NEW YORK (AP) -- Red carpet glam was back Sunday at the Oscars with Andra Day and Carey Mulligan shimmering in award-worthy gold and Maria Bakalova among several stars in bright white princess gowns during the pandemic era's first big parade of fashion. Day dressed all the way up in a sexy look cut to the thigh on one side with a cutout at the waist. It was custom Vera Wang made of actual metal. Mulligan stunned in gold Valentino couture, a midriff look with a tiny metallic top and a huge

President Joe Biden is welcoming Japan's prime minister to the White House on Friday in his first face-to-face meeting with a foreign leader, a choice that reflects Biden's emphasis on strengthening alliances to deal with a more assertive China and other global challenges. Biden and Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga also look to counter messaging from Chinese President Xi Jinping that America and democracies in general are on the decline, after the political turmoil and international withdrawal tha

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- A gunman killed eight people and wounded several others before killing himself in a late-night shooting at a FedEx facility near the Indianapolis airport, police said, in the latest in a spate of mass shootings after a relative lull during the pandemic. Five people were hospitalized after the Thursday night shooting, according to police. One of them had critical injuries, police spokesperson Genae Cook said. Another two people were treated and released at the scene. Fe

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The US is recommending a "pause'' in administration of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine to investigate reports of potentially dangerous blood clots. In a joint statement Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration said they were investigating clots in six women that occurred in the days after vaccination. The clots were observed along with reduced platelet counts making the usual treatment for bl

BEIJING (AP) -- In a rare admission of the weakness of Chinese coronavirus vaccines, the country's top disease control official says their effectiveness is low and the government is considering mixing them to get a boost. Chinese vaccines "don't have very high protection rates," said the director of the China Centers for Disease Control, Gao Fu, at a conference Saturday in the southwestern city of Chengdu. Beijing has distributed hundreds of millions of doses abroad while trying to p

BANGKOK (AP) -- Thailand's Health Ministry warned Sunday that restrictions may need to be tightened to slow the spread of a fresh coronavirus wave, as the country hit a daily record for new cases. The ministry confirmed 967 new infections, the highest ever in a 24-hour period, bringing Thailand's total to 32,625 cases since January last year  including 97 deaths. The expanding outbreak comes after the country kept the virus largely in check for most of last year. If the number of cases is

Britain mourned the death of Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, on Friday as the BBC interrupted scheduled programming to broadcast the national anthem, "God Save the Queen." The flag at Buckingham Palace, the queen's residence in London, was lowered to half-staff after the announcement of Philip's death. The Royal Family's website featured a black-and-white portrait of the prince, also known as the Duke of Edinburgh. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Philip "earn

Buckingham Palace officials say Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, has died. He was 99. Philip spent a month in hospital earlier this year before being released on March 16 to return to Windsor Castle. Philip, also known as the Duke of Edinburgh, married Elizabeth in 1947 and was the longest-serving consort in British history. He retired from public engagements in 2017 after carrying out more than 20,000 of them. Philip was a member of the Greek royal family and was born on the

Two months after a market phenomenon took shares of GameStop to the moon, the video game retailer said Monday that it will sell up to 3.5 million of its shares with the price still vastly elevated. The company said the shares will be sold through an "at-the-market" offering, which lets a publicly traded company raise capital over time. A bizarre stand-off between hedge funds that had heavily shorted GameStop, betting that the price of shares would fall, and smaller investors who cha

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The UN Security Council took no action after a brief meeting Tuesday on North Korea’s latest ballistic missile tests, the first since US President Joe Biden took office on Jan. 20 and a violation of UN sanctions. Council diplomats said all 15 members encouraged dialogue and negotiations on North Korea‘s nuclear program but disagreed on the need for a statement. Last Friday, the council unanimously adopted a resolution to renew the mandate of UN experts monit

(AP) -- The cargo ship blocking the Suez Canal is holding up traffic that carries nearly $10 billion worth of goods every day, so a quick clearing of the logjam is key to limiting the economic fallout. Efforts continued Thursday to dislodge the Ever Given container ship and restore traffic on the critical man-made waterway that connects the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and provides a shipping shortcut between Europe and Asia. ___ HOW VITAL IS THE CANAL TO SHIPPING? About 10% of all global tr

CHANDLER (AP) -- Intel announced Tuesday it will build two new factories in Arizona and outsource more of its production as a new CEO looks to turnaround the struggling chipmaker. The California-based company says the Arizona expansion will cost about $20 billion and create 3,000 permanent jobs as Intel builds a foundry business to provide chips for other firms. More construction in the United States, Europe and elsewhere could be announced over the next year, CEO Pat Gelsinger said in a

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Pope Francis on Sunday denounced racism, likening it to a virus that lurks in waiting and only to emerge and show that “our supposed social progress is not as real or definitive” as people think. Francis tweeted on racism on the date that the United Nations marks as International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The pope likened racism to a "a virus that quickly mutates and, instead of disappearing, goes into hiding, and lurks in waiting.

BEIJING (AP) -- In China, the problem doesn't seem to be a shortage of vaccine. Rather, with the COVID-19 outbreak largely under control at home, not enough people want to get the shot. Chinese health officials appealed to the public Sunday to get inoculated. They also said that with vaccination not a guarantee against infection they would still require anyone arriving in China to quarantine for 14 days, even if they have received a vaccine. "China will continue the current prevention co

Malaysia said Friday it'll order all North Korean diplomats to leave the country within 48 hours, in an escalation of diplomat brawl over Malaysia's decision to extradite a North Korean criminal suspect to the United States. Malaysia's announcement came hours after North Korea said it was terminating diplomatic ties with Malaysia because it committed a "super-large hostile act ... in subservience to the US pressure.'' North Korea called the money laundering charges an "absurd fabric