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MIAMI (AP) — A federal judge has declined to block a ban imposed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to prevent mandating masks for Florida school students amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. Judge K. Michael Moore in Miami denied a request by parents of disabled children for a preliminary injunction against an executive order that DeSantis

By MARK THIESSEN Associated Press ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska has reported its highest number of new COVID-19 cases, a day after the state’s largest hospital announced it had entered crisis protocol and started rationing care. There were 1,068 new cases of COVID-19, with case counts 13% higher than last week. State officials say 201

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) — A California county has paid $11 million to a man who spent two decades in prison after being wrongly convicted of murdering his girlfriend in 1998. The Riverside Press-Enterprise reported Tuesday that the payment settles a federal lawsuit filed by Horace Roberts accusing Riverside County and its sheriff’s department of manufacturing

By BABA AHMED and KRISTA LARSON Associated Press BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — France’s president says the head of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara has been killed. Emmanuel Macron tweeted that the death of Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi was a major success for French forces in the Sahel. The French military has been fighting

By MATTHEW BARAKAT Associated Press FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — A divided federal appeals court has upheld the dismissal of an ACLU lawsuit challenging a portion of the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance of Americans’ international email and phone communications. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that the lawsuit must be dismissed

By KIM TONG-HYUNG and HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said it successfully launched ballistic missiles from a train for the first time and was continuing to bolster its defenses, after the two Koreas test-fired missiles hours apart in dueling displays of military might. Wednesday’s launches underscored a return of

By ANDREW DeMILLO Associated Press LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A federal judge has dismissed the Little Rock police chief’s lawsuit against the local police union and several current and former officers. U.S. District Judge Jay Moody on Wednesday dismissed Chief Keith Humphrey’s lawsuit, which accused the officers and the union of conspiring to force

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is considering requiring that international visitors be vaccinated against COVID-19. And it will gather information to conduct contact tracing on visitors after the U.S. revamps current broad travel restrictions. This was announced Wednesday by Jeffrey Zients, the White House coronavirus response coordinator. He says the administration wants to make

By BECKY BOHRER Associated Press JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Authorities say a U.S. citizen living in Mexico who claimed ties to the Sinaloa cartel faces a 17-count indictment related to a drug trafficking operation between Mexico and Alaska. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Alaska says Miguel Baez Guevara was arrested by Mexican immigration authorities in

By KATHLEEN RONAYNE and NICHOLAS RICCARDI Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Few Democrats are surprised to see Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom swat down a Republican-driven recall campaign in bright-blue California. But they are pleased with how he did it. Democrats say that by making the race into a referendum on former President Donald Trump

By SARA CLINE Associated Press/Report for America PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The City Council in Portland, Oregon, has scrapped a plan to boycott Texas businesses because of a new law that prohibits most abortions there, deciding to instead set aside $200,000 to fund reproductive care. The liberal Pacific Northwest city made headlines earlier this month

By JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — World leaders will have to be vaccinated against the coronavirus to speak at the U.N. General Assembly’s big meeting next week. The assembly president and New York City officials said so this week. But the new requirement is prompting swift objections from at least one nation:

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A California Republican congressman says a California couple who are both in their 80s and are U.S. citizens has finally left Afghanistan after they were repeatedly blocked by the Taliban. Rep. Darrell Issa said in a statement Wednesday that they were on their way home to San Diego County. His office