Month: December 2023

By TSVANGIRAYI MUKWAZHI Associated Press HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Police and local authorities say seven suspected illegal miners have been confirmed dead and more than 20 others are missing and presumed dead after heavy rains caused landslides that buried them inside tunnels they had been digging at a copper mine in Zambia. Police say no

By JIM GOMEZ AND JOEAL CALUPITAN Associated Press MANILA, Philippines (AP) — France and the Philippines are considering a defense pact that would allow them to send military forces to each other’s territory for joint exercises. Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. said in a joint press conference with French Minister for the Armed Forces

MOSCOW (AP) — Imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been handed new charges by Russian prosecutors. The 47-year-old is already serving more than 30 years in prison after being found guilty of crimes including extremism — charges that his supporters characterize as politically motivated. In comments passed to his associates, Navalny said he had been charged under

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Jailed former Pakistani premier Imran Khan’s party has elected a new head for the first time since it was established, following the recommendation of the imprisoned politician. Khan has been in charge of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI, since he founded it in 1996. Gohar Khan was elected on Saturday as the

BERLIN (AP) — Munich’s airport has canceled all flights for the day after a winter storm dumped snow across southern Germany and parts of Austria and Switzerland, affecting travel across the region. Trains to and from Munich’s central station were also halted, Germany’s national railway said, advising passengers to delay or re-route their journeys. Other

By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United States is now committed to the idea of phasing out coal power plants, joining 56 other nations in kicking the coal habit. Saturday’s announcement by U.S. Special Envoy John Kerry has America joining the Powering Past Coal Alliance, which means the

By The Associated Press Russian security forces have raided gay clubs and bars across Moscow less than 48 hours after the country’s top court banned what it called the “global LGBTQ+ movement” as an extremist organization. Police searched venues across the Russian capital Friday night, including a nightclub, a male sauna, and a bar that

By JIM GOMEZ Associated Press MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine government says China has executed two Filipinos for drug trafficking despite its appeals to commute their death sentences to life in prison. The Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila did not identify the two Filipinos, citing the wishes of their families for privacy. It

By MATTHEW DALY Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Saturday issued a final rule aimed at reducing methane emissions, targeting the U.S. oil and natural gas industry for its role in global warming as President Joe Biden seeks to advance his climate legacy. The Environmental Protection Agency said the new rule will

By OMAR FARUK Associated Press MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has welcomed the U.N. Security Council vote to lift an arms embargo imposed on the Horn of Africa nation more than 30 years ago. The 15-member council unanimously voted Friday night in favor of the British-drafted resolution to lift the weapons

By NAJIB JOBAIN, SAMY MAGDY and DAVID RISING Associated Press KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel pounded targets in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday, intensifying a renewed offensive that followed a weeklong truce with Hamas and giving rise to renewed concerns about civilian casualties. At least 178 Palestinians have been killed since the

By JOHN LEICESTER Associated Press PARIS (AP) — The giant waves form in the storm belts of the Southern Ocean, off Antarctica, where whales roam. Supercharged by intense winds, the swells then roll on an ocean journey of thousands of kilometers (miles) to crash into Tahiti in the South Pacific. There, in the waters of

MEDAN, Indonesia (AP) — Torrential rain has triggered flash floods and a landslide on Indonesia’s Sumatra island. Officials say at least 12 people are missing Saturday after tons of mud, rocks and trees rolled down from a mountain late Friday. The landslide reached a river that burst its banks and tore through mountainside villages. Worst

By JIM GOMEZ Associated Press MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine authorities say troops, backed by airstrikes and artillery fire, have killed 11 suspected Islamic militants near a hinterland village in the country’s south, in one of the military’s bloodiest anti-insurgency offensives this year. The military launched the operation Friday after receiving intelligence about the whereabouts

By MICHELLE L. PRICE and THOMAS BEAUMONT Associated Press DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Ron DeSantis plans on Saturday to complete his campaign promise to visit each of Iowa’s 99 counties, a timeworn tactic for presidential candidates hoping to make their mark in the leadoff state over months mingling with voters at the state’s diners,

By LAURIE KELLMAN Associated Press Writer LONDON (AP) — Henry Kissinger’s legacy in the Mideast is the pursuit of what’s possible, not necessarily peace, in one of the world’s most intractable conflicts. The former U.S. secretary of state, who died this week at age 100, did just that after Egypt and Syria pulled off a

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh has been jolted by an earthquake that residents dozens of miles away in Dhaka say shook buildings. No damage or injuries have been immediately reported. The United States Geological Survey said the 5.5 magnitude tremor struck the country at 9:35 a.m. Saturday and had a depth of 6 miles with

By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — One fall day in 2010, retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor slipped into the courtroom where she worked for nearly 25 years to take in an “amazing” sight. The first — and for 12 years, the only — woman on the high court saw three women

By LISA MASCARO AP Congressional Correspondent WASHINGTON (AP) — The House is making history this year in ways that Republicans could hardly have envisioned when the party took control. First, the Republicans voted to oust their speaker, Kevin McCarthy, and on Friday they voted to get rid of one of their own, indicted GOP Rep.

