Month: January 2022

By LAUREN SCHWAHN of NerdWallet Paying for gifts, travel, entertaining and other holiday expenses has caused many of us to start off the new year in debt. The sooner you create a plan, the sooner you can leave that debt behind. Here’s what experts say you can do to get a handle on your holiday

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A Polish news broadcaster has reported that a LOT Polish airlines plane was struck by lightning, prompting the plane to return to Warsaw. TVN24 cited a passenger who said that passengers experienced a moment of terror but that nobody was harmed and the plane landed safely. LOT’s press office did not

GENEVA (AP) — A U.N.-backed group says it has signed agreements with more than two dozen generic drug makers to produce versions of Merck’s coronavirus pill to supply 105 developing countries. In a statement on Thursday, the Medicines Patent Pool said the deals would allow drug companies to make both the raw ingredients for molnupiravir

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s police chief says he has ordered an extensive investigation into a newspaper’s claims that the force had used controversial Israeli spyware to hack the phones of protesters, mayors and other citizens under investigation without proper authorization. Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai said Thursday that immediately following the report’s publication, police launched “a

By MATTHEW LEE and FRANK JORDANS Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is warning of a unified, “swift, severe” response from the United States and its allies if Russia sends any military forces into Ukraine. Blinken’s comments in Berlin appeared to be another effort to clear up confusion about the

By JOHN PYE and ROD McGUIRK Associated Press MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Three Australian Federal Court judges have revealed their reasons for backing a government order to deport tennis star Novak Djokovic, explaining they did not consider the “merits or wisdom of the decision.” The judges on Sunday unanimously endorsed Immigration Minister Alex Hawke’s decision

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Police say a powerful bomb has exploded in a crowded bazar in in Pakistan’s second largest city of Lahore, killing at least two people and wounding 26 others. A senior police official said the dead and wounded had been transported to a nearby hospital, where some were listed in critical condition.

By KELVIN CHAN AP Business Writer LONDON (AP) — European Union lawmakers have approved proposed rules that would require online companies to ramp up efforts to keep harmful content off their platforms and take other steps to protect users. The 27-nation bloc has gained a reputation as a trendsetter in the growing global push to

By JONATHAN PAYE-LAYLEH Associated Press MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — Officials in Liberia say that at least 29 people in Liberia, including 11 children and a pregnant woman, have died in a stampede of worshippers at a Christian ceremony in a densely populated area of the capital, Monrovia. Police spokesman Moses Carter told The Associated Press

OSLO, Norway (AP) — A prosecutor in Norway says a far-right extremist who killed 77 people in 2011 still is “a very dangerous man” and should not be released. Prosecutor Hulda Karlsdottir said in her closing parole hearing argument on Thursday that Anders Behring Breivik “has not shown any genuine remorse in court” and his

GENEVA (AP) — Rock ‘n’ roll icon Tina Turner and her husband have reportedly bought a 70-million Swiss franc ($76 million) estate with 10 buildings, pond, stream, swimming pool and boat dock on Lake Zurich. The 82-year-old star’s husband, Erwin Bach, was quoted in daily Handelszeitung as saying the couple acquired the century-old, 24,000-square-meter (260,000

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s health minister expects the number of coronavirus infections in the country to keep rising for several weeks reaching hundreds of thousands of cases a day. Karl Lauterbach told German public broadcaster ZDF late Wednesday that “the wave will reach its peak roughly in mid-February.” Lauterbach warned that while hospitalization rates are

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — Russia has announced sweeping naval drills in several parts of the world this month, and claims the West is plotting “provocations” in neighboring Ukraine where the Kremlin has been accused of planning aggressive military action. Amid a buildup of some 100,000 troops near the border with Ukraine

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel has signed a three billion euro ($3.4 billion) deal to buy three cutting edge submarines from Germany, the defense ministry announced. The Dakar-class diesel-electric submarines will be produced by German manufacturer Thyssenkrupp and are expected to be delivered within nine years, the ministry said Thursday. Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said

By FRANK JORDANS Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — Hardy Kruger, considered one of post-war Germany’s best actors, has died at 93. His agent said Kruger died Wednesday in California, where he lived with his third wife, American-born writer Anita Park. Kruger starred in the 1957 British movie “The One That Got Away” about a captured

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Long-haul carrier Emirates says it will resume its Boeing 777 flights to the U.S. after halting its use of the aircraft there over concerns new 5G services in America could interfere with airplane technology that measures altitude. International carriers that rely heavily on the

By ERIKA KINETZ Associated Press At some of the world’s most sensitive spots, authorities have installed security screening devices made by a single Chinese company with deep ties to China’s military and the highest levels of the ruling Communist Party. The company, Nuctech, has been frozen out of the U.S. for years due to national

