Month: October 2023

BOSTON (AP) — A man has been charged with raping a woman who thought he was the driver she requested after leaving a Boston nightclub. Police say the woman left the nightclub early Saturday and got into the car, believing it to be an Uber she had requested for the ride home. But after she

By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer A study says Atlantic hurricanes are now more than twice as likely as before to rapidly intensify from wimpy minor hurricanes to powerful and catastrophic in just 24 hours. Thursday’s study says it’s because of warmer ocean water that acts as fuel. The study says in the last 20

By TODD RICHMOND Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A man accused of bringing guns to the Wisconsin state Capitol building is free on a signature bond but can’t come near the governor. Joshua Pleasnick made his initial court appearance Thursday on a misdemeanor charge of openly carrying a gun in a public building. According

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — People are set to duck under desks and tables in California and around the world for an annual drill practicing ways to stay safe during earthquakes. Up and down the West Coast, the ShakeOut drill is scheduled to begin at 10:19 a.m. Thursday with a cellphone-rattling test alert from the region’s

By KENYA HUNTER AP Health Writer ATLANTA (AP) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is considering a ban on certain hair-straightening chemicals that have been used by Black women for years. Recent studies show the chemicals may increase the risk of uterine cancer. Hair stylists say Black women have largely moved away from chemical

By MOLLY QUELL Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A court in Amsterdam has sentenced a Polish-Canadian national to two months in prison for projecting a message alluding to an antisemitic conspiracy theory onto the Anne Frank House museum. Robert Wilson was charged with insulting a group and inciting discrimination for using a laser

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) — Slovakia’s president says she is postponing the appointment of a new Cabinet following last month’s parliamentary election because she cannot accept the nomination of a climate change skeptic as environment minister. Liberal President Zuzana Caputova says Rudolf Huliak, who was nominated by the ultranationalist and pro-Russian Slovak National Party, could not

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Japan and Australia have agreed to further expand defense ties including with joint military exercises. The defense ties come under an upgraded security pact that took effect two months ago amid their mutual concern about increasingly assertive China. The two countries have rapidly developed close defense ties

By KATE BRUMBACK Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Lawyer Sidney Powell has pleaded guilty to reduced charges over efforts to overturn Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election in Georgia. Powell is the second defendant in the sprawling case to reach a deal with prosecutors. Powell was charged alongside Trump and 17 others with violating

By TARA COPP and LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A Pentagon report on China’s military power says Beijing is on track to significantly increase its nuclear weapons arsenal by 2030 and is “almost certainly” learning lessons from Russia’s war in Ukraine about what a conflict over Taiwan might look like. The annual

By JIM SALTER Associated Press ST. LOUIS (AP) — Federal authorities say that thousands of information technology workers contracting with U.S. companies secretly sent millions of dollars of their wages to North Korea for use in its ballistic missile program. The Department of Justice said Wednesday that IT workers dispatched by North Korea to work

By ANDREW DALTON AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — While screenwriters are busy back at work, film and TV actors remain on picket lines, with the longest strike in their history set to hit 100 days on Saturday after talks broke off with studios. Here’s a look at where things stand, how their stretched-out

PARIS (AP) — Organizers of next year’s Paris Olympics say their headquarters have again been visited by French financial prosecutors who are investigating suspicions of favoritism, conflicts of interest and misuse of funds in the awarding of contracts. The Paris organizing committee says the national financial prosecution service visited its north Paris offices on Wednesday

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) — Slovenia says it will introduce border checks with neighboring Hungary and Croatia following Italy’s decision to do the same with Slovenia because of security concerns due to violence in the Middle East. The government on Thursday said border controls will be introduced on Saturday and last for at least 10 days.

By DANIEL POLITI Associated Press BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Once an activist in a left-leaning youth movement, Rubén Dávalos is now among the millions of disaffected voters in Argentina planning to cast their ballots for right-wing populist and self-described anarcho-capitalist, Javier Milei. “In this country, you can’t plan for the future,” said the 30-year-old

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) — Authorities say a passenger in a vehicle stopped in a hit-and-run investigation and sheriff’s deputies exchanged gunfire in southern California, wounding a deputy and the passenger. Both were in stable condition at a hospital Thursday morning. The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office says the shooting happened when deputies stopped a vehicle in

