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RAFAH, Gaza Strip — The U.N. food agency says “famine is imminent” in northern Gaza, where 70% of the remaining population is experiencing catastrophic hunger. It says a further escalation of the war could push around half of Gaza’s total population to the brink of starvation. The alarming report came as Israel faces mounting pressure from even its closest allies to streamline the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip and open more crossings. The European Union’s top diplomat said the impending famine was “entirely man-made” as “starvation is used as a weapon of war.” Israeli forces, meanwhile, launched another raid on the Gaza Strip’s largest hospital, saying it killed a Hamas commander who was hiding there.

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The CEO of United Airlines is trying to reassure travelers that the airline is safe despite a series of recent incidents ranging from a panel falling off a plane to an engine fire. CEO Scott Kirby said Monday that United will review safety training for all employees. Kirby says the airline was already planning an extra day of training for pilots starting in May and changes in training curriculum for new mechanics. In a message to customers, Kirby says the recent incidents are reminders of the importance of safety. He says the flight issues are all unrelated, but they have grabbed United's attention.

Gangs have attacked two upscale neighborhoods in Haiti’s capital in a rampage that left at least a dozen people dead in surrounding areas. Gunmen looted homes in the communities of Laboule and Thomassin before sunrise on Monday. They forced residents to flee as some called radio stations pleading for police. The neighborhoods had remained largely peaceful despite a surge in violent gang attacks across Port-au-Prince that began on Feb. 29. An Associated Press photographer saw the bodies of at least 12 men strewn on the streets of Pétionville, located just below the mountainous communities of Laboule and Thomassin.

Fabric and crafts retailer Joann has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, as consumers continue to cut back on discretionary spending and pandemic-era hobbies. The Hudson, Ohio-based company said that it expected to emerge from bankruptcy as early as the end of next month. Following this process, Joann will likley become privately-owned by certain lenders and industry parties, the company added — meaning its shares would no longer be listed on stock exchanges. Joann’s more than 800 stores and its website will continue to operate normally during the bankruptcy process, the company said, pointing to a deal it had struck with most of its shareholders for financial support.

Medical services may be harder to get for hundreds of local residents in the days or weeks ahead, with Wagener Medical Center having closed its doors and the facility's future prospects being unclear.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is sharply protesting against growing criticism from top ally the United States over his leadership amid the war with Hamas. Netanyahu says U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's call for Israel to hold new a election is “wholly inappropriate." Netanyahu says an election would force Israel to stop fighting and paralyze the country for months. Meanwhile, warnings are growing against an Israeli assault on Gaza's southern city of Rafah after Netanyahu said it could be weeks away. More than half the enclave's population has sought shelter there. Gaza's Health Ministry says the war has killed more than 31,000 Palestinians.

A day and a half after deadly tornadoes ripped through parts of the central U.S., residents are cleaning up, assessing damage and helping their neighbors. It will be a long recovery for some. Thursday night’s storms claimed three lives in the Indian Lake area of Ohio’s Logan County, one of the hardest-hit regions, and about 40 people were injured and dozens of homes damaged in one Indiana community. Samantha Snipes says in Lakeview, Ohio, that her dad's garage was leveled and the back of his house is gone, but everyone is safe on his street. She says neighbors have been helping neighbors.

Aiken's Prime Steakhouse is located in one of the oldest buildings in the city's downtown and it was also the scene of a meeting that would ultimately lead to the demise of the $75 million economic development effort known as Project Pascalis. Here's what the Aiken Standard has learned about the meeting.

Some of Aiken's most prominent acreage got extra attention March 15, with the annual Breakfast at the Gallops event taking place at Aiken Training Track, drawing dozens of visitors for a meal and a chance to hear about racing's ups and downs from the perspective of insiders.

Aiken is one step closer to building a mixed-use building that could house a Savannah River National Laboratory workforce development center. The Aiken City Council voted unanimously Monday evening to approve a resolution authorizing the purchase of properties where the building would be constructed. 

Local taxpayers have a variety of free help options to consider while heading into the last month of tax season, with assistance from AARP Foundation and Volunteer Income Tax Assistance among the possibilities for dealing successfully with the Internal Revenue Service.

The number of Americans applying for jobless benefits last week inched up but largely stayed at historically low levels as the labor market continues to thrive despite elevated interest rates. The Labor Department reported Thursday that filings for unemployment claims for the week ending March 9 ticked down by 1,000 to 209,000 from the previous week’s 208,000. Weekly unemployment claims are considered a proxy for the number of U.S. layoffs in a given week. They have remained at historically low levels since the pandemic purge of millions of jobs in the spring of 2020.

