Month: March 2023

China has expanded its defense budget by 7.2%, up slightly from last year’s 7.1% rate of increase. That marks the eighth consecutive year of single-digit percentage increases in what is now is now the world’s second-largest military budget. The 2023 figure was given as 1.55 trillion yuan ($224 billion). Along with the world’s biggest standing

The Associated Press Prosecutors and attorneys for FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried are requesting the disgraced cryptocurrency entrepreneur be allowed a flip-phone or another device that’s not a smartphone while on bail. The proposal was submitted Friday to the judge overseeing the case. Prosecutors alleged last month that Bankman-Fried used electronic devices in ways that can’t

By CARLA BRIDI Associated Press BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro says he did nothing illegal following reports that he tried to bring jewelry worth more than $3 million into the country in 2021 without declaring it to authorities. The jewelry had been given as a gift to Bolosonaro by the Saudi

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A 76-year-old woman accused of fatally shooting her terminally ill husband in a Florida hospital was released from jail. Jail records show Ellen Gilland was released on $150,000 bond Friday night. She was initially charged with first-degree murder in January after police say she shot her 77-year-old husband, Jerry Gilland,

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City police are continuing their search for a suspect wearing a full-body protective suit who shot and killed a convenience store worker in the city’s Upper East Side. Authorities are also investigating whether the same suspect was involved in another shooting overnight. The assailant escaped on a scooter. No

By DEMETRIS NELLAS and COSTAS KANTOURIS Associated Press ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The station master involved in Greece’s deadliest train crash postponed his deposition and is now set to appear before a prosecutor and an examining magistrate on Sunday. His lawyer said the request to push back the court appearance originally scheduled for Saturday was

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Tens of thousands of Israelis are protesting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s contentious plan to overhaul the legal system in the country, as the government pressed on with the proposed changes despite the mass opposition. The central city of Tel Aviv saw the largest turnout in this week’s protests Saturday, with

By SOPHIE AUSTIN Associated Press/Report for America SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s reparations task force still has not made key decisions about what reparations may look like or how much Black Californians may be paid. But time is running out. The group has a July 1 deadline to issue a report to lawmakers with recommendations.

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (AP) — Detectives say a fight involving three students at a Northern California high school began with an argument outside art class and culminated in a fatal stabbing. Santa Rosa police said in a statement Saturday that two groups of students were arguing Wednesday outside art class at Montgomery High School in

FREDERICK, Md. (AP) — A tanker truck hauling a flammable liquid crashed on a Maryland highway Saturday and caught fire, killing the driver and damaging several homes and vehicles, authorities said. The truck crashed around noon on U.S. 15 in Frederick, about an hour’s drive west of Baltimore. Photos showed massive flames and billowing smoke.

By AAMER MADHANI and FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — The Biden administration is close to tightening rules on some overseas investments by U.S. companies in an effort to limit China’s ability to acquire technologies that could improve its military prowess, according to a U.S. official familiar with the deliberations. The soon-to-be-issued executive

By WILL WEISSERT Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Self-help author Marianne Williamson, whose 2020 White House campaign featured more quirky calls for spiritual healing than actual voter support, launched another longshot bid for the presidency on Saturday, becoming the first Democrat to formally challenge President Joe Biden for the 2024 nomination. “We are upset about

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Two supporters of President Donald Trump arrested after driving a Hummer with guns and ammunition to a Philadelphia vote-counting site in November 2020 have been spared additional jail time. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that 44-year-old Joshua Macias and 63-year-old Antonio Lamotta were sentenced Wednesday to 11½ to 23 months but placed on

By AMY TAXIN Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — When his 17-year-old son and friend headed off for a 10-day trek in the Southern California mountains, Cesar Ramirez said he wasn’t too worried. The teens were avid hikers with ample foods in their backpacks, a tent and snowshoes, plus extensive training and aspirations to join

