March 10, 2020 4:14 am
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised his second live-fire artillery exercise in a week as the country continues to expand its military capabilities. The state media reports came a day after South Korea’s military detected the launches of three short-range projectiles off the North’s eastern coast. The reports said Kim showed great satisfaction as his front-line artillery units demonstrated “excellent marksmanship” during the exercise. He was quoted as vowing to build his artillery force into the world’s strongest and feared by everyone.
March 10, 2020 4:12 am
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) – A cruise ship with a cluster of coronavirus cases began unloading passengers at a port in the San Francisco Bay Area after it was forced to idle off the California coast for days.áThe Grand Princess pulled into the Port of Oakland on Monday. Health and Human Services said officials hope to unload about half the 2,400 passengers Monday. After several people who needed medical care were removed, dozens of Canadians came off and were standing in lines outside two tents displaying Canadian flags. Americans will be transported to military bases in California, Texas and Georgia to be tested for the COVID-19 virus and quarantined.
March 10, 2020 4:12 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump has pitched his proposed payroll tax break on Capitol Hill as pressure mounts on the administration and Congress to work more vigorously to contain the coronavirus outbreak and respond to the financial fallout. Trump’s economic team joined in presenting the economic stimulus package privately to wary Senate Republicans. They’ve been cool to additional spending at this stage. Democrats are preparing their own package of low-cost virus testing, unemployment insurance and sick pay for workers struggling to keep paychecks coming as the outbreak disrupts workplaces.
March 10, 2020 4:08 am
WHEELING, W.Va. (AP) – More than 200 properties in a historic West Virginia district have been added to the National Register of Historic Places. News outlets report that the National Park Service approved the addition of the South Wheeling area last week. Wheeling Heritage and the Wheeling Historic Landmarks Commission oversaw the project. Wheeling Heritage historic preservation program manager Betsy Sweeny says the district recognizes the industrial and vernacular architecture of Wheeling. She says the listing gives properties recognition and makes property owners eligible for tax incentives.
March 10, 2020 4:05 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania is confirming more cases of the new coronavirus, as more schools canceled classes, travel or events. The state Department of Health reported another positive test for COVID-19 on Tuesday in a resident of Montgomery County. That brings the statewide total to 11, while a Germantown Academy is reporting that a student has been sickened after their parent tested positive. All 11 people who tested positive live in eastern Pennsylvania, and the first 10 cases are people believed to have contracted it by traveling outside the state. Meanwhile, the 2020 Northeast Regional Science Olympiad at Penn State Wilkes-Barre has been canceled.
March 10, 2020 2:03 am
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – West Virginia residents are being warned about a telephone scam involving food stamps. Attorney General Patrick Morrisey says some residents are receiving calls claiming to be someone from the Department of Health and Human Resources. The caller informs them that their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits are being stopped. The callers says that in order to continue receiving benefits, they must press a number, which then connects them with someone trying to steal their personal information. Morrisey says the DHHR actually sends official notices by U.S. mail and does not call SNAP recipients about ending their benefits.
March 9, 2020 4:36 pm
PITTSBURGH (AP) – A judge in western Pennsylvania has thrown out the conviction of a retired Roman Catholic priest accused of having assaulted a boy almost two decades ago. Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Anthony Mariani said Monday he believed the Rev. Hugh Lang hadn’t received a fair trial. A spokesman for the county district attorney’s office vowed an appeal, saying officials believed the decision was “contrary to the law.” The 89-year-old defendant was convicted of indecent assault and other charges involving a preteen boy in 2001 when he was pastor of St. Therese of Lisieux Parish in Munhall. He denied any abuse.
March 9, 2020 10:26 am
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) – Max von Sydow, the self-described “shy boy”-turned-actor who played the priest in the horror classic “The Exorcist,”áhas died. He was 90. He was known to art house audiences through his work with Swedish director Ingmar Bergman. But it was his role as the devil-evicting priest in William Friedkin’s controversial 1973 film “The Exorcist” that brought him to international attention. His agent said the actor, who was born in Sweden but became a French citizen in 2002, died Sunday. From his 1949 screen debut, von Sydow starred in close to 200 film and TV productions, remaining active well into his 80s.
March 9, 2020 4:26 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Stocks plunged 7% on Wall Street Monday, triggering a trading halt for 15 minutes. The steep drop followed similar falls in Europe after a fight among major crude-producing countries jolted investors already on edge about the widening fallout from the outbreak of the new coronavirus. Indexes in London and Frankfurt dropped by more than 7%. The benchmark for Italy, where the industrial and financial heartland was put in lockdown, fell 11%. Oil prices are down about 20%, deepening a rout that began when Saudi Arabia, Russia and other producers failed to agree on cutting output. Bond yields sank to new lows.
March 9, 2020 4:24 am
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – North Korea fired three short-range projectiles after it threatened to take “momentous” action to protest condemnation of earlier live-fire exercises. Seoul’s military said the projectiles landed in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. Japan said the firings were of suspected ballistic missiles and North Korea’s actions were a “serious threat to the peace and safety of Japan.” The recent military exercises were North Korea’s first weapons tests since late November. Leader Kim Jong Un had entered the new year with a vow to bolster his nuclear deterrent and not to be bound by a weapons test moratorium amid a deadlock in a U.S.-led diplomacy.
