Month: August 2023

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international travel, says it served 41.6 million passengers in the first half of this year. That exceeds figures for the same period in 2019 as travelers return to the air after the lockdowns of the coronavirus pandemic.

By KANIS LEUNG Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — A jailed university student who pleaded guilty to inciting secession in Hong Kong has lost his bid to reduce his five-year sentence. Tuesday’s unanimous decision from the top court is expected to set the bar for other cases brought under the national security law Beijing imposed

By JINTAMAS SAKSORNCHAI Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — A divisive former prime minister of Thailand made a dramatic return home Tuesday to face an eight-year prison term, just as a party linked to him won a vote in Parliament to lead the government — the latest turn in the country’s tumultuous politics. The move by

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant will start releasing treated and diluted radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean as early as Thursday — a controversial step that the government says is essential for the decades of work needed to clean up the facility that had reactor meltdowns

By DAVID RISING and SOPHENG CHEANG Associated Press PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — The son of longtime autocratic Cambodian leader Hun Sen has been approved as the country’s new prime minister, part of a change in top positions in the Southeast Asian nation. Hun Manet won his first seat in Parliament in July elections and

AUBURN, Wash. (AP) — A track for live horse racing in suburban Seattle turned prehistoric over the weekend as more than 200 people ran down the track cloaked in inflatable Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaur costumes. The 2023 T-Rex World Championships at Emerald Downs — an event that started in 2017 as a pest control company’s team-building

CEDAR GLEN, Calif. (AP) — Authorities say a 27-year-old man killed by California sheriff’s deputies over the weekend after he fatally shot a store owner had ripped down an LGBTQ+ Pride flag outside the business and shouted homophobic slurs at the woman. The sheriff says when deputies confronted Travis Ikeguchi on foot about a mile

By LISA BAUMANN Associated Press A second person has died in wildfires in eastern Washington state that ignited on Friday, burning hundreds of structures and closing a section of a major interstate for days, fire officials said. A body was found in the area burned by the Oregon fire north of Spokane on Sunday afternoon,

By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer Scientists figure a natural El Nino, human-caused climate change, a stubborn heat dome over the nation’s midsection and other factors cooked up Hilary’s record-breaking slosh into California and Nevada. Cooked up is the key phrase because hot water and hot air were both crucial in growing Hilary quickly and

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Knicks are suing the Toronto Raptors, the Raptors head coach and a former Knicks employee, saying the worker stole thousands of videos and other scouting secrets to give to his new Canadian employer. The lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court on Monday seeks

By MARI YAMAGUCHI and HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Japan says North Korea has told it of a plan to launch a satellite in the coming days in what may be its second attempt to put a military spy satellite into orbit. Japan’s coast guard issued safety warnings for vessels in maritime zones

By The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The generic drug maker Teva Pharmaceuticals agreed Monday to pay $225 million to settle price-fixing charges related to sales of a widely used cholesterol-lowering drug. The U.S. Department of Justice said the agreement also requires Teva to divest its business making and selling the drug, pravastatin, a generic

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — Environmental groups have filed a lawsuit in Virginia to try to keep the state in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. The Southern Environmental Law Center filed the long-promised lawsuit in Fairfax County Circuit Court on Monday. The initiative is an effort by mid-Atlantic and Northeast states to reduce power plants’ carbon

By ROB GILLIES Associated Press TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday thanked Canadians for their support in his first public remarks about his family since he and his wife, Sophie, announced they are separating after 18 years of marriage. The two announced the decision in statements posted on Instagram early this

By VALERIE GONZALEZ and PAUL J. WEBER Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas has moved a floating barrier on the U.S.-Mexico border closer to American soil. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said Monday that the barrier was moved “out of an abundance of caution” following what he described as allegations that they had drifted to

OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco’s Roman Catholic archdiocese has filed for bankruptcy, saying the filing is necessary to manage more than 500 lawsuits alleging child sexual abuse by church officials. Church officials said Monday that the Chapter 11 protection filing will stop all legal actions against the archdiocese and allow it

By LAURAN NEERGAARD AP Medical Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. regulators on Monday approved the first RSV vaccine for pregnant women so their babies will be born with protection against the scary respiratory infection. RSV is notorious for filling hospitals with wheezing babies every fall and winter. The Food and Drug Administration cleared Pfizer’s maternal

By KIM CHANDLER Associated Press MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A federal appeals court ruled Monday that Alabama can enforce a ban outlawing the use of puberty blockers and hormones to treat transgender children, the second such appellate victory for gender-affirming care restrictions that have been adopted by a growing number of Republican-led states. A three-judge

DAMASCUS, SYRIA (AP) — Syria’s state media say Israel’s military has carried out airstrikes near the capital of Damascus wounding one soldier. State TV quoted an unnamed military official as saying that the Monday night strikes caused material damage as well. Israeli Strikes conducted Aug. 7 on suburbs of Damascus reportedly killed four soldiers. Israel

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and JILL COLVIN Associated Press Former President Donald Trump says he will surrender to authorities in Georgia on Thursday to face charges in the case accusing him of illegally scheming to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state. “Can you believe it? I’ll be going to Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday

By BRUCE SCHREINER Associated Press FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — While Republican Daniel Cameron has downplayed his support for charter schools and vouchers in his education plans, school choice advocates have pumped millions into ads attacking his opponent, Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear. School choice remains a simmering issue in Kentucky’s legislature. Democrats say the ads by

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council says unauthorized construction by Turkish Cypriots inside the U.N. buffer zone dividing Cyrus is a violation of the status quo and runs contrary to council resolutions. And the council has condemned an assault by Turkish Cypriots on U.N. peacekeepers. The council statement was issued after emergency closed

By KIMBERLEE KRUESI and JONATHAN MATTISE Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee lawmakers gaveled in for a special session stemming from a shooting at a Nashville elementary school that left six dead, including three young children. Hundreds of community organizers, families, protesters and many more have spent months asking lawmakers to consider passing gun

By MICHAEL TARM AP Legal Affairs Writer CHICAGO (AP) — Federal agents have arrested a 41-year-old Chicago-area woman on a complaint accusing her of sending emails threatening to shoot former President Donald Trump and his son Barron. The U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago says Tracy Marie Fiorenza was arrested Monday morning on a charge of

By EMMA BURROWS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The head of Russia’s space agency says the Luna-25 spacecraft crashed into the moon after its engines failed to shut down correctly. He blamed the country’s decades-long pause in lunar exploration for the mishap. The pilotless Luna-25 had been scheduled to land Monday while aiming to become

By KEVIN FREKING Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — House conservatives in a group known as the Freedom Caucus have unveiled a list of demands that they want included in a stopgap spending measure to keep the federal government running after the end of September. It’s a smorgasbord of non-starters for the Democratic-controlled Senate and the

By GERALD IMRAY Associated Press JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Vladimir Putin will be the odd one out when leaders from the BRICS economic bloc of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa meet in Johannesburg this week. While all the others are set to attend the meetings in person, Putin will dial in on a video

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Cyprus police have rescued 18 Syrian migrants after their boat started taking on water some 3.5 miles off the Mediterranean island nation’s southeastern coast. Police said Monday the 11 men, three unescorted minors one woman and her three children had set sail from Tartus, Syria and were brought ashore aboard a