CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — In the global race to vaccinate people against COVID-19, Africa is tragically at the back of the pack. In fact, it has barely gotten out of the starting blocks. In South Africa, which has the continent's most robust economy and its biggest coronavirus caseload, just 0.8% of the population is fully vaccinated, according to a worldwide tracker kept by Johns Hopkins University. And hundreds of thousands of the country's health workers, many of whom come face-to-face with the virus every day, are still waiting for their shots.

https://www.wnct.com/on-your-side/health-watch/this-is-insane-africa-desperately-short-of-covid-vaccine/

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Posted: Apr 20, 2021 / 03:24 PM EDT / Updated: Apr 20, 2021 / 03:24 PM EDT (Julia Wall/The News & Observer via AP) OCRACOKE, N.C. – The N.C. Department of Transportation's Ferry Division will be returning to its full schedule on Pamlico Sound routes between Cedar Island, Swan Quarter and Ocracoke starting Wednesday. A test run with the M/V Swan Quarter on Tuesday revealed that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' dredging efforts made vast improvements to ferry channel depths and widths in Bigfoot Slough, allowing safe passage for all of the state's ferries.

https://www.wnct.com/news/north-carolina/pamlico-sound-ferry-routes-return-to-normal-on-wednesday/

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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A big question within North Carolina state government at the start of the year was whether Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and Republican legislative leaders could agree on a state budget after reaching a negotiating impasse two years ago. But right now it's the GOP lawmakers who can't get out of the starting blocks with spending proposals. House and Senate Republican leaders are still hundreds of millions of dollars apart on how much money they want to spend operating state government for the fiscal year starting July 1, lawmakers said this week.

https://www.wnct.com/news/north-carolina/nc-budget-dance-slowed-as-gop-leaders-differ-on-bottom-line/

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by: Jason O. Boyd Posted: Nov 3, 2021 / 05:23 PM EDT / Updated: Nov 3, 2021 / 05:24 PM EDT RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCT) — A Pitt County man wanted on attempted murder charges was arrested in Wake County on Wednesday after a brief chase. The Wake County Sheriff's Office received a request for assistance from the Greenville Police Department to help locate Meleec Greene, who is facing attempted murder charges. Members of the Wake County Sheriff's Office's Criminal Analysis and Apprehension Team located Greene and began surveillance near the 5300 block of Old Wake Forest Road.

https://www.wnct.com/on-your-side/crime-tracker/pitt-county-man-wanted-on-attempted-murder-charges-captured-in-wake-county-after-brief-chase/

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SHOW LOW, Ariz. (AP) — A pickup truck plowed into bicyclists competing in a community road race in Arizona on Saturday, critically injuring several riders before police chased down the driver and shot him outside a nearby hardware store, police said. Six cyclists were taken to a hospital in critical condition after the crash in the mountain town of Show Low, about a three-hour drive northeast of Phoenix, police said. At least two others went to the hospital themselves. The suspect, a 35-year-old man, also was hospitalized in critical but stable condition.

https://www.wnct.com/news/national/truck-rams-bicyclists-in-arizona-race-critically-injuring-6/

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