Month: March 2023

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Prince Joachim of Denmark is moving to the United States to take up the post of defense industry attache at the Danish embassy in Washington starting  September. The Danish defense ministry made the announcement Friday. The 53-year-old prince said in a statement that he’s proud for the opportunity to represent Denmark

By SOPHENG CHEANG Associated Press PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Centuries-old cultural artifacts that had been illegally smuggled out from Cambodia were welcomed home Friday at a celebration led by Prime Minister Hun Sen, who offered thanks for their return and appealed for further efforts to retrieve such stolen treasures. Many, if not all, of

By FLORENT BAJRAMI and LLAZAR SEMINI Associated Press PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — A United States envoy has urged Serbia and Kosovo to implement a European Union-facilitated agreement on normalizing their relations, calling it the best option to preserve peace and security in the region. Gabriel Escobar visited Pristina Friday ahead of a summit meeting between

JERUSALEM (AP) — Hundreds of elite officers in Israel’s military reserves say they will not show up for duty starting on Sunday in protest over the ruling coalition’s planned overhaul of the judicial system. The firm date is the first time set for an unprecedented political protest within the security services. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The government’s response to the failure of two large banks has already involved hundreds of billions of dollars. So will ordinary Americans end up paying for it, one way or another? And what will the price tag be? It could be months before the answers are fully

By GERALD HERBERT and KEVIN McGILL Associated Press ATCHAFALAYA NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, La. (AP) — Officials with the Biden administration have visited a Louisiana wildlife refuge touting plans to clean up and plug “orphan wells.” Around 2 million abandoned oil and gas wells across the U.S. pose pollution threats. But their operators are bankrupt, can’t

By KAREL JANICEK Associated Press PRAGUE (AP) — Slovakia’s government on Friday approved a plan to give Ukraine its fleet of 13 Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets, becoming the second NATO member country to heed the Ukrainian government’s pleas for warplanes to help defend against Russia’s invasion. Prime Minister Eduard Heger said during a news conference

By SYLVIE CORBET and BARBARA SURK Associated Press PARIS (AP) — Angry protesters took to the streets in Paris and other cities for a second day on Friday, trying to pressure lawmakers to bring down French President Emmanuel Macron’s government and doom the unpopular retirement age increase he’s trying to impose without a vote in

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Mourners have attended the funeral of a Pakistani female field hockey player who died in a migrant boat crash off Italy’s coast last month. Shahida Raza was buried Friday at a graveyard in Quetta, the capital of southwestern Baluchistan province. The latest development comes a day after her body was repatriated

By TOM GOULD Associated Press MAPUTO, Mozambique (AP) — Mozambicans are planning marches across the country to honor Azagaia, a popular protest rapper and fierce government critic, who died last week. Memorial marches are to be held in every major city on Saturday for the musician who died after an epileptic seizure at the age

By PREDRAG MILIC Associated Press PODGORICA, Montenegro (AP) — Montenegro is holding a presidential election this weekend that is seen as a test of whether the country will push forward toward European Union integration or move closer to neighboring Serbia and Russia. The vote takes place on Sunday amid a political crisis that has stalled

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida says hats off to South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol for “making a difficult decision and action” by overcoming the troubled history between the two countries, pledging to work with him toward better future relations. Yoon has urged closer cooperation with

By STAN CHOE AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street’s week of turmoil closed with drops for stocks. The S&P 500 fell 1.1% Friday, led by drops in First Republic and other banks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq composite also pulled back. This week has been a whipsaw for global markets

By MICHAEL CASEY and DAVID KOENIG Associated Press LEOMINSTER, Mass. (AP) — The music was blaring on a February afternoon when Francisco Torres stopped by a Massachusetts barbershop, proclaiming he was half-angel, half-devil. He wanted a dozen people to come outside the shop and shoot him with an automatic weapon stored in his car trunk.

