Month: March 2023

ROME (AP) — Tourists in Rome checking out the Pantheon, Italy’s most-visited cultural site, will soon be charged a 5-euro ($5.28) entrance fee under an agreement signed Thursday by Italian culture and church officials. Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano said the move was a matter of “good sense.” The introduction of an entrance fee comes five

By ROB GILLIES Associated Press TORONTO (AP) — Canadian officials say a 16-year-old wounded his mother with a firearm and killed two police officers before taking his own life in western Canada.  A police official and a senior government official say the male suspect shot and wounded his mother early Thursday in Edmonton, Alberta. Police

By MARTINA REBECCA INCHINGOLO Associated Press LONDON (AP) — For Adam Brody, donning the padded superhero suit in “Shazam!” and its sequel is a dream come true. “I always wanted to play a superhero. I grew up reading comics,” the actor recalled in a recent interview. “I wanted to just be in something of that

By KRYSTA FAURIA Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — Willem Dafoe has said that, for him, the process of making a movie always eclipses the finished product. But after more than 130 film credits, the 67-year-old actor has finally found a project whose final form is on par with the experience of creating it. “Inside”

By AMY TAXIN Associated Press As river water gushed through a broken levee, thousands of people in a California farming town were forced to evacuate as their homes were flooded and businesses destroyed. Yet another potential casualty of the powerful rainstorms that drenched coastal California: hundreds of acres of fresh strawberries slated for America’s supermarket

By BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Unions representing hundreds of thousands of nurses, ambulance crews and other health care workers in England reached a deal Thursday to resolve months of disruptive strikes for higher wages, though the pact didn’t include doctors. The announcement came as early-career physicians spent a third day on picket

By The Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s bazaars are packed ahead of the Persian New Year next week. But there’s little holiday cheer as customers survey the soaring prices of meat and holiday treats, wondering if they can afford either. Others are there to sell goods on the sidewalks, forced into

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press A former top editor of an Orthodox Jewish newspaper in New York City has been arrested on charges that he interfered with police officers who were trying to protect the U.S. Capitol from a mob of Donald Trump supporters on Jan. 6. The FBI says 39-year-old Elliot Resnick was chief

By MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is taking the first steps toward repealing two measures that give open-ended approval for military action in Iraq. The push to end that authority comes as the United States marks the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War. Senators plan a procedural vote Thursday on

By MATT OTT AP Business Writer The average long-term U.S. mortgage inched back down this week after five straight weeks of increases, good news for homebuyers as the housing market’s all-important spring buying season gets underway. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported Thursday that the average on the benchmark 30-year rate slid back to 6.60% from

By SARAH RANKIN Associated Press DINWIDDIE, Va. (AP) — Attorneys for the family of a Black Virginia man who died in law enforcement custody say video of the incident shows seven sheriff’s deputies pushing down “every part of his body” with “absolute brutality.” Mark Krudys, one of the lawyers for the family of Irvo Otieno,

ANKARA Rescue teams have retrieved two more bodies after floods struck two Turkish provinces that were already devastated by last month’s powerful earthquake. This raises the death toll in the new disaster to 16. Flash floods caused by torrential rains turned streets in the provinces of Adiyaman and Sanlifurfa into rivers on Wednesday, sweeping away

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The late Stephen Sondheim’s last stage musical — an adaptation of two films by Spanish surrealist director Luis Buñuel — will be given an off-Broadway stage this year, offering theatergoers a chance to see a new work by musical theater’s most venerated composer. “Here We

HOMESTEAD, Florida (AP) — A member of the U.S. Army Parachute Team has died after sustaining injuries during a training jump at Homestead Air Reserve Base in Homestead, Florida. Sgt. 1st Class Michael Ty Kettenhofen died Monday, the Army said in a news release. He joined the Golden Knights parachute team in 2020 and had

By DASHA LITVINOVA Associated Press TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A court in Russia has affirmed the right of a man mobilized to fight in Ukraine to instead do alternative civil service, setting a precedent that could empower more reluctant draftees to try and get out of military service. The Leningrad Regional Court upheld a ruling

By MANUEL RUEDA Associated Press BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Rescue operations at a coal mine in central Colombia that collapsed earlier this week have ended and officials say the accident had left 21 workers dead. The mine near the town of Sutatausa collapsed late Tuesday following an explosion that blocked several of its entrances. Rescue

By BABACAR DIONE Associated Press DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Authorities have forcibly removed Senegal’s opposition leader Ousmane Sonko from his car as he made his way to a court appearance. Police also blocked his supporters from accompanying him, sparking unrest in several parts of the capital, Dakar. Authorities fired tear gas Thursday to disperse protesters.

SINGAPORE (AP) — United States Indo-Pacific Command chief Adm. John Aquilino says that Washington does not seek to contain China, nor seek conflicts in the region, but it would take action to support the region against coercion and bullying by authoritarian regimes. Speaking Thursday at a lecture in Singapore, Aquilino said the era of globalization

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The attempted theft of a helicopter ended in wreckage on Wednesday when it crashed at Sacramento Executive Airport, authorities said. Between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m., someone tried to start four helicopters that were sitting at the airport and managed to operate one, Sacramento police said. The Bell 429 helicopter wound

By DAVID McHUGH AP Business Writer FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The European Central Bank has carried through with a large interest rate increase, brushing aside predictions it might dial back as U.S. bank collapses and troubles at Credit Suisse feed fears about the impact of higher rates on the global banking system. The ECB hiked

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s president said Thursday that his country plans to give Ukraine around a dozen MiG-29 fighter jets, which would make it the first NATO member to fulfill the Ukrainian government’s increasingly urgent requests for warplanes. President Andrzej Duda said Poland would hand over four of the Soviet-made warplanes “within the next