Month: October 2022

BRUSSELS (AP) — EU lawmakers have condemned the crackdown on media freedom in military-ruled Myanmar. In a resolution adopted Thursday, MEPs called for the release of “every unfairly detained journalist.” The EU Parliament cited the cases of BBC freelance producer Htet Htet Khine; Sithu Aung Myint, a Frontier Myanmar columnist and contributor to Voice of

By JOVANA GEC Associated Press BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Hungary’s foreign minister says his country and Austria will provide Serbia with equipment and personnel to curb migrant crossings at its southern border. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto cited an “explosion” in the number of people entering European countries without authorization in recent months. He spoke

By MATT OTT AP Business Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — More Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, but the labor market remains strong even in the face of persistent inflation and a slowing overall U.S. economy. Jobless claims for the week ending Oct. 1 rose by 29,000 to 219,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Last

WASHINGTON (AP) — WNBA star Brittney Griner is at her “absolute weakest moment in life right now” as she faces a hearing in Russia later this month for her appeal of a nine-year prison sentence for drug possession, Griner’s wife said in an interview aired Thursday. Cherelle Griner told CBS “This Morning” that her wife,

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s state-run news agency says Ankara has appointed a new ambassador to Israel in the latest step between the two countries’ efforts toward normalizing ties. Turkey on Thursday named Sakir Ozkan Torunlar, a senior diplomat who had served as Turkey’s consul general in Jerusalem between 2010 and 2013, as the ambassador,

By JANELLE RETKA of The Seattle Times Amid national teacher shortages, community colleges are stepping in, launching teacher-training programs traditionally found in four-year colleges. In Washington state, nine community colleges offer education degrees for teaching grade school and up. Six other states — Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Nevada and New Mexico — have community colleges

By JULIE CARR SMYTH Associated Press CARROLLTON, Ohio (AP) — With early voting less than three weeks away, Nicole Mickley was staring down a daunting to-do list: voting machines to test, poll workers to recruit, an onslaught of public records requests to examine. And then, over a weekend, came word that the long-time county sheriff

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Sweden’s domestic security agency says its preliminary investigation of leaks from two Russian gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea “has strengthened the suspicions of serious sabotage” as the cause. The Swedish Security Service said the probe confirmed that “detonations” caused extensive damage to the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2

By HERBERT MOYO Associated Press MASERU, Lesotho (AP) — Voters across the picturesque mountain kingdom of Lesotho are heading to the polls Friday to elect a leader to find solutions to high unemployment and crime. The southern African country of 2.1 million people has more than 60 registered political parties but the election is expected

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s top automaker Toyota says it has identified how to fix its 2023 model year bZ4X crossover electric vehicles after recalling 2,700 of them in June out of concern wheel bolts might become loose, risking a crash. The fix will enable Toyota Motor Corp. to resume

By KRISTIN M. HALL AP Entertainment Writer NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Loretta Lynn, the Grammy-winning country music icon who died Tuesday at 90, lived through — and sang about — decades of advancements for women’s social movements, achievements now endangered. A mother multiple times over by the end of her teens, she gave voice to

BERLIN (AP) — Germans are using too much gas now to avoid a potential energy shortage this winter. That’s the warning delivered Thursday by the head of Germany’s national network regulator. He says “gas consumption increased by too much last week.” There has been a reduction in natural gas flows from Russia amid the war

By ABDOULIE JOHN Associated Press BANJUL, Gambia (AP) — Gambia has launched an urgent door-to-door campaign to remove cough and cold syrups blamed for the deaths of more than 60 children from kidney injury in the tiny West African country.  Speaking to The Associated Press, the Director of Health Dr. Mustapha Bittaye confirmed a wave

By ROD McGUIRK Associcated Press CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says it’s “hard to say” whether the risk of nuclear war has increased with his military’s territorial gains. But he remains confident his Russian counterpart would not survive such an escalation in hostilities. Zelenskyy was addressing the Lowy Institute international think tank

By CIARÁN GILES Associated Press MADRID (AP) — The driver of a train that crashed in Spain in 2013, killing 80 people, has told a court he braked but couldn´t avoid the accident. He said there had been no signals warning him to reduce speed before the curve where the crash occurred. He was testifying

PARIS (AP) — Under the watchword “Every gesture counts,” France’s government is detailing an energy-saving drive to get the country through the winter without gas from Russia. The French government’s push for “energy sobriety,” being presented by ministers on Thursday, is also aimed to speeding France closer to European Union targets of reaching climate neutrality

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says Uganda next week will host a ministerial meeting on the outbreak of the Sudan strain of the Ebola virus which has no proven vaccine and has caused alarm in the East Africa region. The acting CDC director told journalists the three countries

PARIS (AP) — The French ski federation, mayors from mountain resorts and ski instructors have lashed out at the decision to award the 2029 Asian Winter Games to Saudi Arabia. They say the decision goes against “what is desirable for the planet.” They say they have been “left flabbergasted” by the plan to host the

By FOSTER KLUG Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — A drumbeat of increasingly powerful North Korean missile launches has been met with a U.S. aircraft carrier floating off the Korean Peninsula. It’s a pattern that has repeated many times over the years, and, as in the past, there are plenty of signs in the latest cycle

By The Associated Press The head of Ukraine’s human rights commission says Russian authorities detained hundreds of Ukrainians as they tried to cross from Russia into Estonia. Dmytro Lubinets wrote in a post on his Facebook page on Thursday that Russians “took them away on trucks to an unknown destination” a day earlier. He cited

By MARC LEVY and BRIAN SLODYSKO Associated Press HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — In his campaign for a crucial U.S. Senate seat, Democrat John Fetterman takes credit for reinventing Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor’s office, transforming it from a political pit stop into a “bully pulpit” from which he’s advanced progressive causes. Records from Fetterman’s four years in

By JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press GENEVA (AP) — In a close diplomatic victory for China, the U.N.’s top human rights body has voted down a proposal from Britain, Turkey, the United States and other mostly Western countries to hold a debate on alleged rights abuses against Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in China’s western

By AAMER MADHANI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is ready to celebrate a new $20 billion investment by IBM in New York with two House Democrats running in competitive races in next month’s elections. Biden is taking part in a Thursday afternoon announcement at the IBM facility in Poughkeepsie, New York. He

By HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s new conservative government says it will push to abolish a ministry on gender equality and create a new agency tasked with broader responsibilities, one of President Yoon Suk Yeol’s contentious campaign promises that roiled March’s hotly contested election. The prospect for his government’s

By LORNE COOK, KAREL JANICEK and SYLVIE CORBET Associated Press PRAGUE (AP) — The leaders of 44 European countries are meeting in what many say is a united stand against Russia’s war on Ukraine amid an energy crisis and high inflation fueled by the conflict. The inaugural summit of the European Political Community on Thursday

By The Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran has published video footage showing two French citizens purportedly confessing to acting on behalf of a French security service. The scenes were published amid ongoing protests roiling the country that Tehran has sought to describe as a foreign plot instead of local anger over

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The Solomon Islands prime minister has assured Australia that he would not “endanger his country” by allowing China to establish a naval base in the South Pacific. Solomons Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare made his first visit to the Australian capital Canberra since Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s

By TASSANEE VEJPONGSA and DAVID RISING Associated Press UTHAI SAWAN, Thailand (AP) — A former police officer facing a drug charge burst into a day care center Thursday in Thailand, killing dozens of preschoolers and teachers and then shooting more people as he fled. At least 36 people were slain in the deadliest rampage in