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By LLAZAR SEMINI Associated Press TIRANA, Albania (AP) — In her last trip in the western Balkans as a German chancellor, Angela Merkel visited Albania to urge the leaders of six western Balkan nations gathered there to strengthen their regional cooperation in their strive for European Union membership. The western Balkan states are at different

By VANESSA GERA Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Warsaw’s Jewish community has buried an unidentified Holocaust victim whose remains were discovered in a building that was within the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II. Poland’s chief rabbi said “we are here as the family for a person we don’t know.” The bones were wrapped

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Massive government relief passed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic moved millions of Americans out of poverty last year, even as the official poverty rate increased slightly. That’s according to Census Bureau reports released Tuesday. The official poverty measure showed an increase of 1 percentage point in

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A judge has suspended Minnesota’s new stricter standards on when police can use deadly force, halting a change in state law that followed the death of George Floyd while in custody of Minneapolis police. The new standards, passed by the Legislature in 2020, raised the bar on officers to justify

Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Poet Patricia Smith has won the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for lifetime achievement, a $100,000 honor handed out by the Chicago-based Poetry Foundation. Previous winners include W.S. Merwin, Kay Ryan and the current poet laureate, Joy Harjo. Smith is known for such collections as “Blood Dazzler” and “Incendiary Art,”

LOGANSPORT, Ind. (AP) — A 22-year-old U.S. Marine from Indiana has been remembered as a hero during a funeral in his hometown. Corporal Humberto Sanchez was among 13 U.S. service members killed in August in a suicide bombing at Afghanistan’s Kabul airport during the U.S.-led evacuation. Former Vice President Mike Pence was among the mourners

By KATHY GANNON Associated Press KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan’s new foreign minister says the Taliban governing the country remain committed to not allowing militants to use their territory to launch attacks. But he refused to say when or if the country’s new rulers would create a more inclusive government. Amir Khan Mutaqi repeated several

By MIKE SCHNEIDER Associated Press A task force of outside experts has found no evidence of political interference in the 2020 census numbers used for divvying up congressional seats among the U.S. states. The American Statistical Association task force also said Tuesday that it had encountered no irregularities indicating the figures are unfit for use

By DANICA KIRKA Associated Press LONDON (AP) — UK. Health Secretary Sajid Javid says that the government canceled an agreement with French vaccine maker Valneva partly because it was clear the company’s COVID-19 shot wouldn’t be approved by British regulators. Javid’s comments came a day after Valneva said the government had terminated an agreement to

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s president has told his German counterpart in a telephone call that Turkey does not have the capacity to deal with a possible new refugee wave from Afghanistan. According to a statement from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s office, the Turkish leader also told German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier Tuesday that Germany and

By SYLVIE CORBET The Associated Press PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron has announced measures to make the police more transparent about wrongdoings. They include the publication of internal investigation reports and the creation of a parliamentary monitoring body. Macron’s speech Tuesday in a police school in northern France comes after a monthslong national