Month: August 2021

LONDON (AP) — A jury in London has concluded that a terror attack in the south of the city last year could have been prevented had the perpetrator been recalled to prison after he bought items that were used in a fake suicide belt. Twenty-year-old Sudesh Amman was shot dead by armed undercover officers after

LE LUC, France (AP) — Firefighters have tamed but not fully controlled a huge wildfire blazing through the backcountry of the French Riviera. The prefect of the Var region told reporters Friday that the fire was considered stabilized, meaning not spreading. But he warned that rising temperatures and a changing wind forecast for the weekend

PRAGUE (AP) — The international film festival has returned to the Czech spa of Karlovy Vary after it was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic. The 55th edition of the festival will honor Oscar-winning British actor Michael Caine for his outstanding contribution to world cinema at its start on Friday night. Caine won two Academy Awards

By CARA ANNA Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The United States is warning that food aid will run out this week for millions of hungry people under a blockade imposed by Ethiopia’s government on the embattled Tigray region. Samantha Power, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, says less than 7% of

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Bulgaria’s center-right GERB party of former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov has rejected the president’s offer to form a government after last month’s inconclusive vote, pushing the country a step closer to a third election this year. The party returned the mandate to form a Cabinet without even holding talks with other

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — A court in Albania has refused to extradite an Egyptian man who faces a death sentence in his country. A judge in Tirana canceled the extradition of Mohamed Rageh after Egyptian authorities did not give assurance he would not be executed. An Egyptian court sentenced Rageh to death for a November

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A police boat and divers have joined the search for some 30 people still missing more than a week after severe floods devastated parts of Turkey’s Black Sea coast. The Turkish disaster management agency, meanwhile, raised the death toll from the disaster to 81. Torrential rains pounded the Black Sea provinces

By BARRY HATTON Associated Press LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Spain’s Maritime Rescue Service says a woman who was the only person pulled from a sinking dinghy in the Atlantic Ocean told her rescuers that the boat had left Africa a week earlier carrying 53 migrants. A merchant ship spotted the inflatable dinghy 255 kilometers (158

By PHILIP MARCELO and PAT EATON-ROBB Associated Press PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — New Englanders bracing for their first hurricane in 30 years are hauling boats out of the water and taking other precautions as Tropical Storm Henri barrels toward the Northeast coast. The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Henri is expected to intensify into a

By MATTHEW CHENG and JANICE LO Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s granting of a quarantine exemption to Hollywood star Nicole Kidman is drawing criticism from lawmakers as the city tightens entry restrictions for international travelers to control the coronavirus. Kidman, who reportedly flew to Hong Kong last week from coronavirus-hit Sydney, was

By AHMAD SEIR, TAMEEM AKHGAR and REBECCA SANTANA Associated Press KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The scene outside the airport in the Afghan capital is still chaotic. People seeking to escape the Taliban-controlled country struggled Friday to get past crushing crowds, Taliban checkpoints and U.S. bureaucracy. Video images showed crowds gathered in the dark outside barbed-wire

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has marked the anniversary of a poisoning attack against him by urging global leaders to focus on combating corruption and to target tycoons close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. In an article published in three European newspapers, Navalny chided Western leaders

By RODNEY MUHUMUZA Associated Press KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Ugandan authorities have suspended more than 50 civic groups for allegedly not complying with regulations, dealing a blow to hundreds of thousands of people who benefit from the organizations’ activities. The suspensions, targeting agencies ranging from rights watchdogs to women’s groups, were announced Friday by the

BERLIN (AP) — A union representing many train drivers at Germany’s national railway operator is calling members out on a new strike. The head of the GDL union said drivers of passenger trains will strike from 2 a.m. Monday to 2 a.m. Wednesday. Freight train drivers will start their strike on Saturday afternoon. It’s the

By ROD McGUIRK and NICK PERRY Associated Press CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — An Australian state leader is warning that Melbourne may be losing control of a COVID-19 delta variant outbreak that began in Sydney and has also spread to the New Zealand capital. The fast-moving outbreak was first detected in mid-June in Sydney, Australia’s largest

By ELENA BECATOROS Associated Press ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece’s prime minister and Turkey’s president are to speak Friday evening to discuss developments in Afghanistan. Both countries are raising concerns about a potential major influx of people fleeing the Taliban takeover. Meanwhile, Greece’s defense and citizens’ protection ministers headed to the border with Turkey to

By EILEEN NG Associated Press KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia’s longest-governing political party has reclaimed the premiership it lost in a shock 2018 election defeat, after the king named its candidate, Ismail Sabri Yaakob, as the country’s new leader. Ismail was the deputy prime minister under the government of Muhyiddin Yassin, who resigned Monday

By ELENA BECATOROS Associated Press ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A major wildfire that has ravaged a pine forest and burned homes northwest of the Greek capital has been contained, the minister for citizens’ protection says, adding that a prosecutor for organized crime cases is involved in the investigation of major fires in Greece this summer.

