Month: January 2023

BEIRUT (AP) — Syria’s Interior Ministry says a roadside bomb has targeted a bus carrying Syrian policemen in the country’s south wounding 15 of them. The ministry said in a terse statement that the policemen were returning Monday to the capital Damascus from the southern province of Daraa when the bomb exploded on the north-south

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — A middle-grade novel about a secret community of formerly enslaved people has won the John Newbery Medal for the year’s best children’s book. The award went to Amina Luqman-Dawson’s “Freewater.” The Randolph Caldecott Medal for outstanding illustrations went to Doug Salati’s “Hot Dog.” It’s about

FABIANO MAISONNAVE SAO PAULO (AP) — Germany announced on Monday that it would make 204 million euros ($222 million) available for environmental policies in Brazil. Of this total, $38 million is a donation to the Amazon Fund, the most important international cooperation effort to preserve the Amazon rainforest. In 2019, former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro,

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s Central Bank says the pound has dipped to a new low of just over 30 for $1 dollar as the cash-strapped North African country continues to battle surging inflation and foreign currency shortages. Monday’s slide is the latest in a series of tumbles following the country’s $3 billion International Monetary Fund

By FRANCES D’EMILIO Associated Press ROME (AP) — After 15 weeks on a hunger strike to protest particularly harsh prison conditions, an Italian man convicted in attacks claimed by anarchists is being transferred to another prison in Italy for medical care. Sky TG24 TV quoted Alfredo Cospito’s lawyer as saying he would be moved later

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve is poised this week to raise its benchmark interest rate for an eighth time since March. But the Fed will likely announce a smaller hike for a second straight time, and it could change some key wording in its post-meeting statement about future

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his Greek counterpart, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, have agreed to strengthen their security, defense and economic ties and pledged to cooperate in responding to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and other threats in Europe and Asia. They said they agreed to upgrade their nations’

OMAR FARUK Associated Press MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — A military tribunal in Somalia has sentenced the wife of the head of a terrorist organization linked to the Islamic State group to eight years in prison for passing on information and organizing financial transactions for the group. Fartun Abdirashid, wife of Abdiqadir Mumin, head of the

ISTANBUL (AP) — The parents and husband of a woman who was forced into marriage when she was just six years old have gone on trial in Turkey on charges of child and sexual abuse, in a case that has shone a spotlight on Turkey’s religious sects. The woman — now aged 24 — had

By SUMAN NAISHADHAM Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Exposed to the beating sun and hot dry air, more than 10% of the water carried by the Colorado River evaporates, leaks or spills as the 1,450-mile (2,334-kilometer) powerhouse of the West flows through the region’s dams, reservoirs and open-air canals. For decades, key stewards of the

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — Croatia’s president has criticized Western nations for supplying Ukraine with heavy tanks and other weapons in its campaign against invading Russian forces, saying those arms deliveries will only prolong the war. Zoran Milanovic told reporters in the Croatian capital Monday that it’s “mad” to believe that Russia can be defeated in

By JONATHAN LANDRUM Jr. AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Trevor Noah feels more comfortable hosting the Grammy Awards for a third-straight year, but the former “The Daily Show” host still has some nervousness about leading the ceremony with big-time acts like Beyoncé, Adele and Harry Styles looking on. “The nerves come in because

By MEGAN JANETSKY Associated Press HAVANA (AP) — The Rolo González sisters walked out of Nicaragua’s main airport and peered out onto a sea of young men. The Central American “coyotes” squinted back, trying to find the people they would smuggle to the United States. These were the first steps that 19-year-old Merlyn and 24-year-old

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press

MOSCOW (AP) — New U.S. ambassador to Moscow Lynne Tracy has met with a Russian deputy foreign minister. Tracy arrived in Moscow last week, taking up the post amid high tensions over Russia’s military actions in Ukraine and U.S. support of Ukraine including President Joe Biden’s recent decision to provide advanced  battle tanks. Russia accuses

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — A former Japanese soldier who reported being sexually abused by military colleagues says she has filed a damage suit against five perpetrators and the government because she feels their earlier apologies were empty. Rina Gonoi went public with her experiences last year, demanding the Defense Ministry reinvestigate

