Month: January 2023

By RIAZ KHAN and MUNIR AHMED Associated Press PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan’s Peshawar was once known as “the city of flowers,” surrounded by orchards of pear, quince and pomegranate trees. It was a trading city, situated at the gates of a key mountain valley connecting South and Central Asia. But for the past four

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan has scrambled fighter jets and put navy ships and missile systems on alert in response to nearby operations by 34 Chinese military aircraft and nine warships. Taiwan’s Defense Ministry says 20 Chinese aircraft crossed the central line in the Taiwan Strait that has long been an unofficial buffer zone between

By SUSAN HAIGH Associated Press HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Decades before the infamous Salem witch trials in Massachusetts, Alse Young was killed at the gallows in Connecticut, becoming the first person on record to be executed in the American colonies for witchcraft. The Windsor town clerk registered the death on May 26, 1647, in a

By ISABEL DEBRE and SAM McNEIL Associated Press KHAN AL-AHMAR, West Bank (AP) — Protesters streaming up the windswept hills east of Jerusalem interrupted Maha Ali’s breakfast. Palestinian chants of support for her West Bank Bedouin community of Khan al-Ahmar, at risk of demolition by the Israeli army since it lost its legal protection over

By JUAN A. LOZANO and MICHAEL GRACZYK Associated Press HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — Texas has executed an inmate convicted of fatally shooting a Dallas police officer nearly 16 years ago following a high-speed chase. Wesley Ruiz received a lethal injection Wednesday evening at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. His execution was carried out after the

By MORGAN LEE Associated Press SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Prosecutors linked Alec Baldwin to an expansive list of alleged failures in firearms safety as they filed a felony involuntary manslaughter charge Tuesday against the actor in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on a New Mexico movie set. Halyna Hutchins died shortly after being

By AARON MORRISON and ADRIAN SAINZ Associated Press MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Tyre Nichols ’ family and friends remembered him with songs of faith and heartfelt tributes Wednesday, blending a celebration of his life with outraged calls for police reform after the brutal beating he endured at the hands of Memphis police. Nichols’ mother, RowVaughn

By MARI YAMAGUCHI and HARUKA NUGA Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says China’s growing assertiveness and collaboration with Russia poses a challenge not only to Asia but also to Europe. Stoltenberg made the remarks Wednesday as he sought stronger cooperation and more “friends” for NATO in the Indo-Pacific region. Stoltenberg said

By JOE Mcdonald AP Business Writer BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets gained Thursday after the Federal Reserve said the U.S. economy is moving toward lower inflation but more interest rate hikes are planned. Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney advanced. Oil prices rose. Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index closed 1% higher on Wednesday

By JIM GOMEZ Associated Press MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The United States and the Philippines on Thursday announced plans to expand America’s military presence in the Southeast Asian nation, with access to four more bases as they seek to deter China’s increasingly aggressive actions toward Taiwan and in the disputed South China Sea. The agreement

By SARA BURNETT and JILL COLVIN Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — Emboldened anti-abortion activists are looking to the 2024 presidential election as an opportunity to solidify their influence over the Republican Party. Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, the most influential group in the anti-abortion movement, is telling each potential GOP presidential hopeful that to win

By LISA MASCARO and KEVIN FREKING Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A procedural vote Wednesday in the House showed unified Republican support in moving to oust Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee. GOP lawmakers say they’re taking action because of the Minnesota congresswoman’s past comments critical of Israel. The Somali-born Muslim

By ROD McGUIRK Asspociated Press Australia has announced targeted financial sanctions and travel bans against “individuals responsible for egregious human rights abuses” in Myanmar two years after a military junta seized power in the Southeast Asian country. Australia also announced in a statement on Wednesday additional sanctions on Iranian individuals and entities over “abhorrent abuses

By KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea has logged its biggest monthly trade deficit ever, at $12.7 billion in January, as exports of computer chips and other high-tech items sank and costs for importing oil and gas surged. The growing shortfall underscored how Russia’s war on Ukraine is straining the

By MEG KINNARD Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Nikki Haley is moving closer to making her presidential campaign official. On Wednesday, supporters of the former South Carolina governor will get an email invitation to a Feb. 15 launch event in Charleston, at which she plans to announce her campaign, according to a person familiar

By KANIS LEUNG Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong banned CBD as a “dangerous drug” and imposed harsh penalties for its possession on Wednesday, forcing fledging businesses to shut down or revamp. Supporters say CBD, or cannabidiol, derived from the cannabis plant, can help relieve stress and inflammation without getting its users high,

