Month: July 2022

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — An earthquake of preliminary magnitude 5.7 has shaken Ecuador’s coast, and authorities say a teenager was electrocuted by a fallen power line. The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake struck Thursday at a depth of about 80 kilometers (49 miles) and was centered nearly 20 kilometers (12 miles) northeast of the

By ALAN FRAM Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Joe Manchin has told Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer that he will oppose an economic measure if it includes climate or energy provisions or boosts taxes on the rich or corporations. That’s according to a Democrat briefed on the conversations. Manchin’s demands upend party leaders’ hopes

By JOE McDONALD AP Business Writer BEIJING (AP) — China’s economy contracted in the three months ending in June compared with the previous quarter after Shanghai and other cities were shut down to fight coronavirus outbreaks, but the government said a “stable recovery” is under way. Official data show the economy shrank by 2.6%, compared

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — The assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has unearthed long-suspected, little-talked-of links between him and a religious group that started in South Korea but has spread its influence around the world. Police and Japanese media have suggested that the alleged attacker, Tetsuya Yamagami, who was

By JEFF AMY Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia’s second-largest school district has approved a policy that lets some employees who aren’t certified police officers carry guns in schools. But the proposal was changed to specifically exclude teachers from those who can be armed in the suburban Atlanta system. The Cobb County school board voted

By MORGAN LEE Associated Press SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico’s governor says direct spending by production companies on films, TV series and other media has never been higher in the state, topping $855 million in fiscal year 2022. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham released the numbers Thursday. New Mexico’s unique landscapes have attracted projects

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — It took only four paragraphs in a regional newspaper to ignite a media conflagration over abortion that in two weeks engulfed President Joe Biden, the partisan press and some of the country’s top news organizations. In the center of it all: a 10-year-old rape victim,

By MICHAEL BALSAMO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The NAACP is making a direct plea to Attorney General Merrick Garland for the Justice Department to open a federal civil rights investigation into the shooting death of Jayland Walker, the Black man who was killed last month by officers in Ohio in a hail of police

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. special envoy for Colombia says that “there are good reasons for optimism” about the country’s incoming left-leaning administration. But he warns that violence target at former combatants remains a chief obstacle to consolidating peace in Colombia. Carlos Ruiz Massieu told the U.N. Security

SURREY, British Columbia (AP) — Canadian authorities say a man acquitted in a terrorist bombing that killed 329 people aboard an Air India flight in 1985 was slain in a possible targeted shooting. Officials say the victim in Thursday’s shooting in British Columbia was Ripudaman Singh Malik. A 2005 trial in Canada found Malik and

By TOM DAVIES and JULIE CARR SMYTH Associated Press INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The lawyer for an Indiana doctor at the center of a political firestorm after speaking out about a 10-year-old child abuse victim who traveled from Ohio for an abortion said Thursday that her client provided proper treatment and did not violate any patient

By ADAM BEAM Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A bill in the California Legislature to make social media companies liable for addicting children has changed. A previous version of the bill would have let parents sue social media companies for knowingly using products that harmed children. A revised version would only let prosecutors file

By COSTAS KANTOURIS and DEMETRIS NELLAS Associated Press THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) — Ahmet Mete, who was recognized by Turkey but not by Greece as the elected mufti for the Muslim population in Greece’s Xanthi region, died Thursday at age 57. His family did not give a cause of death Thursday, but he had been suffering

GENEVA (AP) — About 25 million children worldwide have missed out on routine immunizations against common diseases like diptheria, largely because the coronavirus pandemic disrupted regular health services or triggered misinformation about vaccines, according to the U.N. In a new report published Friday, the World Health Organization and UNICEF said their figures show 25 million

By MANUEL RUEDA Associated Press BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombian authorities say a mudslide has smashed into a rural elementary school in the mountains south of Medellin, killing three young children after heavy rains washed over Colombia’s north and west. Officials in Antioquia province said about 20 children were at recess in the cafeteria of

By FARNOUSH AMIRI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Secret Service agents deleted text messages sent and received around the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol even after an inspector general requested them as part of an investigation into the insurrection, the government watchdog has found. The Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector

By PAUL J. WEBER Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday again said he was initially misled about the police response to the Uvalde school massacre, calling newly leaked video of officers hesitating for more than an hour “shocking” and not what he had been told when he originally lauded

By RANDALL CHASE AP Business Writer DOVER, Del. (AP) — Twitter Inc.’s lawsuit to force billionaire Elon Musk to make good on his promise to buy the social media giant will be resolved in a small but powerful Delaware court that specializes in high-stakes business disputes. Twitter is seeking an order of “specific performance” directing

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — China is urging the U.N. Security Council to try to cut off the supply of small arms, light weapons and ammunition to gangs in Haiti, which has been unable to stem an upsurge in criminal violence and kidnappings. Beijing also called Thursday for the council

By CALEB JONES Associated Press HONOLULU (AP) — Hurricane Darby in the Pacific is expected to weaken over the next two days as it moves south of Hawaii’s Big Island. Darby, which was southeast of Hilo on Thursday, will weaken into a tropical storm as it moves south of the state Saturday. Forecasters say the

By JAY REEVES and ALLEN G. BREED Associated Press DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — The white woman who accused Black teenager Emmett Till of making improper advances before he was lynched in Mississippi in 1955 says she neither identified him to the killers nor wanted him murdered. In an unpublished memoir obtained by The Associated Press,

By TOUSSAINT N’GOTTA Associated Press ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara met with his predecessors on Thursday in a rare meeting of adversaries in an effort to ease the national socio-political climate ahead of elections in 2025. The meeting between Ouattara and his longtime rivals Laurent Gbagbo and Henri Konan Bedie

VERNON, Texas (AP) — A man acquitted of murder because of insanity is back in custody two weeks after he escaped from a North Texas mental hospital. Police in Vernon, Texas, say Alexander Scott Ervin was caught in Austin two weeks after he escaped from the North Texas State Hospital in Vernon. Police Chief Randy

By GARY GERARD HAMILTON Associated Press New York (AP) — Giveon’s disappointment toward failed relationships has been on full display in his music, and is palpable on his debut album “Give or Take.” Debuting last month at No. 11 debut on the Billboard 200, the 15-track project is the first full-length album from the soulful

By AMY FORLITI and GEOFF MULVIHILL Associated Press The state of Texas is suing the federal government after the Biden administration said earlier this week that federal rules require hospitals to provide abortions if the procedure is necessary to save a mother’s life. The lawsuit, which names the Department of Health and Human Services and

By JANET McCONNAUGHEY Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Federal and Louisiana agencies say the owner of a closed fertilizer plant near Baton Rouge has agreed to clean up more than a billion pounds of hazardous waste and to pay a $1.5 million fine. Canadian owner Nutrien says the agreements document its commitment the water

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve’s inspector general concluded Thursday that financial trades made several years ago by Chair Jerome Powell and Richard Clarida, then the vice chair, did not violate any laws or ethics rules. At the same time, the letter said the investigation of the presidents of

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Parts of North Carolina’s largest city were overcome with a foul smell like rotten eggs after an environmental cleanup company destroyed tanks that contained a harmless gas odorant. The Charlotte Observer reports that Piedmont Natural Gas said Legacy Environmental Services was destroying mercaptan tanks north of downtown Charlotte that were mistakenly