Month: October 2023

By JAN M. OLSEN Associated Press COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Vikings had windows — usually only associated with medieval churches and castles — meaning Norsemen dignitaries sat in rooms lit up by apertures with glass. The Vikings’ glass can be dated from long before the churches and castles of the Middle Ages with which glazed

PARIS (AP) — Fans will be able to roam from venue to venue and soak up multiple sports with day passes that are among 2.8 million tickets going on sale from Monday for the 2024 Paralympics in Paris. Paris organizers say prices for competition tickets will range from $15.80 to $105. Tickets for the Aug.

By FARAI MUTSAKA Associated Press HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe has recorded 100 suspected deaths from cholera and more than 5,000 possible cases since late last month. That has prompted the government to impose restrictions to stop the spread of the disease, including limiting numbers at funerals and stopping some social gatherings in affected areas.

By JUSTIN SPIKE Associated Press SAHY, Slovakia (AP) — Slovakia has begun conducting border checks with neighboring Hungary because of what it says is a dramatic rise in migrants crossing into its territory. The inspections, which began Thursday, are part of a flurry of border measures other Central European countries have imposed in recent days.

By BRIAN WITTE and LEA SKENE Associated Press ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Adnan Syed is now free after being imprisoned for the murder of his ex-girlfriend more than two decades ago. But his attorneys will be arguing for his freedom once again on Thursday, this time in front of the Maryland Supreme Court. The case

By ERIC TUCKER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers for former President Donald Trump have asked a judge to postpone his Florida classified documents trial until after next year’s presidential election. The lawyers say they have not received all the records they need to prepare Trump’s defense. The trial on charges of illegally hoarding classified

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Ugandan security forces briefly arrested opposition figure Bobi Wine, foiling a planned street demonstration by his supporters who intended to welcome him at the airport. Wine, a singer and former lawmaker whose real name is Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, was driven under police escort to his home outside Kampala on his arrival from

VIENNA (AP) — A special unit of police and customs officials have raided several properties of a Russian national in the southern state of Bavaria, officials say. The unidentified Russian is subject to sanctions and asset freezes by the European Union, German customs officials said. The German news agency dpa reported that several luxury cars

By SAM METZ Associated Press Family members of jailed lawyers and politicians in Tunisia want the International Criminal Court to investigate claims of political persecution and human rights violations. An increasing number of President Kais Saied’s opponents are being arrested and several in prison are staging hunger strikes. The sons and daughters of four of

LONDON (AP) — Scottish authorities have signed an extradition order for an American fugitive accused of faking his own death to avoid a rape charge in Utah. In response to a freedom of information request, the Scottish government on Thursday said an extradition order for the man local officials refer to as Nicholas Rossi had

LONDON (AP) — Concerns from regulators about the dominance of Amazon and Microsoft in Britain’s cloud computing market have triggered a investigation into the competitiveness of the key industry. The U.K. communications regulator Ofcom said Thursday that its yearlong study of the cloud communications services market found features that could limit competition. It says British

MADRID (AP) — Officials say firefighters are battling to control a new wildfire on Spain’s Tenerife island that has forced some 3,000 people to leave their homes for safety. The blaze, which started Wednesday, is centered on the towns of Santa Úrsula and La Orotava in the mountainous northeast of the island, away from the

By JULHAS ALAM Associated Press DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh’s official anti-graft watchdog has questioned Bangladeshi Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus over suspicions of money laundering and embezzlement. Yunus, who pioneered the use of microcredit to help impoverished people in Bangladesh, said on Thursday that he did not commit any crimes. His legal troubles

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Surging interest rates are intensifying the challenges for the U.S. economy and threatening to derail the Federal Reserve’s drive to tame inflation without causing a deep recession. Since mid-summer, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note has steadily climbed, causing a spillover rise in other borrowing

By JOHN SEEWER and TOM KRISHER Associated Press TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — Among the many changes being sought by striking United Auto Workers is an end to a system that pays workers much different wages for doing the same job. The biggest disparity is with temporary workers employed by the Detroit automakers who are making

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia has targeted Ukraine with drones in another massive attack as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Spain to rally support from Western allies at a summit of some 50 European leaders. Ukraine’s air force said that the country’s air defenses intercepted 24 out of 29 Iranian-made drones Russia launched early Thursday