American shoppers picked up their spending a bit in February after pulling back the previous month. But last month’s gain was weaker than expected, and January’s decline was revised even lower, suggesting that consumers are becoming more cautious. Retail sales rose 0.6% last month after falling a revised 1.1% in January, dragged down in part by inclement weather, according to the Commerce Department’s report on Thursday. February’s number was also lifted in part by higher gas price and higher auto sales. Excluding sales from gas stations and auto dealers, sales were up 0.3%.

Aiken will receive $3 million from the federal funding bill President Joe Biden signed into law last Saturday. The bill allocates $3 million to the city for Croft Mill sewer basin improvements, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., announced. 

Aiken's first Parker's Kitchen is set to open Friday. "I'm very excited to announce that we'll be opening on Friday morning," Parker's Kitchen Real Estate Development Manager Daniel Ben-Yisrael told the Aiken City Council Monday evening.

Deep inside mountain tunnels in Colombia where the heat is so intense it causes headaches, women with power tools are chipping away at boulders in search of gems. They have opened a difficult path for themselves in the emerald industry, a sector long dominated by men. Some once believed that if women worked in the mines, the emeralds would hide. Now female miners are pushing for the government to officially recognize them and to legalize a small number of women-owned mines. The work is hard, and the women are raising families, too. Striking it rich is rare. “But we continue to struggle,” one woman says.

A blood test for colon cancer performed well in a study, offering a new kind of screening. The blood test looks for cancer by checking for DNA fragments shed by tumor cells and precancerous growths. The research sponsored by the maker of the blood test was published Wednesday. The test missed some cancers and any abnormal result would need to be followed up with a colonoscopy. It's already for sale in the U.S. for $895, but has not been approved by federal regulators and most insurers do not cover it. The company anticipates an FDA decision this year.

Researchers revved up immune cells that shrank an extremely aggressive type of brain tumor when tested in a handful of patients. The experiments are just first steps but they signal a new strategy to fight hard-to-treat glioblastoma. It's a twist on the CAR-T therapy already used to treat leukemia, by modifying patients' own disease-fighting T cells to be better cancer hunters. Now Massachusetts General Hospital and the University of Pennsylvania are trying next-generation versions strengthened to try to overcome glioblastoma's stronger defenses. Early findings were published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine and Nature Medicine.

Attorneys plan to refile a lawsuit over zoning changes that they say threaten one of the South's last Gullah-Geechee communities of Black slave descendants. A Superior Court judge threw out the original civil complaint Tuesday, ruling that the lawsuit improperly named individual commissioners of coastal McIntosh County. That clashed with a 2020 amendment to Georgia’s state constitution dealing with legal immunity granted to state and local governments. The Southern Poverty Law Center filed suit last year on behalf of the residents of the tiny Hogg Hummock Community on Sapelo Island. They argue zoning changes will raise their property taxes and force them to sell land. Attorney Miriam Gutman said the center would sue again, naming McIntosh County as the sole defendant.

Spring in southcentral Pennsylvania brings an annual tradition in Amish communities: mud sales. That’s what they call the country auctions that began in Lancaster County in the 1960s. These days some get thousands of bidders and can do more than a million dollars in sales. The auctions benefit local fire departments. Amish people make and donate much of the food and items for sale. Large Amish families and the cost of farmland in booming Lancaster have put pressure on the traditional lives they prefer. But they appear determined to remain amid their half-million neighbors in the county.

New artificial intelligence tools are helping doctors communicate with their patients. Some tools answer messages and others take notes during exams. It’s been just 15 months since OpenAI released ChatGPT. Already thousands of doctors are using products based on similar large language models. Enthusiasts say these AI tools save doctors’ time and prevent burnout. They’re also shaking up the doctor-patient relationship, raising questions of trust, transparency, privacy and the future of human connection. AI tools can be prompted to be friendly, empathetic and informative. They can also make mistakes, so it's important that the human doctor stay in the loop.

Dollar Tree will close nearly 1,000 stores and swung to a surprise fourth quarter loss as the discount retailer took a related $1.07 billion goodwill impairment charge. Shares tumbled 15% before the opening bell Wednesday. Dollar Tree plans to close about 600 Family Dollar stores in the first half of this year and 370 Family Dollar and 30 Dollar Tree stores over the next several years. Dollar Tree acquired Family Dollar for more than $8 billion almost a decade ago after a bidding war with rival Dollar General, but it has had difficulty absorbing the chain.


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