Month: January 2023

By AHMED SAMI Associated Press BAGHDAD (AP) — A stampede outside a stadium in southern Iraq has killed two people and injured dozens. The stampede occurred on Thursday in the southern city of Basra as spectators gathered to attend the final match in the first international soccer tournament held in the country in four decades.

By GEIR MOULSON and JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — Germany faced mounting pressure to supply battle tanks to Kyiv and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy aired frustration about not obtaining enough weaponry as Western allies conferred Thursday on how best to support Ukraine nearly 11 months into Russia’s invasion. Just hours into his tenure,

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong says her government is “deeply troubled” by the delays in China resolving espionage allegations against Chinese-Australian writer and blogger Yang Hengjun. Wong raised the issue Thursday on the anniversary of Yang’s detention in 2019 when he arrived in southern China’s Guangzhou

By MUNIR AHMED Associated Press ISLAMABAD (AP) — A British-based medical journal says Pakistan has made progress over infectious diseases but now struggles against cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and cancer as causes of early deaths. The study published Thursday in The Lancet Global Health journal said the impoverished Islamic nation’s challenges have been sharpened by the

By JOSEPH WILSON Associated Press BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez have signed a friendship treaty in Barcelona to strengthen relations between the European neighbors. Both governments consider this a diplomatic bond of the highest order. Thursday’s one-day summit comes on a day of widespread strikes and

PRAGUE (AP) — The Czech coalition government has survived a parliamentary no-confidence vote over opposition claims of incompetence. The main opposition centrist ANO movement, led by populist billionaire Andrej Babis, has accused the government of not doing enough to help people cope with soaring inflation driven by high energy prices or to solve other current

By TIAN MCLEOD JI, ELAINE KURTENBACH and KANIS LEUNG Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — A hoped-for boom in Chinese tourism over next week’s Lunar New Year holidays looks set to be more of a blip as most travelers opt to stay inside China if they go anywhere at all. From the beaches of Bali to

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Armenia’s Defense Ministry says 15 soldiers have died in a fire at a military base. The fire swept through a barrack in the village of Azat, in Gegharkunik province in eastern Armenia early Thursday. The authorities said that seven soldiers were injured, and three of them remained in grave condition. Armenian

By JOE McDONALD AP Business Writer BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets rose Friday after Wall Street losses deepened as worries grow that the U.S. economy is headed for recession. Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong advanced. Seoul declined. Oil prices gained. Traders worry the Federal Reserve and other central banks might be willing to tip

By SOPHENG CHEANG and DAVID RISING Associated Press PREYTOTOEUNG, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodian experts, whose country has the dubious distinction of being one of the world’s most contaminated by landmines, walked a group of Ukrainian soldiers through a minefield being actively cleared, hoping their decades of experience would help the Europeans in their own efforts

By KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea and Iran have summoned each other’s ambassadors in a diplomatic spat triggered by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s comments describing Iran as the “enemy” of the United Arab Emirates during a trip to that country this week. While visiting South Korean special

By WANJOHI KABUKURU Associated Press MOMBASA, Kenya (AP) — Droughts, flooding and a shrinking Lake Chad caused in part by climate change is fueling conflict and migration in the region and needs to be better addressed, a report said Thursday. Human rights group Refugees International called for the issue to be central to a high-level

By RIAZAT BUTT Associated Press LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Aman, a 22-year-old transgender man from the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, says he was always close to his father. When he was little and it was cold out, his father held his hands to warm them. When he was at university, his father would wait

By NICK PERRY Associated Press WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who became a global icon of the left and exemplified a new style of leadership, said Thursday that she would leave office. Just 37 when she became leader, Ardern was praised around the world for her handling of the

By JULIE CARR SMYTH Associated Press COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder goes on trial next week in a case that alleges a $60 million bribery scheme federal prosecutors call the largest corruption case in state history. Jurors must decide whether the ousted Republican lawmaker and former Ohio Republican Party chair

By TERRY TANG Associated Press Every Lunar New Year without fail, Kat Lieu’s mother would make her steamed nian gao, which is a sweet rice — or mochi — cake. It was a tasty tradition of having dessert for breakfast. The Seattle-based author of the “Modern Asian Baking at Home” cookbook and founder of the

BEIJING (AP) — China has accused “some Western media” of bias, smears and political manipulation in their coverage of China’s ending of its strict “zero-COVID” policy. That came as part of a defense of actions taken to prepare for the change in an editorial Thursday in the ruling Communist Party’s People’s Daily. The move in

By BOBBY CAINA CALVAN Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — When New York’s first licensed recreational marijuana outlet opened last month, the chief of the state’s Office of Cannabis Management, Chris Alexander, proudly hoisted a tin of watermelon-flavored gummies above the crowd. Outside the Manhattan shop, he displayed another purchase — a jar containing dried

By TOM DAVIES Associated Press INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A top state lawyer has urged the Indiana Supreme Court to uphold the state’s Republican-backed abortion ban. The justices heard arguments Thursday even as they weighed whether they should decide the constitutionality of the ban before lower courts have fully considered the case. The lawsuit against the

