Month: July 2022

By JOHN RABY Associated Press CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Last July, a federal judge in West Virginia heard closing arguments in the first lawsuit to go to trial over the U.S. opioid addiction epidemic. With an avalanche of documents that included transcripts of testimony and exhibits, Judge David Faber didn’t indicate when he would make

SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) — A Florida judge has refused to dismiss a lawsuit in which the parents of Gabby Petito claim that Brian Laundrie told his parents he had killed her before he returned home alone from their western trip. The decision Thursday by Sarasota County Circuit Judge Hunter Carroll means the lawsuit can proceed

By FARAI MUTSAKA Associated Press HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Health authorities in Africa say they are treating the expanding monkeypox outbreak here as an emergency and call on rich countries to share the world’s limited supply of vaccines. Monkeypox has been sickening people in parts of central and west Africa for decades, but the lack

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The first lawsuits have been filed following an Amtrak train collision and derailment in rural Missouri that killed four people and injured up to 150 others. Surviving passenger Janet Williams of Dubuque, Iowa, filed a federal lawsuit Friday naming Amtrak, BNSF Railway and MS Contracting, the employer of the dump

By JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press GENEVA (AP) — Lesbian and gay couples can now legally tie the knot in Switzerland as the rich Alpine nation has joined many other western European countries allowing same-sex marriage. Friday’s first same-sex marriages came about nine months after 64.1% of voters backed the “Marriage for All” law in a

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press ROME (AP) — The Vatican said Friday it had finalized the sale of a London property that is the focus of a criminal trial in the Vatican courts, offloading the former Harrods warehouse for 186 million pounds (215 million euros, US$223 million). The Vatican secretariat of state had poured some

By REBECCA BOONE and CLAIRE RUSH Associated Press BOISE, Idaho (AP) — In Arizona, Republicans are fighting among themselves over whether a 121-year-old anti-abortion law from the pre-statehood Wild West days, when Arizona was still a frontier mining territory, should be enforced over a 2022 version. In Idaho, meanwhile, it is not clear whether a

AMSTERDAM (AP) — The chief of the Dutch central bank has apologized for the institution’s involvement in the 19th-century slave trade, the latest expression of contrition in the Netherlands linked to the country’s historic role in the trade in enslaved people. The apology Friday came at the national day marking the abolishment of slavery and

By DAVID CRARY AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Among the world’s present-day religions, Zoroastrianism, founded more than 3,000 years ago, is one of the most ancient and historically influential. Yet even though its adherents maintain vibrant communities on four continents, they acknowledge their numbers are dauntingly small — perhaps 125,000 worldwide. Starting Friday,

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has handed full control over a major oil and natural gas project partly owned by Shell and two Japanese companies to a newly created Russian firm. It’s a bold move amid spiraling tensions with the West over Moscow’s military action in Ukraine. Putin’s decree late Thursday orders the

CAIRO (AP) — Thousands have taken to the streets in Sudan’s capital of Khartoum, a day after nine people were killed in anti-military demonstrations. The United States and others have condemned the violence in this east African country which has been rocked by near-weekly protests since an Oct. 25 coup upended its fragile transition to

PARIS (AP) — Australia and France have opened a “new chapter” in their relations as the new Australian prime minister seeks to heal wounds caused by a secret submarine contract that infuriated France. President Emmanuel Macron warmly shook hands with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese outside the French presidential palace. Macron showed a thumbs-up before

LONDON (AP) — The number of new coronavirus cases across Britain has surged by more than 30% in the last week, new data showed Friday, with cases largely driven by the super infectious omicron variants. Data released by Britain’s Office for National Statistics showed that more than 3 million people in the U.K. had COVID-19

By JIM GOMEZ Associated Press MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Opposition leaders have asked new Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to restore the country’s membership in the International Criminal Court to strengthen defenses against human rights abuses. Former President Rodrigo Duterte, whose six-year term ended on Thursday, withdrew the country’s ratification of the treaty which created

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Tropical Storm Bonnie hit the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua near the border with Costa Rica late Friday and was expected to make a quick march across Central America and potentially develop into a hurricane after reemerging in the Pacific. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Bonnie made landfall about 75 miles

LONDON (AP) — New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has made her first visit to the U.K. since both countries signed a free trade agreement. She met with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday to boost bilateral ties and discuss Russia’s war in Ukraine. The trip came after both leaders attended the NATO summit

by FABIANO MAISONNAVE and NICOLE WINFIELD RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — When the Archbishop of the Brazilian city of Manaus Leonardo Steiner kneels before Pope Francis on August 27, the Brazilian clergyman will make history as the first cardinal to come from the Amazon region. “The communities feel that the distance between Rome and the

By BOUAZZA BEN BOUAZZA Associated Press TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisian President Kais Saied has unveiled a new draft constitution that would bestow broad powers to the president and limit the powers of the prime minister and parliament. Saied made the unveiling on Friday. The referendum is scheduled for Jul 25, exactly to the day

PRAGUE (AP) — An international film festival in the Czech spa town of Karlovy Vary has kicked off amid controversy following a protest by Ukraine against the screening of a Russian movie. Prior to the start of the 56th edition of the festival, several leading Ukrainian filmmakers along with Ukraine’s ambassador to Prague protested the

CHICAGO (AP) — A person opened fire during a verbal dispute early Friday in downtown Chicago, killing two men and wounding three other people, police said. The five who were shot were leaving a business about 1:45 a.m. when the person they were in a dispute with opened fire with a handgun, police said in

By FRANK GRIFFITHS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Britain’s government is dealing with another boozy scandal after the deputy chief whip resigned from his post following a drunken incident and Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced calls Friday to expel the lawmaker from the Conservative Party. Chris Pincher, whose role was to maintain discipline among Tory

By KELVIN CHAN Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Inflation in countries using the euro set another eye-watering record, pushed higher by a huge increase in energy costs fueled partly by Russia’s war in Ukraine. Annual inflation in the eurozone’s 19 countries hit 8.6% in June, surging past the 8.1% recorded in May, according to the

By HUIZHONG WU Associated Press TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A former employee of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has accused her then-manager of trying to rape her on a business trip last year as she pushes police to review a case that has cast a rare spotlight on workplace harassment in the Asian nation. The woman