Month: January 2024

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares were mostly higher on Thursday, with Chinese stocks extending gains after Beijing announced a raft of policies to support sagging markets. Hong Kong rose 1.8% and Shanghai surged 3%. Benchmarks inched higher in Tokyo and Seoul. U.S. futures and oil prices advanced. Late Wednesday,

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN Associated Press TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A bipartisan delegation from the United States Congress is reaffirming the country’s support for Taiwan following the election of a new president. The delegation’s visit is the first from U.S. lawmakers to the island since the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party won a third-straight term in presidential

TOKYO (AP) — Weather officials in Japan predicted more heavy snow Thursday, a day after nearly 800 vehicles were trapped for fours on an expressway in central Japan. The 6-kilometer traffic jam happened after two trailers got stuck in the snow. Soldiers were called in Wednesday to clear the snow. Japan’s Meteorological Agency said as

By JULIA FRANKEL Associated Press AL-MAZRA’A ASH-SHARQIYA, West Bank (AP) — The fatal shooting of an American-Palestinian teen driving a pickup truck in the West Bank was unprovoked, the sole passenger told The Associated Press, describing apparent Israeli fire hitting the back of the vehicle before it overturned several times on a dirt road. At

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer BANGKOK (AP) — China’s central bank has announced new rules meant to expand access to commercial bank loans for property developers. Real estate companies will be allowed to use bank loans pledged against commercial properties such as offices and shopping malls to repay their other loans and bonds. The

By KIM CHANDLER Associated Press MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama will attempt to put an inmate to death with nitrogen gas on Thursday night, a never before used execution method that the state claims will be humane but critics call cruel and experimental. Kenneth Eugene Smith, a 58-year-old convicted killer whose 2022 lethal injection was

By JENNIFER PELTZ and LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump could return to a New York courtroom Thursday to defend himself against a lawsuit seeking more than $10 million for things he said about advice columnist E. Jean Carroll after she accused him of sexual assault. Trump’s first visit

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A Trump White House official convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol is set to be sentenced Thursday. Prosecutors are asking a judge to sentence Peter Navarro to

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Two monuments symbolizing Australia’s colonial past have been damaged by protesters ahead of an increasingly polarizing national holiday that marks the anniversary of British settlement. A statue in Melbourne of British naval officer James Cook, who in 1770 charted Sydney’s coast, was sawn off at the ankles early Thursday, while a

By PATRICK WHITTLE Associated Press AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — A commission investigating a mass shooting that killed 18 people in Maine last year is scheduled to hear Thursday from a police agency that had contact with the shooter before he committed the killings. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills and state Attorney General Aaron Frey assembled the

By GABE STERN Associated Press/Report for America RENO, Nev. (AP) — Nevada’s Republican delegates are essentially locked in for Donald Trump weeks before voters make their choice. That’s because a thinned-out primary field and a group of Nevada Republicans loyal to Trump have cleared the way for him by creating a caucus system separate from

By TOM ODULA Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A rhinoceros is pregnant through embryo transfer in the first successful use of a method that conservationists said might later make it possible to save the nearly extinct northern white rhino subspecies. In testing with another subspecies, the researchers created a southern white rhino embryo in

By DAVID McHUGH AP Business Writer FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The European Central Bank will likely keep interest rates unchanged Thursday. Its meeting could see ECB boss Christine Lagarde sending a message to financial markets to cool it with expectations for rapid rate cuts. Stock markets are soaring on hopes that the ECB and the

By WAYNE PARRY Associated Press NORTH WILDWOOD, N.J. (AP) — In the age-old battle of man versus nature, nature usually wins. It sure seems to be winning in North Wildwood, a Jersey Shore town grappling with severe erosion that has wiped out part of the dunes protecting $2.5 billion worth of private property. The city

By MICHAEL R. BLOOD AP Political Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Long-suffering California Republicans will see something on the March ballot that might shock them: a U.S. Senate candidate whose name they recognize. The state’s Republican Party has been in a decades-long tailspin in heavily Democratic California. This year, the candidacy of former Los Angeles

