Month: October 2021

By CANDICE CHOI Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Food companies are coming under renewed pressure to use less salt. U.S. regulators on Wednesday spelled out long-awaited guidelines aimed at reducing sodium levels in dozens of foods including condiments, french fries and potato chips. The voluntary targets are intended to help lower sodium intake. The

NEW YORK (AP) — Author Shannon Messenger can now see the end for her telepathic heroine Sophie and the million-selling middle-grade series “Keeper of the Lost Cities.” Aladdin Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, announced Wednesday that a tenth and final volume is scheduled for 2023. The book is currently untitled. Messenger’s

By ADRIAN SAINZ Associated Press MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Postal workers are back on the job at a sorting facility in Tennessee, hours after a co-worker turned it into a crime scene. Colleagues say a letter carrier fatally shot a supervisor and manager before dying from a self-inflicted gunshot. Authorities have not described a motive

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Dutch court documents show that police arrested a 22-year-old man in July on suspicion of threatening to kill caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte. Dutch daily De Volkskrant newspaper first reported that the documents allege the suspect used a channel on the Telegram messaging app to post incitements to violence. A

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s foreign minister has accused Russia and the United States of failing to keep to their promise to restrain Kurdish militia in Syria. He says that’s forcing Ankara to take action to eliminate the threat. The comments Wednesday come after Turkey’s president warned that his country was losing patience after a

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — A publishing division is being started by the conservative media company the Daily Wire. It will include releases by such commentators as Candace Owens and Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro. It will also publish a book by one of the officers involved in the Breonna

LAUDERDALE-BY-THE-SEA, Fla. (AP) — Residents of an oceanfront condominium near Fort Lauderdale have been evacuated after authorities said electrical problems increased the risk of fire and electrocution. Now delays in getting some of the equipment needed to make repairs could force some 60 residents out of their homes at Crane Crest Apartments for several months.

By TOM KRISHER AP Auto Writer DETROIT (AP) — U.S. safety investigators want to know why Tesla didn’t file recall documents when it updated Autopilot software to better identify parked emergency vehicles, escalating a simmering clash between the automaker and regulators. In a letter to Tesla, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration told the electric

By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — The burial of a Holocaust denier in the gravesite of a Jewish music professor has caused an uproar in Germany. The top German government official tasked with combating antisemitism criticized the action Wednesday, calling it “a very unfortunate mistake.” Several German news outlets have reported that known

BURLINGTON, N.C. (AP) — J.R. Smith stepped into a hornets’ nest in his first college golf tournament and it had nothing to do with his high score. The 36-year-old two-time NBA champion was literally stung by hornets while completing his round Tuesday for North Carolina A&T on the second day of Elon’s Phoenix Invitational. Smith

By ANNA HELHOSKI of NerdWallet Before the pandemic, women already held more student debt than men and had a harder time paying it off due to lower earnings in the workplace. While the federal student loan payment pause helped borrowers take a collective breath, when student loan payments restart in February 2022, women are still

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese officials say the country’s electricity supplies will be high enough to heat homes throughout the country’s north in the winter, amid a nationwide energy crunch that has seen power cuts in some areas. The head of China’s planning agency on Wednesday also said China would meet its carbon reduction targets even

By SAMUEL PETREQUIN Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s executive branch is advising the 27 EU member countries to adopt tax cuts, state aid and other measures to help households and businesses weather the impact of high energy prices. After the economic instability of the coronavirus pandemic, the European Commission wants a rapid

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV and TANYA TITOVA Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — The head of the Russian sovereign fund bankrolling the shot says Russia is ready to provide up to 300 million doses of its Sputnik V vaccine to the U.N.-backed COVAX initiative. That’s despite the lack of WHO approval and Sputnik V vaccine production issues

By SARAH EL DEEB Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — The Lebanese militant Hezbollah group and its allies are calling for the removal of the judge leading the investigation into the massive explosion at Beirut’s port last year. The development could derail the new Lebanese government even before it begins tackling the country’s unprecedented economic meltdown

By FLORENT BAJRAMI and LLAZAR SEMINI Associated Press PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Tensions between Kosovo and Serbia have increased after police in Kosovo clashed with ethnic Serbs during a police operation against the smuggling of goods. At least seven people were injured. The violence Wednesday prompted an angry response from Serbia for the international community,

By DANIEL ROCA and JOSEPH WILSON Associated Press LOS LLANOS DE ARIDANE, Canary Islands (AP) — Hundreds of people in Spain’s Canary Islands are fearing for their homes and property after a new lava stream from an erupting volcano threatened to engulf another neighborhood on the island of La Palma. Island authorities ordered the evacuation