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South African police are investigating the circumstances surrounding a weekend shooting in South Africa that left eight people dead and three others injured. Gunmen opened fire at a house birthday party in the city of Gqeberha, formerly known as Port Elizabeth on Sunday afternoon. According to police spokeswoman Priscilla Naidu, the unknown

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s main opposition party is trying to get a rid of a member and former head of the country’s domestic intelligence agency after he complained about what he said was a move toward “eliminatory racism against whites.” The leadership of the center-right Christian Democratic Union unanimously approved a resolution on Monday calling

By CATHERINE GASCHKA and JOHN LEICESTER Associated Press PARIS (AP) — France has acquired a stunning Impressionist masterpiece for its national collection of art treasures, with a donation from luxury goods giant LVMH paying the 43 million euros (nearly $47 million) for “Boating Party” by 19th-century French artist Gustave Caillebotte. The oil on canvas shows

BERLIN (AP) — Austrian police say they arrested a 54-year-old man after he attacked two social workers with pepper spray when they found him living illegally in a private wine cellar in northeastern Austria with a woman and six young children. Police in the Austrian province of Lower Austria were still trying to determine the

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has named an American-born missionary in Peru to take over the Vatican’s powerful bishops’ office from the retiring Canadian who has recently been accused of sexual misconduct. Bishop Robert Prevost, a Chicago native and former superior of his Augustinian order who began ministering in

BEIJING (AP) — China’s government has criticized U.S. controls on technology exports as a trade violation after Japan and the Netherlands agreed to join Washington in limiting Beijing’s access to materials to make advanced processor chips. The Foreign Ministry didn’t mention the latest development but accused Washington of abusing export controls and organizing other governments

By SUSIE BLANN Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Fighting remained largely deadlocked Monday in eastern Ukraine where Russian shelling killed five civilians over the past day, according to Ukrainian officials, as the warring sides sized up their needs for renewed military pushes expected in coming weeks. The casualties included a woman who was killed

By MOGOMOTSI MAGOME Associated Press JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South African animal welfare officials have successfully sedated and captured a tiger that was spotted roaming a residential area to the east of the capital Johannesburg. Guards monitoring security cameras on an office building in the Johannesburg suburb of Edenvale say they spotted the big cat early

GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization chief says the coronavirus remains a global health emergency. It comes after a key advisory panel found the pandemic may be nearing an “inflexion point” where higher levels of immunity can lower deaths related to the virus. Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the annual meeting of its executive

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly says that a European Parliament body supervising anti-lobbying and lawmakers’ conduct rules must be given the power and money to launch independent investigations. Monday’s call by the EU’s independent watchdog monitoring administrative shortfalls comes amid a major corruption scandal. O’Reilly says “diligent and independent oversight and enforcement of

LONDON (AP) — Former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said that President Vladimir Putin didn’t seem serious about avoiding war in the days before Russia invaded Ukraine. In a new documentary released Monday, Johnson says that at one point, Putin told him that it would be easy to kill him with a missile. Johnson

By SUZAN FRASER Associated Press ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s foreign minister says his country could greenlight Finland’s membership in NATO before that of Sweden, if the military alliance and the Nordic countries agree to it. Mevlut Cavusoglu on Monday defined Finland’s application as “less problematic” than that of Sweden. Turkey accuses Stockholm of failing

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Armenia is pleading with judges of the United Nations’ highest court to order Azerbaijan to break up a road blockade isolating the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, calling the action part of an act of “ethnic cleansing.” Monday’s hearing at the International Court of Justice comes

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Japanese rescuers have found two foreign men who were hit by an avalanche while backcountry skiing. The two were found without vital signs in a famous ski resort in central Japan. Police are waiting until the men’s identities are confirmed before confirming their deaths. Nagano Prefectural police

By ANDI JATMIKO Associated Press JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Hundreds of Indonesian Muslims have marched to the heavily guarded Swedish Embassy in Jakarta to denounce the recent desecration of Islam’s holy book by far-right activists in Sweden and the Netherlands. Waving white flags bearing the Islamic declaration of faith, more than 300 demonstrators filled a

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) — Slovenian media say authorities have apprehended two alleged Russian spies suspected of using an agency dealing in real estate and antiques as a front for their activities. Slovenian police on Monday confirmed that two individuals had been arrested in December for suspected espionage but did not disclose which country they were