By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The government is expected Thursday to report that the U.S. gross domestic product — the economy’s total output of goods and services — rose at an annual rate of around 2% from October through December. That would mark a deceleration from a vigorous 4.9% annual growth

FORT SMITH, Northwest Territories (AP) — Canadian authorities say the death toll from a small plane crash in Canada’s Northwest Territories is six. The plane was carrying employees from the Rio Tinto mining company. The Northwest Territories coroner’s office said Wednesday that four passengers and two crew members from Northwestern Air Lease were killed. A

By KANIS LEUNG Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s top court has restored a prominent detained activist’s conviction over a banned vigil commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, marking the latest setback for the city’s democracy supporters. Chow Hang-tung, a former leader of the now-disbanded Hong Kong Alliance in Support of

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — A man has been convicted of murder and other crimes for carrying out the arson attack on an anime studio in Kyoto, Japan, that killed 36 people. The Japanese court that found him guilty said it will announce the penalty later Thursday. Shinji Aoba stormed into Kyoto

MONMOUTH JUNCTION, N.J. (AP) — Authorities in New Jersey say law enforcement officers have killed a man in a shootout while trying to arrest him on several felony charges. The state Attorney General’s Office says the officers were trying to execute an arrest warrant Wednesday afternoon at a motel in Monmouth Junction when the man

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Residents have begun battening down homes and businesses with Tropical Cyclone Kirrily forecast to cross the Australian northeast coast on Thursday, bringing destructive winds and flooding rain. Authorities said the storm system was still tracking west across the Coral Sea and that gusts of 140 kph (87 mph) are forecast as

By LEAH WILLINGHAM Associated Press CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia’s Republican-dominated Legislature is pushing forward a slate of contentious bills. The bills would arm teachers, allow people to sue libraries over books that offend them and restrict where transgender kids can use the bathroom at school. Conservatives described the efforts as ways to make

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) — Costa Rica’s Supreme Court of Justice says it was no longer obligatory to place the paternal surname before the maternal surname on a person’s identification. The court modified a piece of civil code originally mandating that names had to be written in that order on the grounds that it

By GENE JOHNSON Associated Press SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle has agreed to pay $10 million to 50 demonstrators who sued over the police department’s heavy-handed response to racial justice protests in 2020, in a settlement announced by attorneys from both sides Wednesday. The protesters were among tens of thousands who rallied downtown and in the

DENVER (AP) — A motorcyclist who authorities say posted a video of himself on YouTube speeding from Colorado Springs to the Denver metro area on Interstate 25 in 20 minutes — a trip that typically takes about an hour — is wanted on multiple charges. The Colorado State Patrol says 32-year-old Rendon Dietzmann of Texas

By FRANK BAJAK AP Technology Writer BOSTON (AP) — Hewlett Packard Enterprise says suspected state-backed Russian hackers broke into its email system and stole data from cybersecurity and other employees. The IT services company said in a regulatory filing Wednesday that it was informed of the intrusion on Jan. 12. HPE did not say who

By KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Thursday it conducted its first flight test of a new cruise missile, as it expands its military capabilities in the face of deepening tensions with the United States and neighbors. The report in state media came a day after South Korea’s military

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia’s top diplomat is accusing the United States, South Korea and Japan of preparing for war with North Korea. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a U.N. news conference Wednesday that this new military bloc brought together by the United States is building up military activity

By DAVID SHARP Associated Press PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Maine’s top court is declining to hear an appeal over former President Donald Trump’s ballot status, keeping intact a judge’s decision that the U.S. Supreme Court must first rule on a similar case in Colorado. Democrat Shenna Bellows concluded last month that Trump didn’t meet ballot

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The bullet-ridden bodies of two detectives have been found on the outskirts of Taxco, a colonial town in central Mexico that draws throngs of tourists to its silver workshops. Prosecutors in the violence-plagued state of Guerrero said Wednesday that the two detectives worked for the state prosecutors office and had been

By JAMES POLLARD Associated Press/Report for America COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The Republican governor of South Carolina has had harsh words for labor unions in a major address. Gov. Henry McMaster warned in a State of the State address Wednesday evening that recent economic growth will be undone if labor organizers make inroads in major

