Month: December 2021

BERLIN (AP) — A Swiss museum to which the late collector Cornelius Gurlitt bequeathed an art trove he amassed at his home says it will relinquish ownership of works where no specific evidence has been found they were looted under Nazi rule but research points to “conspicuous circumstances.” The reclusive Gurlitt, who died in 2014,

By KATE BRUMBACK Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — A federal judge has rejected motions to dismiss eight lawsuits that challenge Georgia’s sweeping new election law. Democrats, voting rights groups and other critics say the law disproportionately disenfranchises people of color. State officials reject that criticism, saying Georgia’s election laws are reasonable, don’t discriminate and are

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Detectives in Tampa are asking Uber to help solve a “grandparent scam” that conned $10,000 from a 75-year-old man who was told his granddaughter needed the money to get out of jail. Uber also is helping the Hillsborough Sheriff’s Office find suspects in a long-running con that scammed an 82-year-old woman

BOSTON (AP) — Prosecutors say the owner of a warehousing company for the shipping industry who paid $75,000 to have someone correct his son’s answers on a college entrance exam has agreed to plead guilty in the nationwide college admissions bribery scandal. Federal prosecutors in Boston said Thursday that 67-year-old I-Hsin “Joey” Chen, of Newport

By LARRY NEUMEISTER and TOM HAYS Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors at the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell have completed presenting their case against the British socialite accused of sexually abusing teenage girls with her late companion, financier Jeffrey Epstein. Earlier Friday, key accuser Annie Farmer testified that Maxwell and Epstein forced themselves on

By JARI TANNER Associated Press HELSINKI (AP) — Finland has agreed to buy 64 Lockheed Martin fighter jets to replace its aging fleet of combat planes in an $11.3 billion deal that represents the Finnish military’s largest ever purchase. Finland picked the American company’s F-35A fighters from among five contenders, which also included the Boeing

By ARSENE KABORE Associated Press OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — Burkina Faso’s military says that its joint operation with Niger’s army has killed at least 100 extremist rebels. The Burkina Faso armed forces said on Friday that its joint force with neighboring Niger also arrested 20 suspects and seized significant equipment from the rebels in

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LIVERPOOL, England (AP) — Britain’s top diplomat is warning that “free democratic nations” must wean themselves off Russian gas and Russian money to preserve their independence. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is hosting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other Group of Seven counterparts for weekend talks in the northwest

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press ROME (AP) — Pope Francis has told Catholic jurists that they must strongly defend basic human rights in their work, even as his own prosecutors stand accused of violating the basic rights of the defense in a big Vatican fraud trial. Francis met Friday with Italian Catholic jurists. He said

By GRANT PECK Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — Opponents of military rule in Myanmar have held one of their biggest nationally coordinated protests in months, successfully calling on people across the country to shut their businesses and stay at home on International Human Rights Day. The “silent strike” was staged in cities and towns from

By VANESSA GERA and FRANK JORDANS Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Germany’s new foreign minister has voiced solidarity with Poland while also calling for humanitarian treatment of migrants and refugees stuck near the country’s border with Belarus as temperatures plummet. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also raised the delicate matter of rule of law

By JOE McDONALD AP Business Writer BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leaders have promised tax cuts and support for entrepreneurs to shore up slumping economic growth as the country grapples with a wave of bankruptcies and defaults among real estate developers caused by a campaign to rein in surging debt. A statement issued after a planning

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Armenia’s parliament has passed a law that would allow employers to fire those who refuse to provide proof of vaccination against COVID-19 or a negative test result. Russia’s ex-Soviet neighbor has some of the lowest vaccination rates in the Caucasus region. Friday’s rule follows an August order by the ministry of

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — In 2021, few in the publishing industry worried that no one cared about books anymore. Sometimes, people seemed to care too much. A 22-year-old poet became a literary star. And the enthusiasms of young people on TikTok helped revive Madeline Miller’s “The Song of Achilles”

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER and ANNE D’INNOCENZIO AP Business Writers WASHINGTON (AP) — A warehouse worker in Tennessee is running up against price increases that far exceed her modest pay raise. The owner of a pastry business in Massachusetts has had to reduce his product offerings and personally absorb higher costs. A grocery chain executive in