JERUSALEM (AP) — Two Palestinian men were killed by Israeli gunfire during an army raid in the West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry says. The Israeli military said Thursday that its troops carried out a raid in the Tulkarem refugee camp in the early morning hours. It said that soldiers came under fire and that

By RAF CASERT and RENATA BRITO Associated Press GRANADA, Spain (AP) — Some 50 European leaders are gathering in southern Spain’s Granada on Thursday to stress that they stand by Ukraine, at a time when Western resolve appears somewhat weakened. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be there to hear it. The European Political Community forum

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — The mayor of Tokyo’s busy Shibuya shopping and entertainment district is asking Halloween celebrants not to visit, fearing that a large number of partygoers following the COVID-19 pandemic could cause a disaster similar to last year’s fatal crowd surge in South Korea’s capital. Mayor Ken Hasebe says

By DAVID KEYTON and MIKE CORDER Associated Press STOCKHOLM (AP) — The Nobel Prize in literature will be announced Thursday, with the new laureate, or laureates, joining an illustrious list of past winners that ranges from Toni Morrison to Ernest Hemingway and Jean-Paul Sartre — who turned down the prize in 1964. This year’s winner

By GHAITH AL-SAYED and KAREEM CHEHAYEB Associated Press IDLIB, Syria (AP) — Activists and emergency workers say the Syrian government has shelled a village in the rebel-held northwestern part of the country, killing at least five civilians. The shelling early Thursday came amid a rise in strikes in the rebel-held enclave in recent days. Opposition-held

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares advanced Thursday after a plunge in oil prices aided a recovery on Wall Street. Benchmarks rose in Tokyo, Sydney and Hong Kong. Trading was closed in Shanghai for a holiday. Market sentiment was helped by a $5 decline in oil prices on Wednesday, although

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish media are reporting that two trains have collided head-on in the northern city of Gdynia and that three people were injured in the accident. The state news agency PAP cited a fire brigade official, who said the collision occurred at 7 a.m. Thursday near the main station in Gdynia, a

By ASHOK SHARMA Associated Press NEW DELHI (AP) — Rescue workers are searching for more than 100 people after flash floods triggered by a sudden heavy rainfall swamped several towns in northeastern India, killing at least 14 people. The Sikkim State Disaster Management Authority said more than 2,000 people were rescued after Wednesday’s floods, adding

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — It’s been 15 years since the world’s elite gas balloon pilots have gathered in the United States for a race with roots stretching back more than a century. They’ll be launching for this year’s Gordon Bennett competition during an international balloon fiesta that draws hundreds

By JEFF AMY Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia state Senate committee says it will start its own investigation of jail conditions in the state’s most populous county. The Thursday announcement comes three months after the U.S. Justice Department launched its own inquiry of Fulton County jail conditions. Senate Public Safety Committee Chairman John

By ELAINE GANLEY Associated Press PARIS (AP) — Bedbugs go wherever people go, and they have become a nightmare haunting France for weeks. The government has been forced to step in to calm an anxious nation that will host the Olympic Games in almost nine months — a prime venue for infestations of the crowd-loving

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Typhoon Koinu is sweeping southern Taiwan, injuring 190 people but causing no deaths as it brings intense winds and rainstorms to the island, leading to school and office closures. Koinu, which means “puppy” in Japanese, made landfall in Cape Eluanbi, the southernmost tip of Taiwan, early Thursday. The typhoon is expected

By ISABEL DEBRE Associated Press TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel has quietly helped fuel Azerbaijan’s campaign to recapture Nagorno-Karabakh, supplying powerful weapons to Azerbaijan ahead of its lightening offensive last month that brought the ethnic Armenian enclave back under its control, officials and experts say. Just weeks before Azerbaijan launched its 24-hour assault on

By CHINEDU ASADU Associated Press When the megaphone called out for the daily Islamic prayers, the nonbeliever grabbed his prayer beads and ambled through the streets to join others at the mosque in Kano, northern Nigeria’s largest city. Formerly a Muslim, he now identifies as an atheist but remains closeted, performing religious obligations only as

By MARIAM FAM Associated Press There’s the Tunisian woman who fasts during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, though not for God. The Iraqi woman who, until recently, wore a hijab. And a man whose Egyptian identity card still identifies him as “Muslim.” Such are the ways that some of the religiously unaffiliated, or “nones”

By LUIS ANDRES HENAO and NATACHA PISARENKO Associated Press CAPILLA DEL MONTE, Argentina (AP) — In the pope’s homeland, there’s a woman who believes in angels and calls them aliens. Another who proudly identifies as a witch. And a spiritual guru so turned off by the Vatican’s opulence that he left the church to help

By GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO Associated Press ISOLA DEL GRAN SASSO, Italy (AP) — Two children scribbled petitions to St. Gabriele dell’Addolorata in the sanctuary where the young saint is venerated in this central Italian mountain village. Andrea, 6, asked for blessings for his family and pets, while Sofia, 9, offered thanksgiving for winning a dance competition.

