Month: September 2021

MADRID (AP) — Households and businesses in Spain will be thinking twice about using appliances and switching on lights starting Thursday when the country sees a new record for the cost of electricity. The electricity market operator for the Iberian Peninsula says customers in both Spain and Portugal will pay an average of 140 euros,

By JOSH BOAK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The government is collaborating on a new internet site to help more Americans apply for and receive the expanded child tax credit. The credit provides a monthly payment of as much as $300 per child and was part of the coronavirus relief package. Code for America says

By JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press GENEVA (AP) — Switzerland’s highest court say an Indian Swiss tycoon could owe the Geneva region about $137 million in back taxes over allegations he tried to pass himself off as a resident of Monaco and falsified the value of his fortune. The tax allegations came to light after Geneva

NEW YORK (AP) — The Vatican has concluded that allegations of sexual abuse dating back a half century against the Roman Catholic Bishop of Brooklyn do “not have the semblance of truth.” As a result, the Vatican is closing its investigation into allegations made separately by two men who accused  Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of abusing

By MATTHEW LEE AP Diplomatic Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is extending for one year a Trump-era ban on the use of U.S. passports for travel to North Korea. The ban was imposed in 2017 after the death of American student Otto Warmbier, who suffered grievous injuries while in North Korean custody. The

RABAT, Morocco (AP) — Morocco has launched a campaign to administer COVID-19 vaccines to children from 12 to 17. It has become one of the first African countries to inoculate that age group. The World Health Organization says that the North African country has already given around 33 million doses to adults this year. Morocco

By COLLEEN SLEVIN Associated Press DENVER (AP) — Three suburban Denver officers and two paramedics have been indicted on manslaughter and other charges in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain. The grand jury indictments announced Wednesday come two years after the 23-year-old Black man was put in a chokehold and injected with a powerful sedative.

By JOSEF FEDERMAN Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s foreign minister has played down criticism of the country’s regulation of the cyberespionage firm NSO Group. But he vowed Wednesday to step up efforts to ensure the company’s controversial spyware doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. Speaking to foreign journalists, Yair Lapid said the government has

CLEVELAND (AP) — A teenager involved in a botched robbery that ended with the fatal shooting of an undercover Cleveland detective and his informant last year has been sentenced to a term in the state’s youth services facility. The sentence imposed Tuesday calls for the now-16-year-old to remain in custody until he’s 21. He could

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian and opposition media are reporting that a Russian-negotiated cease-fire has taken effect in a volatile southern city, ending weeks of violence. Fighting in the area over the past weeks between government forces and opposition fighters had threatened to undo years of relative calm along the borders with Israel and Jordan. Under

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland is working on a memoir in which he will reflect on the Jan. 6 siege of the Capitol and the tragedy he suffered a week earlier when his 25-year-old son Tommy killed himself. The book is called “Unthinkable: Trauma,

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN and EVENS SANON Associated Press PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — It’s been nearly two months since Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated and the country has suffered a devastating earthquake and a drenching tropical storm. Those natural disasters have deflected attention from the man-made one that preceded them. Add the constant worry over

By KRISHAN FRANCIS Associated Press COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — A Sri Lankan Roman Catholic leader says the government must win back the confidence of the church before the two sides can hold talks on the church’s criticisms of inquiries into 2019 Easter Sunday bomb blasts that killed 269 people. Archbishop of Colombo Cardinal Malcolm

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Flash floods have swept cars down streets in a seaside town in northeastern Spain as other parts of the country were hit by overnight storms. A downpour Wednesday quickly overwhelmed the Catalan town of Alcanar. Neighbors watched as waters swept up cars and carried them down streets toward the Mediterranean. Most

By RUSS BYNUM Associated Press SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia judge says he won’t allow attorneys for the men charged with killing Ahmaud Arbery to use evidence of the slain Black man’s troubled past when they stand trial for murder. Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley said in a written order that the victim’s character

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s central bank says it has been inundated with more than 50 million euros’ ($59 million) worth of damaged bank notes after deadly floods that hit part of the country in July. The Bundesbank said Wednesday that individuals and banks have handed in notes that were soaked in the floods and often

By KATE BRUMBACK Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — A judge has struck down a Trump-era rule that eliminated federal protections for some wetlands and streams. The ruling Monday is giving hope to opponents of a proposed mine outside the Okefenokee Swamp’s vast wildlife refuge in southeast Georgia. The rule tossed out by a federal judge

By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Nearly half of the money being spent on a Republican-ordered investigation into Wisconsin’s 2020 presidential election is earmarked for data analysis related to voting machines. That’s according to a contract released Wednesday to The Associated Press under Wisconsin’s open records law. It spells out how the

By SAMY MAGDY Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — Two human rights groups have accused both sides in the Yemen conflict of using starvation as a weapon of war. The Yemen-based Mwatana Organization for Human Rights and another group, Global Rights Compliance, say they documented airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition that hit farms, water facilities and

By SAMUEL PETREQUIN Associated Press LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) — Senior European Union officials say the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan and the rushed airlift operation out of the country have highlighted the EU’s need for its own rapid-reaction military force. Officials said in interviews and public remarks on Wednesday that the EU’s dependence on U.S. troops

HOLYOKE, Mass. (AP) — Authorities in Massachusetts have arrested two men they allege were digging in an area of protected fossilized dinosaur footprints. Police say the men from New Jersey and Connecticut were seen by police on Saturday afternoon walking up the stairs at the site along the Connecticut River in Holyoke carrying out rocks

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Lil Nas X has been awarded the inaugural Suicide Prevention Advocate of the Year Award from the advocacy group The Trevor Project. The Trevor Project is a nonprofit dedicated to suicide prevention and crisis intervention for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning young people.

By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin regulators have backed down on requirements that operators of a startup that allows private homeowners to rent their swimming pools by the hour said would kill their business. Wisconsin regulators told Swimply in April that pools offered for rent would have to be treated the

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Julie Pace, a longtime Washington journalist who managed coverage of the U.S. government during a period of historic tumult, has been named as the executive editor and senior vice president of The Associated Press. Her appointment was announced Wednesday by outgoing AP President and CEO