Month: July 2022

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has blamed inadequate police protection for the death of former leader Shinzo Abe, who was shot while giving an outdoor campaign speech. Abe, one of Japan’s most influential politicians, was assassinated last Friday in western Japan, shocking a nation known for its

By HELENA ALVES and JOSEPH WILSON Associated Press BEMPOSTA, Portugal (AP) — More than 3,000 firefighters are battling alongside ordinary Portuguese citizens desperate to save their homes as several wildfires rage across the European Union country. Authorities say 25,000 acres have been scorched and 135 people have been injured by fires this week. Portuguese Prime

By KELVIN CHAN AP Business Writer LONDON (AP) — Amazon has promised to treat third-party merchants on its website fairly as it seeks to resolve two European Union antitrust investigations. The bloc’s competition watchdog said Thursday that the U.S. online retail giant offered to make a number of commitments to ease competition concerns. The European

By JOVANA GEC Associated Press BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Authorities in Serbia have detained 85 migrants near the border with Hungary where a clash earlier this month apparently involving people smugglers left one person dead and several injured. Police said that a police task force found automatic weapons, guns, knives and other weapons and ammunition

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer BANGKOK (AP) — U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has urged leaders of major economies to work together in countering the impact from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Yellen and other top financial officials from the Group of 20 leading rich and developing nations are gathering on the Indonesian island of

BEIJING (AP) — High temperatures are prompting cites in eastern China to open former air raid shelters as a relief from the heat. Temperatures have surpassed all-time records in much of the country, while flooding has hit many parts. Air raid shelters were built in numerous Chinese cities during the Japanese invasion beginning in 1937.

By MARIA GRAZIA MURRU and HANNA ARHIROVA Associated Press VINNYTSIA, Ukraine (AP) — Russian missiles struck a city in central Ukraine on Thursday, killing at least 23 people and wounding more than 100 others far from the front lines, Ukrainian authorities said. Ukraine’s president accused Russia of deliberately targeting civilians in locations without military value.

By ANDI JATMIKO and NINIEK KARMINI Associated Press JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Australia’s top agriculture official has met with his Indonesian counterpart to discuss ways to stop a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak that has infected hundreds of thousands of cattle in Indonesia and prevent the outbreak from spreading to Australia. The disease was detected in the

STOCKHOLM (AP) — A Swedish court has sentenced an Iranian citizen to life imprisonment after being convicted of murder and other war crimes during the final phase of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. The Stockholm District Court said Thursday that Hamid Noury took part in severe atrocities in July-August 1988 while working as an

SUVA, Fiji (AP) — Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare says his new country’s security pact with Beijing would not allow China to build a military base on the South Pacific nation. Sogavare had made an agreement with Beijing in April to provide security support, with the deal raising fears of a permanent Chinese military

By RAF CASERT Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union expects Russia’s war in Ukraine to wreak havoc with the economic recovery for the foreseeable future through lower annual growth and record-high inflation. The EU said Thursday that summer figures for the 19-nation eurozone predict inflation reaching an average of 7.6% this year, a major

By DANICA KIRKA Associated Press LONDON (AP) — London’s Metropolitan Police Service has opened an investigation into four-time Olympic champion Mo Farah’s allegations that he was trafficked to the U.K. as a child. The inquiry comes after Farah, 39, revealed in a documentary that a woman he didn’t know brought him to the U.K. when

BERLIN (AP) — Deutsche Telekom says it is selling a majority stake in its German and Austrian cellphone tower business to American and Canadian investors for $17.5 billion. The Bonn-based telecommunications company said U.S.-based DigitalBridge and Canada’s Brookfield would take a 51% share in GD Towers while it would retain the remaining stake “with significant

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Conservative lawmakers in Britain have knocked another contender out of the contest to replace Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Attorney General Suella Braverman secured the fewest votes from her colleagues Thursday and was eliminated from the race, leaving five contenders. Former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak is battling to

By MUNIR AHMED Associated Press ISLAMABAD (AP) — The International Monetary Fund says it has reached a preliminary agreement on a $6 billion bailout package for Pakistan. Thursday’s announcement sets the stage for the revival of the 2019 accord with the IMF for this majority Muslim nation. Pakistan has been facing a serious economic crisis

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Actor Kevin Spacey pleaded not guilty on Thursday to charges of sexually assaulting three men a decade or more ago, and was told he would face trial next year. Spacey, 62, stood in the dock and spoke clearly as he replied “not guilty” to each of the

