Month: December 2022

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — The leader of the Albanian opposition center-right Democratic Party has been attacked during an anti-government protest held near a summit of European Union leaders and their counterparts from the Western Balkans in the capital Tirana. Sali Berisha, a 78-year-old former president and prime minister, on Tuesday was leading hundreds of protesters

By MICHAEL CASEY Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — Environmental leaders are gathering on Montreal to hammer out a framework they hope will help provide much-needed protection for the world’s biodiversity. Coming less than a month after world leaders gathered to combat climate change, ministers will consider a framework that calls for protecting 30% of land

By RAHIM FAIEZ Associated Press ISLAMABAD (AP) — Afghan girls will be allowed to take their high school graduation exams this week even though they have been banned from classrooms since the Taliban took over the country in August 2021. That’s according to an education official and two documents from the government obtained by The

By MOGOMOTSI MAGOME Associated Press JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa’s lawmakers have postponed until next week a debate on the damning report that has resulted in calls for President Cyril Ramaphosa to step down. The session was scheduled to take place in Cape Town on Tuesday to discuss a parliamentary panel’s report that found Ramaphosa

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union lawmakers and governments reached a deal Tuesday that would ban the import of products which contribute to deforestation around the world. The preliminary agreement, which must still be formally adopted by the EU parliament, requires companies to verify that goods they sell in the EU have not led to deforestation

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH Associated Press The COVID-19 pandemic sent Heidi Whitney’s daughter into a tailspin. Suddenly the San Diego middle schooler was sleeping all day and awake all night. When in-person classes resumed, she was so anxious at times that she begged to come home early, telling the nurse her stomach hurt. Whitney tried to

BERLIN (AP) — A 45-year-old German man who had offered babysitting services online has gone on trial in the western city of Cologne accused of almost 100 counts of child sexual abuse. German news agency dpa reported that prosecutors told the Cologne regional court that the man documented the abuse of babies, children and teenagers,

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — A newly founded Japanese semiconductor company aiming to revive Japan’s chip industry has signed an agreement to collaborate with a Belgian research organization in developing next-generation chips for production in Japan. Economy and Industry Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura says the new company, Rapidus, which was launched last month

BANGKOK (AP) — Three Thai railway workers have been killed and four others wounded when a bomb exploded as they were clearing the wreckage of an earlier attack over the weekend in the country’s south. Police say the workers were repairing tracks near a station not far from the Malaysian border when the bomb exploded

ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia (AP) — Protesters have tried to force their way into Mongolia’s State Palace, incensed by allegations of corruption linked to the coal trade with China. The U.S. Embassy in Ulaanbaatar issued an alert Monday saying that several hundred protesters gathered in the city’s Sukhbaatar Square during the weekend and marched to the presidential

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s foreign minister has again threatened to “take action” against Greece if it continues to deploy weapons on its Aegean islands which Ankara says should remain demilitarized in line with international treaties. Mevlut Cavusoglu’s comments Tuesday follow reports of military exercises by Greece on the Aegean islands of Rhodes and Lesbos.

By STEVE PEOPLES and SARAH RANKIN Associated Press RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin swept into office as a Republican revelation with a fresh formula for victory as the GOP contemplated its future beyond Donald Trump. But a year after Youngkin’s stunning win, some Republicans believe the shine of his national star is

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Latvian media authorities have revoked the license of an independent Russian TV channel exiled in the Baltic country for, among other things, voicing support for the Russian military and including Crimea in its map of Russia. The decision by the Latvian National Electronic Mass Media Council was based on number of

GDYNIA, Poland (AP) — Polish President Andrzej Duda and the country’s defense minister have taken delivery of a first shipment of tanks and howitzers from South Korea, hailing the swift implementation of a deal signed in the summer in the face of the war in neighboring Ukraine. The two were in the Polish Navy port

