AP News in Brief at 6:04 p.m. EST
Texas rabbi says he, 2 hostages escaped synagogue standoff
COLLEYVILLE, Texas (AP) - The rabbi of a Texas synagogue where a gunman took hostages during livestreamed services said Monday that he threw a chair at his captor before escaping with two others after an hourslong standoff, crediting past security training for getting himself and his congregants out safely.
Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker told "CBS Mornings" that he let the gunman inside the suburban Fort Worth synagogue Saturday because he appeared to need shelter. He said the man was not threatening or suspicious at first. Later, he heard a gun click as he was praying.
Another man held hostage, Jeffrey R. Cohen, described the ordeal on Facebook on Monday.
"First of all, we escaped. We weren´t released or freed," said Cohen, who was one of four people in the synagogue for services that many other Congregation Beth Israel members were watching online.
Cohen said the men worked to keep the gunman engaged. They talked to the gunman, he lectured them. At one point as the situation devolved, Cohen said the gunman told them to get on their knees. Cohen recalled rearing up in his chair and slowly moving his head and mouthing "no." As the gunman moved to sit back down, Cohen said Cytron-Walker yelled to run.
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Djokovic lands in Serbia as questions arise over French Open
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) - Novak Djokovic returned home Monday after being thwarted from defending his Australian Open title only to face a new predicament: He could be barred from the French Open this year, too, if he´s still not vaccinated against COVID-19.
A plane carrying the No. 1-ranked player touched down in his native Serbia, closing at least the first chapter in a dizzying drama that has resonance in the world of elite sports, Australia's pandemic politics and the polarized debate over the coronavirus shots.
A handful of fans waving the Serbian flag greeted him at Belgrade's airport. Djokovic has an almost iconic status in Serbia, and many there felt he was poorly treated by Australia.
But his troubles may not be over yet: He could be barred from the French Open this year, under a new law intended to exclude the unvaccinated from stadiums and other public places. Much could change between now and the start of the Grand Slam tournament in late May, but that raised the specter that the recent saga in Australia would be not just a blip but an ongoing challenge for the athlete, who is increasingly being held up as a hero by the anti-vaccine movement.
A member of the French Parliament, Christophe Castaner, said that the new law will apply to anyone who wants to play in the French Open - a reversal of earlier plans to create a "bubble" around the tournament.
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How's he doing? Americans weigh in on Biden's performance
President Joe Biden took office at a particularly polarized time in American history, so it's not surprising that citizens are divided on his performance at the one-year mark.
A Georgia history teacher who voted for Biden would give him a "C" grade, faulting the president for not pushing earlier to end the filibuster in the Senate but supportive of his Build Back Better plan.
A retired nurse in Iowa who supported Pete Buttigieg in the Democratic primary says she's been impressed by the way Biden has upheld the dignity of the office.
A registered independent in Arizona who voted for former President Donald Trump says Biden´s first year has been "pretty bad," citing the shutdown of the Keystone XL oil pipeline and the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal.
Here's what else Americans have to say about the job Biden has done so far:
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On MLK Day, King III implores Senate to act on voting rights
ATLANTA (AP) - A day before the U.S. Senate was expected to take up significant legislation on voting rights that is looking likely to fail, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s eldest son condemned federal lawmakers over their inaction.
Speaking in Washington, D.C. on Monday, Martin Luther King III said though he was marking the federal holiday named for his father, he wasn't there to celebrate. He was there to call on Congress and President Joe Biden to pass the sweeping legislation that would help ease Republican-led voting restrictions passed in at least 19 states that make it more difficult to cast a ballot.
"Our democracy stands on the brink of serious trouble without these bills," he said.
Monday's holiday marked what would have been the 93rd birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was just 39 when he was assassinated in 1968 while helping sanitation workers strike for better pay and workplace safety in Memphis, Tennessee.
Around the U.S., other holiday events included marches in several cities, acts of service in King´s name, and the annual Martin Luther King Jr. service at the slain civil rights leader´s Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock is the senior pastor.
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Omicron slamming S. American hospitals as workers fall ill
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) - The coronavirus' omicron variant starting to barrel across South America is pressuring hospitals whose employees are taking sick leave, leaving facilities understaffed to cope with COVID-19´s third wave.
A major hospital in Bolivia's largest city stopped admitting new patients due to lack of personnel, and one of Brazil's most populous states canceled scheduled surgeries for a month. Argentina´s federation of private healthcare providers told the AP it estimates about 15% of its health workers currently have the virus.
The third wave "is affecting the health team a lot, from the cleaning staff to the technicians, with a high percentage of sick people, despite having a complete vaccination schedule," said Jorge Coronel, president of Argentina's medical confederation. "While symptoms are mostly mild to moderate, that group needs to be isolated."
It wasn't supposed to be this way: South America's vaccine uptake was eager once shots were available. About two-thirds of its roughly 435 million residents are fully immunized, the highest percentage for any global region, according to Our World in Data. And health workers in Brazil, Bolivia and Argentina have already been receiving booster shots.