By BRUCE SCHREINER, DAVID SHARP and COREY WILLIAMS Associated Press Cleanup began in battered parts of the South and Midwest after a sprawling storm system produced ferocious winds and heavy snow that caused widespread damage and multiple deaths before racing through the Northeast on Saturday. More than a foot of snow fell in parts of

By BOUAZZA BEN BOUAZZA Associated Press TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Thousands of people have marched through Tunisia’s capital to decry an expanding crackdown on opposition voices and a proposed lifting of food subsidies. The march on Saturday was the latest challenge to Tunisian President Kais Saied. Since taking office in October 2019, Saied has consolidated

By DANICA KIRKA Associated Press LONDON (AP) — A group of European countries expressed “grave concern” Saturday that recent violence in the West Bank could derail efforts to rekindle peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians as they called on both sides to restore calm. The United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain issued the unusual

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — A mistrial was declared after a jury in southern Arizona was unable to reach a verdict on a murder charge against a man accused of killing a 6-year-old girl. The Arizona Daily Star reports a judge declared the mistrial Friday in the case against Christopher M. Clements, who was charged with

By ELENA BECATOROS Associated Press BUCHA, Ukraine (AP) — Clutching flowers and wiping away tears, relatives, neighbors and friends of eight men executed by Russian forces during the occupation of the Ukrainian town of Bucha gathered Saturday to mark the first anniversary of the deaths. The eight had set up a roadblock in an attempt

By DÁNICA COTO Associated Press SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Paul Pierrilus was deported two years ago from the U.S. to Haiti where he has been trying to survive in a chaotic and violent country where he wasn’t born and had never lived. Both his parents are Haitian but they emigrated to the French

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio police officer who shot and killed a Black man as he lay in bed in his home last summer is no longer on the force. Columbus police said Friday evening that the officer had retired as of that day and “retired in bad standing due to the ongoing criminal

By FAZAL TAWAB Associated Press QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — The sister and a friend of a Pakistani national soccer team player who died in a migrant boat crash off Italy’s coast says she took the voyage to find help for her disabled son. Local hospitals had told her that overseas treatment could be her only

By COREY WILLIAMS Associated Press PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan judge has ruled that staff and administrators at Oxford High School cannot be sued for a mass shooting that left four students dead and seven others wounded. Oakland County Circuit Judge Mary Ellen Brennan also dismissed Oxford Community Schools from civil lawsuits related to

PARIS (AP) — French authorities say a bus carrying 40 elementary school students home from a trip to the French Alps plunged down a wooded slope into a creek Saturday. The mayor of Corps, where the incident happened, says the driver and his partner were hospitalized with serious injuries, and 19 others were treated for

By MARK THIESSEN Associated Press ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The Iditarod dog sled race started Saturday with a fan-friendly ceremonial run through the streets of Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city. The real race starts Sunday in Willow, about 70 miles north of Anchorage. Brent Sass is the defending champion and the odds-on favorite to win this

By JEAN-YVES KAMALE Associated Press KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Congo’s leader is urging French President Emmanuel Macron to back sanctions against Rwanda. But the French leader said Saturday during a stop in the Congolese capital that he’s awaiting the outcome of peace negotiation efforts before considering such a step. Congo accuses neighboring Rwanda of backing

WINDSOR LOCKS, Conn. (AP) — A business jet was buffeted by severe turbulence over New England, causing a rare passenger death and forcing the aircraft to divert to Bradley International Airport in Connecticut, officials said Saturday. Five people were aboard the Bombardier executive jet that was shaken by turbulence late Friday afternoon while traveling from

By KEVIN SCHEMBRI ORLAND Associated Press VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — Less than a week after a deadly migrant shipwreck off Italy, five European Union countries on the Mediterranean Sea are pushing back against their northern neighbors for not accepting asylum-seekers under a voluntary relocation scheme. The ministers responsible for migration policy in Cyprus, Greece, Italy,