Month: November 2021

By MICHAEL BALSAMO and MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon has appeared before a judge to face federal contempt charges for defying a subpoena from a House committee investigating January’s insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Bannon appeared briefly before a federal magistrate judge in Washington on Monday, hours

By VESELIN TOSHKOV Associated Press SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — With nearly 76% of the ballots counted, a new centrist party appears to be the winner of Bulgaria’s parliamentary election. The country’s central electoral commission said Monday that results showed the anti-corruption We Continue the Change party, founded few weeks ago by two Harvard graduates, captured

By PAUL J. WEBER Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Democrat Beto O’Rourke is running for governor of Texas. The former El Paso congressman announced his decision Monday. It’s O’Rourke’s third run for office in as many election cycles after a narrow loss for U.S. Senate in 2018 and a short-lived presidential run in 2020.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The Swedish Academy which choses the Nobel literature prize winners says it is following the case against Turkish Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, who is under investigation for allegedly insulting modern Turkey’s founder in his latest novel. The academy said Monday it expects Turkey to respect its international commitments after authorities launched

By ALAN FRAM, WILSON RING and LISA RATHKE Associated Press MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont says he won’t seek reelection next year to the seat he’s held since 1975. His decision signals an end to a career that’s included major roles on issues such as civil liberties and financing the

The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump’s opulent hotel near the White House that drew lobbyists and diplomats seeking favor with the ex-president is being sold to a Miami investment group. That’s according to published reports citing anonymous sources. The reports say CGI Merchant Group has agreed to pay the Trump Organization $375 million

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union has imposed sanctions on four ministers recently appointed to the Syrian government, blaming them for playing a role in the continued repression on civilians in the war-torn country. Asset freezes and travel bans in Europe were imposed on the four, who include the ministers for internal trade, information and

JERUSALEM (AP) — A Palestinian doctor has asked Israel’s Supreme Court to order the military to issue an official apology and compensation for a 2009 Israeli strike on Gaza that killed three of his daughters and a niece. The physician, who now lives in Canada, has for years sought justice for his family for what

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA Associated Press BAGHDAD (AP) — The United Arab Emirates has banned travelers from several Middle Eastern countries from boarding flights to Belarus, cutting off one of the last major air routes for would-be migrants to a nation on the European Union’s eastern border. A travel agent in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad

By MEG KINNARD Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A Democrat seeking to become South Carolina’s next governor has a plan to suspend the state’s gas tax, easing the cost of pumping up as pandemic-related supply shortages drive gas prices nationally to record highs. Joe Cunningham previewed his proposal in an interview with The Associated

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece is renewing a bid to seek the return of ancient sculptures removed from the Parthenon at the Acropolis in Athens more than 200 years ago from the British Museum. Giannis Oikonomou, a government spokesman, told reporters the issue would be raised at a scheduled meeting in London Tuesday between British

GELSENKIRCHEN, Germany (AP) — A zoo in the western German city of Gelsenkirchen has proudly presented three female lion cubs born in early October. Visitors can now meet Jamila, Kumani and Malaika. The cubs played on Monday under the watchful eyes of their mother, Fiona, who was brought to the Zoom Erlebniswelt zoo in Gelsenkirchen

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian authorities have added a prominent member of the protest group Pussy Riot to the government’s wanted list, in the latest step to turn up the pressure on opposition activists and independent media. Pyotr Verzilov, a publisher of independent news site Mediazona, was labelled “foreign agent” along with the media outlet and

By LIZ WESTON OF NerdWallet Before you bring up money at a holiday gathering, family and caregiving experts recommend researching options so you can present choices to your parents rather than issuing orders. Be mindful of your tone — you are not your parents’ parent — and consider a variety of ways to broach the

MADRID (AP) — Spain’s foreign minister says the Cuban government’s decision to revoke the press credentials of journalists working for the Spanish state news agency in Havana is “unacceptable.” The top Spanish diplomat and the news agency are demanding that all the credentials be returned. The Cuban government has given no explanation for its decision

