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TOP STORIES

Omicron’s New Years cocktail: Sorrow, fear but hope for 2022

55 minutes ago

Fireworks explode over the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge as New Year's Eve celebrations begin in Sydney, Friday, Dec. 31, 2021. (Dean Lewins/AAP Image via AP)

PARIS (AP) — Sorrow for the dead and dying, fear of more infections to come and hopes for an end to the coronavirus pandemic were — again — the bittersweet cocktail with which the world said good riddance to 2021 and ushered in 2022.

Breaking News

Wildfires burn hundreds of homes in Colorado, thousands flee

7 minutes ago

Homes burn as a wildfire rips through a development near Rock Creek Village, Thursday, Dec. 30, 2021, near Broomfield, Colo. An estimated 580 homes, a hotel and a shopping center have burned and tens of thousands of people were evacuated in wind-fueled wildfires outside Denver, officials said Thursday evening. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Afghanistan

Parents selling children shows desperation of Afghanistan

today

Qandi Gul holds her brother outside their home housing those displaced by war and drought near Herat, Afghanistan. Dec. 16, 2021. Gul’s father sold her into marriage without telling his wife, taking a down-payment so he could feed his family of five children. Without that money, he told her, they would all starve. He had to sacrifice one to save the rest. (AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov)

Coronavirus Pandemic

Should kids be vaccinated? Brazil turns to online survey

an hour ago

FILE - A health worker gives a shot of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine inside the Solidary Hands Shelter for the homeless in the poor neighborhood of Ceilandia in Brasilia, Brazil, June 29, 2021. Brazil's government started taking an online public survey on Dec. 24 to inform their decisions about whether and how to vaccinate children against the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File)

Coronavirus Pandemic

Live updates: 1 in 15 people in London likely has COVID-19

38 minutes ago

People ride in a bike taxi near Leicester Square in London, Thursday, Dec. 30, 2021. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has resisted implementing new restrictions on business and social interactions during the holiday season, instead emphasizing an expanded vaccine booster program to control the spread of omicron. (Jonathan Brady/PA via AP)

Coronavirus Pandemic

‘A hell of a year’: GOP eyes big 2022, but weaknesses remain

2 hours ago

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., holds a printed out copy the Miami Herald newspaper during a news conference after a weekly Republican policy luncheon on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2021.(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Joe Biden

Biden talks sanctions, Putin warns of rupture over Ukraine

today

In this image provided by The White House, President Joe Biden speaks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the phone from his private residence in Wilmington, Del., Thursday, Dec. 30, 2021. (Adam Schultz/The White House via AP)

Africa

‘A moral giant’: South Africans pay their respects to Tutu

an hour ago

The coffin carrying Anglican Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu is carried into the St. George's Cathedral Friday, Dec. 31, 2021 where he will lie in state for a second day in Cape Town, South Africa. Tutu, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning activist for racial equality and LGBT rights died Sunday at the age of 90. (AP Photo/Nardus Engelbrecht)

Coronavirus Pandemic

Behind the wait for a verdict at Maxwell jury deliberations

today

In this courtroom sketch, Ghislaine Maxwell, left, pulls down her mask to talk to one of her lawyers, Jeffrey Pagliuca, during Maxwell's sex trafficking trial, Monday, Dec. 27, 2021, in New York. (AP Photo/Elizabeth Williams)

Coronavirus Pandemic

Final goodbye: Recalling influential people who died in 2021

54 minutes ago

FILE - Secretary of State Colin Powell looks on as President Bush addresses State Department employees at the State Department in Washington, on Feb. 15, 2001. Powell, who died Oct. 18, 2021, was a trailblazing soldier and diplomat. (AP Photo/Kenneth Lambert, File)

Kashmiri men row their raft made of plastic pipes on Dal Lake on the outskirts of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, after a brief spell of fresh snowfall, on Feb. 27, 2021. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

YEAR IN REVIEWAP'S TOP PHOTOS OF 2021

2021: YEAR IN REVIEW

Final goodbye: Recalling influential people who died in 2021

Britney, Bennifer, Beatles and Broadway: Pop culture in 2021

Analysis: As US focus wanes, Mideast turns inward for talks

Supply shortages and emboldened workers: A changed economy

Sports returned in 2021, but not the way we remembered them

WEEKEND READS

Final goodbye: Recalling influential people who died in 2021

The AP Interview: Nikole Hannah-Jones' warning on democracy

The AP Interview: CDC chief says omicron mostly mild so far

Coordinator Frazier provides Bills calm, reassuring presence

He wore a wire, risked his life to expose who was in the KKK

POLITICS

'A hell of a year': GOP eyes big 2022, but weaknesses remain

Biden talks sanctions, Putin warns of rupture over Ukraine

Nursing home workers are urged to get boosters as cases soar

House committee says Trump privilege claim should be tossed

New laws take effect across US on abortion, policing, taxes

WORLD NEWS

Omicron's New Years cocktail: Sorrow, fear but hope for 2022

Party-goers urged not to travel across UK as omicron surges

Live updates: 1 in 15 people in London likely has COVID-19

Parents selling children shows desperation of Afghanistan

'A moral giant': South Africans pay their respects to Tutu

ENTERTAINMENT

FILE - The 2022 sign that will be lit on top of a building on New Year's Eve is displayed in Times Square, New York, Monday, Dec. 20, 2021. New York City is readying to embrace the new year by reviving its annual New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square—limiting the number of people to about 15,000 in-person spectators. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