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — In-N-Out Burger will close its only restaurant in Oakland, California, because of a wave of car break-ins, property damage, theft and armed robberies targeting customers and employees alike, the company announced. The fast-food burger joint in a busy corridor near Oakland International Airport will close on March 24 because even though

By JOE REEDY and ROB MAADDI and LARRY LAGE AP Sports Writers COSTA MESA, Calif. (AP) — Jim Harbaugh will be the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers, leaving Michigan after capping his ninth season as coach of college football’s winningest program with the school’s first national championship since 1997, two people familiar with

By JOEY CAPPELLETTI Associated Press LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will call on lawmakers to pass increased investments in education in an attempt to save residents money in her sixth State of the State address Wednesday night. The second-term Democratic governor will announce a proposal to provide free community college for all

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER Associated Press FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) — Relatives of some of the more than 200 people killed in 2002 bombings on the resort island of Bali are testifying at a sentencing hearing at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Two Malaysian men, both longtime detainees at Guantanamo, have pleaded guilty in connection with the

By MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A Montana felon previously convicted of killing eagles to sell their parts on the black market has been sentenced to three years in federal prison for related gun violations. U.S. District Judge Susan Watters on Wednesday sentenced Harvey Alvin Hugs after he pleaded guilty in September

By MEG KINNARD Associated Press NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Despite losing both Iowa and New Hampshire to Donald Trump,Nikki Haley is nevertheless trying to frame those losses as a victory and vowing to head off a “coronation” of Trump as the 2024 Republican nominee. The path through the next states to vote, however, may

By DEVI SHASTRI AP Health Writer MILWAUKEE (AP) — A new estimate shows hearing loss affects approximately 37.9 million Americans and is more common in rural areas than urban ones. The study by NORC at the University of Chicago and published Wednesday is The Lancet Regional Health-Americas Journal is the first to estimate rates of

By STEVE KARNOWSKI and TRISHA AHMED Associated Press MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota state trooper has been charged with murder in the shooting of motorist Ricky Cobb II after he failed to get out of his car during a July traffic stop. Trooper Ryan Londregan was charged with second-degree unintentional murder, first-degree assault and second

By LAURA UNGAR AP Science Writer Gene therapy has allowed several children born with inherited deafness to hear. A small study published Wednesday documents significantly restored hearing in five of six kids treated in China. On Tuesday, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia announced similar improvements in an 11-year-old boy treated there. And earlier this month,

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Prosecutors want to dismiss death penalty charges against a man charged with fatally shooting an Indianapolis police officer in 2020 because doctors have found him to be mentally ill. The Marion County Prosecutor’s Office filed a motion Wednesday to dismiss its request for a death sentence against Elliahs Dorsey, who’s accused of

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The board that oversees Florida’s 12 public universities has voted to ban using state or federal dollars for diversity programs or activities, aligning with a law signed last spring by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. The state Board of Governors approved the regulation in a voice vote on Wednesday. The law is

By JUAN A. LOZANO Associated Press ANAHUAC, Texas (AP) — A judge has ordered that a trial be held next month to determine whether a Black high school student in Texas can continue being punished by his district for refusing to change his hairstyle. Darryl George has been kept out of his regular classroom at

JOLIET, Ill. (AP) — Authorities say seven family members who were slain in a Chicago suburb were the mother, brother, three sisters, aunt and uncle of the suspect, who later fatally shot himself during a confrontation with police in Texas. Also slain was a 28-year-old man shot outside an apartment building in Joliet, Illinois. Twenty-three-year-old

By VALERIE GONZALEZ Associated Press McALLEN, Texas (AP) — The Biden administration is renewing demands for Texas to give Border Patrol access to a riverfront park that is a popular corridor for migrants illegally entering the U.S. A letter sent Tuesday to Texas officials continues a clash between the state and the Biden administration over

By ADRIAN SAINZ Associated Press MASON, Tenn. (AP) — Water services have been restored to the majority of residents in the rural Tennessee town of Mason. Services were restored Wednesday, a week after freezing temperatures broke pipes and caused leaks in the decades-old, neglected water system. Mayor Eddie Noeman told The Associated Press that 75%