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BEIRUT (AP) — Syria received a planeload from the United Arab Emirates on Thursday with food items and medical aid to help the war-torn country in its fight against the spread of the coronavirus, Syria's state media reported. The aid…

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — The head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday described COVID-19 vaccine passports as “inappropriate" while poor countries lag behind others in acquiring the shots. “Our position is very simple. That any…

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Doctors in Hungary are questioning the government's decision to lift some lockdown restrictions amid peaking COVID-19 infections and deaths, saying that could lead to an even more dire situation in the Central European nation. Shops and…

Advocates for prison inmates say more needs to be done to educate prisoners about coronavirus vaccines because large numbers of them are declining the shots. Prison officials say they are providing information about the vaccines to prisoners. But advocates say outside experts and trusted community members need to be brought in. Officials at the federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut, held town halls and posted information around the prison before vaccinations began in January. But more than 200 of the nearly 550 inmates who were offered the shots refused to take them. More than 5,500 state and county prisoners in Massachusetts have refused the vaccines.

The applause started when Lee Elder’s golf cart began moving toward the first tee. It only got louder when he arrived and slowly made his way to his seat to help open the Masters. Elder — the first Black man to play the Masters — eventually rose from his chair, hoisted his driver skyward for a moment, then nodded, smiled and waved in appreciation of the hundreds of people who crowded around the first tee to see history happen. He joined Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus as an honorary starter for the Masters on Thursday morning, the first time he had been part of the ceremony.

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s health minister said Thursday that the European Union doesn't plan to order Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine but his country will hold talks with Russia on whether an individual order makes sense. The EU’s executive Commission…

IQUITOS, Peru (AP) — When Adriana Wong reached the field in the Amazon forest, she was confused. There were dozens of crosses planted in the red soil, but nothing to distinguish her father’s grave. “Are you sure my dad is…

Two young men who caused a sensation four years ago when they created their own gory zombie movie are back, this time in a documentary championed by a Hollywood luminary. The film chronicles their tenacious effort to see their silver screen dream come to fruition. Sam Suchmann and Mattie Zufelt both have Down syndrome. They scripted, produced and starred in 2016′s “Spring Break Zombie Massacre.” They are featured in the documentary released this week called “Sam & Mattie Make a Zombie Movie.” The film has the backing of Oscar-winning Hollywood producer Peter Farrelly, a mentor and friend.

Holocaust survivors are taking to social media to share their experiences of how hate speech paved the way for mass murder. They are doing this to counter the rise of online anti-Semitism during the pandemic and because studies have shown that younger generations lack even basic knowledge of the Nazi genocide. With short video messages recounting their stories, survivors are taking part in the #ItStartedWithWords campaign that launched Thursday. It aims to educate people about how the Nazis embarked upon an insidious campaign for years to dehumanize and marginalize Jews — well before death camps like Auschwitz, Treblinka and Sobibor were established to carry out murder on an industrial scale.

The traditional French Open schedule is being disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic for the second year in a row. Organizers say the clay-court Grand Slam tennis tournament will be delayed by one week because of surging virus cases in France. The French Open was scheduled to start on May 23 but will now get underway on May 30. The French tennis federation says the decision was taken in order to maximize chances the event will be played “in front of as many spectators as possible” in a safe environment. Last year’s tournament was pushed back to September because of the health crisis and crowds were limited to 1,000 per day.

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Bosnia is seeing a rise in coronavirus infections among migrants and refugees living in its camps, as it struggles to cope with one of the Balkans' highest COVID-19 death and infection rates among the general population.…

The Toronto Blue Jays are set to become the first team in Major League Baseball history to play home openers in three different cities over three consecutive seasons. Bo Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the Jays host the Angels on Thursday night at TD Ballpark in Dunedin, Florida, their spring training stadium. The Blue Jays played in Toronto in 2019. They held home games at their Triple-A site in Buffalo last year after the Canadian government barred them over coronavirus concerns. A limited-capacity crowd of about 1,300 is expected at TD Ballpark. The Cardinals, Mets and several other teams play their home openers.

Nepal’s “God of Sight” eye doctor renowned for his innovative and inexpensive cataract surgery for the poor is taking his work beyond the Himalayan mountains so there is no more unnecessary blindness in the world. Dr. Sanduk Ruit, who has won many awards and performed some 130,000 cataract surgeries, is aiming to expand his work globally. The new foundation has set the target of 500,000 cataract surgeries in less than five years in different parts of the world. At the latest free camp for the poor in southern Nepal, hundreds were fortunate enough to receive the surgery from Ruit who many compared him with god who has restored their eyesight and given them new lives.

Devin Booker scored 35 points, Chris Paul added 29 and the Phoenix Suns beat the Utah Jazz 117-113 in overtime Wednesday night in an entertaining matchup between the top two teams in the NBA. Booker had a couple of clutch mid-range jumpers to keep the Jazz behind and Paul made a 3-pointer with a minute left that pushed Phoenix ahead 114-108. Utah pulled to 114-112 on Mike Conley’s layup with 21 seconds left, but could never tie it. Paul hit two free throws with 7.8 seconds left to finally seal it and wrap up the season series with a game left. Phoenix has won seven in a row. Donovan Mitchell led Utah with 41 points.

As the COVID-19 pandemic killed more than a half-million Americans, it also quietly inflamed what was before it one of the country’s greatest public health crises: addiction. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 88,000 people died of drug overdoses in the 12 months ending in August 2020. That's the highest number of overdose deaths ever recorded in a year. Huntington was once ground zero for the addiction epidemic. But after a hard-fought battle, the overdose rate plummeted. Until the pandemic arrived, and undid much of their hard work. 

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares were mostly higher in Asia on Thursday after a mixed close on Wall Street, where gains for several Big Tech stocks nudged the S&P 500 to a second record high in three days. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225…

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland will visit Utah this week before submitting a review on national monuments in the state. Residents there have both staunchly supported establishing and increasing the size of national monuments, and fiercely rallied against them. Haaland is the latest Interior secretary tasked with making recommendations on where the boundaries lie. Her input comes after President Donald Trump's administration decided to downsize two national monuments in southern Utah. She's expected to submit a report to President Joe Biden after she meets with tribes and elected leaders at Bears Ears National Monument on Thursday.

The St. Louis Blues have lost seven in a row and are running out of time to salvage their season and make the playoffs. Less than two years since winning the Stanley Cup, the Blues face an uphill climb to even qualify for the NHL postseason. They're five points back of the final spot in the Western Division with 18 games to go. But 14 of those 18 games are against the top three teams in the West: Vegas, Colorado or Minnesota. Coach Craig Berube's team needs to find its game quickly or it will be lamenting another rough ending to a season.