AP National News

NEW YORK (AP) — Columbia University and New York-Presbyterian Hospital have announced a settlement with 79 women who say they were sexually abused by former gynecologist Robert Hadden. The two hospitals said Wednesday the agreement establishes a $71.5 million compensation fund to be administered by an independent special master. Hadden was indicted in September 2020

AURORA, Mo. (AP) — A prosecutor has dismissed a murder charge against a southwestern Missouri man in a woman’s 1988 killing. Lawrence County prosecutor Don Trotter dismissed the first-degree murder charge against Lawrence Timmons, who was indicted in 2019 in the killing of Cynthia Smith. The 31-year-old Smith was last seen leaving a bar in

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Former Argentine President Mauricio Macri has been charged with illegally spying on relatives of sailors whose submarine sank in 2017, a loss that was one of the most embarrassing incidents of his presidency. Judge Martín Bava’s ruling can be appealed before any trial would begin. The judge ordered an embargo

By STAN CHOE, DAMIAN J. TROISE and ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writers Markets turned cautious again, erasing and early gain and ending lower as investors try to handicap how much the new coronavirus variant will impact the economy. The latest roller-coaster ride brought the S&P 500 index up 1.9% in the morning and down 1.2%

By NICHOLAS PAPHITIS Associated Press ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek lawmakers have approved legislation making vaccination for COVID-19 mandatory for all residents aged over 60, to deal with an infection surge and the emergence of the omicron variant. The draft law backed by the center-right government and a center-left opposition party — but rejected by

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A key U.N. committee is delaying action on requests by Myanmar’s military junta and Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to take their countries’ seats at the United Nations. Wednesday’s announcement by the chair of the General Assembly’s Credentials Committee means that the ambassadors from the former governments

LONDON (AP) — An 11-person collective from Belfast that aims to transcend Northern Ireland’s political and religious divides has won the U.K.’s prestigious Turner Prize for art. The Array Collective took the 25,000 pound ($33,000) prize on Wednesday for “The Druithaib’s Ball,” a recreation of a traditional Irish shebeen, or speakeasy full of references to

By DAVID KLEPPER and AMANDA SEITZ Associated Press Facebook says it removed hundreds of fake accounts linked to an effort to spread unfounded claims that the U.S. was pressuring scientists to blame the coronavirus on China. The platform says the disinformation operation began in July when someone claiming to be a Swiss biologist posted the

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS and LEAH WILLINGHAM Associated Press JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Abortion activists are protesting in Mississippi’s capital as the state takes center stage in a pivotal U.S. Supreme Court case that could end a nationwide right to abortion. At Mississippi’s only abortion clinic, men took turns on a loudspeaker Wednesday urging women

By JAMES MacPHERSON Associated Press BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A legal battle is headed to North Dakota’s Supreme Court over access to thousands of documents related to the developer of the Dakota Access Pipeline and the company that oversaw security during construction. Pipeline developer Energy Transfer and a subsidiary sued the state board that regulates

By JEFF AMY Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Democrat Stacey Abrams says she is making another run for governor of Georgia. Her announcement Wednesday could set up a rematch against Republican Gov. Brian Kemp four years after her narrow defeat led her to create a nationwide voting rights organization that helped the state elect Joe

PRAGUE (AP) — Petr Uhl, a Czech journalist who was one of the country’s leading communist-era dissidents and human rights activists, has died at 80. His wife, former Czech ombudsman Anna Sabatova, told the CTK agency that he died on Wednesday. Uhl headed the national news agency in the early 1990s following the 1989 anti-communist

The Associated Press Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates say they will still work with the Giving Pledge. That’s the campaign they co-founded with Warren Buffett in 2010 to encourage billionaires to donate the majority of their wealth through philanthropy. But following their divorce earlier this year, the two will work with the campaign separately

GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) — Federal authorities say a former Mississippi police sergeant has pleaded guilty to producing a video that shows a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct. U.S. Attorney Darren J. LaMarca on Tuesday said that 29-year-old Joshua Stockstill, of Carriere, enticed a minor child to engage in sexually explicit conduct and recorded the

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve is reporting that many parts of the country were hit by supply chain disruptions and labor shortages in November. In a survey of business conditions around the country, the Fed’s 12 regional banks found that the economy continued to grow at a modest-to-moderate

By ANDREW MELDRUM Associated Press JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa’s new cases of COVID-19 have nearly doubled in just one day. The numbers released Wednesday signal a dramatic surge in the country where scientists detected the omicron variant last week.  New confirmed cases rose to 8,561 Wednesday from 4,373 a day earlier. Scientists in South

By ZEKE MILLER, OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ and MICHAEL BALSAMO Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The U.S. identified its first known case of the omicron variant Wednesday — in a vaccinated traveler returning to California from South Africa — as scientists around the world raced to establish whether the new, mutant version of the coronavirus

By SCOTT BAUER and TODD RICHMOND Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Republican-hired attorney investigating the 2020 election has told Wisconsin lawmakers during a sometimes testy hearing he has filed a lawsuit to force officials in Green Bay and Madison to submit to a deposition. Also on Wednesday, Wisconsin’s embattled elections commission debated whether

By HOWARD FENDRICH AP Tennis Writer The head of the women’s professional tennis tour says all WTA tournaments in China will be suspended because of concerns about the safety of Peng Shuai. The Grand Slam doubles champion has accused a former high-ranking government official in that country of sexual assault. She posted her allegations on

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Chris Cuomo says it “hurts to even say” he’s been suspended from CNN after revelations that he was more involved in damage control for his politician brother than his bosses had been aware. Cuomo said Wednesday on his SiriusXM show that “the last thing I