By MARC LEVY Associated Press HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Liberal discontent over rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority is playing a role in Pennsylvania’s top-of-the-ballot election this fall. Democrat Dan McCaffery portrays his candidacy for an open Pennsylvania Supreme Court seat as a bulwark against a U.S. Supreme Court majority he says is

By LORNE COOK Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — Abdesalem Lassoued had been denied residency in four European countries by the time he shot three Swedish men this week, killing two of them. The 45-year-old Tunisian arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa in a smuggler’s boat in 2011. He spent jail time in Sweden and

By MATT OTT AP Business Writer Applications for unemployment benefits fell to their lowest level in eight months last week as businesses continue to retain workers despite elevated interest rates meant to cool the economy and labor market. The Labor Department reported Thursday that jobless claim applications fell by 13,000 to 198,000 for the week

LONDON (AP) — The European Union has ratcheted up its scrutiny of Big Tech companies with demands for Meta and TikTok to detail their efforts to curb illegal content and disinformation during the Israel-Hamas war. The 27-nation bloc’s executive branch on Thursday formally requested that the social media companies provide information on how they’re complying

ROME (AP) — The European Court of Human Rights has found Italy violated the human rights of residents living in and around Naples by failing to manage a 15-year garbage and pollution crisis. The verdict announced Thursday is the second major one in recent years finding that Italy’s failure to collect, treat and dispose of tons

LONDON (AP) — A bottle of “the most-sought-after Scotch whisky” is set to go up for auction next month, with an estimated price of up to 1.2 million pounds ($1.4 million), the auction house Sotheby’s said Thursday. It said the 96-year-old bottle of single malt from distiller Macallan — The Macallan Adami 1926 — will

LONDON (AP) — The Guardian newspaper has fired longtime editorial cartoonist Steve Bell after refusing to run a caricature of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that critics said drew on antisemitic imagery. Bell has contributed to The Guardian since 1983. The decision comes after Bell depicted Netanyahu holding a scalpel and preparing to cut a

By MATTHEW PERRONE AP Health Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — With the growing popularity of disposable e-cigarettes, communities across the U.S. are confronting a new vaping problem: how to safely get rid of millions of small, battery-powered devices that are considered hazardous waste. For years, the debate surrounding vaping largely centered on its risks for high

By NICOLAS GARRIGA and JOHN LEICESTER Associated Press ARRAS, France (AP) — Loved ones and colleagues have mourned and celebrated the life of a French-language teacher stabbed to death in a school attack blamed on a suspected Islamic extremist. Dominique Bernard was remembered at his funeral service Thursday as a sensitive, crowd-shy man who loved

By MOLLY QUELL Associated Press THE HAGUE, Nethlerlands (AP) — The International Criminal Court is dropping some 20 charges of murder, extermination, deportation, torture, and persecution against a former government minister from the Central African Republic. The court cites a lack of evidence and available witnesses. The court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan issued a statement

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Northern Europe is bracing for bad weather including gale-force winds from the east on Thursday and Friday, with authorities saying floods could cause major problems in inland Danish waters and in the Baltic Sea. A Danish broadcaster said it likely would be the worst flooding in 110 years, and the Danish

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Voters are casting ballots in two special elections in England that could add more misery to the beleaguered governing Conservative Party. The Conservatives won both Tamworth in central England and Mid-Bedfordshire, north of London, by large margins during the last national election in 2019. But both constituencies’

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s state media reports that the final phase of registration for candidates who want to run in Iran’s parliamentary election next year has opened. Nearly 49,000 people filed initial paperwork in August seeking to run for the 290-seat parliament in the election, set for March 1, 2023. The elections will be

STRASBOURG, France (AP) — Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who died in police custody in Iran last year, sparking worldwide protests against the country’s conservative Islamic theocracy, has been awarded the European Union’s top human rights prize. The EU award, named for Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, was created in 1988 to honor individuals or groups who

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press IWAKI, Japan (AP) — An International Atomic Energy Agency team is in Fukushima for the agency’s first marine sampling since treated radioactive wastewater started being released from the area’s damaged nuclear plant into the sea. A team member on Thursday’s visit said he does not expect any rise in radioactivity

PARIS (AP) — France’s government is threatening prison terms and heavy fines for callers who make fake bomb threats after a rash of false alarms forced the evacuation of 15 airports and cancellation of 130 flights and shut the doors of Versailles Palace three times in five days. French officials suggested that young people and