By RIO YAMAT Associated Press NORTH LAS VEGAS (AP) — Las Vegas police on Tuesday arrested and raided the home of a former “Dances With Wolves” actor turned alleged cult leader accused of sexually assaulting young Indigenous girls during a period spanning two decades, according to police records obtained by The Associated Press. Nathan Lee

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Organizers on Tuesday announced a lineup of more than 270 acts for New Orleans’ 40th annual French Quarter Festival, billed as Louisiana’s largest free showcase of music, food and culture. Artists scheduled to perform at the April 13-16 event include Irma Thomas, Ani DiFranco, Tank and the Bangas, blues guitarist Samantha

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — The new district attorney for California’s Alameda County in the San Francisco Bay Area says she’ll re-investigate eight police shootings and custody deaths, including two killings of unarmed men by the same Oakland police officer. Pamela Price, who was elected last November on a justice reform platform, says a new Public

By JOEY CAPPELLETTI Associated Press LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The Michigan House voted along party lines Tuesday to move the state’s primary to the fourth week of February to match an early presidential primary plan approved by a Democratic National Committee panel last month. Michigan would become the fifth state to hold its primary under

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — A suspect in a violent kidnapping in Oregon died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound Tuesday night after being taken into custody following a standoff with law enforcement, a police spokesman said. Grants Pass Police Department Lt. Jeff Hattersley told KTVL-TV that Benjamin Obadiah Foster, 36, died at a hospital hours

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — Longtime University of California women’s swimming coach Teri McKeever has been fired following an investigation into alleged harassment, bullying and verbally abusive conduct. McKeever led the Golden Bears to four NCAA team titles over 29 years. She coached the U.S. women’s swim team at the London Olympics in 2012, the first

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Mourners paid their respects to Cardinal George Pell in a Sydney cathedral Wednesday a day before the funeral and interment of a polarizing church leader who was once the most senior Catholic convicted of sex abuse. Pell, who died last month at age 81, spent more

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Fiction by Percival Everett and Ling Ma, nonfiction by Annie Proulx and biographies of George Balanchine and J. Edgar Hoover are among the finalists for National Book Critics Circle awards. Former U.S. poet laureate Joy Harjo has won an honorary award for lifetime achievement. Last

By BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — The widow of a California man fatally shot by police in a Los Angeles suburb last year has filed a wrongful death lawsuit claiming he was suffering from a mental health crisis and unarmed when he was shot in the back. Adriana Medina sued Culver City

By JOHN O’CONNOR AP Political Writer SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — An Illinois appellate court has upheld a temporary restraining order on enforcement of the state’s three-week-old law banning semiautomatic weapons. A three-judge panel for the 5th District Appellate Court on Tuesday affirmed the restraining order issued Jan. 20 by an Effingham County circuit judge. The

By R.J. RICO Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — In the wake of the shooting death of an environmental activist, Atlanta-area officials have reiterated that they are moving forward with plans to construct a huge police and firefighter training center that protesters derisively refer to as “Cop City.” Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens held a news conference

CHICAGO (AP) — The body of a 96-year-old woman has been found inside a freezer in a garage behind a northwest Chicago apartment building. The Chicago Sun-Times reports Tuesday that police responded Monday afternoon to the building in the city’s Portage Park neighborhood after receiving a call from a relative who lives in another state.

By KARL RITTER Associated Press STOCKHOLM (AP) — Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has denounced activists who burned the Quran and hanged an effigy of Turkey’s president in Stockholm as “useful idiots” for foreign powers who want to inflict harm on the Scandinavian country as it seeks to join NATO. In Kristersson’s words: “We have

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — After a review of the awards campaign for the indie drama “To Leslie,” the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences said Tuesday that Andrea Riseborough will not be stripped of her Oscar nomination for best actress. The star-studded grassroots campaign for Riseborough had prompted

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The population of western monarch butterflies wintering along the California coast has rebounded for a second year in a row after a precipitous drop in 2020, but the population of orange-and-black insects is still well below what it used to be, researchers announced Tuesday. Volunteers

By SCOTT SONNER Associated Press RENO, Nev. (AP) — General Motors has conditionally agreed to invest $650 million in Lithium Americas in a deal that will give GM exclusive access to the first phase of a mine planned near the Nevada-Oregon line with the largest known source of lithium in the U.S. The equity investment

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The independent U.N. special investigator on Myanmar is warning that the country’s military rulers plan to seek legitimacy by orchestrating a “sham” election this year and is urging all countries to reject the illegal vote. Tom Andrews also urged countries that support human rights and

By JAMIE STENGLE Associated Press DALLAS (AP) — Two monkeys taken from the Dallas Zoo were found Tuesday in an abandoned home after going missing the day before from their enclosure, which had been cut. But no arrests have been made, deepening the mystery at the zoo that has included other cut fences, the escape