Month: February 2023

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s central bank has resumed its policy of lowering a key interest rate, even as the country grapples with high inflation and the aftermath of a devastating earthquake. The bank on Thursday cut the benchmark policy rate by 0.5 percentage point, down to 8.5%. Previously it had slashed the rate by

CANBERRA, Australia: (AP) — Police say kidnappers have released a woman who was held for several days in a remote part of Papua New Guinea and security forces are continuing to negotiate for the freedom of four other hostages. Police say the woman is a Papua New Guinean citizen but did not disclose her name.

VIENNA (AP) — A meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s parliamentary assembly has gotten underway without Ukraine’s delegation, which is boycotting the event. The Ukrianians described the presence of Russian lawmakers at the event as “an affront.” The two-day meeting of the normally low-profile assembly coincides with the anniversary of Russia’s

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The European Union’s judicial cooperation agency is setting up a new center to support efforts to gather evidence of the crime of aggression in Ukraine. The announcement Thursday by Eurojust came on the eve of the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and amid

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — The European Commission has dampened Bulgaria’s aspirations for a swift adoption of the euro currency as the Balkan country does not meet all required entry criteria. European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis told reporters on Thursday before his meetings with Bulgarian officials that the country’s entry in the eurozone wasn’t possible

By SAM MEDNICK and ARSENE KABORE Associated Press OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — Burkina Faso’s revolutionary leader, Thomas Sankara, has been reburied, eight years after his body was exhumed as part of an investigation. Sankara and 12 others were gunned down in the capital, Ouagadougou, during a 1987 coup and buried hastily. Their bodies were

By KAREEM CHEHAYEB Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — A British court has ruled a London-based company that delivered the explosive ammonium nitrate to Beirut’s port is liable towards the victims of a devastating 2020 blast, according to Lebanon’s Beirut Bar Association. Families of the victims said ruling is a step toward justice against political intervention

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu has raised the number of fatalities in Turkey from the magnitude 7.8 earthquake to 43,556.  The combined death toll in Turkey and Syria now stands at 47,244. In northwestern Syria, the local civil defense known locally as The White Helmets, said that thousands of children and tens

By CHINEDU ASADU Associated Press ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Voters in Nigeria are electing a new leader Saturday, with 18 candidates vying to lead a country facing a series of struggles — the newest and most pressing being a shortage of cash. Three front-runners have emerged to replace President Muhammadu Buhari after his final term

By CHINEDU ASADU Associated Press ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — As Nigeria prepares for its presidential election this weekend, younger voters are mobilizing in record numbers to take part. The high interest in Saturday’s ballot comes as Africa’s most populous nation faces high rates of unemployment and growing insecurity. Officials say there’s been a surge in

By ERIKA KINETZ Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — How do people raised with a sense of right and wrong end up involved in terrible acts of violence against others? That’s the human mystery at the heart of 2,000 intercepted phone calls from Russian soldiers in Ukraine. These calls obtained by The Associated Press offer

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran is directly acknowledging an accusation attributed to international inspectors that it enriched uranium to 84% purity for the first time, which would put the Islamic Republic closer than ever to weapons-grade material. The acknowledgement by a news outlet linked to Iran’s theocracy renews

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — A senior Northern Ireland police officer is in critical but stable condition in a hospital after being shot by two masked men while he coached children’s soccer. Police said Thursday that a dissident Irish Republican Army splinter group is suspected of shooting the detective at a sports

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece’s coast guard says a search and rescue operation is underway off the coast of an eastern Greek island for four people believed missing from a boat of migrants attempting to reach Greece from the nearby Turkish coast. The coast guard said Thursday that authorities had received a distress call regarding

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Ahmed Qureia, a former Palestinian prime minister and one of the architects of interim peace deals with Israel, has died at age 85. He was a key player in the 1993 Oslo peace accords and a witness to the rise of the dream of Palestinian statehood that surged during the

By SIBI ARASU Associated Press BENGALURU, India (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says the U.S. will push for tougher, better enforced sanctions against Russia and is hoping for a “fully funded” package of financial support for Ukraine. Yellen spoke Thursday in Bengaluru, India, where she’s attending meetings of financial leaders of the Group of

By RIAZ KHAN and RAHIM FAIEZ Associated Press PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan has shut down a key border crossing with Afghanistan, just hours after it was reopened. Thursday’s developments are the latest twist in the closure of the Torkham junction and key trade route between the countries that has added to increasing tensions along

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Abu Dhabi’s state gas company expects to raise up to $2 billion by selling 4% of its shares in an initial public offering. The company said Thursday that the price range for the previously announced sale of over 3 billion shares has been set at 2.25 to 2.34 Emirati

By SOPHENG CHEANG Associated Press PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — An 11-year-old girl in Cambodia has died from bird flu in the country’s first known human H5N1 infection since 2014, health officials said. Bird flu, also known as avian influenza, normally spreads in poultry and wasn’t deemed a threat to people until a 1997 outbreak

By BASSEM MROUE Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — The Islamic State group has carried out its deadliest attacks in more than a year, killing dozens of civilians and security officers in the deserts of central Syria, even as people of northern Syria have been digging out of the wreckage from the region’s devastating earthquake. The

By CLAIRE RUSH, DREW CALLISTER and JIM SALTER Associated Press PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Winter storms sowed more chaos across the U.S. on Thursday, shutting down much of Oregon’s largest city with almost a foot of snow and paralyzing travel from parts of the Pacific Coast all the way to the northern Plains. The nearly

By DENG MACHOL Associated Press JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — South Sudan’s president has urged the country’s more than 2 million refugees to return home in his first meeting with displaced people since civil war erupted almost a decade ago. The appeal comes as the country prepares to hold its first elections since gaining independence

By COLLEEN SLEVIN Associated Press COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — A judge has ruled there is enough evidence for a trial against the person accused of killing five people and wounding over a dozen others at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs last year. The Thursday ruling sends Anderson Lee Aldrich to trial on dozens

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Ukraine’s first lady Olena Zelenska has given a video tour of human rights violations in the country following Russia’s invasion almost a year ago. She told a U.N. meeting Wednesday: “We have the right to live free, not to be killed or tortured.” She showed

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer BANGKOK (AP) — Shares in Asia were mixed Friday after Wall Street broke its longest losing streak since December with a modest rally led by tech stocks. Benchmarks rose in Tokyo and Sydney but fell in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Seoul. Oil prices rose while U.S. futures edged lower.

By NG HAN GUAN Associated Press ALXA LEAGUE, China (AP) — Rescuers with backhoes and bulldozers dug through tons of earth and rubble Thursday for 48 people missing after a landslide buried an open-pit mine in northern China. State broadcaster CCTV reported that the confirmed death toll in the disaster rose to five. Conditions in