Month: December 2022

By CAROLYN THOMPSON and JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Roads reopened Thursday in storm-besieged Buffalo as authorities continued searching for people who may have died or are stuck and suffering after last week’s blizzard. The driving ban in New York’s second-most-populous city was lifted just after midnight Thursday, Mayor Byron Brown announced.

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbian police say they have detained two people sought on international warrants during a raid to locate migrants and people smugglers near the border with Hungary. Police said in a statement on Thursday that the two are wanted for “various criminal acts.” They say a total of 109 migrants were found

By ADIL JAWAD and MUNIR AHMED Associated Press KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Officials say Pakistani police in multiple raids detained at least 1,200 Afghan nationals, including women and children, who had entered the southern port city of Karachi without valid travel documents. The arrests brought criticism from around Afghanistan after images of locked up Afghan

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has overseen the commissioning of new warships and vowed to further strengthen his country’s navy. The ships commissioned on Thursday included a corvette, a minesweeper and a nuclear submarine. The Generalissimus Suvorov submarine is armed with Bulava nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles and is the latest addition to Russia’s

By RIAZAT BUTT Associated Press KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Aid agencies are warning that Afghans will die because of the Taliban order banning women from working at nongovernmental groups. The order was issued last week by the Economy Ministry in the capital, Kabul, allegedly because women aren’t wearing the Islamic headscarf, or hijab, correctly. Since

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippines says President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. hopes to sign a number of agreements during a visit to Beijing that comes amid ongoing territorial disputes in the South China Sea. A statement from the Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs on Thursday said a number of projects were under discussion, including in

By HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea has staged large-scale military drills to simulate shooting down North Korean drones. South Korea is trying to ease public concerns over its defense readiness after the North flew drones into its territory earlier this week. South Korean warplanes and helicopters failed to bring

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — The Portuguese government’s chief official in charge of transportation, including the fate of the troubled national airline and a long-postponed plan for high-speed train lines, has resigned. Infrastructure and Housing Minister Pedro Nuno Santos quit late Wednesday amid an outcry over a 500,000-euro ($532,000) compensation payment made to a board member

By COURTNEY WALSH Associated Press MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Fiji’s Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka has vowed to address the “litany of woe” created by the nation’s former government while raising concerns about the Pacific nation’s massive debt. In his first address to the country since being sworn in to office on Christmas Eve, Rabuka said

By JIM HEINTZ Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — With its brutality, technological accomplishments and rigid ideology, the Soviet Union loomed over the world like an immortal colossus. It led humankind into outer space, exploded the most powerful nuclear weapon ever, and inflicted bloody purges and cruel labor camps on its own citizens while portraying itself

ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) — Novak Djokovic has reiterated his earlier comments that he bears no hard feelings on his return to Australia after his visa cancellation and subsequent deportation in January ahead of the Australian Open tennis tournament. Djokovic was deported almost 12 months ago after arriving unvaccinated against COVID-19 at a time when the

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A freight truck collided with a bus on a highway near the South Korean capital Seoul on Thursday, causing a fire that killed at least five people and injured 37 others, officials said. It wasn’t immediately known what caused the collision and fire, nor what cargo the truck was carrying.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. State Department has approved the sale of an anti-tank mine-laying system to Taiwan amid the rising military threat from China. The department on Wednesday said the Volcano system and all related equipment would cost an estimated $180 million. It’s capable of scattering anti-tank and anti-personnel mines from either a ground

By RENATA BRITO and HANNA ARHIROVA Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian missiles hit Ukraine Thursday in the biggest wave of strikes in weeks, damaging power stations and other critical infrastructure during freezing winter weather. Russia fired 69 missiles at energy facilities and Ukrainian forces shot down 54, Ukrainian military chief Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi

By JOE McDONALD AP Business Writer BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets followed Wall Street higher on Friday following encouraging U.S. employment data but were headed for double-digit losses for the year. Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney advanced. Oil prices edged higher. Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index gained Thursday after the number of

By RIAZAT BUTT Associated Press KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Even before the Taliban barred Afghan women from working at non-governmental groups, their forces visited the office of one local organization in the capital Kabul several times to check female staff were obeying rules on dress codes and gender segregation. Already, the women in the office

By NICHOLAS RICCARDI and ACACIA CORONADO Associated Press State lawmakers around the country introduced thousands of bills to change the way elections are run after former President Donald Trump falsely blamed his 2020 loss on voter fraud. Hundreds became law. Even with proponents of Trump’s election lies roundly defeated during this year’s midterms, advocates on

By BEATRICE DUPUY, RICHARD LARDNER and SABINA NIKSIC Associated Press SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Vildana Mutevelić huddled in her apartment with her two young children and elderly cousins. They had no heat, electricity or running water as artillery shells tore the roof off their building and almost took their lives. To survive, she improvised. Mutevelić

By KEN MORITSUGU and HUIZHONG WU Associated Press BEIJING (AP) — Moves by several countries to mandate COVID-19 tests for passengers arriving from China reflect global concern that new variants could emerge in its ongoing explosive outbreak — and that the government may not inform the rest of the world quickly enough. There have been

By EDGAR H. CLEMENTE and MARÍA VERZA Associated Press TAPACHULA, Mexico (AP) — When migrants arrive to the main crossing point into southern Mexico — a steamy city with no job opportunities, a place packed with foreigners eager to keep moving north — they soon learn the only way to cut through the red tape

By EDGAR H. CLEMENTE and MARÍA VERZA Associated Press TAPACHULA, Mexico (AP) — When migrants arrive to the main crossing point into southern Mexico — a steamy city with no job opportunities, a place packed with foreigners eager to keep moving north — they soon learn the only way to cut through the red tape

By JACQUES BILLEAUD Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — A recount of votes has confirmed Democrat Kris Mayes narrowly defeated Republican Abraham Hamadeh in the Arizona attorney general’s race, one of the closest elections in state history. The highly anticipated results announced Thursday in Maricopa County Superior Court are among the last in the country to