERG Associated Press/Report for America JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Deaths from pregnancy complications have become more prevalent in Mississippi, and racial disparities in the health of those who give birth have widened in recent years, according to a report released Thursday by the state’s Department of Health. The Mississippi Maternal Mortality Report shows

By ISABEL DEBRE Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — Gaza militants fired rockets and Israel carried out airstrikes early Friday as tensions soared following an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank that killed nine Palestinians, including at least seven militants and a 61-year-old woman. It was the deadliest single raid in the territory in over

By DAVID RISING Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — The United Nations says the production of opium in Myanmar has flourished since the military’s seizure of power. The cultivation of poppies is up by a third in the past year as eradication efforts have dropped off and the faltering economy has led more people toward the

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden says the nation’s prayers are with two California cities where 18 people were killed in separate mass shootings over the last week. Biden says the people of both communities will forever be affected by the shootings and the nation has to “be there” for

By KEN RITTER Associated Press LAS VEGAS (AP) — A federal lawsuit in Nevada is seeking class-action damages for countless hotel patrons who booked rooms in Las Vegas since 2019, alleging that most hotel-casinos on the Las Vegas Strip have used a third-party vendor to illegally fix prices. The complaint filed Wednesday in U.S. District