Month: September 2022

By FARNOUSH AMIRI and MICHAEL BALSAMO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, stood by the false claim that the 2020 election was fraudulent during an interview Thursday with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, the panel’s chairman said. “It’s a work in progress,”

By DAVID A. LIEB and KAVISH HARJAI Associated Press Standing 14 stories tall, the Docking State Office Building is one of Kansas’ largest and oldest state workplaces. It’s also largely vacant, despite a prime location across from the Capitol. So Kansas officials are planning to spend $60 million of federal pandemic relief funds to help

MADRID (AP) — The Spanish government says a planned meeting of the nine leaders of Europe’s Mediterranean countries will be postponed because Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez continues to test positive for COVID-19. The energy crisis triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine was to have topped the agenda of the informal summit Sánchez had

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Police in Norway say several people in a violent crowd attempted to enter the Iranian Embassy in Oslo. Scuffles broke out and rocks were thrown at officers, and police said 90 people were detained. A crowd on Thursday had gathered outside the diplomatic mission in Oslo to protest the death of

By DIANE JEANTET and CARLA BRIDI Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s presidential election Sunday is being contested by 11 candidates but only two stand a chance of reaching a runoff: former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and incumbent Jair Bolsonaro. Both are political titans, and eight of 10 Brazilians will vote

By The Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An Iranian official says protests over the death of a woman who was being held by the morality police have ended in Tehran. But anti-government chanting could be heard from windows and rooftops in some areas of Iran’s capital overnight and into Thursday. Iran has

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits dropped last week, a sign that few companies are cutting jobs despite high inflation and a weak economy. Applications for unemployment benefits for the week ending Sept. 24 fell by 16,000 to 193,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Battered by surging consumer prices and rising interest rates, the U.S. economy shrank at a 0.6% annual rate from April through June, the government announced Thursday, unchanged from its previous second-quarter estimate. It marked the second consecutive quarter of economic contraction, one informal rule of thumb

By CIARÁN GILES Associated Press MADRID (AP) — Spain’s Socialist-led coalition government says residents whose wealth exceeds 3 million euros ($2.9 million) will be subject to a new asset tax in 2023 and 2024. Finance Minister María Jesús Montero said Thursday that the temporary wealth tax would affect 23,000 people, or 0.1 % of taxpayers.

By LORI HINNANT, EVGENIY MALOLETKA and VASILISA STEPANENKO Associated Press IZIUM, Ukraine (AP) — Hundreds of children from eastern Ukraine are stranded in Russian summer camps, on the wrong side of a front line that shifted after they were bused away for what was supposed to be holiday. Parents in the occupied towns of eastern

BERLIN (AP) — Germany plans to spend up to 200 billion euros helping consumers and businesses cope with the surge in energy prices. Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Thursday that the government is reactivating an economic stabilizing fund previously used during the global financial crisis and the coronavirus pandemic. Scholz said Russia’s decision to cut natural

By BHUMIKA SARASWATI Associated Press NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s Supreme Court has ruled that all women, regardless of marital status, can obtain abortions up to 24 weeks into their pregnancies. Previously, under Indian law, married women could have abortions up to 24 weeks into their pregnancies, but single women were limited to 20 weeks.

By VESELIN TOSHKOV Associated Press SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Bulgarians will go to the polls for the fourth time in less than two years in a general election overshadowed this time by the war in Ukraine, rising energy costs and galloping inflation. Pollsters expect that voters’ fatigue and disillusionment with the political system will result

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — Croatian authorities say a man has died flooding in a northern Adriatic Sea port after the town was hit by a storm and torrential rainfall. Huge amounts of water drenched Rijeka on Wednesday evening, bursting into houses and submerging the town’s squares and streets. Officials said as much rain fell in

PODGORICA, Montenegro (AP) — Police in Montenegro are raiding multiple locations in the county in search of suspected spies, officials said Thursday. Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic told members of his cabinet the raids, “aimed at protecting (Montenegro’s) national security” were prepared “in cooperation with our international partners.” Officials refused to provide more details of the

By HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s opposition-controlled National Assembly has passed a motion calling for the dismissal of the foreign minister over a series of alleged diplomatic missteps, including controversial remarks by President Yoon Suk Yeol caught on a hot mic in the United States. The motion isn’t legally

By NICOLE WINFIELD, GANTRY MEILANA and HELENA ALVES Associated Press VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican says it imposed disciplinary sanctions on Nobel Peace Prize-winning Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo following allegations that he sexually abused boys in East Timor in the 1990s. The Vatican spokesman said the office that handles sex abuse cases received allegations

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A court in Pakistan’s capital has acquitted the daughter of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a corruption case. Thursday’s acquittal of Maryam Nawaz in Islamabad comes four years after another anti-graft tribunal sentenced her to seven years in prison connected to the purchase of luxury apartments in London. Nawaz, who is

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan says it will end mandatory COVID-19 quarantines for people arriving from overseas beginning Oct. 13. The Central Epidemic Command Center announced Thursday that the previous weeklong requirement will be replaced with a seven-day self-monitoring period. A rapid antigen test will still be required upon arrival, but those showing no symptoms

By ZEN SOO Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — Former Hong Kong lawmaker and pro-democracy activist Ted Hui has been sentenced to 3 1/2 years in jail for criminal contempt after he skipped bail and fled overseas, missing trial for cases against him. Hui had faced charges for his role in an anti-government protest in

By MUNIR AHMED Associated Press ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistani officials say almost 3 million children in flood-hit areas may miss at least one semester because of damage the disaster has inflicted on schools. Local authorities have set up temporary learning centers in the country’s worst flood-hit areas to help children keep studying. But officials said

HELSINKI, Finland (AP) — The Finnish government says it will significantly limit passenger traffic on Finland’s border with Russia, banning Russian citizens traveling with tourist visas from entering the Nordic country effective Friday. Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto told a news conference that the decision “aims to completely prevent Russian tourism to Finland and the related

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — In a rare admission of sexual harassment in Japan’s military, its army chief apologized to a former soldier for suffering caused by a group of servicemembers. Yoshihide Yoshida, head of Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Force, said Thursday that an internal investigation found evidence that several servicemen had been

By KAREEM CHEHAYEB Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s parliament has failed to elect a president, just weeks before incumbent President Michel Aoun’s six-year term comes to an end. Over half of the crisis-hit country’s legislators cast blank ballots and some lawmakers shuffled out of the assembly hall breaking the quorum. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri