Month: December 2021

By SALAR SALIM Associated Press IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — Northern Iraq’s provincial governor says eight people have died amid severe flooding caused by torrential rainfall in northern Iraq. Omed Khoshnaw says seven have died due to flooding and one was killed in a lightning strike, adding that women and children are feared among the dead.

By KAREL JANICEK Associated Press PRAGUE (AP) — A new coalition government has taken office in the Czech Republic and faces the coronavirus pandemic and soaring inflation as immediate policy challenges. President Milos Zeman swore in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Petr Fiala at the presidential chateaux in Lany on Friday. Two political coalitions that

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The Istanbul governor’s office says at least 22 people have died in Istanbul after drinking bootleg alcohol. At least 16 people have been hospitalized and are in serious condition. The governor’s office said Friday that 11 of the dead and five of those who had fallen ill were foreign nationals. It

BERLIN (AP) — A closely watched survey shows business confidence in Germany has dropped for the sixth month in a row amid concern over the latest wave of coronavirus infections. The Ifo institute said Friday that its monthly confidence index for Europe’s biggest economy dropped to 94.7 points in December from 96.6 last month. The

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A British national has been ordered held in pre-trial custody suspected of being drunk on the British freighter that collided with a Danish freighter off southern Sweden that left one person dead and one missing. The man was a crew member of the Scot Carrier that collided Monday with Danish-flagged Karin

By BUSABA SIVASOMBOON Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — Fighting between Myanmar government forces and ethnic guerrillas has sent about 2,500 villagers fleeing across the border into Thailand. The exodus was the biggest since April this year, when thousands from Myanmar’s eastern state of Karen fled to Thailand following airstrikes by Myanmar forces in territory held

BERLIN (AP) — Austria’s parliament has approved legislation that will allow chronically or terminally ill people to stipulate their will to die in tightly defined circumstances. Lawmakers approved the new rules by a broad majority on Thursday, with only one of three opposition parties voting against. A change was necessary after a federal court last

By GEIR MOULSON Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — Members of Germany’s center-right Christian Democratic Union, the party of former Chancellor Angela Merkel, have chosen prominent conservative Friedrich Merz as its new leader. Merz beat two centrist contenders while winning 62.1% support in a ballot of the party’s membership. A party congress next month will have

BEIJING (AP) — China has said it will take unspecified “necessary measures” to safeguard its institutions and enterprises after the U.S. Senate passed a new law barring imports from the Xinjiang region unless businesses can prove they were made without forced labor. A Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Friday that the legislation approved Thursday indicates that

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press ROME (AP) — Pope Francis is celebrating his 85th birthday. It’s a milestone made even more remarkable given the coronavirus pandemic, his summertime intestinal surgery and the weight of history: His predecessor retired at this age and the last pope to have lived any longer was Leo XIII over a

LONDON (AP) — British police have arrested a 27-year-old woman on suspicion of child neglect after four children died in a fire that ripped through a home in south London. About 60 firefighters descended on the home, and the children were carried out as intense fire ripped through the building on Thursday night. They were

By JOHN LEICESTER and DANIEL COLE Associated Press CLAVIERE, Italy (AP) — When the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August, some Afghans resolved to escape and embarked on forbidding journeys of thousands of kilometers to Europe. More than three months later, their odysseys have taken them through multiple countries and carried some high into

By ELENA BECATOROS Associated Press HERAT, Afghanistan (AP) — The value of Afghanistan’s currency is tumbling, exacerbating an already severe economic crisis in the wake of the Taliban takeover and deepening poverty in a country where more than half the population already doesn’t have enough to eat. The afghani lost more than 11% of its

By DAMIAN J. TROISE and ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writers Stocks closed lower on Wall Street, marking their third losing week in the last four. Banks, technology companies and industrials all helped pull major indexes lower Friday. The S&P 500 gave up 1%. The Nasdaq sliped 0.1% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.5%.

By LISA MASCARO and ALAN FRAM Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has all but acknowledged negotiations over his sweeping domestic policy package will have to be pushed into the new year. It was a setback Thursday as Senate Democrats rushed to try to send the roughly $2 trillion bill to his desk

By LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials say all of the military services have now begun disciplinary actions and discharges for troops who have refused to get the mandated coronavirus vaccine, with as many as 20,000 unvaccinated forces at risk of being removed from service. On Thursday, the Marine Corp said

By LISA MASCARO and FARNOUSH AMIRI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite months of being courted and cajoled, Sen. Joe Manchin is still not a yes on President Joe Biden’s big $2 trillion domestic package. Even after being invited to Biden’s Delaware home for negotiations, the West Virginia Democrat is still a holdout. In an

By SAMYA KULLAB Associated Press LHEIBAN, Iraq (AP) — Iraq’s central government and the Kurdish autonomy zone have formed a fragile security partnership to prevent a resurgence by the Islamic State group, despite a long-standing territorial dispute between them. For years, that dispute has left a long buffer zone between the two sides where neither

By SEAN MURPHY Associated Press Writer MAYFIELD, Ky. (AP) — After suffering through what is believed to be the worst tornado in Kentucky history, the tight-knit community of Mayfield now faces the daunting task of rebuilding. President Joe Biden visited the state Wednesday and promised the federal government would do whatever it takes to help

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida says his government is accelerating COVID-19 booster shots and securing oral medicines after speaking with Pfizer Inc. CEO Albert Burla. Japan has confirmed a handful of omicron variant cases, while revealing a cluster of infections of about 100 U.S. troops on Japan’s

By ASHRAF KHALIL Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Joe Manchin’s reluctance to endorse the Biden administration’s expanded child tax credit program is rippling through his home state of West Virginia. Manchin, a moderate Democrat, is one of the last holdouts delaying passage of President Joe Biden’s massive social and environmental package, dubbed the Build

By MEG KINNARD, JOSH BOAK and DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press ORANGEBURG, S.C. (AP) — President Joe Biden has pledged to fight for stalled voting rights and police reform legislation. That’s despite not having the votes in the Senate to move either measure closer to becoming law. Biden commented while delivering the commencement address at South

By ALICE FUNG and ZEN SOO Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong voters are preparing to vote for the first time this weekend since election laws were changed, amid a dearth of opposition candidates months after the city began cracking down on dissent. The legislative elections, to be held Sunday, come after Beijing

By SCOTT SONNER Associated Press RENO, Nev. (AP) — Conservationists are suing three federal agencies over an environmental review the government says satisfies requirements to resume killing coyotes, mountain lions and other wildlife in federally protected wilderness areas in Nevada. The move comes five years after the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Wildlife Services settled a similar

By AMY FORLITI and SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The suburban Minneapolis police officer who shot and killed Black motorist Daunte Wright said she’s sorry it happened. Kim Potter was the last witness Friday before the defense rested in her trial. She’s charged with manslaughter in Wright’s death during an April 11 traffic

By JOE REEDY AP Sports Writer INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Travis Kelce scored on a 34-yard pass from Patrick Mahomes in overtime and the Kansas City Chiefs rallied for a 34-28 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers. Kelce caught a tying 7-yard touchdown pass with 1:16 left in the fourth quarter, then ended the game

WASHINGTON (AP) — A judge says that a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit brought against Fox News by Dominion Voting Systems can go forward. In a ruling released Thursday, Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis denied the cable news giant’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit. Dominion filed the lawsuit against Fox earlier this year alleging that