Seven election officials killed in landmine blast as Niger votes

The incident comes as Niger holds a presidential election runoff between frontrunner Mohamed Bazoum and former President Mahamane Ousmane.

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  • 2 Americans wanted in Ghosn's escape in Japanese custody

    An American father and son wanted by Japan for aiding former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn escape from the country in a box were handed over to Japanese custody Monday, ending their months-long battle to stay in the U.S. Michael Taylor and his son, Peter Taylor, failed to convince U.S. officials and courts to block their extradition to Japan, where they will be tried on charges that they smuggled Ghosn out of the country in 2019 while the former auto titan was awaiting trial on financial misconduct charges. The Massachusetts men, who have been locked up at a suburban Boston jail since their arrest in May, were handed over to Japanese officials early Monday, said one of their attorneys, Paul Kelly.

  • Over 60% of Russians don't want Sputnik V vaccine, see coronavirus as biological weapon: Reuters poll

    Nearly two thirds of Russians are not willing to receive Russia's Sputnik V vaccine, and about the same number believe the new coronavirus was created artificially as a biological weapon, an independent pollster said on Monday. The Levada Center said a poll it conducted last month showed that 62% of people did not want to get Russia's domestically produced vaccine, and that the highest level of reluctance was identified among 18 to 24-year-olds. The poll, which sampled 1,601 people in 50 regions, also found that 64% of people thought the new coronavirus was created as a biological weapon.

  • Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shoots back at Ted Cruz, saying he treated storm-hit Texas as a 'layover' between trips to Cancun and CPAC

    "It appears Texas was just a layover stop for him between Cancun and Orlando to drop a pack of water into someone's trunk," Ocasio-Cortez said.

  • The Supreme Court finally rejected Sidney Powell's election-conspiracy-theory lawsuits

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  • Mother of two wins Miss Germany

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  • Kourtney Kardashian admits Kim made her cry when she called her the 'least exciting to look at': 'I took it really personally'

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  • With loved ones and pets, Globes winners embrace cozier show

    From Jason Sudeikis’ hoodie to Jodie Foster’s bare feet, the stars embraced a virtual Golden Globes, and still found ways to cut loose. There was no red carpet and logjam of celebrities outside the show’s usual location at the Beverly Hilton. “This is the best Globes ever, to be able to be home, but also it just felt really real,” a giddy Foster said in virtual comments after her win.

  • China says Taiwan pineapple ban not about politics as war of words escalates

    China on Monday denied accusations by Taiwan that a ban on pineapples from the island was about politics, saying it was purely a matter of biosecurity, in an escalating war of words that has added to existing tensions. China announced the ban last week, citing "harmful creatures" it said could come with the fruit, threatening China's own agriculture. Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, says there is nothing wrong with its pineapples and that Beijing is using the fruit as another way to coerce the island.

  • Prince Harry tells Oprah he worried history would repeat itself

    Prince Harry, who shocked Britain last year when he and his wife Meghan stepped back from royal duties, told U.S. interviewer Oprah Winfrey that he had worried about history repeating itself, according to excerpts released on Sunday. The CBS broadcast network released two brief clips from Winfrey's interview of the couple, which is scheduled to air on March 7. "My biggest concern was history repeating itself," Harry said, apparently referring to his mother Princess Diana, who was hounded by the British press and died at age 36 in a car crash in Paris after her divorce from Prince Charles.

  • Lady Gaga's dog walker speaks out after Hollywood shooting

    Lady Gaga's dog walker, who was shot last week during a robbery in Hollywood when two of the singer’s French bulldogs were stolen, described the violence and his recovery “from a very close call with death" in social media posts Monday. Ryan Fischer’s posts included pictures taken from his hospital bed, where he says “(a) lot of healing still needs to happen” but he looks forward to reuniting with the dogs. Fischer was shot once as he walked three of Lady Gaga's dogs on Wednesday night on a street just off the famed Sunset Boulevard.

  • MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell has mic muted at CPAC for spouting vaccine and election conspiracies

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  • Andra Day 1st Black woman to win Best Actress Golden Globe in 35 years

    The singer dazzled critics and audiences alike in the Lee Daniels-directed ‘The United States vs. Billie Holiday,’ her first major film role. In her acceptance speech via video link, she said she was “in the presence of giants” when referring to her fellow nominees, including veteran actress Viola Davis, who was nominated for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

  • Georgia House passes GOP bill rolling back voting access

    Republican lawmakers in Georgia muscled legislation through the state House on Monday that would roll back voting access, over the objection of Democrats and civil rights groups gathered at the Capitol to protest. The bill comes after record turnout led to Democratic wins in Georgia’s presidential election and two U.S. Senate runoffs. House Bill 531 passed the lower legislative chamber by a vote of 97-72.

  • Biden to refuse Mexico’s request to share vaccine supply

    Joe Biden is expected to deny an entreaty on Monday from Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador for the US to share its Covid vaccine supply with its poorer neighbour to the south. “No,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki bluntly responded at her daily press briefing on Monday when asked whether Mr Biden would take Mr Lopez Obrador’s request into consideration. Mr Biden and Mr Lopez Obrador were scheduled to meet at a virtual summit later on Monday.

  • Report: US wasted billions on cars, buildings in Afghanistan

    The United States wasted billions of dollars in war-torn Afghanistan on buildings and vehicles that were either abandoned or destroyed, according to a report released Monday by a U.S. government watchdog. The agency said it reviewed $7.8 billion spent since 2008 on buildings and vehicles. Only $343.2 million worth of buildings and vehicles “were maintained in good condition,” said the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, which oversees American taxpayer money spent on the protracted conflict.

  • China manufacturing weakens for third month in February

    China’s manufacturing recovery weakened for a third month in February as exports and new orders declined, according to two surveys released Monday. A monthly purchasing managers’ index issued by a prominent business magazine, Caixin, declined to 50.9 from January’s 51.5 on a 100-point scale on which numbers above 50 show activity accelerating. A separate PMI issued by the Chinese statistics agency and an official industry group, the China Federation of Logistics & Purchasing, retreated to 50.6 from 51.3.

  • The First COVID-19 Vaccines Shipped Through COVAX Were Administered in the Ivory Coast

    Patrick Achi, Chief of Staff to the President of Côte d’Ivoire, becomes the first person to receive a COVAX vaccine at the launch of the nation’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign at the Abidjan Parc des Sports on March 1, 2021. Frontline workers and public officials from the Ivory Coast on March 1 became the first people in the world to receive COVID-19 vaccines shipped from the COVAX Facility, in a long-awaited step toward global health equity. COVAX, a joint initiative of the World Health Organization (WHO); Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, aims to ensure fair access to vaccines in countries around the world.

  • European Commission raises hopes of coronavirus vaccine passports to ease travel for work and tourism

    European Union plans for a coronavirus vaccine passport could be opened up to British tourists and other non-EU holidaymakers, Brussels said on Monday. Ursula von der Leyen said the EU-wide “Digital Green Pass” would be proposed this month and that it could be a first step towards a virus passport for travel from outside the bloc. "The Digital Green Pass should facilitate Europeans‘ lives. The aim is to gradually enable them to move safely in the EU or abroad - for work or tourism,” the European Commission president said. The chief spokesman for the European Commission said the process would be done "step by step". “We work on a European solution now, this is where we start and then anything else would need to come after,” he said. "We’re of the view that in collaboration with the World Health Organisation there should be a way to scale this up globally." The UK said it was looking into the idea. “The Department for Transport will work and speak to countries across the world in terms of how they may look to introduce passports," the Prime Minister’s spokesman said in London. The Green Pass will include information such as whether the carrier has ever had coronavirus, been tested or vaccinated and is aimed at “facilitating safe free movement in the European Union.” The legislation will be put forward on March 17. Spanish Tourism Minister Reyes Maroto said that work should be speeded up to save the summer season and enable safe travel from the UK. “It is important to have the tools ready to start mobility and make Europe a safe travel destination again as soon as the virus incidence data allows for this,” Ms Maroto said at a meeting of EU tourism ministers in Lisbon.

  • An earnest 'WandaVision' line about grief has turned into a joking meme online

    After a tweet admiring a line about grief and love from episode eight of WandaVision went viral, people began making ironic memes about it.