By EVELYNE MUSAMBI Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Tanzania’s president has canceled Independence Day celebrations scheduled for Friday and directed that the budget instead be used to build dormitories for children with special needs. The 61st Independence Day event was to cost $445,000, money that will be used to build eight dormitories in primary

By COSTAS KANTOURIS Associated Press THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) — Residents of a Roma settlement have lit fires near a police station outside Greece’s second-largest city of Thessaloniki to protest the police shooting of a 16-year-old driver during a chase over an unpaid gas station bill. Tuesday’s violence came after a 34-year-old police officer appeared in

BEIJING (AP) — China’s Defense Ministry says the country strictly adheres to a policy of no first use of nuclear weapons “at any time and under any circumstances.” The pledge came in a scathing response Tuesday to a U.S. report alleging a major buildup in Beijing’s nuclear capabilities. The Pentagon last week released an annual

By RAF CASERT Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — A rift between the European Union and member state Hungary has deepened after Budapest vetoed an 18-billion euro financial aid package to Kyiv, exacerbating a dispute over the rule of law in the country and Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s outlook over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. EU finance

By LEAH WILLINGHAM Associated Press WELCH, W.Va. (AP) — The head of the federal Environmental Protection Agency has visited a West Virginia county where some residents recently got access to clean water after years of having to boil it before drinking. EPA Administrator Michael Regan spoke with community members in McDowell County about drinking water

By JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Drones struck inside Russia’s border with Ukraine on Tuesday in the second day of attacks exposing the vulnerability of some of Moscow’s most important military sites, experts said. Ukrainian officials did not formally confirm carrying out drone strikes inside Russia, and they have maintained ambiguity over

By SAMUEL PETREQUIN and LLAZAR SEMINI TIRANA, Albania (AP) — EU leaders and their Western Balkans counterparts are to meet for talks aimed at boosting their partnership as Russia’s war in Ukraine threatens to reshape the geopolitical balance in the region. The EU wants to use the one-day summit in Albania’s capital to tell leaders

By KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Members of South Korea’s ruling conservative party have proposed a bill that would place tighter restrictions on the voting rights of foreign permanent residents in local elections. They say it’s necessary to protect democracy from being undermined by Chinese voters. Critics say the efforts could

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer Shares fell in Asia on Wednesday after Wall Street declined on fears the Federal Reserve will need to keep the brakes on the economy to get inflation under control, risking a sharp recession. Oil prices were mixed. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index slipped 0.6% to 27,727.53 and the Kospi in

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Authorities say a Memphis police officer was wounded and a man was killed during a shootout following a call about a suspicious vehicle at a gas station. The Memphis Police Department says the officer was struck multiple times Monday night in the Oakhaven neighborhood, just north of the Tennessee-Mississippi border. The

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A Taliban official says a roadside bomb went off near a bus with government employees in northern Afghanistan, killing six people. The official in Balkh province says the Tuesday bombing in Mazar-e Sharif, the provincial capital, also wounded seven. The bomb was placed inside a cart by the side of the road

By STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is trying to win over the Republican-controlled Legislature with details of her plan to enact a historic repeal of the state’s tax on groceries. But to deliver on the campaign promise, the Republican governor must convince lawmakers the state can

By COLLEEN SLEVIN Associated Press COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — The suspect accused of entering a Colorado Springs gay nightclub and killing five people and wounding 17 others was formally charged with 305 criminal counts including hate crimes and murder. The charges came as 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich appeared in court Tuesday. Investigators say Aldrich

By AMANDA SEITZ and COLLEEN LONG Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is still actively searching for ways to safeguard abortion access for millions of women, even as it bumps up against a complex web of strict new state laws enacted in the months after the Supreme Court stripped the constitutional right. Looking

By MARY CLARE JALONICK, FARNOUSH AMIRI and LISA MASCARO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Top House and Senate leaders have bestowed Congress’ highest honor on law enforcement officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The Congressional Gold Medals were presented Tuesday in a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda, which was overrun that