PAMPLONA, Spain (AP) — Bulls from Spain´s revered Miura ranch starred in a fast and uncomplicated final running of the bulls at this year’s San Fermín Festival on Thursday. The Navarra regional government said six people were treated for minor injuries following Thursday’s run that lasted just over two minutes. Initially, the Spanish Red Cross

BERLIN (AP) — Germany and Belgium are commemorating the deadly floods that hit the countries a year ago. High-profile memorials are planned Thursday to pay tribute to the more than 230 people who lost their lives on the night of July 14-15, 2021. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeiner and Chancellor Olaf Scholz were due to visit

By JADE LE DELEY Associated Press PARIS (AP) — France’s Bastille Day has been shaken by the war in Ukraine. France is celebrating its national holiday Thursday with thousands of French troops marching down the Champs-Elysees avenue alongside allies from Eastern Europe. The traditional parade also will feature warplanes, military vehicles and a drone to

By JIM HEINTZ Associated Press KHIMKI, Russia (AP) — Brittney Griner’s drug possession trial resumed Thursday with the head of the Russian club she plays for in the offseason and a teammate from that squad testifying in support of her character and what the WNBA star has meant for women’s basketball in the country. Griner,

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has called for an international “overarching strategy” to coordinate efforts to bring perpetrators of war crimes in Ukraine to justice. Karim Khan made the appeal as he opened the Ukraine Accountability Conference in The Hague. Since Russia

By LARRY LAGE AP Hockey Writer The Columbus Blue Jackets made the biggest splash in NHL free agency, stunning the league by landing Johnny Gaudreau with a seven-year contract for $68.25 million. Gaudreau rendered Calgary a loser when he informed the Flames on the eve of free agency that he was not signing their eight-year

By JIM HEINTZ and LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian arms dealer labeled the “Merchant of Death” who once inspired a Hollywood movie is back in the headlines with speculation around a return to Moscow in a prisoner exchange. If Viktor Bout, 55, is indeed eventually freed in return for WBNA star

By OLEKSANDR STASHEVSKYI and FRANK BAJAK Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Drone camera footage defines much of the public’s view of the war in Ukraine: grenades quietly dropped on unwitting soldiers, eerie flights over silent, bombed-out cities, armor and outposts exploding into fireballs. Never in the history of warfare have drones been used as

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer BANGKOK (AP) — Share prices were mixed in Asia on Friday after China reported its economy contracted by 2.6% in the last quarter as virus shutdowns kept businesses closed and people at home. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index added 0.6% to 26,797.47. The Kospi in Seoul was up 0.1% at

By JEFFREY COLLINS Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The shooting deaths of South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh’s wife and son started a chain of investigations, strange happenings and legal maneuvers over the past 13 months that his lawyer said will soon lead to murder charges. But Murdaugh’s life was quietly unraveling behind the scenes

By CHRISTOPHER WEBER and CARLA K. JOHNSON Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — New omicron variants are again driving hospital admissions and deaths higher in recent weeks, causing states and cities to rethink their responses to COVID-19. And the White House is stepping up efforts to alert the public. Some experts say the warnings are

By ROBERT JABLON Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California appeals court has ordered the unsealing of some documents in the criminal case against renowned director Roman Polanski, who’s been a fugitive since pleading guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl decades ago. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office says the court

By KRUTIKA PATHI and KRISHAN FRANCIS Associated Press COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Protesters have retreated from government buildings in Sri Lanka, restoring a tenuous calm to the economically crippled country. And the embattled president at last emailed the resignation that demonstrators have sought for months. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled a day earlier under pressure

By GARY FIELDS Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Jan. 6 committee’s investigation of the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election and the events leading up to the U.S. Capitol insurrection is raising questions about former President Donald Trump’s role and whether he committed crimes. The various schemes and talking points that witnesses have

By BRIAN WITTE Associated Press ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan aren’t waiting until 2024 to fight over the future of the Republican Party. Approaching the final months of his second term, Hogan is encouraging GOP voters to rally behind gubernatorial candidate Kelly Schulz, who served as labor

By AAMER MADHANI, JOSH BOAK, and CHRIS MEGERIAN Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid stood side-by-side Thursday and declared they would not allow Iran to become a nuclear power. They parted ways, though, on how to get there. Biden, in a joint news conference after a