By GABRIELA SELSER Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — Nicaraguan police say they want to arrest the director of the Miss Nicaragua pageant, accusing her of intentionally rigging contests so that anti-government beauty queens would win the pageants as part of a plot to overthrow the government. The charges against pageant director Karen Celebertti would

By PAOLA FLORES Associated Press EL ALTO, Bolivia (AP) — Dressed up in colorful, multilayered skirts, a group of 20 Indigenous Bolivian women have been climbing the Andes peaks for the past eight years, working as guides for tourists. But as the glaciers in the South America country continue to retreat as a result of

By SETH BORENSTEIN and JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The annual United Nations conference known as COP28 will see another day of speeches from world leaders on Saturday that organizers hope will lay the foundation for concrete action over the next week and a half. The meeting set aside two

By AUDREY McAVOY Associated Press HONOLULU (AP) — The U.S. Navy plans to use inflatable cylinders to lift and roll a jet plane off a coral reef in Hawaii before removal from the ocean waters where the aircraft crashed. A Navy commander says they are confident the operation can be carried out without further damaging

By VALERIE GONZALEZ Associated Press McALLEN, Texas (AP) — A federal appeals court has ruled that Texas must move a floating barrier on the Rio Grande that drew backlash from Mexico. The decision Friday comes months after the Biden administration sued Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for installing the roughly 1,000-foot linked and anchored buoy barrier

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Five homeless people were shot in Las Vegas, two of them fatally, and police say they are searching for a lone suspect. Officials say the shooting occurred around 5:30 p.m. Friday near a freeway overpass in the northeastern part of the city. A police spokesperson says two people died and three

By BECKY BOHRER Associated Press JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A federal judge in Alaska has rejected requests from environmental groups to halt winter construction work for the massive Willow oil project on Alaska’s North Slope while the groups’ legal fight over the drilling project wages on. U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason just last month

By LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press MOUNTAIN VIEW, California (AP) — The U.S. is expanding its high-tech military cooperation with Australia and the United Kingdom to include underwater drones and electronic warfare, as part of a broader effort to counter China’s rapidly growing influence in the Indo-Pacific. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is meeting with defense

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and ERIC TUCKER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump is not immune from prosecution in his election interference case in Washington, a federal judge ruled Friday, knocking down the Republican’s bid to derail the case charging him with plotting to overturn the 2020 presidential election. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan’s

By MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — U.S. officials proposed a $31 million recovery plan for Canada lynx on Friday in a bid to help the snow-dependent wildcat species that scientists say could be wiped out in parts of the contiguous U.S. by the end of the century. The proposal marks a sharp

MIAMI (AP) — A former Colombian military officer accused of injuring dozens, including three U.S. soldiers, in a bombing attack at a Colombian military base has been extradited to South Florida. Court records show that a five-count indictment against 39-year-old Andres Fernando Medina Rodriguez was unsealed Friday in Miami federal court. Court records list another

By JOHN DUERDEN Associated Press RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Cristiano Ronaldo walked off the field with the gleeful chants of “Messi, Messi, Messi!” ringing in his ears from delighted Al-Hilal fans. They had just watched their Saudi Pro League team beat the Portugal superstar’s Al-Nassr 3-0 in the Riyadh Derby on Friday. The five-time

By ADRIAN SAINZ and JONATHAN MATTISE Associated Press MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — One of the five former Memphis Police officers charged in the death of Tyre Nichols had incurred some policy violations in a prior prison guard job and faced accusations of excessive force that his department deemed unfounded or unsubstantiated. Demetrius Haley worked for

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — A federal correctional officer has been sentenced to more than five years in prison for sexually abusing two inmates at a women’s prison in California where the warden and other employees were charged with similar conduct. A federal judge on Friday handed down the sentence to John Russell Bellhouse. He was

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles police are searching for a suspect in the fatal shootings of three homeless people in separate incidents around the city. Police Chief Michel Moore said Friday that all three shootings occurred in the early morning hours over several days in November. He says each victim was shot and killed

JOSHUA GOODMAN MIAMI (AP) — The U.S. has expelled a former Chilean Army officer accused of torturing and killing folk singer Victor Jara during the country’s bloody 1973 coup. Pedro Barrientos had emigrated to Florida in 1990, the same year the bloody dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet came to an end. In 2016, Earlier this

By ISABELLA VOLMERT Associated Press INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A federal jury in Illinois has delivered a verdict of $17.7 million in damages to several major food manufacturing companies who sued egg producers over a conspiracy to limit the supply of eggs in the U.S. years ago. That amount is tripled to more than $53 million

WASHINGTON (AP) — ABC’s “This Week” — White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby; Ron Dermer, Israeli minister of strategic affairs; Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla. ___ NBC’s “Meet the Press” — Kirby; Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican presidential candidate; Allyson Felix, Olympic gold medalist and Black maternal health advocate. ___ CBS’ “Face the

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The weapons supervisor on the film set where Alec Baldwin shot and killed a cinematographer in 2021 has waived her arraignment in a separate case, pleading not guilty to a charge of carrying a gun into a Santa Fe bar. Hannah Gutierrez-Reed had been set to appear in court next

By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations Security Council has voted to end its political mission of a few hundred people dedicated to ending the civil war in Sudan. Russia abstained from the unanimous vote to end UNITAMS, the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan. The United States’