Month: December 2023

By CHINEDU ASADU Associated Press ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria’s emergency services agency says more than 80 people are confirmed dead after military drones “mistakenly” bombed a religious gathering in the northwest. Some 60 people were injured in the attack Sunday in Kaduna state. The president ordered a probe into the incident, the latest of

By ZEN SOO AP Business Writer HONG KONG (AP) — Credit rating agency Moody’s has downgraded its outlook for Chinese sovereign bonds to negative, citing risks from a slowing economy and a crisis in its property sector. Moody’s said the change reflects risks from financing troubles of local and regional governments and state-owned enterprises. It

By HANNA ARHIROVA Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Local officials say Russian artillery fire has struck the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, killing at least two people in the street as the 21-month war drags into another winter. A video posted Tuesday by the Kherson regional governor showed two bodies in a city center

By JAN M. OLSEN Associated Press COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The conflict against Tesla in Sweden is spreading to neighboring Denmark. Transport workers there say they will take industrial action in solidarity with workers in Sweden against the Texas-based automaker. Tesla is non-unionized globally, but the Swedish workers are demanding that the carmaker sign a collective bargaining

By COLLIN BINKLEY AP Education Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Students around the world suffered historic setbacks in reading and math during the COVID-19 pandemic, with declines in test scores so widespread that the United States climbed in global rankings simply by falling behind less sharply, a new study finds. The state of global education was

BRUSSELS (AP) — The Eropean Union’s Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson is warning that Europe faces “a huge risk of terrorist attacks” over the Christmas holiday period. Her warning comes days after a man stabbed a German-Filipino tourist to death and injured two other people with a hammer near the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The

MOSCOW (AP) — The Kremlin says that Russian President Vladimir Putin will make a one-day trip to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia focused on the Israeli-Hamas war and also host the Iranian president in Moscow this week. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that Putin will visit both countries on Wednesday. Peskov told

KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — British Home Secretary James Cleverly has flown to Rwanda to try to revive a stalled plan to send asylum-seekers to the East African country. The U.K. government said Cleverly will meet his Rwandan counterpart, Vincent Biruta, on Tuesday. Britain and Rwanda struck a deal in April 2022 for some migrants who

PARIS (AP) — France’s National Assembly has unanimously approved a bill to ban single-use, disposable electronic cigarettes, in an attempt to protect young people drawn to their flavors and mitigate the environmental impacts of the disposable products known as “puffs.” Lawmakers adopted the bill by 104 votes in favor, zero against. It will then move

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape says he will sign a bilateral security pact with Australia during a visit this week. Marape said Tuesday that the agreement to be signed with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese on Thursday will involve Australian police officers working under the command of Papua New

By GRANT PECK Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — Aid groups and the United Nations say an estimated 400 Rohingya Muslims believed to be aboard two boats adrift in the Andaman Sea could die if more is not done to rescue them. The number of Rohingyas fleeing by boat, usually from squalid, overcrowded refugee camps in

BERLIN (AP) — Munich Airport has temporarily suspended flight operations due to freezing rain as cold weather continues to affect the region. All flights were either canceled or postponed on Tuesday morning, with the airport warning that many flights scheduled for later in the day might also be affected by the severe weather conditions. Tuesday’s

By NAJIB JOBAIN and SAMY MAGDY Associated Press KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel intensified its bombardment in and around Gaza’s second largest city early Tuesday, as ambulances and private cars came racing into a local hospital carrying people wounded in a bloody new phase of the war in Gaza. Under U.S. pressure to

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares declined Tuesday on heavy selling of property and technology shares. U.S. futures slipped and oil prices were little changed. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 2.4% to 16,238.79, while the Shanghai Composite lost 1.7% to 2,972.30 as worries flared over weakness in the Chinese economy.

By JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.N. weather agency is reporting that glaciers shrank more than ever from 2011 and 2020 and the Antarctic ice sheet lost 75 percent more compared to the previous ten years, as it released its latest stark report about the fallout on the planet

By STEPHEN WADE and YURI KAGEYAMA Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — The bid-rigging trial around the Tokyo Olympics is playing out in a Japanese courtroom — more than two years after the Games closed — with advertising giant Dentsu and five other companies facing criminal charges. Seven individuals are also facing charges from the Tokyo

By FU TING Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Comedian Xi Diao says he knows he should avoid talking politics on stage, but sharing a family name with Chinese President Xi Jinping makes it hard to resist. Even his name is politically sensitive, the Melbourne-based amateur comedian tells audiences, setting up a joke about a group

By BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Prince Harry is challenging the British government’s decision to strip him of his security detail after he gave up his status as a working member of the royal family and moved to the United States. A three-day hearing is scheduled to begin on Tuesday in London’s High

By KAREEM CHEHAYEB Associated Press BCHARRE, Lebanon (AP) — Majestic cedar trees towered over dozens of Lebanese Christians gathered outside a small mid-19th century chapel hidden in a mountain forest to celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration, the miracle where Jesus Christ, on a mountaintop, shined with light before his disciples. The sunset’s yellow light

HILO, Hawaii (AP) — A magnitude 5.1 earthquake on the Big Island of Hawaii was felt widely but there have been no reports of damage or injury. The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory says the earthquake hit at 5:54 p.m. Monday near the Kilauea volcano. Officials say the initial quake and a magnitude 3.0 aftershock were not

BANGKOK (AP) — A bus has crashed in western Thailand, killing 14 people and injuring more than 30 others. Officials said the accident occurred early Tuesday in Prachuap Khiri Khan province as the bus was traveling from the capital, Bangkok, to Songkhla province in the deep south. It was carrying 49 people when it ran

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani authorities say a roadside bomb went off near a school in the country’s northwest on Tuesday, wounding at least three passersby and damaging windows of a nearby bank and several shops The bombing happened in the commercial center of Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, a spokesman

By MATT O’BRIEN AP Technology Writer Tech leaders have been vocal proponents of the need to regulate artificial intelligence, but they’re also lobbying hard to make sure the new rules work in their favor. That’s not to say they all want the same thing. Facebook parent Meta and IBM on Tuesday launched a new group

By LORI HINNANT and SAM McNEIL Associated Press NIR OZ, Israel (AP) — The Hamas attack on the kibbutz of Nir Oz started a little after 6:30 a.m. on Oct. 7 and lasted long into the afternoon, with dozens of fighters rampaging unopposed through the community with an apparent mission: To capture as many civilians

By SIBI ARASU and JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Activists had a series of events and actions lined up Tuesday at the United Nations climate summit seeking to amp up pressure on conference participants to agree to phase out coal, oil and gas, responsible for most of the world’s emissions,

By LORI HINNANT and SAM McNEIL Associated Press NIR OZ, Israel (AP) — The engineer and his family cowered in the safe room, dark except for a red remote-control light because they feared the gunmen outside his door would notice anything brighter. Eyal Barat had just reconfigured the settings on a homemade traffic camera from

By JESSE BEDAYN Associated Press/Report for America COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — The owners of a Colorado funeral home where 190 sets of decomposing human remains were found are set to appear in court. Owners Jon and Carie Halford have been accused of abusing corpses, stealing, laundering money and forging documents. In the funeral home,

By JOVANA GEC, SABINA NIKSIC and ZANA CIMILI Associated Press BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — A man in Bosnia killed his wife and streamed the murder live on Instagram. In neighboring Serbia, 27 women were killed in gender-based attacks this year, despite efforts to raise awareness and reverse the trend. Activists in Kosovo say violence against

By ANNIE MA of The Associated Press and MEREDITH KOLODNER of The Hechinger Report SALISBURY, Md. (AP) — Three times a week, on average, a police car pulls up to a school in Wicomico County on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. A student is brought out, handcuffed and placed inside for transport to a hospital emergency room

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is spending most of this week raising money for his reelection campaign. Biden is traveling to Boston on Tuesday to schmooze with donors at three fundraisers. One of the events features a concert by singer-songwriter James Taylor. On Friday, Biden will hit Los Angeles

