Month: November 2023

By JOSHUA GOODMAN and ERIC TUCKER Associated Press A California man’s family is pleading for his release after they say he was wrongfully arrested in Venezuela and held for ransom just days after President Joe Biden eased crippling oil sanctions on the socialist-run government. Savoi Wright’s previously unreported Oct. 24 arrest has become the latest

STOCKBRIDGE, Ga. (AP) — Authorities say the last of four men who escaped from a Georgia jail in October has been caught. Bibb County Sheriff David Davis said in a news release that 53-year-old Joey Fournier was captured about 65 miles away from the jail in Bibb County just before noon Saturday. Davis said last

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan says his country and Azerbaijan are speaking “different diplomatic languages” even though they were able to agree on the basic principles for a peace treaty. Azerbaijan waged a lightning military campaign in September in the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The offensive ended three decades of rule

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A library book that is more than a century overdue has been returned to St. Paul Public Library. Titled “Famous Composers” and featuring the likes of Bach and Mozart, the tome turned up while someone was sorting through a relative’s belongings. Minnesota Public Radio reports that it had last been

VENICE, La. (AP) — Federal authorities said Saturday that they’re investigating a leak from an underwater oil pipeline off the coast of Louisiana. The National Transportation Safety Board said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that it had sent a four-person team to do a safety investigation and determine the cause of the leak about

By JEFFREY SCHAEFFER and HELENA ALVES Associated Press PARIS (AP) — Survivors of Nazi atrocities have joined young Jewish activists in Paris to sound the alarm about resurgent antisemitic hate speech, graffiti and abuse linked to the Israel-Hamas war. The impact of the conflict is drawing increasing concern in France and beyond. A few thousand

By ADAM BEAM Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Democrats are meeting in Sacramento to decide whether to endorse candidates ahead of the March primary. Candidates need at least 60% of the vote from delegates to secure the party’s formal endorsement. No candidates in the state’s wide-open U.S. Senate race are likely to surpass

By JUSTIN SPIKE Associated Press BUDAPEST, (AP) — Hungary’s prime minister has further signaled that his government is likely to present a roadblock to Ukraine’s ambitions to join the European Union. Speaking at a biannual congress of his nationalist political party on Saturday, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that Ukraine is “light years away” from

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut judge has set Jan. 23 as the date for a new Democratic primary in the Bridgeport mayor’s race after having tossed out the September election results because of alleged ballot box stuffing. Judge William Clark issued the order late Friday afternoon after Mayor Joe Ganim and challenger John Gomes

By JULIA FRANKEL Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — Thousands of family members and supporters of some 240 hostages held in Gaza have streamed into Jerusalem on foot to castigate Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his handling of the war with Hamas. They pleaded with the government to do more to bring their loved ones

By LLAZAR SEMINI Associated Press TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Prosecutors say Albania’s former health minister, who is being investigated for alleged corruption, must report to police and not leave the country. Prosecutors with the country’s Special Court Against Corruption and Organized Crime said Ilir Beqaj should report to prosecutors every Friday. They said he may

By ELISE MORTON Associated Press LONDON (AP) — More than 100 Russian doctors have signed an open letter demanding the immediate release of an artist and musician who was sentenced to seven years in prison for swapping supermarket price tags with antiwar messages. The letter calling for Sasha Skochilenko to be freed was addressed to

LONDON (AP) — A bottle of Scotch whisky billed as “the most sought-after” in the world has sold for almost 2.2 million pounds ($2.7 million). The price is an auction record for a bottle of wine or spirits. The Macallan Adami 1926 sold at Sotheby’s in London on Saturday after a bidding war between would-be

By KRISHAN FRANCIS Associated Press COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu has officially requested India to withdraw its military personnel from the archipelago, a day after being sworn in. The president’s office says Muizzu made the request  Saturday when he met Kiren Rijiju, India’s minister for earth sciences, who was in the

By CHEVEL JOHNSON RODRIGUE Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The New Orleans home where civil rights activist Oretha Castle Haley grew up and that served as a hub for Louisiana’s 1960s civil rights movement has been added to the National Register of Historic Places. The Treme neighborhood residence at 917-919 N. Tonti Street is

BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese man wanted for allegedly embezzling millions of yuan (hundreds of thousands of dollars) from his company and then fleeing to Morocco has been extradited back to China, State broadcaster CCTV showed the man being handcuffed and led to a police car after getting off a plane on Saturday, The Ministry

By ALI SWENSON and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press The man who bludgeoned former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband with a hammer last year consumed a steady diet of right-wing conspiracy theories before an attack that took place with the midterm elections less than two weeks away. As the 2024 presidential campaign heats up, experts on

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Estonia’s ruling Reform Party has reelected Prime Minister Kaja Kallas as its chairperson and confirmed her staying on as the Baltic nation’s leader. Kallas was the only candidate for the party leadership post despite widespread calls by opposition parties and voters for her to resign over a scandal involving her husband’s

By KATHY McCORMACK Associated Press CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Officials say a shooter killed a state security guard in the lobby of New Hampshire’s psychiatric hospital and then was fatally shot by a state trooper. Authorities say 63-year-old Bradley Haas was killed Friday as he guarded the lobby entrance. The hospital is the state’s only

