Month: August 2022

By VANESSA GERA Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish officials are marking their nation’s Armed Forces Day holiday alongside the U.S. army commander in Europe and regular American troops, a symbolic underlining of NATO support for members on the eastern front as Russia wages war nearby in Ukraine. Gen. Darryl Williams, the new commanding

By GRANT PECK Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — A court in military-ruled Myanmar has convicted the country’s ousted leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, on more corruption charges, adding six years to her earlier 11-year prison sentence. The trial was held behind closed doors, with no access for media or the public, and her lawyers were

By JIM HEINTZ Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — Lawyers for American basketball star Brittney Griner have filed an appeal of her nine-year Russian prison sentence for drug possession, Russian news agencies reported Monday, amid talks between the U.S. and Russia that could lead to a high-profile prisoner swap. Griner, an eight-time all-star center with the

By NICK PERRY Associated Press WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A red panda that spent two days on the lam after escaping from an Australian zoo was recaptured Sunday after he was spotted hanging out in a fig tree in a nearby park. Named Ravi, the 7-year-old panda had arrived at Adelaide Zoo last week

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer BANGKOK (AP) — Recent executions of four democracy activists in Myanmar have reenergized efforts to get the U.S. and other governments to impose further sanctions on its army-controlled government. Human rights advocates and comments by leading U.S. lawmakers suggest Congress is inching toward passage of the Burma Act, which

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Armenian officials say that the death toll in a fireworks storage explosion in the country’s capital has risen to six. A powerful blast tore through a fireworks depot at a popular market in Armenia’s capital on Sunday, setting off a massive fire that sent a towering column of thick smoke over

By JIM GOMEZ Associated Press MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Manila’s ambassador to Washington says Philippine officials are considering a U.S. offer to provide heavy-lift helicopters after Manila scrapped a deal to buy some from Russia due to fears of Western sanctions. Ambassador Jose Romualdez said Monday that the Philippine government was concerned about it could

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An Iranian official Monday denied Tehran was involved in the stabbing of author Salman Rushdie, though he sought to justify the attack in the Islamic Republic’s first public comments on the bloodshed. The remarks by Nasser Kanaani, the spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, came

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli police have shot and killed a Palestinian man, claiming he had attempted to stab officers during a raid in east Jerusalem. Police said the officers were conducting a search for illegal weapons in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Kafr Aqab on Monday. Police claimed a suspect attempted to stab officers when

By ASHOK SHARMA Associated Press NEW DELHI (AP) — Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged to raise millions out of poverty and turn India into a developed country in the next quarter-century as he marked 75 years since independence from British rule. Wearing a flowing, cream-colored turban printed with small stripes of orange, white and green,

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares mostly rose Tuesday after a rebound on Wall Street, despite regional investor risks reflected in negative economic data out of China. The benchmark in Tokyo was little changed, erasing earlier gains, but indexes in South Korea, Australia and China gained in morning trading. Falling

By NICK PERRY Associated Press WHANGANUI, New Zealand (AP) — Five years ago, the Whanganui River was recognized as a living person in a groundbreaking New Zealand law. For many who live along its banks, the official recognition validated the deep spiritual connection they feel with the river. They continue to feel the draw of

By SAM METZ and FELICIA FONSECA Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Banks along parts of the Colorado River where water once streamed are now just caked mud and rock as climate change makes the Western U.S. hotter and drier. More than two decades of drought have done little to deter the region from

By HANNAH FINGERHUT and NUHA DOLBY Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans are less concerned now about how climate change might impact them personally — and about how their personal choices affect the climate — than they were three years ago, a new poll shows, even as a wide majority still believe climate change is

By JENNIFER McDERMOTT Associated Press PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Vermont farmer Brian Kemp is used to seeing the pastures at Mountain Meadows Farm grow slower in the hot, late summer, but this year the grass is at a standstill. That’s “very nerve-wracking” when you’re grazing 600 to 700 cattle, said Kemp, who manages an organic

By WILL WEISSERT Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Elections in Wyoming and Alaska on Tuesday could relaunch the political career of a former Republican star and effectively end the career of another — at least for now. Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney is the vice chair of a U.S. House committee seeking to expose the truth

By MICHAEL TARM and DON BABWIN Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — Jury selection in R. Kelly’s federal trial on charges that he rigged his 2008 state child pornography trial began Monday with the judge and attorneys quickly focusing on whether would-be jurors watched a 2019 documentary about sex abuse allegations against the R&B singer. After

By NICK PERRY Associated Press WHANGANUI, New Zealand (AP) — In 2017, New Zealand passed a groundbreaking law granting personhood status to the Whanganui River. The law declares that the river is a living whole, from the mountains to the sea, incorporating all its physical and metaphysical elements. Five years after the law was passed,

By NICK PERRY Associated Press WHANGANUI, New Zealand (AP) — The Whanganui River is surging into the ocean, fattened from days of winter rain and yellowed from the earth and clay that has collapsed into its sides. Logs and debris hurtle past as dusk looms. Sixty-one-year-old Tahi Nepia is calmly paddling his outrigger canoe, called

By REGINA GARCIA CANO Associated Press CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Public school teachers across Venezuela had planned to use their annual vacation bonus to buy uniforms for their children, waterproof leaky roofs and get new prescription glasses. But a few days into their long break, teachers have been marching by the thousands around the country,

By KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is offering “audacious” economic assistance to North Korea if it abandons its nuclear weapons program. In a speech celebrating the end of Japan’s colonization of the Korean Peninsula, Yoon avoided harsh criticism of the North days after it threatened

PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia’s top court has begun hearing a final appeal by former Prime Minister Najib Razak to toss out his graft conviction linked to the massive looting of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad state fund. He would become Malaysia’s first former prime minister to be imprisoned if his case fails. Najib has reiterated

By JOE McDONALD AP Business Writer BEIJING (AP) — China’s central bank has trimmed a key interest rate to shore up sagging economic growth at a politically sensitive time when President Xi Jinping is believed to be trying to extend his hold on power. The ruling Communist Party has acknowledged it can’t hit this year’s

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — An Australian man has been charged with three weapons offenses after he allegedly used a handgun inside the Canberra Airport to fire multiple shots at airport windows. Nobody was injured during the shooting near the check-in counters Sunday afternoon. The event prompted officials to temporarily evacuate the airport and ground planes

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Anne Heche, the Emmy-winning film and television actor whose dramatic Hollywood rise in the 1990s and accomplished career contrasted with personal chapters of turmoil, died of injuries from a fiery car crash. She was 53. Heche was “peacefully taken off life support,” spokeswoman Holly Baird said in a statement Sunday night.

GURNEE, Ill. (AP) — Three people were injured in a shooting outside a Chicago-area amusement park’s entrance that sent visitors scrambling for safety and prompted the park to close early, authorities said. Officers responded about 7:50 p.m. Sunday after 911 calls reporting shots fired at Six Flags Great America, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) north

By JOHNSON LAI Associated Press TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China has announced more military drills around Taiwan as the self-governing island’s president met with another U.S. congressional delegation. The announcement threatened to renew tensions days after a visit by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi angered China. Pelosi was the highest-level member of the U.S. government

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Japan has reported its economy grew at an annual rate of 2.2% in the last quarter as consumer spending rebounded with an easing of pandemic precautions. The of a nation’s products and services, expanded 0.5% from January-March, during which the economy had stayed flat, according to