By GEIR MOULSON Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — A long-awaited report on sexual abuse in Germany’s Munich diocese has faulted retired Pope Benedict XVI’s handling of cases when he was archbishop in the 1970s and 1980s. The law firm that drew up the report said that Benedict strongly denies any wrongdoing. The report also faulted

By DANICA KIRKA, SYLVIA HUI AND JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — A British man who held four people hostage in a Texas synagogue ranted against Jews and American wars in countries like Afghanistan as his brother pleaded with him to give up and free the captives. The expletive-filled recording, posted on the website

By DAVID RISING Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — As the massive undersea Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupted on Saturday, Tongans from around the world gazed on as their relatives livestreamed images of the billowing clouds of ash, gas and steam emerged from beneath the depths. Then darkness. The eruption severed Tonga’s single fiber-optic cable,

VIENNA (AP) — Austria’s parliament has voted to introduce a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for adults from Feb. 1, the first of its kind in Europe. Lawmakers voted 137 to 33 Thursday evening to approve the mandate, which will apply to all residents of Austria aged 18 and over. Exempted from the mandate are pregnant women,

By MARIA CHENG AP Medical Writer Some European countries such as Spain are making tentative plans for when they might start treating COVID-19 as an “endemic” disease, but the World Health Organization and other officials have warned that the world is nowhere close to declaring the pandemic over. Diseases are endemic when they occur regularly

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO AP Retail Writer NEW YORK (AP) — First, Amazon competed with malls. Now, it’s moving inside one. The online retailing giant said Thursday that it plans to open a clothing store in a Southern California mall later this year, just the latest foray into brick-and-mortar for Amazon, which already accounts for more

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Some Conservative lawmakers in Britain are talking about ousting their leader, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, over allegations that he and his staff held lockdown-breaching parties during the coronavirus pandemic. The party has a complex process for changing leaders that starts by lawmakers writing letters to demand a

By ARITZ PARRA Associated Press MADRID (AP) — With one of Europe’s highest vaccination rates and its most pandemic-battered economies, the Spanish government is laying the groundwork for a new different COVID-19 playbook. The idea is to move from crisis mode to control mode, from pandemic to endemic, approaching the virus in much the same

By ERIKA KINETZ Associated Press At some of the world’s most sensitive spots, authorities have installed security screening devices made by a single Chinese company with deep ties to China’s military and the highest levels of the ruling Communist Party. The company, Nuctech, has been frozen out of the U.S. for years due to national

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s exports and imports both reached record highs in December, largely because of surging oil prices and a weaker yen. Japan’s imports last month surged 41% from the same month a year earlier. Exports rose 17.5% from the previous year, on stronger shipments of autos and

MULTAN, Pakistan (AP) — A Pakistani court has sentenced a Muslim woman to death after finding her guilty of blasphemy for insulting Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. The woman, Aneeqa Atteeq, was arrested in May 2020 after the man alerted police that she sent him caricatures of the Prophet — considered sacrilegious — via WhatsApp. Under Pakistan’s

By LUJAIN JO Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — Even trash has become a commodity fought over in the streets in Lebanon, mired in one of the world’s worst financial crises in modern history. In Beirut, the desperately poor scavenge the city’s waste for scrap to sell. Some tag trash cans with graffiti to mark territory

By CEDAR ATTANASIO Associated Press / Report for America ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — A proposal to overhaul New Mexico’s social studies standards has stirred debate over how race should be taught, with thousands of parents and teachers weighing in on changes that would dramatically increase instruction related to racial and social identity beginning in kindergarten. New

By NICK PERRY Associated Press WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand is among the few remaining countries to have avoided any outbreaks of the omicron variant. But Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says an outbreak is inevitable and the nation would tighten restrictions as soon as one was detected. She also said Thursday that New

By LISA MASCARO AP Congressional Correspondent WASHINGTON (AP) — Voting legislation that Democrats and civil rights groups argue is vital for protecting democracy has collapsed. The outcome late Wednesday in the Senate was a setback for President Joe Biden and his party after a raw, emotional debate. Democrats were unable to change Senate rules to

By ZEKE MILLER and JOSH BOAK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden acknowledges that the pandemic has exhausted and demoralized many Americans in his first year in office. Yet Biden is defending his administration’s efforts on the pandemic and noting the economy is actually surging despite concerns about inflation. He says he may

By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — In a rebuff to former President Donald Trump, the Supreme Court is allowing the release of presidential documents sought by the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection. The justices on Wednesday rejected a bid by Trump to withhold the documents from the committee until the issue