Month: March 2023

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE and CHRIS MEGERIAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will host the second state visit of his administration next month, honoring South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol. The visit, which includes a fancy state dinner, will celebrate the 70th anniversary of the alliance between the United States and South Korea.

By DEE-ANN DURBIN AP Business Writer Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are getting the vegan treatment. The Hershey Co. said Tuesday that Reese’s Plant Based Peanut Butter Cups, which go on sale this month, will be its first vegan chocolates sold nationally. A second plant-based offering, Hershey’s Plant Based Extra Creamy with Almonds and Sea Salt,

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Taylor Swift will receive the 2023 iHeartRadio Innovator Award at the iHeartRadio Music Awards later this month, which will feature performances by Kelly Clarkson, Keith Urban, Pat Benatar, Muni Long, Cody Johnson, Coldplay and Pink, who is this year’s Icon Award recipient. The Innovator Award

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — An explosion in a seven-story commercial building in Bangladesh’s capital on Tuesday killed at least 14 people and injured dozens, officials said. The explosion occurred in Gulistan, a busy commercial area of Dhaka, fire department official Rashed bin Khaled said by phone. The building contained several stores selling plumbing products and

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis has renewed his cabinet of cardinal advisers from around the world. He named a handful of new members Tuesday and reconfirmed others to help him run the Catholic Church. Francis instituted the Council of Cardinals one month into his papacy, on April 13, 2013, with a primary goal of advising

By REGINA GARCIA CANO Associated Press CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Hugo Chávez told Venezuelans to choose Nicolás Maduro as his successor during his last televised message before dying of cancer. Chávez promised them that the leftist policies that oversaw a reduction in poverty would continue under Maduro. But that remains an unfulfilled promise ten

By LORNE COOK Associated Press The European Commission says it’s tightening rules that allow foreign governments or organizations to pay travel expenses for its staff. Tuesday’s announcement came a day after the European Union’s executive branch conceded that a top official had accepted free flights and accommodation in Qatar without independent oversight. Spokeswoman Dana Spinant

LONDON (AP) — Archaeologists have uncovered what they believe to be a Roman shrine beneath a former graveyard in the grounds of a cathedral in central England. Experts from the University of Leicester said Tuesday that they found what appears to be the cellar of a Roman building and a fragment of a 1,800-year-old altar

ROME (AP) — Two Italian air force planes collided in mid-air and crashed to the ground, killing both pilots. Italy’s air foce said in a statement on Tuesday that the pilots were flying in an exercise when their light aircraft collided. The two U-208 aircraft crashed to the ground near the Guidonia military airport, located

By JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press GENEVA (AP) — The new U.N. human rights chief says his office has opened “channels of communication” to help follow up on concerns about the rights of minorities in China, including Uyghur Muslims and Tibetans. Volker Türk did not detail how his office plans to follow up on a critical

By JAVIER CÓRDOBA and CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN Associated Press SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) — Costa Rica went from having one of the world’s highest deforestation rates in the 1980s to a nation centered on ecotourism. The Central American country now lures world travelers with the promise that they can move between marine reserves and cloud

By DASHA LITVINOVA Associated Press TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A court in Moscow sentenced a student activist to 8 1/2 years in prison for social media posts criticizing Russia’s war in Ukraine, the latest step in a sweeping crackdown on dissent unleashed by the Kremlin. Dmitry Ivanov, 23, was convicted of spreading false information about

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranian teachers have held protests in several cities over suspected poisonings targeting hundreds of schoolgirls. Activists say security forces broke up several of the demonstrations on Tuesday. Meanwhile, an activist group say at least 290 suspected school poisonings have happened over recent months, with

By MELISSA LAMBARENA of NerdWallet As the Federal Reserve continues to increase interest rates, borrowers may find that they’re paying more for their debts or perhaps missing out on opportunities to boost their savings with better rates. As not-for-profit cooperatives, credit unions can save their members a lot of money by offering lower rates on

By CHRIS MEGERIAN and JOSH BOAK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday proposed new taxes on the rich to help fund Medicare, saying the plan would help to extend the insurance program’s solvency by 25 years and provide a degree of middle-class stability to millions of older adults. In his plan,

By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A television news report claims that St. John Paul II knew about sexual abuse of children by priests under his authority when he was an archbishop in his native Poland. In a story that aired late Monday, Polish channel TVN24 named three priests whom the future

By JAN M. OLSEN Associated Press COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A parliamentary delegation from Hungary says it supports Sweden’s NATO membership bid after meeting the speaker of the Swedish parliament to iron out what Hungary’s governing party has called “political disputes.” Some Hungarian lawmakers have raised doubts about whether to support the NATO membership applications

By NICOLE WINFIELD and DEREK GATOPOULOS Associated Press ROME (AP) — The Vatican and Greece finalized a deal Tuesday for the return of three sculpture fragments from the Parthenon that have been in the collection of the Vatican Museums for two centuries, the latest case of a Western museum bowing to demands for restitution. The

By MAJDI MOHAMMED and ISABEL DeBRE Associated Press JENIN, West Bank (AP) — Palestinian health officials say at least six Palestinians were killed and two dozen others were wounded in an Israeli army raid in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. The military said one of those killed was the suspected assailant

By EVELYNE MUSAMBI Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A new United Nations report says acute malnutrition among pregnant and breastfeeding mothers has increased by 25% in the past two years in 12 countries hard hit by rising food prices fueled by the fighting in Ukraine. Surveys in 11 countries in Africa and two in

By KANIS LEUNG Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong police say a woman accused of assisting a suspect in the gruesome killing and dismemberment of model Abby Choi in Hong Kong has been arrested by mainland authorities. The arrest of the 29-year-old woman brings the total number of people allegedly involved in the

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The U.K. government says it’s ready for human-rights legal challenges to a tough new law intended to stop tens of thousands of migrants a year reaching the country in small boats across the English Channel. Home Secretary Suella Braverman said Tuesday the government had “pushed the boundaries