But the omicron variant is defying vaccines, sending case numbers surging. Argentina saw an average 112,000 daily confirmed cases in the week through Jan. 16, up from 3,700 a month earlier. Brazil's health ministry is still recovering from a hack that left coronavirus data incomplete; even so, it shows a jump to an average 69,000 daily cases in the same seven-day period, up 1,900% from the month before.
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Israel study: 4th vaccine shows limited results with omicron
JERUSALEM (AP) - An Israeli hospital on Monday said preliminary research indicates a fourth dose of the coronavirus vaccine provides only limited defense against the omicron variant that is raging around the world.
Sheba Hospital last month began administering a fourth vaccine to more than 270 medical workers - 154 who received a Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine and 120 others who received Moderna's. All had previously been vaccinated three times with the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine.
The clinical trial found that both groups showed increases in antibodies "slightly higher" than following the third vaccine last year. But it said the increased antibodies did not prevent the spread of omicron.
"Despite increased antibody levels, the fourth vaccine only offers a partial defense against the virus," said Dr. Gili Regev-Yochay, director of the hospital's infection disease unit. "The vaccines, which were more effective against previous variants, offer less protection versus omicron."
The preliminary results raised questions about Israel's decision to offer a second booster shot - and fourth overall - to its over-60 population. The government says over 500,000 people have received the second booster in recent weeks.
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Funeral services held for 12 killed in Philadelphia fire
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Funeral services were held Monday for nine children and three adults who died in a Philadelphia fire five days into the new year, the deadliest blaze in the city in more than a century.
A funeral procession on the rain-soaked streets of the city Monday morning was followed by services at Temple University's Liacouras Center, to which members of the community were invited and asked to wear white.
Those in attendance at the three-hour service listened to Bible readings, official proclamations and music. Relatives spoke about their loss and their memories of their loved ones from two microphones behind tables bearing caskets amid white flowers and large pictures of the victims.
"None of us know what to do with a funeral with 12 people," said the Reverend Dr. Alyn Waller of the Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church. "We're in a space of grief and pain we wish on no one else."
One speaker, an aunt of the children, tearfully said she believed there was "a family reunion in heaven."
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Winter storm whipping northeast US with snow, thunderstorms
NEW YORK (AP) - A dangerous winter storm brought significant snowfall, strong thunderstorms and blustery winds to the northeastern U.S. on a holiday Monday.
The storm system dropped a foot (30 centimeters) or more of snow in parts of New York state, Ohio and Pennsylvania Sunday night through Monday morning after pummeling parts of the Southeast on Sunday.
"We've had a very strong area of low pressure that´s kind of moved up the coast, with pretty heavy snowfall accumulations from Tennessee, North Carolina all the way into the northeast," said meteorologist Marc Chenard at the weather service´s headquarters in College Park, Maryland.
Forecasters in Buffalo, New York, said almost 18 inches (45 centimeters) of snow fell by 1 p.m. Monday. The city advised people not to travel if they didn´t need to on this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, while some surrounding towns instituted a travel ban.
"WOW! (Latest) snow measurement at 1 AM was 4.6 inches in the last hour at the Buffalo Airport!" the National Weather Service in Buffalo tweeted overnight. "And tack on another 4 inches in the last hour ending at 2 AM! Total so far since late Sun evening - 10.2 inches."
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Drone attack in Abu Dhabi claimed by Yemen's rebels kills 3
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - A drone attack claimed by Yemen's Houthi rebels targeting a key oil facility in Abu Dhabi killed three people on Monday and sparked a fire at Abu Dhabi's international airport.
Emirati police identified the dead as two Indian nationals and one Pakistani. Six people were also wounded at an industrial area where Abu Dhabi's state-owned energy company runs a pipeline network and an oil tanker storage facility.
Senior Emirati diplomat Anwar Gargash blamed the Houthis for the attack, saying on Twitter that Emirati authorities were handling the rebel group's "vicious attack on some civilian facilities" in the United Arab Emirates' capital with "transparency and responsibility."
"The tampering of the region's security by terrorist militias is too weak to affect the stability and safety in which we live," he said.
Three transport tankers caught fire at the oil facility, while another fire was sparked at an extension of Abu Dhabi International Airport.
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Cold case team shines new light on betrayal of Anne Frank
AMSTERDAM (AP) - A cold case team that combed through evidence for five years in a bid to unravel one of World War II's enduring mysteries has reached what it calls the "most likely scenario" of who betrayed Jewish teenage diarist Anne Frank and her family.
Their answer, outlined in a new book called "The Betrayal of Anne Frank A Cold Case Investigation," by Canadian academic and author Rosemary Sullivan, is that it could have been a prominent Jewish notary called Arnold van den Bergh, who disclosed the secret annex hiding place of the Frank family to German occupiers to save his own family from deportation and murder in Nazi concentration camps.
"We have investigated over 30 suspects in 20 different scenarios, leaving one scenario we like to refer to as the most likely scenario," said film maker Thijs Bayens, who had the idea to put together the cold case team, that was led by retired FBI agent Vincent Pankoke, to forensically examine the evidence.
Bayens was quick to add that, "we don´t have 100% certainty."
"There is no smoking gun because betrayal is circumstantial," Bayens told The Associated Press on Monday.