By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is taking up a case over a Washington couple’s $15,000 tax bill that is widely seen as a test of a never-enacted tax on wealth. Arguments are being heard Tuesday. A decision in favor of Charles and Kathleen Moore of Redmond, Washington, could strike

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Republicans are scheduled for their fourth presidential debate this week, again minus Donald Trump. It’s a particularly big moment for the young NewsNation television network, which will almost certainly reach its largest audience ever. NewsNation has been trying to cultivate an image of being an

By SIBI ARASU Associated Press KHAVDA, India (AP) — Shifting to renewable energy is a key issue at the ongoing COP28 climate summit. Some leaders have voiced support for a target of tripling renewable energy worldwide in any final agreement while curbing use of coal, oil and natural gas, which spew planet-warming gases into the

By DOUG FEINBERG AP Basketball Writer UConn fell to its worst ranking in 30 years when the Huskies dropped to 17th in The Associated Press women’s basketball poll, The last time the Huskies were ranked this low was the second poll of the 1993-94 season when they were 18th. South Carolina remained the unanimous No.

By MARDI ROSA TANJUNG Associated Press BATU PALANO, Indonesia (AP) — Rescuers searching the hazardous slopes of Indonesia’s Mount Marapi volcano found more bodies among the climbers caught by a surprise eruption two days ago, raising the number of confirmed and presumed dead to 23. More than 50 climbers were rescued after the initial eruption

NEW DELHI (AP) — Torrential rains and strong winds lashing India’s southern and eastern coasts have killed at least six people, officials said, as states there braced for a powerful storm expected to make landfall later Tuesday. The southern states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, as well as Odisha in the east, experienced heavy

By MARÍA VERZA Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — The head of Mexico’s immigration agency has ordered the suspension of migrant deportations and transfers due to a lack of funds amid a record-setting year for migration through the country’s territory. An agency memo dated Dec. 1 from director Francisco Garduño, whose authenticity was confirmed to

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Thousands of protesters have rallied against the New Zealand government’s Indigenous policies as the Parliament convened for the first time since October elections. Demonstrations in the capital, Wellington, on Tuesday and in about a dozen other New Zealand cities and towns were organized by the Maori Party, which advocates for

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department says an influencer who staged a California plane crash to make a YouTube video of himself parachuting to safety has been sentenced to six months in prison. Trevor Daniel Jacob of Lompoc, California, pleaded guilty in June. The video titled “I Crashed My Airplane” appeared in December

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Broadway audiences will soon be hearing the hit songs of Alicia Keys not far from where the multiple-Grammy-winner grew up. “Hell’s Kitchen,” the semi-autobiographical musical by the singer-songwriter, is making the move uptown from off-Broadway to the Shubert Theatre this spring. Performances begin March 28

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — Police in a Virginia suburb of the nation’s capital are investigating an explosion at a residence where officers were trying to serve a search warrant Monday. The Arlington County Police Department said in a statement that the suspect fired several shots inside the home and that an explosion happened. Firefighters were

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — One of the three police officers charged with killing Manuel Ellis, a Black man whose death as he pleaded for air became a touchstone for racial justice protesters in the Northwest, has taken the witness stand in his own defense, saying he lamented Ellis’ passing but wouldn’t have done anything differently.

By Manuel Valdes Associated Press Seattle (AP) — Pictures released by a conservation group Soundwatch Boater Education Program show a young humpback whale breaching in front of the Space Needle as it visited the waters off Seattle last week, capturing a rare display of wildlife next to a major city. The photos were also used

By MEG KINNARD Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Four candidates have qualified for the fourth Republican presidential debate. The Republican National Committee says Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie have met the qualifications for Wednesday’s debate in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Former

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Prosecutors are pushing back against Hunter Biden’s move to subpoena documents from Donald Trump and former Justice Department officials in the firearms case filed against the president’s son. They argued in a court filing Monday that Hunter Biden doesn’t have enough evidence to support his claims of