Limited revelers return to Times Square to usher in 2022

'Pooh,' 'Sun Also Rises' among works going public in 2022

Mandy Moore braces for farewell to 'This Is Us'; music ahead

Italy welcomes home trafficked antiquities from US museums

Denis O’Dell, worked on Beatles films, dies in Spain at 98

ODDITIES

Mama bear, 3 cubs climb tree, take nap in urban Virginia

A full deck of cards: Ohio House signs on to aide's ambition

Mama bear, cubs spotted napping in tree in Va. neighborhood

Sweet repeat: Brothers regift same hard candy for decades

SPORTS

New Jersey Devils defenseman Damon Severson (28) celebrates a 4-3 victory with goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood (29) following an NHL hockey game against the Buffalo Sabres, Wednesday, Dec. 29, 2021, in Buffalo, N.Y. (AP Photo/Jeffrey T. Barnes)

Devils coach Lindy Ruff tests positive, misses Oilers game

Avoiding coronavirus part of quieter bowl week for CFP teams

Analysis: Where will the coaching carousel land this time?

No Thursday game doesn't make the pickings any easier

LIFESTYLE

FILE - Marvin Marcus, 79, a resident at the Hebrew Home at Riverdale, receives a COVID-19 booster shot in New York, Sept. 27, 2021. Federal health officials call on nursing homes to redouble efforts to administer COVID-19 booster shots to residents and staff amid sharply rising cases among staff and lagging rates of booster vaccination. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

Nursing home workers are urged to get boosters as cases soar

Do at-home COVID-19 tests detect the omicron variant?

EXPLAINER: Why are so many flights being canceled?

Comments renew debate over adoption as abortion alternative

Virus postpones Westminster Kennel Club's annual dog show

Correction: Buffett-Labor Dispute story

3 minutes ago

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks at a rally with striking Kellogg workers at Festival Market Square in downtown Battle Creek, Mich., on Friday, Dec. 17, 2021. Kellogg's reached a new tentative agreement this week with its 1,400 striking cereal plant workers that could bring an end to the strike that began Oct. 5. The results of the contract vote are expected to be released next week. (Alyssa Keown/Battle Creek Enquirer via AP)

BUSINESS

Employees work on the production line assembling diagnostic kits for SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) at a pharmaceutical factory in Nantong in eastern China's Jiangsu province Wednesday, Dec. 29, 2021. Chinese factory activity edged higher in December as supply disruptions eased and export demand weakened, a survey showed Friday. (Chinatopix Via AP)

Chinese factory activity edges higher in December

Wave of canceled flights from omicron closes out 2021

Live updates: 1 in 15 people in London likely has COVID-19

Party-goers urged not to travel across UK as omicron surges

$15B from Gates, French Gates tops 2021 biggest gift list

SCIENCE

FILE - Edward O. Wilson, co-author of "The Ants," which won the Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction, poses for a portrait on June 10, 1991. Wilson, the pioneering biologist who argued for a new vision of human nature in “Sociobiology” and warned against the decline of ecosystems, died on Sunday, Dec. 26, 2021. He was 92. (AP Photo/File)

Edward O. Wilson, biologist known as 'ant man,' dead at 92

Thomas Lovejoy, biologist who championed biodiversity, dies

Space telescope launched on daring quest to behold 1st stars

Spanish eruption's end brings 'emotional relief,' rebuilding

Louisiana researchers ID 14 new shrew species on Sulawesi

TECHNOLOGY

FILE - The nuclear power station is seen in Gundremmingen,southern Germany, May 23, 2006. Germany on Friday, Dec. 31, 2021 is shutting down half of the six nuclear plants it still has in operation, a year before the country draws the final curtain on its decades-long use of atomic power. (AP Photo/Christof Stache, file)

Germany shuts down half of its 6 remaining nuclear plants

France urges green habits with new car ads, bans on plastic

China urges US to protect its space station from satellites

China pursues tech 'self-reliance,' fueling global unease

Holmes jury to take break after six days of deliberation

AP INVESTIGATIONS

In this aerial photo released by the Chin Human Rights Organization, fires destroy numerous buildings in the town of Thantlang in Chin State in northwest Myanmar, on Dec. 4, 2021. More than 580 buildings have been burned since September, according to satellite image analysis by Maxar Technologies. (Chin Human Rights Organization via AP)

Myanmar military reverts to strategy of massacres, burnings

Decades of DOD efforts fail to stamp out bias, extremism

He wore a wire, risked his life to expose who was in the KKK

New reforms target US military's missing weapons problem

How brothers in arms plotted theft, sale of US Army weaponry

U.S. NEWS

Wildfires burn hundreds of homes in Colorado, thousands flee

New laws take effect across US on abortion, policing, taxes

Behind the wait for a verdict at Maxwell jury deliberations

Fact Focus: Misinformation persists after Maxwell trial ends

US Postal Service recovers from poor holiday showing in 2020

$15B from Gates, French Gates tops 2021 biggest gift list

4 minutes ago

FILE - In this Feb. 1, 2019, file photo, Bill and Melinda Gates smile at each other during an interview in Kirkland, Wash. It was a healthy year for big gifts to charitable causes in 2021, a year that saw one of the largest multibillion-dollar contributions in more than a decade, according to a Chronicle tally. The power philanthropists Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates announced in May that they were divorcing and then gave a jaw-dropping $15 billion to their foundation in July. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)

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Arizona reports 7,720 more COVID cases, most in a year

6 minutes ago

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona on Friday reported over 7,700 additional confirmed COVID-19 cases, the most reported on a single day since last January.

The 7,720 additional cases and 17 deaths reported by the state Department of Health Services' coronavirus dashboard increased Arizona's pandemic totals to 1,381,488 cases and 24,229 deaths.

Party-goers urged not to travel across UK as omicron surges

9 minutes ago