By JOHN O’CONNOR AP Political Writer SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Prison and union officials say 18 employees of a central Illinois prison have been treated at hospitals after they became sickened while responding to inmates suffering severe discomfort. Illinois Department of Corrections spokesperson Naomi Puzzello says staff were exposed to an unknown substance at Graham

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Prosecutors say a failed GOP candidate accused of orchestrating a series of drive-by shootings at the homes of Democratic elected officials in New Mexico’s largest city is a danger to the community and should be detained pending trial. They filed a motion Wednesday, asking that

By ZEKE MILLER AP White House Correspondent CAPITOLA, Calif. (AP) — President Joe Biden walked along the splintered boardwalk of a California beach town Thursday and heard from business owners struggling to repair damage to their shops after storms caused devastation across the region and killed more than 20 people statewide. Biden toured a gutted

By DANIEL POLITI and FRANKLIN BRICEÑO Associated Press LIMA, Peru (AP) — Police fired tear gas to try to subdue thousands of protesters who poured into the Peruvian capital Thursday, many from remote Andean regions, calling for the ouster of President Dina Boluarte and the return to power of her predecessor, whose removal last month

By JOSH BOAK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The countdown toward a possible U.S. government default began Thursday with Treasury implementing accounting measures to buy time as frictions between President Joe Biden and House Republicans raise alarms about whether the United States can sidestep a potential economic crisis. The Treasury Department said in a letter

By KANIS LEUNG Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s leader says the city will scrap its mandatory isolation rule for people infected with COVID-19 starting Jan. 30 as part of its strategy to return to normalcy. For most of the pandemic over the last three years, Hong Kong has aligned itself with mainland

By KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament has passed a budget that sustains a high level of defense spending despite the country’s economic troubles. Leader Kim Jong Un has been pushing for an aggressive expansion of his nuclear arsenal. He apparently did not attend the assembly’s two-day session

Associated Press LIMA, Peru (AP) — Protesters set fire to the police station and judicial office in the Peruvian town of Macusani Wednesday after two people were killed and another seriously injured by gunfire amid antigovernment protests. The deaths were confirmed by Macusani health official Dr. Iván Fernández and brought to 53 the number of

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Israel’s U.N. ambassador is accusing the Palestinians of stabbing a knife into any chance for reconciliation by seeking an advisory opinion from the U.N.’s highest court on Israel’s decades-old occupation. The Palestinian U.N. envoy is accusing Israel’s new government of seeking to crush its people.

JENIN REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank (AP) — Palestinian officials and media reports say Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian schoolteacher and a militant during a military raid in the occupied West Bank. The Palestinian Health Ministry said the men were killed early on Thursday in the Jenin refugee camp. A secondary school in the

By GAVIN GOOD Associated Press CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) — Mackenzie Holmes scored 30 points and grabbed 10 rebounds and Grace Berger added 18 points to lead No. 6 Indiana to an 83-72 win over No. 21 Illinois on Wednesday. Holmes hit six of seven shots and scored 14 points in the third quarter as the

By REBECCA SANTANA Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A government program launched Thursday is giving American citizens the chance to play a role in resettling the thousands of refugees who arrive every year in the United States. During the first year of the Welcome Corps, the State Department aims to line up 10,000 Americans who

By AUDREY McAVOY Associated Press HONOLULU (AP) — Lawmakers opened a new session of the Hawaii State Legislature with proposals to provide more tax relief to working families and impose fees on travelers using popular state parks and trails. Lawmakers also vowed to hold hearings to ethics reform bills after two former lawmakers last year

By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER Associated Press HONOLULU (AP) — An American consultant has been sentenced to two years in prison for an illicit effort to lobby the former Trump administration. Prosecutors say Nickie Mali Lum Davis and other tried to use back channels to influence U.S. government officials to drop an investigation into the multibillion-dollar

SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) — A Florida congressman has been injured in an accident at his home. U.S. Rep. Greg Steube’s office released a short statement saying that he was involved in an accident on his property Wednesday and sustained several injuries. The statement didn’t include details about the injuries or how serious they were. Steube

BEIJING (AP) — An avalanche trapped vehicles outside a highway tunnel in Tibet, and at least eight people have died. The falling snow and ice collapsed at the exit of the tunnel connecting the city of Nyingchi in Tibet’s southwest with an outlying county on Tuesday evening. Authorities reported Wednesday night the search was ongoing,

WASHINGTON (AP) — A lesion removed by surgeons last week from first lady Jill Biden’s left eyelid was a non-cancerous growth, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, physician to President Joe Biden, said Wednesday. O’Connor said in a memo released by the White House that a biopsy showed that the legion was seborrheic keratosis, a “very common, totally

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump said he has never read any part of a book in which the columnist E. Jean Carroll accused him of raping her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s, according to court records unsealed Wednesday. Trump was questioned under oath

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. (AP) — Actor Julian Sands, star of several Oscar-nominated films including “A Room With a View,” has been missing for five days in the Southern California mountains, where he was hiking, authorities said Wednesday. Sands, 65, was reported missing Friday on a trail on Mt. Baldy, San Bernardino County sheriff’s spokeswoman Gloria