By PETER SMITH Associated Press Mike Dulak grew up Catholic in Southern California, but by his teen years, he began skipping Mass and driving straight to the shore to play guitar, watch the waves and enjoy “the beauty of the morning on the beach,” he recalled. “And it felt more spiritual than any time I

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Momo Nomura, a graphic artist and entrepreneur, visits a shrine near her business meetings or trips almost weekly. She prays first according to the Shinto rules, then heads to the reception to get a Goshuin, a seal stamp certifying her visit that comes with elegant calligraphy and

By DEEPA BHARATH Associated Press CHENNAI, India (AP) — Despite India’s millennia-old history of nonreligious movements, most atheists and rationalists choose to keep quiet about their skepticism of faith — it’s easier and far less risky than going public in one of the world’s most religious countries. The space that does exist for debating religious

By ILAN BEN ZION Associated Press MEVASSERET ZION, Israel (AP) — Israel is a nation perennially swept up in religious fervor and conflict. And yet, strikingly, a large portion of its population is secular, and even its insular ultra-Orthodox community loses a steady stream of members who tire of its strict religious rules. The country

By MARIAM FAM Associated Press There’s the Tunisian woman who fasts during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, though not for God. The Iraqi woman who, until recently, wore a hijab. And a man whose Egyptian identity card identifies him as “Muslim,” despite his efforts to change it. Such are the ways that some of

By BECKY BOHRER Associated Press JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Nearly every Alaskan will receive a $1,312 check starting this week, their annual share from the earnings of the state’s nest-egg oil fund. Some use the money for extras like tropical vacations but others — particularly in high-cost rural Alaska where jobs and housing are limited

By CHINEDU ASADU Associated Press KANO, Nigeria (AP) — When the megaphone called out for the daily Islamic prayers, the nonbeliever grabbed his prayer beads and ambled through the streets to join others at the mosque in Kano, northern Nigeria’s largest city. Formerly a Muslim, he now identifies as an atheist but remains closeted, performing

By GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO Associated Press ISOLA DEL GRAN SASSO, Italy (AP) — Two children scribbled petitions to St. Gabriele dell’Addolorata in the vast sanctuary where the young saint is venerated in this central Italian mountain village. Andrea, 6, asked for blessings for his family and pets. Sofia, 9, gave thanks for winning a dance competition.

By WILL WEISSERT and BRIAN SLODYSKO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Some in the GOP are wondering if anyone can take Kevin McCarthy’s place as a fundraising dynamo and party builder. His ouster as House speaker also leaves a void atop the groups that raise tens of millions of dollars to elect Republicans. McCarthy spent

By STEVE LeBLANC Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — Three years after a Christopher Columbus statue was removed from a square in Providence, Rhode Island, the bronze cast has re-emerged, this time in a park in Johnston, Rhode Island, about 9 miles west of the capital. The sculpture had been targeted by vandals, at one point

By LUIS ANDRES HENAO and NATACHA PISARENKO Associated Press CAPILLA DEL MONTE, Argentina (AP) — In the pope’s homeland, there’s a woman who believes in angels and calls them aliens. Another proudly identifies as a witch. And there’s a spiritual guru so turned off by the Vatican’s opulence that he left the church to help

By MICHELLE L. PRICE and NICHOLAS RICCARDI Associated Press Over the past two weeks, Donald Trump said shoplifters should be immediately shot, suggested the United States’ top general be executed and mocked a political opponent’s husband who was beaten with a hammer. The former president and current front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination also in

By PETER SMITH Associated Press Mike Dulak grew up Catholic in Southern California, but by his teen years, he began skipping Mass and driving straight to the shore to play guitar, watch the waves and enjoy the beauty of the morning. “And it felt more spiritual than any time I set foot in a church,”