By NICK PERRY Associated Press WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand lawmakers and other workers inside the nation’s Parliament will be banned from having the TikTok app on their government phones. The ban announced Friday follows similar moves in many other countries. However, New Zealand’s ban will apply only to about 500 people in

By LISA MASCARO AP Congressional Correspondent WASHINGTON (AP) — Besieged Republican Rep. George Santos arrives on the House floor most days to deliver short speeches — celebrating women-owned small businesses, a special high school in his district or raising concern about various countries in crises. At other times he can be seen dashing through the

By AUDREY McAVOY Associated Press HONOLULU (AP) — Honolulu prosecutors have filed charges against four police officers alleging a cover-up in connection with a high-speed car chase that they say resulted in a crash and a traumatic brain injury to the driver of another car. Prosecutors alleged in court documents filed Thursday that Officer Joshua

By KANIS LEUNG Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s most popular boy band Mirror, a major driving force behind the revival of the local pop music scene, launched its first English song on Friday, hoping to bring the city’s tunes to music lovers globally. The 12-member group is part of a new wave

BEIJING (AP) — China’s foreign minister has told his Ukrainian counterpart that Beijing is concerned about the grinding conflict there spinning out of control and has urged talks on a political solution. Qin Gang made his remarks in a rare phone conversation to Dmytro Kuleba on Thursday. China has a declared “no-limits” friendship with Russia

By JOHN DANISZEWSKI Associated Press BAGHDAD (AP) — Along the Tigris River, young Iraqi men and women in jeans and sneakers danced with joyous abandon on a recent evening to a local rapper as the sun set behind them. It’s a world away from the terror that followed the U.S. invasion 20 years ago. Iraq’s

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia said it’s planning to buy up to 220 Tomahawk cruise missiles from the United States after the U.S. State Department approved the sale Friday. The deal comes days after Australia announced it would buy nuclear-powered attack submarines from the U.S. to modernize its fleet amid growing concern about China’s influence

By JOHN DANISZEWSKI Associated Press BAGHDAD (AP) — It’s been 20 years since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq began March 20, 2003. President George W. Bush framed it as a mission to free the Iraqi people, end Saddam Hussein’s support for terrorism and root out weapons of mass destruction. Two years later, the CIA’s chief

By JENNIFER McDERMOTT and JOEAL CALUPITAN Associated Press MALABON, Philippines (AP) — Marilene Capentes pushes a cart along the streets of Malabon city just north of Manila every morning except Sundays, collecting bags of segregated garbage. She places the food waste in a designated container so it can be turned to compost at the local

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon will temporarily suspend rebates for buying or leasing an electric vehicle for a year starting in May because too many people are applying and the program is running out of money, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported Thursday. A growing number of Oregonians are buying or leasing electric vehicles, with over 60,600 registered

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — An inmate who organized a daring, elaborate Southern California jailbreak in 2016 was found guilty Thursday of the escape but acquitted of kidnapping a taxi driver while on the run, authorities said. Jurors in Orange County Superior Court also convicted Hossein Nayeri, 44, of Newport Beach of stealing a van

BY KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Friday it fired an intercontinental ballistic missile to “strike fear into the enemies” as South Korea and Japan agreed at a summit to work closely on regional security with the United States and staged military exercises around the region. The missile, launched

By MICHAEL GOLDBERG Associated Press/Report for America JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The former director of a Mississippi nonprofit organization has pleaded guilty in federal court to stealing government funds intended to help needy families in one of the poorest states in the U.S. Christi Webb appeared Thursday before U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves in Jackson.

SAN SALVADOR El Salvador’s congress has voted to approve yet another extension of emergency rules allowing police to round up suspected members of street gangs. The vote late Wednesday was widely expected, and marks the 12th such one-month extension granted to President Nayib Bukele since the measure was first approved on March 27, 2022. The

By BRIAN WITTE Associated Press ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Maryland Gov. Wes Moore says he’s aiming for “the most full assault on child poverty” to ever happen in Maryland during his first legislative session. Moore touched on a wide variety of topics in an exclusive interview Thursday with The Associated Press. Moore is Maryland’s first