Month: December 2022

By ANNE M. PETERSON AP Sports Writer ASH-SHHANIYA, Qatar (AP) — Like all good pageant contestants, Nazaa’a displayed not only dazzling beauty but also poise and grace. She batted her eyelashes and flashed a toothy smile for the television cameras at the Mzayen World Cup, a pageant held in the Qatari desert about 15 miles

By DAVE COLLINS and JILL BLEED Associated Press Infowars host Alex Jones has filed for personal bankruptcy protection in Texas. Jones cited debts that include nearly $1.5 billion he has been ordered to pay to families who sued him over his conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook school massacre. He filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

By BHUMIKA SARASWATI Associated Press NEW DELHI (AP) — About 150 Tibetan exiles holding blank pieces of paper have rallied in India’s capital to express solidarity with people in China protesting its “zero COVID” policy. The blank paper is a symbol of defiance used by protesters in China against the ruling Communist Party’s widespread censorship.

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — A stage musical about woke princesses that uses hit songs by Britney Spears will land on Broadway this summer. “Once Upon a One More Time,” featuring Spears’ tunes, including “Oops!… I Did It Again,” “Lucky,” “Stronger” and “Toxic,” will start performances in May at the

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s prime minister says an “assassination attempt” has targeted his country’s envoy in Afghanistan, amid tensions between the neighboring countries. Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif said on Friday that attackers failed to harm the Pakistani diplomat, but shot and wounded his security guard. The shooting comes a day after Pakistan demanded Afghanistan’s Taliban

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine on Friday banned the activities of religious organizations “affiliated with centers of influence” in Russia and said it would examine the links between the Ukrainian and Russian Orthodox churches. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree enacting a National Security and Defense Council decision to impose personal sanctions against representatives

BERLIN (AP) — Germany has welcomed President Joe Biden’s apparent willingness to discuss tweaking U.S. legislation that European leaders say unfairly discriminates against their industries. Biden had acknowledged during a visit to Washington by French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday that there were “glitches” in the Inflation Reduction Act, which favors American-made climate technology for

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian official says Ukrainian embassies and consulates in six European countries have received packages containing animals’ eyes in recent days. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said the “bloody parcels” were received by the Ukrainian embassies in Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Croatia and Italy, as well as by consulates in Naples, Italy;

By EDNA TARIGAN Associated Press JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — The United States has canceled a trip to Indonesia by a special envoy on LGBTQ rights after the country’s most influential Islamic group objected to the visit. Special envoy Jessica Stern was to have visited Indonesia next week as part of a trip to Southeast Asia.

By SAM McNEIL and FARES AKRAM Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s paramilitary border police says an officer killed an alleged Palestinian assailant in the occupied West Bank after they wrestled over a weapon. Dramatic amateur video captured the moments Friday when the officer fired the fatal shots. The video was widely shared on social

By MOGOMOTSI MAGOME Associated Press JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa’s president might lose his job, and his reputation as a corruption fighter, as he faces possible impeachment over claims that he tried to cover up the theft of millions of dollars stashed inside a couch on his farm. The allegations brought by a political rival

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The Norwegian Safety Investigation Authority says the collapse of a wooden road bridge in southern Norway was caused by “a break in one of the diagonals in the main span.” In a report based on a preliminary investigation, the authority said the Tretten Bridge had experienced “a significant overload” and its

By CARA ANNA Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Eritrean troops have continued killing dozens of civilians in Ethiopia’s Tigray region and committing other abuses weeks after the two main warring parties signed a peace deal, according to an official document seen by The Associated Press. The forces from neighboring Eritrea, which has fought alongside

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s parliament has approved a hefty 29 trillion yen ($216 billion) supplementary budget to fund measures to counter the blow to household finances from rising food and utility costs and the weaker yen. The budget approved Friday is the second batch of supplementary spending this year to

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Britain’s opposition Labour Party has handily won a special election for a northwest England seat in Parliament. It’s the first test of voter sentiment since Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak took office in October. Labour held onto the City of Chester constituency with an increased vote share

By JUSTIN SPIKE Associated Press BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary’s prime minister is continuing to oppose a European Union plan to provide an 18-billion-euro ($19-billion) aid package to Ukraine in 2023. The veto promises to sustain tensions between the EU and Hungary’s nationalist government amid a struggle over democratic standards. Speaking in a radio interview

Associated Press Spanish authorities say they are looking for a person who paraglided over a border fence from Morocco to the Spanish enclave of Melilla in what appeared to be a new and creative way to migrate irregularly to European territory. A spokesperson for the Spanish government delegation in Melilla said Friday that two citizens

By TARA COPP Associated Press PALMDALE , Calif. (AP) — America’s newest nuclear stealth bomber made its debut Friday after years of secret development and as part of the Pentagon’s answer to rising concerns over a future conflict with China. The B-21 Raider is the first new American bomber aircraft in more than 30 years.

By KANIS LEUNG and ZEN SOO Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — The recent wave of protests against China’s anti-virus restrictions was a ray of hope among some supporters of Hong Kong’s own pro-democracy movement after local authorities stifled it using a national security law. In 2019, before the pandemic, hundreds of thousands of Hong

By JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia said Friday that Western demands it should pull out completely from Ukraine as part of any future talks to end the war effectively rule out any such negotiations, as Russian strikes continued and a Ukrainian official set his country’s battle losses at up to 13,000

By MUNIR AHMED Associated Press ISLAMABAD (AP) — The State Department says it has added a key anti-Pakistan militant group and its al-Qaida branch to its list of “global terrorists.” Thursday’s move comes days after the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, known as TTP, ended a monthslong ceasefire with the Islamic nation and resumed attacks around the country.

LONDON (AP) — Elton John is scheduled to perform at the Glastonbury Festival in June, in what organizers say will be his farewell show in Britain. The festival announced Friday that the star will play the 2023 festival’s final night on June 25. The festival tweeted: “We are incredibly excited to announce that the one