By COLLEEN BARRY and KERSTIN SOPKE Associated Press MILAN (AP) — Hundreds of Western nationals and Afghan workers have been flown to safety since the Taliban reasserted control over the country. Yet still unprotected, and in hiding, are untold numbers of Afghans who tried to build a fledgling democracy. They include Afghans who worked with

By ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writer Stocks ended higher on Wall Street Friday but not enough to erase the market’s losses from earlier in the week. The S&P 500 added 0.8% but still posted a weekly loss after two weeks of gains. The benchmark index set a record high on Monday. Trading was mostly subdued

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV and GEIR MOULSON Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin have reaffirmed their sharply different views of Moscow’s treatment of imprisoned Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. Merkel traveled to Moscow on Friday, which was the anniversary of Navalny’s poisoning with what European officials later identified as

BEIJING (AP) — China is tightening control over data gathered by companies about the public under a law approved by its ceremonial legislature. The data protection law expands the ruling Communist Party’s crackdown on internet industries. It follows anti-monopoly and other enforcement actions against companies including e-commerce giant Alibaba and games and social media operator

By TERRY SPENCER Associated Press FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Millions of students in Florida, Texas and Arizona are being required to wear masks in class as school boards in mostly Democratic locales are imposing anti-COVID mandates in defiance of their Republican governors. The three states are all hot spots in the nation’s recent COVID-19

By The Associated Press BOSTON — Taliban websites that delivered the victorious insurgents’ official messages to Afghans and the world at large in five languages have abruptly gone offline. It is not immediately clear why the sites in the Pashto, Urdu, Arabic, English and Dari languages went offline Friday. They had been shielded by Cloudflare,

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has vowed to hold officials accountable over mistakes during recent floods that led to the deaths of hundreds of people in a major provincial capital, including 14 who were trapped when the city’s subway system was inundated. More than than 300 people were killed in last month’s floods

By KELLI KENNEDY and CODY JACKSON Associated Press JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Hospitals are overflowing with COVID patients in northeast Florida, the hot zone in the state’s latest surge. But the patients rapidly filling wards in Jacksonville are younger than last summer’s peak outbreak. And they’re getting sick faster. The caseload is more than double

By WILSON RING and ROY NKOSI Associated Press DEDZA, Malawi (AP) — The Peace Corps is beginning the process of returning its volunteers to countries across the globe, but how quickly that happens will depend on the pandemic. The U.S. government program is marking its 60th anniversary this year. But in March 2020, more than

By LAURAN NEERGAARD AP Medical Writer The U.S. is planning booster doses of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, but if you got the one-dose Johnson & Johnson shot instead, stay tuned. Health authorities say a booster probably will be needed for that vaccine as well — but they don’t have enough data yet to

By ALEXANDRA JAFFE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan is giving new urgency to Vice President Kamala Harris’ tour of Southeast Asia. There, she will attempt to reassure allies of American resolve following the chaotic end of a two-decade war. The trip will provide a forum for Harris to assert herself

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER, ROBERT BURNS, JAMES LAPORTA and ZEKE MILLER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is pledging firmly to bring all Americans home from Afghanistan — and all Afghans who aided the war effort, too. He made that commitment Friday as other officials confirmed that U..S. military helicopters had flown into Taliban-held

By JULHAS ALAM Associated Press DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh is suffering through its deadliest surge of the pandemic, but you wouldn’t know it looking at its factories, markets and malls. The South Asian nation has done away with most virus restrictions, allowing businesses to reopen to enthusiastic crowds following weeks of strict measures put

By BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — California’s wildfires have already made plenty of news this summer, and the worst may be yet to come. Some of the state’s most devastating fires have started in the fall when powerful, dry winds blow out of the desert. More land has burned this year than

By FABIOLA SÁNCHEZ Associated Press TULUM, Mexico (AP) — Hurricane Grace has rapidly strengthened into a major Category 3 storm as it bears down on a second landfall in Mexico. This time it’s taking aim at the Gulf coast after crashing through the country’s main tourist strip. The storm had lost punch as it zipped

By KATHLEEN RONAYNE and MICHAEL R. BLOOD Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — The leading Republican candidate is California’s recall election that could remove Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is denying that he brandished a gun during a heated domestic argument with his former fiancee. Talk radio host Larry Elder says “I have never brandished a

By MARK STEVENSON and EVENS SANON Associated Press LES CAYES, Haiti (AP) — Haiti’s unusually close relationship between the living and the dead has helped hide, in part, the huge toll of Saturday’s earthquake: people in Haiti want to be close to their deceased relatives, to the point of sometimes burying themselves in their front

By ETHAN SWOPE and JOHN ANTCZAK Associated Press PLACERVILLE, Calif. (AP) — Millions of acres of national forest in Northern California are being closed because of dangerous fire conditions that already have sent a score of blazes raging through the area and destroyed hundreds of homes. The U.S. Forest Service announced Thursday that beginning on

By MARK STEVENSON and EVENS SANON Associated Press LES CAYES, Haiti (AP) — As if Haiti’s 7.2 magnitude earthquake, a tropical storm and the coronavirus pandemic weren’t enough, the temblor has also damaged the only medical oxygen plant in southern Haiti. The building that housed the oxygen concentrator machines that the region depended on partially

By DAISY NGUYEN and ERIC RISBERG Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco became the first major city in the nation to require proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 on Friday for people dining inside restaurants, working out in gyms or attending indoor concerts. Restaurants and bars posted signs and added extra staff to