AP National News

By MIKE FULLER Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The U.K. government has been making contingency plans in case hospitals, schools and other workplaces are hit by major staff shortages amid the latest record spike in coronavirus infections. Public sector workplaces have been preparing for absences ranging from 10% to 25% as COVID-19 sickens more people

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s Suez Canal says its annual revenues reached $6.3 billion last year, the highest in the crucial waterway’s history. Admiral Ossama Rabei, head of the Suez Canal Authority, says last year’s revenues rose 12.8%, compared to 2020, when the canal achieved $5.6 billion. He says that 20,649 vessels passed through the Suez

By ZEN SOO Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — A Hong Kong online news site says it will cease operations in light of deteriorating press freedoms, days after police raided and arrested seven people for sedition at a separate pro-democracy news outlet. Citizen News announced its decision in a Facebook post Sunday. It said it

By SARAH EL DEEB Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — The head of Lebanon’s largest Christian parliamentary bloc says a 15-year-old alliance with the country’s powerful Shiite group Hezbollah was no longer working and must evolve. The Sunday televised speech by Gebran Bassil, who heads the Free Patriotic Movement, signaled an unprecedented level of frustration with

By LAURA UNGAR AP Science Writer ST. LOUIS (AP) — A 16-year-old with autism recently got the chance to meet the first mice in the world engineered to have the same genetic abnormality he has. Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis bred the mice and grew stem cells derived from Jake Litvag’s blood. The

By ANDREW MELDRUM Associated Press CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — The remains of South African archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu have been interred during a private family service at Cape Town’s Anglican cathedral. Archbishop Thabo Makgoba laid a small box containing Tutu’s remains to rest in the floor in front of

By DENISE LAVOIE Associated Press RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — States across the country are taking steps to try to deter the thefts of catalytic converters. Thefts of the exhaust emission control devices have jumped over the past two years as prices for the precious metals they contain have skyrocketed. Thieves can expect to get anywhere

By ANDREW MELDRUM and GERALD IMRAY Associated Press CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Firefighters are battling a major blaze at South Africa’s national Parliament complex in the southern city of Cape Town. The country’s minister of public works and infrastructure said Sunday’s fire started in a building that houses offices and has spread to

By BABA AHMED Associated Press BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Mali’s military junta wants to extend its rule for five more years and put off the next presidential election until 2026 despite a deadline of next month set by West African regional mediators. Under its plan, a referendum to amend the Malian Constitution would be held

By ALEKSANDAR FURTULA and MIKE CORDER Associated Press AMSTERDAM (AP) — Thousands of people in the capital of the Netherlands have defied a ban and gathered for a demonstration against the Dutch government’s coronavirus lockdown measures. They gathered Sunday on a central square before marching toward a park in the west of the city. Riot

By CAROLYN THOMPSON Associated Press Mask requirements are returning in some school districts that had dropped them. Some are planning to vastly ramp up virus testing among students and staff. And a small number of school system are switching to remote learning. Educators hope that’s for just a short while, though. Soaring coronavirus infections mean

By RAF CASERT and KIRSTEN GRIESHABER Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — Draft European Union plans that would allow nuclear and gas energy to remain part of the bloc’s path to a climate-friendly future came under immediate criticism over the weekend. In draft conclusions seen by The Associated Press, the EU’s executive commission proposes a classification

By ALEKSANDAR FURTULA and MIKE CORDER Associated Press AMSTERDAM (AP) — Thousands of people in the capital of the Netherlands have defied a ban to gather for a demonstration against the Dutch government’s coronavirus lockdown measures. The local government in Amsterdam had outlawed Sunday’s protest, saying police had indications some demonstrators might be planning to

By ANDREW MELDRUM and GERALD IMRAY Associated Press CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Firefighters are battling a major blaze at South Africa’s national Parliament complex. The country’s minister of public works and infrastructure said Sunday’s fire started on the third floor of a building that houses offices and has spread to the National Assembly

By SARAH EL DEEB Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — An official in a Lebanese rescue group says a mother and her three children died in their sleep after inhaling toxic fumes from burning coal to warm their room in a village in southern Lebanon. The official says he transported the bodies to be buried from

HAZEL GREEN, Ala. (AP) — A line of severe storms damaged homes, knocked out power and downed trees in parts of the southern United States late Saturday into Sunday morning. Authorities closed roads in Hazel Green, Alabama, after power lines came down and homes suffered damage. Local news outlets report the weather also caused damage

By HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s military says an unidentified person has crossed the heavily fortified border into North Korea. The person was earlier spotted by surveillance equipment at the eastern portion of the border, known as the Demilitarized Zone, but avoided capture by South Korean troops on Saturday

By ILAN BEN ZION and SAMY MAGDY Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — Egyptian officials are pushing for Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip to rein in hostilities and adhere to a cease-fire in place since the war in May. The Egyptian efforts on Sunday come a day after Hamas militants launched rockets into

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — A bus has veered off a mountain highway in Nepal, leaving at least seven dead and about a dozen injured. A government administrator says the bus was carrying mourners who were transporting the body of a relative back to their village. The bus had 35 people people on board when it

By ANDREW MELDRUM and GERALD IMRAY Associated Press CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Firefighters are battling a blaze at South Africa’s national Parliament complex. The country’s minister of public works and infrastructure said Sunday’s fire started on the third floor of a building that houses offices and spread to the National Assembly building, where