Unmute Play Remaining Ad Time Ad - 00:00 Eau Claire (WQOW)- The Eau Claire Children's Theatre is starting October off strong with several classic plays and musicals for the creepy season. The children's theatre will be kicking off the first weekend of October with the epic musical battle between evil and good, Jekyll and Hyde. Other shows headed to the stage are the classic Sleepy Hollow, Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman. To end the month, they'll be ending with The Splatter Zone, a musical based off the 80's cult classic film The Evil Dead. Tickets can be bought at The Oxford or on th ..read more

BERLIN (AP) — Numerous election day glitches in the German capital have prompted calls for the result to be scrutinized. One politician says his party plans to challenge the outcome of the vote. Long lines formed outside many polling stations in Berlin on Sunday as voters struggled with extra ballot papers for simultaneous federal, state and district elections plus a city-wide referendum. Some polling stations ran out of ballot papers during the day. Others received ones for the wrong district. Martin Sonneborn of the satirical party The Party said Thursday they would be challenging the vote ..read more

PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — Murder charges have been dismissed against a man who spent 15 years in prison for the fire-related deaths of five children in suburban Detroit. It’s the climax of an investigation that found misconduct by police and prosecutors. Fifty-year-old Juwan Deering will not face a second trial. A judge on Thursday granted the request of Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald, who took a fresh look at Deering’s case. He walked into court shackled at the waist but walked out as a free man with no restraints. Deering has insisted that he was innocent. An investigation found that f ..read more

Unmute Play Remaining Ad Time Ad - 00:00 (WQOW) - In politics, Washington Democrats are trying to pass infrastructure and social programs for President Joe Biden's agenda. But, a hiccup.  There's a very short timeline for raising the debt ceiling, and at the same time, trying to avoid a government shutdown. A government shutdown happens when Congress does not approve a new spending bill for the next fiscal year, so new payments, like paychecks for federal employees, are stopped. Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin believes they can pass a continuing resolution to keep the government ..read more

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — A European Union mediator says Serbia and Kosovo have reached an agreement to deescalate tensions on their mutual border that have been triggered by a dispute over vehicle license plates. EU mediator Miroslav Lajcak tweeted Thursday that “We have a deal!” He said it came after two days of “intense negotiations.” Kosovo’s government deployed special police forces to the border crossings last week to impose a new rule of removing Serb license plates from cars coming into the country. Kosovo had said that a 10-year-old deal had expired. Pristina said they were replicating ..read more

TOKYO (AP) — The two women in the Japanese governing party’s four-way leadership race was a step forward for gender equality. But their defeat was no surprise. The winner in Wednesday’s race, as expected, was former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, a veteran considered part of the ruling establishment. Women are a tiny minority in Japanese politics, especially within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Only about 10% of Japan’s parliament is female, and many tend to try to advance by showing party loyalty rather than pursuing equality. The candidates themselves seem polar opposites. The ultra ..read more

A survey of Americans on President Joe Biden’s plan to require most workers to get either vaccinated or regularly tested for COVID-19 finds a deep and familiar divide: Democrats are overwhelmingly for it, while most Republicans are against it. With the highly contagious delta variant driving deaths up to around 2,000 per day, the poll released Thursday by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed that overall, 51% say they approve of the Biden requirement, 34% disapprove and 14% hold neither opinion. The post Biden vaccine mandate splits US on party lines: AP-NORC pol ..read more

LONDON (AP) — A serving London police officer has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the kidnapping, rape and murder of a woman he tricked into his car using his police identification and COVID-19 laws. Wayne Couzens was accused of falsely arresting 33-year-old Sarah Everard for violating lockdown restrictions as she walked home from visiting a friend in south London on March 3. Prosecutors said he handcuffed Everard, drove her far outside the city, and then raped and strangled her with his police belt. Couzens had pleaded guilty. The sentencing judge on Thu ..read more

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The Greek prime minister’s pet dog Peanut has briefly interrupted a news conference attended by the visiting prime minister of Slovakia. The former stray was adopted by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in April and has already met several other European leaders. The dog barked Thursday while Mitsotakis expressed support for efforts by several Balkan countries to join the European Union.    The post Top dog: Greek leader’s pet interrupts news conference appeared first on WQOW ..read more

GENEVA (AP) — High-level Russian and U.S. diplomats are meeting in Geneva as part of strategic talks revived by presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin at a June summit, with contentious issues like nuclear weapons and cyberspace on the table. The second-ranked U.S diplomat, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, held several hours of talks with her Russian counterpart, Sergey Ryabkov, at the Russian diplomatic mission in Geneva. It was the second round following up on an earlier one at the U.S. mission in Geneva in July, where little progress was made. The post High-level US, Russian envoys ..read more