Month: June 2022

LONDON (AP) — Buckingham Palace has investigated how staff handled allegations of bullying made against Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex — but the findings will remain private. Palace officials told reporters Wednesday that the details of the independent review were not being released to protect the confidentiality of those who took part. Current and former

By NICOLAS VAUX-MONTAGNY, JEFFREY SCHAEFFER and BARBARA SURK Associated Press PARIS (AP) — The lawyer for the only surviving attacker from the November 2015 terrorist massacre in Paris has criticized her client’s murder conviction and life prison sentence without the possibility of parole. Salah Abdeslam, the chief suspect in the Islamic State attacks on a

By RAHIM FAIEZ ISLAMABAD (AP) — Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers on Thursday held the first major gathering of Islamic clerics and tribal elders since they seized power in August, with over 3,000 coming to the capital for the event. Held in the Loya Jirga Hall of Kabul’s Polytechnic University, the meeting aimed to address grievances and

BRUSSELS (AP) — A huge Belgian chocolate factory has halted production after detecting salmonella in a batch of chocolates. The Barry Callebaut company said Thursday that its plant in Wieze – which it says is the world’s largest chocolate factory – shut down all production lines as a precaution while the contamination is investigated. Barry

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Sweden’s central bank has raised a key interest rate by half a percentage point to combat rapidly rising inflation and price increases that are spreading through the economy. Riksbanken said Thursday that it decided to raise the policy rate to 0.75% to try to prevent high inflation from becoming entrenched. It

By KELVIN CHAN AP Business Writer LONDON (AP) — Europe prepared to lead the world in regulating the freewheeling cryptocurrency industry at a time when prices have plunged, wiping out fortunes, fueling skepticism and sparking calls for tighter scrutiny. The European Union took a first step late Wednesday by agreeing on new rules subjecting cryptocurrency

By HOPE YEN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Thursday launched a $1 billion first-of-its-kind pilot program aimed at helping reconnect cities and neighborhoods racially segregated or divided by road projects, pledging wide-ranging help to dozens of communities despite the program’s limited dollars. Under the Reconnecting Communities program, cities and states

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin shot back at Western leaders who mocked his athletic exploits, saying they would look “disgusting” if they tried to emulate his bare-torso appearances. Putin made the comment during a visit to Turkmenistan early Thursday when asked about Western leaders joking about him at the G7 summit. As they

By FRANCESCA EBEL Associated Press KREMENCHUK, Ukraine (AP) — How do you grieve when there is no body to be found? How do you move forward when the person you loved vanished into the dust in a matter of seconds? These are some of the unthinkable questions many in Kremenchuk are now grappling with after

By FRANCESCA EBEL Associated Press SLOVIANSK, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces withdrew from a strategic Black Sea island Thursday, potentially easing the threat to the vital Ukrainian port city of Odesa, but kept up their push to encircle the last stronghold of resistance in the eastern province of Luhansk. The Kremlin portrayed the pullout from

By JOSEF FEDERMAN Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s parliament has voted to dissolve itself, triggering the country’s fifth election in just over three years. The vote Thursday thrusts veteran politician Yair Lapid into the role of interim prime minister. He will try to persuade a deeply polarized nation to embrace his centrist vision. Polls

By JILL LAWLESS, JOSEPH WILSON and SYLVIE CORBET Associated Press MADRID (AP) — An unstable world could get even more dangerous if NATO does not remain strong and united, the head of the alliance said Thursday at the end of a summit where Western leaders labeled Russia “a direct threat” to the security of their

By VANESSA GERA and KIRSTEN GRIESHABER Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A year after migrants started crossing into the European Union, authorities say a new steel wall along Poland’s border with Belarus has been finished. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki marked its completion with a visit to the border area on Thursday. The wall

By HANNA ARHIROVA Associated Press YAHIDNE, Ukraine (AP) — On the outskirts of a Ukrainian village stand the remnants of a small school that was partially destroyed in the early weeks of the Russian invasion. Surrounded by tall pine trees, the school’s broken windows offer glimpses of abandoned classrooms that are unlikely to see students

By AIJAZ HUSSAIN Associated Press SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Thousands of Hindu devotees have begun an annual pilgrimage to an icy cave in Indian-controlled Kashmir amid massive security in the Muslim-majority region. At least 50 pilgrims have been killed in three dozen attacks blamed on Muslim militants in past three decades. The pilgrimage is taking

