Month: February 2023

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Widespread tensions caused by a rift within Ethiopia’s Orthodox Christian church have resulted in the suspension of access to social media platforms including TikTok, Facebook and Telegram. The church, which recently rejected a splinter group in the country’s largest region as “illegal,” has accused Ethiopia’s government of interference in its affairs.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A driver has been arrested after an SUV crashed through a fence at the Texas State Capitol, authorities said. Troopers saw the vehicle drive through the southwestern portion of the fence about 6:40 p.m. Thursday in Austin, according to a statement from Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Victor Taylor. The

BERLIN (AP) — A state-owned Dutch company that is Germany’s biggest electricity grid operator says it plans to hold talks on selling its entire German business to the government in Berlin. Germany welcomed the announcement Friday. TenneT, which is one of four transmission network operators in Germany, pointed to the need to find a “structural

By ISABEL DEBRE Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli police say a suspected assailant rammed his car into several pedestrians in east Jerusalem, killing two people, including a six-year-old, and injuring five others before being shot and killed. It’s the latest incident as violence rises in the contested capital. Friday’s alleged car-ramming attack took place

BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgium’s federal prosecutor’s office says an EU lawmaker linked to a corruption scandal that rocked the bloc’s Parliament in December has been detained for questioning as police conduct further raids. The office said Friday police searched a banking safe in the city of Liege belonging to Belgian lawmaker Marc Tarabella. The European

By MAE ANDERSON AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Super Bowl ads are more than just breaks between gameplay during the biggest sporting event of the year: They offer a glimpse of the country’s zeitgeist, along with how major industries are faring. This year, crypto ads and automakers are advertising less since those industries

By FU TING, GRACE EKPU and HELEN WIEFFERING Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — As Indonesia’s fisheries minister, Edhy Prabowo was tasked with protecting one of his country’s most precious resources: baby lobsters so tiny one can fit on the tip of a finger. The waters off the nation’s many islands and archipelagos had once teemed

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani authorities say a roadside bomb has exploded near a vehicle carrying security forces in the country’s volatile southwest, killing two soldiers and wounding three. Friday’s attack happened in the Kohlu district in Baluchistan province. A local police official said the casualties had been moved to a local hospital. Hours later,

BERLIN (AP) — Officials say a bus traveling from Poland to Belgium has come off a highway in eastern Germany and overturned, injuring 35 people, six of them seriously. The accident happened on the A2 highway near Magdeburg, west of Berlin, in the early hours of Friday morning. Police said there were 54 people on

By STEPHEN McGRATH Associated Press BRASOV, Romania (AP) — University student Vlada Yushchenko was still in her teens and nearly three months pregnant when she hugged her husband at the border, turned away and walked into Moldova. Now she’s in Romania, one of the millions of Ukrainians forced to flee Russia’s invasion. Her baby, Daniel,

ZEYNEP BILGINSOY and SUZAN FRASER Associated Press ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey has for years tempted fate by not enforcing modern construction codes while allowing — and in some cases, encouraging — a real estate boom in earthquake-prone areas, experts say. The lax enforcement, which experts in geology and engineering have long warned about, is gaining

BEIJING (AP) — Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has received pledges of economic and political support during a meeting in Beijing with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The meeting Friday comes in the middle of Hun Sen’s three-day visit. Cambodia is a key Chinese diplomatic partner, helping dampen criticism of Beijing within the 10-member Association of

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Honda is reporting a 27% jump in its October-December profit, despite headwinds like shortages of computer chips and rising costs of raw materials. Tokyo-based Honda’s profit in the last quarter totaled 244.6 billion yen, or $1.9 billion. Quarterly sales rose 20% as Honda sold more motorcycles

By DANICA KIRKA Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The British economy has stagnated in the final three months of last year amid cost-of-living crisis that’s squeezing household budgets, crimping business investment and fueling labor unrest. The Office for National Statistics said Friday that gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic activity, failed to grow

By MUNIR AHMED Associated Press ISLAMABAD (AP) — The International Monetary Fund has delayed a $6 billion bailout for cash-strapped Pakistan. Authorities said Friday that progress had been made during talks this week about Pakistan’s compliance with the terms of a 2019 IMF bailout. IMF’s key tranche of $1.1 billion has been on hold since

By JUSTIN SPIKE, GHAITH ALSAYED and ZEYNEP BILGINSOY Associated Press ISKENDERUN, Turkey (AP) — More than a dozen additional earthquake survivors have been pulled from the rubble alive in Turkey. They include six relatives who huddled in a small air pocket and a desperate teenager who grew so thirsty that he drank his own urine.

By MICHAEL R. SISAK Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — After a challenging first year in office, Manhattan’s district attorney is back in the spotlight with a reinvigorated investigation of former President Donald Trump. Democrat Alvin Bragg convened a new grand jury last week that is examining Trump’s financial dealings and hush money payments made

By KEVIN McGILL Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A venerable fine-dining fixture on Bourbon Street helped kick off the final frantic days of New Orleans Mardi Gras season Friday — relaxing its jackets-required dress code and briefly ditching its no-pets policy for a pair of crown- and cape-wearing rescue dogs. The tennis-ball-loving silver Labrador

By SUSIE BLANN Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia used strategic bombers, cruise missiles and killer drones in a wave of attacks across Ukraine early Friday, while Moscow’s military push that Kyiv says has been brewing for days appeared to pick up pace in eastern areas ahead of the one-year anniversary of its invasion.

By AHMED AL-HAJ and JON GAMBRELL Associated Press SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Onlookers gathered around a small, four-door car coated in dried mud, peering through its shattered windows and torn-away roof at three dead men inside. Tribal leaders identified the three — killed in late January near Yemen’s central city of Marib — as suspected

By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER Associated Press HONOLULU (AP) — An autopsy report shows that a former rugby player from South Africa who was shot and killed by Honolulu police suffered from a severe form of a brain disease. Commonly known as CTE, the degenerative disease is often found in American football players and other athletes

By DAKE KANG and HUIZHONG WU Associated Press BEIJING (AP) — China has dismissed a U.S. House of Representatives resolution condemning Beijing over a suspected Chinese spy balloon shot down above U.S. waters as “purely political manipulation and hyping up.” A Foreign Ministry spokesperson says China is “strongly dissatisfied with this and firmly opposes it.”