Month: April 2023

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — UEFA member federations have been given a historic chance to vote for female candidates against male opposition for the first time in international soccer politics. They elected one of two women. Debbie Hewitt of England was voted in as the FIFA vice president for the four British soccer nations. She beat

By SUZAN FRASER Associated Press ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A Turkish Foreign Ministry official says Turkey has closed its airspace to flights to and from an airport in Kurdish-administered northern Iraq. The spokesman said Wednesday that the airspace was closed Monday to flights taking off from and landing at Suleimaniyah International Airport. He cited an

TOKYO (AP) — The International Tennis Federation will play tournaments this year in China. This takes place despite no known resolution to the case of Chinese doubles player Peng Shuai. Peng disappeared from public view shortly after accusing a former high-ranking Communist Party official — in a web posting in November of 2021 — of

By JINTAMAS SAKSORNCHAI Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — Officials say more than 60 self-exiled members of a Chinese Christian church who were detained in Thailand after receiving U.N. refugee status will be deported by next week, probably to a third country. Deputy national police chief Surachate Hakparn says Thailand’s Foreign Ministry and Immigration Bureau are

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Pres TOKYO (AP) — Japanese police have arrested two men who posted a video on social media showing one eating pickled ginger with his chopsticks directly from a communal container at a famous beef bowl restaurant chain. It follows a series of pranks that have hit sushi chains and became known

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — An opposition politician who ran against authoritarian Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in the controversial 2020 presidential election has pleaded guilty at the start of his trial on charges of public order breaches. Andrey Dzmitryeu, 41, was detained Jan. 11 and charged with “organizing and preparing actions grossly violating public order.” The

By CIARÁN GILES Associated Press MADRID (AP) — A heated debate in Spain triggered by a 68-year-old celebrity who was reported to have used a surrogate mother in Miami to have a baby took a twist Wednesday when the woman announced in socialite magazine ¡Hola! that the baby is actually the daughter of her son

BEIJING (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron says he wants to “engage China toward a shared responsibility for peace” in Ukraine when he meets Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week. French officials say Macron plans to urge Xi in talks Thursday to use Beijing’s influence with Russian President Vladimir Putin but didn’t expect a big

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A fencing World Cup event in Poland has been canceled because the sport’s governing body decided last month to let Russians and Belarusians compete. The Polish Fencing Association says it will not host the Olympic qualifying event for women’s foil from April 21-23 in Poznan. The International Fencing Federation last month

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press ROME (AP) — Former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi was hospitalized Wednesday in intensive care because of a problem related to a previous infection, but was alert and speaking, Italy’s foreign minister said. “He’s stable. He’s a rock,” Berlusconi’s brother Paolo said after visiting him Wednesday afternoon at Milan’s San Raffaele

By PAUL WISEMAN and JOSH BOAK The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is pressing its case for a new approach to global trade. It’s arguing that America’s traditional reliance on promoting free trade pacts failed to anticipate China’s brass-knuckled brand of capitalism and the possibility that a major power like Russia would

By ADIL KHAN Associated Press KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Veterinarians said they performed a critical procedure to save a sick elephant at a zoo in southern Pakistan on Wednesday. Noor Jehan, 17, was brought to Karachi with three other elephants more than a dozen years ago. Videos of her leaning her head against a tree

By COLLEEN LONG and DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will travel to the United Kingdom and Ireland next week in part to help celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday accord. The U.S.-brokered agreement helped end deadly sectarian violence in Northern Ireland. The White House says Biden will first

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A judge has ruled that the Dutch government cannot order Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, one of Europe’s busiest aviation hubs, to reduce the number of flights from 500,000 per year to 460,000. The decision Wednesday deals a blow to efforts to cut emissions and noise pollution

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — A top Bosnian government official and two others have been convicted and given prison sentences over the procurement at highly inflated prices of inadequate medical equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fadil Novalic, the prime minister of one of the country’s two highly autonomous regions, the Bosniak-Croat Federation, was convicted Wednesday of

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) — Federal officials have announced the first $196 million of grants in a $1 billion program to repair and replace aging and sometimes leaking natural gas pipelines across the country. The Transportation Department on Wednesday announced that the city of Las Cruces, New Mexico, will get $10 million as the first

