Month: August 2022

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Finland’s prime minister says she did not take any drugs during a “wild” party in a private home, adding she did nothing wrong when letting her hair down and partying with friends. A video posted on a social media shows six people dancing and mimicking a song in front of a

By CHINEDU ASADU Associated Press ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — The Dubai-based airline Emirates says it will suspend all flights to Nigeria from September 1 because the West African country has failed to repatriate millions of dollars of its funds. The airline has been battling to repatriate millions of dollars in its revenue from Nigeria and

By MATT OTT AP Business Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Slightly fewer Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week as the labor market continues to stand out as one of the strongest segments of the U.S. economy. Applications for jobless aid for the week ending August 13 fell by 2,000 to 250,000, the Labor Department reported

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — The Russian military has deployed warplanes armed with state-of-the-art hypersonic missiles to the country’s Kaliningrad region. The move that comes amid soaring tensions with the West over Moscow’s action in Ukraine. The Defense Ministry said three MiG-31 fighters with Kinzhal hypersonic missiles arrived Thursday at an air

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — The international envoy tasked with overseeing a 1995 peace agreement for Bosnia has raised eyebrows with angry comments about the country’s political leaders. Christian Schmidt became the international high representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina a year ago. He previously indicated he would consider imposing election law changes if Bosnia’s ethnic leaders continued failing

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s central bank has lowered its key interest rate despite inflation surging to nearly 80% and making it difficult for people to buy what they need. Following a monetary policy committee meeting Thursday, the bank said it decided to reduce the policy rate from 14% to 13%. The decision is in

By ISABEL DEBRE Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A Saudi court has sentenced a doctoral student to 34 years in prison for spreading “rumors” and retweeting dissidents, according to court documents obtained Thursday, a decision that has drawn growing global condemnation. Activists and lawyers consider the sentence against Salma al-Shehab, a mother

By FRANK JORDANS Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has told Israel’s Prime Minister that he condemns any attempts to deny or downplay the Holocaust. Scholz offered the reassurance after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sparked outrage during a visit to Berlin this week by accusing Israel of committing “50 Holocausts” against Palestinians

By RODNEY MUHUMUZA Associated Press KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — The head of Africa’s public health agency says he’s “really pleased” that the World Health Organization is renaming the strains of the monkeypox disease to remove references to African regions to reduce concerns of stigmatization. The version of the disease formerly known as the Congo Basin

RABAT, Morocco (AP) — A Moroccan court has sentenced 13 migrants to two and a half years in prison over a mass attempt to scale the border fence separating Morocco from the Spanish enclave of Melilla. Most were from Sudan. The decision was the latest and toughest ruling handed down after dozens of people were

By BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI Associated Press COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s central bank chief hopes the government can reach a preliminary agreement that could lead to a bailout package with the International Monetary Fund when its officials visit later this month. Sri Lanka’s economic crisis set off huge protests that led to the ouster

By BABA AHMED Associated Press BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Mali’s foreign minister is accusing France of having colluded with the Islamic extremists that it spent nearly a decade fighting until its troops departed earlier this week. The French Embassy in Mali has sharply denied the allegation, saying that French troops spent nine years trying to

HONG KONG (AP) — Authorities in Hong Kong say 29 out of 47 pro-democracy activists charged with “conspiracy to commit subversion” under a sweeping National Security Law have pleaded guilty. Thursday’s announcement comes amid a sweeping campaign against those speaking out against demands for absolute loyalty to China’s ruling Communist Party. The 47 democracy activists

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A Russian cargo ship that Ukraine alleges holds stolen wheat from territory seized by Moscow appears to have reached the Syrian port of Tartus, according to satellite images analyzed Thursday by The Associated Press. The arrival of the SV Konstantin marks just the latest

By JOSH FUNK AP Business Writer OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — After Terrence Hersey had a stroke on the way home from his railroad job in 2015, he underwent months of therapy to learn how to put words together in sentences and learn to walk again. He had to relearn how to get in and out

By CARA ANNA Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Ethiopia’s government is criticizing as “unethical” the statement by the World Health Organization’s director-general that the crisis in the country’s Tigray region is “the worst disaster on Earth” and his assertion that the lack of global attention is due to Tigrayans’ “color of the skin.” The

By TERRY TANG Associated Press The Federal Emergency Management Agency has developed a new strategy to better engage with hundreds of Native American tribes facing climate change-related disasters. The agency announced plans Thursday to include the 574 federally recognized tribal nations in discussions about possible future dangers from climate change. FEMA has earmarked $50 million

By SYLVIA HUI Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Thousands of train workers in Britain have staged a fresh round of strikes that is paralyzing rail services across the country. Only around one in five trains was running across the U.K. as a result of Thursday’s walkout by union members in an ongoing dispute over pay

CAIRO (AP) — A Sudanese official says that the death toll from seasonal floods has risen to 77 with 14,500 homes destroyed. Brig. Gen. Abdul-Jalil Abdul-Rahim, spokesman for Sudan’s National Council for Civil Defense told The Associated Press on Thursday that the provinces most affected were North Kordofan, Jazira, South Kordofan, South Darfur and River

By SYLVIE CORBET and COLLEEN BARRY Associated Press PARIS (AP) — Violent thunderstorms and hurricane-force winds in France and Italy have left at least eight people dead. The winds uprooted trees and ripped away a restaurant roof on Thursday. The French weather service says the storm produced gusts of more than 220 kph (136 mph)

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Norway’s central bank has raised its key policy interest rate by half a percentage point, saying “inflation has been considerably higher than projected. The rate increase Thursday to 1.75% is larger than expected as the bank takes aim at inflation that reached 6.8% in July. Norges Bank says “activity in the

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — Algeria’s civil protection agency says wildfires raging in the country’s east have killed at least 37 people and wounded 161 others. Most of the victims were reported in the wilaya, or region, of El Tarf, near the northern Algeria-Tunisian border, where 34 people were found dead. The death toll included a

By SHONAL GANGULY and ALTAF QADRI NEW DELHI (AP) — A Muslim woman who was gang raped while pregnant during India’s devastating 2002 religious riots has appealed to the government to rescind its decision to free the 11 men who had been jailed for life for committing the crime, after they were released on suspended

By KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Thousands of Unification Church followers have rallied in South Korea protesting negative Japanese media coverage after the suspect in the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minster Shinzo Abe blamed the church for his family’s troubles. The protesters insisted the reports were being driven by anti-Unification

JENNA FRYER AP Auto Racing Writer CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Kimi Raikkonen will take a break from his retirement to return to racing this weekend in the NASCAR race at Watkins Glen International in upstate New York. The 2007 Formula One world champion will drive for TrackHouse Racing and its Project91, which is a program

By RAHIM FAIEZ and EBRAHIM NOROOZI Associated Press KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A Taliban police spokesman in Afghanistan’s capital says the toll from a mosque bombing the previous evening has risen to 21 people killed with 33 others wounded in the attack. Khalid Zadran, the spokesman for Kabul’s police chief, gave the figures on Thursday

By NICK PERRY Associated Press WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Police in New Zealand say a family who bought abandoned goods from a storage unit discovered the bodies of two children hidden in suitcases. An investigator said the children were between 5 and 10 years old, had been dead for a number of years, and

By DEREK GATOPOULOS and SUZAN FRASER Associated Press LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Turkey’s leader and the U.N. chief met in Ukraine with President Volodymr Zelenskyy on Thursday in a high-powered bid to ratchet down a war raging for nearly six months. But little immediate progress was reported. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would