Author: Staff Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump urged supporters to “LIBERATE” three states led by Democratic governors Friday, apparently encouraging protests against stay-at-home mandates aimed at stopping the coronavirus. At least two states under Republican leadership took their first steps toward easing restrictions. A day after laying out a road map to gradually reopen the crippled […]

SINT-PIETERS BRUGGE, Belgium (AP) — Master chocolatier Dominique Persoone stood forlorn on his huge workfloor, a faint smell of cocoa lingering amid the idle machinery — in a mere memory of better times. Easter Sunday is normally the most important date on the chocolate makers’ calendar. But the coronavirus pandemic, with its lockdowns and social […]

VATICAN CITY (AP) — A pair of white-coated doctors who care for coronavirus patients participated in a torch-lit Good Friday procession, watched over by Pope Francis and held in a hauntingly nearly empty St. Peter’s Square instead of at Rome’s Colosseum because of the safety measures aimed at containing the virus’ spread. Francis presided over […]

The human and economic toll of the lockdowns against the coronavirus mounted Thursday as India struggled to feed the multitudes, Italy shut down most of its industry, and a record-shattering 3.3 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits in a single week. The U.S. surpassed official Chinese government numbers to become the country with most reported […]

MILAN (AP) — The coronavirus outbreak in northern Italy has so overwhelmed the public health system that officials are taking extraordinary measures to care for the sick, seeking to bring doctors out of retirement and accelerate graduation dates for nursing students. March 02, 2020 The region of Lombardy has been the epicenter of Italy’s outbreak, […]

PARIS (AP) — French authorities on Thursday reported twenty new cases of people infected with the new virus in the past 24 hours, bringing the total in the country to 38, including two deaths. The jump in figures prompted concern as French President Emmanuel Macron warned earlier that the country was bracing for an epidemic. […]

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — An executive order by President Donald Trump giving states the right to refuse to take refugees is putting Republican governors in an uncomfortable position. They’re caught between immigration hardliners who want to shut the door and some Christian evangelicals who believe helping refugees is a moral obligation. Others say refugees are […]