By MEG KINNARD Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Congressman Jim Clyburn is backing a former staffer in her effort to lead South Carolina’s Democrats, as the state prepares to host the party’s opening presidential primary in 2024. Clyburn tells The Associated Press that Christale Spain represents the “steady leadership” the party needs. Spain has

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin says soccer bodies and clubs should do more to tackle racist abuse of players. He says they could push for criminal prosecutions. Ceferin tells the UEFA Congress “maybe it is time to go with harsher measures. Maybe it is time to put some people in court.” UEFA

By RAHIM FAIEZ and EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press ISLAMABAD (AP) — The United Nations says it cannot accept a Taliban decision to bar Afghan female staffers from working at the agency, calling it an “unparalleled” violation of women’s rights. The statement Wednesday comes a day after the U.N. said it had been informed by

BERLIN (AP) — German airline Lufthansa says it has agreed to sell the remainder of its catering business to European private equity group Aurelius for an undisclosed sum. Lufthansa said the sale of the rest of its LSG Group business, which follows the sale of European LSG Sky Chefs activities to Gategroup in 2019, is

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares were trading mostly lower Thursday as investors turned their attention to upcoming earnings reports and other economic indicators. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 shed 1.1% in morning trading to 27,507.65. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.3% to 7,214.90. South Korea’s Kospi fell nearly 0.8% to 2,476.08.

By DANICA KIRKA and BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press LONDON (AP) — British media says the husband of former Scottish first minister and Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon has been released without charges after being arrested in a party finance probe. Police in Scotland didn’t identify Peter Murrell as the 58-year old man arrested Wednesday

BERLIN (AP) — Official figures show that factory orders in Germany surged in February, posting their third successive increase in another promising sign for Europe’s biggest economy. The Economy Ministry said that orders were up 4.8% compared with January, the biggest rise since mid-2021. The figures came on top of data Tuesday that showed exports

By JARI TANNER Associated Press HELSINKI (AP) — Finland’s outgoing prime minister, Sanna Marin, says she will resign as the leader of her Social Democratic Party at the next party congress in the autumn. She said that “now it’s time to get in line again and leave the chairman’s place.” She said she would continue

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish officials and media reports say a Guinea-Bissau-flagged cargo ship with 14 crew members on board has sunk off Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, killing at least three crew members. Five crew were rescued while efforts to find the remaining missing personnel were underway. The Joe 2 sank off the coast of Kumluca,

By NICK PERRY Associated Press WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — In her final speech to New Zealand’s Parliament, Jacinda Ardern describes in emotional terms how she navigated a pandemic and a mass shooting during her tumultuous five-year tenure as prime minister. She’s also urging lawmakers to take the politics out of climate change. A standing

By ERIKA KINETZ Associated Press LONDON (AP) — In October, an officer in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s elite personal security service defected while on a business trip in Kazakhstan. Now a wanted man in Russia, Gleb Karakulov spoke out for the first time in a series of interviews with the Dossier Center, an investigative group

By JAMEY KEATEN and DAVID McHUGH Associated Press GENEVA (AP) — The head of UBS has voiced confidence that the Swiss bank will succeed in a government-engineered takeover of hobbled rival Credit Suisse. Chairman Colm Kelleher pledged Wednesday that the deal will reduce costs, benefit shareholders and buttress Swiss finance despite “huge” risk in knitting

By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA and VANESSA GERA Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy won new pledges of deeper military and economic cooperation on a state visit to Poland on Wednesday as the neighbors sought to forge a tighter relationship in defiance of Russia’s full-scale war against Kyiv that has reshaped international alliances.

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s main opposition party has decided to oppose the government’s model for constitutional recognition of Indigenous people in a development that appears to doom the prospects of a successful referendum this year. A referendum has not succeeded in changing Australia’s Constitution since 1977, and bipartisan support

By KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea this month will begin weekly tests of sewage produced by its major cities and towns to track the spread of COVID-19 and identify future waves. Officials at the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said Wednesday that wastewater surveillance will potentially provide a

By BASSEM MROUE and JOSEF FEDERMAN Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — Suspected Israeli airstrikes in Syria in recent weeks have killed two Iranian military advisers, temporarily put the country’s two largest airports out of service, and raised fears of regional escalation. While Israel has fought a shadow war with Iran in Syria for years, it