By JAN M. OLSEN Associated Press COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The two journalists who shared this year’s Nobel Peace Prize have received their awards during a pomp-filled ceremony in Norway. Maria Ressa of the Philippines and fellow laureate Dmitry Muratov of Russia gave their Nobel lectures at Oslo City Hall on Friday. Both warned that

BERLIN (AP) — German media have reported that police in the northern city of Hamburg arrested a suspected extremist in the summer who planned to carry out an attack. Hamburg-based weekly Der Spiegel reported Friday that a 20-year-old German-Moroccan citizen was arrested in August after trying to buy a weapon and a hand grenade online.

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A human rights group is calling on an international court to open an investigation into a crackdown on dissent by Myanmar’s military rulers. The group alleges that the leader of the coup in the Southeast Asian nation is responsible for widespread and systematic torture. The

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Health officials in Japan have confirmed eight more cases of the new omicron variant of the coronavirus, bringing the country’s total to 12. The health ministry says the eight tested positive when they arrived at Japanese airports from late November to earlier this month. Japan eased border

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — The Bosnian Serb parliament has voted to launch a series of steps that would weaken the war-ravaged Balkan country’s central institutions as the Bosnian Serb leader stepped up his secession campaign despite a threat of new U.S. sanctions. The lawmakers voted Friday in favor of starting a procedure for Bosnian

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Authorities say a flight from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles diverted to Oklahoma City after an unruly passenger assaulted a flight attendant. Police say an air marshal who was on board the Delta Air Lines flight had the passenger in custody when the flight landed in Oklahoma Thursday night. The Transportation

BERLIN (AP) — A close aide of Angela Merkel’s has told a German news outlet that the former chancellor wants to write an autobiographical book explaining her most important political decisions. Merkel handed over the chancellorship to successor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday after a near-record 16 years in power. She didn’t seek a fifth term

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Officials say a Philippine Airlines plane carrying 33 people has veered off the runway after landing in rainy weather at a central airport, causing no injuries but delaying 34 incoming and outgoing flights. The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines says the De Havilland Dash 8 turboprop aircraft was towed away

By DANICA KIRKA Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Royal Dutch Shell has received approval from shareholders to simplify its archaic corporate structure that grew out of a merger more than a century ago of a British firm that once traded in exotic seashells and an oil company in the Netherlands. The changes will mean a

By JUSTIN SPIKE Associated Press BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary’s Constitutional Court has declined to rule on a motion challenging the primacy of European Union law in a case involving the country’s treatment of refugees and asylum-seekers. Hungary’s justice minister had challenged a ruling by the EU’s top court, which required that migrants be granted

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Tighter restrictions to curb the coronavirus have gone into effect in Britain. Starting Friday, face masks are again compulsory in indoor public spaces in England as part of measures announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to slow the spread of the omicron virus variant. Vaccination passes will

LONDON (AP) — The United Kingdom’s economy barely grew in October as construction activity slowed due to shortages of building materials and rising prices caused by shipping bottlenecks around the world. The Office for National Statistics said Friday that gross domestic product increased by 0.1% from the previous month, below the forecast of 0.4% from

By DON BABWIN and SARA BURNETT Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — Jussie Smollett’s conviction for lying to police has come nearly three years after his report of a horrifying hate crime quickly became part of a polarized political landscape. A jury on Thursday found the former “Empire” actor guilty of staging a 2019 attack downtown

By CHINEDU ASADU Associated Press LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — A Nigerian official said that gunmen attacked a rural village in the country’s north, killing 16 worshippers at a mosque and kidnapping others. Local government chairman Alhassan Isah Mazakuka said the assault on Ba’are village in the Mashegu area of Niger state lasted for hours on

By RONALD BLUM Associated Press The Salzburg Festival is projecting for a return to normal next summer, announcing a schedule of 228 performances over 45 days that include a new production of Béla Bartók’s “Bluebeard’s Castle” paired with Carl Orff’s “A Play on the End of Time.” Salzburg, Europe’s premier festival, cut to 110 performances