By HUIZHONG WU Associated Press TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — An intensive summer language program hosted by Harvard University in Beijing will relocate to Taiwan in summer of 2022, as the U.S.-China relationship remains strained. National Taiwan University confirmed Wednesday the program is moving to Taipei and will kick off next summer with about 60 students

By BEN FOX Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Amid an epidemic of ransomware attacks, the U.S. is discussing cybersecurity strategy with 30 countries while leaving out one key player: Russia. The country that, unwittingly or not, hosts many of the criminal syndicates behind ransomware attacks around the world was not invited to a two-day meeting

By FARAI MUTSAKA Associated Press SEKE, Zimbabwe (AP) — The Apostolic church is one of Zimbabwe’s most skeptical groups when it comes to COVID-19 vaccines. The numerous Apostolic groups have millions of followers and it is one of the southern African nation’s largest religious denominations. But many of these Christian churches, which combine traditional beliefs

By JOSH BOAK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has announced a deal to expand operations at the Port of Los Angeles in hopes of ending the logjam of ships waiting to unload. It is part of his effort to reassure America that he can tame high inflation. The supply chain squeeze has

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia has agreed to build a 44-pound semi-autonomous lunar rover for NASA to take to the moon as early as 2026. The rover would collect soil that contains oxides and NASA would use separate equipment to extract oxygen from that soil. Oxygen extracted from the lunar surface would ultimately be used

HONG KONG (AP) — A Danish artist is seeking to get back his sculpture in Hong Kong commemorating the victims of China’s 1989 crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square as a deadline passed for its removal. Jens Galschioet says he has hired a lawyer and hopes he will be able to transport the sculpture out

MADRID (AP) — Spain’s defense ministry has completed the evacuation of another 160 Afghans who had initially been left behind following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. The new group joins the 83 people Spain flew into an air base near Madrid on Monday. The defense ministry says that the mission was able to extract the

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Comic book writer Tom Taylor says he could not be happier with the reaction to his portrayal of a new Superman as bisexual. He told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio that people who saw headlines about the new portrayal told him they “burst into tears” after never

By PAN PYLAS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — A logjam at the U.K.‘s busiest commercial port has ratcheted up concerns that the country could see shortages of toys, food and other items during the crucial Christmas holiday period. Worries have mounted in recent weeks that the U.K.’s economic recovery is being hobbled by an array

By JAN M. OLSEN Associated Press COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Participants at a Holocaust remembrance conference in Sweden have blamed social media for contributing to a global rise in antisemitism. Government and technology company representatives attending the International Forum on Holocaust Remembrance in Malmo vowed Wednesday to crack down on hate speech, disinformation and the

By MARCIA DUNN and RICK TABER Associated Press VAN HORN, Texas (AP) — Hollywood’s Captain Kirk, 90-year-old William Shatner, has blasted into space and safely returned to Earth in a convergence of science fiction and science reality. He set out Wednesday morning for the final frontier aboard a ship built by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares are mostly higher, tracking an overnight rally on Wall Street as investors sought out bargains, including technology stocks. Benchmarks rose in Tokyo, Seoul and Sydney in morning trading. Markets in Hong Kong were closed for a holiday. Shares in Shanghai were little changed after

By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER and VANESSA GERA Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — German authorities say the number of migrants arriving in the country via Poland and Belarus has gone up in recent months. Poland and two other European Union nations have accused the Belarusian government of encouraging people to cross into the EU. German news agency

By NICK PERRY Associated Press WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand’s Climate Change Minister James Shaw says the coronavirus pandemic has shown that humans are very good at responding to an immediate crisis. But when it comes to dealing with a slower-moving threat like climate change, he says, we’re “terribly bad.” Shaw spoke to

By DAVID McHUGH AP Business Writer FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The International Energy Agency is urging governments to make stronger commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions at an upcoming U.N. climate summit. The Paris-based international organization is warning the world isn’t on track to contain climate change and that new investment was needed to “jolt

By MALAK HARB Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — One of the most talked about attractions at the world’s fair underway in Dubai is a towering statue made of marble dust that’s raising eyebrows just as its original form did more than 500 years ago. At Italy’s pavilion, a 3D replica of Michelangelo’s

By SAMY MAGDY Associated Press ONBOARD THE GEO BARENTS OFF LIBYA (AP) — Migrants rescued from the Mediterranean Sea have told The Associated Press they were tortured and their families extorted for ransoms while they were held in Libya’s government detention centers. Their accounts come as a United Nations report last week found evidence of

By SAMY MAGDY Associated Press ONBOARD THE GEO BARENTS OFF LIBYA (AP) — Migrants rescued from the Mediterranean Sea have told The Associated Press they were tortured and their families extorted for ransoms while they were held in Libya’s government detention centers. Their accounts come as a United Nations report last week found evidence of