AP National News

UNCASVILLE, Conn. (AP) — The contestant from Alaska has been crowned Miss America at an event marking the competition’s 100th anniversary. What began as a 1921 Atlantic City beauty pageant has evolved away from the emphasis on looks alone with a new focus on leadership, talent and communication skills. Contestants are no longer judged on

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s NHK says a fire broke out in a building in Osaka in western Japan and 27 people are feared dead. The fire broke out on the fourth or fifth floor of an eight-story building in a shopping and entertainment area on Friday, NHK said. Twenty-eight people were believed to be affected,

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York’s ethics commission has more work to do if it wants to seize the millions of dollars former Gov. Andrew Cuomo earned writing a book about the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the state attorney general’s office. The Joint Commission on Public Ethics on Monday gave Cuomo 30 days to turn

By LYNN ELBER AP Television Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Sex and the City” actor Chris Noth has been accused of sexually assaulting two women, who shared their accounts with the trade publication The Hollywood Reporter. Noth denies the allegations, saying his interactions with the women in 2004 and 2015 were “consensual.” The actor isn’t

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (AP) — Authorities say the body of a Kentucky teenager has been found after a tornado ravaged her neighborhood. Nyssa Brown was the seventh member of her family to die in the tornado that hit Bowling Green last week. A coroner says the 13-year-old’s body was found Thursday in a wooded area

TORONTO (AP) — Bars, restaurants, retail stores and entertainment venues across the Canadian province of Quebec will be required to operate at 50% capacity because of a surge in coronavirus cases from the new omicron variant. The rule was announces Thursday by Quebec’s premier as part of a series of new pandemic restrictions after forecasts

AKRON, Ohio (AP) — Two South Florida men have pleaded guilty in Ohio to leading a nationwide scheme to fraudulently obtain over $35 million in COVID-19 relief loans. Court records show 55-year-old James Stote and 52-year-old Phillip Augustin pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. They each face up to

By EVA VERGARA Associated Press SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — The widow of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet has died in the apartment where she led a secluded life in her final years, away from the luxuries and power she held during the military regime of 1973-1990. A son said Lucia Hiriart died Thursday surrounded by close

By LISA MASCARO and ALAN FRAM Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has all but acknowledged negotiations over his sweeping domestic policy package will have to be pushed into the new year. It was a setback Thursday as Senate Democrats rushed to try to send the roughly $2 trillion bill to his desk

By ALAN FRAM Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate parliamentarian says a Democratic effort to let millions of immigrants remain temporarily in the U.S. should be dropped from an expansive social and environment bill. It deals another blow to a longtime priority of the party, migrant advocates and progressives. The ruling by Elizabeth MacDonough,

By LAURAN NEERGAARD and MIKE STOBBE Associated Press U.S. health officials say most Americans should get the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines instead of the Johnson & Johnson shot. Thursday’s decision came after government advisers reviewed new safety data about rare but potentially life-threatening blood clots linked to J&J’s shot. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines don’t

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A major California utility has agreed to more than half a billion dollars in fines and penalties related to five wildfires in its territory in 2017 and 2018. The California Public Utilities Commission approved the settlement agreement with Southern California Edison on Thursday. It relates to the major Thomas and Woolsey

SYDNEY (AP) — Christmas lights have been turned off and a candlelight vigil was held in the Australian town where five children died after falling from a bouncy castle that was lifted into the air by a gust of wind. Three children were still in critical condition in the hospital and one child was discharged

By KEVIN McGILL Associated Press Writer NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A Louisiana appeal court says the man who killed former NFL player Joe McKnight cannot be tried again on a murder charge now that his conviction on the lesser charge of manslaughter has been overturned. Authorities in the New Orleans suburb of Jefferson Parish originally

By LORNE COOK and RAF CASERT Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders are pressing Russia to enter peace talks with Ukraine. At the same time, they are renewing a threat to impose unprecedented sanctions should Moscow send its troops over the border. Ukraine’s president is pleading for more sanctions to be imposed before

By ALAN FRAM and LISA MASCARO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has all but acknowledged negotiations over his sweeping domestic policy package will have to be pushed into the new year. It was a setback Thursday as Senate Democrats rushed to try to send the roughly $2 trillion bill to his desk

By MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection is subpoenaing James P. “Phil” Waldron, a onetime contact of former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows who pushed false claims about fraud in the 2020 presidential election. The Jan. 6 committee’s chairman cited reports of

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE AP Technology Writer SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Jurors in the case of former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes on Thursday heard starkly different interpretations of her motives and actions as her long-running criminal trial nears the finish line. A federal prosecutor cast Holmes as a desperate con artist who brazenly lied to