U.S. President Joe Biden is calling it "a great day for America" and a major step toward returning to pre-pandemic life.Biden says the Centers for Disease Control has announced that some Americans can stop wearing a mask.The new CDC guidance still calls for wearing masks in crowded indoor settings - but it clears the way for reopening workplaces and schools.Public health officials in this country suggest a different approach will be taken here and that physical distancing, mask wearing and frequent hand washing remain key.

The California Highway Patrol says a Tesla driver was arrested after an officer saw him in the backseat as the car drove on a San Francisco Bay Area freeway. Authorities say 25-year-old Param Sharma was arrested for alleged reckless driving and disobeying an officer. The arrest followed 911 calls Monday reporting a person seated in the backseat of a Tesla Model 3 without no one in the driver's seat while the vehicle traveled Interstate 80 across the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Sharma was released from jail Tuesday and told the KTVU television station that what he did was not dangerous a

Israeli fighter jets have dropped two bombs on a 14-story building in Gaza City and destroyed it. The building housed businesses as well as offices for Hamas' Al-Aqsa satellite TV channel. It was located in the old Roman neighborhood, on the busiest shopping street in Gaza. Hamas says it has fired 130 rockets toward Israel in response for the attack on Wednesday.Israeli TV channels broadcast the collapse of most of a massive high-rise building in central Gaza City targeted by airstrikes. The latest escalation in fighting between Israel and Hamas had commentators predicting Gaza militants would

Business leaders in Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin have joined forces with their Canadian counterparts in the legal fight over the Line 5 pipeline. The U.S. and Canadian chambers of commerce are also included in a new legal brief filed with the U.S. District Court in Michigan.The filing comes after a similar brief was submitted yesterday by the federal Liberal government urging the court to keep the cross-border pipeline operating.The chambers spell out in detail a cascade of likely "severe, nationwide and international" consequences if the line running through Michigan is shut down.They argue

The White House says President Joe Biden is being briefed daily on developments in Jerusalem and Gaza, and has directed his team to engage intensively with senior Israeli and Palestinian officials as well as leaders throughout the Middle East. Press secretary Jen Psaki said on Tuesday that Biden's team is communicating a clear and consistent message in support of de escalation. ``That is our primary focus,'' she said, adding that Biden supports Israel's ``legitimate right to defend itself and its people'' and at the same time condemns ongoing ``rocket attacks by Hamas and other terrorist grou

A man in Austria has been convicted of intentionally infecting his ex-wife with the coronavirus by coughing at her. A spokesman for the Linz regional court said Tuesday that the 63-year-old was given a nine-month sentence, suspended for three years. Judges had convicted the man Monday of attempted serious bodily harm for giving the victim COVID-19 while they were still living in the same house pending the finalization of their divorce last November. The defendant had coughed at the 70-year-old woman after learning that he had tested positive for COVID-19. He was also convicted of threatening

Colorado authorities are investigating why a gunman opened fire at a weekend birthday party, killing his girlfriend and five other adults inside a house trailer before killing himself. Police say the shooting happened just after midnight on Sunday in Colorado Springs. The Colorado Spings Gazette reported that oficers arrived at a home trailer to find six people dead and a man with serious injuries who died later at a hospital. Police say the suspected shooter was the boyfriend of a female victim at the party attended by friends, family and children. He walked inside and opened fire before sho

Mali's Ministry of Health says a Malian woman has given birth to nine babies after only expecting seven. It appeared to be the first time on record that a woman gave birth to nine surviving babies at once. The 25-year-old mother gave birth by cesarean section on Tuesday in Morocco. Mali's health minister confirmed that the five girls, four boys and the mother are all doing well. Associated Press reporters saw the babies in incubators in the neonatal ward, some wiggling their hands and feet. The Guinness Book of World Records said in an email to The AP that its current record for most living b

A farmer in Belgium could face criminal charges if he doesn't put a stone back in its original place. A farmer in Belgium accidentally re-drew the country's border with France. France and Belgium realized their border had been moved after a local history buff who went for a walk in the woods discovered one of the stones marking the limit had been moved about two metres. It turns out a local farmer moved the stone inside French territory.Reportedly he was annoyed it was in his tractor's path.