News in brief

By The Associated Press

Thousands without power as winter storm rolls over New Mexico, Colorado

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. | Tens of thousands of people in New Mexico are without power as the first major winter storm of the season rolled across the northern two-thirds of the state and into Colorado.

Public Service Co. of New Mexico said Thursday that crews have been working on widespread outages from Albuquerque to Santa Fe and beyond. Schools were closed in Santa Fe and Los Alamos.

Plows were busy trying to keep major highways open, but Interstate 25 just south of the Colorado border was closed as well as Interstate 70 in eastern Colorado.

Forecasters with the National Weather Service warned that the storm could bring historic amounts of snow through Friday, with more than 4 feet possible in some areas.

South Korea’s president denies wrongdoing in growing scandal

SEOUL, South Korea | South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol denied wrongdoing on Thursday in a burgeoning influence-peddling scandal involving him and his wife that is severely hurting his approval ratings and providing political munition to his rivals.

The political firestorm coincides with South Korea facing a slew of critical foreign policy issues, such as Donald Trump’s election win to become the next president of the United States and North Korea’s reported entry into the Russia-Ukraine war.

The scandal centers around allegations that Yoon and first lady Kim Keon Hee exerted inappropriate influence on the conservative ruling People Power Party to pick a certain candidate to run for a parliamentary by-election in 2022 at the request of Myung Tae-kyun, an election broker and founder of a polling agency who conducted free opinion surveys for Yoon before he became president.

CDC calls for expanded testing for bird flu after blood tests reveal more farmworker infections

Federal health officials are calling for more testing and treatment of workers on farms with bird flu.

The new guidance comes after a study showed that some dairy workers had signs of infection, even when they didn’t report feeling sick. Blood tests of 115 workers on farms in Michigan and Colorado showed that eight workers had antibodies that indicated previous infection. The finding suggests the virus may be spreading more widely.

Four of the workers reported feeling sick and four reported no symptoms.

Officials said the risk to the public remains low.

—From AP reports