Month: July 2022

By IMAD ISSEID Associated Press RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — The Palestinian Health Ministry says a 16-year-old Palestinian died afternoon shortly after he was wounded by Israeli army fire in the occupied West Bank. Amjad Abu Alia was wounded in the chest on Friday and pronounced dead after he was brought to the hospital. He

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Inflation surged in June and workers’ average wages accelerated in the spring — signs that Americans won’t likely feel any relief from rising prices anytime soon and that the Federal Reserve will feel compelled to further raise borrowing costs. An inflation gauge closely tracked by the

By RAQUEL REDONDO Associated Press MADRID (AP) — Spain’s leader has proposed an energy-saving move that many men have already embraced. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has asked government officials and people working in the private sector to save energy by giving up wearing neckties at work. Appearing at a news conference in an open-necked

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A Roman Catholic priest has been wounded in a shooting on a highway in the southern Mexico state of Guerrero. The Mexican Council of Bishops says the Rev. Felipe Vélez Jiménez was shot in the cheek Thursday but is “out of danger.” Vélez Jiménez serves as a parish priest in the

By MOGOMOTSI MAGOME Associated Press JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa’s ruling African National Congress party begins its key policy conference on Friday beset by internal divisions and the country’s economic woes. The policy meeting is seen as a preview of the ANC’s December conference to elect its leader. Nearly 30 years after Nelson Mandela’s party

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s prosecutors are denying allegations of torture and ill-treatment against one of the country’s most prominent activists who is serving a five-year sentence on charges of spreading false news. The Public Prosecution Office said in a statement released late on Thursday that a senior prosecutor was dispatched to the prison where Alaa

By JIM GOMEZ Associated Press MANILA, Philippines (AP) — China has responded in kind to a top U.S. Navy official who criticized Beijing’s increasingly aggressive actions in the South China Sea. China says it’s America’s military deployments in the disputed waters, which it called “navigation bullying,” that can spark confrontations. The Chinese Embassy in Manila

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — The head of Russia’s space agency says the country has not set a date for pulling out of the International Space Station, noting that it would only do that after it puts its own space station in orbit. Roscosmos chief Yuri Borisov told President Vladimir Putin this

VIENNA (AP) — Former Austrian Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache has been acquitted in a corruption trial, the second he has faced since a scandal surrounding him brought down the country’s government in 2019. Strache was accused of procuring a post on the supervisory board of Asfinag, a government-owned company that manages Austria’s highway system, for

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Heavy rains brought another round of flooding to the St. Louis region that was already recovering from record rains earlier this week, prompting firefighters to help dozens of people escape the floodwaters. No injuries were reported from Thursday’s flooding, but the St. Louis Fire Department said on Twitter that it responded

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — A group of lawyers said Friday that the alleged assassin of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was one of many victims of the Unification Church. The church has become a focus of intense attention in Japan since Abe was assassinated in July. The suspect, Tetsuya Yamagami, told

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — The Kremlin has offered strong support to China amid tensions over Taiwan, warning the United States against any “provocative steps” that could exacerbate the situation. Chinese President Xi Jinping warned against meddling in China’s dealings with Taiwan during a phone call Thursday with U.S. President Joe Biden.

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — In a legal showdown between soccer spouses that mixed celebrity, social media and amateur sleuthing, a judge has ruled whodunnit. Judge Karen Steyn on Friday cleared Coleen Rooney of libeling Rebekah Vardy by claiming that Vardy had leaked her private social media posts to the tabloid press.

By DAVID SHARP Associated Press Facing a growing threat from China, the Navy envisions drone ships keeping an electronic eye on enemy forces across the vast Pacific Ocean, extending the reach of firepower, and keeping sailors out of harm’s way. The Navy is speeding development of those robotic ships as an affordable way to keep

By INNA VARENYTSIA Associated Press ODESA, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has visited a Black Sea port to watch crews prepare to export grain trapped by Russia’s five-month-old war. Zelenskyy said Friday that the first ship has been loaded since the war but others that have been stuck with their cargoes of grain

MADRID (AP) — Prosecutors in Spain said Friday they would ask a court to sentence Colombian pop star Shakira to eight years and two months in prison, if she is convicted in her expected trial for alleged tax fraud. Shakira, whose full name is Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, is charged with failing to pay the

By HANNAH SCHOENBAUM Associated Press/Report for America RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Democrats have a good chance in North Carolina of picking up a Senate seat. As they look to November, they’ve been aggressively protecting its left flank by keeping the Green Party off the ballot. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee sent canvassers asking people to

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — A court in Bosnia has sentenced a former top ruling party official to three years in prison for corruption. The Klix news portal reported that the former secretary-general of the ruling Bosniak Party of Democratic Action was convicted on Friday of using party connections and bribes in 2016 to secure people

By TERRY WALLACE Associated Press A fire chief says sunlight magnified by glass bottles in an open garbage can ignited paper trash, starting a 500-acre North Texas wildfire that destroyed five homes. The July 18 fire on Possum Kingdom Lake’s western shore took eight days to contain fully. Chief Bonnie Watkins of the Possum Kingdom

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — An appeals court in Kyiv has reduced to 15 years the life sentence of a Russian soldier convicted in the first war crimes trial since Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Critics said the sentencing of Vadim Shishimarin, a 21-year-old contract soldier who pleaded guilty to killing a civilian and was convicted

By ZEN SOO Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong officials say they will open an investigation into a concert accident in which a giant video screen fell down onto the stage and injured two dancers. Video clips from the Cantopop group Mirror concert Thursday night show a massive LED screen suspended above the

By KAREEM CHEHAYEB Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — The U.N. refugee agency says Lebanese authorities need to stifle soaring violence and discrimination against Syrian refugees in the country. A UNHCR spokesperson told the Associated Press on Friday that tensions have worsened between Lebanese and Syrian refugees at bakeries across the country in recent weeks due

By COURTNEY BONNELL and COLLEEN BARRY AP Business Writers LONDON (AP) — Inflation in the European countries using the euro currency shot up to another record in July, pushed by higher energy prices fueled by Russia’s war in Ukraine, but the economy managed better-than-expected, if meager, growth in the second quarter. Annual inflation in the

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian officials say a fire killed eight people in a Moscow hostel where bars on the windows prevented occupants from escaping. The hostel was located in a multi-story apartment building in the Russian capital’s far southeast. About 200 people who lived in the building fled the fire. The blaze broke out in