By DANIEL POLITI Associated Press BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Both cheers and jeers for Argentina’s right-wing presidential candidate resounded with acoustic perfection inside the country’s legendary Colón Theater, laying bare the country’s polarization. The audience had gathered for a performance of “Madama Butterfly” — but Milei soon became the main event. A group began

REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) — People in southwest Iceland remained on edge Saturday, waiting to see whether a volcano rumbling under the Reykjanes Peninsula will erupt. Civil protection authorities said that even if it doesn’t, it’s likely to be months before it is safe for residents evacuated from the danger zone to go home. The fishing

By MATT O’BRIEN AP Technology Writer Country singers, romance novelists, video game artists and voice actors are appealing to the U.S. government for immediate relief from the threat that artificial intelligence poses to their livelihoods. Technology companies, by contrast, are largely happy with the status quo that has enabled them to gobble up published works

By JAMIE STENGLE, LM OTERO and KENDRIA LaFLEUR Associated Press OFF THE COAST OF GALVESTON, Texas (AP) — Far off the Texas coast there is a beautiful surprise in the Gulf of Mexico that draws divers from around the world: a stunning amount of coral coverage on undersea mountains. Sheltered in deep, cool habitat about

By CHRISTINA LARSON AP Science Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has updated its “plant hardiness zone map” for the first time in a decade. It shows that the lowest likely winter temperature in a given region is 2.5 degrees warmer than when the map was last published in 2012. The map

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s military says its troops are working to push back Russian forces positioned on the east bank of the Dnieper River. The update given on Saturday came a day after Ukraine claimed to have secured multiple bridgeheads on that side of the river that divides the country’s partially occupied Kherson region.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A 23-year-old Taylor Swift fan died at the singer’s Eras Tour concert in Rio de Janeiro Friday night, according to a statement from the show’s organizers in Brazil. While the cause of death for Ana Clara Benevides Machado has not been announced, media reported that fans were not allowed to

By LISA MASCARO AP Congressional Correspondent WASHINGTON (AP) — By most accounts, Speaker Mike Johnson inherited a House Republican majority in disarray after the sudden ouster of his predecessor last month. But as Johnson, R-La., tries to rebuild that slim majority, he’s fast running into the same hard-right factions and divisions that Rep. Kevin McCarthy,

By DANIEL SHAILER Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — Residents in the northern Mexican state of Sonora are battling a new train line that threatens to displace their homes and cut up the local ecosystem. But they have found very little to fight against. Local, state and federal officials deny any knowledge or responsibility for

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — U.K. Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt says the government can afford to lower some taxes now that inflation is falling. But he says any cuts will come along with a squeeze on welfare benefits. British media have reported that there will be relief for businesses and wealthy property-owners

By MALAK HARB Associated Press ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The first planeload of Palestinian children wounded in the Israel-Hamas war raging in the Gaza Strip has reached the United Arab Emirates, part of a pledged relief effort by the country to aid 1,000 children. The children and their family members made it

By MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer SpaceX is prepping its mega rocket for a test flight meant to circle the world. Liftoff for Starship is set for Saturday morning from South Texas. The first test flight in April ended in an explosion minutes later. Since then, Elon Musk’s company has made dozens of improvements and

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency says an Israeli drone has fired two missiles at an aluminum plant outside the market town of Nabatiyeh, causing a fire and wide damage. The Israeli strike on the village of Toul is the first to hit the area since the 34-day war in 2006 between Israel

PARIS (AP) — The Paris prosecutor’s office says a French senator has been handed preliminary charges for drugging another lawmaker with the aim of rape or sexual assault. His center-right party has suspended him pending further investigation. Joel Guerriau is a 66-year-old representing the Loire-Atlantique region in western France. He was detained for 48 hours

BERLIN (AP) — Austrian President Alexander van der Bellen has had an unusual encounter during an official visit to Moldova when the country’s first dog, a rescue belonging to Moldovan President Maia Sandu, bit him on the hand. Video footage from Moldovan media showed the dog briefly biting van der Bellen’s hand on Friday. The

BEIJING (AP) — Australia has accused the Chinese navy of likely causing minor injuries to Australian naval divers by operating its sonar while they were trying to clear fishing nets from their ship’s propellers. An Australian statement posted Saturday said the government had expressed its serious concerns to the Chinese government over what it called

By YURI KAGEYAMA Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Daisaku Ikeda, who headed Soka Gakkai, a Japanese Buddhist organization, that includes Herbie Hancock and other celebrities in its fold, has died. The Japanese religious organization said Saturday that Ikeda, 95, died on Nov. 15 at his Tokyo home from “natural causes.” Along with his two predecessors,

By NAJIB JOBAIN, SAMY MAGDY and DAVID RISING Associated Press KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Internet and phone service has been partially restored to the Gaza Strip, ending a telecommunications blackout that forced the United Nations to shut down critical humanitarian aid deliveries because it was unable to coordinate its convoys. Meantime, an Israeli

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press Jordan’s foreign minister has offered blistering criticism of Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip, describing it as “blatant aggression” against Palestinian civilians that threaten to engulf the wider Middle East. Ayman Safadi’s harsh assessment Saturday, alleging Israel was committing “war crimes” by besieging the Gaza Strip and cutting