Month: June 2022

By SYLVIA HUI Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The last British governor of Hong Kong says Beijing’s crackdown on civil liberties in the former British colony has been “a lot worse” than he expected. Chris Patten led Britain’s last government in Hong Kong before the city was returned to Chinese rule in 1997. He said

By JERRY HARMER Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — A giant stingray caught in the Mekong River last week is more than a giant — it is the biggest of them all. Scientists say the stingray that measured 13 feet from snout to tail is the world’s largest recorded freshwater fish. It was documented by Wonders

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese court has ruled that the country’s ban on same-sex marriage does not violate the constitution, and rejected demands for compensation by three couples who said their right to free union and equality has been violated. The Osaka District Court ruling is the second decision on

By ERANGA JAYAWARDENA Associated Press COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Thousands of students from state universities marched in Sri Lanka’s capital on Monday to demand the president and prime minister resign over an economic crisis that has caused severe shortages of essential supplies and disrupted people’s livelihoods and education. The students say President Gotabaya Rajapaksa

By ANITA SNOW Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — Hundreds of blue, green and grey tents are pitched under the sun’s searing rays in downtown Phoenix, a jumble of flimsy canvas and plastic along dusty sidewalks. Here, in the hottest big city in America, thousands of homeless people swelter as the summer’s triple digit temperatures arrive.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A Danish prosecutor says three people have been charged with planning acts of terrorism by acquiring weapons and bomb-making materials ”to be used in a terrorist attack in an unknown place in either Denmark or abroad.” The suspects, two men and a woman in their thirties, were not identified in line

QUEBEC CITY (AP) — The Canadian government is banning companies from importing or making plastic bags and Styrofoam takeout containers by the end of this year, their sale by the end of next year and their export by the end of 2025. Canada previously announced a ban but environment advocates were dismayed that Canada’s initial

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has expressed concern about rising food prices caused in part by the war in Ukraine and said he will serve as secretary of agriculture when he takes office to prepare for a possible emergency. He and Vice President-elect Sara Duterte take office June 30 after winning

By LIUDAS DAPKUS Associated Press VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Lithuania is defending its decision to bar rail transit from Russia to a Russian Baltic Sea exclave of goods hit by European Union sanctions, in a move that drew Moscow’s strong anger amid high tensions in the region. The country’s foreign minister said Lithuania was simply

By ANDREA ROSA and JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press BAKHMUT, Ukraine (AP) — Holed up in a bombed-out house in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian troops keep a careful accounting of their ammunition, using a door as a sort of ledger. Scrawled in chalk on the door are figures for mortar shells, smoke shells, shrapnel shells, flares. Despite

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — China’s first special envoy to the Horn of Africa has offered to mediate in disputes in the region as Beijing seeks to strengthen its influence and protect its investments from conflict and other troubles. Xue Bing told a China-led peace conference in Ethiopia’s capital that he is “ready to provide mediation

MADRID (AP) — Cooler temperatures are helping firefighters stabilize a wildfire in northwestern Spain that reports say is the biggest on record in the country. The fire in the Sierra de Culebra mountain range in Zamora province has burnt 31,000 hectares (77,00 acres). The state news agency Efe says that makes it the biggest on

By FRANCES D’EMILIO Associated Press ROME (AP) — Film director Paul Haggis was being held in a hotel room in southern Italy on Monday pending a court hearing while prosecutors press their investigation of a woman’s allegations he had sex with her without her consent over the course of two days. Prosecutors in Brindisi, a

BERLIN (AP) — The German government says it remains committed to its goal of phasing out coal as a power source by 2030, despite deepening worries about a cut in Russia’s gas supplies. Russia’s Gazprom announced last week that it was sharply reducing supplies through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany for what it

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo’s central government and authorities in the capital joined forces on Monday to bring back home an international music festival founded by the father of singer-songwriter Dua Lipa which had been moved following a dispute with its organizers. A week ago the Sunny Hill Festival announced it was moving to neighboring

BERLIN (AP) — German prosecutors say they have seized three apartments and a bank account owned by a Russian lawmaker and his wife under European Union sanctions imposed because of the invasion of Ukraine. Prosecutors in Munich said Monday that the Duma lawmaker and his wife jointly own two of the apartments in the Bavarian

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has had an operation on his sinuses under general anaesthetic. Johnson spokesman Max Blain said the prime minister was back at his 10 Downing Street home and resting after the “routine” procedure on Monday morning. He said the operation had been scheduled in advance and was performed

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan’s newly elected Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif has appeared in court in connection with an old corruption case. His lawyer says the court on Monday granted Sharif exemption from further appearances in person in the hearings. The case dating back four years is related to Sharif’s alleged links to a multi-million

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Lawyers have renewed calls for the International Criminal Court to open an investigation into China’s treatment of Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim groups in China’s Xinjiang region as they presented a dossier of evidence to prosecutors. Activists and lawyers accuse Beijing of crimes against humanity and genocide against the groups.

NEW YORK (AP) — A college basketball player was killed and eight other people were wounded Monday in an early-morning shooting at a gathering in Harlem, New York City police said. Officers responded around 12:40 a.m. to reports of a shooting on a footpath along FDR Drive and found several people wounded. Other victims went

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s Health Ministry says that authorities have detected the country’s first case of monkeypox in a person who returned from abroad and is now isolating at home. The ministry said on Monday that the person is stable and that authorities are tracking the person’s contacts. It did not provide further details. Lebanon

By JOHN LEICESTER and DAVID KEYTON Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia’s military machine is persevering in its ferocious effort to grind down Ukraine’s defenses. Combat in eastern areas of Ukraine reportedly is entering a decisive phase. Ukraine’s deputy defense minister said the Kremlin had ordered its military to overrun the entire eastern Luhansk

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Britain is facing its biggest rail strikes in decades after last-minute talks between a union and train companies failed to reach a settlement over pay and job security. Up to 40,000 cleaners, signalers, maintenance workers and station staff are due to walk out for three days this

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philippine officials are mourning a government attorney fatally shot in Philadelphia and called for the perpetrator to be brought to justice. Police said John Albert Laylo and his mother were heading to the airport early Saturday when someone in a black car fired into their Uber at a red light near the