The Latest: Illinois surpasses 12,000 deaths from COVID-19

MIAMI (AP) — SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Illinois has risen above 12,000 deaths from COVID-19, while also surpassing the 700,000 mark for confirmed coronavirus infections. The latest 1,000 deaths were recorded in just nine days — matching the state’s deadliest period previously in the...

Correction: Virus Outbreak-The Latest story

In a story Nov. 25, 2020, about a new U.S. estimate of missed coronavirus infections, The Associated Press erroneously reported an earlier calculation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Previously, the CDC estimated nine of every 10 cases were being missed, not one of every 10.

The Latest: Emperor's New Year greeting cancelled in Japan

TOKYO — Japanese Emperor Naruhito and his family will not offer their New Year greetings from the palace balcony due to concerns over the country’s struggles with a resurgence of coronavirus infections. The Imperial Household Agency said in a statement Friday that the annual greetings on Jan. 2 will...

Tensions rise over housing of migrants on Spanish islands

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — A row over where to house African migrants increasingly arriving by boat on Spain’s Canary Islands deepened Thursday, when the mayor of the most affected town urged the Spanish government to transfer them out of local hotels. More than 20,000 West Africans and Moroccans have...

EU nations on Med coast renew push for migrant quotas

BRUSSELS (AP) — Four European Union countries that hundreds of thousands of unauthorized migrants have entered over the past five years have expressed concern that new proposals to revamp the EU’s asylum system will continue to leave them to cope with the challenge alone. Greece, Italy, Malta and...

Feuding no more, Pelé joins world in mourning Diego Maradona

The most heated wrangling over the title of soccer’s greatest player could be found between Diego Maradona and Pelé themselves. So often, their squabbling would descend into acrimonious barbs and taunts launched between the finest to play the game. It was a feud in which FIFA did not want to takes...

Argentine soccer great Diego Maradona dies at 60

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Diego Maradona, the Argentine soccer great who scored the “Hand of God” goal in 1986 and led his country to that year's World Cup title before later struggling with cocaine use and obesity, has died. He was 60. Maradona's spokesman, Sebastián Sanchi, said...

8 migrants die as boat overturns near Spanish island

MADRID (AP) — At least eight people died after a migrant boat carrying more than 30 people hit rocks close to a small port on Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, Spanish rescue services said Wednesday. The boat was one of 17 intercepted in the islands' waters in the past 24 hours. About 450 people were...

With hope high for vaccine, Britain prepares to roll it out

LONDON (AP) — With major COVID-19 vaccines showing high levels of protection, British officials are cautiously — and they stress cautiously — optimistic that life may start returning to normal by early April. Even before regulators have approved a single vaccine, the U.K. and countries across...

A migrant's odyssey from boat to COVID nursing job in Spain

BILBAO, Spain (AP) — The six migrants listen attentively to Mbaye Babacar Diouf, whose own journey across the Atlantic to a job nursing COVID-19 patients in Spain and giving back to the community through his own nonprofit would seem to scream success. But Babacar warns the men who've arrived from Senegal,...