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A Sydney lawyer says a group of seven Australia-based women intend to sue Qatar’s government, after the women were forced to undergo gynecological examinations at Doha’s international airport when an abandoned newborn was found in a trash can there last year. The Australian government at the

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Kuwait has temporarily handed its crown prince some of the ruling emir’s constitutional duties. The royal family’s secretariat made the announcement on Monday without explaining why the transfer was necessary. The brief statement published on the state-run KUNA news agency said only that the government had issued a royal

By VANESSA GERA Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s interior minister says three people have been arrested in connection with an antisemitic demonstration last week where far-right participants shouted “Death to the Jews!” The demonstration took place last Thursday on Poland’s Independence Day in the central Polish city of Kalisz. Participants also burned a

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — Sudanese doctors say two more protesters died in the hospital after being shot during demonstrations over the weekend against last month’s military coup. That raises the death toll from Saturday’s protests to seven, all but one from gunshots. Thousands of pro-democracy protesters took to the streets across Sudan on Saturday to

LONDON (AP) — Royal Dutch Shell proposed moving its headquarters from the Netherlands to the United Kingdom and streamlining its structure in hopes of making it easier to move forward in a world transitioning away from a dependence on fossil fuels. The company that’s been incorporated in the U.K. with Dutch tax residency said Monday

BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgium’s government is bringing forward a meeting to decide on tighter measures to control the spread of COVID-19 amid a rapid increase in infections and hospital admissions in the nation. The government said the meeting, which was originally set for Friday, was moved up to Wednesday so that any measure approved midweek

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press ROME (AP) — Police in Italy are conducting searches against 17 anti-vaccine activists who were purportedly affiliated with a Telegram chat that espoused violence against government, medical and media figures for their perceived support of COVID-19 restrictions. Police in Turin said the chat group had tens of thousands of members

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Sweden’s Crown Princess Victoria is canceling a trip to the Netherlands because of the three-week partial lockdown there amid surging COVID-19 cases in the country. The lockdown began Saturday night and is the first to start in Western Europe since a new wave of infections began surging across parts of the

By JIM GOMEZ Associated Press MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has filed his candidacy for a Senate seat in next year’s elections, walking back his vow to retire from politics when his term ends. The announcement prompted rights groups to say he is working to evade accountability for his deadly anti-drug campaign

By PAN PYLAS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned of a “blizzard” of new coronavirus infections coming into the U.K. from continental Europe this winter. His warning came as the independent body of scientists that makes vaccine recommendations to Johnson’s government said people aged 40 to 49 will also

By GRANT PECK and DAVID RISING Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — American journalist Danny Fenster is on his way home from military-ruled Myanmar. Fenster spent nearly six months in jail and was sentenced last week to 11 years of hard labor. On Monday, he was handed over to former U.S. diplomat Bill Richardson, who helped

By ABDUL QAHAR AFGHAN Associated Press KABUL (AP) — Police say a roadside bomb has exploded on a busy avenue in the Afghan capital Kabul, wounding two people. Witnesses say the blast went off as a taxi passed by in the Kota-e Sangi district of western Kabul, injuring a man in the street and a

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Swedish police say they have arrested two adults on suspicion of murder after two children fell from “a great height” and one of them died. Those arrested are a man and a woman, police said. The children who were reportedly were siblings and both under the age of 10, were rushed

By GEIR MOULSON Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — Austria has taken what its leader called the “dramatic” step of implementing a nationwide lockdown for unvaccinated people who haven’t recently had COVID-19. It’s perhaps the most drastic of a string of measures being taken by European governments to get a massive regional resurgence of the virus

By JILL LAWLESS and DANICA KIRKA Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The U.K. government has increased the terror level to severe, meaning an attack is highly likely. The move comes after police said a blast in a taxi outside a Liverpool hospital was caused by a homemade bomb. The explosion at the Liverpool Women’s Hospital