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer BANGKOK (AP) — Japanese beverage giant Kirin Holdings plans to transfer its stake in Myanmar Brewery to the joint venture in a share buyback transaction That will leave its partner Myanma Economic Holdings Plc. in 100% control of the company. Kirin said the share buyback agreement took into account

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Asian benchmarks were mostly lower on Friday, echoing a decline on Wall Street, after a quarterly report by Japan’s central bank rekindled worries about the world’s third largest economy. Recent data suggest global growth is slowing as countries grapple with renewed waves of coronavirus outbreaks, soaring

By NICK PERRY Associated Press WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand’s government has declared American far-right groups the Proud Boys and The Base are terrorist organizations, making it illegal in New Zealand to fund, recruit or participate in them. New Zealand has become more attuned to far-right threats after a white supremacist shot and

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli army says that Palestinian gunmen opened fire at Jewish worshipers at a flashpoint holy site in the occupied West Bank, wounding an Israeli military officer and two civilians. The Palestinian official news agency Wafa said Thursday that a Palestinian teenager was wounded by live fire and 16 others by rubber

By MEAD GRUVER Associated Press CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — The U.S. Capitol insurrection dominated Thursday’s debate in Wyoming among U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney and her four Republican primary challengers, with Cheney pressing her Donald Trump-backed opponent on whether she agreed with the former president’s claim that widespread fraud cost him reelection. That opponent, Harriet Hageman,

By DAVID RISING and SHEIKH SAALIQ Associated Press NEW DELHI (AP) — Sri Lanka’s strategic location has attracted outsized interest in the small island nation from regional giants China and India for more than a decade, with Beijing and its free-flowing loans and infrastructure investments widely seen as having gained the upper hand in the

By ZEN SOO Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping arrived Thursday in Hong Kong to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the British handover of a city that his rule has transformed from a global hub known for its political freedoms to one that is much more tightly controlled by the Communist

By CHRISTINA LARSON and ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL Associated Press Los Angeles and Mumbai, India, share many superlatives as pinnacles of cinema, fashion, and traffic congestion. But another similarity lurks in the shadows, most often seen at night walking silently on four paws. These metropolises are the world’s only megacities of 10 million-plus where large felines —

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Amos Hochstein, President Joe Biden’s point man for global energy problems, says he knows that transitioning away from the climate-wrecking pollution of fossil fuels is the only way to go. He advocates urgently for renewable energy, for energy-smart thermostats and heat pumps. But when it comes to

By JESSICA GRESKO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Last week Clarence Thomas achieved two long-sought goals: expanding gun rights and overturning Roe v. Wade’s nationwide protection for abortion. And he called on his colleagues to do more, to revisit the Supreme Court’s cases acknowledging rights to same-sex marriage, gay sex and contraception. After 30 years

By FARNOUSH AMIRI and NUHA DOLBY Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — About half of Americans believe former President Donald Trump should be charged with a crime for his role in the U.S. Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, a new poll shows. The survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that

By MARTHA IRVINE AP National Writer CHICAGO (AP) — There is a large photo of Jonathan Annicks on a wall at the rehab hospital where he was once a patient. Sometimes when he rolls by in his wheelchair, he gazes at the black-and-white image, taken shortly after he was shot and paralyzed. He was 18

By DELMER MARTÍNEZ, SONIA PÉREZ D. and CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN Associated Press LAS VEGAS, Honduras (AP) — Families of the more than 60 people packed into a tractor-trailer and abandoned in Texas have began to confirm their worst fears. And a common narrative is taking shape from Honduras to Mexico: people seeking a better life. Children

By CAROLYN THOMPSON Associated Press Middle and high school students in California will be able to sleep a little bit later when the new school year starts. A first-in-the-nation law that goes into effect for the 2022-23 school year says high schools can’t start before 8:30 a.m. and middle schools can’t start before 8 a.m.

By FRANLIN BRICEÑO Associated Press LIMA, Peru (AP) — Hipólito Tica had saved for decades to finally build himself a proper house in a working class neighborhood of Lima. His problem was what to do about “the neighbors” — as he called the centuries-old mummies buried below. The mechanic had known they were there since

By WAYNE PARRY Associated Press ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — The main union for Atlantic City casino workers reached agreements on new contracts with four casinos on Thursday, providing for what one its president called “the best contract we’ve ever had” and labor peace that will avoid a strike on Fourth of July weekend, one